March to the Battle-fidd.
Tl\us, with his future course of action left to his own discretionary judgment, Lieut.-Colonel Custer, with his regiment, left camp on the Yellowstone, June 22d, and proceeded up the Eosebud Eiver during the 23d and 24th, making sixty-one miles, the trail and Indian signs freshening with every mile, when they encamped and waited for information from the scouts, whose detachment had accompanied the regiment. It was ascertained, beyond doubt, that the Indian village was in the valley of the Little Big Horn, and, in order to reach it without discovering their approach to the Indians, a night march was decided on, the troops moving at 11 P. M., the line of march turning from the Eosebud to the right, up one of its branches. At 2 A M. of the morning of the 25th, it was* ascertained that the divide between the Eosebud and the Little Big Horn Eivers could not be crossed before daylight. The command then rested for three hours and made coffee, many of the brave fellows then partaking of their last meal on earth. The march was then resumed and the divide crossed, and about 8 A. M. the command was in the valley of one of the branches of the Little Big Horn. Indians being then plainly seen, and as it was thus evident that the troops could not take them by surprise, it was decided to attack them at once.
On the march, Custer had divided the regiment into three separate commands, assigning to Major M. A Eeno, Companies M, A and G, and to Captain Benteen, H, D and K, retaining himself the command of Companies C, E, F, I" and L ; Captain McDougal being assigned with Company B to the care of the pack train in the rear.
Custer's plan of attack in Indian warfare, in which he had been hitherto pre-eminently successful, was that of simultaneous assault from several points, an attack in front and flank at all events. In this instance, when arrived near the battle-field, and as he prepared himself to lead the charge about 12.30 P: M., he ordered the remaining two divisions to move up quickly and support him.
The battalion under Benteen with the pack train did not come up in time to participate in the charge and opening fight.
The detachment under Major Reno, numbering 145 men, hurried forward as ordered, and crpssed the river, where they soon became engaged with overwhelming numbers of the enemy. To save themselves from utter annihilation at the hands of the countless droves of Indians, who suddenly sprang into view, they retreated to a high hill in the vicinity, where they entrenched themselves, being soon after joined by the troops under Benteen.
Soon afterward they were furiously attacked and besieged by numberless foes; the siege being next day renewed, when the troops were relieved by the arrival of the- soldiers under General Terry, the Indians filing away across the hills at his approach.
Up to this date nothing was known of the fate of Custer and his command, the soldiers in the entrenchment on the hill, who never before had known him to fail them in danger, wondering audibly why he did not come to their relief.. In the retreat from the scene of his engagement with the Indians to the safety of the hill, Major Eeno lost in killed : First Lieutenant Donald Mcintosh, Second Lieutenant Ben. H. Hodgeson, 7th Cavalry, and A. A. Surgeon J. M. DeWolf, together with the famous scout Charles Reynolds, and 29. enlisted men of the regiment killed and 7 wounded. In the later attack on the hill, of the combined forces of Reno and Benteen-380 men in all, with 12 officers-there were killed 18 enlisted men and 46 wounded.
Upon the arrival of General Terry, the first intimatjjon was obtained of the fate of Custer and his men. An Upsar-oka scout, named Curley, had almost miraculously escaped during the progress of the fight with Custer, and made his way back to General Terry, then on the steamer " Fat West," at the mouth of the Big Horn River, and reported the total loss of Custer and his soldiers.
This report was disbelieved, or, at least, thought to be
greatly exaggerated-it being deemed impossible that such a calamity could befall the most successful Indian fighter of his day. Yet, from the extreme agitation of the forlorn scout, it was evident that a misfortune of some kind had occurred; and General Terry, with the residue of the troops under him, at once pressed forward, under the leadership of Cur-ley, arriving in time to save the lives of the wearied survivors under Reno; who, though making a gallant defense against overpowering numbers of the enemy, had lost all hope of rescue, since Custer had apparently failed them, and greeted the unexpected arrival of their comrades as a happy reprieve from expected death.
