The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer (30 page)

On the morning of July 3, Taylor and Countryman departed from Stillwater and arrived at Fort Ellis by midafternoon. Taylor delivered Gibbon's dispatch to Captain Benham, who immediately turned it over to the telegraph office for transmission. Inexplicably, the message was set aside and would not be sent out over the wire until after the July 4 celebration.

Horace Countryman resumed his ride toward Helena. Taylor, however, left Fort Ellis and chose as his first stop the offices of the Bozeman
Times.
He told his story to the editor, E. S. Wilkinson, who hurriedly assembled a crew to set type and prepare the presses. By 7:00 that evening Wilkinson had scooped the world by publishing an “extra” that recounted Taylor's slightly embellished tale, which, among a few other altered details, had changed the number of dead to 315. Unfortunately, no copies of this edition are known to presently exist.

On July 4, Horace Countryman delivered a copy of the extra from the
Times
along with Norton's story to coeditor J. A. Fisk at the Helena
Herald
. Fisk immediately published a special edition that made its debut at 6:30
P.M.
At that time, Fisk sent the story across the wire to the Associated Press in Salt Lake City. He also informed the governor, who confirmed the news with Captain Benham at Fort Ellis, then telegraphed Commander of the Army General William T. Sherman. Sherman and others at the War Department were said to have been skeptical about the validity of the tragic news.

Additional Montana newspapers picked up the story from the
Herald
and from independent sources and published their own special editions—the Deer Lodge
New North-West
released an extra on the evening of July 4, with many other newspapers following suit during the next several days.

Several Eastern newspapers received the Associated Press wire story and included the news in their late editions on July 5. The prestigious
New York Herald
ran the story on July 6—eleven days after Custer's defeat. This story, which was also published in the
Army and Navy Journal
on July 8, cited sources from Salt Lake City (the Associated Press), Stillwater, Montana (William H. Norton), and a special correspondent from the Helena
Herald
. The
New York Herald
then set up telegraph communications with Bismarck, Dakota Territory, and spent upward of three thousand dollars receiving information that included additional details of the battle and interviews with members of Reno's command.

The gruesome task of burying the dead began soon after the rescue of Reno's command on the hilltop and continued until at least the evening of June 28 when the regiment marched away with the wounded on litters toward the mouth of the Little Bighorn River.

The soldiers on the burial detail—many of whom were quickly overcome with nausea and vomiting—did not possess proper digging implements for the task. Only a dozen or so spades, shovels, and picks were available that had been found in the rubble of the Indian village. Therefore, anything that could scoop away the dirt to hasten the job was utilized. The soil was dry and porous, described as resembling sugar—just like they had encountered on their hilltop defense position—and proper burial was simply a token gesture. The bodies were basically left lying where they fell and covered as best as possible with sagebrush and dirt or rolled into shallow trenches. Officers were identified by their names written on a slip of paper that was stuffed into a cartridge case and then hammered into a crude cedar stake placed near the gravesite.

The bodies at the various locations were counted: 42 on Custer Hill, 208 or 210 on the Custer portion of the field, and a total of 263 when all the officers, enlisted, civilians, and scouts had been tallied. One group of 28 or 29 bodies from Company E was reportedly found in Deep Ravine but have disappeared.

Newspaperman Mark Kellogg's body apparently had been found in the ravine with those of Company E. Colonel John Gibbon stated that he happened upon a body at that location that was missing an ear and had been scalped but was not stripped: “The clothing was not that of a soldier, and, with the idea of identifying the remains, I caused one of the boots to be cut off and the stockings and drawers examined for a name.” No name was found, but the boots were later identified as belonging to Kellogg.

Myles Keogh was killed along with his troops on the eastern slope of Battle Ridge within half a mile of Custer Hill, which was where his remains were found. The body of West Pointer First Lieutenant James E. Porter, second-in-command of Keogh's Company I, either was too mutilated to be recognized or was not on the field, for it was never found. His bloody coat, containing two bullet holes, was discovered at the abandoned Indian village site.

