The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-07-12

into them while they remained in rang
of our two guns, and those were the las
shots fired in the battle OF the LdI lttl
Big Horn. That was well known by ever.
man in Reno's battalion.
Major Reno, Captain French, Captain
t Benteen, Captain McDougal, Captain Wen
) Lieutenant Godfrey and, in fact all of tn
officers did all that they could in ordei
| to defeat the Indians, and some of thu
others must have had a charmed life thu
way they stood up under this heavy fire.
think the Indians took some of oul
men prisoners, and when other reinforce
ments joined us we found what appeared
to be human bones, and parts of blue
uniforms, where the men had been tieo
to stakes and trees. Some of the bodies
of our officers were not found, al
least not at that time. Among them were
gis,. l understood that some parts of theiI
clothing, uniform or gauntlet gloves were
found on the field, which showed that
they were killed. In burying the dead
After the Indians moved out of sight
we jumped out of our works, built bet
tel. rifle pits, and unsaddled our horses,
which had not been unsaddled since the
evening of the twenty-fourth.
45 Men Killed
We also took the packs from the mules.
Then we got water from the river in
camp kettles, and made a better shelter
for the horses and wounded, for we ex-
pected that the Indians would attack us
again.
Reno's lost, between the en-
gagement in the bottom and the entrench-
ments in the bluffs, somewhere about 40
men killed and 60 wounded, which will
show how desperate the engagement was.
In my company, out of 45 men and horses
that went into the engagement, IA men
and the second lieutenant were killed, 10
wounded, we lost about IS horses killed
or disabled.
That night everything was quiet as
far as the Indians were concerned. The
next morning at daylight we could look
from the bluffs over the timber to where
the Indian camp was, and we saw that
the lodge poles, which remained standing.
On the other side, a long way off from
the Indian camp, we noticed a large cloud
of dust arising, and a body of either In
dians or troops coming towards the In
dian camp, but at the time we could not
distinguish which they were.
Some of the officers turned their field
glasses on, and thought they were troops.
Reno Immediately dispatched a couple of
scouts, and it proved to be the balance of
our expedition, and General Gibbons com
pears that they came through Clusters
battlefield, and they counted the dead
bodies of 207 men. They then crossed the
river.
They then crossed the river into the de-
serted Indian camp, and followed up the
valley of the Little Big Horn until they
struck that part of the field where Reno's
dead lay. They moved a little farther on
near the bend where Reno's command re-
treated across the river, and went into
camp. General Terry and his officers rode
across the river and Joined our officers
on the bluffs, and it made our hearts
jumn to see those men.
AS soon as Terry's officers notified Reno
and his officers what they had found on
the Custer battlefield, Reno's
went to work and buried all the dead that
lay on the bluffs. The unexpected news
filled the hearts of all the men with sad
We took all 4he extra guns belonging
to the dead and wounded, broke the stocks
of them, and built a fire and threw them
into it. We also destroyed all the extra
saddles and brides, as we had no way
of carrying them.
Terry's men removed their clothing and
carried our wounded men all down from
the bluffs to their camp. After destroy
ing the guns we examined the horses
thoroughly, and any of them that had
been wounded and would not live, we
killed. Some of the men hated to part
with their horses, but there was nothing
else to do.
Then five companies of Reno's command
moved over the range of bluffs, in the di-
rection of the Custer battlefield. At the
end of this bluff there was a ford and /
think Custer attempted to cross at that
some of the bodies of his men lying there.
Helps Bury Custer
Those were the first bodies we found be-
longing to Clusters command. n
Line DdJCleIlel0 was d1Vlue0 OH INTO i've
sections. The company commanders went
in a body over the field, to find the bod
les of the commissioned officers. The first
sergeants of each company had orders to
advance with their companies over a GER
tain space of the field, burying what men
were found, and keeping an account Of the
and who they we're. / helped to
bury 40 of Clusters men. Among them
were General Custer, Capt. Tom Custer,
Lieut.. w. w. Cook, and I am not positive
as to who the other two officers were, al
and the other Lieut.. james Calhoun, Gus
ter's brother-in-law.
Clusters men were destitute Of all cloth
ing, with the exception Of Mark Kellog,
the editor of the Bismark, Dakota Trib-
une. and he was not scalped. He carried
a Spencer carbine with him and rode a
mule. He wore a peculiar shaped
boot, we knew him by that.
The other bodies were cut up and mu-
in a most brutal and fiendish man
ner. | think a good deal OF this was
by the squaws, while the men lay
number of their stone mallets. They were
implements made from a round stone,
weighing probably from eight to 10 pounds
attached to a raw-hide handle. These
were used for breaking bones.
The burial did not amount to much, as
we had only a few tools. so we simply dug
up a little earth beside the bodies and
In a great many instances their arms
and legs protruded: Many Of their threats
we're cut, and they were Spit down
the muscle of the arms and thighs.
I counted as many as 80 arrows shot
into one mans body and left there. 1t
appears that many of the Indians sat
on their horses and jabbed the lances
into the PROSTATE forms of the men, as
A great many lance wounds were found
On them. We could not tell who many
IF the men were. If their uniforms had
been left on, we probably could have
They lay there three days in the hot sun,
and the stencil was terrible.
The bodies were scattered over the bat ]
.slefield, probably one and half miles
square. First we found two or three to-
sether, then probably a dozen, and then !
scattered ones. 1t seems that the COM I
,anies made stands at different places, and
we're. driven back. Strange to say, none
# the saddles or horse equipment, not I
wen a strap that / could see, nor cart !
shells, could be found on the field. 9
Except five or six shells that were found S
lnder General Clusters body. ] picked up e
hose shells and gave them to the cap l
ain of my company, and they were after. I
Yards sent to Mrs. Custer, with a lock Of
he generals hair, which l had James
seayer of company NJ, remove from his I
lead. II
As we were about to bury the last of 9
he men we found the body Of General l
ulster on a gravel knoll. He was shot
n two places, one bullet having struck 7
i'm in the right side of his face and l
through to the other side, the