AMERICANS PT J STFR \~s U O I U/1 V LLENBAUGH >r iii ne Aymoiid Mt-Voy 6863 SHERIDAN KI>. CHICAGO, I TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Taken by Brady just after Lee s surrender. This was Custer s favorite portrait. He is in undress uniform. The wide hat was cap tured from a Confederate, and the blue flannel shirt was bought from a government gunboat on the Potomac River. The necktie was scarlet, a color adopted when he was made a brigadier-general at twenty- three, and worn also by his troops after that event. This photograph shows Custer at the age of twenty-five. GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER BY FREDERICK S. DELLENBAUGH : Their noonday never knows What names immortal are : T is night alone that shows How star surpasseth star." JOHN B. TABB. If 0rfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 All rights ret trv id COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1917. NcrtoooU Jlresg J. 8. Cashing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE WERE I reading of one unknown to me, I should close this book with the thought that it was the fairest and frankest story of an intrepid soldier that his greatest admirers might demand. General Custer s victories in the Civil War are commended without exaggeration, his Indian cam paigns described by one who perfectly understood the difficulties to be overcome and therefore could estimate at what cost success was attained. So few do just what they want to do in this life. The author makes one know that he of whom he writes was one of that number. General Custer was enthusiastic over his profes sion and entered upon his Indian campaigns com manding a few hundred men as buoyantly as when he had led thousands in the Civil War. The responsibilities of the few leaders of the cavalry in the Army of the Potomac were very great. When sent on special expeditions, they often encountered the enemy at such a distance from the main command that it was as if they were a separate army; and it was impossible to M667887 vi PREFACE receive instructions from headquarters, report en gagements, or apply for reinforcements. Sometimes the orders in leaving were short and verbal instead of long, formal, written documents, as is usual. I remember one of General Custer s orders in starting on a long raid in Virginia, after he had won the confidence of his commanding officer by many successes. There were only six words in General Sheridan s forceful order : " Custer, go in and give them . . ." well, something very pyrotechnic. He was thus at liberty to work out his own idea of the inferno, but he knew well that his concep tion quite corresponded to that of his chief. But these raids were a great undertaking for those who were little more than boys, for they were answerable for so much. They lost every ounce of superfluous flesh and deep lines were carved in their faces. The excellent likeness of General Custer shown in the frontispiece by Brady, the war photographer, taken after hard campaigns, looks more like a man of forty than one of twenty-four. Even in the short pauses of those awful days of bloodshed in the Civil War, the General and his staff after an engagement begged to forget war temporarily and became rollicking, fun-loving lads. PREFACE vii The " boy " spirit appeared again in the General in his love of picturesque dress. But it was adopted also with the more serious reason that, as it was distinguished from most of the uniforms by its individuality, it would render it impossible for any of his men to mistake their leader. There was youthful bravado also in wearing the wide sombrero captured from a Southern soldier. Due gratitude was given to this very hat in the Brady picture, when in charging into the lines of the foe he was taken for a Confederate. In the blinding dust and confusion of the melee, he saved his life by joining in the countercharge of the enemy into his own ranks. The flowing red tie in the picture was appar ently only the fancy of a youth for bright color, but back of it all was the knowledge that the bit of floating scarlet would be a beacon to his soldiers in the murk and grime and chaos of thousands of charging horses and in the blind fury of maddened men. That General Custer has a historian who knew the West as a pioneer in the seventies, is most fortunate. Mr. Dellenbaugh being the author of several books, most of them written out of his own expe riences, is an authority on western life, and in narrating the history of the Fremont Expedition viii PREFACE he knew by heart the ground traveled over. He was the artist and assistant topographer of Major J. W. Powell s expedition in 1871-72 that started in rowboats, far north on the Colorado River in Wyoming and continued down the great canyon to the Virgin River in Nevada. The Government has at last recognized its in debtedness