Immediately upon the arrival of General Terry-the Indians then having left-a detachment was sent out to search for traces of the missing commander and his men. Not far away their battle-field was found, and though no living thing was there to tell how grandly they had fought, and nobly they had died, yet no tongue was needed to show that they had all gone down, company by company, contending to the last for life, as heroes ever do. Their dead and mutilated bodies, disposed in the orderly array of systematic battle; the compact companies, with officers in place behind them ; the unbroken skirmish line of ghastly corpses, testified more eloquently than spoken words could do to the sublimity of courage that had animated each soul of that heroic band. An examination of the battle-ground disclosed the fact that when Custer left his comrades of the other two divisions, with orders for them to hasten forward and join in the attack, he dashed down the stream soma distance, seeking a convenient ford where he could cros^the river and attack the village from below; but failing to do so, went much further down the river than intended in his arrangements with Reno, whom he expected to support in the charge he had ordered Eeno to make before leaving him. When, at length, a suitable ford was discovered, his further progress was violently opposed by numberless Indians, who poured in a heavy fire from across the narrow river. Custer dismounted, to fight on foot, but his skirmishers were unable to cross the stream under the galling fire that assailed them and the cavalry were speedily driven back to the high ground in the rear; but not until swarms of Indians, mounted and on foot, had poured over the shallow river, and seized the ravines on either side, effectually cutting off their retreat in the direction in which they came. Custer was soon effectually surrounded, and receiving a terrible fire from all sides. The dead bodies of men and horses were found at the ford, and at a distance of about three-quarters of a mile from the river, as though thrown across the line of retreat to check the advance of the enemy. The entire company of Captain James Calhoun, brother-in-law of Lieutenant-Colonel Custer, lay dead in an irregular line, with Captain Calhoun and his Lieutenant, John J. Crittenden, in their proper places in the rear. A mile beyond this, on a ridge parallel to the river, the whole of Captain Myles W. Keogh's company were slaughtered in position – their right resting on the hill where Custer fell. Still further back on the ridge were found the dead bodies of thirty-two men of Captain George W. Yates' company, and here, too, had fallen the brave and ill-fated Custer, with his brother, Captain T. W. Custer, his Adjutant, Captain W. W. Cook, Lieutenant William Van W. Beily, and Captain Yates, together with the young nephew and brother of Custer-Armstrong Beed and Boston Custer, forage-master of the 7th Cavalry.
In a ravine near the river were found the dead bodies of the men and horses of Captain Thomas W. Custer's company, together with those of Captain Algernon E. Smith, and twenty-three men of his company. Lieutenant James E. Porter^Jjieutenant John Sturgis, and Lieutenant Harrington, together with tlllrty-five enlisted men, were missing, and no trace of them could be discovered. Near the ford, as though killed early in the fight, was the body of Mark Kel-log, correspondent of the New York Herald, and a resident of the frontier. His body was undisturbed and still clothed, as though overlooked by accident in the horrible carnival of blood and butchery that followed hard upon the battle. Near here was also found the body of " Isaiah" a colored scout, long in the employ of the officers on the frontier, an intelligent, trustworthy man, married to a Sioux squaw, who, with his children, was then at Fort Rice. This circumstance did not appear to be a recommendation to the mercy of his wife's relatives, as he was not only killed, but circumstances indicated that he had been captured and met his death by the savage cruelty of torture.
The probable fate of the thirty-five missing men and their three officers is too horrible to contemplate without a shudder. It is claimed by Indians who were in the fight and afterwards returned to their agencies, that the horses of a portion of the calvary were captured by the Indians early in the engagement, while the situation of those surrounding the group of men and officers, with whom Custer made his last stand, would seem to indicate that they had been killed by the soldiers to form a barricade, behind which to defend themselves, until the relief which they doubtless then expected from Reno and Benteen should arrive.
How vague and satisfactory are these pitiful details of this most horrible of modern massacres, the exact occurrences of which will probably never ba known! The sole survivors of all that proud array of men and steeds, so recklessly hurried to their impending doom, are the Upsaroka scout, "Curley," and the horse of Captain Keogh, Comanche, which was found near the battle-field with seven wounds. Major Reno, thinking him mortally wounded, ordered the noted war-horse to be shot; but Comanche was a veteran of the 7th Cavalry, and the men who knew and loved him, begged for his life, and by careful treatment and nursing he was restored, and remains to-day the only living survivor of the fated five companies who plunged into the carnage that engulfed alike, rider and steed, in the lonely valley of the Little Big Horn.
Soon after the discovery of the dead bodies on the battlefield, they were given hasty burial by their comrades of the surviving companies. Then, the Indians having escaped, and the supplies being exhausted, General Terry took up the line of march toward the Yellowstone, and returned with all possible haste to his headquarters at St. Paul, Minn., and thus ended one of the most disastrous and disgraceful campaigns in the annals of the country; and in the language of
General Sherman in his annual official report to the Secretary of War, who submitted the same to the next session of .: Congress (the Forty-fourth), which convened in December, j j/r 1876, said, " And had it not been for the brave and heroic *
Reno, not a man would have been brought off the field to tell the tale! "
In the entire management of the expedition, from its first organization down to the closing affray, there is but one redeeming feature mingled with our pity for the gallant boys in blue, who there met an untimely death-the warmest Admiration for the knightly courage, to which their lifeless bodies, ranged in order along the battle lines, bore dumb but eloquent witness.
" Even thus the sword of Custer, In his disastrous fall, Flashed out a blaze that charmed the world, And glorified his pall."
APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING SECTION.
We will here make brief mention of the filling up of the rank and file of the pet regiment on the plains, and some of its duties since the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Of the companies that were lost in that memorable battle, their places were at once filled by officers who survived to command them, and were soon recruited to the maximum by recruits sent forward from the East, who were recruited with a special view to closing the Indian war in the northwest, if possible. The field officers of the regiment that survived were veterans, and gallant and skillful men, who had seen many a hard-fought battle, and had won laurels on many a field, and lived only to take part in further operations to open and pave the way for civilization.
