25. Kellogg’s body was found in a swale near the river in this area. Also, Cheyenne oral tradition speaks of a man riding a long-eared horse down by the river, and at least one resident of the area in the first half of the twentieth century said that Kellogg’s family put up a marker for him down by the river; the marker was later pulled up and put in storage (Darrell Linthacum, interview with author, September 6, 2006). See also Moore and Donahue, “Gibbon’s Route to Custer Hill”; Donahue, “Revisiting Col. Gibbon’s Route”; and Fox, Archaeology, History, and Custer’s Last Battle, chap. 11. (back to text)
26. Marquis, Wooden Leg, 231–34. Though some historians have placed Wooden Leg’s observations of this action — “about forty of the soldiers came galloping from the east part of the ridge down toward the river” — near Last Stand Hill, I believe that his account more accurately points to the vicinity of Calhoun Ridge, since after this part of the battle, Wooden Leg said, “By this time all of the soldiers were gone except a band of them at the west end of the ridge. They were hidden behind dead horses” — a clear reference to Last Stand Hill. Another Marquis-written account by an Indian participant, “She Watched Custer’s Last Battle,” follows a similar path. However, as Richard Hardorff has pointed out in Hokahey! these two accounts of Marquis’s are suspect, since it is clear that some of their shared material is suspiciously similar. But Lame White Man’s body was found halfway between Last Stand Hill and Calhoun Hill, on the opposite side of the ridge from Keogh’s position; it seems more likely that he would have been killed there after leading the assault on the troops at Calhoun Hill. Indeed, that is exactly what Little Wolf, a Northern Cheyenne, said, after stating that there was a skirmish line on Calhoun Hill: “I was there. Lame White Man charged them here and chased them to Keogh where he (Lame White Man) was killed” (Hardorff, Cheyenne Memories, 90). (back to text)
27. Masters, Shadows Fall Across the Little Big Horn, 41. (back to text)
28. Burdick, David F. Barry’s Notes, 25, 27; McCreight, Chief Flying Hawk’s Tales, 113. (back to text)
29. Crazy Horse’s rifle is identified as a Winchester in Wiltsey, “We Killed Custer,” 26, and Bray, Crazy Horse, 216. (back to text)
30. Vestal, New Sources of Indian History, 329. (back to text)
31. Graham, The Custer Myth, 75. (back to text)
32. Marquis, Wooden Leg, 231; Marquis, Custer on the Little Bighorn, 38. Although some battle historians have claimed that Lame White Man’s charge occurred during the action at Last Stand Hill, it seems more likely from the sequencing in Wooden Leg’s account that the Cheyenne chief’s charge was at Calhoun Hill. Immediately after Lame White Man’s brave action, Wooden Leg made his own move “around the hillside north of the soldier ridge”; the “Indians there were around a band of soldiers on the north slope” — which can only mean Keogh’s company. Several pages later, he discussed the action at the west end of the ridge — Last Stand Hill. In Marquis’s other first-person account of the battle, “She Watched Custer’s Last Battle” (sec. 6 in Custer on the Little Bighorn), Kate Bighead corroborated Wooden Leg’s story. After she rode to the south side of the battlefield and witnessed Lame White Man’s charge, she “started to go around the east end of the soldier ridge” and watched as “the Indians crowded on westward along the ridge and along its two sides” — a clear reference to Indians moving from Calhoun Hill to Last Stand Hill. However, as Greg Michno has pointed out, these two accounts of Marquis’s are so uncannily similar — the same sequence of several events, the same discussions of more general subjects in the same places, even the same wording — that it is clear he used some of the same material in both. Which material is original — or how much of it is Marquis’s — is unclear. See Michno, Lakota Noon, 258, for further discussion of this problem. Richard Fox has suggested that elements of Cheyenne oral tradition may also have been incorporated into either or both accounts; see Fox, Archaeology, History, and Custer’s Last Battle, 135–37. Hardorff, in Hokahey! 72–73, makes a similar case concerning Marquis’s reliability, particularly in these accounts. For Indian accounts that describe Lame White Man’s attack at Calhoun Hill, see Wells, “Little Big Horn Notes,” 10, and Camp IU Notes, 632. (back to text)
33. Hardorff, Camp, Custer, and the Little Bighorn, 67–69; Ben Ash interview, Hagner Collection; Burdick, David F. Barry’s Notes, 27, 29. (back to text)
34. Hardorff, Markers, Artifacts and Indian Testimony, 50; Hardorff, The Custer Battle Casualties, 102. (back to text)
35. Hammer, Custer in ’76, 199. Other Indian accounts state that this group of soldiers, probably Keogh’s company with the remnants of C and L, were moving north along the east side of the ridge toward Custer and Last Stand Hill. (back to text)
