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Post by herosrest on Jun 28, 2012 7:51:38 GMT -6
Where was the Crow Agency located in 1876? Considerable evidence from those at Greasy Grass on 25th June 1876, indicates the camp relocated down the river after Custer's fight. Marquis learnt this from Cheyenne's he interviewed and included details to the map of the battle in 'Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Custer'. Simple deduction gives that the map of the village obtained by Lt. P.W. Clark, indictes where tepees stood at the time that Custer attacked east of the river. When John Two Moon stated, 'After the soldiers turned upon the little ridge the gray horse company stopped where monument is. The others went on, stopping at intervals until there were four lines, the last opposite to the camp'[/size]; this information must relate to - and be related to, the village as it stood when Custer attacked it. The account is a nightmare to understand or interpret, but it relates the events Young Two Moon saw and participated in. When he first saw the soldiers they were just coming down the steep hill east of battlefield. They were on a lope and Indians were then behind them but they paid no attention to them, and this relates to the John Stands in Timber and Peter Powell accounts of the early fighting east of the river.( See note 1) The Cheyennes camped across from the mouth of Medicine Tail Creek and Deep Coulee; that is what Lt. Clark's map shows and is how it must be understood. In 1877 Charles King visited the battlefield with warriors who fought Custer and four companies of the 5th Cavalry who escorted Sheridan and Crook. King learnt of the battle and published his information and a map. On July 25th General Sherman was escorted by a troop of the 7th Cavalry, sent up from Tongue River Barracks, to view the Custer battleground while travelling from Fort Custer to Fort Ellis. ('Reports of inspection made in the summer of 1877' Col. O.M. Poe, U.S. Engineers, ADC. accompanying Gen W.T. Sherman from Missisippi River to the Pacific, July to October, 1877). (See note 2) The account here - files.usgwarchives.net/ok/cherokee/newspapers/advocate/5sep1877.txt - describes the battleground as found in 1877 as 'scouts and guides conducted Sherman, Sheridan, Crook and others to the massacre ground to the various points of interest'. 'At last we entered the old village, in attacking which Custer and his men fell. This temporary Indian camp was about four miles long, a half mile wide and located by the river side, upon a depressed tableland, considerably lower than the valley proper. Its borders are fringed with a thin growth of timber, which at one time extended all over the bottom, but the felling of trees by Indians to secure bark food for their ponies, left the central portion of the strip almost barren. At the southern side, we passed through a dense copse covering three or four acres, where, the squaws and papooses were concealed when Custer approached and until the cavalry were securely entrapped in the canon of death. Beyond this, the ground presented a curious spectacle, tepee and medicine poles were a thick as they could stand, while camp equipage of every kind was scattered all around. One noticeable feature consisted of the great quantity of leggings lying about and is explainable only by the presumption (amounting to almost positive knowledge) that Indians discarded them for clothing taken from the soldiery. Further own we saw six burial scaffolds and beneath them (where they had fallen), the bones of as many Indians—the skull of one punctured by and containing a bullet. It was nearly dark when we reached the lower ford, about half way through the village; we encamped for the night, wet, cold, hungry and greatly fatigued. A hasty supper was speedily devoured, our soaking blankets were spread out upon the ground and all hands turned in for a good night’s sleep;' Here is the problem confronting all serious study of Little Big Horn, its first hurdle, and that upon which all stumble. The village was not four miles long and the lower ford, about half way through the village, was in fact the lower ford at the end of the village. That ford was not opposite Deep Ravine. It was near the mouth of Deep Coulee. Study of the Cherokee Advocate account, clearly tells this. Crossing Little Big Horn, or Custer River, to the east side, a well defined trail leads up a gradual slope a quarter of a mile in length. The ground is covered with sage brush, prickly pears, and sparse, coarse grass and destitute of the rocks an timber that the uninformed fancy here and there upon the historic field. The sun shone with full power as we slowly made the ascent, and the morning air, impure by association, seemed stagnant and dead. We read the summit and grazing around for some rocky cannon as our fancy had pictured some narrow pass accessible only at it extremities and commanded by frowning cliffs overhanging either side, we saw instead a ravine with gently shopping sides, of slight depression, not a half mile in length and free from timber, rocks, or anything furnishing an ambuscade.
At our feet were the uncovered remains of eighteen men, in six piles, with a piece of tepee pole, denoting that once the farce of a burial had been performed. Upon one of these ‘tombstones’ hung a white sombrero, relic of a member of the seventh, with two bullet holes through it, a clean cut as if made by an axe, and clotted blood. Near by were the carcasses of two horses; to the north, distant a few feet, were heaps of bones so mixed that it was impossible to count the number of persons represented. A little further on and another ‘grave,” containing the bones of three man, appears behind the skeleton of a horse evidently shot to be used as a breastwork.The route travelled by Cherokee Advocate to Custer's battleground had nothing to do with Deep Ravine or anywhere downriver from it. A well defined trail led up a gradual slope a quarter of a mile in length and in a ravine with gently shopping sides, of slight depression, not a half mile in length and free from timber, rocks, or anything furnishing an ambuscade, lay remains of 18 men in six piles. The route followed went from the mouth of Deep Coulee, the trail referred to is that shown on Lt. P.W. Clark's map, and shown in the foreground of the pre blacktop image below. Below that can be seen a heavy wagon trail across the terrain but that did not exist in 1877, when as far as is known, the only wagons to cross that terrain since the Ice Age, were those which accompanied Col. M.V. Sheridan and Capt. Nolan of Company I, 7th Cavalry. There is not to my knowledge, any reference material from 1876 which remarks or details a trail on that terrain, other than the Lt. W.P. Clark's map. The early evidence tells us a different story to that given today, for example the remains of eighteen men laying in six piles in a ravine. These were not found at Calhoun Hill where J.J. Crittenden's marker stood, or where Keogh's marker stood, or several scattering graves reaching the head of the canon and high ground with cross-shaped monument to Crittenden. Nor were they at the knoll where Custer and the remnant of his command made their last stand; or upon the slope toward the river where twenty-eight heaps of bones and the skeletons of fourteen horses were counted. The account of terrain and graves was dated at July 25, 1877. A further detailed account was given by W.A. Allen in 'Twenty years in the Rocky Mountains', 1903 and dated to August 18th, 1877. Allen indicated that both Bob and Bill Jackson were reporting to Custer during June 1876. Bob Jackson later stating that he was not present until after the battle. Allen understood the battle thus, [size=1 'Custer had led his brave followers to the crossing of the Little Horn and where the first volley of leaden hail had swept into and across that doomed company from a threefold ambuscade. This had poured from the banks of the Little Horn on the south, where the main camp of the Sioux was located, down the river to where the Cheyennes filed along Dry Creek, crossed the hilltop that Custer had just descended, joining the right wing of the Sioux, which had but a little time before emerged from an adjoining coulee, thus forming one continuous dead line which so encircled the gallant soldiers that not a man escaped. We paused and counted the remains of seventy-six who fell to win Montana from the savage.
Continuing, we came to the place where the survivors of the first attack had endeavored to regain the hill and escape by the route through which they had entered this death valley. Here lay the bodies of fifty or sixty men and horses. In their vain attempt to escape by the way they had entered, the remnant of that brave command found themselves confronted by thousands of Cheyennes and Sioux, who had closed in on the hill and effectually cut off their retreat, leaving no alternative but return to the knoll where now stands Custer's monument, and there concentrate their remaining forces to make one desperate effort for life and liberty. Thousands of warriors pouring in a deadly fire from all sides soon so thinned their ranks that only Custer and a pitifully small number survived. We then came to the center of death where forty men and their horses succumbed .'[/size][/color][/i] Allen published in 1903, with the benefit of hindsight and knowledge stemmed from the 1886 revelations by Gall, but his information concerning detail of the battleground as discovered in 1877, remains valuable evidence, paricularly various monuments which predated the stone obelisk and cordwood pyramid/s.[ i] [size=1'No bullets or shells of the enemy were found near that last stand, showing conclusively that the battle and the last stand were fought to a finish at some distance, as Rain-in-the-Face told me afterward. '[/size][/color][/i] Charles King understood events with military insight, as did Nelson A. Miles the year following and Edward S. Godfrey from 1886 - yet their orientations of maneuver across the terrain vary dramatically, and no one of them or any other officer familiar with the terrain in 1876 and 1877, (other than Capt. Henry B. Freeman) relate fighting to what is today Nye Cartwright or Blummer's ridge; or to Luce Ridge. This is quite remarkable and rather odd. Marquis developed an aspect of the battle which has become its standard fayre and has to be developed into any credible scenario of what took place. This is remarkable since Marquis was basically offering Godfrey's thoroughly flawed ideas of the battle, purportedly supported by Cheyenes and yet entirely at odds with the route of Custer's march given by Two Moon's maps and accounts of the battle! The battle understood today is entirely at odds with the evidence of Capt. Henry B. Freeman, admittedly not a member of 7th Cavalry, who corroborated the account of the march to Medicine Tail creek and beyond given by Curley. Note 1 - P. Powell - Sweet Medicine. The Cheyennes raced back up the Creek until they could follow the divide. As they rode along the divide they saw the last of Custer's troopers preparing to ride into camp. The soldiers were just going down toward the river and were almost out of sight. The Cheyennes split into two goups and rode north and south of the divide, until they nearly reached the bottom. Some warriors chased the soldiers, others circled to cut them off. The soldiers opened fire and the lndians moved back behind the troops, allowing them on down toward the river. They followed into the dry gulch above the head of Medicine Tail , close to the present battle monument. Cheyennes and Sioux were thus behind the cavalry, cutting off retreat to the north.
Custer followed the ridge down to a level place, near the present cemetary site. Yellow Nose and Low Dog, were first to cross the river and rode back in front of the soldiers, firing at them. This slowed down Custer's advance. More warriors joined them and the soldiers began pulling back, moving on down toward the river across from the Cheyenne camp.
Cheyenne had moved out from the village, concealed in brush along the river bottom, they fired out at the cavalrymen. The soldiers turned north, riding back in the direction from which they had first come until they reached the place where the cemetary is located today. Here they made a long pause.
Warriors had moved in behind the ridge above the soldiers and were firing down at Custer's men. Then Custer retreated, riding towards a dry gulch and following it up to the centre of the basin, below where the monument now stands. This gave the lndians time to cover the ridge, so that the soldiers could not retreat in that direction.
Custer moved toward the lower bank of the basin, then his men dismounted. The soldiers of the gray horse Company got off their mounts and began to move up on foot. Some soldiers lay down on the ground, firing from that position. Others advanced for a distance, running, covered by the rifles of the men already hugging the earth. Some of the troopers fired from behind their dead horses. By this time the lndian fire was heavy from both sides. [/color][/size] This text, that of John Stands in Timber, and also G.B. Grinnell, has developed into the battle's modern story. Yellow Nose left record of his battle, and how......: Yellow Nose, crossed the Little Big Horn where a small stream or gulch debouched from the east. Climbing to a promontory formed by this gulch, the Indians saw troops advancing toward them along the crest of the divide that ran back from the Little Big Horn. Yellow Nose was mounted on a fleet, wiry pony in advance of his companions, whom the soldiers evidently thought were few in numbers, as the crossing was difficult at this point. The mistake of the soldiers became quickly apparent when Indians were seen literally springing from the ground. The galloping cavalrymen pulled down to a trot. The Cheyennes were not so well armed as the Sioux, who carried quantities of ammunition fastened around their waists, chests and arms. The soldiers fired first from their horses, dismounting only after they saw that the Indians were not intimidated. The regimental band began playing to the astonishment of the Indians, but the musicians threw away their instruments for guns. The soldiers changed from a stand to a retreat as they were crowded upon by increasing and overwhelming numbers. Yellow Nose said that they made three stands. It was the purpose of the Indians to get in the rear of the troops and gain the east slope of the ridge. This the soldiers bravely resisted, and in their fury to dislodge the troops the Indians precipitately exposed themselves to a galling fire in the open. It was not until the close of the fight that the soldiers were driven to the west slope of the ridge. At first the soldiers knelt and took deliberate aim, each fourth man holding the horses. "Some stood up and shot like this," said Yellow Nose, leaning far forward and clutching an imaginary gun. As the confusion, perhaps despair, increased after the retreat from the first stand, each soldier took possession of his own horse, possibly to be better able to escape if the battle went against them. (Indian Views R.G. Hardorff, p 97 - 106); Cheyenne oral history of the battle came to underly the accepted modern wisdom is a mystery. (See note 3) Note 2 - www.archive.org/stream/kaleidoscopicliv00taylrich#page/139/mode/2up from a relatively little known frontier author, who seems to have been........ all over the frontier. Tongue River Barracks. July 18, 1877. 10:00 - Officers of the garrison pay their official respects to Gen. Terry aboard the new river steamboat Rosebud. 18:00 - 5th Infantry held Dress Parade and review on the plain near the post. While companies stood on parade to pass in review before Gen. Sherman, 30 enlisted men were called by name from the ranks, marched to the front and center accompanied by colors and upon the breast of each Gen. Sherman pinned a Medal of Honor, awarded for gallantry during the preceding winter. 22:00 - Gen. Sherman and Terry bade farewell to Tongue River barracks. Capt. Marsh took the steamer Rosebud to Little Big Horn, where thirteen months earlier he lay waiting for Reno's wounded. Note 3 - Charles King's idea of 7th Cavalry's maneuver about Custer's battleground is tactically sound (practical) and born out by the warrior accounts. The obvious problem is retreat on a broad front across Deep Coulee onto the ridge of hills that run south to north from the mouth of the coulee towrds Calhoun Hill. Despite unfortunate conclusions arrived at by E.S. Godfrey, Gall told him where the gray hores company fought before retreating and that was not Last Stand Hill. John Two Moon - (G.B. Grinnell; 1908: Indian Views, J.A. Greene,p 46-48) - Meantime, the Indians were getting further to the north trying to surround soldiers. At the fourth charge, on Yellow Nose's orders, all Indians mounted and Yellow Nose made a charge and all Indians followed. They crowded the company furthest north and they started to run down the ridge. As they got down part way toward the gray horse company the latter began to fire and drove Indians off and the soldiers reached the gray horse company. Some were killed, however, when they reached the gray horse company. The latter shot at Indains so fast that they drove Indians back out of sight over hill toward the agency.
The same Indians called out very loud, "All dismount,"and they did so. It was done quickly. When Indians dismounted they shot at soldiers who retreated for the top of the hill. Then all Indians mounted and charged. Then the gray horse company turned their horses loose, and some of the horses rushed through the Indians and toward the river. When Indians charged to top of hill they saw the other two companies way down near to the river.'Reference by John Two Moon to the Agency, is of course to the location of the later Crow Agency. Which Nelson A. Miles visited during its first year in 1878, for the battle's second anniversary. From the log of the river steam boat 'F. Y. Batchelor'. June 26, 1878. The first buffalo was seen this morning. During the day a great many were seen, and many shots fired at them, but we failed to find any choice buffalo steaks served up for our meals. Didn't stop to pick them up. At 6pm. we arrived at the old Custer battleground (now Fort Pease) of 1873. At 8pm we entered the Big Horn River and laid up for the night five miles above the mouth, having made the run from Tongue River in two daylights, being pronounced the quickest time ever made.
June 27, 1878. All hands were called up this morning to see the snow-capped Big Horn Mountains. To see the sun glistening on the snow, while we were sweltering with heat, was truly a sight to be witnessed. The distance to the mountains was estimated at seventy-five miles, but seen very distinctly with the naked eye. The Big Horn River is one of the most rapid and tortuous rivers that has ever been navigated by a steamboat. The current is terrific and at places it seems impossible for any boat, to stem it. Have had no occasion to use a line on account of the current.
June 28, 1878. Arrived at Fort Custer at 7am, being the first and only boat that has arrived there this summer. Fort Custer is situated at the junction of the Little Big Horn and Big Horn rivers. The fort stands at an elevation of 175ft. above the river, and at an altitude of 7,000ft. above the ocean. Part of the 2nd Infantry and part of the 11th Cavalry, under command of General Buell, are stationed here. While lying here, something more than one hundred lodges of Crow Indians were busily engaged crossing the river with all their plunder and ponies, on their way to their new reservation on the Big Horn. It was a sight well worth seeing. We had many a 'how' and shake during our stay. These Indians are a very honest tribe, won't steal unless they get a chance.
