Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-06-10
Sitting Bulls Story of the Custer
Massacre,

Sitting bull, the desperate indian lead
er, has recently told the story of the Gus
ter massacre to Major CroZier He began
his account of the engagement by saying
that ON the morning of the battle, at
sunrise, two young men who had been
out short way on the prairie, came to
me and told me that from the top of a
high butte they had seen the troops ad-
vancing in two divisions. | then had
all the horses driven into the camp and
corraled between the lodges. About
noon the troops came up, and at once
rushed upon the camp. They charged
in two separate divisions, one at the up
per end, whilst the other division
charged about the middle of the
camp. The latter division struck the
camp III the centre of the $50 lodges
of the Uncapapa Sioux, and close to
the door of my own lodge. At the
time that the troops charged | was max
ing medicine for the Great Spirit to help
us and fight upon our side, and as
heard the noise and knew what it was,
came out. When | had got to the out
side of my lodge | noticed that this di-
vision had stopped suddenly close to the
outer side of the Uncapapa camp, and
then they sounded bugle and the troops
fired into the camp. (Here Sitting Bull
made peculiar noise with his mouth
and cIapped his hands together to imi-
tate the firing Of soldiers.) at once set
my wife upon my best horse, put my
war bonnet on her head, and told her
to run away with the rest of the wo
men. She did so, but in her hurry
forgot to take the baby Ia girl VI
after she had gone little way she
thought of the child and came back for
it. gave the child to her and she went
off again. | now put flag upon lodge
pole, and lifting it as high as could,
shouted out as loud as | was able to my
own men; i am Sitting Bull; follow
me- | then rushed at the head of them
up to the place where | thought Custer
was, and just as we got close up to the
troops they fired again. (Here Bull
again initiated for some length of time
the firing of the troops.) When | saw
that the soldiers fired from their saddles
and did but little damage to US, | ordered
all my men to rush through their ranks
and break them, which they did, but
failed to break the ranks, although we
suffered as little damage as before.
then shouted to them to try again, and,
putting myself at the head OF my men,
we went at them again. This time, al
though the soldiers were keeping up
rapid firing (from their horses, we
knocked away whole corner and killed
a great many. though | had only one
man killed. After this we charged the
same way several times, and kept driv-
ing them back for about half mile,
killing them very fast. After forcing
them back, there only remained five
soldiers of this division and the inter.
prefer alive. told my men to let them
live Then the interpreter, the man
that the Indians called The White,
shouted out in Sioux, and said: Gus
ter is not in this division He is
in the other / then ordered all my
men to come on and attack the other
division They did so, and followed me.
The soldiers of this division fired upon
+ us as soon as we got within range, but
did us little harm. When we had got
quite close, and we were just going to
charge them. great storm broke right
over US; the lightning was fearful, and
struck lot of the soldiers and horses,
killing them instantly. | then called out
to my men to charge the troops, and
shouted out: The Great Spirit is on our
sdei Look how he is striking the
soldiers DOWN. My men saw this,
and they all rushed upon the
troops, who were mixed up good deal
About forty of the soldiers had
been dismounted by the lightning killing
and frightening their horses, and these
men were soon trampled to death. 1t
was Just at this time we charged them,
and we easily knocked them off their
al, l-.Ii
coup sticks In this way we killed all
this division, with the exception of few
who tried to get away but were killed by
tue Sioux before they could get far. All
through The battle the soldiers fired very
wild, and only killed twenty-five Sioux.
| did not recognize General Custer in the
fight. but only thought / did, but
would not be certain about it. believe
Custer was killed in the first attack, as
we found his body, or what all the
Indians thought was Clusters
body, about the place that it
was made. / do not think there is
any truth in the report that he shot him
self saw two soldiers shoot them
selves. The Sioux were following them,
and in few moments would have caught
them, but they shot themselves with their
pistols in the head. The body which
all the Indians said was Clusters had its
hair cut short. There were seven hun
dred and nine Americans killed. We
counted them, putting q stick upon each
body, and then taking the sticks up
again and counting them. We counted
seven hundred and seven carbines. Two
might have fallen into the creek.
When Bull had completed the forego-
ing account of the battle, he turned to
Major Crozier and said: There, have
fought the battle all over again to you,
and this have never done since the time
fought it out in earnest with General
Custer"