by Walker
The writer places the following productions upon these pages to show that intense interest has been taken in different parts of the country in regard to this important campaign:
"CUSTER'S LAST RALLY."
BY MR. WALT WHITMAN, OF BOSTON.
I went to-day to see this just-finished painting by John Mulvany, who has been out in far Montana on the spot at the forts, and among the frontiersmen, soldiers and Indians, for the last two or three years, on purpose to sketch it in from reality, or the best that could be got of it. I sat for over an hour before the picture, completely absorbed in the first view. A vast canvas, I should say twenty or twenty-two feet by twelve, all crowded, and yet not crowded, conveying such a vivid play of color, it takes a little time to get used to it. There are no tricks; there is no throwing of shades in masses; it is all at first painfully real, overwhelming, needs good nerves to look at it. Forty or fifty figures, perhaps more, in full finish and detail, life-size, in the mid-ground, with three times that number, or more, through the rest-swarms upon swarms of savage Sioux, in their war-
T›onnets, frantic, mostly on ponies, driving through the background, through the smoke, like a hurricane of demons. A dozen of the figures are wonderful. Altogether a Western, autochthonic phase of America, the frontiers, culminating typical, deadly, heroic to the uttermost; nothing in the books like it, nothing in Homer, nothing in Shakespeare; more grim and sublime than either, all native, all our own, and all a fact. A great lot of muscular, tan-faced men brought to bay under terrible circumstances. Death a-hold of them, yet every man undaunted, not one losing his head, wringing out every cent of the pay before they sell their lives.
Custer (his hair cut short) stands in the middle with dilated eye and extended arm, aiming a huge cavalry pistol. Captain Cook is there, partially wounded, blood on the white handkerchief around his head, but aiming his carbine coolly, half kneeling (his body was afterwards found close by Custer's). The slaughtered or half-slaughtered horses, for breastworks, make a peculiar feature. Two dead Indians, lerculean, lie in the foreground clutching their Winchester rifles, very characteristic. The many soldiers, their faces and attitudes, the carbines, the broad-brimmed Western hats, the powder smoke in puffs, the dying horses with their rolling eyes almost human in their agony, the clouds of war-bonneted Sioux in the background, the figures of Custer and Cook, with, indeed, the whole scene, inexpressible, dreadful, yet with an attraction and beauty that will remain forever in my memory. With all its color and fierce action a certain Greek continence pervades it. A sunny sky and clear light develop all. There is an almost entire absence of the stock traits of European war pictures. The physiognomy of the work is realistic and Western.
I only saw it for an hour or so; but needs to be seen many times-needs to be studied over and over again. I could look on such a work at brief intervals all my life without tiring. It is very tonic to me. Then it has an ethic purpose below all, as all great art must have.
The artist said the sending of the picture abroad, probably to London, had been talked of. I advised him if it
went abroad to take it to Paris. I think they might appreciate it there-nay, they certainly would. Then I would, like to show Messieur Crapeau that some things can be done in America as well as others.
Altogether, " Custer's Last Rally " is one of the very few attempts at deliberate artistic expression for our land and people, on a pretty ambitious standard and programme, thai impressed me as filling the bill.
IN MEMOEIAM.
The sun shone from an azure sky
On that eventful day, When Custer's band of troopers bold
Rode forth in proud array; With their loved chieftain in command
No trooper on that field But what would face the cannon's mouth
And life's red current yield.
The soul of chivalry was he-
He was their boast and pride; Ofttimes they'd heard his clarion voice
Where rolled the crimson tide. Ofttimes they'd made the brave advance
Where gallant Custer led, On many a blood-stained battle-ground
The legion brave had bled.
Shrill sounds the reveille once more
That balmy summer's morn, Its echoes wake o'er hill and dale
On gentle zephyrs borne. Each heart beats in responsive note,
Each heart beats high with glee, For fame and country, home and friends,
And Custer's cavalry.
