The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1876-07-21


was shot and he was wounded. His horse
fell into the river near the opposite bank
Of the ford, and to help himself up the
steep bank Hodg4on caught hold of
horses tail and had got up the bank,
when an Indian shar1-shooter picked him
off. Clusters packs were with the rear,
and the Indians did not get any of them
Neither did they get any mules. Most
of Clusters horses were shot in the action,
and l do not believe the Indians got
over one hundred animals by the fight
TORTURE AND MUTILATIoN
think some of our men were captured
alive and tortured. / know the colored
scout Isaiah was, for he had small pistol
balls in his legs from the knees down,
and | believe they were shot in him
while alive. Another man had strips of
skin cut out of his body. Hordes of
s1uaws, and old, gray-haired Indians
were roaming over the battlefield howl
ing like mad. The squaws had stone
mallets and mashed in the skulls of the
dead and wounded. Many were gashed
with knives and some had their noses
and other members cut off. The heads
of four white soldiers were found in the
Sioux camp, that had been severed from the
trunks, but the bodies could not be found
on the battle field or in the village. Our
men did not kill any squaws, but the
Rees Indian scouts did The bodies of
six squaws were found in the little
ravinc.
NUMBER OF THE INDIANS.
] think the Indian village must have
six thousand people, and fully
three thousand of whom were warriors.
The Indians fought Reno first, and then
went to fight Custer, ter which they
came back to finish Reno. The same In
1ians were in all the attacks. ! think
the Indians were commanded by Sitting
Bull in person. There were eight or nine
other chiefs in the field.
SCENE OF THE SLAUGHTER.
The correspondent of the st. Paul Pio-
neer Press, who was with the rescuing
column of Col. Gibbon, consisting of five
of rihemen, four of cavalry,
and the Gattling battery, in all about
eight hundred men, thus describes how
he found things when the command
reached the battlefield between Custer
and Reno and the Sioux Indians:
The morning of the 26th brought in
telligeDce, communicated by three badly
Crow scouts, of the battle of
the previous day and its results. The
story was not credited, because it was
not expected that an attack would be
made earlier than the 9th, and chiefly
because no one could believe that force
such as Custer commanded could have
met with disaster Still, the report was
in no way disregarded. All day long
the toilsome march was piled, and every
eye bent upon cloud of smoke, resting
over the southern horizon, which was
hailed as a sign that Custer was success
full and had fred the village. 1t was
only when night was falling that the
weary troops lay down upon their arms
The infantry had marched twenty-nine
miles. The march of the next morning
revealed at every step some evidence of
the conflict which had taken place two
days before. At an early hour the head
of the column entered plain half mile
wide, bordering the left bank of the Little
Big Hern, where recently had been an
immense Indian village, extending three
miles along the stream, and where were
still standing funeral lodges, with horses