Captain Baldwin, Adjutant General of General Miles' staff, sent an ambulance to the boat and took Captains C. W. Batchelor, Warner and Sharpe out to the Custer battlefield, where General Miles had gone that morning, with a company of infantry as escort, to make an examination of the battlefield. General Miles ordered hones and escorted the visitors around the entire field, a distance of not less than fifteen miles, pointing out and showing them all prominent places known in that terrible struggle against such odds in which more than three hundred brave men lost their lives.
The party crossed the little Big Horn at the same ford where General Reno crossed in his retreat. 'Curley,' the Crow scout, the only known living being saved from the Custer massacre, was interviewed through an interpreter on the boat, by General Miles. More details and correct information was obtained from him than had ever been given. 'Curley' had never recovered from the fright of that memorable day.
General Miles was accompanied over the battlefield by White Horse and little Creek, two Cheyenne Indians who were in the fight against Custer. The Indian village, where Custer made the attack, was five miles in length along the Little Big Horn, and said to number from five to seven thousand warriors. The plain where the Indians were encamped was a beautiful, wide prairie, covered with good grass. The Little Big Horn, where Reno crossed on his retreat, today contained water deep enough to come to the middle of the saddle flaps of the horses. General Miles and his party went down on the boat as far as Fort Keogh, where they disembarked while the Batchelor proceeded to Bismarck.[/size]
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Post by "Hunk" Papa on Jun 28, 2012 15:47:34 GMT -6
1) Where was the Crow Agency located in 1876? Look it up [/size]; this information must relate to - and be related to, the village as it stood when Custer attacked it. The account is a nightmare to understand or interpret, but it relates the events Young Two Moon saw and participated in. When he first saw the soldiers they were just coming down the steep hill east of battlefield. They were on a lope and Indians were then behind them but they paid no attention to them, and this relates to the John Stands in Timber and Peter Powell accounts of the early fighting east of the river.( See note 1) 3) The Cheyennes camped across from the mouth of Medicine Tail Creek and Deep Coulee; that is what Lt. Clark's map shows and is how it must be understood. In 1877 Charles King visited the battlefield with warriors who fought Custer and four companies of the 5th Cavalry who escorted Sheridan and Crook. King learnt of the battle and published his information and a map.[/quote] A ponderous summary and incorrect. You only have to read 'Wooden Leg' to know that the Cheyenne camp was almost a mile north of MTC. Furthermore, any close examination of Clark's map disproves what you say. As to the King nonsense, you have tried it before, you have cited the website article as his before and you have been shown to be wrong before. King was never at the LBH in 1877. Once again you are wrong. Sherman was never at the LBH in 1877. Sheridan was and Crook was and in 1878 Sheridan and Forsyth provided a Report of that visit which does not mention Sherman. If he was there it was quite an oversight on the part of those two officers to forget that the General of the Army was with them. 0/10 I'm afraid. Regards. Hunk
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Post by herosrest on Jun 29, 2012 5:43:23 GMT -6
Hi, in regards the Cheyenne camp and Woodenleg, when that camp was downstream a mile further is the point, that was after the Custer fight. Ponderous is so, so........ the topic is vast. Sherman was on the Steamer Rosebud, Big Horn River, July 25, 1877. see note 2 Concerning McDougall's testimony. A problem with transcripts is omission. There were visual aids, ie maps being referenced and pointed to, specific to relevant questions; and questions that seem to be related, are not. It is exactly a Perry Mason thing. Make that point, get the answer and move to the next matter. From text only, it is difficult to grasp that aspect of the Inquiry. The King thing - ( (neutral fun ) Many people have neither time, inclinations or grit for the type of non linear bifucated tedium that the history of events upon Custer's battle ground is today. We like it simple, we like it straight, hold the porridge just give croissant and jam. As in all matters human, a significant majority enjoy what they read in history books and move on with life; it lets the world go round and keeps the chipmonks happy. One hundred years after the vexing problem of taxation was resolved by inimitable declatarations and the sticking of feathers above furrowed brows, that very same practice wrought havoc upon companies of the 7th US Cavalry at Little Big Horn. Those holding enduring interest in the battle and particularly those invested in the topsy turvy recriminations that are its legacy are a very interesting bunch. Not in personal respects, but in the developments of what is, intrigue that has gone on since 1876, at which time the barrels of pork and lard which oversee life, liberty and the pursuit of lndians, were doing what such people do to their nests with.............. feathers. That is and was, how life should be. That is the way of things in civilised nations and Orange County. Overview - Immediately after Little Big Horn and through to today, there is disagreement as to how the five companies following George Custer maneuvered in battle. This is extremely unusual, particularly in respect military minds and experienced ones at that. Officers who viewed the battleground came to various conclusions and various theories were inconclusively developed. That continues today with the assistance of science - god help us all ;0 The nature of the disagreements has altered over time and King's article offered a counterpoint in 1890, to the work by Godfrey that culminated in his 'Custer's Last Battle' of 1892. Reno and Benteen had different ideas of what took place, as did Varnum and Godfrey, it was questioned early as to how many companies attacked ford B, today the route taken involves Cedar Coulee for which there is not one shred of evidence and in fact it is entirely likely that companies with Benteen and Reno used that route. Benteen altered his opinion of route shortly before the 1879 inquiry, and that opinion concerning the battle is unreliable and I hope that you will concede that point. He was recalled to the court for a total of four times after his initial testimony. Benteen followed Custer's route on 27th June 1876, that is according to one of the scouts who rode with him, then and others who seem to have altered opinion in 1879 when Benteen told them to. The early first hand battle data offered differing routes of march from Ford B towards the last stand, today that split or divergence has been developed into the advance from the Lone Tepee where Reno's command turned west a little less than a mile from the river. There is no early evidence for the Cedar Coulee route being used by Custer's command, there simply is no evidence for it. Herendeen visited the battleground in 1877 looking for officers remains and swept the countryside far and wide - noting then that Custer's trail was washed out! (W.A. Graham, 1933) Other than stating that Reno was un-nerved by the death of Bloody Knife, Herendeen did very much with published letters to counter the arguments made by Whittaker against Benteen and Reno because he understood the timing issues that were used, based upon his early account of the battle and this is very much ignored. King was no better or worse than Godfrey and arrived at very different conclusions to his fellow Brig. Gen after both had witnessed the battleground. That is your point, King was not there, or not there in June 1877, 12 months after the battle. Why would King lie or give false inpression, the ride to LBH from Tongue river was two days or so and there actually is very little history or record of the first anniversary. I don't reckon it is neccesary to look beyond 7th Cavalry for issues with ego, common sense is more the problem, and big problem there was in 1876 - the governing administration were caught being naughty. It wasn't that they were being naughty, it is that they were found out publicly by those they deemed to be their enemies. Custer slung Grant's young officer son in the guardhouse for being stupid. Powerful people, leaders of a nation, were seen for what they were or had become and caring not one jot. The quagmires of deceits which surrounded and engulfed Grants presidency were very much more than a tale of simple wrongdoing and its obvious consequence. It can be argued, but isn't, that Frederik Whittaker set Marcus A. Reno up by provoking the Court of Inquiry at a time of political turmoil. That point can be made. Immediately after establishing Fort Pease, Major Pease went east and arranged to ship out a smelter. The lodes of Cooke City were discovered in 1869 by four prospector/trappers near the head of the Clark Fork of the Yellowstone and/or on upper Soda Butte Creek. Prospecting was cut short when Indians ran off horses. A return was organized in 1874 and several mines discovered and staked. The following summer, placer claims were located on Republic and Miller Mountains and a "Mexican" furnace constructed to smelt lead ore from the Miller Mountain lodes. When reports of the the deposits of the area were published in a Bozeman newspaper, miners and prospectors rushed to the district (Wolle 1963). A smelter, built in 1876 by Eastern Montana Mining and Smelting Company successfully reduced eighty tons of silver-lead ore to thirty tons of bullion early in 1877. According to local legend, when Joseph, leader of the Nez Perce Indians passed through Cooke City in attempt to reach Canada and freedom, his people burned the gold mills and took with them the silver bullion ready to be packed out of the area. There's nothing quite like a good legend. Capt James P. Kimball was detached from Fort Brady, Michigan, to join Terry as Custer's senior medical officer and delayed by blizzard which preventing him joining 7th Cavalry. In November 1877, James P. Kimball wrote to U.S. Senator William A. Wallace requesting Senatorial documents on silver currency and congratulating Wallace on his recent election. Kimball, was Director of the United States Mint, July 1885 - October 1889. The first battlefield map published front page in the New York Tribune on July 14, 1876, with two routes of march to the last stand, 'Scene of the Little Big Horn Massacre', showing body positions of the troops on the terrain; beside the a Washington headline article about policy for silver coin. A government telegraph wire was built through from Fort Ellis near Bozeman to Fort Keogh with a line also to Fort Custer. There was one wire which was placed on cottonwood poles. The line was built in the winter of 1879, with Captain Kinenbury in command of the soldiers who did the work. Kinenbury later perished in the fatal Greeley expedition to the north pole. The first stage station at Junction City was kept by"Muggins" Taylor who had been at Fort Pease and afterward was a scout with Gibbons, taking the message of Custer's disaster to Bozeman and Helena. Taylor came to Coulson where he was killed while acting as deputy sheriff and is burried in Boothill cemetery. A stream through Pease bottom is known as Muggins creek. After the abandonment of Fort Pease some trappers and hunters stayed on. The first permanent settler in Pease Bottom was John C. Guy of Bozeman an early sheriff of Gallatin county, who took up a ranch of 160 acres in the fall of 1876 or early 1877. About the same time a trapper for Durfee and Peck, Missouri river fur traders, had a cabin nearby. J.C. Guy established a steamboat landing and woodyard on the river near his ranch. He also had a general mercantile store, a stage station, saloon and postoffice called Eschetah, the Crow word for horse. As late as 1882, the steamboat F. I. Bachellor took on wood there. Junction City stole the postoffice bodily from 'Eschetah'. The enterprising citizens of Junciton City secured Joe Allen as postmaster, but he did not have the supplies and furniture for a postoffice. With the aid of T. Wiley King, a stage driver, the Eschetah postoffice was loaded on to a stage while Guy was away and it was taken into Junction. When Guy discovered the loss of his postoffice, he went to Junction city and laid out the consequences of the theft of a United States post office. There was a deputy marshal across the river at Custer station and the matter would be reported. 'Impressed' with Guy's version of their offense, the post office was loaded up again and returned to him. You could not dream this stuff up, in a year of wednesdays. There was a way stop for the Rock Creek Stage Line opposite the battlefield and relic hunting became a serious matter of concern to Lt. William Rawolle, adjudant at Fort Custer and also to Gen. Sheridan. William A. Allen (Twenty Years in the Rockies) briefly drove coaches over that route when it started up. By the time the campaigns drew to a halt in January of 1877, plans were under way for a series of military posts to provide bases from which the troops could prevent the Indians reoccupying old hunting grounds. One was located on the west bank of Powder River, opposite the mouth of Dry Fork, and called at first, Cantonment Reno. Soon renamed ''Fort McKinney'' in honor of Lt. J. A. McKinney (killed in the battle with the Cheyenne on Red Fork of Powder River, November 25, 1876), this post was occupied through the spring of 1878. After considerable study, it was abandoned because of poor water, wood and forage supplies nearby, and the name transferred along with the troops to a new site on a broad terrace above Clear Fork of Powder River where that stream exits form the Big Horn Mountains. The new site was occupied and construction activities under way in July of 1878. The post at peak of development consisted of barracks for seven companies of troops, at least 14 structures for officer quarters, stables, warehouses, laundress quarters, a hospital, bakery, offices, and auxiliary structures. Troops from Fort McKinney and neighboring posts were responsible for keeping the lately-hostile Sioux and Cheyenne from reverting to their old way of life in a vast region. They were supposed to keep the friendly Crows and Shoshoni from resuming their intermittent warfare with tribal enemies, and to prevent the Arapahoe from becoming embroiled with settlers and other tribes while officials pondered their disposition. They did this work well. They guarded communication lines that included the ''Rock Creek Stage Line'' which provided mail, passenger and express service from Rock Creek on the UPRR to Terry's Landing on the Yellowstone. They built and maintained the first telegraph line into the Powder River country. The 'Custer's Last Battle' article published Aug 1890, attributed to Capt. Charles King USA. King had progressed his seniority by then. In the article he states, plainly, 'we'. That may be the royal we, but the man was a King! From almost the outset of public reporting of the battle, Reno, Benteen to lesser degree, were scape-goated by many in the press. The press was and ever will be political and there was a huge political/military scandal underway which threatened Grant and his parties chances of re-election. That was the background against which Whittaker reeled out his bombshell timing analysis of the battle's events, using information published by Reno and Benteen in their spat with Rosser and others who felt Custer and two hundred eleven men with him, were let down. The defeat was difficult for mamy to accept or understand and should have been blamed on its cause, problems with the weapons issued to the army. That did not take place, possibly it was fely by some, that Custer's loss was the lesser of two evils they might face. 'Capt'. King authored 'Custer's Last Battle', obviously at the time pen was put to paper he was a....... Captain. What was difficult to obtain is his map of the battle. The point of which is the five companies deployed in line of battle, which at five yards between each trooper, extended for between 800-1000 yards along a half mile front. That is a military man thinking like a .............. military man. The US Army does not fight in column, although Reno managed that act of genius. There is much sense to King's take on the Custer fight, and it is that offered by Whittaker and at least one of Terry's staff officers.The 'Where Custer Met Death' article by Cherokee Advocate, was used by Trumpeter Mulford in 'Fighting Indians', dated to March 25, 1878 by his foreward. The book is a very good read and mentions John Martin, offers Custer's reports of 1873, gives a flavour of feeling then towards a departed hero, life in the ranks, and much besides. It is a very good book. Perhaps there are those who do not accept the article, but there is no serious or logical reason no to so do. There is no reason to pooh pooh the information offered by Cherokee Advocate, Mulford may or may not have penned it. Company M was Capt. French, we know from the article that Reno was there, Sherman and Sheridan aslo (see Note 2). The text gives Tongue River as 'then' present Cantonment of Fifth Cavalry and refers to the authors journey as 'after two long days ride from the hand of the Little Horn in the mountains' and arrived at the camping ground on July 24th, 1877. King put a battalion of the Fifth Cavalry passing the battleground with a number of Sioux scouts who but a twelvemonth previous were fighting there the Seventh Cavalry. So it was late June, '77 or so, first anniversary and Chief Joseph was on his way a few days. There was a huge stink in Washington. There was a huge stink over senior officers of 7th Cavalry. The fun and games started very early on, and was played out in the press. An article by the scout William Cross, dated to July 4th 1876, was countered within a week by an anonymous article by a sergeant of the 6th Infantry accusing Cross as a traitor responsible for the massacre by leading Custer astray. Owen Hale publicly planted the seed that Reno might have attacked early. It was a very public mess from the start and the mud slinging started at the start of it all, even before the disobeying orders thing got started and that continues today in ridiculous fashion. Sitting Bull was expected to scatterate, and it had happened before and was happening again, only it wasn't. The Cavalry's guns didn't work and Sitting Bull repeated strategy employed succesfully during Red Cloud's war. Reno fluffed it, Benteen stopped for a drink, and Custer got himself killed - let's not mention Curley.... or Goldin, or ....... Kanipe,..... or Stabbed, .......... It is worth contemplating Muggins Taylor who carried Gibbon's despatches from the battlefield, dated 28th June, for Maj. Benham at Fort Ellis. Gibbon's letter surfaced in 1902. RECENT NEWSPAPER ITEMS CONCERNING CUSTER'S LAST BATTLE. Discovery of First Message Announcing Custer Battle. OF GREAT HISTORIC VALUE. __________________________________________________________________ Was written by General John Gibbon in Reno's Camp on the Little Big Horn, and Sent to Major Benham. (From the Billings Times, July 22, 1902.) * An account of the discovery of an important document bearing on the so called 'Custer Massacre' comes from Tiffin, Ohio. It is a document, the authenticity of which is declared to be beyond question, that was found by Col. D.W. Benham, U.S.A., (retired) among his effects a few days ago. It is of great historic value, as it is the first message from the battlefield to the outside world conveying the news of the massacre of General Custer and his command at Little Big Horn, Montana, June 25, 1876. The message was penciled on sheets torn from a note book by General John Gibbon, who relieved Major Reno, and was written in the trenches in Reno's position on a hill immediately after Gibbon's arrival and repulse of the besieging Indians. A courier escaped with a message to General Benham, who was in command at Fort Ellis, and the latter gave the news of Custer's fate to the nearest telegraph office. The message has never been published before, because, as alleged at the time it was written, Reno was accused of deserting Custer in the hour of need. The story that Gibbon gives is probably inspired by Reno, but the interior of the letter throws a hitherto unknown light on the event. Taylor's news of the battle was published thus: 'July 6, 1876: Advices just received from the Diamond R outfit with Gibbon report a terrible battle with the Indians on the Little Big Horn river. Custer attacked a camp of 4,000 Sioux and after a desperate battle defeated them. Three hundred soldiers and fifteen officers were killed and Custer himself, as reported in another dispatch, is slain. The battleground is literally covered with slain. The Indians retreated. Gibbon was thirty-six hours too late for the battle.* * Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, Vol. IV 1903. Cherokee Advocate's data pre-dates Mulford's book, and there is no reason to doubt its authenticity. There were straight-forward reasons to anonymous it. That article will have struck home, and contributed in part to efforts to clean up the battlefield and inaugerate a monument to those who died and the to the future. The author didn't dream it up, perhaps he was a photographer's assistant. (Also - Note 1) The closing paragraph's state, ' I understand that Sherman has just passed over the field, but as my courier is in waiting to take this to Reno, I must hasten to finish. A twelve company post is being erected at the mouth of this stream. Several hundred men are now employed and more are taken on daily. The post will be commanded by Major Buell and will be known as Fort Custer./ Reno was there, 7th Cavalry were with him. Nolan had been shortly before with Company I. This was 25th July 1877. W.P. Norris sketched the valley previously on July 5th. A wagon train arrived in the valley and camped three days from 18th August, the stage route was running though the valley by then. From 1877, Tom McGirl, an Irish native veteran of 5th Missouri Mounted Infantry operated a ferry, naming the place Huntley, 15 miles east of Billings at the head of navigation on the Yellowstone River long before Billings was created. It became a post office site in 1878. Originally the Huntley area was known as Baker’s Battlefield. At one time there were seven steamboats docked loading furs and other supplies. Hunter could get credit on furs for wagons, teams, ammunition and guns. In addition to the Coulson Packet line, ten other steamboats that served the area. Huntley Station was a stage stop. Terry’s Landing was a small village on the Yellowstone at the Big Horn River Junction. Some consider that it was renamed Junction City, but was actually located on the south side of the Yellowstone Rive, across from Junction. It was a military supply depot.