"•Forward! brave hearts!" the chieftain cried
That balmy morn in June, " Fresh laurels gain, or cypress weave
A wreath for warrior's tomb. Our duty calls, and life, how dear,
Will not be spent in vain If laid down on the battle-field
Among the noble slain."
And slain they were, that gallant band,
Before the setting sun; Their spirits winged their mystic flight,
Their sands of life had run. Not one was left to tell the tale-
That legion bold and brave, Their life-blood laved the distant wilds,
They found a warrior's grave.
In numbers vast the savage horde
Bore down in fiendish rage, And, ten to one, with leaden hail,
Did Custer's boys engage. No earthly force could stand such odds;
No power stem the tide. They nobly fought as heroes do,
They fought and bled and died.
The chieftain's voice is hushed in death.
The trooper's battle-cry No more shall make the welkin ring,
Or enemy defy. They nobly lived and bravely died
In honor, glory, fame. All hail! the Seventh Cavalry,
And Custer's honored name.
My 8th, 1876. J. S. Cabvell.
The above was written immediately after receiving the* news of the battle of the Little Big Horn.
Upon the opposite page will be seen a true portrait of Bain-in-the-Face, the Indian that murdered General Custer. As will be seen in the fore part of this volume, he made it his special business to encourage all the hostiles within his reach and hearing to rally and mass in the valley of the Little Big Horn, under the leadership of Sitting BulL In previous history it has been clearly shown that he murdered Dr. Houtzinger, the veterinary surgeon of the 7th Cavalry, and Mr. Balarian, the sutler, while out with the great "Stanley expedition," in 1873. These murders were committed on the north side of the Yellowstone Biver, nearly opposite the mouth of Tongue Biver, as well as opposite Fort Keogh, in Montana Territory, while Custer with his regiment was escorting a party of civil engineers making a preliminary survey along the present route of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
The record of this Indian is very clearly stated in these pages up to the time he escaped from the guard-house at Fort Abraham Lincoln. We have positive knowledge that he then went deliberately and actively at work recruiting all the warriors within his reach and influence, under promises that they certainly could either drive the " long-haired chief'' out of the country, or annihilate him and his cavalry entirely; and well did he keep his word good.
There is no question about his bringing reinforcements all the way from the southern camps and agencies of the Cheyennes, Arrappahoes, Kiowas and Comanches, all then located south of the southern boundary line of Kansas, aside from the recruiting that was done at the different camps and agencies in the whole Northwest; and if Mr. Belknap, then Secretary of War, had paid less attention to his petty post-trading business, and tried to have informed himself in relation to the movements of the hostile Indians on the western plains, and went to work to help organize the Fort Lincoln column of troops, and starting it out at the proper time and without such great delay-and for no other purpose, only to give vent to his own personal spite against Custer, and to humiliate him in an official manner, just because he could do it, and on no other ground whatever only than " might makes light"-if he had paid any attention whatever to the movements of those southern Indians, and allowed General Terry to have moved at the proper time, there can be no doubt a
s to the result of that campaign. Custer with his three hundred men (most of whom would have been living to-day), and the Lincoln column, under General Terry, would have started at least one month earlier, and the southern warriors could not have arrived in time to have taken part in the battle.
RAIN-IN-THE-FACE.