Another body that was not found that day was that of guide and interpreter Minton “Mitch” Bouyer. The son of a Frenchman and a full Santee woman, Bouyer had access to both white and Indian cultures and could speak English, Sioux, and Crow. This protégé of Jim Bridger had accompanied Lieutenant Charles Varnum to the observation point known as Crow's Nest on the morning of June 25 and warned George Armstrong Custer that they would find more Indians than they could handle in the distant camp. Custer reputedly told Bouyer that he could stay behind if he was afraid. Bouyer replied that he would go wherever Custer went and thus became the only army scout killed with Custer's detachment.

The steamship
Far West
had been moored about a half mile above the mouth of the Little Bighorn River on June 27 when the first word arrived about the fate of Custer's command. Captain Grant Marsh hurriedly converted the area between the stern and the boilers into a hospital, covering the planks with fresh grass, then spreading tarpaulins on top to create a soft mattress for the wounded.

On June 30, about thirty (or as many as fifty-two, as Terry had stated in a note to Marsh) wounded cavalrymen were transported from the battlefield on crude litters to the
Far West
. Marsh was cleared to leave shortly after 5:00
P.M.
on July 3.

The
Far West,
her colors at half-mast and decks draped in black mourning cloth, made the 710-mile trip to Bismarck, with only two brief stops, in a record-setting time of fifty-four hours, arriving at 11:00
P.M.
on July 5. This heroic feat made Marsh the most hailed and famous steamboat captain in the history of navigation on the Yellowstone.

On Sunday, June 25, 1876, while the Battle of the Little Bighorn raged, thirty-four-year-old Libbie Custer and other wives had gathered as usual at Fort Abraham Lincoln to sing hymns. The women had heard about General Crook engaging in the earlier unsuccessful fight on the Rosebud and naturally were worried about the fate of their loved ones. They had heard unconfirmed reports of an Indian battle affecting their husbands and had been offering daily moral support and companionship to one another as they waited for these rumors to be confirmed. No doubt a shroud of dread had descended over Fort Lincoln.

Finally, in the early morning hours of July 6—eleven days after the battle—Libbie was awakened by a knock on the back door. She slipped into her dressing gown, and entered the hallway to be greeted by Maria Adams, whose sister Mary had accompanied the expedition as Custer's personal cook. Libbie opened the door to three men, Captain William S. McCaskey, Lieutenant C. L. Gurley, and Dr. J. V. D. Middleton, the post surgeon.

McCaskey asked that Libbie rouse Margaret “Maggie” Custer Calhoun, the wife of Jimmy, from her bed and the two of them come to the parlor with him. Once there, the captain read a formal message announcing the tragedy at the Little Bighorn. There was no easy way to break the news—George Armstrong Custer, James Calhoun, and scores of other cavalrymen and civilians had died on June 25.

Libbie asked for her shawl and bravely joined the party of men to visit the two dozen or so women at the fort who would be read that same tragic statement that would change their lives forever. Although she was emotionally crushed, Libbie Custer, like her husband always had, would do her duty as the post “first lady” and help comfort the other new widows. Maggie Calhoun gradually digested the words of the statement and chased after Captain McCaskey and the others. She had lost three brothers, a nephew, and her husband. “Is there no message for me?” she cried.

No, there was no message. The five men in her life had all died fighting the Sioux and Cheyenne at the Little Bighorn River.

On June 25, 1877—one year to the day after the battle—Captain Henry J. Nowlan and the newly recruited Company I of the Seventh Cavalry arrived at the battlefield for the purpose of collecting the remains of the officers who had fallen. Nowlan was accompanied by Lieutenant (later major general) Hugh L. Scott, Colonel Michael V. Sheridan, brother of General Phil Sheridan, and all the Crow scouts who had gone with Custer the year before. Fortunately, there would be no need for guesswork to identify the dead. Nowlan had been provided a chart that designated where each officer was buried.

The bodies of the officers from both the Custer and Reno battlefields were gathered up and transferred into pine boxes for transport to cemeteries designated by the next of kin. Apparently at that time many of the enlisted men were reburied either individually where they were found or together in mass graves on the field. One group of the dead—twenty-eight or twenty-nine bodies from Company E—was not located.