(Note 2) From 'ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE YELLOWSTONE VALLEY' - HISTORY OF YELLOWSTONE COUNTY.
The establishing of the trading post at Terry's Landing was brought about by the establishment of the Cantonment Terry, a depot of supplies, just across the river, by the army then operating in this field. We can tell of the establishment of the supply depot no better than by quoting extracts from two letters written by General William T. Sherman to Secretary of War McCrary in July and August, 1877. He wrote:
On the Steamer Rosebud, Big Horn River, July 25, 1877.
The location of this post (at the mouth of the Little Big Horn) is in the very heart of the Sioux country. With this one and the one at the mouth of the Tongue river, occupied by strong, enterprising garrisons, these Sioux can never regain this country, and they will he forced to remain at their agencies or take refuge in the British possessions. At present there are no Indians here or hereabouts. I have neither seen nor heard of any. General Sheridan saw none nor any trace of any, so that the principle end aimed at by the construction of these posts is already reached, and it is to this end that we should persist in their completion. The one at Tongue river can be supplied by steamboats. This one at the mouth of the Little Big Horn, cannot depend on this river, the current being too strong to be navigated by ordinary boats with a fair cargo. General Terry and his quartermaster, General Card, are at this moment reconnoitering to select some point near the mouth of the Big Horn whereat to establish a supply depot, at which all freight destined for this port can be landed and hauled up there.
We have on board a company of infantry to guard this depot and we are nearly agreed that the best place will be a point on the Yellowstone proper, three miles above the mouth of the Big Horn, where the hauling will be about thirty miles by ox teams. These can be hired here, and will do the work more surely and better than the steamboats, for they have been sometimes two weeks in working up the Big Horn and have left their loads strung along the banks at points hard to reach by wagons. I am convinced that this is the wisest course, and thus we can maintain a strong military post in the very heart of the hostile Sioux country, with only a haul of twenty miles, which is insignificant as compared with most of our posts south of this. The country, west of this is a good country and will rapidly fill up with emigrants, who will, within the next few years, build up a community as strong and as capable of self defense as Colorado.
I have company L, of the second cavalry. Captain Norwood, which belongs at Fort Ellis, Montana Territory, now camped on the west bank of the Yellowstone opposite the mouth of the Big Horn, to escort me up to Ellis. As soon as we have decided on the merits of the point mentioned as a supply depot for this post, I will land and start for Ellis, leaving General Terry with this boat to report in full all the matters to the adjutant general, so that this letter is only preliminary.
W. T. Sherman, General.
Fort Ellis, M. T., August 3, 1877.
Dear Sir: I wrote you last from the steamer Rosebud, coming down the Big Horn in company with Gen. Terry and others on the 25th of July. We had concluded that the current of the Big Horn was too swift to be managed economically, and that the garrison at Post No 2, at the mouth of the Big Horn, could best be supplied by establishing a depot on the Yellowstone, just above the mouth of the Big Horn, where stores could be hauled thirty miles to the new post. A company of infantry was left there to establish and guard the depot, when the steamer Rosebud dropped down to the point just below the mouth of the Big Horn, where company L, second cavalry. Captain Norwood, was camped with an outfit. This consisted of six Indian horses, two light spring wagons, and one light baggage wagon. The Rosebud landed us at 2pm, when she started down the river, leaving us to begin our real journey. In a few minutes the escort saddled up, and we started on horseback up the Yellowstone.
The valley is strongly marked, about three miles wide, fiat, with good grass, the banks of the river and the streams well wooded with cottonwood trees. In this valley, the Yellowstone, a broad, strong stream, meanders back and forth, forming on both sides strong, perpendicular bluffs of rock and clay, forcing the road constantly out of the flat valley over the points, and causing wide deflections in the road to head the ravines or "coolies," which flow to the river. There is a strongly marked wagon trail, but no bridge or cuts, a purely natural road, with steep ascents and descents, and frequent gullies, about as much as wagons could pass. We sometimes shifted into our light wagons, to save the fatigue of travel.
We found ranches established all along down the Yellowstone, and the mail contractors have already put on a line of two-horse spring wagons, so that soon the route we passed over will fill up with passes. The land is susceptible to cultivation on a small scale, but admirably adapted to cattle raising.
W. T. Sherman, General.
Among the settlers of 1878 was a party from the Gallatin valley, who came in the spring and builded homes in the new country. This party consisted of R. W. Clark, O. N. Newman, A. T. Ford and a Mr. Kinney. The last named settled near Young's Point; the others came farther down the river and settled upon land extending from the Josephine in- scription to the Coulson stage station.
Another settler that year was John R. King, who in the fall settled near Coulson. Mr. King had been in the Yellowstone valley on different missions as early as 1873. During 1875 and 1876 he had been engaged in helping build the Crow agency on the Stillwater; had run mackinaw fleets down the Yellowstone ; and had carried dispatches through the valley. Chas. Deal was another settler of the future Yellowstone county in the spring of 1878. W. H. Claussen also came and settled in what is now the extreme western part of Yellowstone county; Olof Lafverson was a settler near Stillwater.
Another settler of the year 1877 was Major Pease, who in the fall of that year built a trading store opposite the mouth of the Stillwater, the first cabin erected on the present townsite of Columbus. Here he traded sugar, flour and a few other staple articles for hides and furs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chief Joseph met John Gibbon - Following Old Trails by Arthur L. Stone, 1913 archive.org/stream/followingoldtrai00ston#page/n9/mode/2up
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MlSSOURI, CHICAGO, ILLS., OCTOBER 25, 1877. GENERAL:
I have the honor to submit, for the information of the General of the Army, the following brief report of events occurring within the Military Division of the Missouri since the 25th of November, 1876, the date of my last annual report.
During the months of December and January the hostile Indians were constantly harassed by the troops under Col. N. A. Miles. 5th Infantry, whose headquarters were at the mouth of the Tongue River, and who had two sharp engagements with them, one at Redwater and the other near Hanging Woman's Fork, inflicting heavy losses in men, supplies and animals. This constant pounding and ceaseless activity upon the part of our troops (Col. Miles in particular), in midwinter, began to tell, and early in February, 1877, information was communicated which led me to believe that the Indians in general were tired of the war, and that the large bodies heretofore in the field were beginning to break up. On the 25th of that month 229 lodges of Minneconjoux and Sans Arcs came and surrendered to the troops at Cheyenne agency, Dak. They were completely disarmed, their horses taken from them, and they were put under guard, and this system was carried out with all who afterward came in to surrender within the Departments of Dakota and the Platte. From the 1st of March to the 21st of the same month over 2,200 Indians, in detachments of from 30 to 900, came in and surrendered at Camps Sheridan and Robinson, in the Department of the Platte, and on the 22nd of April, 303 Cheyennes came and surrendered to Colonel Miles at the cantonment on Tongue River in the Department of Dakota, and more were reported on the way in to give themselves up. Finally on the 6th of May, Crazy Horse, with 889 of his people and 2.000 ponies, came in to Camp Robinson and surrendered to General Crook in person. In the meantime, Colonel Miles having had information of the whereabouts of Lame Deer's band of hostile Sioux surprised his camp, killing 14 warriors, including Lame Deer and Iron Star, the two principal chiefs, capturing 450 ponies and destroying 51 lodges and their contents. I may mention here that this band commenced to surrender, in small squads from two to twenty, immediately thereafter, until at length, on the 10th of September, the last of the band, numbering 224, constantly followed and pressed by troops from the command of Colonel Miles, surrendered at Camp Sheridan. The Sioux war was now over.
P. H SHERIDAN, Lieut.-General. Commanding.
Sherman, Sheridan, Crook and others were there in 1877, Sherman and Sheridan were escorted without a shadow of doubt and since these matters were arranged in advance it is perfectly possible that a battalion of 5th Cavalry passed the battleground in June 1877. What is remakable is that Reno was there. N'est pas!
'I understand that Sherman has just passed over the field, but as my courier is in waiting to take this to Reno, I must hasten to finish.'
(Note 2) - I guess we will have to dig King up and ask him the answer.
5th Cavalry operated by the book as a regiment of 3 battalions of four companies each. If that was how Custer divied up at the divide, Benteen and McDougall as a four company battalion, then which of the five companies with Custer was assigned to Reno? We can dig Keogh up for that answer.
It is a fascinating topic, because it is so richly broad. McLaughlin gives Chief Joseph's side of the Nez Perce war in My Friend the Indian.
______________________________________________________________ From Illustrated History. The State of Montana, Joaquin Miller, 1894.
Wheeler O. Dexter, of Fort Benton, came to the Territory of Montana in 1866, and has since been one of her active and reliable citizens. He was born in Steuben county, New York, on the last day of July, 1843. His father, Bela Dexter, once a Colonel of the New York militia, married Miss Annie Snyder, of Thompson county, that State. He was a lumberman, and later in life was the proprietor of the Cauostia Hotel. He had two daughters and a son, and died in his fiftieth year; his wife afterward married again, and died at the age of sixty years. One of the daughters is now deceased.
Mr. Dexter, of this sketch, was only seven years of age when he lost his father, and was left to his own resources. He was employed at whatever manual labor he could do in the summer and attended school in the winter, ending his schooling at Ithaca Academy. About this time Fort Sumter was fired upon and Mr. Lincoln issued his call for volunteers. Mr. Dexter, then in his seventeenth year, at once enrolled himself as a soldier for the Union, enlisting in April, 1861, under Captain Brown, whose company was to be connected with Colonel Baker's regiment; but young Dexter had an uncle who claimed to have control of him and took him away. January 4, 1864, Mr. Dexter enlisted in Company F, Sixteenth New York Heavy Artillery, and served in the Army of the James to the close of the war, participating in the brilliant struggle of the closing year. He was mustered out June 24, 1865.
He then went to the oil regions of Pennsylvania, where he was for a short time engaged in the sinking of oil wells. Next he came westward to St. Paul, Minnesota, and joined the Fisk expedition, and with it crossed the plains to Montana. The train consisted of 140 wagons and 400 men, women and children. Leaving St. Cloud June 6, Mr. Dexter arrived in Helena September 2. Here his first position was that of night clerk in the Tremont House. Next he was engineer in a sawmill at Dry Gulch; later he became the engineer of a quartz mill at Unionville for Major Hodge and his son; and on the very day that Mr. Dexter commenced working the Major had a shooting scrape with a man, in which the latter was killed and the Major wounded. Such was common in pioneer times throughout the great West.
Mr. Dexter continued there till October, 1867, when he came to Fort Benton and went on a prospecting tour for coal; and he discovered a vein five feet and eight inches thick, below Cow Island; but it was not within reach of the market, and Mr. Dexter turned his attention to another enterprise, namely, furnishing steamboats on the Missouri river with wood, and continued in this until 1874, meantime locating a ranch in Gallatin valley, which he improved and afterward sold. While in the wood business, in 1873, he went out shooting one day below Fort Benton, and killed two antelope and three buffalo; and while bringing them in on a sleigh the next day, and when going down a steep place, the sleigh was overturned and Mr. Dexter was so severely crushed that the bones of his neck were broken. He was paralyzed and suffered a great deal for several weeks; but, as if by miracle, he recovered, and he is still a well preserved man. After this he was engaged in freighting between Cow Island and Helena, and handled large quantities of vegetables. In 1875-76 he had a contract to cut hay at Fort Walsh, Canada, for the Government.
He piloted General Terry down the Missouri from Fort Benton to Cow Island; and he was also the bearer of the dispatches concerning the surrender of the Nez Perces Indians from Fort Benton to Fort Shaw, making a journey of sixty-four miles in eight hours. At Fort Benton he had the honor of being a member of the first grand jury; and he also brought into the country the first steam thresher. He established a steam sawmill at Highwood, and furnished a large portion of the lumber used at Fort Benton. In 1876 he furnished the teams to convey Genaral Gibbon to the Yellowstone to meet General Custer, who was soon afterward massacred on the Little Big Horn river, Montana, by Sitting Bull Sioux Indians, while Mr. Dexter was returning from this trip.
In 1889 Mr. Dexter took up a ranch on the bench above Fort Benton, and three miles distant from this city he is raising wheat. He keeps a large number of horses, and is now running two threshers and a sawmill, beside his farm. He is a member of G. H. Warren Post, No. 20, G. A. K., being now its Junior Vice Commander. He is also Junior Deacon of the Masonic Lodge here. Mr. Dexter has had a remarkable life: has had many narrow escapes, and was of great value in the early days in carrying dispatches and in doing many things requiring great courage. He is a splendid rifle shot, a good natural musician and a perfect genius as a mechanic, being able to do anytliing in tlie line of machinery. He was the builder of the first steamboat, the Swan, constructed at Great Falls; and in addition to his other good traits of character he is a man of integrity who keeps his obligations to the letter.