The writer knows whereof he speaks, because he was well and truly advised, as well as other western men, when the southern warriors crossed the Black Hills trail about one hundred miles north and east of Deadwood, and he also held communication, in private business matters, with Crook City and Deadwood every few days during that entire season; hence we claim to have' had the best of facilities for obtaining facts concerning the movements of war-parties in that particular section of the country. Bain-in-the-Face remained with Sitting Bull most of the time after the Custer battle, and a greater portion of the time across the northern boundary line, but not as a distinguished chief or leader, further than the credit allowed him for rallying the Indian forces to meet Custer in such a short space of time, knowing very well that Custer was being kept back at Washington on the Belknap impeachment case, and he shrewdly seized this only opportunity to rally such a tremendous strong force, all of whom he knew to be veterans, anxious and blood-thirsty warriors. The Indians report him as not caring to go on the war-path since his retenge on Custer. During the fall of 1880, while he was out on a buffalo hunt and mounting his horse, his gun was accidentally discharged, the ball taking effect in one of his knees, taking the cap of his knee entirely off, thus disabling him from active field service, and it is supposed that he surrendered much sooner on this account than he otherwise would have done had he not been crippled for life. During the winter of 1880-'81, the tribes he was
with became disheartened, as others had before and since,, and finally came in to " Fort Keogh," and made a final surrender. Some mischief-maker succeeded in making him believe that the United States Court was about to have him arrested and tried for murder, and that he would no doubt be hung. This proved to be a source of great annoyance to him for many months, but the officers in charge of him soon set aside his fears by informing him that he would be treated as a prisoner of war. Early in the spring of '81 he was taken to the Standing Bock, where he remains quiet and harmless. He is 32 years of age, and has a round and strong healthy look, as will be seen by his portrait. It is quite probable he will not give the white people any more trouble farther than the issuing of the ten days' ration and his annuity goods twice each year, as is the custom. He is compelled to use a crutch when he walks, and no danger need be apprehended from him further than his secret counsel and influence might go among discontented warriors about to take the war-path, which will amount to but very little, as he cannot take an active part himself.
A brief, fragmentary sketch of the history and personnel of the principal tribes who have been introduced to the Teader in the foregoing pages, may well serve as an appendix to this volume.
The country on the Washita River and in and about the Wichita Mountains, as well as along the Canadian Eiver, is highly fertile and capable of sustaining a large population. The scenery is beautiful and the climate delightful The winters are mild and short; grass is plentiful for the sustenance of stock; timber is abundant; and the surrounding country at Wichita Mountains is well watered and unsurpassed for salubrity.
The Wichitas were once a very numerous and warlike people, inhabiting the Wichita Mountains from time immemorial Remains of their ancient villages and fortifications are yet plainly to be traced in this locality. They claim to have once held dominion over a very large extent of country, from the junction of the Wichita (now Washita), with Red River, and extending westward to a line running due south from the headwaters of the Canadian to Red River. Their principal village was situated near the head of Rush Creek, a tributary of the Wichita, or Washita, where they lived for many years in peace and comparative comfort, raising abundant corn and vegetables, plentifully supplied with buffalo meat, and deriving a profitable income from trade with the Comanches of bows and arrows, for mules, horses and buffalo robes. In 1834 their village was removed to Cache Creek, in the Wichita Mountains, where for many years they remained undisturbed. These mountains are more properly peaks, surrounded by rich valleys, covered with luxuriant grasses and abounding in mineral wealth; buffalo, deer, antelope, bear, turkeys, grouse, quails and small game are plentiful Altogether a country better adapted to supply the physical wants of men and animals could not be found anywhere; and here dwelt for many years these untaught children of nature, at peace with the world and with each other.
In the year 1858 they became involved in difficulties with the Comanches, a wild, roving tribe of the plains, and through fear of them abandoned their pleasant village, never to return, and sought refuge and protection near Fort Ar-buckle, leading an unsettled life, until a few years previous to the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, when they were located near Fort Cobb. At the opening of the civil war they were again compelled to abandon their homes and remove to Kansas, remaining loyal to the government during the four years' conflict. After the close of the war they were returned to Fort Cobb, decimated by disease and hardships, and destitute of everything save the scanty supplies furnished them by the government. Dispirited, and despairing of ever again regaining their beautiful homes in the Wichita Mountains, where the bones of their ancestry had slumbered for ages, or of obtaining compensation for the loss of their lands or reward for their loyalty, they were unwilling to again improve their homes, until assured that they should remain in peaceable possession of them.
