Post by bc on Mar 27, 2012 22:18:23 GMT -6
Below is a copy of the Major Reno biography published in 1912 in the National Americana Society magazine in two monthly installments:
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BRIEF Biography v: '■•■.jv.-^ - ■■ - -- •
Brief Biography of Major M. A. Reno
Part One from the March 1912 edition of The National Americana Society of New York, pages 255 to 266.
Part Two from the April 1912 edition of The National Americana Society of New York, pages 357 to 368.
MAJOR M. A. RENO was a native of Illinois and a great-grandnephew of Phillippe Francois Renault who came to this country with La Fayette. Renault was rewarded for services to the United States Government with large tracts of lands, for possession of which the Reno heirs have been fighting for a quarter of a century, for their valuation now amounts to $400,000,000.
Major Reno was graduated from West Point and while there, was closely associated with General Custer and also with General Jackson, of Nashville. During Major Reno 's visit to Nashville in 1888, he was a guest of General Jackson, at Belle Meade, for several days of his stay. It was their second meeting, since their parting at West Point, their first being in action during the Civil War, when each called to the other and waved salutes from the firing line.
Major Reno was married to Miss Mary Hannah Ross, whose father, Mr. Robert Ross, a Pennsylvania capitalist, founded one of the largest banks and the first glass works in Harrisburg, the State Capitol. Major Reno's wife was a niece of the late Senator Don Cameron's wife, who was a Miss Haldeman, of Harrisburg, and a kinswoman of the founder of the Louisville Courier Journal. Major Reno had only one child — Robert Ross Reno, who married Miss Ittie Kinney, daughter of Col. George S. Kinney, of Nashville.
At the beginning of trouble between the North and the South, Major Reno organized a volunteer company in Harrisburg and served throughout all the years of the war. He was never wounded, but his horse was shot from under him at the battle of the Wilderness. He died in Washington in 1889.
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The Custer Massacre.
An account of the circumstances attending the massacre of General George A. Custer and his command, by the Sioux Indians, in the summer of 1876, found among Major Reno's effects after his death.
The policy of the Government, over the breaking out of the gold-fever in the Black Hills, was lax in the extreme. It did not prevent white men from invading this Indian country— its unquestioned duty— nor did it protect them when they went. This vacillating led many to risk the chance of success in the Black Hills, and in consequence, the Indians at once and very justly, began to handle them without gloves, for attempting to take their country from them.
No blame, therefore, can be attached to the red skins for defending their rights. All men will fight for their firesides, and this Black Hills country was really the home of the Sioux, made over to them in the most solemn manner by the treaty of 1868.
This armistice having been broken in such a manner, aroused the Sioux to savage resentment, and from many indications in the winter of 1875-6, it became evident to all on the frontier that an Indian war was inevitable. Thus the Government found it had a white elephant on its hands, for the white men in the Black Hills were in peril and numbers of Indians, outraged in their dearest rights, were eager for fight and were on the warpath.
What could be done ? Nothing but organize a military expedition against them. This was done and General Crook from the Department of the Platte, General Gibbon from Montana and General Terry from Dakota, took the field. The plan of the campaign was for a simultaneous attack on the Sioux from three different directions— General Gibbon coming down the valley of the Yellowstone, Terry was to move from the Missouri to the Yellowstone and drive the Indians toward Gibbon, while Crook was to operate towards the same Point, but from the direction of the Black Hills, and thus by surrounding the Sioux to cut off all possibility of their escape.
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From these movements into the Indian country an awful combat resulted on June 25 and 26, 1876. which will stand as a lasting monument to an imbecile policy that will set opposing parties in the field to battle against each other, both armed, equipped and supplied at the expense of the same Government.
Any one who, like me, has seen the awful fighting of these two fatal days, will seek to solve the Indian problem by means less bloody than a resort to arms.
The immediate cause which precipitated the Summer Campaign of 1876, was the refusal of Sitting Bull to make a treaty with the Government, or to agree to live on a reservation, which was practically a declaration of war and was accepted as such.
Orders were given for the concerted movements of Generals Crook, Gibbon and Terry and at the command of Terry, the Seventh Cavalry, under the immediate command of Lt. Col. George A. Custer, left Fort Lincoln, D. T., on May 17, 1876.
The Seventh presented a magnificent appearance on that beautiful May morning when it parted from its loved ones in Fort Lincoln and started on that long march, which for so many of them was to be the final one. We, including ofiicers, soldiers, Indian Scouts, employees and citizens, numbered fully twelve hundred, while there were seventeen hundred animals, comprising mules, ponies and horses. We left Fort Lincoln with our band playing: "The Girl I Left Behind Me," and at the head of our splendid column rode our gallant Custer and his charming wife. She remained with us throughout the first day's march, and the next morning she parted from her husband who sent her back to Fort Lincoln under special escort. It was their last ride together.
General Terry and his staff accompanied us as far as the Yellowstone river and after a long march of twenty-one days from Fort Lincoln, we arrived at the mouth of Powder river on June
10. Here I was given command of six companies, comprising the Right Wing, and was sent on a scout of one hundred and fifty miles up this river to the mouth of the Little Powder, to search for Indians and if possible, to find General Crook and open communication with him, for it was nearing the time when he was expected to reach that point. Part of our trail was
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picturesque and lovely, finely timbered, -with a wealth of wild roses and the most superb grazing I ever saw.
After a march of five days we arrived at the mouth of the Little Powder and I was surprised to see a camp of soldiers on the South bank of that river. I tried to communicate with them, first by signal and then by voice, but the river was too broad for success in such efforts.
The officer in command then sent to me one of his Indian scouts who swam the river with a note in his mouth. He reached my camp in safety and, although as nude as he was at birth, he approached and delivered the note with all the dignity of his race. The letter proved to be from General Gibbon who was in command of his troops from Montana and marching to join General Terry and his men from Dakota.
I sent the Indian scout back to General Gibbon assuring him that he had found us and thus the two commands were put in communication. I returned then to the main camp, under Custer's command, and during this scout, I enjoyed some fine sport, for game was abundant and on one occasion I brought down two large elk.
I also found on my scouting expedition many indications to convince me that the Indians had their stronghold upon the little Big Horn river, about fifteen miles above its junction with the main Big Horn which empties into the Yellowstone.
The Big Horn is navigable about eight or ten miles above the mouth of Little Big Horn. On a bright sunny morning, June 22, 1876, the Seventh Regiment of Cavalry passed in review before General Terry, at the mouth of the small stream, the Rosebud. The officers and men were cheerful, the horses were in prime condition, the day was beautiful and not one in that splendid collumn of men and officers ever thought that the frightful disaster that finally overtook them, was within the range of probabilities.
After the review, the march was begun up the Rosebud, the regiment being under the command of Lt. Col. Geo. A. Custer. The march was continued up the Rosebud on June 23 and we encamped at nightfall after making thirty-five miles.
At the end of the second day's march up the Rosebud, my tent
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was very near that of General Custer and after taking a cup of coffee and some hard bread— all we had— I and the other officers of the command were summoned to Custer's tent by the "officer's call" on the trumpet. Custer was seated on the trunk of a decayed and fallen tree and we saluted him in succession as we arrived ; after all had made themselves as comfortable as possible, some lying on the grass and others upon whatever gave them support, Custer said:
"Gentlemen, I have sent for you to talk over the situation. There is a camp of Indians ahead of us and we must be prepared for a hard fight." In the discussion that followed, some one said that it was probable that the companies would be separated on the march or in the night, and therefore that each company should have its own pack mules, provisions and ammunitions.
To this Custer readily agreed and it was so ordered. The next and last time I ever saw General Custer alive, was on the morning of June 25, the day upon which he saw the sun shine for the last time. The two columns, commanded by himself and myself respectively, were moving parallel to each other and he waved his hat for me to come to him.
I did so. He was riding a fine thoroughbred horse that he had gotten in Kentucky,', when the regiment was after the Ku Klux Klan of the South. He was dressed in a full suit of buck-skin, with Indian fringes along the seams of his pants and of his coat sleeves. I had known Custer for a long time : as cadet at West Point, and during the Civil and Indian wars, and on this particular morning, he did not wear his usual confident and cheerful air, but seemed rather depressed, as with some premonition of coming horror. "What that was is now a matter of history.
I remember, as I rode back to my command, the last remark I ever made to him was— "Let us keep together." In his jaunty way he lifted his broad brimmed hat as much as to say, "I hear you." But alas ! he did not heed me, and that afternoon he was cold in death's embrace.
On the morning of June 24, we continued our long march up the Rosebud and we saw signs of the Indians in all directions As we advanced the trail freshened, and after a march of twenty-three miles we halted, but reports from the scouts sent on ahead,
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induced us to proceed on the march during the night instead of resting. We proceeded with great difficulty till daylight on June 25, when we halted for one hour and a half and then we marched on again.
The Indian trail was now very fresh. About 9 A. ]\[. the Adjutant of the Regiment informed me that the Sioux village was now certainly close at hand and he gave me the following arrangement of the companies of the regiment. Companies M, A, and G, to be one battalion commanded by Major M. A. Reno. Companies H, D, and K to be a second battalion, commanded by Captain F. W. Benteen, Company B to be commanded by Captain McDougall and to be rear guard of the Packtrain. The remaining companies, C, E, I, F, and L were to go under the immediate command of Custer.
I assumed command of the companies assigned to me at once and proceeded to march in the direction of the Indians, without any definite instructions or orders. I saw the battalion under Benteen move off far to the left, and I did not see him again until about 2.30 P. M., of that same day. At half past 12 M. the Adjutant gave me an order from Custer in the following words : "Go in at as rapid a gait as you think prudent, for the Village is only two and a half miles off and running away, and you will be supported by the whole outfit."
