by Walker
Wife [laughingly]. Why in the world don't you go over yourself ? Why do you leave neighbor Broadbrim to take hold of such an important matter ? You know how ugly those wild fellows are when they are about to surrender anything they have once captured. Come, go along over, and I will go with you. I want to seo those poor captives.
General. I have no objections to going over; but I was rather inclined to think that neighbor Broadbrim would prefer to make his own arrangements concerning the captives.
Wife. Well, you can go over with me. .1 want to see if that woman and her children are in want of anything to make them comfortable. The ladies in the garrison are prepared to assist in making clothing, and to help take care of them.
[The General and his Wife repair to the Indian Agency Buildings, and witness the close of the f(Mowing conference between Agent Broadbrim and the chiefs – the conversation, as usual, being carried on through the interpreter.']
Mr. B. [to Indians.] Be seated, and let us hear what thee has to say. Are thee well ? Dost thee feel tired ?
3 Chiefs [each one gives a grunt, and says,] How, how ?
Mr. B. Well, what has thee to say about those captives and mules ?
Dog Tail. Well, Mr. Calico Chief, we have got your Texas squaw and her papooses for you. Now what are you going to do to make our hearts glad ?
Mr. B. Thee can deliver the captives to Captain Beards-lee, who will take good care of them, and I will issue thee thy rations.
Dog Tail. We want money, blankets, and calico; our hearts will then be-a-heap-good.
Mr. B. I have no money for you, and I must have the woman and children. How about the mules you promised to •bring in?
Dog Tail We have got most all the mules. Our young men sold only a few of them. We want twelve hundred dollars for Texas squaw and her papooses, and the mules. May-be-so-thirty-may-be-so-forty-mules. Braves sold some.
Mr. B. I want that woman and her two children at once. Captain Beardslee will proceed to surround your tribe, unless thee comply with my request instanter. Subito, in-stanter.
Dog Tail. I want to have a-heap-big-talkee with the other big chief, and will come in men-yan-na and let you know.
Mr. B. Captain Beardslee, will thee please take such steps as will secure possession of those captives at once ? I shall not trifle any longer.
Capt B. Orderly, sound the bugle for the troop to dismount and get in* position.
[Bugler sounds the call Indians and squaws run to rear of Agent's office. Troop files in, Captain Beabdslee at the head, with drawn sabre. Indians string their bows in great exciter merit. Dog Tail manifests great anger. Bloodshed seems imminent.
Mr. B. Now I demand those captives at once.
Capt. B. We will not dilly-dally one moment. Give us the captives at once, or I will take every one of you to the guard-house. Every one of you unstring your bows, and keep your arrows in the quivers.
[The General enters, with Ms Wife on his arm. His presence 9 in a measure, quiets the disturbance. The captives are brought
forward, and received kindly by the General's Wife, who leads them away. Indians grunt and unstring their bows. Dog Tail shakes hands heartily with the General.]
Dog Tail. Big white chief heap good. Heap-a-good-chuck-Calico-chief-no-good, no-good. Heap-bad-medicine.
Mr. B. Now I want the mules your young men run off the other night.
Dog Tail. May-be-so-me-yan-na-me-bring-a-heap-o'-mules. Young men got 'em on the grass. May-be-so-one-day-may-be-so-two-days-me-come, heap-o'-mides.
Mr. B. Captain Beardslee will hold six of thy men until thee make thy young men bring in the mules.
Dog Tail. We want six hundred dollars in money, and then we will bring in the mules. We have made your hearts glad with the white squaw and papooses, and now you must make our hearts glad with money We will bring the mules to-morrow, sure, and all the time be good Indians, if you will give us six hundred dollars. I don't want it all myself. Squaws and papooses get it to swap for blankets, calico, sugar, and coffee.
Mr. B. What say thee, General, in regard to this demand from Dog Tail ? Will thee be satisfied ?
