Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1881-05-28
The Custer Massacre.

III The Custer Massacre.
a THE TRAGIC ENDING IN A FEARFUL
- R-STORM-MIXING MEDI
: CINE TO AID HIS MEN IN TIL
" BLOODY FIGHT.
= Sitting Bull, the desperate In
: dian leader, has recently told thu
story of the Custer massacre t
y Major Crozier. He began his &C
count of the engagement by saying
that "on the morning of the battle
early at sunrise, two young mel
, who had been out short way or
the prairie came to me and told me
that from the top of high butte
: they had seen the troops advancing
!, in two divisions. I then had all
the horses driven into the camp and
corraled between the lodges. About
noon the troops came up. and al
once rushed upon the camp. They
charged in two sanaratr hi~ision-,
one AT tie upper end, whilst the
other division charged about the
middle of the camp. The latter di-
vision struck the camp in the centre
of the 25O lodges of the Uncapapa
Sioux, and close to the door of my
lodge. At the time that the troops
charged l was making medicine for
the Great Spirit to help us and fight
upon our side, and as l heard the
noise and knew what it was, came
out. When l had got to the out.
side of my lodge noticed that this
division had stopped suddenly
close to the outer side of the Uncap-
apa camp, and then they sounded a
bugle and the troops fred into the
camp. (Here Sitting Bull made
peculiar noise with his mouth and
clapped his hands together to iml.
tate the firing Of soldiers.) / at
once set my wife upon my best horse,
put her war-bonnet on her head,
and told her to run away with the
rest of the women. She did SO, but
in her hurry forgot the baby "a
girD; after she had gone little way
she thought of the child and came
back for it. l gave the child to her
and she went off again. ] now put
flag upon lodge-pole, and, lift
ing it as high as could, | shouted
out as loudly as [ was able to my
own men, 1 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 fred again.
(Here Bull again initiated for some
length Of time the firing Of the
troops.) When I saw that the SOL
diers fred from their saddles and
did but little damage to us, l order
ed all my men to rush through their
ranks and break them, which they
did, but failed to break the ranks,
we suffered as little dam
age as before. 1 then shouted to
them to try again, and putting my
self at the head of my men, we went
at them again. This time, although
the soldiers were keeping up a rapid
firing Qrom their horses), we knock
ed away whole corner and killed
a great many, although 1 had but
one man killed. After this we
charged the same way several times
and kept driving them back for
about half mile, killing them very
fast. After forcing them back there
only remained five soldiers of this
division and the interpreter alive.
Then the interpreter, the man that
the Indians called "The White,"
shouted out in Sioux and said,
"Custer is not in this division, he
is in the other" l 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 we got
within range, but did us little harm.
When we had got quite close and
we were just going to charge them,
a great storm broke right over us;
the lightning was fearful, and struck
a lot of the soldiers and horses,
killing them instantly. l then call
out tony men to charge the troops,
and shouted out, "The Great Spirit
is OH our side !! Look how he is
strik ing the soldiers DOWN. My
men saw this, and they all rushed
upon the troops, who we're mixing
up a 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 then killed them with our
"coup-sticks." In this way we
killed all this division, with the
exception OF few who tried to get
away. but were killed by the Sioux
before they could get very 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 l did, but 1 would not
be certain about it. believe Gus
fer was killed in tha first aftaol