Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1877-06-28
The Muddy Creek Fight.

"A 'est referred TO a letter received from
member of F company, and made deman,
!. ed corrections IN its writer's own words
3, We resisted the advice of many frient
and did not publish the letter entire bein
:. moved BY consideration for it's writer
e although We felt such a course was uniu.
% ourself. During the We, k, however
II the custodian of the copy mentioned Ina
; made it public and condemned us--an
as we are Informed it will be published q
his request in the Times of this week. "
are obliged to the unpleasant duty oursel1
The letter reads thus:
Camp on Yellowstone s miles aboy
Cantonment, June II. 1877.
). V. Bogert, Associate Ed or AVIAN
S COURIER.
g SIR: We have received your extra O
the 9th, ulr. o., and the COURIER of tn
3lst ult. The many inaccuracies appea r
ing In the former we supposed attribute
= Ole to haste, etc. and expected correction
would be made in your regular issue. bu
;. md We arc mistaken; additional error
appear in your edition of the 3Ist. GThes
, additional errors did NOT appear in on
l. Personal report. but in the So called .sotfi
c!al report" below mentioned, ED
: CoURIER.] In your great anxiety to ad
vance the reputation Of certain friends
f you have been led to do injustice to others
Permit me to call your attention to few
OF the many mlsstatements. Gen. Miles
did not refuse te shake hands with the
chief. Gen. Miles did not give instruc-
1 tloDs ito spare no one" his orders were
not to shoot women and children or men
VINO would surrender. THESE items DIE
appear IN our personal report, and were
IseHt US and others from the field.-ED
: COURIER lonr paper of the 3lst ult.
contains the following statement. LAS
companies and l. advanced, driving the
Indians. they were met by company G,
which IN few moments inflicted a terri
bic loss on them.''
On first reading this statement I felt
keenly the neglect on my part to thank G
20. for meeting and slaughtering the In
dams In front of F Co.; but upon second
thought, and on recalling the incidents of
the day, find there is a mistake. Your
report cannot be true; it Is simply impos-
slble, for the following reasons: F Co.
was long distance to the right and front
OF q 20. (anc continued the fighting sew
'eral hours after & Go. had returned to the
vlllage(, pursuing the Indians five miles
and until halted by order of the battalion
commander.
l am not aware that F Company is un-
der obligations to any company for assis-
lance in caring for the Indians IN it's
front. The truth of the matter is, G Co.
was nowhere near the Indians that + o.
was driving. Your report gave the first
lntlmation we have had of the terrible
loss inflicted on the Indians by G Go.
That 1t did its share do not deny, nor do
teslre TO claim for my company any
honor belonging to other companies, or
ITO the other persons in whose interests
you seeEl to write. Several other little
affairs mentioned by you we suppose you
intended 10 be funny. At any rate, we
laugh at them, for it is amusing to reat
them. In fact, majority of the officers
who were present, feel that by your ac-
counts you would make farce of the
Flight on Muddy Creek" Your interests
may prevent you from making the above
corrections. I, therefore, send Il copy of
this letter to the editor of the Times.
with request that, IN case YOU find it i'm.
polite to correct your report. he will do
so. Respectfully, Yours.
GEO. J.. TYLER,
Capt, I'd Cav, Command'g Co. F.
Forced - refer to this matt,r again,
what shall we say? We made careful.
painstaklng report IF the fight-we|
thought it would prove gratifying to the
entire command, and are assured it did
except to Captain Tyler. We deny that
we were influenced by any desire to as
sist any special officers or company'sI
''rcputation' or "intcrest.'. We deny
that any fair minded man can read our
report and conclude differently. Wei
merely male special mention of Lieut.
Fuller, wounded; of Lieut.. Jerome. onl
account of bis speeial service, also noticed
by Gen'l Miles; and of Capt. Wheclan' g
reported killing of Lame Deer, which
may or may not prove a mistake-as some
accounts say he did, while others say he
did not; at any rate, he does not say so
himself. On a PERSONAL account vel
could not possibly do injustice to F Co.
which Capt. Tyler commands; and had
he presented any grievances in aIespect-
able, reasonable, considerable manner,
these columns would have flown open toI
him and he not find himself "hoist by
his own petarl," as he must. We think
his letter in print will find him ashamed
of his pen. as he accuses us OF errors be
should have seen we did not make, and
vents unca He'd for Indignation and she me-
full personalities upon US without r, ason
or justice. If Capt Tyler have any ''dirty
linen" to wash with G company, the rep
utatlon Of the regiment demands it be
done in camp and not in the public tub.
As to the $50 calledD official report, which
the company matters which so
excite Capt. Tyler, We have this to say
Capt. Tyler sent the copy of his letter to
C. w. Hoffman " no is responsible for its
publlcity-BUr AS c. W. HOFFMAN PERSON
ALLY PROCURED THE PUBLICATION of that
'official report" in the Times, simuta
neously with its appearance in the Madi
soniau and the COURIER, We regard Mr..
Hoffman's course toward US as about as
great piece of moral qualification as we
have ever witnessed.
In the matter of this so.called "official
report" publication of the following 10
Fort Ellis, June %, 1877.
EDITOR COURIER:
Please correct the statement in the last
issue of the COURIER to the effect that
the renOrt of the battle of the Little
Muddy, given you from Fort Ellis. was an
official report. The news was furnished
the editor Of the Madisonian, who was