I proceeded at a fast trot until I crossed the Little Big Horn, and as soon as the battalion was in hand I charged, supposing myself followed by Custer, with the companies under his command. For as I led the advance and was the first to be engaged and draw fire, my command was, in consequence, the one to be supported and not the one from which support could be expected. With the Ree scouts on my left, I charged down the valley, driving the Indians, who came out from a belt of cotton-woods to meet us, with ease before me for about three miles. It was too easy, in fact, for I soon saw that I was being drawn into some kind of a trap; I knew that these Indians could fight harder, especially as we were nearing their village, the entrance to which they certainly would not leave unopposed.
Neither Custer or Benteen was in sight, a fact I attributed to the great clouds of dust, and as I drew nearer to the villages,
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the ground seemed suddenly to grow Indians; they came running towards me in swarms and from all directions.
The village was about three and one-half miles long, was situated on the Little Big Horn and the topography of the vicinity may be briefly told. The stream was very crooked, like the letter S in its wanderings, and just where the village was located, it spread out into a broad bottom, perhaps half or three-quarters of a mile wide. This creek was fringed, as usual, with the trees of the plains— a growth of large cottonwoods— and on the opposite side was a range of high bluffs, which had been cut into very deep ravines by the surface water and by the action of the stream. Just at the base of these bluffs, the earth had fallen in and left perpendicular banks, making what is known as cut banks.
I was soon convinced that I had, at least ten to one against me and I was forced on the defensive. This I did, taking possession of a point of woods which furnished, near its edge, a shelter for the horses. Under cover of the timber, I dismounted my battalion, detailing number four of each group of "fours," to hold the horses, thus reducing our fighting force to about seventy-five men. I then deployed the companies as skirmishers, the right resting on the timber, the left extending across the valley, and our front facing the village. The Sioux now made their first attack and the firing was heavy and rapid for one hour and a half. The enemy increased so greatly in numbers that we were forced into the timber for protection, but I firmly believe that if, at that moment, all our companies had been together the Indians would have been driven from their village.
Almost immediately, after entering the wood, I found that we were being surrounded and I knew my only hope was to get out of the timber and reach some high ground. The wood was about twenty-feet lower than the plain where the Indians were, and the advantage of position was theirs. I mounted my command and charged through the Reds in a solid body. As we cut our way through them, the fighting was hand to hand and it was instant death to him who fell from his saddle, or was wounded. As we dashed through them, my men were so close to the Indians that they would discharge their pistols right into the breasts of
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the savages, then throw them away and seize their carbines, not having time to replace their revolvers in the holsters.
The scene that ensued was such as can be seen only once in a lifetime. Our horses were on the dead run with, in many instances, two and three men on one animal. We plunged into the Little Big Horn and began the climb of the opposite bluffs. This incline was the steepest that I have ever seen either horse or mule ascend and our only way was through a buffalo trail, worn in the banks, and only sufficiently wide to permit one man to pass
at a time. In this narrow place there were necessarily much" crowding and confusion and many of the men were compelled to cling to the horses' necks and tails for support, to prevent their being trampled to death, or falling back into the river. Into this mass of men and horses, the Indians poured a continuous and deadly fire and under its leaden hail, the loss of life was frightful and the Little Big Horn was transferred into a seeming river of human blood.
At this fight at the ford "Bloody Knife"— the chief of the Indians scouts— was shot dead at my feet. I lost three officers and twenty-nine enlisted men, with only seven wounded. The officers who fell here were A. A. Surgeon, J. M. DeWolf, First Lieutenant Donald Mcintosh, and Second Lieutenant Benjamin H. Hodgson. Afterwards (when I went over my battlefield, we found Mcintosh's body and near it a soldier of his company). Lieutenant Mcintosh was the son of an officer in the Hudson Bay Company and entered the regular service in August of 1867. He had some Indian blood in his veins, inherited from his mother, and his face bore its traces. He was a cultured, elegant gentleman, a brave officer and he fell with his face to the enemy. Before we had crossed the river, while yet under shelter of the timber, Company G, commanded by Lieutenant Mcintosh, was nearest the Indian village. I went in person, to notify him of my intention to withdraw from the wood and seek the hill. He replied, — "all right," and at once set about getting his men in column and mounted. In doing this he was in the rear of his Company and as it joined the column on the charge, three or four Indians ran up to him and before he was able to use his
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arms, they dragged him from his horse and thus the gallant fellow fell a victim to their barbarity.
He with all my men had been most terribly mutilated, and with the bodies of horses and ponies, were strewn over the plain in wildest confusion. They were covered with swarms of flies, and the odor from the decomposing bodies, under the blazing sun was intolerable; altogether my battle field presented a scene of horror, not easily to be forgotten.
The fate of Second Lieutenant Ben Hodgson was very similar, although his death did not occur till after that noble fellow had distinguished himself b}' the most daring services. He was my adjutant and the last order he ever carried for me was to Captain French, telling him of the move I intended making. In delivering this order, Hodgson was hit by a ball, just below his sabre belt. This wound would have eventually proved fatal, but the gallant fellow said nothing and rode in his place with the
column. Just as he was crossing the river, his horse was killed under him and detaching himself from the animal Hodgson gained the opposite bank and tried to save himself by clinging to the stirrups of a passing soldier, but his strength was exhausted and weakened by his loss of blood, he fell back on the river bank and was killed by the nearest Indian.
After the fight, I searched for his body and I buried it on the hill, marking his grave as well as I could. It was found some months later by his friends who came from Philadelphia to take him home for burial. They found that his body had not been mutilated and that he was clothed as he had dressed himself on the morning of the ill-fated 25th of June.
As soon as my men reached the top of the bluffs, they dismounted and opened fire upon the Indians, in order to cover the ascent of their comrades, and when the remnant of my command was about me again, I quickly threw them into a line of defense while below us, in the plain, we could see the Indians stripping, scalping and mutilating the bodies of our dead. Fortunately, at this juncture, I saw Benteen with his three companies and Captain McDougall, with Company B, and the pack train, coming to us over the bluffs. Benteen informed me that he had hunted all morning for the Indians, and seeing no sign of them
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anywhere, he thought it best to return to the Little Big Horn valley and join the main command. He had seen nothing of Custer, but he had received from a trumpeter this order from Crook :
"Benteen come on; big village. Be quick. Bring packs."
He therefore hastened to the Little Big Horn, expecting to find Custer there. He now became seriously uneasy over Custer's non-appearance and as senior officer of our united command, I sent Captain Weir, with his company from Benteen 's column^ to open communication with Custer ; while, in the meantime, I was dismounting my men, putting my wounded under protection, had driven the horses and mules of the pack train in a depression in the hills and had placed my men along the crests of the bluffs. In a very short time Captain Weir sent back word by Lieutenant Hare, that he was having a heavy fight with the Indians who surrounded him in overwhelming numbers, and that he could go no farther. He was ordered to return, which he did with difficulty, and he had scarcely reached our lines, when we were most furiously attacked on all sides by the Sioux.
The fight now, for sometime, was a desperate one, almost hand to hand, and in many instances, Indians who were unarmed, or out of ammunition, stood on the heights and hurled heavy stones at our soldiers below them. At one time I discovered that the reds had taken possession of a ravine near by, and were preparing a fresh assault. I ordered Benteen to charge with his company. His men sprang up with loud cheers and led by their gallant officer, they rushed in a solid body down the ravine. This charge was so sudden and so bold, that the Indians broke and ran at their approach.
From one of the hills that overlooked our corral, the enemy poured a deadly fire, killing scores of our horses and mules, while many of the packers in the train were shot dead and wounded. But my men stood firm, although the fight continued with unabated fury till nine P. M., when it had grown very dark and the Sioux ceased firing, for the Indians will not fight after night fall. Thus ended the 25th day of June.
By this time, I was aware that the Indians were in overwhelming numbers and in consequence, we worked all night, making
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every exertion to be ready for what I knew would be a terrific assault next day. We dug rifle pits, and being possessed of only two spades the men were compelled to use their hands, knives and tin cups; we barricaded the opening of the depression towards the Indians, in which our animals were herded, with the bodies of our dead soldiers, mules and horses and boxes of hard bread. We worked hard and rapidly, knowing the night would be of short duration, for day breaks very early in that high latitude.
All during the night, the Indians remained in hearing distance of my position and kept up a most fearful scalp-dance and the darkness was made lurid by their blazing fires, in which many prisoners were burned at the stake.
Finally our work was completed. "We had done all we could, to fortify our position and I felt confident now that I could hold my own during the coming attack. The morning of June 26th dawned about half past two A. M., and exactly at that moment, ■we heard the crack of two rifles, which warned us that the assault would soon be made. This was the signal for the beginning of a fire that I have never seen equalled.
The Indians are the best light cavalry in the world. I have seen pretty nearly all of them, and I do not except even the Cossacks. Every rifle was handled by an expert and skilled marksman, and with a range that exceeded that of our carbines. Many of these carbines in my command were rendered useless by failure of the breech block to close and leaving a space between the head of the cartridge and the end of the block, and when the piece was discharged, and the block thrown open, the head of the cartridge was pulled off, leaving the cylinder in the chamber, whence, with the means at hand, it was impossible to extract it. I desire also to state that my loss would have been less, had I been provided with some instrument similar to the trowel-bayonet. I am sure, had an opponent of that arm been with my soldiers on the night of June 25th, 1876, he would have given his right hand for fifty bayonets.
The Indians opened the attack with a tremendous fire and deafening warwhoops and as the day brightened, we could see countless hordes of them pouring out from the village and up in
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the valley, scampering over the high points towards the places designated for them, by their chiefs and which entirely surrounded our position. They had sufficient numbers to completely encircle us, proved by many of my men being struck on opposite sides of the lines from where the shots were fired. I think I was fighting all the Sioux nation who— unknown to us,— had assembled only a short time previous to celebrate their greatest religious festival — the Sun Dance— together with all the desperadoes, renegades, squaw-men and half-breeds between the Missouri and Arkansas rivers and east of the Rocky Mountains.
They could not have numbered less than twenty-five hundred while many estimate their strength to have been fully five thousand.
(To be continued.)
