The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-26

tenden were thrown across our flank to
protect our retreat.
Gen. Custer was everywhere, and for
a time seemed bullet and arrow proof.
Capt Keogh's company was exposed to
the tiercest fire, and his men were soon
swept of. II seemed as if we were hours
making that retreat of a quarter of a mile.
We made our last stand on little knoll,
which we reached with only seventeen men
out of our entire command.
There the first thing we did was to
shoot our horses so as to make a breast
work behind which we could fight Gen.
Custer and his brother Tom and Lieut..
Cook were among the last to fall. Gus
ter died with his revolver in his left and
his saber In his right hand. with a dozen
dead Indians piled around him. And. In
deed, almost every man on that little knoll
went down with just such a heap of red
bodies around him. Charley Reynolds a
scout, and as brave man as ever lived,
brought down an Indian at every shot.
and as he fell he emptied his revolver,
still with steady hand. The Indians
were armed, i'm addition to their bows and
arrows. with the best guns to be had.
Before we went into battle T'rumpeter
Martin was sent back with orders to Capt.
McDougal and Capt. Benteen to hurry
forward with their companies. Had they
done so. and had Reno's men come up to
reinforce us, the result might have been
very different.
when | shot my horse a bullet struck
me in the head and l fell. In it's death
struggles the horse rolled over me and
protected me during the rest of the fight.
When il was all over and the Indians
swarmed over the knoll. they CHANGED to
see that | was still alive. They then
bound me hand and foot and took me to
their camp.
There they already had two other
white men, prospectors, and young white
woman. They put these three through tor
lures which l was compelled to witness.
But / was reserved for the last, because
the execution / had done in the fight had
been noticed, and they wanted to have
revenge for it. In fact, they named me
Little Thunderer,' and called me by that
name all the time / was among them. The
two prospectors were made to run the
gauntlet again and again. Zach time the
arrows were pulled out by force and fresh
ones shot into them. One of the men final
ly resisted and was Drained with tom
ahawk When the other became too weak
to afford any more sport of that sort he
was bound TO a stake, a slow fire was
built on his abdomen and the bucks and
squaws danced around him laughing over
his death agonies Then the woman was
tortured TO death.
FINALLY they began upon me. They
tied Goals of fire upon my head and left
them there until l tainted. When came
to they put on fresh ones. When / re-
fused TO open my mouth they smashed my
upper Jaw and knocked out my teeth with
a Ratchet. Then a squaw grasped my
tongue with a rough pair of wooden pin
GERS and dragged me over the ground In
that way TO the great merriment of those
who were looking on. They tied my hands
to stake and then, stretching my body
with all their strength tied my feet to
another Then the squaws beat the soles
-of my feet until every bone was broken and
the flesh was a jelly.
"A big buck thrust a dun lance through
my thigh pinnng me TO the earth. But
these ere only "a small portion of the tor
lures they inflicted upon me while / lay
stretched there helpless. The bucks
squaws, and boys all Joined in shooting
arrows into me-. and at last. when they
must have thought / could not endure
much more, they tied me ON an ant mound
to be eaten by the large red ants Horri-
BILE as the other tortures had BEEN this
was the worst of them all. My breast Is
still one big running sore where the ants
gnawed my flesh. 1t has never healed
MY fortunes lasted three days, and ev-
cry hour of that time seemed an eternity
If / had not been unusually strong and
| healthy young man, could not have lived
| through il. Before that time i scarcely
| knew what sickness was. but ever since
! have suffered from their work. I still
carry in my head the bullet / received in
the battle. Buffalo Bill and his cowboys
| rescued me from the Indians at the end oil
| three days. and took me where my wounds
| could be dressed"