Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1942-06-13
]. M. CARNAHAN
SENT OUT STORY
OF CUSTER DOOM
TERsE MESSAGE TRANSMITTED
ON WIRE WAS SAIL THE Gus
TIERS ARE DEAD"

Probably the most startling piece o
news ever sent out of Montana wa
the announcement of the massacre o.
General Custer and his command II
1876. The news came like a bolt from
clear sky and brought feeling Of
sickening horror to every man who
read it or heard it on the street. There
were friends and relatives Of the slain
men In all parts Of the nation and the
gallant commander was himself some
thing OF national hero.
For two days the nation waited
breathleSsly for information regarding
the disaster additional to the brief an
nouncement Of the calamity that had
been sent out as soon as the news had
reached Bismarck, N. D., which was
then the extreme northwestern office
OF the telegraph company. The first
message was brief one, but after all
1t told the whole story.
That message was a bit Of wire
talk sent from Bismarck to Fargo
on the morning Of July 5, 1876, and it
said, IAN the Clusters are killed" The
message was sent by j. M. Carnahan,
who as late as 1900 was manager Of
the Western Union office at Missoula,
GAA4 AZ WEhc bk1lAo ta4dtb bAAC AACWo Wpsc AAAot
sent eastward.
From Fargo 1t was repeated to st.
Paul, and st. Paul sent it, IN turn to
Chicago, and from there it was passed
along to cities, towns and hamlets, tell
ing its brief but terrible story, tersely
but completely.
But One Wire East
There was but single wire east from
fv1
ment business had the first call upon
this. Consequently operator Carnahan
had only time to flash forward his
brief message of general information
before he was compelled to begin the
transmission of the official report Of
General Terry to the war department. |
For "a hours he sat at the key click
ing off this mass of official correspond |
ence.
ALI this time the eastern papers
were clamoring for news, but 1t could
not be given them. So persistent were
these demands for news that Carna-
han obtained the permission Of Colonel
Smith, the member of Terry's staff
who had brought in the official dis
patches. to make up short special
from the information obtained in the
reports to the officers. This special was
sent to the New York Herald and is
believed to be the first authentic news
of the Big Horn massacre that was
sent out, aside from the official dis
patches.
j. M. Carnahan, the operator who
sent this message and who also trans
mitted all of the kilograms forwarded
by special correspondents who were in
the field, was an oId-time telegrapher.
He learned his profession In the little
0ffice at Athens, Ohio. His first office
was at SCOTS Landing IN the same
,tate and he soon afterward became ex-
Sra man ON the Cincinnati & Marietta
'ailroad. Later he entered the Western
Union at Cincinnati and from there !
vent to Nashville.
1t was at that time the Pacific 81 :
Atlantic Co. was organized to combat :
he Western Union and Carnahan en-
cred its employ at Chicago. From
here he was sent to manage the COM
Nany's office at Lacrosse, Wis, and !,
enained there for four years, when !.
le was sent to the frontier office at :,
bismarck. He was in charge of that =
ffice as manager and operator at the I,
ime Of the Custer massacre -
Carnahan Tells Story a
The story of the wiring of the news n
that battle was told by MIR. Carna- q
an q quarter Of q century later at a
1issoula. In reviewing the details of II
ne incident, he said a
ut was my fortune to be located at ST
bismarck, N. D., as manager for the q
northwestern Telegraph Co. in the y
arly part of that towns history. Ar q
wing there early in the spring OF "
374, had the pleasure of seeing the b,
,wn rise from what would be termed &C.
"w1de-open canvas town." as tough
) the most degraded and viscious II
laracter might desire, to a beautiful re-
title city Of order and responsibility. al
"At the time of my arrival, and for Fl,
'veral years thereafter, Bismarck was m
lie extreme northwestern frontier or
Iwn. Fort Abraham Lincoln, across I'll
e Missouri river, nearly opposite, had tn
st been completed and the Seventh no
S. cavalry and a portion of an in 10
ntry regiment were stationed there, di
lile other troops were located at Fort gI
ancock, on the east side of the river m,
Looming Bismarck This was the ter W
mus Of the Northern Pacific railroad, co
so Of the telegraph line, and re-
aimed such until 1879. L.,
Indians were plentiful and not agree w
lie, so we were obliged to confine our be,
Inting expeditions to the east side Of re.
e river, never venturing to the west or,
lie. People seemed to subsist princi- sIo
lily on excitement, of which there bis
IS an abundance. One day it would bII
a shooting, perhaps a murder. which it
5er time became of so frequent oc- lea
rrence as to create only passing in car
est. The next would be an Indian tai
ire, which never failed to thorough shr
arouse the town. cIT
Tt was about the middle Of May, shs
rs, when Terry's expedition left Fort sid
lcoln for the purpose Of rounding up bee
} hostile Indians under Sitting Bull. wv
ey were accompanied by numerous paC
for eastern newspapers Eo,
o sent couriers from tine to time
h special dispatches as they pro- Me
.ssed. Advices up to June 20 con- as
ned nothing of great Importance, of
we were wholly unprepared for the att.