Major Reno and the Custer Massacre
PART n \..'' /T-'/
AFTER being reinforced by Benteen. my own command numbered about four hundred, but one-third of these were detailed to protect the horses and mules, and were, in consequence, of no practical assistance to my fighting force and our situation was desperate in the extreme. The fight did not slacken till about half past nine A. M., when I discovered that the Indians were making a last desperate attempt which was directed against the lines held by Companies H and M. In this attack they charged close enough to use their bows and arrows and one man, lying dead within our lines, was touched by the "coup-stick" of one of the foremost Indians. He will never touch another. When I say that this "coup-stick" was only about ten or twelve feet long, some idea of the desperate and reckless fighting of these people may be understood.
But let me explain : Each Indian when preparing for battle, or hunting expedition provides himself with a pole, from six to twelve feet long and when he touches a dead body with it, the scalp of the man or skin of the animal, becomes his property. Then he makes a number of small bags from the skin or hide of his victim, which he fills with scalp-locks or fur, respectively. Each little bag represents one victim, and it is the Sioux's ambition to collect as many of these ghastly trophies as possible, which when completed and stuffed, are then attached to the "coup-stick." I have frequently seen these poles with as many as ten or twelve little bags fastened to them.
This charge of theirs was gallantly repulsed by Captain Benteen and the brave men on that line. The Indians also came close enough to send their arrows into the line held by Companies D and K, but were driven away by a like charge of the line, which I accompanied. "We now had many wounded, and the (357)
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question of water had become vital, as we had had none since early on the previous day. The suffering was intense, for fighting and the hot sun had parched our throats, Some of the men's tongues were so swollen they could not speak, and our wounded were really dying for want of it. The river lay at our feet and could be approached by a deep ravine, but from the ravine to
our lines was an open space one hundred feet in width, which
was commanded by the Indians on the bluffs. Fully fifty soldiers volunteered to go for the water, and a skirmish line was formed under Benteen to protect the men as they dashed down the hill in front of his position, to reach the water. Thus we succeeded in getting some canteens full, but at the expense of many of the volunteers being struck and a few killed.
The fury of the attack was now over, and to my astonishment we soon saw the Indians going in parties down the bluffs to the village. Two solutions occurred to me for this movement ; either that they were going for something to eat, and to get more ammunition— as they had been throwing their arrows— or, that Custer was coming and they had been informed of it by their runners. We took occasion of this lull to fill all our vessels with water, and soon we had it by the camp kettle full. The Indians continued to withdraw, and all firing ceased, except occasional shots from the sharpshooters sent to annoy us about the water.
Very soon, about two P. M., the grass in the bottom was set on fire and was followed up by the Indians who encouraged its burning. Evidently it was being fired for a purpose, which I discovered later to be the creation of a dense smoke, behind which they were packing and preparing to move their village tepees. Between six and seven P. M. the Indians came out from behind the clouds of smoke and dust and we had a good view of them as they filed away in the direction of the Big Horn mountains, moving in almost perfect military order. The length of their column was fully equal to that of a large division of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, as I have seen it on its march.
"We now thought again of Custer, of whom nothing had been heard or seen since the morning previous, when he separated his command, and we concluded that the Indians had gotten between
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him and us and had driven him towards the boat at the mouth of the Little Big Horn river. That he and his entire command lay dead, only a short distance from us, down the valley, did not once occur to us as being within the realms of the possible. Afterwards we found that his massacre had been accomplished before Benteen joined me on the bluffs, at about the time of my fight with the Indians in the timber, where, had I remained five moments longer, I am convinced— as I was then— that my column would have shared the same awful fate as Custer's.
The departure of the Indians impressed me with the belief that they were only removing their village to where they could get fresh grass for their immense herds of animals, and feeling sure that they would renew the attack at daylight, I changed my position to a better one on the bluffs where we could have an unlimited supply of water and which we barricaded and fortified as we had our old one, the night before. Early the next morning, the 27th, while we were on the qui vive for Indians, I saw with my field-glass a heavy dust down the valley. For some- time, there could be no certainty of its cause, but finally I was satisfied that it was Cavalry, and if so, it could only be Custer as it was,— from my information, — too early for either Gibbon or Terry, to reach the Little Big Horn valley.
I had, previous to this time, written a communication to General Terry which three of my men had volunteered to take to him. I could not get my Indian scouts to venture out, and beside I had no confidence in them. I told my men to go as near the approaching column as was safe, to ascertain if they were white men or Indians. If they proved to be soldiers, my volunteers were to return at once; if Indians, they were to push on to Terry as rapidly as possible. Almost immediately we were rejoiced to see our men returning over the high bluffs, and we knew then that relief was at hand.
During my fight with the Indians on these bluffs I desire to say that I had the heartiest support from my men and officers. I have never seen their equals for bravery and magnificent fighting. But the conspicuous services of Brevet-Colonel F. W. Benteen I desire to mention especially, for if ever a soldier deserved recognition by his Government for distinguished services, he
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certainly does. After DeWolf was killed the whole responsibility of the wounded rested on Dr. Porter, and I have never known a man to act a braver part than he. He worked without intermission, trying to relieve our poor sufferers, taking off an arm here, a leg there, and enduring this strain amid scenes of sickening horror for over thirty-six hours. Custer's disaster was not the defeat of the Seventh Cavalry, who held their ground for two days, after his massacre, against a savage force outnumbering ours ten to one, and had he not separated his regiment, he and his five companies would not only have escaped their awful fate, but our united force could have whipped Sitting Bull and his entire village.
I think it was about ten A. M. that General Terry rode into my lines. He knew nothing definitely of Custer, but said that he heard from Crow scouts that the Indians had whipped Custer ; but this he did not believe. He assumed command and immediately sent Benteen with his company to search for Custer and very soon our brave leader's unfortunate fate was known to us all. I had, in this last fight, lost forty men and had sixty wounded and all day of the 27th I was employed in caring for my sufferers, getting them doctors, medicine and canvas to protect them from the scorching sun and by evening I had them moved down to General Terry's camp. It was then too late to move my own camp, so we were compelled to remain another night on the bluffs, but fortunately during the cool night, the odor from the dead men and animals that surrounded us on all sides, was not so terrible as it had been under the heat of the sun. On the morning of the 28th at five A. M. I proceeded with my command to Custer's battle ground, where we buried the mutilated remains of all our dead comrades. The scene was beyond description. It filled us with horror and anguish. For the dead had been mutilated in the most savage manner and they lay as they had fallen, scattered in wildest confusion over the ground, in groups of two and three, or piled in an indiscriminate mass of men and horses. They had lain thus for nearly three days under the fierce heat of the sun, exposed to swarms of flies and carrion-crows and the scene was rendered even more desolate by the deep silence which seemed to hang like a weird mystery over
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our dead friends. By force of contrast, this very quietness spoke more plainly than words, of the tierce hand to hand conflict, the din and crash of battle, the demoniac war-cry of the Sioux and of how our brave and daring men fell before the overpowering strength of a savage foe.
We found General Custer on the bluffs and near him lay the
bodies of eleven of his officers. As a tribute to his bravery, the Indians had not mutilated General Custer and he lay as if asleep ; but all the other men had been most brutally mangled and had been stripped of their clothing. Many of their skulls had been crushed in, eyes had been torn from their sockets, hands, feet, arms, legs and noses had been wrenched off ; many had their flesh cut in strips the entire length of their bodies, and there were others whose limbs were closely perforated with bullet-holes, showing that the torture had been inflicted while the wretched victims were yet alive. There were twenty-nine enlisted men missing from this field of blood and they undoubtedly had been taken prisoners and perished at the stake, while the Indians were celebrating their scalp dance on the night of the 25th, in sight of my camp.
Lying almost at Custer's feet was young Reed, a nephew of the General's, who had been visiting him at Fort Lincoln and who had pleaded to go on the campaign, where this handsome lad of nineteen met such an untimely fate. Within a few feet of the General, lay his two brothers, Boston and Tom. There was in the whole army no more popular man, than gallant Tom Custer. He was young, handsome, a prince of good fellows and full of that bravery that ever characterized the Custers. He had served with distinction during the war and had frequently before been engaged in Indian fights. As we approached him we were horrified to see that his body had been opened and his heart torn out. Thus I knew that the vengeance of Rain-in-the- Face had been at work. Several years before Rain-in-the-Face had murdered two white men of our Fort and afterwards, boasted of it in the Reservation. He was arrested and brought to trial by Tom Custer, but before the time appointed for his case arrived, the wily Indian had escaped, sending back word to Captain Tom that he would be revenged by cutting out his captor's
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heart. Rain-in-the-Face kept his word, by literally tearing out the loyal heart of young Tom Custer. Near these three brothers and their boyish nephew, lay their brother-in-law, Lieutenant Calhoun, who had fallen on the skirmish line.
We found the clothing, blood stained and torn, of Lieutenants Porter and Sturgis, but neither their bodies, nor those of Dr. Lord and Lieutenant Harrington, could be found anywhere, on the battlefield and I have always thought that these gentlemen must have suffered burning at the stake with the enlisted men;
Ten years later Sitting Bull came to Washington with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Buffalo Bill— Mr. Cody— had been one of my guides during my fight with the Sioux, at the Custer Massacre, and through his courtesy I was granted an interview with Sitting Bull. Through an interpreter this old Sioux warrior talked quite freely with me about his tight with Custer.
He told me that when his warriors were celebrating their great religious festival, the Sun Dance, his runners came in and announced Custer's approach, and being thus warned eleven days in advance, he at once informed himself as to our strength and then prepared to meet us.
He also assured me that Custer's division of his regiment into
battalions exactly suited his plans, for then he retained a sufficient force to overwhelm me and sent forward an equal number to surround Custer. Sitting Bull did not personally engage in the fight, but explained that he remained in the council tent and directed the operations of his leading generals, Black Moon and Crazy Horse.
He then described the details of the terrible battle, which he declared lasted only one hour. He said Custer was taken completely by suprise, when he found himself suddenly surrounded by numbers ten times greater than his own, and that the Indians were enabled to kill our men so quickly, because they were exhausted from the long march of one night and two days, and had been so long in the saddle that they were almost overcome with fatigue, while the horses were also broken down by hard travel and no food.