to Major Powell and his valiant follow ers, by erecting a bronze tablet bearing a bas-relief of Powell and the names of his eleven associates. It is placed on a steep and jagged bluff of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, five thousand feet above the tempestuous river, which from that great height looks like a trailing blue ribbon. At the time that General Custer and his regi ment were scouting in the Indian Territory, Kan sas, and Colorado, and afterwards in Dakota and Montana, there was only one railroad across the plains the Union Pacific, that linked the Eastern with the Western coast. Prospectors and pioneers made their way across the mapless area on horse back or with mule or ox teams. Our little army protected the settlers from Indians, and while on this duty their trails extended from the British pos sessions to the Mexican border. Whatever success was achieved before the closing Indian campaign in 1877 was brought about in this unexplored and barren waste by a force inferior PREFACE ix in numbers to the Indians, with antiquated firearms, and without an adequate base of supplies. The Indians, being on their own ground, often eluded the troops when the Government sent out expedi tions to punish them for outrages on white settlers. Everything was against a successful pursuit, and finally the sacrifice of a large portion of the Seventh Cavalry and their leader, in the battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25, 1876, aroused our country to the necessity of a winter campaign under General Miles, in 1877, with a sufficient force, modern guns, and a large base of supplies. This last success subdued the Indians and opened the way to venturesome spirits who have perfected systems of irrigation, protected the water courses, developed mines, and guarded and utilized the great forests. The story of the heroes to whom the West is indebted is being told in verse, in romance, and in history. Already are the western people paying tribute to those who " opened the way."^ Montana and Wyoming carried out a large and successful celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the battle of the Little Big Horn on the 25 th of June of this year. Thousands were present. Indians who were in the battle and those of the Crow Agency took part in the ceremonies. Hays, Kansas, has set aside an old camp of the x PREFACE Seventh Cavalry as a meeting-place for the pupils of the schools and for the people of the state. There are even plans afoot for a memorial of the Battle of the Washita in Kansas. The children of the men who now enjoy the peace and prosperity of that vast, rich, and pro ductive country will know through their parents the names of civilians and soldiers whom they must forever honor. ELIZABETH B. CUSTER. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGB A SOLDIER BORN i CHAPTER II A WEST POINT CADET 7 CHAPTER III AT BULL RUN * . 14 CHAPTER IV ON MCCLELLAN S STAFF . . . * . .22 CHAPTER V ON A SPECIAL MISSION . . , . .35 CHAPTER VI FIGHTING AT GETTYSBURG ...... 42 CHAPTER VII AT HOME AND IN THE FIELD 52 xi xii CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII PAGE IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY 63 CHAPTER IX CUSTER AT APPOMATTOX 71 CHAPTER X TEXAS AND MAXIMILIAN . . . . . .82 CHAPTER XI RED MEN AND WHITE 89 CHAPTER XII RESTLESS RED MEN 99 CHAPTER XIII A COURT-MARTIAL . . . . . .112 CHAPTER XIV THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 120 CHAPTER XV FORCEFUL MEASURES 133 CHAPTER XVI ATTACKED BY Sioux 146 CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER XVII PACK EXPLORING THE BLACK HILLS . . . . .155 CHAPTER XVIII ASSEMBLING OF THE Sioux 166 CHAPTER XIX CUSTER S LAST BATTLE 174 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PORTRAIT OF GENERAL CUSTER . . Frontispiece FACING PAGE STATUE AT MONROE, MICHIGAN .... 56 A TYPICAL PLAINS INDIAN CAMP .... 90 SITTING BULL . . . . . . .150 CUSTER S FIRST GRIZZLY 162 CHIEF GALL 182 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER CHAPTER I A SOLDIER BORN FEW ride as Custer did, with swift certainty through life ; and few meet their sudden end so splendidly. Down the span of his brilliant military career he passed without a halt in success, from the first battle of Bull Run, in Virginia, to the final dramatic exit at the battle of the Little Bighorn, in Montana. From a defeat which created a na tion, to a defeat marking the collapse of organized resistance by the unfortunate Plains tribes, he rode as if some invisible shield protected him till the last hour struck and his life went out, as a candle is extinguished with the dawn. All his life he was tireless. Writing to his wife from the Black Hills of Dakota he says, " Bloody Knife looks on in wonder at me because I never 2 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER get tired and