36. Hardorff, Indian Views of the Custer Fight, 166. (back to text)
37. Hammer, Custer in ’76, 207; Hardorff, Lakota Recollections, 87–88; Miller, “Echoes of the Little Bighorn,” 35–36; Vestal, “The Man Who Killed Custer,” 7. (back to text)
38. Vestal, “The Man Who Killed Custer,” 7; Miller, “Echoes of the Little Bighorn,” 35. (back to text)
39. Hardorff, Lakota Recollections, 75–76, 86; Hardorff, Indian Views of the Custer Fight, 30, 94, 118, 132; Hammer, Custer in ’76, 199, 201; Vestal, Warpath: The True Story of the Fighting Sioux, 200–1; Marquis, Wooden Leg, 232; Graham, The Custer Myth, 85. These are some of the many Indian accounts of one soldier (or more than one) who rode away from the battle and finally killed himself with his pistol. The fact that Harrington’s body was never found — or at least never identified — and that, unlike the other unidentified officers, no trace or article of clothing was found, strengthens the case that Harrington was one of these riders. He was known to have a strong horse (William O. Taylor to Walter Camp, November 19, 1909, Camp BYU Collection), a fact often mentioned in the Indian accounts. One final note: Indian agent and agency doctor V. E. McGillycuddy said that Crazy Horse had told him “of the officer who did not dismount, struck out East for several miles, pursued by half a dozen young bucks, and being mounted on a powerful horse, would have escaped, had he not become rattled and committed suicide, and was dragged away by his horse, his foot being tangled in the stirrup” (McGillycuddy to E. A. Brininstool, June 1, 1931, Brininstool Collection). (back to text)
40. Every reconstruction of the final actions of Custer’s battalion — the events on and around Last Stand Hill toward the end of the battle — is fraught with difficulty, and none that I have seen is completely satisfactory. There is not enough evidence, historical or archaeological, to come up with a description that satisfactorily incorporates all the Indian accounts and archaeological finds. I have attempted a reconstruction that encompasses most of the known facts and as many of the Indian accounts as possible. Inevitably, some suppositions drawn from the archaeological record do not fit comfortably into this reconstruction; ditto for the many sometimes irreconcilable Indian accounts, some of them based on oral tradition and not primary accounts. That is an inevitable consequence of any such attempt. (back to text)
41. Many battle researchers deny this movement — troopers moving down into the valley toward Deep Ravine to form what has been termed the South Skirmish Line — by citing several Indian accounts of troopers running down from Custer Hill as explanation. I believe these are two separate movements; the aforementioned accounts are of the final exodus from Custer Hill near the end of the battle. Stands in Timber Manuscript, 423: “Then he [Custer] moved into the center of the big basin and got off the horses.” Stands in Timber statement, Cartwright Collection: “By the time some of them (gray horses) did move toward the big ravine on the battlefield (E. Co. ravine), it was too late, and the Indians were all around them in large numbers.” Wells, “Little Big Horn Notes,” 10: “Two Moon came northeast over hill, yelled, and soldiers ran west down ridge toward river. . . . Cheyennes (charged) from east and chased (soldiers).” Several troopers noticed evidence of a skirmish line. Private Thomas Coleman wrote in his diary, “My Company
buried 30 of E Company the[y] were in line not 10 feet apart” (quoted in Liddic, I Buried Custer, 124), and John Dolan of Company M, who had been left at the Yellowstone Depot and was not present at the battle, claimed that “the men of companies E and L fell as straight as if they were on a skirmish line” (New York Herald, July 23, 1876). His detailed narrative of the battle and the burial of the dead is impressively accurate, suggesting that he probably incorporated accounts from Seventh Cavalry comrades who were present. Two officers with the Montana column later provided descriptions of the battlefield that included a skirmish line. Lieutenant Charles F. Roe wrote that, from the head of a ravine near the river, “dead men and horses were strung along towards the high ridge” (Roe, Custer’s Last Battle, 10). And Captain Walter Clifford wrote: “An examination of the ground where Custer’s five companies perished shows that skirmishers fell on the line, the most of them shot dead. Inside the skirmish line they fell in groups of fours, and finally Custer and a number of officers inside a circle of forty men, surrounded by slain horses, placed head to tail” (Wheeler, Tales from Buffalo Land, 56). While it is possible that Clifford was referring to other parts of the battlefield besides the South Skirmish Line, it certainly appears that he was indeed discussing that area. Luther Hare also thought that E Company had fallen in skirmish order in or