Their annihilation was effected with comparatively few shots being fired for, explained Sitting Bull, "my powder was scarce
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and my warriors did great and quick work with their war-clubs to save my ammunition."
I then asked Sitting; Bull to tell me what had become of Lieutenants Porter, Sturgis, Harrington, Dr. Lord and the twenty-nine enlisted men, but to this he would make no reply, and his reticence more deeply convinced me that they had been burned at the stake. I then asked him why he had retreated so unexpectedly on June 26th, when he had my command surrounded on the bluffs. To which he replied, that he was "very sorry to withdraw on that occasion, for it had been his intention to continue the fight till he had killed every man in my command, but that his runners announced to him the approach of Generals Terry and Gibbon with their large force and he deemed it prudent to retreat. ' '
We spent some very sad hours that morning of June 28th on Custer's battle-field, and many of my brawny men, who had stood their own peril stoicaly, were moved to tears at sight of the horror that had befallen their comrades. At every step we found signs of a desperate conflict and a fearful carnage. There lay George W. Yates, in a position that proved how dearly he had sold his life. Not far away and nearer Custer, lay all that was mortal of Colonel Myles W. Keogh. He was an officer of the Papal Guards at the beginning of the civil war, when he and six of his brother officers came to this country and entered the volunteer service. No one who knew the generous Keogh could ever forget him, and when he realized that the tide of battle was against him, I can well imagine the calm heroism with which he met his awful death. The Indians had robbed him entirely of his clothing, but about his neck was suspended an Agnus Dei of the Catholic Church, and although the chain that fastened it was of finest gold, it had been left untouched by the savages, which proved the Indian's well known fear of charms, or talis-
As if to commemorate his bravery, Keogh 's horse had escaped death most miraculously, the only living thing that remained of Custer's splendid column; we found the lonely animal wandering over the battlefield with his body perforated with bullets. No babe of a tender mother ever received such care as
364 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO 5
did this old war-horse from my brawny men; we sent him to- Fort Lincoln and when he was recovered, he was clothed in black velvet and led before the regiment on every occasion of a dress parade."
Custer's command was completely annihilated, not one of his men escaping, except a Crow scout, — an Indian named Curley. He says he remained with General Custer until he saw that everything was lost; then seeing a Sioux jump off his pony to kill a wounded officer, he sprang on the pony and wrapping himself in the Sioux's blanket he effected his escape. He says that Custer's command was entirely surrounded, but that the men made a brave resistance and only succumbed to overwhelming numbers.
He also stated that during the fight, the soldiers had some trouble with their carbines, for from his hiding-place he could see the men sitting down, under fire, and working with their guns— a story that had confirmation in the fact that I found knives with broken blades, lying near the dead bodies on the battlefield. Curley also tells of one soldier who seeing all was lost, tried to save himself by flight and he had reached a ravine unperceived, when he was suddenly confronted by a dozen young bucks and rather than fall into their hands and be tortured, the soldier placed his revolver to his head and fired. Many Indians, too young to fight, were ordered to stampede the horses and this was effected by the youthful bucks suddenly springing up before the horses and waving their blankets before them. The horses took fright and were driven into the Indian lines and thus they gained not only numbers of fine horses, but also a large amount of ammunition that was packed in the saddles. After the fight, Curley states the squaws, old gray-haired warriors and even children came on the battleground to plunder and mutilate the dead and to crush in their skulls with heavy stone mallets.
After leaving Custer's field I went with my command over my own battle-ground. Here we found the waistband of Sergeant Hughes' trousers very much stained with blood; he had been Custer's flag bearer, and as his was among the missing bodies we concluded that he had been brought here alive and had been given a death of torture. There lay a dead cavalryman with an
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO 365
arrow sticking in his back and his skull crushed in. One ghastly find was near the center of the field where three tepee poles were standing upright in the ground in the form of a triangle, and on top of each were inverted camp-kettles, while below them, on the grass, were the heads of three men whom I recognized as belonging to my own command. These heads had been severed from their trunks by some very sharp instrument, as the flesh was smoothly cut, and they were placed within the triangle, facing one another, in a horrible, sightless stare. Their bodies were never found.
The plain was strewn with Indian ponies— some still struggling in their death agony— and horses that were branded "Seventh Cavalry," while frequently we came upon great blackened spaces in the grass which showed us where the fires had been built, in which so many of our men had perished, and around which the Indians had celebrated their horrible scalp-dance on the night of the 25th.
After burying all my men here, we pushed on to the recent site of the Indian village. It was larger even than I had expected and stretched three miles and a half down the valley, bearing evidence that it had contained fully eighteen hundred tepees, and from twenty-five hundred to three thousand lodges. A lodge represents a fighting man — that is, all males from twenty to fifty years of age— but when the Sioux are in active war all the males who are able to bear arms are pressed into the fight. Consequently, at the battle of the Little Big Horn, the Indian strength could not have been less than forty-five hundred, possibly five thousand fighting men. And it was this overwhelming force that was splendidly equipped— even better than our Cavalry was — that General Custer attacked with his little band of less than seven hundred men.
Everywhere throughout the village were signs of the Indians' hasty departure; piles of tepee-poles tied together, ready for trailing; buffalo robes, cooking utensils, cavalry saddles, elk skins, spades, axes, pistols, dishes fashioned from horn and wood and implements of all kinds lay scattered about, and a number of Indian dogs that had been left behind, fled like wolves at our approach.
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Two tepees, made of fine white skins, had been left standing in the village and within them lay the bodies of nine great chiefs who had fallen in the fight. These dead warriors were laid out in state, in full war paint and costume, their robes, head dresses, leggins and moccasins being richly embroidered in the beautiful Indian bead-work. During the funeral services of these braves, their war-horses had been killed and placed in circles around the tents, so that, on their ponies' spirits, the spirits of the dead warriors might ride into the "Happy Hunting-grounds."
After burying our dead, my next move was to go over Custer's trail and study it. Our great mistake from the first was that we underestimated the strength of the Indians, and it was this alone which led to such disastrous results. I am convinced that, had Custer known the great force of the Sioux he would never have divided his command. Just before he ordered me to charge the Indians, a scout came in and announced that the village was near and the Indians were running away.
This seemed true for we could see a great cloud of dust ahead of us with mounted Sioux moving about as if greatly excited. This information must have had weight with Custer and caused him to change his plan of attack ; for instead of following me, as I was informed he would, his trail proved that he intended to support me by moving farther down the stream and attacking the village in flank, that thus our two commands might work toward each other.
But he found the distance to the ford greater than he imagined *and it must have taken him fully three-quarters of an hour to reach it, although his trail proves that he rode rapidly. This gave the Sioux an opportunity to see and understand his maneuver and an hour to prepare for his attack, at the lower end of the village. I am convinced that until General Custer actually made his charge upon the village and rode into an ambuscade of fully two thousand Indians, he was not aware of their great strength.
The point from which he made his charge was cut into deep ravines swarming with hidden foe, who poured upon him a sudden, staggering fire. Could he have gained any position, where defense was possible, he might have saved himself, but that was
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impossible, for he was entirely surrounded; lie could not retreat and even from the very first, I assume he must have known what the result would be.
Recognizing this, I can well believe how he and his gallant men determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible and fall as only brave men can, fighting to the last.
His battlefield told its own tragic tale, revealing unerringly each detail of the awful conflict, showing where the first shot was fired, where the column divided in its retreat, where the combat waged most fiercely and where the last stand was made.
In this encounter with the hostile Sioux the Seventh Cavalry lost over seven hundred of its men and officers, many of whom were of the elite of the army. The number of Indians killed can only be approximated. I saw only eighteen dead Sioux, but Captain Ball, Second Cavalry, who made a scout of thirteen miles over their trail, says that their graves were many, along their line of march on retreat.
It was simply impossible that numbers of them should not be hit in the several charges they made so close to my lines. They made their approach through the deep gulches that led from the hill-top to the river, and were often within a few feet of my lines ; but when the jealous care with which the Indians guard their dead and wounded is considered, it is not astonishing that their bodies were not found. It is probable that the number of stores left by the Sioux in their deserted village on the Little Big Horn, was to make room for their dead and wounded on their travois.
After much reflection I have concluded that several great blunders were the direct causes of the Custer Massacre. It is an established fact that Custer disobeyed the orders of the general in command of the expedition; for instead of waiting to meet General Gibbon and General Terry on June 26, at the Rosebud and then co-operate with them, in their concerted plan of action, as he had been directed, as soon as he struck the trail of the Indians, he followed it till he came upon the Indian village, on June 25.
Then without attempting to communicate with either Terry or Gibbon and without taking the trouble to ascertain the
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strength or position of the Indians, he divided his regiment into three separate battalions— an act which nothing can justify— and dashed against the Indians, thus recklessly driving his own and my commands into an ambuscade of five thousand Sioux.
Nor did Custer take into consideration the unfed and exhausted condition of his men and horses, and he entirely ignored the fact that the Indians were on the qui vive and ready for attack, at noon, whereas it would have been an easy matter to surprise them very early in the morning.
The only explanation for such conduct on the part of so brilliant an officer as Custer undoubtedly was, otherwise, was his great personal ambition.
He had thought himself partially disgraced because he had been superseded in command of the expedition, by General Terry, and it was well known that he was resolved, if possible, to carry off all the honors of the campaign. For, being in command of the only cavalry regiment attached to the expedition, he knew the brunt of the fighting would necessarily fall on him, and he made no secret of his intention to cut loose from Terry, where there was fighting to do and to carry on the campaign on his own hook.
Absolutely insensible to fear, he was also reckless and daring in the extreme, and driven by an intense desire to distinguish himself by some brilliant exploit he made his headlong dash to a horrible death, without the most casual regard for the maxims of military prudence.
Even now, after the lapse of nearly ten years, the horror of Custer's battlefield is still vividly before me. and the harrowing sight of those mutilated and decomposing bodies crowning the heights on which poor Custer fell will linger in my memory till death.