says no other man could ride all night and never sleep." And Bloody Knife, the famous and faithful Arikara warrior and govern ment scout, had ridden with many chiefs, white and red. Through all campaigns Custer gave him self to the work in hand as freely, and with the same buoyancy and gladness, as a boy on a summer picnic. During the fifteen years between the two mem orable battles cited, he found opposed to him numerous skillful generals of the enemy, white and red, as well as certain selfish schemers and swindlers who were filled with desire for revenge at any interference with their nefarious plans; and finally that astute and crafty ecclesiastical politician, Sitting Bull, the Cardinal Wolsey and Richelieu of the powerful Sioux nation. Of all these there was not one who did not hold Custer in esteem and honor. One, General Rosser of the Confederate service, a classmate and chum at West Point, fought him desperately in the Civil War, and later, in the mountains of Montana, he became again Custer s friend and companion. Custer lived only to the age of thirty-seven. He was born at New Rumley, Ohio, December 5, 1839, and died June 25, 1876, at the Little Bighorn in Montana. His military career was made up A SOLDIER BORN 3 of three distinct periods: first, studying at West Point; second, serving in the Civil War; and lastj campaigning against the Indians. His father was a Maryland man ; his mother, a second wife, was a widow with three children. When she married Emmanuel H. Custer, he also had three children. Then came five more children, George Arm strong, Nevin J., Thomas W., Boston, and Mar garet Emma, all born in the same neighborhood. Young Armstrong, as our hero was called, began his military experience at about the age of four, when his father, being a member of the local militia, dressed him up in a miniature uniform and took him on the parades and to the drills. He was so quick to learn that every one found pleasure in drilling him. The boy felt a call to be a soldier almost before he could speak plainly, and with his experience as a junior member of the New Rumley militia, his first, last, and only ambition was to become a soldier. Properly to accomplish this end he would be obliged to enter the military academy at West Point. He was educated first at an ordinary school in New Rumley. When he was about ten, his half- sister Lydia married a man named Reed and went to Monroe, Michigan, to live. Monroe was a small place, Michigan was little more than a wil- 4 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER derness at that time, and Mrs. Reed was lonely. Armstrong, or "Autie," was sent to Monroe to keep her company, and here he attended the Steb- bins Academy. His sister Mrs. Reed, then and ever after, had a powerful influence over him, and Monroe eventually became his home. To-day this city has a fine monument commemorating Custer s services to his country. On his second visit to Monroe, Custer attended school again, remaining till he was sixteen, when he began an independent career as a teacher at Hopedale, Ohio, near New Rumley. At the end of the first month, with great pride and joy, he took home his entire salary, twenty-six dollars, and presented it to his mother. Custer was always deeply devoted to his parents. Many years after he wrote to his father, " There is not a day but I think with deep gratitude of the many sacrifices, the love and devotion, you and Mother have con stantly bestowed upon me." Even after all the rough experience of the Civil War, his hardest trial was parting from his mother. "Such part ings," says his wife, "were the only occasions when I saw him lose entire control of himself, and I always looked forward to the hour of their separation with dread." He would rush out of the house sobbing like a child, yet he never allowed his love for his A SOLDIER BORN 5 mother to interfere with his duty. He was always ready for whatever service he was appointed to perform, and the more arduous and dangerous that service might be, the better he liked it. As with most men of great originality, enthusiasm, and skill, he was always more successful when he was left to execute plans in his own way and at his own discretion. Custer had wonderfully quick intuition and fore sight. His mind acted instantaneously ; he decided quickly on a course of action, yet he was no more rash, perhaps not so rash, as a slower thinker. He was exceedingly tender-hearted, and was often much saddened by the misfortunes of others. His appetite was dainty, yet like many men of his type, he " roughed it" without a murmur and put up with bad food where some less carefully reared grumbled openly. He was muscular, athletic, vigorous, and not fond of study so long as he saw no immediate reason for it, yet let his mind once realize the importance of learning in any special field, and he