George Armstrong Custer had told wife Libbie that when the time came for his passing he wanted to be buried at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and she was determined to honor his wishes. Libbie had fretted about the identification of her husband's remains when they were exhumed from the battlefield and shipped to West Point for burial. She was assured, however, by Major Joseph G. Tilford, who had been on a leave of absence during the Little Bighorn Campaign, that the remains being sent east were indeed those of her husband.

Tilford wrote to Libbie on July 28, 1877:

On yesterday I shipped by U.S. Express via Chicago, the remains of your heroic husband Genl. Custer to West Point, N.Y., care of the Commanding Officer at that post. Those were my instructions from Genl. Sheridan. I presume an officer will accompany the remains from Chicago on. It may be some consolation for you to know that I personally superintended the transfer of the remains from the box in which they came from the battlefield to the casket which conveys them to West Point. I enclose you a lock of hair taken from the remains which are so precious to you. I also kept a few hairs for myself as having been worn by a man who was my beau ideal of a soldier and honorable gentleman.

Due to the fact that West Point was relatively vacant during the summer, Libbie was advised to wait until fall to hold the funeral. Custer's remains were stored in a Poughkeepsie, New York, vault owned by Philip Hamilton, whose son Louis had fallen at the 1868 Battle of the Washita.

On October, 10, 1877, crowds lined the Hudson River as the bunting-draped
Mary Powell,
her flags flying at half-mast, brought the remains of George Armstrong Custer to the south dock of the Academy. The casket, which was adorned with an American flag that had belonged to Captain Hamilton, was escorted by a cavalry detachment to the chapel.

Shortly before 2:00
P.M.
, Major General John M. Schofield, commandant of the military academy, escorted Libbie into the chapel. Other close family members in attendance were Emanuel Custer and Margaret “Maggie” Custer Calhoun. Classes had been suspended, and the cadets crowded into the chapel to witness this event. The West Point chaplain, Dr. John Forsyth, presented an Episcopal service, concluding with the Nineteenth Psalm, a Psalm of David to the chief Musician, which begins: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

After the service, the casket was carried to a caisson by cadets and moved toward the cemetery. A lone horse displaying a pair of cavalry boots with spurs in which the toes had been turned to the rear followed the caisson. The procession halted at the cemetery, the chaplain spoke, three volleys were fired, and George Armstrong Custer was laid to rest.

 

Fifteen

Custer's Avengers

The nation was understandably horrified and outraged by the Custer disaster at the hands of the Sioux and Cheyenne. The act served to unite the country with purpose as nothing ever had as they mourned their fallen heroes. Custer, a national hero, had been cut down in the prime of his life and the public wanted revenge.

Congress immediately voted to authorize two new forts—Custer and Keogh—on the Yellowstone and recruited an additional twenty-five hundred fresh cavalry troops for duty. Many recruits, calling themselves “Custer's Avengers,” enlisted specifically to serve in the Seventh Cavalry. The hostile Sioux and Cheyenne, keenly aware that there would be some sort of retaliation for the battle on the Little Bighorn River, broke up into smaller bands and scattered across the plains.

The conflict that would become known as “The Great Sioux War of 1876–77” resumed in early July 1876 when eight hundred Cheyenne warriors fled Red Cloud Agency and headed for the Powder River country. The Fifth Cavalry, now under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Wesley Merritt, intercepted about thirty of the renegades on July 17 at War Bonnet, or Hat, Creek—twenty-five miles northwest of the agency.

Scout William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody had accompanied the column and engaged in a “duel” with a Cheyenne subchief named Yellow Hair. Actually, Cody was said to have shot the Indian off his pony, ridden him down, then killed and scalped him. The celebrated scout held up the bloody scalp for all to see and announced that this was the “first scalp for Custer.” This “duel” became a featured attraction of Cody's Wild West Show and also a play,
The Red Right Hand, or Buffalo Bill's First Scalp for Custer.