The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1890-07-30
Soldiers Budget.
General Custer's Death.

Never realizing, as | believe. the
fearful odds against him, believing that
he would find the village =" on the run"
and that between himself and Reno he
could 4" double them up - in short order.
Custer had jauntily trotted down to his
death. 1t was long five-mile ride
from where he sighted the northern
end of the village to where he struck
its center around that bold point of
bluff and from the start to the moment
his guidons whirled into view, and his
troopers came gallopng front into
line " down near the ford, he never
fairly saw the great village-never
dreamed of its depth and extent.
Rounding the bluff, he suddenly found
himself face to face with thousands of
the boldest and most skillful warriors
of the prairies. He had hoped to charge
at once into the heart of the village, to
hear the cheers of Reno's men from
the south. Instead he was greeted
with perfect fury of flame and Kissing
lead from the dense thicket of willow
and cottonwood, fire that had to be
answered at once. Quickly he dis
mounted his men and threw them for
ward on the run, each fourth man hold
ing, cavalry fashion, the horses of the
other three The line seems to have
swept in parallel very nearly with the
general course of the stream, but to nc
purpose. The foe was ten to one in
their front. Boys and squaws were
shooting from the willows ooh, we
had plenty guns" said our story
tellers); and worse than that, hundreds
of young warriors had mounted their
ponies and swarmed across the stream
below him, hundreds more were follow
ing and circling all about him. And
then it was that Custer, the hero of a
hundred daring charges, seems to have
realized that he must cut his way out.
Mountp' rang the trumpets, and
leaving many a poor fellow on the
ground, the troopers ran for their
horses. Instantly from lodge and will
low Ogalallas and Brules sprang to
pursuit. "Make for the heights!"
must have been the order, for the first
rush was eastward; then more to the
left, as they found their progress barred.
Then, as they reached higher ground,
all they could see, far as they could
see, circling, swooping, yelling like
demons, and all the time keeping up
their furious fire, were thousands of
the mounted Sioux. Hemmed in, cut
off, dropping fast from their saddles,
Clusters men saw that retreat was i'm
possible. They sprang to the ground,
turned their horses loose" said the
Indians, and by that time half their
number had fallen. A skirmish line
was thrown out down the slope, and
there they dropped at five yards inter-
val; there their comrades found them
two days after. Every instant the foe
rode closer and gained in numbers;
every instant some poor fellow bit the
dust. AT last, on mound that stands
at the northern end of a little ridge,
Custer, with Cook, Yates and gallant
Brother Tom" and some dozen
soldiers, all that were left by this time,
gathered in the last rally. They sold
their lives dearly, brave fellows that
they were; but they were as dozen to
the leaves of the forest at the end of
twenty minutes, and in less than
twenty-five all was over. = Captain
Charles King, IN Harper's Magazine.