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Post by herosrest on Jun 29, 2012 5:54:52 GMT -6
Here's the newspaperfrontpage (attached), most have seen it, top left column - silver coin. Attachments:
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Post by "Hunk" Papa on Jun 29, 2012 15:56:27 GMT -6
Hi, in regards the Cheyenne camp and Wooden Leg, when that camp was downstream a mile further is the point, that was after the Custer fight. No, read Wooden Leg, he is talking about how the camps were set up prior to the approach of Custer. But not at the LBH battle site. Understood, but verifiable by careful reading. At the time you specify, Capt. King, was with his regiment (the 5th Infantry note) involved in the Nez Perce Campaign. He was not at the LBH battlefield at the same time. Whatever he may have written about the LBH battle, it was not based on any visit to the site during 1877. Check the records of the Fifth Infantry in the Nez Perce War. If your dates are correct, Marcus Reno could not have been in that vicinity. Following his Court Martial in March 1877, he was suspended from rank and pay for two years from May 1st 1877. From June 6th he was mostly at the Lochiel Hotel in Harrisburg waiting for the two years to pass. As a suspended officer, he would not have been considered for any military function, so you have a problem. Regrettably, I am not in a position to continue with this, so post additional novelettes if you feel inclined, but I will not be able to respond. Regards. Hunk
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Post by herosrest on Jul 1, 2012 6:19:24 GMT -6
Further to Cherokee Advocate's description of the battlefield as found on 25th July 1876. see note 11 INSPECTION TRIP: GEN. SHERMAN AND SECRETARY CAMERON Arkansas City Traveler, September 20, 1876. Front Page. Gen. Sherman and Secretary Cameron started from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Saturday, on a tour of inspection to the West. ________________________________________________ Sherman in North Dakota History of Dakota Territory; Vol I; George W. Kingsbury; 1915 p960-961 - Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who was then general of the army, visited Bismarck in July 1877, accompanied by Gen. Terry and a number of his staff officers. From that point he embarked on the steamer Rosebud, Capt. Grant Marsh, and made a reconnoitering trip up the Yellowstone River, and inspected the new military posts al the mouth of Powder River (Fort Keogh), and also at the mouth of the Big Horn (Fort Custer), where he was met by Gen's Sheridan and Miles, and escorted to Fort Ellis, thence through Idaho, and on to the Pacific coast. Gen. Sherman's object in making the journey was to acquaint himself with the situation on the frontier, and particularly with regard to the demand for more troops. There were no serious Indian troubles in the Northwest at the time except disturbances west and north of the Black Hills settlements, which had become formidable. Sitting Bull, with 278 lodges of his hostile Sioux, was in the Cypress Mountains, B. A., where his warriors were hunting buffalo with and arrows, having no ammunition for their guns. It was estimated that Sitting Bull's entire party at the time numbered about two thousand. ________________________________________________ 'Personal Recollections of Gen. Nelson A. Miles' p256, tells; 'After being separated from my family for nearly one year, as the country became safe, one of the first steamboats to come up the river, in June, 1877, brought my wife and her sister, Miss Elizabeth Sherman, now Mrs. J.D. Cameron, and our little daughter, Cecilia. They were the first white women to come and make their permanent abode in that wild western country. We could only afford them a soldier's welcome, as we were living in tents and in the cantonment bivouac. They accepted the situation very cheerfully, however. The outdoor exercises which they were able to enjoy, such as horseback-riding, hunting and sailing on the Yellowstone, together with the novelty of their new life, made it a pleasure and a romance. As other steamboats came up the river they brought the families and relatives of the officers and some of the soldiers, and this was the beginning of civilized and domestic life in that vicinity. The presence of women added a charm and a ray of sunshine to the life of the soldier.
In the midsummer of 1877, General W.T. Sherman, commanding the United States army, passed through that country. He went by steamer up the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Big Horn, thence by wagon across the mountains and down the Columbia. While at the cantonment of Tongue River, July 17, he addressed a letter to the Hon. George W. McCrary, Secretary of War, at Washington, D. C..in which he used the following language: "I now regard the Sioux Indian problem, as a war question, as solved by the operationsof General Miles last winter, and by the establishment of the two new posts on the Yellowstone, now assured this summer. Boats come and go now. where a year ago none would venture except with strong guards. Wood yards are being established to facilitate navigation and the great mass of the hostiles have been forced to go to the agencies for food and protection, or have fled across the border into British Territory." On July 7. 1876, Executive Office. Yankton. DT. wired to Hon. J.D. Cameron, Secretary of War. Washington, DC, by the authority of the people of Dakota, and at their request, I herby tender to the Government a regiment of troops to aid in vogorous prosecution of any measures adopted by the Government to subdue the hostile Sioux of this territory and the Northwest. George H. Hand Secretary and Acting Govenor Nez Perces Campaign; (N.A. Miles; 1896, p264-266) - ' Reaching camp six miles from the Missouri on the evening of September 23, and desiring to take every chance of getting my command across the deep and turbid waters of this great river, I called upon Captain Hale to give me an officer who would ride forward and detain any steamer that might be either ascending or descending the Missouri. The horses of the Seventh Cavalry had just been turned out to graze, after a very long and most difficult forced march. In spite of the fact that he must have been very tired, Lieutenant Biddle quickly responded that, with the approval of Captain Hale, he would go. I replied that I would be very glad if he would take one or two men and ride forward rapidly for that purpose. He had his horse saddled at once, and accompanied by one soldier, in less than ten minutes lie was disappearing from our view, as he dashed at a gallop down the valley.
I could not anticipate at that anxious moment the terrible tragedy that awaited in the near future these two enterprising and splendid officers. I do not think that Lieutenant Biddle drew rein until he stood on the bank of the Missouri just in time to hail the last regular steamer going down the river that season. As a result of taking advantage of every possible chance, and the enterprise of the young officer, he sent word back that night, and when we reached the Missouri the next morning we found the steamer tied up at the bank awaiting us. Early the next morning found us at the bank of the river, and I immediately transferred to the opposite side the battalion of the Second Cavalry, under Captain Tyler.
This was done for a double purpose. One was that they might move along the left bank and prevent the Nez Perces from crossing at any of the ferries above, and the other that they might continue the march to the northwest, where I had been ordered to send a battalion of cavalry to escort General Terry on his peace commission to meet Sitting Bull with the Canadian officers on Canadian soil. The remainder of the command was moved up the river a short distance above the mouth of the Musselshell, and, as all information I had received up to that time indicated that the Nez Perces were still fifty or seventy-five miles south of the Missouri, I decided to move up the south bank of that river and intercept them.
As I could not detain the steamer any great length of time I gave permission for it to continue its journey down the river. Captain Baldwin one of the most efficient of officers, who had been worn down by hard service, was, by the advice of the surgeon, instructed to go down the river for rest, and also to hurry forward the steamer with the supplies I had ordered before leaving the cantonment on the Yellowstone. As our command was being prepared to march to the west, and while the steamer was but a short distance away, three men came down the river in a boat and announced the fact that the Nez Perces had crossed the Missouri some sixty miles to the west of us, at a point known as Cow Island. This was one of the occasions in military affairs when, acting upon the best information obtainable, you suddenly find yourself greatly embarrassed by new information that is directly contradictory.
The steamer was then beyond hailing distance, but as quick as thought, Sgt McHugh, whose piece of artillery was resting on the bank of the river, was ordered to charge his gun and train it down the river and commence throwing shot and shell as rapidly as possible. The reverberation of the cannon down between the high bluffs of the river, and the bursting of shells in the air on the left bank could be heard for several miles down the Missouri, and I knew that if these sounds reached the ears of that thorough soldier, Baldwin, he would turn back and move to the sound of the guns. I was not mistaken in the man; in the course of twenty or thirty minutes the soldiers sung out, "Here she comes." And a most welcome sight it was. to see the black column of smoke as the steamer rounded the bend far below and came puffing up against the strong current. When he arrived, I told Captain Baldwin that I was delighted to see him, though not expecting to so soon again, and he replied that he knew something was wanted or that there was a fight, and that he wanted to be on hand in either case. Cameron's Special Report By means 'other' than divination resort to tarot or scientific research, the Secretary of War of the United States was aware on July 13th, 1876, that Custer detached Benteen's command with a view to intercept the expected retreat of the savages. During one hundred and thirty five years since, many people accepted (and still do), that valley hunting is a legitimate excuse for failing to engage the enemy. On July 13th, 1876, Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, made a special report to President U.S. Grant concerning the Little Big Horn massacre and stated: .... The recent reports touching disaster which befell the Seventh Regular Cavalry, led by Gen. Custer in person, are believed to be true. For some reason, as yet unexplained, Gen. Custer, who commanded the Seventh Cavalry, and had been detached by his commander, General Terry, at the mouth of the Rosebud, to make a wide detour up the Rosebud (a tributary to the Yellowstone), across the Little Horn and down it to the mouth of the Big Horn, the place agreed upon for meeting, attacked en route a large Indian village with only a part of his force, having himself detached the rest with a view to intercept the expected retreat of the savages, and experienced an utter annihilation of his immediate command.
The forces of General Terry and Gibbon reached the field of battle the next day, and rescued fifty-two wounded men, buried 261 dead men, including all the officers, soldiers and civilians who were with Custer's detachment. (The wounded were taken on litters to the mouth of the Little Big Horn, where the steamboat Far West lay awaiting the arrival of Gen. Terry, with Capt. Grant Marsh in command, and were taken down the Big Horn and Yellowstone to Fort Abraham Lincoln.)
In the meantime Gen. Crook had also advanced from Fort Fetterman, and on the 18th of June, eight days before the Custer attack, had encountered this same force of warriors at the head of the Rosebud, with whom he fought several hours, driving the Indians from the field, losing nine men killed, one officer, and twenty wounded.
(Signed) Cameron. Custer's attack on the big village was, under the circumstances, and according to well settled principles of Indian warfare, neither desperate or rash, because having inarched into the zone where the Indians were assembled, " he could do nothing but attack when he found himself in the presence of the Indians." — (General Sherman.) Officers present with 7th Cavalry during the morning of 25th June 1876, without direct responsibility to higher authority, stated consistently that having determined the location of the village of the hostile buffalo hunters to be in the valley of the Little Big Horn valley during the evening of the 24th June, Custer determined to close by night march and conceal the regiment during daylight of the 25th June, to attack the following morning of the 26th. Senior officers of 7th Cavalry and Gen. Terry's staff, would not subsequently condone that decision by Custer. An entry by Lt .James H. Bradley to his journal, or diary, of Wednesday, June 21st, 1876, says: ". . .though it is General Terry's expectation that we will arrive in the neighborhood of the Sioux village about the same time and assist each other in the attack, it is understood that if Custer arrives first he is at liberty to attack at once if he deems prudent We have little hope of being in at the death, as Custer will undoubtedly exert himself to the utmost to get there first and win all the laurels for himself and his regiment. He is provided with Indian scouts, but from the superior knowl-edge possessed by the Crows of the country he is to traverse it was decided to furnish him with a part of ours, and I was directed to make a detail for that purpose. I selected my six best men. Bradley predates the battle. ________________________________________________ I'll develop further a couple of the matters raised in reply #16, related to Wooden Leg and the Cheyenne lodges; and reference to the 'Crow Agency' by John Two Moon - within the context of changing perceptions of the battle over time. Understanding of the first days battle has evolved tremendously, subjected to a narrow accepted opinion that ignores or negates very much that is evident from study of early evidence and its meaning. Through a number of popular mediums, film, TV, magazines, novels such as those by W.A. Graham and J.S. Gray; and efforts of those who support or supported the causes of Custer, Reno or Benteen, the reality of the battle is that of today. Today's perceptions are are narrow, ignorant and significantly biased towards the interests of those alive today, rather than the 19th Century history and its lessons in the recovery and development of America. The topic and its reference material is vast, fractured, and no-one knows it all or can hope to. I do not pretend that. It is worthwhile never to forget that today in the U.S. there are people claiming right to (and damages) for Louisiana from the settlement negotiated Between France and the USA in............ 1803. Nutjobs r us! It probably (very likely) has roots in long lost relatives of French royalty and desire for all to eat cake. Vive la liberté...... or is it le?
It was not until 1929 that a tribute to those who fought on Reno's Hill was erected. Thomas B. Marquis and Joseph A. Blummer were in part responsible for modern terms of reference to the battle. As Joe Sills (1995) put it: 'Cartridge casing finds clearly indicate troops firing from that point, and any concept of Custer’s final battle must include that action if it is to have any validity'. see note 1 E.S. Godfrey and others were firmly of the opinion that - 'none of the Custer soldiers came any closer to the river than they were at the time they died. When the first Indians went out and met them, and exchanged shots with them, these soldiers were riding along the ridge far out northeastward. Marquis noted that 'many Custer rifle shells have been found scattered along this high far-out ridge'. This is the thrust towards the modern conception of the battle. Marquis (Wooden Leg) maintained - 'They kept moving westward along its crest until they spread out on the ridge lower down, the ridge where the most of the battle took place. After about an hour and a half of the slow fighting at long distances, the group of forty soldiers who rode down from the ridge along a broad coulee and toward the river were charged upon by Lame White Man, followed at once by many Cheyennes and Sioux. This place of the first Indian charge and the first sudden great victory is inside of the present fence around the battlefield and at its lower side.'
In this respect Maj. Gillespie's D7 map of August 2nd, 1876, comes to the fore. He shows company L, fighting in line on............ Nye Cartwright Ridge and Custers column marching to ford B. Keogh is located north east of Calhoun Hill. This was in August, 1876 - 38 days after the fighting Gillespie produced a copy of someone else's map. It was not Lt. Maguire's sketch that was copied. Gillespie's map tracing was that offered by Frederick Whittaker, embellished with additional information, in his biography of Custer which included an account of the battle - 'given by an officer of the general staff who examined the ground, and refers to the map which we annex'.
Now for Custer's fight. The trail shows that he came down to the ford, and was there driven back, leaving dead men and horses. The rest of the description is thus given by an officer of the general staff who examined the ground, and refers to the map which we annex. From this point he was driven back to make successive stands on the liigher ground. His line of retreat stretches from the river to the spot indicated on the map as that where he fell. On the line of .retreat, Calhoun's company seems to have been thrown across it to check the Indians. At a distance of about three-quarters of a mile from the river, the whole of Calhoun's company lay dead, in an irregular line, Calhoun and Crittenden in place in the rear. About a mile beyond this, on the ridge parallel to the stream, still following the line of retreat indicated on the map, Keogh's company was slaughtered in position, his right resting on the hill where Custer fell, and which seems to have been held by Yates' company. On the most prominent point of this ridge, Custer made his last desperate stand.
It is believed by some that, finding the situation a desperate one, they killed their horses for a barricade. From the point where Custer fell, the line of retreat again doubles back toward the river through a ravine, and along this line in the ravine, twenty-three bodies of Smith's company were found. Where this line terminates near the river, are found the dead men and horses of Captain Custer's company commingled with Smith's, and the situation of the dead indicates that some desperate attempt was made to make a stand near the river, or to gain the woods.
Calhoun's company was thrown across to check the Indians. The men lay dead in an irregular line,Calhoun and Crittenden in place in rear. see note 3
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During the period of their interest and research by Marquis, Blummer, etc, much new light on the battle emerged 40-50 years after the event and amongst the most interesting were Cheyenne accounts of events. During that time significant cartridge finds were reported along what is today Nye Cartwright or Blummer's ridge. Those relics were either not discovered in 1876 and 1886, or their relevance to Custer's fight was not realised . It is known beyond doubt that the battleground was consistently and heavily collected by relic hunters and that articles unrelated to June 25th 1876, but acceptable as being such, were added to the terrain. Empirical study of the battle tells us a very different and conservative story due to the nature of evidence available a century and more after the fighting, during which time the battlefield was incessantly and heavily collected, and seeded with unrelated artifacts by a superintendent of the National Park.
Excerpted below, is serious reference for study of the battle by the 'Museum of Learning', Battle Of Little Big Horn topic.
[/i] Scholars' interpretation of 20th-century findings of archaeological evidence and giving more credence to Indian testimony - has given rise to a new interpretation of the battle. In the 1920s, battlefield investigators discovered hundreds of .45–70 shell cases along the ridge line, known today as Nye-Cartwright Ridge, between South Medicine Tail Coulee and the next drainage at North Medicine Tail also known as Deep Coulee. Historians believe Custer divided his detachment into two and possibly three companies, retaining personal command of one while presumably delegating Captain George W. Yates to command the second.