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BRIEF Biography v: '■•■.jv.-^ - ■■ - -- •
Brief Biography of Major M. A. Reno
Part One from the March 1912 edition of The National Americana Society of New York, pages 255 to 266.
Part Two from the April 1912 edition of The National Americana Society of New York, pages 357 to 368.
MAJOR M. A. RENO was a native of Illinois and a great-grandnephew of Phillippe Francois Renault who came to this country with La Fayette. Renault was rewarded for services to the United States Government with large tracts of lands, for possession of which the Reno heirs have been fighting for a quarter of a century, for their valuation now amounts to $400,000,000.
Major Reno was graduated from West Point and while there, was closely associated with General Custer and also with General Jackson, of Nashville. During Major Reno 's visit to Nashville in 1888, he was a guest of General Jackson, at Belle Meade, for several days of his stay. It was their second meeting, since their parting at West Point, their first being in action during the Civil War, when each called to the other and waved salutes from the firing line.
Major Reno was married to Miss Mary Hannah Ross, whose father, Mr. Robert Ross, a Pennsylvania capitalist, founded one of the largest banks and the first glass works in Harrisburg, the State Capitol. Major Reno's wife was a niece of the late Senator Don Cameron's wife, who was a Miss Haldeman, of Harrisburg, and a kinswoman of the founder of the Louisville Courier Journal. Major Reno had only one child — Robert Ross Reno, who married Miss Ittie Kinney, daughter of Col. George S. Kinney, of Nashville.
At the beginning of trouble between the North and the South, Major Reno organized a volunteer company in Harrisburg and served throughout all the years of the war. He was never wounded, but his horse was shot from under him at the battle of the Wilderness. He died in Washington in 1889.
(255) •: ■ V ::-.
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The Custer Massacre.
An account of the circumstances attending the massacre of General George A. Custer and his command, by the Sioux Indians, in the summer of 1876, found among Major Reno's effects after his death.
The policy of the Government, over the breaking out of the gold-fever in the Black Hills, was lax in the extreme. It did not prevent white men from invading this Indian country— its unquestioned duty— nor did it protect them when they went. This vacillating led many to risk the chance of success in the Black Hills, and in consequence, the Indians at once and very justly, began to handle them without gloves, for attempting to take their country from them.
No blame, therefore, can be attached to the red skins for defending their rights. All men will fight for their firesides, and this Black Hills country was really the home of the Sioux, made over to them in the most solemn manner by the treaty of 1868.
This armistice having been broken in such a manner, aroused the Sioux to savage resentment, and from many indications in the winter of 1875-6, it became evident to all on the frontier that an Indian war was inevitable. Thus the Government found it had a white elephant on its hands, for the white men in the Black Hills were in peril and numbers of Indians, outraged in their dearest rights, were eager for fight and were on the warpath.
What could be done ? Nothing but organize a military expedition against them. This was done and General Crook from the Department of the Platte, General Gibbon from Montana and General Terry from Dakota, took the field. The plan of the campaign was for a simultaneous attack on the Sioux from three different directions— General Gibbon coming down the valley of the Yellowstone, Terry was to move from the Missouri to the Yellowstone and drive the Indians toward Gibbon, while Crook was to operate towards the same Point, but from the direction of the Black Hills, and thus by surrounding the Sioux to cut off all possibility of their escape.
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From these movements into the Indian country an awful combat resulted on June 25 and 26, 1876. which will stand as a lasting monument to an imbecile policy that will set opposing parties in the field to battle against each other, both armed, equipped and supplied at the expense of the same Government.
Any one who, like me, has seen the awful fighting of these two fatal days, will seek to solve the Indian problem by means less bloody than a resort to arms.
The immediate cause which precipitated the Summer Campaign of 1876, was the refusal of Sitting Bull to make a treaty with the Government, or to agree to live on a reservation, which was practically a declaration of war and was accepted as such.
Orders were given for the concerted movements of Generals Crook, Gibbon and Terry and at the command of Terry, the Seventh Cavalry, under the immediate command of Lt. Col. George A. Custer, left Fort Lincoln, D. T., on May 17, 1876.
The Seventh presented a magnificent appearance on that beautiful May morning when it parted from its loved ones in Fort Lincoln and started on that long march, which for so many of them was to be the final one. We, including ofiicers, soldiers, Indian Scouts, employees and citizens, numbered fully twelve hundred, while there were seventeen hundred animals, comprising mules, ponies and horses. We left Fort Lincoln with our band playing: "The Girl I Left Behind Me," and at the head of our splendid column rode our gallant Custer and his charming wife. She remained with us throughout the first day's march, and the next morning she parted from her husband who sent her back to Fort Lincoln under special escort. It was their last ride together.
General Terry and his staff accompanied us as far as the Yellowstone river and after a long march of twenty-one days from Fort Lincoln, we arrived at the mouth of Powder river on June
10. Here I was given command of six companies, comprising the Right Wing, and was sent on a scout of one hundred and fifty miles up this river to the mouth of the Little Powder, to search for Indians and if possible, to find General Crook and open communication with him, for it was nearing the time when he was expected to reach that point. Part of our trail was
258 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO
picturesque and lovely, finely timbered, -with a wealth of wild roses and the most superb grazing I ever saw.
After a march of five days we arrived at the mouth of the Little Powder and I was surprised to see a camp of soldiers on the South bank of that river. I tried to communicate with them, first by signal and then by voice, but the river was too broad for success in such efforts.
The officer in command then sent to me one of his Indian scouts who swam the river with a note in his mouth. He reached my camp in safety and, although as nude as he was at birth, he approached and delivered the note with all the dignity of his race. The letter proved to be from General Gibbon who was in command of his troops from Montana and marching to join General Terry and his men from Dakota.
I sent the Indian scout back to General Gibbon assuring him that he had found us and thus the two commands were put in communication. I returned then to the main camp, under Custer's command, and during this scout, I enjoyed some fine sport, for game was abundant and on one occasion I brought down two large elk.
I also found on my scouting expedition many indications to convince me that the Indians had their stronghold upon the little Big Horn river, about fifteen miles above its junction with the main Big Horn which empties into the Yellowstone.
The Big Horn is navigable about eight or ten miles above the mouth of Little Big Horn. On a bright sunny morning, June 22, 1876, the Seventh Regiment of Cavalry passed in review before General Terry, at the mouth of the small stream, the Rosebud. The officers and men were cheerful, the horses were in prime condition, the day was beautiful and not one in that splendid collumn of men and officers ever thought that the frightful disaster that finally overtook them, was within the range of probabilities.
After the review, the march was begun up the Rosebud, the regiment being under the command of Lt. Col. Geo. A. Custer. The march was continued up the Rosebud on June 23 and we encamped at nightfall after making thirty-five miles.
At the end of the second day's march up the Rosebud, my tent
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO 259
was very near that of General Custer and after taking a cup of coffee and some hard bread— all we had— I and the other officers of the command were summoned to Custer's tent by the "officer's call" on the trumpet. Custer was seated on the trunk of a decayed and fallen tree and we saluted him in succession as we arrived ; after all had made themselves as comfortable as possible, some lying on the grass and others upon whatever gave them support, Custer said:
"Gentlemen, I have sent for you to talk over the situation. There is a camp of Indians ahead of us and we must be prepared for a hard fight." In the discussion that followed, some one said that it was probable that the companies would be separated on the march or in the night, and therefore that each company should have its own pack mules, provisions and ammunitions.
To this Custer readily agreed and it was so ordered. The next and last time I ever saw General Custer alive, was on the morning of June 25, the day upon which he saw the sun shine for the last time. The two columns, commanded by himself and myself respectively, were moving parallel to each other and he waved his hat for me to come to him.
I did so. He was riding a fine thoroughbred horse that he had gotten in Kentucky,', when the regiment was after the Ku Klux Klan of the South. He was dressed in a full suit of buck-skin, with Indian fringes along the seams of his pants and of his coat sleeves. I had known Custer for a long time : as cadet at West Point, and during the Civil and Indian wars, and on this particular morning, he did not wear his usual confident and cheerful air, but seemed rather depressed, as with some premonition of coming horror. "What that was is now a matter of history.
I remember, as I rode back to my command, the last remark I ever made to him was— "Let us keep together." In his jaunty way he lifted his broad brimmed hat as much as to say, "I hear you." But alas ! he did not heed me, and that afternoon he was cold in death's embrace.
On the morning of June 24, we continued our long march up the Rosebud and we saw signs of the Indians in all directions As we advanced the trail freshened, and after a march of twenty-three miles we halted, but reports from the scouts sent on ahead,
26o BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. REXO
induced us to proceed on the march during the night instead of resting. We proceeded with great difficulty till daylight on June 25, when we halted for one hour and a half and then we marched on again.
The Indian trail was now very fresh. About 9 A. ]\[. the Adjutant of the Regiment informed me that the Sioux village was now certainly close at hand and he gave me the following arrangement of the companies of the regiment. Companies M, A, and G, to be one battalion commanded by Major M. A. Reno. Companies H, D, and K to be a second battalion, commanded by Captain F. W. Benteen, Company B to be commanded by Captain McDougall and to be rear guard of the Packtrain. The remaining companies, C, E, I, F, and L were to go under the immediate command of Custer.
I assumed command of the companies assigned to me at once and proceeded to march in the direction of the Indians, without any definite instructions or orders. I saw the battalion under Benteen move off far to the left, and I did not see him again until about 2.30 P. M., of that same day. At half past 12 M. the Adjutant gave me an order from Custer in the following words : "Go in at as rapid a gait as you think prudent, for the Village is only two and a half miles off and running away, and you will be supported by the whole outfit."
I proceeded at a fast trot until I crossed the Little Big Horn, and as soon as the battalion was in hand I charged, supposing myself followed by Custer, with the companies under his command. For as I led the advance and was the first to be engaged and draw fire, my command was, in consequence, the one to be supported and not the one from which support could be expected. With the Ree scouts on my left, I charged down the valley, driving the Indians, who came out from a belt of cotton-woods to meet us, with ease before me for about three miles. It was too easy, in fact, for I soon saw that I was being drawn into some kind of a trap; I knew that these Indians could fight harder, especially as we were nearing their village, the entrance to which they certainly would not leave unopposed.
