signet ring of 2nd Lt William Van Wyck Reily
name: label: user
content: Reily, William Van W.
notes: label: Description
content: Signet ring of Second Lieutenant William Van Wyck Reily, 7th Cavalry, who was wearing it when he was killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. After his death, the survivors of the fighting on June 26 buried Reily and the other fallen on the field. When news of the defeat reached the American public, on the eve of celebrating the nation’s centennial, Reily’s mother, Ellen, was emotionally devastated. Learning the bodies had been stripped, her attention turned to recovering the gold signet ring worn by her son. The green bloodstone signet bore the crest of the Key family of Georgetown of a griffin holding a key in its beak. She sent out a flurry of letters and appeals to cavalrymen, Indian agents, and newspaper published inquiring about the ring.
label: Description
content: In 1877, she received word about the ring. An Indian agent at Fort Peck in Montana wrote her that a Sioux Indian, when shown a picture of the signet, mentioned seeing the ring in a hostile camp. In April, Ellen wrote to John Q. Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reporting this new developing and seeking his interest in recovering the ring. As fate would have it, the ring had already been recovered by First Lieutenant William Philo Clark of the Second Cavalry. Clark purchased the ring from a Northern Cheyenne who had surrendered at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. He promptly wrote to the Army and Navy Journal, providing a description of the ring and an offer to return it to friend or family member. The son’s ring soon crossed the nation and reunited with his tearful mother. On August 3, 1877, Reily’s remains were reinterred in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: related event
content: Battle of the Little Bighorn
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
label: See more items in
content: Military
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Paul E. Johnson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AF.44026
label: catalog number
content: 44026
label: accession number
content: 168777
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Ring
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3/4 in x 1 in x 1 in; 1.905 cm x 2.54 cm x 2.54 cm