Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-06-27

the relief detachment returned to the fort
bearing the terrible news. Some of the
skirmishers had gone near enough to the
slaughtered band to discover Fetterman's
body lying among his men. He had led
and had fallen at his post.
The next morning Col. Darlington
marched toward the battlefield with a de-
tachment of eighty men. The Indians had
gone and he found the field just as it had
appeared the day before to the troops when
the Indians were permitted to look on from
distance. The fighting had taken place
along a trail which descended n ridge into
the valley from the way of the fort and as
cended on the opposite side. Bodies of sol
diers and of horses Were found in the val
ley above and below the roadway, and it
was plain that the fighting had commenced
on the farthest hillside where, the surgeon
had seen thecommand on the eve of battle
Here Fetterman had been met by IA strong
party of Sioux warriors, and Immediately
other bands had moved in along the valley
from both directions to the road in his
rear, and had so hemmed him in complete
". Turning. he had attempted to cut his
way back along the road to the fort, losing
men at every step, aud making death
stand with few followers far up the side
i
four huge rocks, We're heaped many bodies
of soldiers, and Fetterman lay upon them,
/ with "A revolver shot through his temple.
! Capt Brown, commanding the cavalry,
! lay near him, shot in the same manner,
! and it was surmised at the time that they
| had been the last to die and had killed each
! other to save themselves from Indian
! torture. The bodies of the brave victims
! had been mutilated by the fiendish Sioux
in manner that defies description. Eyes,
teeth and hands had been torn from their
sockets and carefully placed around upon
some slightly objects to give them CHASTITY
prominence One body contained 800 ar
rows. These atrocities, far from injuring
the dead, were an unwilling tribute to
their proves, for they showed that the
destructiveness of the soldiers fire had
been such as to arouse the savage vim
dictiveness to the highest pitch.
There were no Indian bodies on the
battlefield but pools of dark blood all
along the valley and on the hillsides
showed where the treacherous Sioux war
riors had bled under the bullets of their
brave but unfortunate foemen. 1t was the
ambush over again that had done the fatal
work, but the willy savage had paid heavily
for his triumph
The slaughtered soldiers were buried
near the field, their officers among them
a monument was erected and fence was
put around the little cemetery. Twenty
two years later, when the fence had been
destroyed and the iron posts hauled away
to do other duty on the neighboring farms
and the brick of the monument likewise
the remains were taken up and placed in
the Custer National cemetery, where they
lie beside the gallant band who fell in q
similar way on the Little Big Horn, in
1876 The formal orders under which Col
Fetterman acted in this fight were, "TC
support the wood train, relieve it and re
turn to the fort" but it has been claimed
that Col Darlington twice cautioned him
incidentally not to go beyond the first
ridge which would hide him from the fort
The wood train, however, was far beyond
that and was encompassed with savages
To have halted without attempting to cross
the valley and succor the train would have
been cowardly TO go forward and do the
duty assigned meant fight at any hazard
and the brave commander who had vol
unteered the leadership chose the latter
GEORGE l.. KILLER