Neither Custer or Benteen was in sight, a fact I attributed to the great clouds of dust, and as I drew nearer to the villages,
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO 261
the ground seemed suddenly to grow Indians; they came running towards me in swarms and from all directions.
The village was about three and one-half miles long, was situated on the Little Big Horn and the topography of the vicinity may be briefly told. The stream was very crooked, like the letter S in its wanderings, and just where the village was located, it spread out into a broad bottom, perhaps half or three-quarters of a mile wide. This creek was fringed, as usual, with the trees of the plains— a growth of large cottonwoods— and on the opposite side was a range of high bluffs, which had been cut into very deep ravines by the surface water and by the action of the stream. Just at the base of these bluffs, the earth had fallen in and left perpendicular banks, making what is known as cut banks.
I was soon convinced that I had, at least ten to one against me and I was forced on the defensive. This I did, taking possession of a point of woods which furnished, near its edge, a shelter for the horses. Under cover of the timber, I dismounted my battalion, detailing number four of each group of "fours," to hold the horses, thus reducing our fighting force to about seventy-five men. I then deployed the companies as skirmishers, the right resting on the timber, the left extending across the valley, and our front facing the village. The Sioux now made their first attack and the firing was heavy and rapid for one hour and a half. The enemy increased so greatly in numbers that we were forced into the timber for protection, but I firmly believe that if, at that moment, all our companies had been together the Indians would have been driven from their village.
Almost immediately, after entering the wood, I found that we were being surrounded and I knew my only hope was to get out of the timber and reach some high ground. The wood was about twenty-feet lower than the plain where the Indians were, and the advantage of position was theirs. I mounted my command and charged through the Reds in a solid body. As we cut our way through them, the fighting was hand to hand and it was instant death to him who fell from his saddle, or was wounded. As we dashed through them, my men were so close to the Indians that they would discharge their pistols right into the breasts of
262 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO
the savages, then throw them away and seize their carbines, not having time to replace their revolvers in the holsters.
The scene that ensued was such as can be seen only once in a lifetime. Our horses were on the dead run with, in many instances, two and three men on one animal. We plunged into the Little Big Horn and began the climb of the opposite bluffs. This incline was the steepest that I have ever seen either horse or mule ascend and our only way was through a buffalo trail, worn in the banks, and only sufficiently wide to permit one man to pass
at a time. In this narrow place there were necessarily much" crowding and confusion and many of the men were compelled to cling to the horses' necks and tails for support, to prevent their being trampled to death, or falling back into the river. Into this mass of men and horses, the Indians poured a continuous and deadly fire and under its leaden hail, the loss of life was frightful and the Little Big Horn was transferred into a seeming river of human blood.
At this fight at the ford "Bloody Knife"— the chief of the Indians scouts— was shot dead at my feet. I lost three officers and twenty-nine enlisted men, with only seven wounded. The officers who fell here were A. A. Surgeon, J. M. DeWolf, First Lieutenant Donald Mcintosh, and Second Lieutenant Benjamin H. Hodgson. Afterwards (when I went over my battlefield, we found Mcintosh's body and near it a soldier of his company). Lieutenant Mcintosh was the son of an officer in the Hudson Bay Company and entered the regular service in August of 1867. He had some Indian blood in his veins, inherited from his mother, and his face bore its traces. He was a cultured, elegant gentleman, a brave officer and he fell with his face to the enemy. Before we had crossed the river, while yet under shelter of the timber, Company G, commanded by Lieutenant Mcintosh, was nearest the Indian village. I went in person, to notify him of my intention to withdraw from the wood and seek the hill. He replied, — "all right," and at once set about getting his men in column and mounted. In doing this he was in the rear of his Company and as it joined the column on the charge, three or four Indians ran up to him and before he was able to use his
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO 263
arms, they dragged him from his horse and thus the gallant fellow fell a victim to their barbarity.
He with all my men had been most terribly mutilated, and with the bodies of horses and ponies, were strewn over the plain in wildest confusion. They were covered with swarms of flies, and the odor from the decomposing bodies, under the blazing sun was intolerable; altogether my battle field presented a scene of horror, not easily to be forgotten.
The fate of Second Lieutenant Ben Hodgson was very similar, although his death did not occur till after that noble fellow had distinguished himself b}' the most daring services. He was my adjutant and the last order he ever carried for me was to Captain French, telling him of the move I intended making. In delivering this order, Hodgson was hit by a ball, just below his sabre belt. This wound would have eventually proved fatal, but the gallant fellow said nothing and rode in his place with the
column. Just as he was crossing the river, his horse was killed under him and detaching himself from the animal Hodgson gained the opposite bank and tried to save himself by clinging to the stirrups of a passing soldier, but his strength was exhausted and weakened by his loss of blood, he fell back on the river bank and was killed by the nearest Indian.
After the fight, I searched for his body and I buried it on the hill, marking his grave as well as I could. It was found some months later by his friends who came from Philadelphia to take him home for burial. They found that his body had not been mutilated and that he was clothed as he had dressed himself on the morning of the ill-fated 25th of June.
As soon as my men reached the top of the bluffs, they dismounted and opened fire upon the Indians, in order to cover the ascent of their comrades, and when the remnant of my command was about me again, I quickly threw them into a line of defense while below us, in the plain, we could see the Indians stripping, scalping and mutilating the bodies of our dead. Fortunately, at this juncture, I saw Benteen with his three companies and Captain McDougall, with Company B, and the pack train, coming to us over the bluffs. Benteen informed me that he had hunted all morning for the Indians, and seeing no sign of them
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anywhere, he thought it best to return to the Little Big Horn valley and join the main command. He had seen nothing of Custer, but he had received from a trumpeter this order from Crook :
"Benteen come on; big village. Be quick. Bring packs."
He therefore hastened to the Little Big Horn, expecting to find Custer there. He now became seriously uneasy over Custer's non-appearance and as senior officer of our united command, I sent Captain Weir, with his company from Benteen 's column^ to open communication with Custer ; while, in the meantime, I was dismounting my men, putting my wounded under protection, had driven the horses and mules of the pack train in a depression in the hills and had placed my men along the crests of the bluffs. In a very short time Captain Weir sent back word by Lieutenant Hare, that he was having a heavy fight with the Indians who surrounded him in overwhelming numbers, and that he could go no farther. He was ordered to return, which he did with difficulty, and he had scarcely reached our lines, when we were most furiously attacked on all sides by the Sioux.
The fight now, for sometime, was a desperate one, almost hand to hand, and in many instances, Indians who were unarmed, or out of ammunition, stood on the heights and hurled heavy stones at our soldiers below them. At one time I discovered that the reds had taken possession of a ravine near by, and were preparing a fresh assault. I ordered Benteen to charge with his company. His men sprang up with loud cheers and led by their gallant officer, they rushed in a solid body down the ravine. This charge was so sudden and so bold, that the Indians broke and ran at their approach.
From one of the hills that overlooked our corral, the enemy poured a deadly fire, killing scores of our horses and mules, while many of the packers in the train were shot dead and wounded. But my men stood firm, although the fight continued with unabated fury till nine P. M., when it had grown very dark and the Sioux ceased firing, for the Indians will not fight after night fall. Thus ended the 25th day of June.
By this time, I was aware that the Indians were in overwhelming numbers and in consequence, we worked all night, making
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every exertion to be ready for what I knew would be a terrific assault next day. We dug rifle pits, and being possessed of only two spades the men were compelled to use their hands, knives and tin cups; we barricaded the opening of the depression towards the Indians, in which our animals were herded, with the bodies of our dead soldiers, mules and horses and boxes of hard bread. We worked hard and rapidly, knowing the night would be of short duration, for day breaks very early in that high latitude.
All during the night, the Indians remained in hearing distance of my position and kept up a most fearful scalp-dance and the darkness was made lurid by their blazing fires, in which many prisoners were burned at the stake.
Finally our work was completed. "We had done all we could, to fortify our position and I felt confident now that I could hold my own during the coming attack. The morning of June 26th dawned about half past two A. M., and exactly at that moment, ■we heard the crack of two rifles, which warned us that the assault would soon be made. This was the signal for the beginning of a fire that I have never seen equalled.
The Indians are the best light cavalry in the world. I have seen pretty nearly all of them, and I do not except even the Cossacks. Every rifle was handled by an expert and skilled marksman, and with a range that exceeded that of our carbines. Many of these carbines in my command were rendered useless by failure of the breech block to close and leaving a space between the head of the cartridge and the end of the block, and when the piece was discharged, and the block thrown open, the head of the cartridge was pulled off, leaving the cylinder in the chamber, whence, with the means at hand, it was impossible to extract it. I desire also to state that my loss would have been less, had I been provided with some instrument similar to the trowel-bayonet. I am sure, had an opponent of that arm been with my soldiers on the night of June 25th, 1876, he would have given his right hand for fifty bayonets.
The Indians opened the attack with a tremendous fire and deafening warwhoops and as the day brightened, we could see countless hordes of them pouring out from the village and up in
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the valley, scampering over the high points towards the places designated for them, by their chiefs and which entirely surrounded our position. They had sufficient numbers to completely encircle us, proved by many of my men being struck on opposite sides of the lines from where the shots were fired. I think I was fighting all the Sioux nation who— unknown to us,— had assembled only a short time previous to celebrate their greatest religious festival — the Sun Dance— together with all the desperadoes, renegades, squaw-men and half-breeds between the Missouri and Arkansas rivers and east of the Rocky Mountains.
They could not have numbered less than twenty-five hundred while many estimate their strength to have been fully five thousand.
(To be continued.)