near a coulee — which can only refer to Deep Ravine, where they were found (Nichols, Reno Court of Inquiry, 304), and Edward Godfrey also believed they were deployed as skirmishers, and told researcher George Grinnell so (Grinnell Papers, Ms. 5, Folder 497). For further discussion of the archaeological evidence supporting the existence of the South Skirmish Line, see Greene, Evidence and the Custer Enigma, 68; Gray, Custer’s Last Campaign, 388–95; Scott et al. Archaeological Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn, 87; and Evans, Custer’s Last Fight, 292–93 n. 77. See also Bruce Trinque, “The Cartridge Case Evidence on Custer Field,” 5th Annual Symposium, 75; Whittaker, A Complete Life of General George A. Custer, 594; and Powell, Sweet Medicine, 116. (back to text)
42. Stands-in-Timber statement, Cartwright Collection: “When the gray horse soldiers moved south, they were confronted by a large number of Indians in and near the big ravine. Indians coming from the north and from the south forced these gray horse soldiers into the big ravine.” (back to text)
43. Hardorff, The Custer Battle Casualties II, 68; Stands in Timber statement, Cartwright Collection. (back to text)
44. Brave Bear: “What soldiers who were not shot down ran towards where one company stood on the knoll” (quoted in George Bent to George Hyde, December 1, 1905, Coe Collection). (back to text)
45. Graham, The Custer Myth, 291; Brady, Indian Fights and Fighters, 375; Forrest, Witnesses at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, 5. Though Edgerly claimed that Weir later told him he never asked Reno for permission, several trooper accounts, Gibson’s letter quoted in Forrest, and Godfrey’s letter quoted in Brady make it clear that Weir did have words with Reno. “Colonel Weir did ask Reno, not Benteen, for permission to go forward and was refused,” wrote Gibson. “Weir asked permission to take his troop to reconnoiter in the direction of the firing on Custer, and Reno would not give it.” In Edgerly’s account of the battle, he wrote: “Weir then said he would ask permission of Reno and Benteen, and moved off in their direction.” But he did not reveal what he saw of Weir’s request, and he continued: “Soon I saw him returning, mounted and heading down the river” (quoted in Clark, Scalp Dance, 19). It is hard to believe that all eyes in D Company — or at least Edgerly’s and the noncoms near him — were not on Weir the whole time. Edgerly conveniently avoided revealing what he saw of the confrontation. In an interview conducted by Walter Camp, Edgerly did the same thing; Camp wrote: “Weir went over toward Reno and came back with an orderly and started off and Edgerly supposing Weir had permission followed with the troop. Weir afterward told Edgerly that [he] did not have permission and that he did not ask for any” (Hammer, Custer in ’76, 55). Another man who claimed to witness the argument between Reno and Weir was the unreliable Private Theodore Goldin, who wrote: “As we were standing on the bluffs looking down into the valley I heard some loud talk near me, and turning in that direction, I heard Capt. Weir say: ‘Well, by God, if you won’t go, I will, and if we ever live to get out of here some one will suffer for this.’ He strode away” (quoted in Brady, 275). Still later, he contradicted himself, writing to another researcher: “I DID NOT hear it as it was just about over when I climbed the hill after leaving Herendeen the scout and crossing the river while Herendeen went back to guide a larger party of the dismounted men. . . . I heard some loud talking as I approached where the officers were gathered to report my escape, but what it was I cannot say. . . . I was told later by Lieut. Wallace that Weir and Reno had some hot words because Reno refused to advance until the packs came up, and that Weir’s action in mounting his troop and moving out was really an act of insubordination and that it was suggested to Reno that he place Weir under arrest, but Reno did not seem disposed to do it” (quoted in Carroll, The Benteen-Goldin Letters, 89). A trooper in Weir’s D Company, Private John Fox, said in an interview that there was an argument between Weir and Reno about riding to Custer and that “Moylan and Benteen stood by and heard what Weir said and they did not seem to approve of Weir going and talked as though to discourage him” (quoted in Liddic and Harbaugh, Camp on Custer, 95). Finally, Lieutenant Edward Godfrey later wrote, “Weir asked permission to take his troop to reconnoiter in the direction of the firing on Custer, and Reno would not give it” (quoted in Brady, 375). (back to text)
46. “Most of the dead soldiers had been killed by arrows as they had arrows sticking in them.” Waterman, an Arapaho, quoted in Graham, The Custer Myth, 110. (back to text)
