Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1915-02-10
SENT CUSTER STORY
TeIegrapher Who Flashed News
of Massacre Just Retired.
After Fifty Years of Active Service
John M. Carnahan Receives
Pension-Ticks off $4,000
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 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 it 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 end the headquar
tiers of Brigadier General Custer, was
at Bismarck. Mr.. Carnahan won
Brigadier General Clusters friendship
and he became the personal friend Of
the officers at Lincoln. And so it was
that he and the post surgeon rode out
from the old garrison with the Custer
expedition when it started in June,
1876, to punish the Sioux. The surgeon
and the operator made the .irst twelve
1r1y
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 5 when
the steamboat Far West came down
the river to Bismarck. The Far West
brought the wounded of Reno's COM
mand and the official dispatches which
told of the complete humiliation of
the Custer command.
On the morning of July Mr.. Carna-
han found on his desk in the telegraph
office a 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. 1t
was four o'clock the next morning
wher he checked off the signature of
the last dispatch in that old carpet
bag. He had sent $4,000 words in the
two shifts.
For two days the eastern newspa-
pers had been clamoring for news, and
there was no one to send it. Mr. Car
nahan could not leave his official work
and there was no other telegraph op-
orator within two hundred miles.
To the New York Herald, the Chica-
go Inter Ocean and the ST. Paul Pho
neer Press he sent as much of the
news as he had strength to prepare.
And that was the way the news of the
Custer battle was sent out.
That was the big news article in
the career of John Carnahan. But in
the professional secrets of SO years at
a telegraph key there must be many
incidents stored up which would star
tie the world if they were told.