Major Reno and the Custer Massacre
PART n \..'' /T-'/
AFTER being reinforced by Benteen. my own command numbered about four hundred, but one-third of these were detailed to protect the horses and mules, and were, in consequence, of no practical assistance to my fighting force and our situation was desperate in the extreme. The fight did not slacken till about half past nine A. M., when I discovered that the Indians were making a last desperate attempt which was directed against the lines held by Companies H and M. In this attack they charged close enough to use their bows and arrows and one man, lying dead within our lines, was touched by the "coup-stick" of one of the foremost Indians. He will never touch another. When I say that this "coup-stick" was only about ten or twelve feet long, some idea of the desperate and reckless fighting of these people may be understood.
But let me explain : Each Indian when preparing for battle, or hunting expedition provides himself with a pole, from six to twelve feet long and when he touches a dead body with it, the scalp of the man or skin of the animal, becomes his property. Then he makes a number of small bags from the skin or hide of his victim, which he fills with scalp-locks or fur, respectively. Each little bag represents one victim, and it is the Sioux's ambition to collect as many of these ghastly trophies as possible, which when completed and stuffed, are then attached to the "coup-stick." I have frequently seen these poles with as many as ten or twelve little bags fastened to them.
This charge of theirs was gallantly repulsed by Captain Benteen and the brave men on that line. The Indians also came close enough to send their arrows into the line held by Companies D and K, but were driven away by a like charge of the line, which I accompanied. "We now had many wounded, and the (357)
358 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO ■'"''
question of water had become vital, as we had had none since early on the previous day. The suffering was intense, for fighting and the hot sun had parched our throats, Some of the men's tongues were so swollen they could not speak, and our wounded were really dying for want of it. The river lay at our feet and could be approached by a deep ravine, but from the ravine to
our lines was an open space one hundred feet in width, which
was commanded by the Indians on the bluffs. Fully fifty soldiers volunteered to go for the water, and a skirmish line was formed under Benteen to protect the men as they dashed down the hill in front of his position, to reach the water. Thus we succeeded in getting some canteens full, but at the expense of many of the volunteers being struck and a few killed.
The fury of the attack was now over, and to my astonishment we soon saw the Indians going in parties down the bluffs to the village. Two solutions occurred to me for this movement ; either that they were going for something to eat, and to get more ammunition— as they had been throwing their arrows— or, that Custer was coming and they had been informed of it by their runners. We took occasion of this lull to fill all our vessels with water, and soon we had it by the camp kettle full. The Indians continued to withdraw, and all firing ceased, except occasional shots from the sharpshooters sent to annoy us about the water.
Very soon, about two P. M., the grass in the bottom was set on fire and was followed up by the Indians who encouraged its burning. Evidently it was being fired for a purpose, which I discovered later to be the creation of a dense smoke, behind which they were packing and preparing to move their village tepees. Between six and seven P. M. the Indians came out from behind the clouds of smoke and dust and we had a good view of them as they filed away in the direction of the Big Horn mountains, moving in almost perfect military order. The length of their column was fully equal to that of a large division of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, as I have seen it on its march.
"We now thought again of Custer, of whom nothing had been heard or seen since the morning previous, when he separated his command, and we concluded that the Indians had gotten between
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him and us and had driven him towards the boat at the mouth of the Little Big Horn river. That he and his entire command lay dead, only a short distance from us, down the valley, did not once occur to us as being within the realms of the possible. Afterwards we found that his massacre had been accomplished before Benteen joined me on the bluffs, at about the time of my fight with the Indians in the timber, where, had I remained five moments longer, I am convinced— as I was then— that my column would have shared the same awful fate as Custer's.
The departure of the Indians impressed me with the belief that they were only removing their village to where they could get fresh grass for their immense herds of animals, and feeling sure that they would renew the attack at daylight, I changed my position to a better one on the bluffs where we could have an unlimited supply of water and which we barricaded and fortified as we had our old one, the night before. Early the next morning, the 27th, while we were on the qui vive for Indians, I saw with my field-glass a heavy dust down the valley. For some- time, there could be no certainty of its cause, but finally I was satisfied that it was Cavalry, and if so, it could only be Custer as it was,— from my information, — too early for either Gibbon or Terry, to reach the Little Big Horn valley.
I had, previous to this time, written a communication to General Terry which three of my men had volunteered to take to him. I could not get my Indian scouts to venture out, and beside I had no confidence in them. I told my men to go as near the approaching column as was safe, to ascertain if they were white men or Indians. If they proved to be soldiers, my volunteers were to return at once; if Indians, they were to push on to Terry as rapidly as possible. Almost immediately we were rejoiced to see our men returning over the high bluffs, and we knew then that relief was at hand.
During my fight with the Indians on these bluffs I desire to say that I had the heartiest support from my men and officers. I have never seen their equals for bravery and magnificent fighting. But the conspicuous services of Brevet-Colonel F. W. Benteen I desire to mention especially, for if ever a soldier deserved recognition by his Government for distinguished services, he
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certainly does. After DeWolf was killed the whole responsibility of the wounded rested on Dr. Porter, and I have never known a man to act a braver part than he. He worked without intermission, trying to relieve our poor sufferers, taking off an arm here, a leg there, and enduring this strain amid scenes of sickening horror for over thirty-six hours. Custer's disaster was not the defeat of the Seventh Cavalry, who held their ground for two days, after his massacre, against a savage force outnumbering ours ten to one, and had he not separated his regiment, he and his five companies would not only have escaped their awful fate, but our united force could have whipped Sitting Bull and his entire village.
I think it was about ten A. M. that General Terry rode into my lines. He knew nothing definitely of Custer, but said that he heard from Crow scouts that the Indians had whipped Custer ; but this he did not believe. He assumed command and immediately sent Benteen with his company to search for Custer and very soon our brave leader's unfortunate fate was known to us all. I had, in this last fight, lost forty men and had sixty wounded and all day of the 27th I was employed in caring for my sufferers, getting them doctors, medicine and canvas to protect them from the scorching sun and by evening I had them moved down to General Terry's camp. It was then too late to move my own camp, so we were compelled to remain another night on the bluffs, but fortunately during the cool night, the odor from the dead men and animals that surrounded us on all sides, was not so terrible as it had been under the heat of the sun. On the morning of the 28th at five A. M. I proceeded with my command to Custer's battle ground, where we buried the mutilated remains of all our dead comrades. The scene was beyond description. It filled us with horror and anguish. For the dead had been mutilated in the most savage manner and they lay as they had fallen, scattered in wildest confusion over the ground, in groups of two and three, or piled in an indiscriminate mass of men and horses. They had lain thus for nearly three days under the fierce heat of the sun, exposed to swarms of flies and carrion-crows and the scene was rendered even more desolate by the deep silence which seemed to hang like a weird mystery over
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our dead friends. By force of contrast, this very quietness spoke more plainly than words, of the tierce hand to hand conflict, the din and crash of battle, the demoniac war-cry of the Sioux and of how our brave and daring men fell before the overpowering strength of a savage foe.
We found General Custer on the bluffs and near him lay the
bodies of eleven of his officers. As a tribute to his bravery, the Indians had not mutilated General Custer and he lay as if asleep ; but all the other men had been most brutally mangled and had been stripped of their clothing. Many of their skulls had been crushed in, eyes had been torn from their sockets, hands, feet, arms, legs and noses had been wrenched off ; many had their flesh cut in strips the entire length of their bodies, and there were others whose limbs were closely perforated with bullet-holes, showing that the torture had been inflicted while the wretched victims were yet alive. There were twenty-nine enlisted men missing from this field of blood and they undoubtedly had been taken prisoners and perished at the stake, while the Indians were celebrating their scalp dance on the night of the 25th, in sight of my camp.
Lying almost at Custer's feet was young Reed, a nephew of the General's, who had been visiting him at Fort Lincoln and who had pleaded to go on the campaign, where this handsome lad of nineteen met such an untimely fate. Within a few feet of the General, lay his two brothers, Boston and Tom. There was in the whole army no more popular man, than gallant Tom Custer. He was young, handsome, a prince of good fellows and full of that bravery that ever characterized the Custers. He had served with distinction during the war and had frequently before been engaged in Indian fights. As we approached him we were horrified to see that his body had been opened and his heart torn out. Thus I knew that the vengeance of Rain-in-the- Face had been at work. Several years before Rain-in-the-Face had murdered two white men of our Fort and afterwards, boasted of it in the Reservation. He was arrested and brought to trial by Tom Custer, but before the time appointed for his case arrived, the wily Indian had escaped, sending back word to Captain Tom that he would be revenged by cutting out his captor's
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heart. Rain-in-the-Face kept his word, by literally tearing out the loyal heart of young Tom Custer. Near these three brothers and their boyish nephew, lay their brother-in-law, Lieutenant Calhoun, who had fallen on the skirmish line.
We found the clothing, blood stained and torn, of Lieutenants Porter and Sturgis, but neither their bodies, nor those of Dr. Lord and Lieutenant Harrington, could be found anywhere, on the battlefield and I have always thought that these gentlemen must have suffered burning at the stake with the enlisted men;
Ten years later Sitting Bull came to Washington with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Buffalo Bill— Mr. Cody— had been one of my guides during my fight with the Sioux, at the Custer Massacre, and through his courtesy I was granted an interview with Sitting Bull. Through an interpreter this old Sioux warrior talked quite freely with me about his tight with Custer.
He told me that when his warriors were celebrating their great religious festival, the Sun Dance, his runners came in and announced Custer's approach, and being thus warned eleven days in advance, he at once informed himself as to our strength and then prepared to meet us.
He also assured me that Custer's division of his regiment into
battalions exactly suited his plans, for then he retained a sufficient force to overwhelm me and sent forward an equal number to surround Custer. Sitting Bull did not personally engage in the fight, but explained that he remained in the council tent and directed the operations of his leading generals, Black Moon and Crazy Horse.
He then described the details of the terrible battle, which he declared lasted only one hour. He said Custer was taken completely by suprise, when he found himself suddenly surrounded by numbers ten times greater than his own, and that the Indians were enabled to kill our men so quickly, because they were exhausted from the long march of one night and two days, and had been so long in the saddle that they were almost overcome with fatigue, while the horses were also broken down by hard travel and no food.
