Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-03-02
RENO.

RENO.
Post Interpreter Giro,d Writes an One,
Letter to the Major-He Indicates CON
siderable Contempt for the Person III,
Addresses-Co,oardtce Mendacity, Pan.
ity and VMlgarity Ansong Girard,s In.
aaasendOes.
The following open letter to Maj. Reno an
pears in the Bismarck Tribune:
ITO Maj. Marcus A. Reno-Major In tn,
issue of the Chicago Times of Jan. you arr
represented testifying, in your effort to acq ui
yourself OF the charge of cowardice, that YOU
discharged Girard from the government service
in the latter part of 1875 because you believed
him to be guilty of stealing. Those who dr.
not know you, sir, may not make due allowance
for you, and may do me injustice to place
absolute confidence in your veracity. To guard
against such an error, take the liberty Of con.
fronting you with your worst enemy, Ia state
ment of fact You did discharge me as post.
Interpreter May 6, 1876, assigning as reason
that you expected to go out Of command of the
Lincoln column, that you must economize and
that you could employ three teamsters for nv
salary.
CAN NOW UNDERSTAND THE ECONOMY
IN discharging an interpreter, you probably
foresaw that there would be no occasion foy
one, SO far as your relations with the Indians
were concerned.
Gen. Custer contrary to your plans and ex
pectations, returned and assumed command
and, after hearing your reason for nv dis
charge, restored me my position on the 18th of
the same month. Why did you not m AXE official
complaint to your superior institute pro-
ceedings yourself against me? The fact is.
you displayed another trait of character al
ways associated with that which distinguished
you at the battle of the Little Big Horn
petty tyranny. Custer you could not harm,
but you could his humble friends, SO YOU dis
charged Girard. Major, what evil genius
acter between you and me? You, whom too
generous country educated and trained for an
honorable professlon-to see you conspicuous
only for meanness and unmanliuess in vonr
capacity of commanding officer at Abercrombie,
where your insults and prosecutions of a BROTH
er officers wife aroused
THE INDIGNATION OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY
and eliminated in your dismissal from the
military service, for conduct unbecoming an
officer and a gentleman-you, I say, do YOUR
self an injustice in contrasting yourself with
an humble interpreter, whose simple am bition
never arose before the humble discharge of his
humble duty. Your name, since this fiasco,
has secured to itself some prominence bv it's
association with chief whom you BETRAYED.
and this has ended in an inquiry into your
conduct at the Little Big Horn. I commend
your prudence in this course, if not in others.
as more than two years and half elapsed be-
fore your wounded honor asserted itself, and
asked for a court of inquiry, the coveted re-
gime. You are safe at last, sir, and safety is
the goal you have been striving for most of
your life; but, remember, major, YOU once Sc
cured a certain kind of safety; was it worth
the price? Your modesty would not allow YOU
TO imagine that your feat of horsemanshin on
that occasion would excite such profound in
.erest IN tne MINDS OF your countrymen, nor
did you believe,
WHEN BEHIND THE BARRICADEs ON TIE HILL.
where you SO strategetically eluded the sight
OF your command and the fire of the Indians,
that you would be exposed and pilloried as YOU
have been in Chicago. Pity for you prevented
your comrades from charging you with a quail
ty of which the public verdict convicts YOU. 7
too commisserate your condition. and gladly
award you all the benefit of the doubt implied
by the Scotch verdict, ''Not proved" You are
not my ideal of the representative American
officer. cannot recall any illustrious per-
son IN our military history to whom you bear
any alliance. And yet I am informed you
sometimes assume Napoleonic attitudes. but
they are only attitudes, and are not significant
OF anything warlike. Major, among the other
amusing elements of your statement before the
court was your attempt to criticise Custer s
military abilities. What must his comrades. es.
pecially Gen. Merritt, have thought. as YOU.
with your limited capacity and narrow, be-
clouded horizon. attempted to criticise a SOL
der whose life is challenge to your own dead
level, and whose death you will never emulate?
In answer to question by Recorder Lee, YOU
state that you heard was then at Little Big
Horn. .sf .
WAS THIS THE SOURCE OF YOUR INFORMATION?
Perhaps so. It is in keeping with your recollec-
tions of the memorable 25th of June, 1875, and
you swore you would not believe any report
brought to you by me on that OCCASION Major,
the question will naturally suggest itself, Upon
what have you been feeding that you have
grown 50 great in your own esteem? You for
get, Major, that you were I
NOT BEING TRIED BY sNoBs,
but by an American constituency who will place
just estimate on your snobbish assumptions
of superiority, and with that constituency ]
leave the question as to who did his duty, you
or l, on the occasion referred to. In leavine
you, Major, let me correct any impression YOU
may have that am arguing with you on points
of facts, or matching my veracity against yours
NY respect for myself and my friends will not
permit me to do my reputation such injustice
merely call your attention to few naked
truths with which you are perhaps already
familiar, but which, with characteristic modes
| ty wherever the truth is concerned, you would
leave for some one else to push forward.
f. f. GIRARD.