The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-03-05
BEARER OF CUSTER'S
MESSAGE LOSES JOB
CHANGE OF ADMlNiSTRATlON is
CAUSE-TELLS STORY OF
THRILLING RIDE.
(New York SUM

1
lvice made by the Wilson administra
ton have retired from Uncle Sam,
payroll one of the most picturesque
figures in North Carolina. Daniel A
kanipe, former revenue raider wht
is said to be the only American sur
vlvor of the Inflated force under the
Immediate command Of General George
A. Custer. Mr.. Kanipe has the dis
tinction of having carried the last or
der issued by Custer just previous tc
the massacre on the Little Big Horn
river in Montana, in 1876.
Terror to Moonshiners.
Mr.. kanipe has retired to his home
at Marion, near Ashevile, since the
change of administration has deprived
him of his place as a revenue raider;
but his name Is still word to conjure
with in the districts where corn liquor
is made without paying tax to the
United States government. AS raid =
er Mr.. Kanipe was probably the most
! feared man in the Asheville district,
one OF the largest in the United States,
and the same courage that sent him
serenely on a mission through a coun-
try infested with hostile Indians has
caused him to venture into dark cor
ners of the mountains in search of IL
licit distillers. Himself a mountaneer
he has matched wits and marksman-
ship with the surest shots and most
cunning inhabitants of the mountain
regions, and has always won.
Ran Away to Enlist.
Kanipe was born at Marion and was
raised on farm, but ran away from
home at the age of 10 to enlist in the
army, walking across country to Lin
colnton, where he enlisted in Company
c, Seventh Regiment United States
Cavalry. The company was command
ed at the time by Captain V. X. Hart.
Before long the young man was pro-
NOTED to a sergeancy and attached as
a scout to the command of General
George A. Custer in the campaign
against the Sioux Indians under Chiefs
Sitting Bull and Rain in the Face. He
was with Custer on the morning of
June rs, 1876. at the Little Big Horn,
when the Indians were beginning to
close in around the little band Of Am
erican soldiers
Carries Clusters Last Order.
81 had the fastest horse In the SER
vice." Sergeant kanipe says, land he
could single-foot faster than most cav
airy horses could run. Captain Oater
Major) Thomas Fl. McDougal in COM
mand Of Troop B, was about five miles
away, in charge of the pack train car
rying our spare ammunition and ra =
lions.
General Custer ordered me to find
Captain McDougal and tell him t.
bring up the pack train with all speed d,
as he General CUSTER believed that
q great battle was about to be fought
With this last order of General Gus
ter's slipped away from camp on my
horse, Yankee Mike, and after sneak
Ing past a number of Indians and out =
running bunch that discovered me
and gave chase. I made my way t.
Captain McDougals camp and deliv-
cred the order.
Relief Too Late
1--WE started at once to the relief of
General Custer, but by that time he
was surrounded by Indians. and 1t re-
quired two days of hard fighting to
make our way across that five miles of
territory. While was gone and while
we were fighting our way back to Gus
ter's position Sitting Bull and Rain in
the Face, with their 1000 Sioux devils.
surrounded his force, and after hard
fight butchered them.
When our relief force reached the
spot where the heroic Custer had
made his last stand we found the bod
les Of my former comrades lying in
twisted heaps, just as they had fallen
under the blows of the Indians. Some
of them had mercifully been shot. but
many more were lying with crushed
and shapeless bodies and heads batter
ed in by the war clubs Of the Indians
Massacre Never Sufficiently Avenged.
81 had seen service before that, and
I saw service afterward in the cam
paign against the Cheyennes in Ne
braska, but | never saw q battle In
which thought the Indians We're re-
paid for the massacre of General Gus
ter and his heroic troopers.
1.-TWO other men escaped from the
think, Crow Indian scout
named Curlev, who have since learn
ed is living in ST. Louis and whose In
dian costume probably helped him t.
slip away while the battle was raging
and an Italian trumpeter named Mar
tine, who have heard has been seen
in Buffalo. n. Y. How he managed to
escape I have never been able to
learn"
Mr.. Kanipe. after leaving the army
secured a position as deputy internal
revenue collector. His most cherished
possessions are the old faded blue uni
form which he wore on that memoir
able ride for Custer and the sabre and
pistol he carried as member Of the
Seventh Cavalry.
l.