Their annihilation was effected with comparatively few shots being fired for, explained Sitting Bull, "my powder was scarce
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and my warriors did great and quick work with their war-clubs to save my ammunition."
I then asked Sitting; Bull to tell me what had become of Lieutenants Porter, Sturgis, Harrington, Dr. Lord and the twenty-nine enlisted men, but to this he would make no reply, and his reticence more deeply convinced me that they had been burned at the stake. I then asked him why he had retreated so unexpectedly on June 26th, when he had my command surrounded on the bluffs. To which he replied, that he was "very sorry to withdraw on that occasion, for it had been his intention to continue the fight till he had killed every man in my command, but that his runners announced to him the approach of Generals Terry and Gibbon with their large force and he deemed it prudent to retreat. ' '
We spent some very sad hours that morning of June 28th on Custer's battle-field, and many of my brawny men, who had stood their own peril stoicaly, were moved to tears at sight of the horror that had befallen their comrades. At every step we found signs of a desperate conflict and a fearful carnage. There lay George W. Yates, in a position that proved how dearly he had sold his life. Not far away and nearer Custer, lay all that was mortal of Colonel Myles W. Keogh. He was an officer of the Papal Guards at the beginning of the civil war, when he and six of his brother officers came to this country and entered the volunteer service. No one who knew the generous Keogh could ever forget him, and when he realized that the tide of battle was against him, I can well imagine the calm heroism with which he met his awful death. The Indians had robbed him entirely of his clothing, but about his neck was suspended an Agnus Dei of the Catholic Church, and although the chain that fastened it was of finest gold, it had been left untouched by the savages, which proved the Indian's well known fear of charms, or talis-
As if to commemorate his bravery, Keogh 's horse had escaped death most miraculously, the only living thing that remained of Custer's splendid column; we found the lonely animal wandering over the battlefield with his body perforated with bullets. No babe of a tender mother ever received such care as
364 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MAJOR M. A. RENO 5
did this old war-horse from my brawny men; we sent him to- Fort Lincoln and when he was recovered, he was clothed in black velvet and led before the regiment on every occasion of a dress parade."
Custer's command was completely annihilated, not one of his men escaping, except a Crow scout, — an Indian named Curley. He says he remained with General Custer until he saw that everything was lost; then seeing a Sioux jump off his pony to kill a wounded officer, he sprang on the pony and wrapping himself in the Sioux's blanket he effected his escape. He says that Custer's command was entirely surrounded, but that the men made a brave resistance and only succumbed to overwhelming numbers.
He also stated that during the fight, the soldiers had some trouble with their carbines, for from his hiding-place he could see the men sitting down, under fire, and working with their guns— a story that had confirmation in the fact that I found knives with broken blades, lying near the dead bodies on the battlefield. Curley also tells of one soldier who seeing all was lost, tried to save himself by flight and he had reached a ravine unperceived, when he was suddenly confronted by a dozen young bucks and rather than fall into their hands and be tortured, the soldier placed his revolver to his head and fired. Many Indians, too young to fight, were ordered to stampede the horses and this was effected by the youthful bucks suddenly springing up before the horses and waving their blankets before them. The horses took fright and were driven into the Indian lines and thus they gained not only numbers of fine horses, but also a large amount of ammunition that was packed in the saddles. After the fight, Curley states the squaws, old gray-haired warriors and even children came on the battleground to plunder and mutilate the dead and to crush in their skulls with heavy stone mallets.
After leaving Custer's field I went with my command over my own battle-ground. Here we found the waistband of Sergeant Hughes' trousers very much stained with blood; he had been Custer's flag bearer, and as his was among the missing bodies we concluded that he had been brought here alive and had been given a death of torture. There lay a dead cavalryman with an
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arrow sticking in his back and his skull crushed in. One ghastly find was near the center of the field where three tepee poles were standing upright in the ground in the form of a triangle, and on top of each were inverted camp-kettles, while below them, on the grass, were the heads of three men whom I recognized as belonging to my own command. These heads had been severed from their trunks by some very sharp instrument, as the flesh was smoothly cut, and they were placed within the triangle, facing one another, in a horrible, sightless stare. Their bodies were never found.
The plain was strewn with Indian ponies— some still struggling in their death agony— and horses that were branded "Seventh Cavalry," while frequently we came upon great blackened spaces in the grass which showed us where the fires had been built, in which so many of our men had perished, and around which the Indians had celebrated their horrible scalp-dance on the night of the 25th.
After burying all my men here, we pushed on to the recent site of the Indian village. It was larger even than I had expected and stretched three miles and a half down the valley, bearing evidence that it had contained fully eighteen hundred tepees, and from twenty-five hundred to three thousand lodges. A lodge represents a fighting man — that is, all males from twenty to fifty years of age— but when the Sioux are in active war all the males who are able to bear arms are pressed into the fight. Consequently, at the battle of the Little Big Horn, the Indian strength could not have been less than forty-five hundred, possibly five thousand fighting men. And it was this overwhelming force that was splendidly equipped— even better than our Cavalry was — that General Custer attacked with his little band of less than seven hundred men.
Everywhere throughout the village were signs of the Indians' hasty departure; piles of tepee-poles tied together, ready for trailing; buffalo robes, cooking utensils, cavalry saddles, elk skins, spades, axes, pistols, dishes fashioned from horn and wood and implements of all kinds lay scattered about, and a number of Indian dogs that had been left behind, fled like wolves at our approach.
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Two tepees, made of fine white skins, had been left standing in the village and within them lay the bodies of nine great chiefs who had fallen in the fight. These dead warriors were laid out in state, in full war paint and costume, their robes, head dresses, leggins and moccasins being richly embroidered in the beautiful Indian bead-work. During the funeral services of these braves, their war-horses had been killed and placed in circles around the tents, so that, on their ponies' spirits, the spirits of the dead warriors might ride into the "Happy Hunting-grounds."
After burying our dead, my next move was to go over Custer's trail and study it. Our great mistake from the first was that we underestimated the strength of the Indians, and it was this alone which led to such disastrous results. I am convinced that, had Custer known the great force of the Sioux he would never have divided his command. Just before he ordered me to charge the Indians, a scout came in and announced that the village was near and the Indians were running away.
This seemed true for we could see a great cloud of dust ahead of us with mounted Sioux moving about as if greatly excited. This information must have had weight with Custer and caused him to change his plan of attack ; for instead of following me, as I was informed he would, his trail proved that he intended to support me by moving farther down the stream and attacking the village in flank, that thus our two commands might work toward each other.
But he found the distance to the ford greater than he imagined *and it must have taken him fully three-quarters of an hour to reach it, although his trail proves that he rode rapidly. This gave the Sioux an opportunity to see and understand his maneuver and an hour to prepare for his attack, at the lower end of the village. I am convinced that until General Custer actually made his charge upon the village and rode into an ambuscade of fully two thousand Indians, he was not aware of their great strength.
The point from which he made his charge was cut into deep ravines swarming with hidden foe, who poured upon him a sudden, staggering fire. Could he have gained any position, where defense was possible, he might have saved himself, but that was
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impossible, for he was entirely surrounded; lie could not retreat and even from the very first, I assume he must have known what the result would be.
Recognizing this, I can well believe how he and his gallant men determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible and fall as only brave men can, fighting to the last.
His battlefield told its own tragic tale, revealing unerringly each detail of the awful conflict, showing where the first shot was fired, where the column divided in its retreat, where the combat waged most fiercely and where the last stand was made.
In this encounter with the hostile Sioux the Seventh Cavalry lost over seven hundred of its men and officers, many of whom were of the elite of the army. The number of Indians killed can only be approximated. I saw only eighteen dead Sioux, but Captain Ball, Second Cavalry, who made a scout of thirteen miles over their trail, says that their graves were many, along their line of march on retreat.
It was simply impossible that numbers of them should not be hit in the several charges they made so close to my lines. They made their approach through the deep gulches that led from the hill-top to the river, and were often within a few feet of my lines ; but when the jealous care with which the Indians guard their dead and wounded is considered, it is not astonishing that their bodies were not found. It is probable that the number of stores left by the Sioux in their deserted village on the Little Big Horn, was to make room for their dead and wounded on their travois.
After much reflection I have concluded that several great blunders were the direct causes of the Custer Massacre. It is an established fact that Custer disobeyed the orders of the general in command of the expedition; for instead of waiting to meet General Gibbon and General Terry on June 26, at the Rosebud and then co-operate with them, in their concerted plan of action, as he had been directed, as soon as he struck the trail of the Indians, he followed it till he came upon the Indian village, on June 25.
Then without attempting to communicate with either Terry or Gibbon and without taking the trouble to ascertain the
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strength or position of the Indians, he divided his regiment into three separate battalions— an act which nothing can justify— and dashed against the Indians, thus recklessly driving his own and my commands into an ambuscade of five thousand Sioux.
Nor did Custer take into consideration the unfed and exhausted condition of his men and horses, and he entirely ignored the fact that the Indians were on the qui vive and ready for attack, at noon, whereas it would have been an easy matter to surprise them very early in the morning.
The only explanation for such conduct on the part of so brilliant an officer as Custer undoubtedly was, otherwise, was his great personal ambition.
He had thought himself partially disgraced because he had been superseded in command of the expedition, by General Terry, and it was well known that he was resolved, if possible, to carry off all the honors of the campaign. For, being in command of the only cavalry regiment attached to the expedition, he knew the brunt of the fighting would necessarily fall on him, and he made no secret of his intention to cut loose from Terry, where there was fighting to do and to carry on the campaign on his own hook.
Absolutely insensible to fear, he was also reckless and daring in the extreme, and driven by an intense desire to distinguish himself by some brilliant exploit he made his headlong dash to a horrible death, without the most casual regard for the maxims of military prudence.
Even now, after the lapse of nearly ten years, the horror of Custer's battlefield is still vividly before me. and the harrowing sight of those mutilated and decomposing bodies crowning the heights on which poor Custer fell will linger in my memory till death.