Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1942-12-04
JOHN PRUTTING
HELPED TO BURY
CUSTER TROOPS

CUSTER kUN
FORMER BIG TIMBER RANCHER
WAS WITH TERRY. DAYS
MARCH IN REAR
The life of Sergeant John F. Prut-
ting, Civil war veteran, Indian fighter
and ranchman. buried at Big Timber
some 20 years ago, recalls many OF
the most stirring events In the earlier
history Of Montana. Prutting, who
came west with the famous Second
cavalry in the later sixties, and who
was a survivor of both the Sioux and
the Nez Perces wars. as well as almost
half a century Of the most active and
varied civil life. was suddenly stricken
with pneumonia at the advanced age
Of 85
When the gallant and impetuous
Custer, with his 600 cavalrymen went
up against 5000 Sioux on the banks
Of the Little Big Horn, on the after
noon of Sunday, June Is, 1876, the
forces Of Terry and Gibbon. including
the Second cavalry, of which Prutting
was then a noncommissioned officer,
were two days away. pushing with the
utmost speed up Tullock's fork, in
their effort to make contact with the
redskins. The next day the Grow
scouts brought the first news Of the
Custer disaster. On the afternoon of
the 9th, they reached the entrench-
ments where for almost three days,
with little food and without water, the
troopers of Reno and Benteen had
successfully defied the entire Sioux
nation.
Found Wounded Soldiers
With Reno and Benteen they found
more than a half hundred seriously
wounded soldiers; between trenches
on the bluffs and the point on the
river where contact was first made
with the Indians, as many more were
dead; and only few miles away
they found Custer and his 200 multi
ated soldiers.
Wednesday was spent in the sad
task of providing military burial for
their 265 dead, and also in prepara-
ton for the transportation Of their
helpless wounded to the main camp
on the Yellowstone
For this latter purpose it was neces-
sary to improvise litters. To this end,
some so or 60 dead horses were
skinned, and the hides attached to
poles, were made up into crude
stretchers to be carried on the
shoulders of the men. And then there
began the long march back to the
mouth of the Little Big Horn, where
the steamer, Far West was waiting to
receive their precious burden. On this
march, officers and soldiers alike took
their turn in carrying the disabled
men.
The next year, 1877, Immediately
following the close of the Sioux war,
General William T. Sherman, then
commander of the United States army,
made visit to the wierd geyserland
near the head of the Yellowstone. To
insure safety for the distinguished
party, Sergeant Prutting, in COM
mand of section of cavalrymen, was
detached to act as military escort for
the little expedition. While making the
circuit of what is now the Yellowstone
National park, on August %, the
Sherman party fell in with the Cowan
party, then camping In the vicinity Of
Fountain geyser. Only a few days pre-
vious, there had occurred the bloody
Big Hole fight between the forces of
Chief Joseph and those Of General
Howard, but no one then imagined
that the entire NeZ Perez tribe was at
that moment swarming into what IS
now known as the Lower Geyser
Basin. After exchanging greetings
with Mr. Cowan and the half dozen
men and women Of his little party,
the Sherman party pushed leisurely
on in the direction Of the Mammoth
Hot Springs. It was by mere &C.
cident that Sergeant Prutting and the
hero Of the famous march to the sea
missed a battle with Joseph and his
Nez Perez warriors. For, within few
hours the redskins had completely
surrounded the Cowan camp, and the
next day Cowan himself was shot
three times and left for dead, while
his wife and sister and the remaining
members of the party were dragged
along as prisoners Of war by the re-
treating Indians.
Following the close of his enlist
ments in the army, Mr.. Prutting cast
his lot with the civil life of the new
was in the employ Of the famous o.
NatGAC o0tAAtp tA4C x4O~C4EC q AOH4y
Livestock Co., then operating north Of
the Yellowstone in the Sweetgrass and
Lake Basin areas. He is well re-
membered by every survivor of those
stirring and eventful days. Later he
was engaged in ranching and live
stock operations of his own until they
were finally terminated by the neces-
sites of advancing age.
It is noteworthy that Sergeant
Prutting never seemed to share in the
bitterness that for so long has marked
the Custer-Reno-Benteen contro-
versy. Like true soldier, he was GER
tain that under the trying and all but
impossible obstacles then existing, Of
ncers and men alike were not only
actuated by the loftiest and most de-
termined motives, but that each were
also doing all within their power to
achieve the purpose Of the expedition
the subtugation of the Sioux Con-
federation.