They had survived numerous battles during the war of the late rebellion, and had experienced hard service on our extreme frontier in subjugating the Indians, all the way from tho Wichita mountains to the valley of the Little Big Horn, where their gallant and chivalrous comrade, Lieutenant-
I
Colonel Custer, fell at the head of their dashing and fearless troopers. This regiment has been on duty at different military stations-mostly in north-western Dakota-and generally commanded by its Lieutenant-Colonel, Elmer Otis, and one or more of the Majors belonging to the regiment.
Brevet-Colonel Elmer Otis, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 7th U. S. Cavalry, received his appointment from the military academy at West Point before the war, and has been deservedly promoted from time to time up to the assignment to duty with this regiment. He is an industrious, zealous, and faithful officer. He has been the commanding officer at Fort Lincoln a greater portion of the time since his assignment to duty with the 7th Cavalry. He is much admired as an officer and a gentleman by his command, and in army circles as well as by the citizens in general.
Brevet-Colonel Joseph E. Tilford, the senior Major of the 7th Cavalry, was appointed from the military academy at West Point in 1851. He has been a brave and faithful officer, and his conduct " was gallant and meritorious in the battle of Valverde, N. M." He has been commanding officer at various military stations in north-western Dakota since his regiment came to Fort Rice in 1873. He is really the model and most gentlemanly Major in the U. S. Army. His record as a military officer and a gentleman is too well known to make mention at length in this volume. Suffice it to say, that he is an excellent military adviser, one of the best of disciplinarians, always having an eye to the morale of the army.
Brevet-Brigadier-General Lewis Merrill, a Major in the 7th Cavalry, has been in the service since July, 1855. He received his appointment from the military academy at West Point, and served with distinction all through the late war. During the rebellion his services were specially gallant and meritorious against the rebels in north Missouri, and in the capture of Little Rock, Ark., also against the rebel forces in north-western Georgia.
Major Merrill was well known through the late war as Colonel of one of the finest regiments of cavalry in the service, " known as Merrill's Horse." Since the war he has filled
important military positions in various parts of the country,, at times sitting as Judge Advocate on court martials.
As a military law officer, lie has no superior in this department, and we think we can safely say, no equal, unless it be General Alfred H. Terry, the Department Commander. For the past two seasons, he has had charge of protecting the line of the Northern Pacific Kailroad from Bismarck, D. T., to Miles City, M. T. The main duty of his command has been, and now is, to guard against roving bands of marauding Indians who infest the plains more or less, roaming from one section of the country to another, more for the purpose of stealing and running off stock, than to engage in actual warfare. He is a thoroughly schooled and skilled officer, and highly esteemed by all who know him.
Edward Ball, another Major of the " brave and intrepid 7th," joined his regiment in April, 1880. His career with this regiment has been short, and but very little service in the field has been performed since his assignment as one of its Majors. He is a brave, skillful and gentlemanly officer, and well worthy the uniform he wears, having served in the regular army since 1844. His record for bravery, industry and zeal stands among the first in the country.
Colonel Wm. Thompson, a retired officer from the 7th Cavalry, is a sturdy Pennsylvanian, and a true type of the American soldier and gentleman. At one time before the war, he was Professor of Law and Science in an Institute in his native State. Soon afterward he settled in Iowa and represented the Keokuk, or Southern district of that State in the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congress. Colonel Cork-hill, the District Attorney at Washington, who has charge of investigating " Giteau's case," was at one time a pupil under this veteran officer. He served through the late war with distinction, receiving promotion at different times for gallant and meritorious service on various battle-fields, and specially in the action of Prairie Grove and Bayou Meteo, Ark. He has seen hard service in Indian warfare all the wav from the Staked Plains to the headwaters of the Mis-souri. He is a genial gentleman in and out of the army, and devotes the greater portion of his time to matters pertaining to science, agriculture, and the general development of the new northwest.
The people throughout the States and other countries can now rest assured this section of our country, and more generally known as the new northwest, is in the hands of experienced and well-disposed officers, who have the good of their country at heart, as well as their own personal affairs, and reputation for bravery and achievements. There are other officers on the frontier t deserving of equal credit as those above mentioned, but having been in fields at too great a distance, the writer does not feel at liberty to make mention of matters of fact as they have transpired, that he is not quite familiar with.
Now that we have the unconditional surrender of Sitting Bull and all of his war chiefs, the survivors of the 7th Cavalry, as well as members of the other regiments in this department, who have for many years defied the murderous hordes of hostile savages, and who have fought as heroes fight, for friends and home, country and fame, may well take a long breath of great relief.
The writer is now waiting for a special messenger to arrive from Fort Buford, in order to get a correct and full account of the surrender of " the king of warriors," the wily Sitting Bull, whose manoeuvering on the Plains, and in and out of the bad lands, and whose aptness for Indian warfare has attracted more attention than any other one person in the country, except our suffering President, Mr. Garfield. We will endeavor to present to the readers of this work a concise and clear account of this important move on the part of our red brother, who for many years has been the Stalwart of the Stalwart Warriors.
Crow King