47. Trooper Henry Mechling said that there were “a good many extra shells” where Custer lay (quoted in Camp IU Notes, 431). Sergeant John Ryan said, “Under Custer’s body lay some empty shells of special make from his carbine” (quoted in Hardorff, On the Little Bighorn with Walter Camp, 182). (back to text)
48. Though the saying “Save the last bullet for yourself” was a catchphrase on the frontier and the stories of mutilation and torture were many, the Plains Indians did not as a rule torture their captives. That happened far more frequently among the eastern tribes. (back to text)
49. Graham, The Reno Court of Inquiry: Abstract, 161. (back to text)
50. Nichols, Reno Court of Inquiry, 423, 446. (back to text)
51. Hammer, Custer in ’76, 129. Flanagan later told researcher Walter Camp that he had seen a lone trooper gallop south toward the river until he was intercepted and killed by Indians. No other person present on Weir Point ever mentioned it, or at least no known account mentions it (Camp IU Notes, 672). (back to text)
52. Graham, The Reno Court of Inquiry: Abstract, 161. (back to text)
53. Camp IU Notes, 672. This was very likely John Foley, a Corporal from C Company, who was killed near Medicine Tail Ford, or Sergeant James Butler of L Company. Both bodies were found in the low hills near the ford. (back to text)
54. Hardorff, Lakota Recollections, 116. (back to text)
55. Ibid., 50; McCreight, 114. (back to text)
56. Stands in Timber, Cheyenne Memories, 203; DeMallie, The Sixth Grandfather, 186; Hardorff, Lakota Recollections, 121. (back to text)
57. Hardorff, Lakota Recollections, 96; Hardorff, Indian Views of the Custer Fight, 189. (back to text)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE HILL
Epigraph: Roy, quoted in Roenigk, A Pioneer History of Kansas, 292.
1. Hardorff, Camp, Custer, and the Little Bighorn, 42–43, 46; Camp IU Notes, 103. It seems undeniable that Reno was noticeably drunk from the time of the charge until late that night. At least a dozen men — civilians, enlisted men, and officers — related in later years that they had seen Reno drinking or drunk during the battle, from the time he first crossed the Little Bighorn through the morning of June 26. Trooper John Fox told researcher Walter Camp that “Re
no appeared to be intoxicated or partially so” at the time the regiment began heading toward Weir Point and Reno was arguing with Weir (Liddic and Harbaugh, Camp on Custer, 95). Lieutenant Winfield Edgerly wrote, “I have to say that Col. Reno had the only whiskey that I had any evidence of during the fight. He (Reno) had a bottle of whiskey which he carried quite openly and from which he took an occasional sip” (Graham, The Custer Myth, 322). Lieutenant Charles DeRudio also commented on Reno’s drinking during the battle. Camp wrote, “After passing lone tepee, DeRudio stopped somewhere to fill his canteen and did not catch up with the command until it reached the river. Here he found Reno and Gerard sitting on horses in the river, Reno drinking from a bottle of whisky” (Hammer, Custer in ’76, 84). Interpreter Frederic Gerard told Camp, “As Major Reno left the line and passed into the timber, I saw him put a bottle of whisky to his mouth and drink the whole contents” (Hammer, Custer in ’76, 84), and Camp also wrote, “DeRudio saw him drinking at Ford A, and twenty minutes later Gerard says he saw him finish the bottle at the skirmish line fight and that at that time Reno was intoxicated, etc.” (Camp IU Notes, 775). Camp also wrote: “A commissioned officer of 7th cavalry told me that Davern, Reno’s orderly, admitted to him that Reno was intoxicated in timber” (Camp BYU Notes, Reel 5). Private William Taylor related that “about 1 pm on the 25th or a little later, we were nearing the Indian skirmishers on our ride toward their village, the Indians were firing and shouting their defiance, and we had been ordered to charge and some of the men began to cheer when Major Reno shouted out ‘Stop that noise.’ And once again came the command, ‘Charge.’ Charrrage, was the way it sounded to me, and it came in such a tone that I turned my head and glanced backward. The Major and Lieut. Hodgson were riding side by side in the rear of my company (A) perhaps 30 or 40 feet away, possibly more but certainly a very short distance. As I looked back Major Reno was just taking a bottle from his lips and passed it to Lieut. Hodgson. In appearance I should say it was a quart flask, about one half or two thirds full” (WM Camp Collection, BYU Library, box 6, folder 2). After interviewing Lieutenant Edward Mathey, Camp wrote that soon after Mathey got to Reno Hill, “Reno then held up a bottle of whiskey and showed it to Mathey and said: ‘Look here, I have got half a bottle yet.’ Mathey was then under the impression that Reno was under the influence, but does not wish to be quoted. Says also that Reno was much excited” (Hardorff, Camp, Custer and the Little Bighorn, 42–43). Camp also wrote that “a commissioned officer of the 7th Cavalry who was present at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, and who was not unfriendly to Reno, has told me that about the time of the arrival of the pack train, Major Reno saluted him by holding up a flask of whiskey and that his remarks and manners were silly. Said officer stated that the incident remained distinct in his memory for one reason because the bottle was then half full and Reno did not invite him to take a drink of it” (Camp IU Notes, 103). Mathey also testified at the Reno court of inquiry that “on the 26th I saw Major Reno had a bottle with a little in it [whiskey]. Someone spoke of being thirsty and he said he had some whiskey to wet his mouth with and to keep from getting dry, to quench his thirst. It was a flask, I don’t know whether a quart or a pint. There was very little left in it then. . . . on the morning of the 26th” (Nichols, Reno Court of Inquiry, 521). Trooper John Burkman remembered that, during the retreat from the timber to the river, “Reno was excited, he was skeered out o’ his wits and he was half drunk” (Wagner, Old Neutriment, 160). Packers John Frett and B. F. Churchill both claimed that Reno was staggering drunk on the evening of the 25th, a statement that was not disputed by Reno or his counsel. They testified that he was carrying a bottle of whiskey and struck Frett in the face with the other fist. Reno admitted this: “I had some whiskey which I obtained at the mouth of the Rosebud. . . it was carried in a flask . . . in the inner breast pocket of my coat. I think [it contained] between a pint and a quart. Probably nearer a pint than a quart, I don’t know” (Nichols, Reno Court of Inquiry, 525). Private John Corcoran told Camp that “he saw Reno have a quart bottle of whiskey and saw him take a big drink out of it in hospital on morning of 26th” (Hammer, Custer in ’76, 150), and it was probably Corcoran of whom Camp wrote: “A man who lay wounded on the hill on morning of 6/26 told me that Reno spoke to him regarding his wound and then drew a quart bottle of whiskey, nearly full, and drank a much larger quantity than was necessary merely to ‘wet his lips.’ He took special note of the occurrence at the time because he craved a drink himself, but Reno offered him none” (Camp BYU Notes, Reel 4). Trooper Charles White said, of Reno’s charge on the village: “The first sergeant of Co. M (Ryan) directed me to go one way and one of the drunken officers another. I am writing this not without proper proof. With my own eyes I saw these officers open a bottle of whisky and drink enough to make any ordinary man drunk. I then witnessed the greatest excitement among the intoxicated officers I ever saw. The only officer who maintained self control and acted like an officer should do was Capt. T. H. French” (Hardorff, Indian Views of the Custer Fight, 17). Trooper Henry Lange told Camp flatly that “Reno was drunk all the time on Reno Hill” (Camp BYU Notes, Reel 3). Captain Thomas French told a New York Times reporter that Reno had been drunk during the hilltop fight and had hidden himself from the command from the evening of June 25 until noon June 26 (New York Times, January 19, 1879). Many accounts of his peculiar actions bear out the fact of his drunkenness, from his obsession with Benny Hodgson to his admitted altercation with the civilian packers on the night of June 25. Two men claimed that he was also drunk the night before the regiment left Terry’s command (June 21) and the next day (June 22). Additionally, three officers said that Reno carried at least a bottle of whiskey along; Godfrey claimed that he brought a half-gallon keg, and Varnum said that it was a gallon keg (Varnum quoted in T. M. Coughlan to Frederic Van de Water, February 22, 1935, Van de Water Papers). That some of the officers brought whiskey was corroborated by Private Jacob Hetler, who years later said, “We had nothing but a pack train and our most valuable bit of equipment was four demijohns of whiskey, which was taken along for officers only — although I did get a little of it while I was in the hospital tent” (quoted in Winners of the West, November 30, 1935). In a letter written by Lieutenant Frank Gibson to his wife on July 4, 1876, he said: “Reno did not know which end he was standing on, and Benteen just took the management of affairs into his own hands, and it was very fortunate for us that he did” (quoted in Fougera, With Custer’s Cavalry, 272). Longtime Bismarck resident W. A. Falconer wrote: “Dr. Porter told me that if it had not been for Benteen that they would all have been killed. That Reno was drunk, and acted cowardly all through the fight” (Falconer to E. A. Brininstool, July 27, 1923, Brininstool Collection). Finally, a good friend of Reno’s, the Reverend Dr. Arthur Edwards, was quoted as saying, “His strange actions at the battle of the Little Bighorn, were due to the fact that he was drunk” (Editorial, Northwestern Christian Advocate, September 7, 1904). (back to text)
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