The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1877-08-10
BONES OF THE BRAVE. =
Exhuming the Remains of Custer and
His mnland-Appearauce OF the
BIOOdy FIeId-SOme Light Thrown
the Mazsacrc.

BLOODY EIeiS-SOme Light Thrown
on the Massacre.
All the graves of both men and officers |
were discovered without difficulty. The |
remains were found to be scattered over |
an area of several hundred acres.
All that evening, in camp, the soldiers |
were converting cedar boughs into stakes |
or head-boards, with which to mark the |
graves. Each stake was cut Just three |
feet long, and was intended to be driven !
into the ground two-thirds of its length |
On the morning OF the Sd fatigue party
was ordered out to exhume and RENTER
the remains of the soldiers who fell
around Custer. There were large and
small trenches, Some contained but few
remains. Others contained long rows of
separate sets of bones, indicating that as
many as adOzen had been buried together.
Where a little band had fought together.
and had fallen side by side, or in heap,
they had received burial in about the
same order in which they fell. Only the
naked bones remained in the trenches
There was no traces of flesh and corrup-
ton, and no odor, except that which was
waited from the shoels of wild flowers
blooming in the valley below. In a few
hours the thin layer of dirt had been re-
moved from the bones of over two hun
bred soldiers and the remains re-interred
/ in the same trenches. but rather more
decently than be ore. Three feet of
/ earth, tastefully heaped and packed with
/ spades and mallets, was put upon each
/ set of remains, and the head marked by
a cedar stake.
The same day the bones of the officers
were exhumed. The remains of the
Glowing officers were Enthusiastically
Custer, his brothery
- 1CusUrI, Col. Keogh, Col. Cook.
Capt Yates, and Lieuts. Smith, Cal
houn, Crittenden and Belly. They had
been buried just Is they had fallen, with
the single exception OF Col. Custer, who
had received interment alongside his
brother.
The grave of the Clusters was near the
summit of a little knoll, right where
the gallant soldier had taken his last
stand. The ground Tor two hundred fee
around was filed with remains Ovel
E sixty men had been killed on that littl,
elevation. The surface of the knoll was
strewn with dry bones of horses, which
were bleached to the whiteness of ivory
- From the position OF the bones 1T wa
evident to the observer that the horse
had been shot for the purpose of fOrminl
. a breastwork 1t looked as if the ami
mails had been led into position de
scribing a halfcircle and shot in thel
tracks.
J While the work OF exhumation wa
p going on, Col. Sheridan had a party @
, scouts and interpreters securing the VI
entity for any undiscovered remains
2 There were eight 81 these scouts, mosu
y Crow Indians, including Curley,' VIII
I claims to have been the only man wh
escaped from Clusters command. Co
t Sheridan thinks there is great DANCE
e that - Curlev " is liar. He discovere
Y that this red Crow knew very little abOu
the battlefield, and probably knew le
about the battle. Another one of IL
g scouts Is the celebrated Half-Tcllow-Fac
3. who was badly wounded in the ReI
fight, and who Is a fellow Of some vera
tv. Besides these there were three we
: known interpreters named Barrett, !
Fourge, and Hcrendecn, the latter ha
IN ing fought under Reno The count
N for fifteen miles around was thorough
p searched. They discovered no evR'-u
u that any one had escaped and was aitl
ward run down and killed.
IL Col. Sheridan sIys that the Indian
A. after winning the fight, ran away ~
IS left a large amount OF camp equIpae
49,. The bottom where Custer encounter
> them has been a favorite camping-grou
he for the Sioux for many years. Eve
ne time they broke camp there they aba
if dOned more or less traps. There are n
81 less than ten thousand lodge poles lyi
around in the tall grass. \ search in t
10 vicinity of The battlefield revealed
"a bones of some twenty or thirty Indial