Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1915-02-06
SENT CUSTER STORY
Telegrapher Who Flashed News
of Massacre lust Retired.
After Fifty Years of Active Service
John M. Carnahan Receives
Pension-Ticks off 10000
Words In Two Shifts.

Missoula, Mont.-The news Of the
Custer massacre was first told to the
world in 1876 by John M. Carnahan
then manager and operator in the
Western Union office in Bismarck,
North Dakota. After an active service
of more than fifty years Mr.. Carnahan
has just been retired on a pension
Mr.. Carnahan began his career as
a telegrapher in 1861.
In the fall Of 1872 the Northern Pa,
cific railway line had been completed
as far west as Bismarck, N. D. Mr.
Carnahan was asked to go to Bismarck
and manage that office, and in the
spring OF 1873 he went there and the
big chapter In the story of his event
full life began. For 1t was while he
was at Bismarck that he sent to the
world the account of the Custer mas
sacre on the Little Big Horn in July,
1876.
Fort Abraham Lincoln, the post of
the Seventh cavalry and the headquar-
tclo vi bIlSduicI utuSIdI SuSlclI NEs
at Bismarck. Mr.. Carnahan won
Brigadier General Clusters friendship
and he became the personal friend Of
the officers at Lincoln. And so 1t was
that he and the post surgeon rode out
from the old garrison with the Custer
expedition when 1t started in June,
1876, to punish the Sioux. The surgeon
and the operator made the first twelve
miles with the Seventh cavalry. Then
they turned back with the last dis
patches which Brigadier General Gus
ter sent.
No word came back to Bismarck
from the Seventh cavalry and its COM
mander But that occasioned no sur
prise. Expeditions of that sort were
a common occurrence in those days.
1t was on the night of July when
the steamboat Far West came down
the river to Bismarck The Far West
brought the wounded of Renos COM
mand and the official dispatches which
told of the complete humiliation Of
the Custer command.
On the morning of July 6 Mr.. Carna-
han found on his desk in the telegraph
office carpet bag filled with official
dispatches. There was an immense
lot of them He Flashed" the news to
the East, and then settled down to the
transmission of the official story to
the department OF war in Washington
1t was eight o'clock on the morning of
July when he began his tremendous
task. Not until five o'clock the fol-
lowing morning-21 hours-did he
leave his instruments. Then for three
hours he slept the sleep Of utter ex-
haustion. He returned to his work,
and for 20 hours he sat at his key. It
was four o'clock the next morning
when he checked off the signature Of
the last dispatch In that old carpet
bag. He had sent 10000 words in the
two shifts.
For two days the eastern newspa-
Ders had been clamoring for news, and
here was no one to send 1t. Mr. Car
lahan could not leave his official work
md there was no other telegraph op'
orator within two hundred miles.
To the New York Herald, the Chica-
20 Inter Ocean and the St Paul Pio-
1eer Press he sent as much of the
news as he had strength to prepare.
md that was the way the news of the |
Custer battle was sent out.
That was the big news article In
he career of John Carnahan. But in
he professional secrets of So years at
telegraph key there must be many
Incidents stored up which would star
lie the world If they we're told.