General I have no objections to giving them something for their services in helping us to get our mules back. I think it will be well enough to give it to them when they return the mules. I am of the same opinion now that I have always entertained-it is a very bad policy to pursue. It only helps to perpetuate the ransom-traffic between ourselves and the wild tribes.
Mr. B. Well, Dog Tail, you have been a very good Indian to-day, and I will give each of you three chiefs two hundred dollars if you will bring in those mules. I have no money, but will give you orders on the trader, and he will let you have what you want. Now you must bring the mules in ten days.
Dog Tail. Oh, yes; me have my young men bring in heap-o'-mules. Me-give-'em-to-big-white-chief. Heap-good-mules-and-heap-o'-good-big-white-chief. Good-bye, good-bye.
[Shakes hands all around.
SECTION II.
OTJSTEE'S LAST BATTLE AGAINST
SITTING BULL.
CHAPTER I
The Record jrom 1868.
With the incidents of the memorable Indian fight of June 25th, 1876, between Lieut.-Colonel G. A. Custer, with five companies of the 7th Cavalry, and Sitting Bull, the invincible chief of the lawless hordes of hostile Indians who infest the north-west plains, the world is already familiar. Scarcely yet can the American people contemplate with calmness the wholesale butchery of a brave officer of the cavalry service, together with nearly three hundred men of his command. The gallant struggle of the doomed battalion, enclosed in that living cordon of wild and yelling savages, from which none escaped to tell the story of their fate, is without parallel in the history of the western world.
The tale of their dashing onset, their reckless charge into overwhelming numbers of merciless foes, their glorious stand when hope was gone, their valorous defense, and death, sublimely courted in the charge and on the skirmish line, has been told and re-told. Never, while the world stands, will be forgotten the tragic fate of the chivalrous three hundred, who fell with their gallant leader on that bloody field of unequal strife. History has recorded imperishably the grandeur of their final charge. Their dauntless death is celebrated in song and story. Their names are household words in every home, and their memory is embalmed forever in the grateful admiration of their countrymen.
major-general george a. custer.
But of the minor events that form the links in the lengthened chain of circumstances that led to the final result, and brought about the bloody catastrophe, little is known to the general public. To present these minor facts in concise form is the object of these pages. To that end we shall state succinctly : First. The operating causes that led to the war with the Sioux and their allies, and which culminated in the sending out by the Government of the expedition of 1876; and secondly, the occurrences by which Lieutenant-Colonel G. A. Custer incurred the bitter enmity of the Indian warrior Rain-in-the-Face-who slew him on his final battle-field -and which led to the outpouring of ostensibly peaceful bands of Agency Indians, to join the hostiles in their march to intercept the white warriors.
It is a fact not to be gainsaid that open hostilities on the part of the Sioux were provoked by the violation, on the part of the Government, of the treaty of 1868, by the stipulations of which the territory of the Black Hills and adjacent region were declared an inviolable part of the Indian reservation, sacred to their use, and not to be trespassed upon by white men. Forts Reno and Kearney were abandoned, and the whole country given up to Sitting Bull, the leader of the scattered but powerful bands of hostiles who infested the western plains.
Three years later (in 1871) it was adjudged expedient by the Government to break the provisions of the treaty of 1868. The officials of the Northern Pacific Railroad, then in process of construction across the continent, in the spring of 1871, applied to the Government authorities at Washington for military protection and escort for a surveying party to b
e sent out during the summer of that year to explore and mark out the unsurveyed portion of the projected road-a line extending westward from the Missouri River in Dakota to the interior of Montana, west of the Yellowstone River. Authority was duly granted : the rights of the Indians being deemed of minor importance in the grand scheme of opening up the vast and fertile fields of the new north-west to railroad enterprise, with its attendant train of settlers.
The expedition, conducted by engineers of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and escorted by United States troops, left
Fort Rice in June, 1871, and completed its mission in safety -no Indians molesting them, or interfering in any way with their progress.
