The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1879-09-26
P 0 z = r 2.
cUsTER's LAST CHARGE.

Tead IL II poseiblel He, the bold riderl
q Custer, our hero, the first in the fight,
Charming the bullets Of yore to fly wider,
Stunning our battle kings ringlets of light
Dead our young chieftain, and dead, all forsa-
kent .@9+ rtaf -'.t
No one to tell US the way of his fall a
Slain in the desert, and never to waken, s
Never. mot even TO yictory's call . M
Comrades, he's gone, ,but ye need not be grieving.
No. May our death be like his when we diel
No regret wasted on words am leaving,
Falling Hike brave men with face to the sky.
Deaths but o journey, the greatest must take it.
Fame is eternal and better than all: E
Gold though the bowl be, tits fate that must break
1t;
Glory can hallow the fragments that fall.
Proud for his fame that last day he met them
AL the night long he had been on their track,
Seeming their traps and the men that had laid
Wild for charge that should never give back.
There ON the hill top, he halted and saw them,
Lodges all loosened and ready to fly,
Hurrying scouts, with the tidings to awe them,
Told of his coming before he was nigh.
All the wide valley was full of their forces,
Gathered to cover the lodges retreat;
Warriors running with haste to their horses
Thousand Of enemies close to his feet. -...-f
Down into the valley that ages had hallowed
There lay the Sitting Bull camp fol preyi
Numbers? What rocked bel What rocked those
that followed; Eg ii.23E sa.gaz 5pbJ
Men who had fought ten to one ere that day
Out swept the squadrons, the fated three hundred,
Into the battle-line steady and full; sF
Then down the hillside exultingly thunderea
Into the hordes OF the old Sitting Bull!
ID Wild 0galalla, Arfapahoe, Cheyenne, t+eri F."
q Wild Horses braves and the rest of their crew
shrank from that charge like herd from a lion,
= Then closed round the great hell of wild Sioux.
Right to the centre he charged, and then facing,
Hark to those yells are around them, oh see!
Oyer the hill-tops the devils come racing,
Coming as fast as the waves of the sea, sa
~ Red was the circle of fire about them;
No hope of victory, no ray of light, ~
Shot through that terrible black cloud without
them; ..r ,.., ,....l.-E ..-.s
Broodpg in death o'er Clusters last fight.
Then did he blanch 2 Did he die like craven
y Begg ing those torturing fends for his life
Was there soldier who carried the Seven
Flinched like coward or fed from the strife
No, by the blood of our Custer. no Quailing!
There in the midst of the devils they close,
Hemmed In by thousands, but ever assailng
Fighting like tigers, all bayed amid foesl
Thicker and thicker the bullets come singing,
Down 60 the horses and riders and ali,
Swiftly the warriors round them are ringing, %.
Clrcling like buzzards awaiting their fall. al I
See the wild steeds of the mountain and prairie,
Savage eyes cleaning from forests of name.
Quiyering lances with pennons so airy,
War-painted warriors charging amain. 4 70
Backward again and again they were driven,
Shrinking to close with the lost little band; z
Never cap that had worn the bright Seven. SUE
y Bowed till its wearer lay dead on the strand
Closer and closer the death circle growing,
Ever the leaders, voice. clarion clear,
Rang out his words of ENCOURAGEMENT glowing
Q : necan die but once, boys, SELL YOUR LIVES
4 DEARr' .,as. e4e
Dearly they sold them, like Berseker's raging,
Facing the death that encircled them round;
Deaths bitter pangs by their vengeance assnag-
ing,
g Marking the track by the dead on the ground.
Comrades, our children shall yet tell the story
OF Clusters last charge on the old Sitting Bull !;
And ages shall swear that the cup of his glory
Needed but that death to render it full.
E