Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-03-08
..Lest we Forget.

..Lest we Forget
Are republics "ungrateful," as has
been charged or is their shortcoming
to be more properly classified as due
to either carelessness, heedlessness,
or don't-careness? Are the bones Of
soldiers of the United States army,
men who gave their lives in the far
west in the fight for progress and
civilization against forces of dark
ness and ignorance that the glory,
prosperity and development of these
United States might be advanced not
to receive reverence at the hands OF
their government which is theirs by
right. 1t is little enough to expect.
Let congress and the war department
answer, and if American blood flows
in the veins of those in power the
reply will be in tones that cannot be
misunderstood.
Thirty-two years ago on the 26th
day Of next June, 267 men Of the
Seventh United States cavalry, under
the leadership of as gallant a soldier
as ever wore the blue, fell on the field
of battle in as brave, but hopeless a
fight as were ever United States
troops engaged in. The civil war
had ended eleven years before, but
in no engagement between the forces
of the North and South during the
entire war was ever Drawer spirit
shown against Overwhelming odds
than when Lieutenant Col. George A.
Custer and his gallant officers and
men of the Seventh cavalry were kill
ed to the last soul at the battle of
the Little Big Horn, in Montana, by
nearly four thousand of the best and
most bloodthirsty fighting men Of the
Sioux nation and the Northern Chey-
ennes, the latter tribe Away having
been acknowledged as the finest and
most determined Indian soldiers of all
the warlike tribes who ever took the
war path against authority of the
United States.
Sentiment That
Was of Short Life.
When the news of the extermina-
ton Of Custer and HIS men was her
aided throughout the country (not
for one man, white Or Indian, who
fought that day under the Stars and
1 Stripes ever lived to tell the tale) a
few days after the battle (for in
those days events in remote places
4 in the far west could not be record
ed as quickly as in the present day.
cry of horror swept over the land,
followed by demand that stern
retribution be visited upon the forces
who had opposed and defeated those
representing the government. The
newspapers were filled with accounts
of the gallant fight made by those
brave souls in far-away Montana,
public meetings were held, ministers
made use of the tragedy in speaking
from the pulpits, using devotion
to duty and dying for it as their
theme. Loudly it was asserted by
oficialdom at Washington and else.
where that the deeds of those United
States soldiers should never be for
cotton as long as the nation endured
and that whatever it was possible for
it to do in reverence and respect
for their memory would be done and
maintained until the United States
ceased to be a nation.
There's rosemary; that's for re.
membrance." Little indeed is the
rosemary the United States govern
ment has for years placed on the
ground where those soldiers fought
their last fight on that day in June
!, now well-nigh on to a third of 8
century ago. True, the enormousl,
81 800 ssAAN PAOnPCAOuo N0uAtAys tuAOuSA
its servants at Washington, some
years since set aside few acres Of
ground at the place where the battle
Of the Little Big Horn was fought
and called 1t a National Cemetery
n The tract was enclosed by chear
barbed wire fence, a few white stones
we're set mp marking spots where the
Seventies men fell. the graves OF 9th
or soldiers who lost their lives II
that part Of the country fighting the
Indians and were buried in this trace
were marked by. pieces OF board, .
few Of them receiving the honor Of
Il coat Of white paint; q little house
was erected for the accommodation
Of . ao-called Custodian of the
oemeteryTand then the government
Turned away and promptly forgot al
about the dead.
81 Yen nee, they we're only United
States soldiers who had died for the
Aag. They we're dead men, with ne
votes. Sentiment was ali well enough