Again, on July 25th, 1872, a similar expedition left Fort Rice, and returned in October, 1872, having successfully accomplished the exploration and survey of a route through Yellowstone Valley, reaching to the river of that name, and to the mouth of Powder River.
This party encountered many hostile Indians, and their return march is described as a series of skirmishes.
When near Fort Rice, on their return, Lieutenant Adair, of the 22d Infantry, and Lieutenant Crosby, of the 17th Infantry, were killed-the latter being shot, scalped, and otherwise mutilated-by an Indian called " the Gaul," a notorious criminal and consumer of Cheyenne Agency rations. This murderer has since surrendered himself to the military authorities, and is now a pensioner, as before, upon the bounty of the Government.
In July, 1873, a third expedition left Fort Rice on a similar mission-the engineers and surveyors of the N. P. R. R., under the direction of General Rosser, the troops, comprising the escort, under command of General Stanley, and accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Custer with the 7 th Cavalry Regiment. The force consisted of about 1,700 men- cavalry, infantry, a battery of artillery, and a detachment of Indian scouts.
This party encountered hostile Indians near the Yellowstone, and on August 4th, several companies of the 7th Cavalry, under Custer, had a sharp engagement with a body of Sioux, under Sitting Bull, resulting in the loss of one soldier, surprised at a spring, the wounding of Lieutenant Bra-den, and the murder of Dr. Houtzinger, veterinary surgeon, and Mr. Baliran, sutler of the 7th Cavalry-they being unarmed, detached from the main body, and unsuspicious of danger.
The expedition returned to Fort Rice during the latter part of September-the engineers having fully completed their explorations, and mapped out in detail the future course of the road.
As may well be imagined, these frequent invasions of their territory by armed troops, awakened the most bitter resentment in the breasts of the hostile Indians, and when, in 1874, in obedience to the demands of the press, that the territory of the Black Hills should be explored and opened to settlement, it was decided by the Government to send an exploring expedition of armed troops into that hitherto unknown stronghold of the savages, the seal was set upon the crowning act of its long series of annually-broken faith.
It had long been matter of popular belief in the northwest that gold existed in the Black Hills, and when, at last, the truth of these hitherto vague reports was established to a Certainty in many adventurous minds, the excitement became contagious, and parties of miners began to organize for the invasion of the Hills. Then it was determined by the Government to send a strong column of troops to thoroughly explore the Black Hills, and ascertain, through official research, the truth or falsity of these golden rumors.
Accordingly, July 1st, 1874, a force under Lieutenant-Colonel Custer, comprising cavalry, infantry, four Gatling guns, and sixty Indian scouts-1,200 strong-and accompanied by a huge wagon-train of provisions and baggage, left Fort Lincoln and took up the line of march for the Black Hills. The party proceeded without molestation by Indians, although many hostiles were seen along the route. The discoveries of this expedition were such as to satisfy the most skeptical in regard to the mineral and agricultural wealth of the Black Hills region. Miners and other resolute pioneers began to pour into the country.
The scientists, however, were not yet satisfied, and to quiet the learned disputes of the self-constituted geologists of the period, a second expedition, under direction of Professor Jenney, with military escort commanded by Colonel Dodge, 9th Infantry, was sent from Fort Laramie the following year -1875.
Their report, corroborative of the report of the expedition of the preceding year, was not required to convince the hardy western pioneers of the desirability of the Hills a› amp; a place of residence. They required no encouragement in the shape of Government explorations, to brave the dangers of the trip, and to press in and occupy the land.
