The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-05-26

patches and the mail. Sergeant Fox
was in charge OF the mail. Just as ths
b,at started on its trip ii was capsized
and the sergeant was drowned. The
other two men were saved and the mai
was recovered from the river at the spoI
where the boat turned over. / dried
out the mail on the deck of the Fal
West and another detail was sent with
it to the fort. The mail bags contain
ed the letter written by Boston Custer
TO his mother, and she received it. In
her books the widow of General Custer
tells of the letter and gives its date as
June %, and this substantiates my as
sertion that the troops did not leave
camp until that day.
Leaving the mouth of the Rose Bud
the route taken by the cavalry was a
! circuitous one across the county, and
directly to the camps of the Indians.
The infantry kept along the north bank
of the Yellowstone until the Big Horn
river was reached. AT that point we
II
ferried them across and they pitched a
camp four miles back from the june
tion of the two rivers. Early in the
morning the infantry started up the
Big Horn. Before daybreak Captain
Burnett came to the boat with orders
from General Terry commanding Cap
tain Baker to proceed up the Big Horn
river as far as possible. Up into an
unknown river the Far West plOwed
her way, dodging around myriads Of
little islands and sandbars. Frequent
ly We met with rapids, which necessi-
tated some great steamboating. The
soldiers helped US under command OF
Captain Baker, and the work Of laying
lines and running the capstans was
thus an easy one. We were frequent
ly Obliged to work the hoat along, but
made good progress that day, and stop
ped for the night not far from the in
fantry camp.
"The next morning, June IS, Capt.
Burnett appeared on the boat with
more orders for Capt. Baker. They di-
rected Us to proceed up the Big Horn
as far as found to be navigable, and if
possible make the mouth of the Little
Big Horn and wait there for the
troops. If impossible to get that far
We were TO return TO the point where
the orders mad been received.
"We started early in the morning,
and about , O'Clock in the afternoon
reached the mouth of a river. As no
one was familiar with the country
there, we did not know whether it was
the Little Big Horn or not, so Capt.
Baker and his men disembarked and
went up into the country three or four
miles on an exploring expedition.
When they. returned Capt. Baker an
nOunced that it was not the Little Big
Horn. We got under way and pro-
ceeded on up the stream the balance Of
the day. Failing to fad another stream
we turned about and returned to the
mouth of what we learned afterward
was the Little Big Horn. Arriving
there we expected to remain until the
troops put in an appearance. 1t was
along in the next morning some time
that number of us, river men and
soldiers, were sitting on the shore of
the island fishing. The shores were
low, marshy and covered with willow
brush.
Suddenly and without warning the
willows parted and fdll-bloOd Indian
warrior stood clearly defined against
the green background. He was a mag
nificent picture. Naked, with the ex-
ception of breech cloth, he sat astride
sleek pony, his body perfectly erect
aud beautiful in it perfect proportions.
His horse was unincumbered except
by tightly rolled blanket and a rope
bride. The moment we saw him we
jumped to our feet in alarm, but as he
waved his carbine over his head we
recognized in him CIrley', an Indian
scout who had been with Custer. He
beckoned to us very exeitedly and We
made haste to reach the boat, when he
dismounted and Joined us. Plainly
something allied the Indian. He hung
his head, groaned and gruntei dOleful-
ly. We tried to learn what allied him,
but with out avail for some time. He
sat on a medicine chest, rocking him.
sell to and fro, until Captain Baker got
piece of paper and a pencil, and,
handing them to Curly, indicated their
use. We all gathered around the In
dian. There were in the group Cap
tain Baker, Lieutenant Cariin, myself
and George Faulk. Faulk was the en-
gineer of the Far West, and is now
working as engineer on the ferry-boat
here in st. Louis. The naked Indian
dropped down fiat on the steamboat
deck, got firm grip on the pencil, and
quickly drew a circle. Around the
circle he drew another larger one, and
then began making dots between the
outer and inner circumferences, calling
them Sioux, Sioux in dismal, de-
spairing tone. When he had made
myriad of dots there he looked around
the group who were watching him in
tently and then began making dots in
the inner circle, repeating sadly, 'Ooso-
ri-kee! obso-ri-keeu Grow for soldiers).
We hardly realized the significance of
Curley's diagram until he took his fore
finger, described circle about his
scalp lock, pulled at the tuft of hair
vigorously and then appeared to hang
it at his belt and executed war dance.
Then it was we realized what Curlry
was trying to tell us. The diagram
was meant to show that Clusters men,
the dots in the inner circle, had been
surrounded by the Sioux, the dots be-
tween the circles. The signs with the
scalp-lock and frequent sorrowful shak-
ings of the head and repetitiOns of
'Obso-ri-kee' told us that Clusters men
had been scalp.
at was long and tedious process to
learn through the sign language furth-
er particulars. In course of time we
knew Curley was the only member of
the command who escaped. There
were eight Crow scouts with the troop,
but the other seven were killed by the
Sioux. The scalp lock of the Crows
stood straight up from their heads like