The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-20

was husned py the arrival OF Terry and
reinforcement Sitting Bull, Gall and
crazy Horse were the leading spirits
on the Indian side OF this fight. and
their losses are believed to have been
very large. The savage authorities adj
mitted that 1913 dead Indians were found
lying in front Of Clusters final position
on the highest point Of the ridge. If
this be true the heroic band of less than
forty men who rallied about Custer at
the last moment exacted a penalty OF
four savage lives for each soldier who
bit the dust.
To describe the campaign leading. up
to this tragic event, or enter into mi
mute details of the battle, is no part of
the present purpose. / visited the bat
tlefield to ascertain it's present condf-
ton and to revive memories of an
event that must always rank with the
most startling tragedies of American
warfare. A new generation has come
upon the field Of action since the Gus
ter battle, and it was presumed that
some hurried "reminiscences of the
event would not only interest those
among the younger persons who are
thoughtful and studious, but might in
spire old soldiers and old citizens alike
with some proper sense of the sacri-
fees that have been made to establish
@ government which silver fanatics are
now attempting to wreck with their
cheap and surprising sophistry.
But there is one more chapter to
be added, in order to complete the mar
rative. For three years prior to this
fateful expedition from which he never
returned Gen. Custer had been located
at Fort Lincoln, on the Missouri, near
Bismarck, at that time the end of the
Northern Pacific road. His first ex-
petition in this territory was for the
purpose Of protecting the engineers
then engaged in surveying line for
the extension of the Northern Pacific
from Bismarck to the Yellowstone
river in Montana, and subsequent cam
paigns carried him over the same ter
ritory, then in the very heart of the
Indian country. Early in the year
1876 the hostile Indians were SO fear
less that 1T became necessary to teach
them a lesson. Sitting Bull refused to
enter into any treaty with the govern
ment, and his cutthroat band invaded
the settlements and murdered the pio-
neers until patience ceased to be a
virtue. Then the expedition Of 1920
brave men marched out from Fort
Lincoln, many Of them never to re-
turn, leaving the women behind, to
be often desieged by bad Indians and
haunted by fears for the safety Of
their husbands who were in the field.
OF this gloomy time Mrs. Custer
speaks in touching language, in her
book, Boots and Saddles" the domes-
tic record Of her husbands campaigns
in the Northwest
Our own post, she says, was con-
stantly surrounded by savages, and
the outer pickets were continually sub
jected to attacks. 1t was no unusual
sound to hear the long roll calling out
the infantry before dawn to defend
the garrison. We saw the faces of
the officers blanch, brave as they were,
when the savages grew so bold as to
make a daytime sortie upon our outer
guards"
The sense of impending danger for
the absent soldiers reached it's height
on the very day Of the Little Big Horn
battle, and it is In these words that
Mrs. Custer describes the heart-rend-
ing situation:
ION Sunday afternoon, the 18th Of
June, our little group Of saddened
women. borne down with one common
weight of anxiety, sought solace in
gathering together in our house We
tried to find some slight surcease from
trouble in the old hymns; some OF
them dated back to our childhood,s
days, when our mothers rocked us to
sleep to their soothing strains. 1 re-
member the grief with which one fair
young wife threw herself upon the car
pet and pillowed her head in the lap
of q tender friend. Another sat de-
jected~ at the piano and struck soft
chords that melted into the notee Of the
voices. All were absorbed in the same
thoughts, and their eyes We're filed
with PARKWAY visions and longings.
1ndescribable yearning for the absent
and untold terror for their safety en-
crossed each heart. The words Of the
''E'en though cross 1t be,
Nearer my God to thee"
came forth with a sob from every
throat.
At that very hour the fears that our
tortured minds had portrayed in Inn
agination were realities, and the souls
ing to meet their Maker. p
for it took that time for the news to
Gomez, the sun rose on beautiful
world, but with its earliest beams came
the first note Of disaster. A steamer
came down the river. bearing the
wounded from the battle of the Little
Big Horn, of Sunday, June 20. This
battle wrecked the lives of twenty-six
women at Fort Lincoln, and orphaned
children Of officers and soldiers Joined
their cry to that Of their bereayed
mothers
What more con be said Of this tragic
battle and its pathetic ending? Not all
the killed and wounded are included
In the official bulletins of any engage
ment. There are wounds deeper and
more desperate than those inflicted by
the bullets of the enemy.
Lyman p. Glover