The 1920s' evidence supports the theory that at least one of the companies made a feint attack southeast from Nye-Cartwright Ridge straight down the center of the "V" formed by the intersection at the crossing of Medicine Tail Coulee on the right and Calhoun Couley on the left. The intent may have been to relieve pressure on Reno's detachment according to the Crow scout Curley, possibly viewed by both Mitch Bouyer and Custer by withdrawing the skirmish line into the timber on the edge of the Little Bighorn River. Had the US troops come straight down Medicine Tail Coulee, their approach to the Minneconjou Crossing and the northern area of the village would have been masked by the high ridges running on the northwest side of the Little Bighorn River.
Debate Over Effectiveness Of Cavalry Weapons
In defense of Custer, some historians claim that some of the Indians were armed with repeating Spencer, Winchester and Henry rifles, while the 7th Cavalry carried single-shot Springfield Model 1873 carbines, caliber .45–70. These rifles had a slower rate of fire than the repeating rifles and tended to jam when overheated. The carbines had been issued with copper cartridges. Troopers soon discovered that the copper expanded in the breech when heated upon firing; the ejector would then cut through the copper and leave the case behind, thus jamming the rifle. Troopers were forced to extract the cartridges manually with knife blades; thus, the carbines were nearly useless in combat except as clubs. During Reno's fight, Captain French was reported to have sat in the open, completely exposed to native American gunfire, extracting jammed shells from guns, reloading, and then passing them back to troopers in exchange for other jammed weapons to clear.
The Springfield Model 1873 was selected by the Army Ordnance Board after extensive testing in competition with other rifles. It was considered to be the most reliable rifle after multiple weathering tests. The choice of a single-shot rifle over repeat-firing rifles was the Army's choice to prevent overuse of ammunition, following its emphasis at that time on marksmanship, as well as the costs of transporting cartridges along a supply line. While Indian accounts of the Custer fight noted men throwing down their rifles, in panic or possibly anger, accounts of jammed Springfield carbines were not reported in other confrontations during the Indian Wars. The jamming could have been due to the men's lack of familiarity with the Springfields, as they had been issued only weeks before the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Additionally, subsequent archaeological excavations of the battlefield from 1983 to present have discovered evidence that cast light on the issue of jammed weapons. Fox, in 1993, notes that only 3.4% 3 out of 88 of .45/55-caliber Springfield cartridge cases from the Custer battlefield and 2.7% 7 out of 257 cases from the Reno-Benteen field exhibit any indication they were pried from jammed weapons. These findings suggest accounts of jammed carbines were the result of misconception or a myth that grew after the defeat. - see note 8-10
Indian accounts were documented in paintings on buffalo hides. They indicated a fight between Indian bows and arrows and cavalry pistols. While this representation may support the claims of the Army's carbines' malfunctioning, the single-shot Springfield rifles used by the 7th had a much greater range than the Winchester and Henry rifles supposedly used by the Indians. Thus, if the troopers used skirmishers' covering fixed arcs of fire, the soldiers would have been able to keep the Indians at bay for some time. Indian leaders spoke of several of their charges against the soldiers' positions being repulsed, forcing the Indians to return to cover below the ridge.
Recent archaeological work at the battlefield site indicates that organized resistance in the form of skirmish lines probably took place. The remainder of the battle possibly took on the nature of a running fight. Modern archeology and historical Indian accounts indicate that Custer's force may have been divided into three groups, with the Indians' attempting to prevent them from effectively reuniting. Indian accounts describe warriors including women running up from the village to wave blankets in order to scare off the soldiers' horses. Fighting dismounted, the soldiers' skirmish lines were most likely overwhelmed. Studies show that it would have taken an hour to cover the long stretch over which the troopers died and by most accounts, the battle was over within this time. Army doctrine would have called for one man in four to be a horseholder on the skirmish lines and, in extreme cases, one man in eight.[/size][/i][/color] Quote - 'In the 1920s, battlefield investigators discovered hundreds of .45–70 shell cases along the ridge line, known today as Nye-Cartwright Ridge, between South Medicine Tail Coulee and the next drainage at North Medicine Tail also known as Deep Coulee. Problem's should be obvious in respect this statement and its assertions - I point out a symptom of the historical chaos of the battle's study. A 'minor' criticism is that copper 45-70's used in 1876 would have been unstamped, and the weapons were issued to cavalry fired caliber .45-55 unstamped copper ammunition. Both .45-70 and 45-55 caliber copper ammunition procured by the US Army in 1876, remained unstamped and was superceded by ammunition made of brass. The Springfield 45-70 was issued to scouts and not cavalry troopers. Five mules were assigned to scouts pack train and during 25th June 1876, at least one mule from 7th Cavalry's pack train escaped from Reno Hill and was captured. This was noted by Marquis in 'Wooden Leg - A Warrior who Fought Custer', and by Frank Zahn to Stanley Vestal. Perhaps it was not 45-70's discovered? Wooden Leg and the location of the Cheyenne camp, when Custer attacked. - Walter Mason Camp, Hump interview,1912 (Cheyenne Memories; R.G. Hardorff, p83-87) - 'Custer's camp on night of June 24 was on the flat at Busby schoolhouse, perhaps near the preacher's house. Little Wolf and a small band of Cheyennes (thirty or forty) had left Red Cloud Agency and were hunting for the hostile camp. They supposed they would find it on the Rosebud and [they] went through the mountains to Muddy Creek and down it. When one of their scouts got down near the mouth of it, he saw soldiers passing up the Rosebud and rode back and so informed Little Wolf. The Cheyenne then struck westward through the hills and came out into the valley of the Rosebud about where Ridge Walker now lives. They put scouts out to watch Custer and went back and camped at mouth of Muddy. The Cheyenne scouts watched Custer's movements all night and followed him when the command moved on. Little Wolf's camp followed in the morning up in the hills and kept watch of the soldiers, with a view to capture the pack animals. They did not get up in time to take part in the fighting of the first day.[/i] An account of the battle was published by Maj. John D. Miles as Custer's Last Trail. August 24, 1876; obtained from Cheyennes returning to their reservation in Indian Territory from Montana, after Southern Cheyennes fought Custer. The account mentions Little Wolf's party thus - 'Soldiers came upon a camp of fifty lodges on Rosebud, who made hasty march to the Little Big Horn, camping at the extreme north end of the Sioux and Cheyenne camp'. Thus lodges given variously to number thirty to forty, camped in the valley below the Cheyenne lodges when they arrived, which was related by Wooden Leg. I rode away from the battle hill in the middle of the afternoon. Many warriors had gone back across the hills to the southward, there to fight again the first soldiers. But I went to the camps across on the west side of the river. I had on a soldier coat and breeches I had taken. I took with me the two metal bottles of whisky. At the end of the arrow shaft I carried the beard scalp. Some special excitement was going on over beyond the Arrows All Gone camp. A big crowd of Sioux were gathered there. I went to see what they were doing. They had surrounded some Indians just then arrived in the camp. It was Little Wolf, most respected of the four old men chiefs of the Cheyennes.The crowd scattered, and the newcomers moved on to join the Cheyenne camp.
All of the camps were being moved. This was in accordance with a regular custom among the Indian tribes. When any death occurred in a camp, either from battle or from other cause, right at once the people began to get ready to move camp to some other place. The Cheyennes selected a camping spot down the river about a mile northwestward. The Sioux all began moving northwestward and back from the Little Bighorn toward the base of the bench hills west from the river. In the new locations, all of the camps except the Cheyennes were west of the present railroad and highway.Marquis gained his published information from many Cheyennes besides Wooden Leg, as later chapters relate. His map shows where they camped and where that camp moved to. An image in the book shows the ford across the river. An Wooden Leg tells 'us' of the duration of the fighting. Reference to the 'slow fighting' is confusing and is used poorly by those who argue the heroic battle which is the modern story of the battle. Understanding of the term's meaning and its implications for understanding the duration of the fight, are seriously confused and in fact, are trivialised in very poor fashion. The slow fighting was simply periods during which warriors were engaged in shooting from cover rather than charging in. Slow, has nothing what so ever to relate of the duration of Custer's fight; and nor does it impart that there were periods of inactivity or dawdling around. Custer's battle was over and done wen Lt. Edgerley arrived to skirmish with the Minnieconjou Standing Bear, at Medicine Tail creek. ________________________________________________ Crow Agency In 1876 the Crow Agency was not located on Little Big Horn valley. As a reward for loyalty the Government in 1868 set aside a reservation of seven million acres to be theirs forever, and in addition appropriated several million dollars to be used in their behalf. It was believed by well informed authorities that not one-fourth that sum reached its real object, because of the conduct of the Indian Department at Washington. The original reservation was reduced by purchases from the Crows to about two million acres. In 1859, near Berthold, North Dakota, Fellows D. Pease married Margaret Wallace, a half breed Crow. Her father, John Wallace, was a noted warrior among the Crows of that day. In 1870, the Bureau of Indian Affairs mandated Indian agents to be civilian appointees rather than military officers. Fellows D. Pease replaced Major Camp, who had done little to encourage the Bureau’s goal of enticing Crow to give up their free ranging lifestyle to become farmers. Pease made rapid advancement in constructing a self sufficient installation at Fort Parker near Benson’s Landing which included 25 houses for Crow willing to become farmers. Of the estimated 3,000 Crow associated with the agency, there was only one farm applicant. Additionally, agriculture efforts continued to be naturally inundated by successive years of flooding and grasshopper infestations. The agency was established at the mouth of Mission Creek, almost opposite Livingston, on the south side of the Yellowstone River. The New York Times - September 10, 1870 - Washington Sept. 9. New Appointments. Fellows D. Pease of Montana. Indian Agent for Crow Tribe, Montana. The Crows became disenchanted on Mission Creek, the agency was far removed from hunting grounds in the Big Horn and Pryor region. An influx of settlers to their reserve, especially miners to Emigrant Gulch, Bear Gulch and on Clarks Fork continued with little governmental abatement and they continued to lack arms and ammunition to counter escalating Sioux encroachment. Rumor that Northern Pacific would run up the south side of the Yellowstone River, impacting their reserve was the iron lid. September 9, 1871, a surveying party led by Thomas L. Rosser accompanied by some 425 infantrymen under Lieutenant Colonel Joseph N. C. Whistler, left Fort Rice on the Missouri River. They reached the mouth of Glendive Creek three weeks later without incident and returned to the Missouri October 16. --------------------------------------September 22, 1871, Capt. Edward Ball, ninety-one men and five officers from companies H and L, Second Cavalry escorted the Yellowstone survey expedition from Crow Agency under the supervision of Edward D. Muhlenberg, whose qualifications appear to have been that he enjoyed the support of one of Pennsylvania's United States senators, Simon Cameron, a former Lincoln cabinet member who retained enormous political clout. W. Milnor Roberts in charge of Northern Pacific's surveys left Fort Ellis to join the survey team on November 2, escorted by Maj. Eugene M. Baker and 25 troops; in the party with Roberts were G.D. Chenoweth, an NP engineer who would assist Muhlenberg with mapping; Charles A. Broadwater, active in Montana freighting; and the recently appointed Crow Indian agent, "Major" Fellows D. Pease. At the Crow Agency by Pease's suggestion, the expedition hired two guides, Pierre Shane and [b[Mitch Bouyer[/b]. After two nights' stay at the agency, the party headed downriver on November 4, crossing to the north bank to inspect Muhlenberg's route. Roberts hoped to determine whether the railroad could be constructed on the north bank to avoid the Crow reservation on the south, but realized it would have to cross the reservation. W. Milnor Roberts son in law was Captain George W. Yates of the 7th Cavalry. The financial crash of 1873 halted progress NP's progress due to failed finance. A strong case can be made that had Roberts had discovered the Marias Pass, NP would have built following the Missouri River. This would have minimized problems with the Lakotas, perhaps made it possible for Cooke to fully finance the NP, and certainly have altered the Custer story. The Forgotten Yellowstone Surveying Expeditions of 1871 - W.Milnor Roberts and the Northern Pacific Railroad in Montana by M. John Lubetkin (Montana Historical Society)--------------------------------------An 1872 report listed 2,700 Mountain Crows and 1,400 River Crows, many mouths to feed from thinning herds. At this time the Government permitted the Crows to hunt at will, though pressuring them to return to the reservation once the summer's kills were over. One early record of a Crow camp's summer roaming after the herds describes them on the move 47 of 76 days, covering nine and a half miles per day. Following the courses of streams, they halted because of rain, serious illness, to pasture horses, to hunt and prepare hides and meat, and to settle disagreements over routes to follow. In talks about relocating, Pease suggested the relinquishing millions of acres south of the Yellowstone for an agency and reservation lands in the Judith Basin. It would cut their reserve by a third but remove them from development activities and hostilities by the Sioux. A council at Fort Parker Aug. 1873, agreed the exchange before Congress enacted the agreement and a wagon-road cut into Judith Basin where settlement began. Judith Basin was abandoned for reservation but the seed was planted for ceding of lands along the Upper Yellowstone. Fellows D. Pease escorted the Crow delegation of 1873, and faced a staggering list of exceptions to his accounts. Most concerned the absense of signed receipts. His explanations provide an insight into the problems agents encountered in carry out their responsibilities. He could not get a receipt for $12.75 spent for meals at a stage station in Montana, because there was neither ink nor paper at this locality.His explanation for the $28 spent on cabs and medicines in St. Louis was accepted. The expense for hacks was incurred because it was almost impossible to get the lndians to the hotel on account the great crowd of people who surrounded them walking the streets.... 'Diplomats in Buckskins' By Herman J. Viola. Pease was replaced in Sep. 1873. Dr. James Wright, a reformist minister lasted 14 months but influenced the decision to move the Agency. Agent Dexter Clapp, built a new agency on Rosebud Creek near Absarokee and the Rosebud agency was occupied during the winter of 1875-76 and the focus of trade became the Stillwater region. A contingent backed by Bozeman businessmen and led by Pease, made an ill-fated attempt to establish a fort and trading post near the mouth of the Big Horn River. Conflict with the Sioux escalated along the lower Yellowstone until the Indian Wars of 1876-1877. F.D. Pease went to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1875 to arrange for erecting smelter works; but Indian troubles prevented mining until 1877, when the Eastern Montana Mining and Smelting Company erected furnaces. In December 1882 the railroad arrived and the new town of Livingston was platted. The demise of the community of Bensons Landing was barely noticed. Log of the river steam boat 'F. Y. Batchelor', Captain Grant Marsh. June 28, 1878. Arrived at Fort Custer at 7am, being the first and only boat that has arrived there this summer. Fort Custer is situated at the junction of the Little Big Horn and Big Horn rivers. The fort stands at an elevation of 175ft. above the river, and at an altitude of 7,000ft. above the ocean. Part of the 2nd Infantry and part of the 11th Cavalry, under command of General Buell, are stationed here. While lying here, something more than one hundred lodges of Crow Indians were busily engaged crossing the river with all their plunder and ponies, on their way to their new reservation on the Big Horn. It was a sight well worth seeing. We had many a 'how' and shake during our stay. These Indians are a very honest tribe, won't steal unless they get a chance. In an 1880 treaty similar to that Pease proposed in 1873, the tribe agreed to cede the western portion of their reservation. The treaty was not ratified by Congress until 1882. At the same time the Northern Pacific Railway, stalled at Bismarck since its bankruptcy in 1873, was refinanced and construction resumed. The two events prompted local speculators to anticipate dramatic change. US$1 billion is the estimated rehabilitation cost for the Clark's Fork River region of Montana, where gold and silver mining started in the late 19th century and continued until the early 1950s. on September 15, 1888, Democrats met at Livingston and named a full county ticket for coming elections. The convention was presided over by Benjamin F. Myers and O. M. Hatch was secretary. The Republicans met at Livingston on September 12, when delegates to the territorial convention were selected and a county ticket named. Major Geo. O. Eaton was president of the convention and S. L. Wallace was secretary. Delegates to the territorial convention included F.D. Pease. ________________________________________________ " Massacre of Our Troops", New York Times, July 6 1876. - Salt Lake City, July 5th: The special correspondent of the Helena (Montana) Herald writes, from Stillwater, Montana, under the date of July 2, as follows: "Muggins Taylor, a scout for Gen. Gibbons, arrived here last night from Little Big Horn River, and reports that Gen. Custer found the Indian camp of 2,000 lodges on the Little Horn, and immediately attacked it. He charged the thickest portion of the camp with five companies. Nothing is known of the operations of this detachment, except their course is traced by the dead. Major Reno commanded the other seven companies, and attacked the lower portion of the camp. The Indians poured a murderous fire from all directions. Gen. Custer, his two brothers, his nephew, and bother-in-law were all killed, and not one of his detachment escaped... The Indians surrounded Major Reno's command and held them one day in the hills cut off from water, until Gibbon's command came in sight, when they broke camp in the night left. The Seventh fought like tigers, and were overcome by mere brute force... "This report is given as Taylor told it, as he was over the field after the battle. The above is confirmed by others which say Custer has me a fearful disaster." ________________________________________________ Taylor left the Far West on the morning of July 1st, at the mouth of Big Horn, having 175 miles to travel before he could reach Fort Ellis and Bozeman, the nearest telegraph stations. On July 2nd he came to Stillwater Creek, where he overtook a discharged wagon-train returning from Gibbon's column to the settlements. To the men with it he gave some news, and one of them started with it for Bozeman, arriving there on the same day as Taylor, July 5th, in the evening. Taylor was seen in Bozeman by reporters, who gathered from him enough to transmit brief reports to some Helena, Montana and Salt Lake City, Utah, papers, which appeared in their morning editions. __________________________________________________________________________________
Note 1 - Ron Nichols - 'Joe was probably one of the most knowledgeable people on this battle. He presented a number of papers at the CBHMA annual symposium and there is little doubt in my mind that he possessed the capability to accurately assess the events that occurred on those two fateful days in 1876. Joe passed away in 2003 and he will be sorely missed.'
