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

Falling into brief conversation with
this ancient grayedigger, whose du-
ties cannot be very burdensome in This
city Of the dead, where recruits are
few, l learned of the present DISPOSE
ton OF the battle-ground and the ar
engagements for it's preservation. But
my informant was not as good a Cos
sip as the first gravedigger in Ham
let so we presently went away with
the guide and jOurneyed quite around
the field OF strife now lying so peace
full under the heavy rays Of a mid
summer sun. Reaching the uttermost
limits of the battle ground, the guide
pointed over among the distant val
legs some miles away, and said:
There Is where Custer divided his
Keeping 225 men under his own com
mand, giving Reno 125, Benteen 1876
and McDougall lin charge of pack
traln) 40. Reno marching several
miles away from Custer, found the
enemy first and scrambled back into
hurrledly prepared Entertainments but
Custer. either careless or unconscious
Of the danger, plunged forward through
the ravine and up the hill. where he
was to make his last stand. Once here
and observing that a trap had been
sprung for him by the Indians Of
whose numbers he had no adequate
idea, Custer was either too proud to
retreat as Reno did, and he might have
done, or else. with a supreme conf
dence in his troops, he believed that
he could cut his way out. AT ali
events. he would not retreat. Right
here at the farthest point away from
the final rally he dismOunted his men
and ran a skirmish line across the
brow of the hill The rest is soon
told. No achievements came. and
within half. or at the most three
quarters Of an hour, all was over. The
stones tell you how the boys fell, scat
tered all over the field"
I asked the guide what the local
theory Of Clusters generalship in this
campaign was, but there did not ap-
pear to be any definite opinion on that
point. Custer was always brave and
sometimes rash man, and it may be
that. smarting under certain uncom-
fCrtable events occurring in Washing
ton shortly before the ill-starred cam
paign was inaugurated. he was deter
mined, as Capt. Charles King has ex-
pressed 1t, ito have one battle royal
with the Indians, in which he and the
Seventh cavalry should be the sole
participants on one side, and by con-
sequence the sole heroes. The idea Of
defeat seems never to have occurred to
him"
This latter impression is confirmed by
the testimony Of a trumpeter who wGs
sent away by Custer with a message
just before the battle began, and who
consequently was the last man among
the living to look upon the face Of Gen.
Custer His testimony was that when
Custer looked down upon the Indian
village, apparently asleep, in the quiet
valley Of the Little Big Horn, he pulled
off his hat, waved it above his head
and shouted:
Courage, boys. We have got them.
AS soon as we get through we VIII 80
back to our station"
But that station. way bact at Fort
Lincoln, on the Missouri, where more
than a score Of wives We're waiting IL
agcnizing suspense for news Of the ex-
petition, was never to see these brave
men again. Whether the commander
blundered in dividing mis- troops in the
face Of a numerous enemy or Reno
blundered in his precipitate attack and
retreat may never be definitely deter
mined Certain It IS that 265 men were
killed and fifty-tWo wounded out Of that
little army Of invasion numbering $40
soldiers. Clusters Immediate force was
wiped out, and Reno lost more than a
third OF his available force up to the
time when the fusillade Of the Indians