Then it was that the Government awoke to a realization of the consequences likely to flow from its frequent violation of treaty obligations. A general war between the settlers and the Indians seemed imminent, if, indeed, an indiscriminate massacre of the former did not ensue. Every trail leading to the Black Hills was marked with bloodshed, and safety was found only in the interior of the Hills, where the superstition of the Indians did not allow them to penetrate. Then, too late, began the efforts of the Government to repair the wrong. An order was issued, warning the settlers to leave the Hills. Several times during the summer of 1875, the troops under General Crook were sent into the Hills to maintain the faith of the Government by removing the settlers from the territory. They were conveyed out of the country by military escort, imprisoned in military posts as breakers of the law, their property destroyed, and themselves finally turned over to civil authority, to be punished for disobedience of the orders of the Federal Government. But all to no avail. Popular sympathy in the west was with them. Soon as released they invariably returned to the disputed territory, only to be again removed, and to again return. In August, 1875, there were six hundred men in one locality, called " Custer City," and many others in different localities. When removed by military authority, these speedily returned, and the efforts of the Government to repair its broken faith, by removing and keeping out white settlers, were as futile as the military invasions of the country, under its sanction and direction, had been successful.
So much for the causes that led to the breaking out of the war on the part of the Sioux.
We are now to consider the relations of the chief actor in the tragedy in which it closed-George A. Custer, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 7th Cavalry-with a leader of the hostiles, who fired the shot that terminated his life, in the battle of the Little Big Horn, and thus gratified the vengeance for which he and his followers had long waited in the mountain fastnesses of Sitting Bull's domain. Some of the incidents we are about to relate may seem trivial and unimportant, but they were all links in the chain of destiny that was drawing the "long-haired chieftain" irresistibly toward his tragic fate.
One bright morning in the spring of 1875 the peaceful citizens of a quiet little town on the Missouri Eiver, in Dakota Territory, were immeasurably astonished to witness a company of the 7th Cavalry, ucder command of Lieutenant-Colonel G. A. Custer, come riding up their streets, fully armed and equipped as if for instant action. Nor was their surprise lessened when it became known that the object of the warlike display was nothing more nor less than * the capture of sundry bags of grain that had been stolen from the Government warehouses at Fort Lincoln by the soldiers and citizen thieves, and sold to sundry citizens of the town. After the capture of the bags of grain was successfully effected, and loaded on army wagons, and, taking with them several persons who had been concerned in the illegal transfer of Government property, the train returned in good order to Fort Lincoln.
CHAPTEE II.
The Grain Thieves and Bain-in-the-Face. – The Unrelenting
Warrior.
To make the record more complete in regard to army matters, and more especially in relation to the troubles and torments too often inflicted upon officers of high rank in the regular army, the writer will here introduce circumstances with relation to certain current events as they transpired, in order to more clearly and pointedly illustrate to the reader how General Custer, while in command at
different stations, as well as other officers of high rank in the regular army at the present day, whose moral training having been good, and always with an eye to good discipline and the morale of their respective commands, also army society and communities
in civil life are compelled not only to accept the presence, but to a certain extent, the services of unprincipled and profligate scapegoats, who, by accident, hold their positions either by commission or special appointment, not only to the horrid disgust, but to the actual disgrace and discredit of our worthy professional army officers and their families, as well as to all civilized and well-regulated communities who are at times compelled to accept the services of, whenever enforced upon them, a certain immoral and wretched class of imported floating spawn, that hold positions by accident.
General Custer, in his well-meant efforts to preserve the morale of the rank and file of his command, and to enforce good order and discipline throughout the garrison at which he was stationed, did not escape the annoyances, or avoid the obstacles usually encountered by United States army officers of high rank in similar measures of reform.
Not the least difficulty in the way of success in such efforts, is found in the character, or rather the lack of character, of many of their subordinate officers; and this is due to the appointments from civil life, made after the close of the war, by congressmen of a certain class, who, for a time, regarded the army as an asylum for their poor relatives and distressed constituents, many of whom were wholly unfit for their positions, both on account of utter incompetency and intemperate habits. This class of appointments having been forced upon the army by unprincipled politicians, tended greatly to reduce the morale of the army and to lower the standard of social life in army circles, and rendered also much more difficult the task of commanding officers in enforcing discipline and orderly behavior in their respective commands.