Note 2 - 'No. 18. NOTE ON THE CUSTER FIGHT - Through the kindness of Mr. Frank Zahn my attention was called to the fact that, following the fight with Major Reno in the bottoms of the Little Big Horn on the morning of June 25, Sitting Bull had an accident. It happened soon after the troops fled to the bluffs. At that time some of the pack-mules were shot, or ran away to be captured by the Indians. Sitting Bull saw a pack-mule on the ground. Supposing the animal was dead he went up to it, whereupon the mule kicked Sitting Bull on the shins. The chief was not seriously injured. (New Sources of Indian History 1850-1891, p181)
Note 2 continued - Northern Cheyenne Ice Bear, Ice or White Bull - Custer rode down to the river bank and formed a line of battle and charged, and then they stopped and fell back up the hill, but he met Indians coming from above and from all sides, and again formed a line. It was here that they were killed. From the men and from the horses of Reno's command, the Indians had obtained many guns and many cartridges which enabled them to fight Custer successfully. If it had not been for this, they could not have killed them so quickly. It was about eleven o'clock when they attacked Reno, and one o'clock when Custer's force had all been killed. The men of Custer's force had not used many of their cartridges, some had ten cartridges used from their belts and some twenty, but all their saddle pockets were full. (Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877 by Jerome A. Greene, p59-61)
Note 3 - From Whittaker's take on the Custer fight - it is not difficult to appreciate how Reno was perhaps left a little rankled upon digesting this particular chaper of Custer's biograpy. -
Let no man say such a life was thrown away. The spectacle of so much courage must have nerved the whole command to the heroic resistance it made. Calhoun's men would never have died where they did, in line, had Calhoun not been there to cheer them. They would have been found in scattered groups, fleeing or huddled together, not fallen in their ranks, every man in his place, to the very last. Calhoun, with his forty men, had done on an open field, what Reno, with a hundred and forty, could not do defending a wood. He had died like a hero, and America will remember him, while she remembers heroes. See note 4.
About a mile beyond, Keog's company was slaughtered in position, his right resting on the hill where Custer fell. Custer had chosen the best ground to be found, and was determined to retreat no farther. By this time he must have realized that Reno had been beaten, but he trusted at least to Benteen to come and help him. The Indians were all around him, but a vigorous attack by Benteen on their rear would beat them, could Custer only hold them long enough. Keogh was an older soldier than any there. He had been an officer in the Papal service in the days when Garibaldi made war upon the Holy Father, and he had served on the staffs of Buford and Stoneman during the war. The sight of Calhoun's men, dying as they did, had nerved Keogh's men to the same pitch of sublime heroism. Every man realized that it was his last fight, and was resolved to die game. Down they went, slaughtered in position, man after man dropping in his place, the survivors contracting their line to close the gaps. We read of such things in history, and call them exaggerations. The silent witness of those dead bodies of heroes in that mountain pass cannot lie. It tells plainer than words how they died, the Indians all round them, first pressing them from the river, then curling round Calhoun, now round Keogh, till the last stand on the hill by Custer, with three companies. See note 5.
How that fight went. Curly the Upsaroka scout, tells us, he the only man who escaped alive, and who got away to the steamer Far West lying at the mouth of the river. His testimony was taken by the officers of Terry's staff, through an interpreter. It is plain and prosaic in its simplicity, but it tells the tale. When questioned closely by one of the officers see note 6, he (Curley) mentioned one little fact about his escape that is pregnant with light on Custer's fate. When he saw that the party with the General was to be overwhelmed, he went to the General and begged him to let him show him a way to escape. General Custer dropped his head on his breast in thought for a moment, in a way he had of doing. There was a lull in the fight after a charge, the encircling Indians gathering for a fresh attack. In that moment, Custer looked at Curly, waved him away and rode back to the little group of men, to die with them. Curly did not leave Custer until the battle was nearly over,and he describes it as desperate in the extreme, see note 7
There was the little group of men on the hill, the Indians hovering round them like hounds baying a lion, dashing up close and receding, the bullets flying like swarms of bees, the men in the little group dropping one by one. At last the charm of Custer's charmed life was broken. He got a shot in the left side and sat down, with his pistol in his hand. Another shot struck Custer and he fell over. The last officer killed was a man who rode a white horse (believed to be Lieut. Cook, Adjutant of the Seventh, as Lieuts. Cook and Calhoun were the only officers who rode white horses, and Lieut. Calhoun was found dead on the skirmish line, near the ford, and probably fell early in the action). At last they were all gone, every officer of the group. Custer fallen and Cook killed, the remaining men broke. Then the scout fled too - see note 7
Note 4 - Reno's descendents sued the US Army claiming $25 million in damages considered due for dishonouring the ex-major.
Note 5 - One can appreciate how Capt. F.W. Benteen rankled at Whittaker's tribute to fallen comrade and brother in arms. Whittaker produced a vicious and beautifully crafted attack upon the two officer's felt to have betrayed Custer.
Note 6 - This officer told the story personally to Mrs. Custer afterwards.
Note 7 - This fact was corroborated on July 8. 1876, by Holmes Offley Paulding, Lieutenant, Medical Corps, and a member of General Gibbon's column at the Custer massacre. The particulars in brief as we learned them from these officers & from one of our Crow scouts named "Curly" who had been with Custer until the fight was over or nearly so (and who had escaped by mixing with Sioux after all the whites were killed but 5. one of whom was then wounded) were about as follows: They were then, about 8 A. M. of the 25th, where they could see the smoke of a big Indian camp on the Little Horn and very soon after Custer, becoming satisfied that he was discovered, determined to attack at once so as to give them no chance to leave. He ordered Capt. Benteen with 4 companies to guard the pack train and proceed toward the bluffs, while he with 5 companies attacked from one end of the village, & Reno with I believe 3 companies was to charge down toward Custer from the other. Before making his final disposition he sent a scout ahead to find out where the tepees (lodges) were the thickest, as there was where he would charge. The scout returned and it is said that when he reported told Custer with perfect terror that there were lodges as thick as the grass and begged him not to fight so many. Custer merely said with a laugh that he was glad they were all there. Then giving his orders to Reno & Benteen he left them. Where he charged from was very bad ground. From the summit of the bluff to the river was a slope of about 2 miles the village lying in the valley across the stream, in plain sight of the whole length of the slope. Custer & his men gave their yell & charged down for a ford. They did not strike it exactly, but had to move along a cut bank for some distance, under heavy fire from the timber opposite. Finally on reaching the ford they were met by an immense body of Indians fighting on foot. They crossed in the face of this terrible fire but were driven back, dismounted & put in one or two volleys, remounted & retreated alternately, until what was left of them reached the summit of the bluff. At this point they were met by another large body of Indians who had swept around behind them & here surrounded by about 2,500 or more warriors they fought to the death. Our Indian "Curly" says they began to fight before the sun was yet in the middle of the sky & when he got away it was nearly half behind the bluffs about 8 o'clock. What we know of Custer depends of course on the signs discovered and the statement of "Curly" who is a good, brave & truthful young warrior of the Crow tribe. He says they fought well and were not afraid to die. [/size][/i]Paulding's record of events is informative for the impression of events given him by those who fought, indicating that what was presented by those who fought was confusing and misleading from the beginning. Note 8 - 10 'The men of Custer's force had not used many of their cartridges, some had ten cartridges used from their belts and some twenty, but all their saddle pockets were full.' (Lakota and Cheyenne: Indian Views of the Great Sioux War, 1876-1877; Jerome A. Greene, p59-61) At Reno's Inquiry Lt. Charles DeRudio stated that carbines were jamming after 8-10 rounds during the valley fight (W.A. Graham; 1933,p300), a disastrous percentage of failure, greater than presented by archaeology which indicates 2.8-3.4% failures from examination of recovered shell cases. Reno's troops skirmished and did not shoot by volley. At 3.4% failure, 7 in 100 weapons will jam shooting way two rounds, and at six rounds fired that is twenty guns down. With DeRudio's actual example of the problem, skirmisher's were into a world of hurt after as little as 5 rounds volleyed and 40 weapons jammed. That is statistics for you, but jams would actually occur far more dangerously after each weapon had fired of 8-10 rounds, effectively taking down the entire gun-line. Crazy Horse was aware of the problem with the Springfield weapons, although he was known to be bullet proof. Archaeology cannot account for jammed weapons which were simply discarded from hand with round stuck in place. Rain in the Face - (Indian fights and fighters: the soldier and the Sioux; C.T. Brady, p285). From the 'Rain in the Face' interview done by McFadden with McLaughlin interpreting - "Their guns wouldn't shoot but once - the thing wouldn't throw out the empty cartridge shells. (In this he was historically correct, as dozens of guns were picked up on the battlefield by General Gibbon's command two days after with the shells still sticking in them, showing that the ejector wouldn't. Weapons jamming after 8-10 rounds, will do a Bob Marley, jammin' together! Note 11 - It seems that sketches of Custer's battlegound by Capt. Henry B. Freeman and Lt. Edward Maguire, indicating routes of march, are complementary. That is not so. It is in fact sketches by Freeman and Lt. P.W. Clark that are complimentary. Whilst that seems a confusing proposition, it is not. [/size] Reno's specific whereabouts will follow shortly.
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Post by herosrest on Jul 5, 2012 6:52:30 GMT -6
October 12th, 1876; 5th Cavalry Camp; Amphibious Creek. "Haven't you served before ?" "Not in the regulars, sir." "That man is lame, sir," interposed a sergeant. "It is an old wound," says the man eagerly," and it's only so once in while. I can ride first-rate." "What was your regiment ?" "Seventh Wisconsin, sir." "What! Were you at Gainesville?" "Yes, sir. Wounded there." A knot of officers, Merritt, Mason, Sumner, and Montgomery who fought through the war with the Army of the Potomac, are standing there as the adjutant turns. "Sergeant, take this man to Company "K" and fit him out and stop a moment. Bring him to my tent tonight after supper. Gentlemen, that's an Iron Brigade man." That evening a Company K sergeant scratches the flap of the adjutant's tent you cannot knock when there is no door and presents himself with the recruit - veteran. The latter looks puzzled, but perfectly self possessed; answers without hesitation two or three rapidly propounded questions as to names of his regimental officers in '62, and then seems completely bewildered as the adjutant takes him cordially by the hand and bids him welcome. However, it did not require many words to explain the matter. CAMPAIGNING WITH CROOK by Charles King, 5th Cavalry USA p162-163 ______________________________________________________________________________ "HEADQUARTERS BIG HORN AND YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION CAMP ROBINSON, NEB., October 24, 1876. "General Orders No. 8."The time having arrived when the troops composing the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition are about to separate, the brigadier-general commanding addresses himself to the officers and men of the command to say: "In the campaign now closed he has been obliged to call upon you for much hard service and many sacrifices of personal comfort. At times you have been out of reach of your base of supplies; in most inclement weather you have marched - without food and slept without shelter ; in your engagements you have evinced a high order of discipline and courage; in your marches, wonderful powers of endurance; and in your deprivations and hardships, patience and fortitude. "Indian warfare is, of all warfare, the most dangerous, the most trying, and the most thankless. Not recognized by the high authority of the United States Senate as war, it still possesses for you the disadvantages of civilized warfare, with all the horrible accompaniments that barbarians can invent and savages execute. In it you are required to serve without the incentive to promotion or recognition ; in truth, without favor or hope of reward. "The people of our sparsely settled frontier, in whose defence this war is waged, have but little influence with the powerful communities in the East; their representatives have little voice in our national councils, while your savage foes are not only the wards of the nation, supported in idleness, but objects of sympathy with large numbers of people otherwise well-informed and discerning. "You may, therefore, congratulate yourselves that, in the performance of your military duty, you have been on the side of the weak against the strong, and that the few people there are on the frontier will remember your efforts with gratitude. " If, in the future, it should transpire that the avenues for recognition of distinguished services and gallant conduct are opened, those rendered in this campaign will be remembered. " BY COMMAND OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL CROOK.(Signed) JOHN G. BOURKE, " First Lieutenant Third Cavalry, A.D.C., and A.A.A. General" p166-167 Excerpted from 'Siouxicidal circumstances'. The detail fell upon the Fifth Cavalry. One officer and thirty men to take the back track, dig up the boxes thirty miles away, and bring them in. With every prospect of meeting hundreds of the Sioux following our trail for abandoned horses, the duty promised to be trying and perilous, and when the colonel received the orders from headquarters, and, turning to me, said, "Detail a lieutenant," I looked at the roster with no little interest. Of ten companies of the Fifth Cavalry present, each was commanded by its captain, but subalterns were scarce, and with us such duties were assigned in turn, and the officer longest in from scout or detachment service was Lt. Keyes. So that young gentleman, being hunted up and notified of his selection, girded up his loins and was about ready to start alone on his perilous trip, when there came swinging up to me an officer of infantry an old West Point comrade who had obtained permission to make the campaign with the Fifth Cavalry and had been assigned to Company I for duty, but who was not detailable, strictly speaking, for such service as Keyes's, from our roster. "Look here, King, you haven't given me half a chance this last month, and if I'm not to have this detail, I want to go with Keyes, as subordinate, or anything; I don't care, only I want to go." The result was that he did go, and when a few days since we read in the Sentinel that Satterlee Plummer, a native of Wisconsin and graduate of West Point, had been reinstated in the army on the special recommendation of Gen. Crook, for gallantry in Indian campaign, I remembered this instance of the Sioux war of 1876, and, looking back to my note-book, there I found the record and result of their experience on the back track they brought in fourteen horses and all the ammunition without losing a man. p146 August 12th, 1876. That evening Capt's Weir and McDougall, of the Seventh Cavalry, spent an hour or so at our fire, and gave us a detailed account of their fight on the 25th, on the Little Big Horn. They were with Reno on the bluffs, and had no definite knowledge of the fate of Custer and his five companies until high noon on the 27th, when relieved by Gen. Gibbon. Then they rode at once to the field, and came upon the remains of their comrades. "It must have been a terrible sensation when you first caught sight of them," said one of their listeners. "Well, no," replied McDougall. "In fact, the first thought that seemed to strike every man of us, and the first words spoken were, 'How white they look !' We knew what to expect, of course; and they had lain there stripped for nearly forty-eight hours." p86-87 Nearing a ford of the Tongue River, we found some little crowding and confusion. The heads of columns were approaching the same point upon the bank, and we were just about hunting for a new ford when the Seventh Cavalry made a rapid oblique, and Major Reno doffed his straw hat to General Carr, with the intimation that we had the 'right of way' a piece of courtesy which our commander did not fail to acknowledge. Their tents were brightly lighted and comfortably furnished. Even the Seventh Cavalry were housed like Sybarites to our unaccustomed eyes. "Great guns !" said our new Major, almost exploding