, 1876-07-29
An Account Of Clusters Fight.
DETROIT, Mich. July 13, 1876.

Lieutenant John Garland, of Com
pany B, Sixth infantry, with Gen
erai Gibbons command, writes as
follows concerning the slaughter of
of the Seventh cavalry and General
Custer. The letter is dated Mouth
of the Little Horn River, June 20,
and proceeds as follows:
At the mouth of the Rosebud on
the 22d of June we struck a large
Indian trail leading up the Rosebud
Valley. General Custer from there
took command of the twelve compa-
MES of cavalry, and pushed on after
the Sioux. He followed them to the
foot of the mountains, and found by
scouting the valley that they were en-
camped on a branch of the Little
Horn. This was on the night of the
oath. On the 25th he took five COM
panies and followed the stream down
one side, while Major Reno with
seven companies went down on the
other. Major Reno was to attack
the enemy in the rear while Custer
fought them in the front. This
would have worked all right, as Reno
had got in their rear; but General
Custer, marching down on the other
side, saw what he supposed was the
front of the camp and made charge
on them, the Indians giving way
and letting him right into the open
ing.
The brave man rode in with his
300 men and would have killed the
whole 1000 Sioux, I believe, if there
had been no enemy behind him.
But instead of charging the front he
was right in the center of between
5000 and 4, 1000 Sioux. Those that
were behind him kept concealed
until he was right in their midst,
and then, when it was too late, he
made bold dash, trying to cut
through them. But the enemy were
too many. He fell about the first
one, and the horses becoming un-
manageable the poor soldiers were
cut down in less time than it takes to
tell it. Out of the whole regiment
only 1928 men are left, and forty of
them are badly wounded. 1t makes
ones heart sick to look over the bat
tie ground and see the poor fellows,
some of them with their entrails cut
out, others with their eyes dug out
and hearts laid across their face.
They even stopped TO cut their pock-
cts to get their money and watches.
The most fearful sight was Colonel
Cook. He was a splendid looking
man with long dark whiskers. They
dug his face all out SO as to get his
fine beard, it is supposed. They did
not disigure General Custer in any
way, but his brother, Tom Custer,
was opened and his heart taken out.
The wound are now on the boat and
will start for Fort Ruford tomorrow.
We estimate the loss of the emmy at
500, though it is hard to tell how
many were killed, as they carried
most of them away. Some OF ours
claim that Sitting Bull was killed,
as he is known by. some, and an In
dian answering his description was
found dead, but no doubt this is
false, as they would have tried to
carry him along.
Custer was supposed to be the
first one who died, but though he
fell first We found seventeen cart
ridge shells by his side, where he
had kept them off until the last mo-
ment. There can no blame be at
tached to any one for this fearful
slaughter. If Custer had had the
whole regiment it would only have
been worse, as the Sioux were too
many. Of course there will be some
blamed by Eastern papers, but as an
eye witness of the whole battle I can
not censure any one.