The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-07
CLUSTERS LAST BATTLEFIELD
The Spot Where the "Yellow Haired
Hero and His Command Met Death.
A Visit to the Plateau on Which the Dashing
Cavalryman and His Three Hundred
Troopers Net the Indian HOrdeG.
Correspondence Of the Indianapolis Journal.


more than three miles from the agency, the mon
ument erected On the site by the government
being within plain view. The story of Clusters
fight with the Sioux will never be satisfactorily
known; not a soul escaped the awful slaughter
to tell the tale At present it is all conjecture,
more or less probable, according to the point of
view and the prejudice of the observer. Whether
! the unspoken agony was the experience of an
hour, or whether it prolonged throughout
the two days of the 25th and Goth of June 1876,
will never be known. If it were possible to I'M
seal the lips Of the dead or to speak life into tho
| bones which lie as thickly here almost as in
! Ezekiel's valley, what tale could be told; of
| how much tragic interest With what eagerness
would we hang upon the story as it could only
come from the lips of some ono who saw it and
was part Of it. The slaughter of Thermopyln
was here outdone. mystery hangs over
these buttes and about this valley of the
Little Big Horn, that can mover be fully dis
PEELED The name CT Custer is written in blood
| in the history of Indian warfare so indelibly as
| never to be efaced and whether the history be
| studied with the eyes of military critic, or be
eagerly read by those whose cooler Judgment is
lost in tho tragic of the great battle, its
interest will never be diminished nor this spot
abate jot or title of its total attractiveress to
tourist and student alike. A we'll worn wagon
road leads Up to the monument. upon the four
faces of which are craven the names of the
slaughtered command, headed by that of ''Bvt.
Major Gen. G. A. Custer. followed by those of
Captains Keough, Yates, and TON" Custer the
Generals brother, upon whose remains Ran-in-
theface carried out his threat of vengeance made
two years previously, when the Captain arrested
him for the crime of murder. The soldiers
heart was cut out and his body otherwise horri-
bly, mutlated. 1t is not worth while to recall
the details of the campaign, of which this bloody
Incident was tho disastrous close. General
Terry, in command Of the expedition, was hurry
ing forward to crush the Sioux. He encamped
not more than thirty miles from the battlefield
only the day before the fight, while Giobon was
| within twenty four hours Of striking distance in
| front Of the hostiles to the west
| Custer started from Fort Abraham
Lincoln in May, with the Seventh Cavalry,
accompanied by Major Reno, second in COM
mand. Had Custer restrained himself, and
awaited the junction of the forces, the Sioux
would have been closed in upon from the front
and TANKS and the object Of the expedition
possibly successfully accomplished. But he did
not. and that is the end OF it. 1t has been
! claimed that he was ambitious, and that when
| he saw the brow of the plateau, upon
which he fought his la st fight, the thought came
to him that now was his chance to win not only
an eagle but STAR anG So taking the desperate
chance, he went in"-aganst orders and
against good soldierly judgrnent-went in to the
jaws of death, into the gates of bell, with his
| ~ ~. - ~
he surprised by the Indians, who rose out Of the
ground if it had been sowed with dragons
teeth, from which sprang the armed red devils,
the just criticism is made that it was his soderly
duty to know of the enemy's presence, for his
orders were to make reconnaissance in force
and locate them. But if it we re ambition that
led him to his fata! ride, it may be said of him,
as Antony said OF Cesar
at were a grievous fault
And most grievOusly hath he answered it.
The battle field is situated on tho plateau
above the valley OF the Little Big Horn, over the
expanse of which were pitched on that fatal day
more than 1900 lodges larger concentration of
hostes than was ever before known in the
country, not less, it is now fully believed than
5000 The plateau is somewhat broken there
are numerous draws" in its face and here and
tncfe Uccp SuIcneS III winch the IntHa1S found
hiding places. 10 the West, overlooking the
river, and near Reno creek is quite u high range
of bluffs, behind which Reno, when detached
with his two companies, was lying while the |
butchery of Clusters forces was proceeding
within seemingly ear and eye shot A visit to
the field will satisfy anyone of the truth of !
Renos defense against the charge that he could |
if he would. have come to the aid of his imperiled
chief it is quite possible to see that he might |
have known nothing of the horrible tragedy; and
indeed, had he come into the fight, the only |
result would have been to add his battalion to
the CHASTITY roll Of Clusters 265 dead Custer
came on the field FROM the southeast, through a
clump of pines, and the theory is thai he
attempted to cross the river, but found the bluff
impossible of ascent. Riding back up the slope
IN the search for another crossinG-tho Indians
forced back, fighting his way over the
ground, inch by inch until he made
a last stand on the side Of a slope look
ing the river and the topmost edge |
Of which the Generals body was found in the
center of a circle Of dead men and horses On
the side of the knoll are yet to be seen rude
cairns raised to mark the spots where soldiers
were discovered the second day after the fight
when the fed was visited and reached by Terrys
command. These stone monuments are thick
enough to cause the blood TO chill imagination
family attempts to paint the horrors Of the hell
in which these poor fellows found themselves i'm
penetrably hemmed just on the brow Of this dead
| mans slope the monument Is raised. 1t is com
posed of three huge granite stones in pyramidal
form, raised upon a three stepped pedestal and
surrounded by high iron fence. imbcdded in
granite curbing. 1t occupies a commanding
position. 1t can be- seen for fully ten miles up
and down the valley q silent memento of the
shudderng mystery it commemorates--as mute
as the voiceess lips Of the sphinx Within few
hundred yards of the monument lies the grave
of Lieutenant Crttenden, whose family desired
his body buried just where he fell. There is an
unspeakable reverence falls upon the spirit Of
the lghtesthearted, as he stands here with the
amethyst tinted sky above oil around an echoless
stretch of scountry bounded only by the distant
| horizon into which blend the outlines of the BIG
Horn Mountains scanned and serried with eternal
SHOWS, and at your feet the winding, fertile
| valley Of the river, with whose waters mingled
the blood of these brave, If rash men. Here, if