at a revelation so preposterous. "Look at Reno's tent he's got a Brussels carpet !" But they made us cordially welcome, and were civilly unconscious of our motley attire. p82 A report gained credence later in the day that Dr. Clements, Crook's medical director, said that it would be Siouxicidal to fight under the circumstances. p79 Answering our eager signals, Gen. Carr comes hurriedly up the slope and levels his glass. It is dust, sure enough, and lots of it. Nothing but an immense concourse of four-footed animals could raise such a cloud. "Forward J" is the order; "Indians or buffalo ?" is the query. "Ride over and report it to Gen. Merritt," says my colonel to me. So Donnybrook strikes a rapid lope, and we pick our way through the cottonwoods, over the stream and up the low bank on the other side, where the first thing that meets my eyes is a grand hullabaloo among the Indians, our allies. They are whooping and yelling, throwing blankets and superfluous clothing to the ground stripping for a fight, evidently and darting to and fro in wild excitement. Beyond them the troops are massing in close column behind some low bluffs, and, looking back, I see the Fifth coming rapidly through the stream to join them. Evidently my news is no news to Gen. Merritt; but the message is delivered all the same, and I get permission to gallop ahead towards the scouts and see what's coming. I make for a bluff just on the edge of the plain I have described, and, nearing it, can see farther and farther around the great bend. Our scouts and Indians are dashing around in circles, and cautiously approaching the turn. Another minute and I have reached the bluff, and there get a grand view of the coming host. Indians! I should say so scores of them, about in excitement to our own. But no Indians are they who keep in close column along that fringe of trees; no Indians are they whose compact squadrons are moving diagonally out across the broad plain, taking equal intervals, then coming squarely towards us at a rapid trot. Then look ! Each company, as it comes forward, opens out like the fan of practised coquette, and a sheaf of skirmishers is launched to the front. Something in the snap and style of the whole movement stamps them at once. There is no need of fluttering guidon and stirring trumpet - call to identify them; I know the Seventh Cavalry at a glance, and swing my old campaign hat in delighted welcome. Behind them are the solid regiments of Miles and Gibbon, and long trains of wagons and supplies. It is General Terry and his whole array, and our chiefs ride forward to greet them. And then it is that the question is asked, in comical perplexity, "Why, where on earth are the Indians ?" Except our allies, none are in sight. They have slipped away between us. p76-78 - Charles King When the Nez Perces under Chief Joseph made their memorable march, they were turned by Capt. Rawn at the Lolo, struck by Gen. Gibbon on the Big Hole and surrounded by Miles on Snake creek. Gen. Sherman was present and decided to put a post at Missoula and selected the site. Maj. Maginnis obtained the money from the general fund, and the beautiful post of Missoula was built without authority from Congress until Senator Dixon obtained a fund. During the seal and fur fisheries controversy, Sheridan established Fort Harrison. Nelson A. Miles, Personal Recollections; p260 - Chief Joseph and others had gone into the hills and mountains to gather up their stock with a view to removing it, at the very time that a disaffected element took advantage of these conditions to precipitate hostilities. A young man whose brother had been killed the year before by a white man, went out and found this man, killed him, and brought his horse into the camp. As he stood beside the stolen horse, stroking his mane, he said : "You will now have to go to war, as I have commenced it by killing the man who killed my brother. Troops will be sent against all of you." This act did in fact, start hostilities, as it created intense excitement and feeling against the Indians on the part of the whites, and troops were sent to arrest alleged depredations and hostilities. Then occurred some sharp fighting by troops under General Howard, the Indians retreating east over the mountains, up what is known as the Lolo trail and Clark's Fork of the Columbia, thence east through what is known as Big Hole Basin, where they were overtaken by the command of General Gibbon. Then a sharp and desperate fight occurred in which General Gibbon was wounded and his attack repelled. The Indians retreating were followed by General Howard's command through Yellowstone Park and out over Clark's Fork Pass, a tributary of the Yellowstone. In fact they came near intercepting General Sherman in his tour through the Yellowstone Park. Reports of inspection made in the summer of 1877. - Memoranda made by Col. O.M. Poe, U.S. Engineers, ADC. accompanying Gen W.T. Sherman from Missisippi River to the Pacific, July to October, 1877. August 5. — Started at 6.30 a. m., the road continuing down Trail Creek for about three miles, when it entered the immediate valley of the Yellowstone and turned sharply up that stream, and was nearly level from there to the end of the day's march. At 11am. we had reached Bottler's Ranch, where we stopped for noon, on the bank of the river, about three-quarters of a mile beyond the house. The reach of the Yellowstone here is a very fine one, the banks high and the channel straight, looking very much like a canal. Just before reaching Bottler's we had been met by Colonel Norris, Superintendent of the Park, who gave us marvelous accounts of the numbers of trout thereabouts, and as soon as we had halted, Colonel Bacon and Tom Sherman got out their fishing tackle and made for the river with all the spirit of true sportsmen. Both met with a remarkable degree of success, and the result was all the fish required to feed the whole party. The bait used was grasshoppers, the handsome artificial flies, with which the anglers were provided, proving but little temptation to the fish. www.archive.org/details/reportsinspecti00deptgoogIn 1882 the townsite of Livingston was surveyed for the Northern Pacific railroad company by Robert J. Perry, and on December 21st the plat was recorded in the office of the clerk and recorder of Gallatin county by T. F. Oakes, vice-president of the company. The railroad company held the lots at a high figure, they sold readily, and it was estimated in September, 1883, that up to that time the company realized $200,000 from the sales. As construction crews moved to the west, a large part of the rough element went with them, and the young town settled down upon its prosperous career.
1883 was a memorable from early spring until late fall as people poured into the new town by the hundreds and all kinds of enterprises started. From a hamlet of temporary structures Livingston advanced to a well built city, with over an hundred business houses and a population of two thousand. Its growth was phenomenal, outstripping all rivals along the line of the Northern Pacific. The most important factor in the growth of Livingston during the year was the building of the Northern Pacific shops. The first brick building was put up in spring 1883 by Henry Frank, the leading clothier in the old town. A bank controlled by Stebbins, Mund & Co. and managed by A. L. Love, cashier, was established early in the year. This was followed by. the First National Bank which opened in temporary quarters on July 17th. C. Livingston was president, M. Fogarty, vp and the directors were Messrs. Holliday, Donnelly, Pease and Halloran.Olin D. Wheeler was a topographer with John Wesley Powell's survey of the Colorado River, 1874-1879. From 1892 to 1909 hr was in charge of advertising Northern Pacific Railway, and authored its annual publication, Wonderland, which highlighted the history and scenic beauty of the northwestern United States. For the 1893 issue, Wheeler wrote about Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn; he continued to investigate the subject until his retirement in 1909. Among other topics, Wheeler became interested in the history of the selection of a Pacific railway route and in the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After exploring the trail of the latter extensively, he published his two-volume The Trail of Lewis and Clark in 1904. Active in his retirement, Wheeler in 1924 was appointed historian of the Veterans' Association of the Northern Pacific Railway; he died a year later. ]Inventory of the Olin D. Wheeler Papers, 1892-1924 www.newberry.org/collections/FindingAids/wheeler/Wheeler.html Correspondence, notes, and writings of author, topographer, and Northern Pacific Railway executive Olin Dunbar Wheeler regarding articles about Wheeler and reviews of his work, mainly material relating to investigations of Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn; including correspondence with individuals interested in or involved in the affair (Custer's wife, the photographer D.F. Barry, F.F. Girard, Capt. E.S. Godfrey, Theodore W. Goldin, Capt. Charles King, C.A. Lounsberry, Valentine McGillycuddy, Richard A. Roberts, and T.A. Warburton). There are battlefield maps drawn by Indian guides in 1892, a questionnaire completed by Bob Failed Horse, Medicine Bear, and Spotted Blackbird in 1902, and Wheeler's manuscript and proof copy for the 1893 issue of Wonderland. Photographs collected by Wheeler and of him comprise the Olin D. Wheeler Collection of Photographs of Yosemite Valley and the Route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which is part of the Edward E. Ayer Photograph Collection. In company with General Sheridan, General Sackett, and General Forsyth, General Crook travelled across the then unknown territory between the Wind River and the Big Horn to the Tongue River, then down to the Custer battlefield, and by steamer from the mouth of the Little Horn to the Yellowstone, and down the Missouri to Bismarck. In company with the Hon. Carl Schurz, then Secretary of the Interior, he explored all the Yellowstone Park, and viewed its wonders the exquisite lake, the lofty precipices of the canon, the placid flow of the beautiful river, and its sudden plunge over the falls into the depths below. On the Border with Crook; p430 Limited editions, Behind Custer at the Little Big Horn: The Story of Lieutenant Edward Mathey and the Packtrain by James V. Schneider & Richard Campbell, n.d., ca 1980. Keogh, Comanche And Custer by Capt. Edward S. Luce, 1974, Lewis Osborne, Ashland, Oregon, limited edition of 1950. Indian Campaigns: Sketches of Cavalry Service in Arizona and on the Northern Plains by Capt. Charles King, 1984. Cavalry Scraps: The Writings of Frederick W. Benteen, by John M. Carroll, editor, 1979, Guidon Press, Athens, Ga. Custer's Last Campaign and The Battle of the Little Big Horn by Capt. E.S. Godfrey, 1968, Lewis Osborne, Palo Alto, Ca. Mackenzie's Last Fight with the Cheyennes: A Winter Campaign in Wyoming and Montana by Capt. John G. Bourke, 1966. ]Frank Grouard captured age 16, spent 6 years with Lakota - Oglala. He was hired by Crook in 1876 as a scout and interpreter at $150 a month. Grouard's 2nd wife was Sally Garnett, who left him and went to Pine Ridge where she married Charles Twiss. Sally Garnett was actually Sally Bouyer half sister of William, born from the second marriage of Garnett's mother. Later still she married Philip White. Grouard's 3rd wife Eulalie Garnier was sister of Baptiste Garnier 'Little Bat' . She left Grouard for another at Pine Ridge. The Indians told Grouard that when Custer's attempt to cross the "Little Big Horn had been frustrated, the command headed directly east for the high bluffs, behind which hundreds of Indians were secreted. These rose up to meet Custer as his men advanced. Not knowing that the savages were there, Custer was taken completely by surprise, and attempted, by a charge, to force his way through the enemy to the northeast. But he met with such a withering fire that he was compelled to seek lower ground, and in doing so he met the enemy's force that, by this time, had crossed the river and filled all the draws to the north, and was compelled to feel his way west and south, which accounts for the finding of the bodies of his command lying in almost a perfect circle. Did the charge by Custer's command to force through enemy to the northeast, involve the fight on Nye Cartwright ridge? Is that part of the battle understood by Charle's King - A dismounted line of skirmishers, horses held to the rear at Deep Coulee as indicated by Capt. Henry B. Freeman. Were evidences of fighting on Nye Cartwright ridge from the early skirmish with Cheyennes and Sioux including Wolf Tooth and Big Foot? Are evidences of fighting on Nye Cartwright ridge actually anything to what so ever do with comabat by Custer's command on June 25th, 1876? What scientific proof for this exists? Why does none exist? I have a mint condition 1876 silver eagle, which I offer to you (no questions asked) for $777,777.77 - a very significant discount on current market price. Forward a cheque with your details, and the item will be shipped as soon as possible after payment clears. (Very many terms & impossible conditions apply)
THE FIGHT OF THE REAR GUARD CAMPAIGNING WITH CROOK (102-111) [/CENTER] Ragged and almost starving, out of rations, out at elbows and every other exposed angle, out of everything but pluck and ammunition, Gen. Crook gave up pursuit of Sitting Bull at the head of Heart River. Indians had scattered in every direction. We had chased them a month and were no nearer than when we started. Trails led in as many directions as degrees in the circle; they burned off grass from Yellowstone to the mountains and our horses were dropping in scores, starved and exhausted, every day we marched. There was no help for it, and only one thing left to do. At daybreak orders came, "Make for the Black Hills due south by compass seven days' march at least," and we headed our dejected steeds accordingly and shambled off in search of supplies.
Through eleven days of pouring, pitiless rain we plodded on that never to be forgotten trip, and when at last we sighted Bare Butte and halted, exhausted, at the swift flowing current of the Belle Fourche, three fourths of our cavalry, of the Second, Third, and Fifth regiments, had made the last day's march afoot. One half our horses were broken down for good, one fourth fallen never to rise, and dozens had been eaten to keep their riders alive. On the night of September 7th halted near the headwaters of Grand River, a force of 150 men of Third Cavalry with serviceable horses of that regiment, pushed ahead under Maj. Anson Mills to find the Black Hills, buy up supplies in Deadwood and hurry back.
Two days after, a courier rode in with news that Mills was surrounded twenty miles south, and every officer and man of the Fifth Cavalry whose horse had strength enough to trot pushed ahead. Through mud, mist, and rain we plunged along and by half-past ten were exchanging congratulations with Mills and shots with redskins in as wealthy an Indian village, for its size, as ever seen. Custer's guidons and uniforms were the first met our eyes - trophies and evidence of part taken in the battle of Little Big Horn. Mills stumbled upon the village before day, made a magnificent dash and scattered the Indians to neighboring heights, Slim Buttes by name, and hung on to his prize like a bull-dog, in the face of appalling odds.
That afternoon, reinforced by swarms of warriors, they made a grand rally and spirited attack, but 'twas no use. By that time we had some two thousand to meet them, and the whole Sioux nation couldn't have whipped us. Some four hundred ponies had been captured with the village, and many a fire was lighted and many a suffering stomach gladdened with a welcome change from horse-meat, tough and stringy, to rib roasts of pony, grass-fed, sweet, and succulent. There is no such sauce as starvation. Next morning, at break of day, Crook, with the wounded, prisoners, his sturdy infantry, and the cavalry but one battalion of the Fifth, pushed on south through the overhanging pall of dripping mist. They had to go. There wasn't a hard-tack north of Deadwood, and men must eat to live.
The First Battalion of the Fifth he left to burn completely the village with all its robes, furs, and Indian treasures, and cover the retreat. As the last of the column disappeared through drizzle with Mason's skirmishers thrown well out upon their right flank, a light wind swept upward the veil of smoke and mist, and the panorama became evident to us and to the surrounding Indians at one and the same moment. There was no time to take observation, down they came with a rush. On a little knoll in the centre of the burning village a group of horsemen halted Gen. Carr, commanding Fifth Cavalry, and the first remark as the fog raises falls from the lips of the adjutant: "By Jove! here's a Badger State benefit!"
All along the line, attack commenced and the battalion sharply engaged fighting afoot, horses led away after the main column, but within easy call. Our orders are to follow, but stand off the Indians, not wanted to accompany the march. It is one thing to "stand off the Indians" and hold your ground it is quite another to stand him off and fall back. They are dashing about on nimble ponies, following up the line as it doggedly retires from ridge to ridge, far outnumbering us, and all the time keeping up a rattling fire and a volley of aboriginal remarks at our expense. "Lo" yells with unaffected glee when his foe falls back, and it sometimes sounds not unlike the "yi-i-i-ip" of the rebels in '63. Along our line there is a business like taciturnity, an occasional brief, ringing word of command from some officer, or a half-repressed chuckle of delight as some Patlander sees an Indian reel in his saddle, and turns to mutter to his neighbor on the skirmish line that he'd "softened the wax in that boy's ears."