Gen. W. B. Hazen, then Colonel of the 6th U. S. Infantry, was. in charge of the wild tribes by appointment of General Sherman, who had great confidence in his ability as an executive and administrative officer, and it may well be said that CoL Hazen justified the confidence of his superior officer by proving himself efficient in every position that he held in the Indian Department. To him the discouraged Wichitas appealed for the justice that was the meed of their industry, thrift, and devotion to the government. To the Cheyennes, Kiowas, Comanches and Apaches, wild tribes of the plains, had been given land, and large sums of money were annually expended upon them.
The Wichitas, of whom Gen. Hazen speaks as a peaceable and deserving band of Indians, had been given no land at all, and were there merely by sufferance, while the beautiful country to whose river and mountain they had given their own name, was in the possession of alien tribes.
Previous to this time the aimless policy of the government toward the wild Indians had begun to assume definite shape, and a marked change for the better became apparent in the management of Indian affairs.
During the summer of 1866, before the Union Pacific Railroad was built, Gen. Hazen was crossing the plains in an ambulance, and while riding along, giving some thought to the unsettled condition of Indian affairs, a plan suggested itself to him which was afterward approved by General Sherman. It was to allot a given amount of land to each tribe and compel them to live upon it; to feed them and build houses for them; to provide school-houses and teachers ; to furnish agricultural implements; to teach them husbandry, and otherwise care for them until they should become self-sustaining. It was at Gen. Hazen 7 s suggestion that the wild tribes were sent south of the Arkansas River to locate on reservations. The Kiowas, Comanches, Chey-ennes and Arrapahoes then resided on the Arkansas and Smokey Rivers, ranging as far north as the Platte.
In a council of the warriors held near Fort Dodge, Kansas, the war chiefs agreed to settle upon a reservation, but declared that they would not go unless they could have some one with whom they were acquainted to go with them to act a3 their agent. General Hazen at once sent for Colonel A. G. Boone, who had had many years of experience among wild tribes. The Indians consented to go if Colonel Boone would go with them. Their agency was then located near the base of the Wichita Mountains, about thirty miles north of the northern boundary line of Texas, and here the Kiowas and Comanches were finally settled, thei
r new camps being called "Medicine Bluffs," and was generally known among the Indians as " Medicine Lodge Creek."
The Cheyennes and Arrapahoes were located south of the Arkansas River, near the North Canadian-a fine location for a reservation, there being plenty of wood, water and grass.
These warriors subsequently proved troublesome; so much so that a military post, called Fort Reno, was established there. The Indians in this section of the country
Lave given the government much trouble, together with the wild Apaches, who mostly roam in New Mexico and Old Mexico.
In the meantime, Generals Sherman and Sheridan were active in their respective duties in trying to bring about a peaceful result that would be satisfactory to the general government and beneficial to the Indians. General Hazen and Colonel Boone were encouraged and supported in every manner possible within the compass of the offices of these two worthy military chiefs. Their presence had a good moral effect upon the Indians. The Indian chiefs well knew their power and influence. They respected them as brave soldiers-a characteristic of war chiefs. They named General Sherman, " the Big-White-Chief," and General Sheridan, " The-Little-Big-Short-Chief-that-Eides-Fast "- in reference to his famous twenty-mile-ride into Winchester, known in history and poetry as " Sheridan's Bide." And they well knew the famous black horse on which he then xode, as he rode the same horse seventy-five miles across the prairie in a single night, in order to catch them napping, before daybreak in the morning. The war-chiefs often made kind inquiries after Sheridan, saying he was a brave soldier and a "heap-good-man." Occasionally one would -call him " Big-Heart-with-a-Fast-Horse."
Sheridan's plan with Indians determined to go on the war-path was invariably, " surround them and thrash them soundly"-but treat them well and kindly while they remain on their reservations and behave themselves.