New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-07-16
Lieutenant BENJAMIN ii. HOdgsOn.

One of several victims of the terribl
disaster encountered by our brave fellow
beyond the Yellowstone. was the gallan'
officer whose name heads these remarks
To a friend familiar with bis career and ex
allied merits, we are indebted for the fol
lowing tribute:
The public mind has been filled with grie
! and horror by the terrible story Of the
disaster which befell the troops Of til,
United States OIL the banks of the Little
Horn on the twenty-ffth Of June. Whether
we consider the number of men slain. the
number and high character of the officers
who lost their lives on that fatal day, the
totally unexpected nature of the calamity
or the completeness and dreadful character
of the destruction which characterized it
the disaster Of the twenty-tifth of June il
without precedent in the annals of our In
dian warfare. and the day itself will stand
forth conspicuous in hlstOry-the dark and
gloomy anniversary of a great public ca
lamity.
Among those who fell On that fatal day in
the discharge of their duty, heroically fight
ing for their country. was the young and
gallant officer whose name stands at the
head of this article. A Philadelphia BY
birth. the only son of one of our esteemed
citizens, the glory which encircles his brief
but gallant history is a part of the public
DOebc6SlOub VI lLlS Guy, auu 6uOUiu DS
proudly cherished by all it's people.
The writer knew him well from the time
when he entered the Military Academy at
West Point in 1865 until the time of his
death. He passed with credit through the
Academy, establishing q high character for
his manly and soldierly qualities, and was
graduated in June, 1870, when he was com,
missioned q second lieutenant in the Sew
enth Cavalry. He very soon joined his
regiment, which was then doing duty in
Louisiana, and in many difficult positions
in which he was there placed in the line Of
his duty he behaved himself in a manner
GERS, and acquired for him an excellent
reputation in the service.
Ee accompanied mis- regiment to the
Northwestern frontier in the spring of the
present year, wal with that portion of it
which was commanded by Major Reno in
the battle of Little Horn, and lost his life
at the ford across which the detachment
was retreating after its repulse by an over
whelming force Of Indians. Young Hodg-
son had succeeded in ascending the steep
activity on the opposite side of the ford,
he himself fell back wounded into the
stream. By Selling hold of the horse of
another soldier he succeeded a second time
in gaining the precipitous bank, and was
again ascending it amid a tempest of balls
from the enemy, when he was again struck
and killed.
Thus fell in the savage wilderness of
Montana. in the heroic discharge of his
duty. and in the flower of his youth, one of
the best and bravest of the young officers
of the army, a generous and gallant youth,
endeared by the tenderest ties of respect
and affection to all who knew him. His
was, indeed, a fate
And none who knew him will withhold the
Offering.
He was a young man Of fine talents, of a
pure and ingenious character. of q most
cheerful and charming disposition, with
the very highest sense of the obligations OF
duty, and al intrepid and absolutely fear.
less courage in the discharge of it.
Had he lived he would have risen to the
highest distinction in his profession, and
would have been an ornament to his native
city and to his country. He has fallen pre-
maturely, but in the path of duty and in
therefore, and that of his brave and unfor-
honor.
The Minotaur of ancient Crete has its
modern realization in the mOnster-half
man and half beast-which roams the plains
and crouches amid the rocks and forests of
the West, and which periodically devours a
certain number of our most prominent
youths. How long shall we be obliged to
send to his bloody and insatiate Jaws the
annual tribute? How long? Who will be
our American Theseus?-Philadelphia In