Occasionally, too, some man suddenly drops carbine, claps his hand to leg, arm, or side, and with an odd mixture of perplexity and pain in his face looks appealingly to the nearest officer. Our surgeon is just bandaging a bullet hole for one such, but finds time to look up and ask: "Why Badger State benefit, King ? I don't see thepoint." "Just because there are six Wisconsin men right here on this slope," is the answer,"and dozens morefor aught I know." Look at them if you will. I warrant no resident of the Cream City could recognize his townsmen to-day. Remember, we've been hunting Sioux and Cheyennes since May; haven't seen a shanty for three months, or a tent for two; haven't had a change of raiment for eight weeks, or a shave for ten ; and, under those battered slouch hats and in that tattered dress, small wonder that you fail to know the wearers.
Right in our front, half-way to the skirmish line, rides the major commanding the battalion; a tall, solidly-built fellow, with twinkling blue eyes and a bronzed face, barely visible under the mass of blond hair and beard over which the rain is dripping. He is a Milwaukeean and a West-Pointer, a stanch favorite, too ; and today the whole rear guard is his command, and on his shoulders rests the safety of our move. His is an ugly, trying duty, but he meets it well. Just now he is keenly watching the left of his line, and by a trick he has of hitching forward in his saddle when things don't go exactly right, you see that something's coming. A quick gesture calls up a young officer who is carelessly lounging on a raw-boned sorrel that sniffs excitedly at the puffs of smoke floating past his nose. Quick as the gesture the officer straightens in his saddle, shifts a quid into his "off" cheek, and reins up beside his commander. The major points to the left and front, and away goes the subaltern at a sputtering gallop. Milwaukee is sending Fond du Lac to make the left company "come down out of that."
They have halted on a rocky ridge from which they can gloriously pepper the would-be pursuers, and they don't want to quit. The major is John J. Upham, the subaltern is Lieutenant H. S. Bishop. Square in front, striding down the opposite slope and up towards us come the Company G skirmishers. A minute more and the ridge they have left is swarming with Indians. "Halt !" rings out along the line, and quick as thought the troopers face about, fling themselves venire d terre and blaze away, scattering the Sioux like chaff. There's a stalwart, bearded fellow commanding the right skirmishers of the company, steadily noting the fire of his men. Never bending himself, he moves from point to point cautioning such "new hands" as are excitedly throwing away their shots. He is their first sergeant, a crack soldier ; Milwaukee, too for in old days at Engelmann's school we knew him as Johnny Goll. Listen to his captain, half a head taller and quite as prominent and persistent a target, who is shaking a gauntleted fist at his subordinate and shout ing, "I've told you to keep down a dozen times, sergeant; now, by God, I want you to do it." This makes the nearest men grin. The others are too busy to hear it.
The scene is picturesque enough from our point of view. To the south, two miles away by this time, Crook's long column is crawling snake-like over the rolling sward. To the west the white crags and boulders of the buttes shut off the view we are fighting along at their very base. Northward the country rises and falls in alternate grassy ridge and ravine; not a tree in sight only the low-hanging pall of smoke from the burning village in the near distance; the slopes swarming with dusky horsemen, dashing towards us, whooping, yelling, firing, and retiring, always at speed, except where some practised marksman springs from his pony and prone upon the ground draws bead at our chiefs. Between their restless ranks and us is only the long, thin line of cavalry skirmishers, slowly falling back face to the foe, and giving them gun for gun. Eastward, as far as the eye can reach, the country rolls away in billowy undulations, and look ! there comes a dash of Indians around our right flank. See them sweeping along that ridge? Upham is on low ground at this moment and they are beyond his view, but General Carr sees the attempt to cut us off, and in a second the adjutant of the regiment comes tearing to the line, fast as jaded horse can carry him. A comprehensive gesture accomplishes at once the soldierly salute to the major and points out the new danger. Kellogg's company swings into saddle and fairly springs to the right to meet it.
In buckskin trousers, fringed and beaded, but much the worse for wear, in ragged old hunting-shirt and shapeless hat, none but the initiated would recognize Milwaukee, much less West Point, in that adjutant. But he was marker of our Light Guard years before the war, and the first member of its corps of drummer boys. He is just speeding a grim-looking cavalryman, one of the headquarters orderlies, off with a despatch to Gen. Merritt, and that orderly is a Milwaukeean, too, and may have to "run the gauntlet" getting that message through; but his face, what you can see of it through grizzled hair and beard, looks unconcerned enough; and under the weather-stained exterior he is known to be a faithful old soldier one who loves the rough life better than he did the desk in ante bettum days when he was clerking at Hathaway & Belden's. "Old George," as the men call him, ran a train on the Watertown road, too, once upon a time, but about the close of the war he drifted from the volunteers into the regulars, and there he has stuck ever since.
But all this time Crook is marching away faster than we can back and follow him. We have to keep those howling devils beyond range of the main column, absorb their attention, pick up our wounded as we go, and be ready to give the warriors a welcome when they charge. Kellogg, with Company "I," has driven back the attempted turn of our right, but the Indians keep up their harassing attack from the rear. Time is precious, and Upham begins to think we are wasting it. Again the adjutant has come to him from Gen. Carr, and now is riding along the line to the right communicating some order to the officers, while Lt. Bishop is doing the same on the left. Just as the skirmishers cross the next ridge a few cool old shots from each company drop on hands and knees, and, crawling back to the crest, open a rapid fire on the pursuers, checking them.
Covered by this the main line sweeps down at a run, crosses the low, boggy ground between them, and toils up the ridge on which we are stationed. Here they halt, face about, throw themselves flat on their faces, and the Major signals to the outlying skirmishers to come in; they obey with a rush, and a minute after a mass of Indians pops over the divide in pursuit. With a ringing hurrah of exultation our line lets drive avolley,the astonished redskins wheel about, those who can, lugging with them the dead or wounded who have fallen, and scatter off under shelter.
"How's that, King ?" says the major, with a grin. "Think they've had enough ?" Apparently they have, as none reappear except in distant groups. Mount is the word. Ranks are formed, the men chat and laugh a moment, as girths and stirrups are being rearranged, then silence and attention as they break into column and jog off after Crook's distant battalions. The adjutant is jotting down the list of casualtiesin his note-book. " What time is it, major ?" "Eight o'clock," says Upham, wringing the wet from his hat. "Eight o'clock here; church-time in Milwaukee."Who would have thought it was Sunday ?The Conquest of the Missouri, p396 - The season of 1879, and the early part of that of 1880, were uneventful to the captain. He continued on the Batchelor, plying between Bismarck and the Yellowstone. During the winter of 1879 he built at Sioux City for local ferry purposes a stern-wheel boat which he named the Andrew S. Bennett, in honor of his old friend, Captain Bennett of the 5th Infantry. This brave officer had fallen in a battle with the Bannock Indians on Clark's Fork, Montana, September 4, 1878,* and his death caused deep sorrow to Captain Marsh, who had come to know him intimately during their days together on the Yellowstone. As soon as General Miles learned of the captain's action in naming his new ferry boat after the deceased soldier, he and the other officers of the 5th Infantry engaged an artist in the East to paint a life-size portrait of Captain Bennett, which they presented to Captain Marsh. He hung it in the cabin of the vessel and, though the latter was cut down and sunk by the ice at Sioux City many years ago, the portrait was rescued and remained in the captain's possession. The Conquest of the Missouri, p382 - After General Sherman had left the steamer Rosebud at the mouth of the Little Big Horn, the boat returned to Fort Keogh with General Terry still on board. She was met at the fort by General Miles, who informed Captain Marsh that he desired the boat to remain in the Yellowstone during the balance of the summer for the purpose of transporting supplies. General Terry therefore left the Rosebud and went on board the Far West, which was about departing for Fort Buford, while Captain Marsh began running his steamer in quartermaster's service between the Tongue and the Big Horn, continuing the work until the water became too low for navigation. The sudden and remarkable dash of Chief Joseph and his non-treaty Nez Perce Indians from northwestern Oregon across Idaho and Montana almost to the British line, furnished plenty of excitement for the soldiers during the late summer. General Miles, hurrying across country, intercepted the Nez Perce fugitives at the Bear Paw Mountains, nearly on the Line, and prevented them from forming the junction with Sitting Bull, which they contemplated. But the campaign was fought far from the Yellowstone regions where Captain Marsh was stationed and he had no part in it. Indeed, he seldom left his boat at all, for she was very busy all through the season in carrying to Fort Custer the supplies brought up to Fort Keogh by other boats which were of too deep draught to convey them further. The round trip between the two posts usually occupied only a few days and it soon became customary on almost every trip for some of the ladies of the Fort Keogh garrison to make the journey for pleasure. It furnished a welcome break in the monotony of their life at the post, and since the danger of Indian attacks had ceased to be as great as formerly, Captain Marsh was glad to have them along. On one occasion Miss Lizzie Sherman and Mrs. Hargous, wife of the First Lieutenant commanding Company C, 5th Infantry, made the trip, escorted by Lieutenants O.F. Long and H.K. Bailey of the 5th. Both of the ladies, but especially Miss Sherman, speedily won the approval of Captain Marsh by their cheerful tempers and the uncomplaining spirit with which they bore the little inconveniences unavoidable to travelers in such a country. The Blach Hills Trails , p218 - As soon as Reno was beaten and driven back across the river, the whole force turned on Custer and fought him until they destroyed him. Custer did not reach the river, but was about a half a mile up a ravine, now called Reno Creek. They fought the soldiers and drove them back step by step, until all were killed. The Indians ran out of ammunition and then used arrows. They fired from be- hind their horses. The soldiers got shells stuck in their guns and had to throw them away. They then fought with little guns (pistols). The Indians were in coulees behind and in front of Custer as he moved up the ridge to take position, and were just as many as the grass. The first two companies, Keogh's and Calhoun's, dismounted, and fought on foot. They never broke, but retired, step by step, until forced back to the ridge upon which all finally perished. They were shot down in the line where they stood. Keogh's company rallied by company and were all killed in a bunch. The warriors directed a special fire against the troopers who held the horses while the others fought. As soon as a holder was killed, by waving blankets and great shouting, the horses were stampeded, which made it impossible for the soldiers to escape afterward. The soldiers fought desperately and hard, and never surrendered. They fought standing. They fought in line along the ridge. As fast as the men fell the horses were herded and driven to- wards the squaws and old men, who gathered them up. When Reno attempted to find Custer by throwing out a skirmish line, Custer and all with him were dead. When the skirmishers reached a point overlooking Custer's field, the Indians were galloping around over the wounded, dying and dead, and popping bullets and arrows into them. At Reno's Inquiry Lt. Charles DeRudio stated that carbines were jamming after 8-10 rounds during the valley fight (W.A. Graham; 1933,p300). George B. Grinnell, Ice Bear, 1895 (Indian Views, J.A. Greene) - It was about eleven o'clock when they attacked Reno, and one o'clock when Custer's force had all been killed. The men of Custer's force had not used many of their cartridges, some had ten cartridges used from their belts and some twenty, but all their saddle pockets were full. George Herendeen. July 7, 1876 - 'I could hear heavy firing below in the river, apparently about two miles distant. I did not know who it was, but knew the Indians were fighting some of our men, and I learned afterward it was Custer's command. Nearly all the Indians in the upper end of the valley drew off down the river, and the fight with Custer lasted about one hour, when the heavy firing ceased. George Herendeen. Jan. 4, 1878 - 'just as we got settled down firing below us opened up and we knew Custer was engaged. The Indians had been leaving Reno and going down the valley in considerable numbers at full speed. The firing down the valley was very heavy. There were about nine volleys at intervals and the intermediate firing was quite rapid. The heavy firing lasted from three-quarters of an hour to an hour and then it died away'. RCoI Page 218 - It began in volleys. I heard a great many volleys fired, then between the volleys, and after the volleys ceased, there were scattering shots. It might have lasted an hour: I think not over an hour. Gerard - RCoI Page 85 - I heard continuous firing clear on down , as though there was a general engagement. Down to where l afterward went, saw Gen. Custer's battlefield and I heard firing to the left of the village, three or four volleys, as if there were fifty or one hundred guns at a volley, Lt. DeRudio was in the woods with me and when we heard the firing, he said By God, there's Custer coming; let's go and join him. I told him to wait; that we had plenty of time; that when the, firing got opposite to us we could go out and join him, that he was to far away. DeRudio - RCoi - Page 271 - the firing commenced on the other side of the village. I heard immense volleys of firing and more than half the Indians around Maj. Reno left. Part of them went on the highest bluffs and part went down the river.
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Post by herosrest on Dec 18, 2012 22:26:29 GMT -6
Across the continent with the Fifth Cavalry (1883) Author: Price, George Frederic, d. 1888
Upon the disbandment of the Sioux expeditions of 1876 the regiment was assigned to stations in the Department of the Platte. On the 29th of May, 1877, companies A, B, H, I, and L. under Captain Hamilton, set out from Fort D. A. Russell, Wye, and marched to Fort Fetterman, where Company L was detached to meet Lt Gen Sheridan at Fort Washakie and escort him across the country to the Yellowstone River. The other companies proceeded to the Big Horn country, where they encamped. The Lt Gen and the department commander, escorted by Company L, arrived at the camp on Tongue River on the 17th of July ; and on the 19th companies A, B, and I, under Major Hart (who had joined the battalion in June), joined the escort and accompanied the distinguished generals to the mouth of the Little Big Horn River. The battalion was employed during the summer in making reconnaissances along the north-east base of the Big Horn Mountains and in the valleys of the Little Big Horn, Rosebud, Tongue, and Powder rivers.
So, record now from a further source, placing specific companies of 5th Cavalry at LBH, to accompany that of Nelson Miles, Sherman, and Sheridan's ADC accompanying the Lt. Gen to Ft Custer.
5th Cavalry returns next, King was not the only writer and somewhere in records and archives are accounts of the 1877 battlefield, and also recovery of an officers remains several miles from the battlefield. The 1877 account by Cherokee Advocate places 14 skeletons of horses with the 28 mens remains. Which 28 men......... though.
Reasoning behind Nelson Miles take on the battle was based upon the absense of horse remains below LSH in 1878 but were the remains previously removed?
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Post by herosrest on Dec 19, 2012 0:06:17 GMT -6
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Post by herosrest on Dec 21, 2012 20:04:22 GMT -6
A part of the point, and hoped for argument here, is about how Custer's commsnd fought. HOW THEY MANEUVERED, DEPLOYED, AND FOUGHT.
Reno did it on foot, three companies deployed line abreast, skirmishing. That is a military thing. CUSTER, Keogh and Yates, were military l believe. From head to their bleached and name tagged cotton socks.
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Post by herosrest on Dec 27, 2012 17:09:04 GMT -6
Charles King was certainly capable of worthwhile military insight archive.org/stream/famousanddecisi00kinggoog besides his practical experience and knowledge. It is interesting that the LBH article appears to rival though not challenge that of Edward S Godfrey with publication in 1892. Part of this thrust is an news article published by the Cherokee Advocate newspaper in August 1877 describing the battlefield burials then with some interesting variance to modern and even contempory opinion. The Advocate was an interesting paper and its article on LBH reached into the heart of Washington influence.
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Post by Yan Taylor on Dec 28, 2012 8:43:40 GMT -6
Just thought that I would relay to you that ‘’Hunk’’ is doing ok, we exchanged Christmas cards last week, and I have had an E Mail of him wishing everyone here ‘’all the best for the new year’’, he has almost finished the book project that he has been working on, but due to health issues the time he can spend at the PC is limited.
This seemed the best place to post this message, as this thread contains one of his last posts.
Ian.
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Post by zekesgirl on Dec 28, 2012 11:31:10 GMT -6
Good to hear about 'Hunk', thanks bunches.
I am most anxiously awaiting 'his' book project.
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Post by wild on Dec 29, 2012 11:58:28 GMT -6
Well done Ian.Delighted to hear he is doing well. Regards
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Post by Yan Taylor on Dec 31, 2012 4:11:38 GMT -6
Hello ZG and Richard, it was my pleasure, Gordon is a really nice guy and I know he was pleased to hear that we were still thinking of him.
Ian.
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