The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1877-02-01
Custer and his Friends.
From The Life of General Custer.

From Inc l-l1e OF General CnSttr.
All the reports of the Indians wht
reached the British Possessions were un
an;mous in saying that they dreaded the
sabre more than any thing, and this i
easily understood when their superstition
as to hand weapons is considered
seems certain that they would never have
reverenced Clusters body as they did, hat
he not struck down their best men in thai
grim hand-to-hand fight, wherein, among
all the brave and strong. he was the BRAY
est and best swordsman of all, the Other
officers having had but little teaching il
the use of the sabre. Be that as it may
it is known that he must have died under
circumstances of peculiar heroism to wiz
such respect, and that he was only killec
by the bravest Indian of the whole north
west, Il man whose untlinching fortitude
had enabled him TO hang in the air to1
tour h0urs in the Sun Dance
So fell Custer, the brave cavalier, the
Christian soldier. surrounded by foes, bu
dying in harness amid the men he loved
Who tell with him?
There by his side lay his brother Tom
brave Colonel Custer, Il double of the
General, who had enlisted as u private
| StltlltI ~ SlAltSll, WAS tl OlllCeI lU Hit
teen, who wore what no other officer in
the army could boast of, two medals, each
for a flag taken from an enemy in battle
Brave and gentle. courteous and tender. a
model officer OF cavalry. God be with
gallant Tom Custer till the last day. lie
died like all the Clusters, with his lace to
the sky and his feet to the foe.
Net far off, close together, lay two more
OF the same family, poor young Boston
Custer and little Autie Reed, Clusters
nephew, son of that good gentle Christian
woman, who had saved Custer himself
| from reckless career, whose prayers had
helped to make him the Christian knight
he became. Brave boys nearly boys both,
no sworn soldier OF the state could die
more nobly than they, who would not
abandon a brother and kinsman. They
could do little for him, but they could die
| with him. Autie was fresh from school q
few weeks before, and wild to see the
Plains with Il 'nce Autie7 TO take him
| along it was necessary to give him some
official employment, and Custer, knowing
that the rough hard life would make a
man OF the boy, had him and another
SSG,hp$oe9mate 6, p$ 6 ma appointed herders to help
column. Rough as the lot was, the lad
never complained. He was seeing wild
lite, which was all he wanted, and had
obtained leave to go on this scout with the
General Boston Casters official posi-
ton was that of forage master to the
Seventh Cavalry, which he had held some
time He had been for Years of a con-
sumptiye tendency, and his only chance
for life was the open air existence Of the
plains How far better for him the wild
heroic death he died, under the blue sky.
| fighting like y true Custer. to the slow
| lingering failing end Of a consumptlve,
| which was hs certain portion had he
| lived
So closed the lives of the three Clusters
and their young nephew, fallen on that
stricken field. 1t is time to turn To the
comrades that tell with them.
There is something remarkable in the
power which Custer apparently possessed
of attracting to his side and intimate com
panonship the noblest and best Of the men
with whom the army brought him in con
tact and the facts of his death bring out
this power in conspicuous manner, 1t is
clear that when he made the division OF
the regiment into battalions in the morn
ing, Custer knew that heavy work was
coming, and intended to take the heaviest
work into his own hands, as he always
did. Into his own battalion he seems to
have gathered all CT his own familiar
friends, including his three brothers, as
knowing he could depend on them to the
death. His confidence was well repaid
and we may say to-day, without fear Of
contradiction, that Custer and Clusters
| sri ls hn of tho
Cavalry. The battalion that tell with Gus.
ter held them nearly all
There was the Adjutant. Brevet- Colonel
VIM. w. Cook, the last officer left living
and whose final fall broke the hearts o1
his men and ended the battle. Cook was
a model of manly beauty, in very diff
terent style from that of Calhoun. Fully
as tall (both were over six feeD and as
powerfully framed, Cook was the image
of typical English Lite Guardsman, witt
his highbred aristocratic features and long
wavy black moustache and whiskers. Like
keogh, he was Il foreigner, having been
born in Canada, whence he entered the
American service in the Twenth-
New York Cavalry, rising to its colonelcy
The reader has seen his name frequently
during Clusters life on the plains. One
proud sentence will be his best epltaph
In choosing an officer to command thu
sharp. shooters of the Seventh Cavalry II
the Washita campaign the question wa
not, says Custer, Ito choose a good one
but among many good to choose the best
He choose Cook. Let it be written: "Cus
ter said he was his best officer"
By his side was gallant Yates, captain
and brevet colonel, tender and true, maj
like Calhoun. of old family and gentle
blood, who had not hesitated to enter tn
ranks as a soldier in the war, had enlisted
as boy of sixteen, and worked his wa,
up to captaincy in the Regular Army
Yates was a true, sterling fellow, soldie
to the backbone, with the crack compan,
of the Seventh.
The British admiralty has been mad
the victim of an extraordinary hoax.
fictitious telegram was sent about 81
weeks ago to the Port Admiral at Cork
ordering the gunboat Goshawk to proceed
| of opoo RI (Nihraltor Tho tarmo in Whp