The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-11
WHEN GALLANT CUSTER DIED.
Proposed Celebration of the Little Big
Horns Terrible Indian Massacre.
Pittsburg Dispatch.

Pittsburg Dispatch.
The last Friday in the June past marked
the twenty-first anniversary of the ire
mendous massacre on the Little Big Horn
river, when the gallant Custer and his lit
tie band of $50 troopers were wiped out by
over 5000 bowling redskins, led by Chief
Gall, Sitting Bull, Rain-in-t he-Face and
Crazy Horse. TWenty-one years is almost
one-quarter century and the distance in
time from that memorable day is intensified
by the gaps in the ranks of the men then
on the plains. Public interest in the mas
sacre makes the last anniversary of extra
Importance.
For some time alleged survivors have
claimed that every one of Clusters brave
band was horribly nutiated by the In
dams after the battle had ended. This is
not true. DR.. w. Porter, of Bismarck, n.
D.. last month emerged from hard-earned
retirement to say that he, under convoy
of Major Reno's command, visited the bat
tlefieId soon after the Indians had retired,
and found each man lying just as he had
fallen when struck by a singing Winches-
ter bullet He took especial pains to deny
the yarn that Ratn-1n-the-Face, enraged at
Custer for the death of q faVorite pony
had cut out the great cavalry leaders
heart.
The gallant Custerl Comrade of Sheri-
dan, Kearney, Mcpherson, McGregg,
chivalrous, loyal, brave, who went through
four years OF reckless lighting against the
Confederates unframed, only TO fall at the
hand of savages on a far Northwestern
field. The man who had fought for civiliza-
ton with civilized men died fighting for
civilization against men who are not
capable of civilization At this date such a
fate as his seems incredible. How was it
that the sons of men who had fought the
Indian from behind Names pine trees, over
the Hudson, over the Ohio, across the
Mississippi to the Pacific could thus have
walked into the red mans trap? Custer
himself had knowledge of Indian war
methods. Perhaps the very spirit of daring
impelled him to the expedition from which
he did not return. Desire for greater fame,
perhaps, but why should he not be left in
the all encompassng charity of the grave?
How light-hearted, happy and healthy
that band must have looked as they left
Major Renos larger command in the rear
and FASTENED over the Black Hills to the
fording of the Little Big Horn. There had
been an uprising of the Sioux Indians. Elk
citing chaSes and brushes had been many;
lone troopers out as scouts had been found
dead on the secret-keeping plains; black
ruins of isolated farmhouseS furnished
further proof OF Indian deViltry and gave
the troopers opportunity to guess the fate
of the inmates. They saw and felt it all.
But they were braYe-and light hearted.
A June sky over them, and June
sun turned all the metal trappings of horse
as they. debouched into the plain from the
fated ridge. Below them the Little Big
Horn lay, a mass of winding, flowing
sheen, speaking the splendors and bliss
of peace. The last man had not left the
heights forever before fate arose in the
shape of hundreds OF redskins leaping out
Custer died standing up, cheering on his
men, lying full length behind their horses,
using the animals as rest-pieces for their
rifles. The next day Major Reno saw a
field of corpses, faces toward the unheed-
ing sky. the silvery Little Big Horn flow
ing gently past their last resting place.
This year, at some convenient point, the
men in the army who were in Custer
last campaign propose to hold a reunion.
Eleven years ago such a reunion was held
for the first time, just ten years after the
massacre, on the battlefield itself. At that
meeting, when hundreds of soldiers We're
present, it was decided to hold similar re-
unions every ten years. Last year, how
ever, when the second anniversary was
due, the presidential campaign prevented
it's holding. AS the survivors are fast
passing away it is feared that a wait until
1906 will find no one of those interested
alive. So the Western soldiers are trying
now to arrange for a reunion this year,
which is a trifie late. In case the effort
fails June %. 1901, as the halfway point
in the decade, has been selected. AT that
time men now scattered from Maine to
California Will be expected to be present
and contribute by anecdote to the fund of
information concerning the great battle