The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1908-12-24
ROBINSON REPLIES
State Historian Replies to the Criti
cism of Col. Linn OF the Cam
Ton Leader,

cism of Col. Linn Of the Cam
Ton Leader.
To the Editor of the Republican:
observe You have given place to
Col. Linn's criticism of my remarks
at Sioux City, under the caption,
"Doane Robinson is Wrong" Per-
haps you will carr to publish a brief
statement from my point of view:
Major Reno, a graduate of West
Point, served throughout the war of
the Rebellion with great distinction,
being promoted five times for gall
liant conduct upon the battle field.
After the wal he served on the from
tier, meeting at all times with the
highest appreciation of his superiors,
until, in 1876, he led a battalion OF
Clusters troops in the battle of Lit
tie Big Horn. The Indian villages
were strung for a distance of more
than live miles along the west bank
of the Little Horn, and Reno was
directed to cross the stream to the
west side and charge the upper viii
lagos, while Custer lead a battalion
back to the river bluffs, down the
east side to surprise and strike the
lower village, the plan being to
crush the savages between the two
battalions. Soon after noon Reno
crossed the stream and charged
down the west bank, a large number
OF Indians retreated rapidly before
him, and 1T appeared the way was
easy, when suddenly he found him
self surrounded by vast numbers of
we'll armed savages, many times in
excess of the little band he led. In
short he had been neatly ambushed
and believing his band doomed. if
he did not retreat, he cut his way
out, crossed the creek to the east
bank IL gaining the high ground
hastily %entrenched where he was
joined by Benteen, with the third
battalion and soon was besieged by
a vastly superior force of savages
who held him within his lines for
more than twenty-four hours.
Custer went down the east side,
opposite the lower village, rode in
to an ambush and was destroyed.
Reno was courtmartialed and dis
missed from the service for coward
ice in retreating in the first place and
in not going to the relief of Custer,
when he reached the high ground on
the east side. Reno's friends assert
ed, and many have always believed
it was a ease where some one had
to be crucified, as a vacarious sacri-
flee for the Custer disaster. and he
was made the victim.
My part in the matter has simply
been, with the utmost care, to col
lect the testimony of many of the
leading Indians, who fought on that
fatal day, and find out their point of
view, and it was the Indian story
which told at Sioux City which pre-
cipitated the controversy.
| have the story of Gall, the Sioux
leader in the affair, of Rain in the
Face, of One Bull, the son of Sitting
Bull, and more than one hundred
other warriors who fought there, and
there is substantial agreement in all
| nf fhair ctnrinc Thov M, {ho,, l>,xl
as good an ambush laid for Reno as
for Custer, but Reno got out of it,
chiefly because he had better ground
to work upon. That when Reno re-
treated and entrenched, from seven
to eight hundred warriors were left
to keep him from going to Clusters
aid and that it would have been inn
possible for him to have reached
Custer in any event. They testify
that Clusters command was wholly
annihilated in from fifteen to thirty
minutes after the first shot was fired.
That in the evening after the de-
struction of Custer, having succeeded
~ IL Al1 lllLO III
ambush, by sending the women and
children away, as If the whole camp
was in retreat, they tried the same
tactics in view of Reno, but failed to
draw him out. In short, they wholly
exonerate Reno SO far as they could
understand the situation from their
viewpoint.
Personally, l know nothing of the
situation a from the military
record and from the Indian testi.
mony. The Indians are the only per.
sons in a position to know what oc.
Cured at the lower villages. From
the name in which the testimon,
was communicated tt me; from the
character of many Of the Siou,
whose testimony l have, l have MOI
a doubt they have told truthful,
what Cooprrod opd fro,, oo,oc.