The Portland daily press., 1895-08-10

touch elbows in fight and rally around
That would also represent ideal soldiery
duty. There is no one to say that these
men did not die fighting to reach the side
OF Custer and lay down their lives there
with him. There is no one who can
truthfully say that they were in retreat
trying to get away from the carnage
which raged around Custer And as we
love heroism and heroic sacrifice we can
pay this tribute to the gallant troopers
OF the Seventh Cavalry who died on Gus
ter's Hill because it was not theirs to
reason why, but theirs to do or die, be-
cause they were soldiers sent out to bring
IN the hostile Indians who were with Sit
ting Bull. Back in the other rayine to
the east of the hill are other groups of
white marble Slabs some standing close
together, like soldiers touching elbows;
some detached and struggling along the
hillside. One of these slabs bears the
name of the gallant Captain Keogh and
another the name of Lieut.. Crittenden.
These marbles all look to represent a
pody trying to climb the hill and rally
around the commander n-chief They
may have been cut off by another tide of
savagery that swept up through the
ravine and between them and Custer
They died there, little band of thirty
eight men, together There are few slabs
scattered far away from the groups to in
dictate that any tried to escape by an in
dividual effort. The men fought to-
gether, died together, and the marble
slabs marking their positions stand to-
gether as sentinels to tell the coming
generations how Custer's men died, If
not how they planned and fought their
last battle. 1t is the nearest thing to "a
photograph of a battle that we could
have. 1t is marking of the field that
speaks for each and every man, just as
the monuments at Gettysburg and Chick
amaugua speak for the different COM
manders. Those fields mark manoeuvers
by commanding officers. This field
marks the place Of every man, where he
fought and where he died There is not
another battlefield like this in the world
where all the coming generations may
come and stand beside the granite monu-
ment on the brow of the hill and see in
the white marble tablets scattered about
just how the five troops of the Seventh
Cavalry who followed Custer in that last
battle fought and died in line of battle,
forgetting neither military tactics nor
duty in lighting a horde of savage In
ulans who outnumbered them ten to one.
The bodies were mutilated by the In
dams. all except that of General Custer.
Scout Campbell says that there was not a
mark on the Generals body except the
The Indians respected the Yellow Haired
Chief for his bravery in battle, and they
had a superstitious fear of him, even in
DEATH They did not touch that body.
They left the General lying as he fell
But the body of his brother, Tom Custer,
was brutally mutillated. Rain-in the
Face had sworn to eat Toms Custer S
heart because, as officer of the day at Fort
Lincoln, Tom Custer had sent this In
dian to the guardhouse some months be-
fore the battle. 1t is supposed that Rain
in-the- Face kept his oath, though he has
feared to acknowledge it since. The
heart of Tom Custer was torn out of his
body; other bodies were mutilated and
stripped of their clothing This is his
tory that has been told many times /
only repeat it as a part of Scouts Camp
bell gossipy talk in our walk over the
field And here lies the body Of Lieut..
John J. Crittenden, the only officer
buried on the field, - says Scout Camp
bell, as he lays his hand on the monu-
ment erected to the young soldier 'All
the others have been removed, Custer and
his brother to West Point, the other