The Coolidge examiner., 1932-06-24

our mlnQS Wndt look place on lHe
Little Big Horn river in Montana on that fate
ful day in June 1876
1t may be an item referring to one of the
last survivors of the Custer battle" who have
bobbed up with such regularity during the last
FIVE decades and who have so easily been proved
TO be fakes
AS matter of fact there were many "sur-
vivors" of the Custer battle If the term Custer
battle" is interpreted to mean the whole action
which took place on the Little Big Horn on
June %, 1876. Those were the officers and men
who were in the detachment of the Seventh
cavalry, commanded by Maj. Marcus A. Reno,
Capt. Frederick w. Benteen and Capt Thomas
McDougal, when Custer divided his command
to attack the Indian village. They were the
members of Troops A. G and NJ under Reno
Troops D, H and X under Benteen; and Troop
B, which was guarding the pack train, under
McDougal.
But of Troops c. E, I, F and L, which were
under the immediate command of Custer and
which were quickly surrounded by the In
dians. there was One-and ONLY ONE-sur-
vivor of Clusters last stand" and that not
a man, but a horse. That authentic sole sur
vivor" was Comanche, the claybank sorrel which
ridden into the battle by Capt. Myles W.
Keogh of Troop !. Two days after the battle
he was found wandering about the battlefield,
pierced by seven bullets and so weak and
emaciated that at first it was decided that the
only humane thing to do to kill him. But
Lieut.. H. l. Nowlan. field quartermaster on
General Terry's staff and an intimate friend of
Captain Keogh, prevailed upon the soldiers to
spare Comanche's life. His wounds were dressed
and he was well cared for on the steamer
Far West, which carried the other wounded of
Clusters command back to Fort Abraham Lin
coln that he pulled through and lived TO the
age of twenty-eight years When he died in
1892 the Seventh was stationed at Fort Riley
Kan. and Professor Dyche. a naturalist con-
nected with the University of Kansas mounted
the skin and today there stands in the Dyche
museum at the University of Kansas the life
like form of the only authentic survivor of
Clusters last stand"
Or it may be an item about some one who
fought with Custer and who escaped the
massacre because he was detached from the
regiment at the time" In nine cases out of
ten such individuals weren't within several hun
dred miles of the Little Big Horn on that day
and have no more right TO claim that they
fought with Custer" than have several hun
dred other men who were in the armies in the
field against the hostile Indians during the cam
paign of 1876. Then again it may be an item
referring to some one who asserts that he was
a Custer scout" although the name of every
man who has legitimate claim to that title is
wellkGown and all of them, with the possible
exception of some of the Arikara Indian scouts
who accompanied Custer on his last expedition
are now dead.
Considering the amount of publicity that has
been given from time to time TO all these last
survivors" Custer fighters" and Custer scouts :"
1t seems all the more remarkable that so little
attention was paid recently to the passing of
one important and genuine actor in the Custer