threw himself into it heart and soul. With his determination to enter West Point, Custer early began planning to secure an appoint ment, which was then, as now, in the hands of members of Congress. The member from his home district, being of the opposite political faith from 6 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER his father, the latter was diffident about asking favors. Custer himself, therefore, wrote to the Hon. John A. Bingham, on May 27, 1856, from Hopedale, requesting information as to the method of obtaining an appointment. Mr. Bingham replied promptly and kindly. Another boy was ahead of Custer that year, and the matter was dropped till Bingham returned from Washington, when Custer ventured to call upon him. The Congressman promised him the next year s appointment. The summons for the exami nation came in due time and found Custer prepared for the ordeal. He had rilled in the interval with study. Therefore, when in 1857, at the age of seventeen and some months, George Armstrong Custer stepped off the steamer at the foot of the bluff in the Hudson Highlands on which the West Point Academy is so delightfully situated, he was there to stay till certain ominous events should culminate and empty the military training-school almost overnight. CHAPTER II A WEST POINT CADET BEING exceedingly good-natured and companion able, Custer, with little trouble, passed through the usual hazing experiences and all other difficulties pertaining to a "plebe." At the end of June the cadets, according to custom, went into camp, and this was Custer s first experience in that outdoor life. The camp was not far off, to be sure, only at the end of the Academy reservation, but it was real tent life in the open, with military drill, for two months, and Custer received the first training in a way of living that was to become second nature to him. The open air thereafter was to be his chief residence. During these days he was still only a bright and frolicsome youth (he never ceased being bright and frolicsome, for that matter), with flaxen hair. This gave him a slightly feminine appearance and immediately earned for him the nickname of "Fanny/ each " plebe" on entering being given 7 8 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER some comic title of this character. Though he was called "Fanny," there was nothing feminine about him unless it was the delicacy of his tastes and senti ments, but as he was always ready to exert " Fanny s" brawn and muscle on any who offended his sense of propriety and justice, he was not interfered with. He soon excelled in the athletic side of cadet life, and having been taught to ride bareback when his legs could hardly straddle a horse, the riding required was no task for him. He excelled in everything except study ; he had not yet come to see the importance of much of the required learning and took little interest in it. The storm brewing between the Northern and the Southern states over the questions of state rights and slavery, began to be heard even in this government training-school for its soldiers. The cadets, being from all parts of the country, were divided on sectional lines; and secession talk common in the South was naturally reechoed in the halls of West Point. The cadets from the South were deliberately planning, in the case of a break, to secure positions as officers in the Southern army which they expected would be organized. These varied political feelings did not, as yet, alter actual friendships to any great extent; in fact, Custer held his friendships with the "rebel" A WEST POINT CADET 9 cadets throughout the four disastrous years, and even beyond, to the time of reestablished peace. He cites a conversation with one of them at table which illustrates conditions: "Custer, my boy," spoke P. B. M. Young, of Georgia, "we re going to have war. It s no use talking, I see it coming. All the Crittenden compromises that can be patched up won t avert it. Now let me prophesy what will happen to you and to me. You will go home and your Abolition governor will probably make you colonel of a cavalry regiment. I will go down to Georgia and ask Governor Brown to give me a cavalry regiment. And who knows but we may move against each other during the war!" This supposition in the main came true. Young became a major general in the Confederate army. Before the end of the usual five-year term, the knell of war sounded from the walls of Fort Sumter. Even before this, some Southern states had adopted resolutions of secession, deeming that the original compact between the states was not intended to be final, and that any state could retire if it chose to do so. This was a perfectly honest belief, and the men who entertained it were ready to fight for their convictions. On the other hand, the Northern states held that the union was not dissoluble ; that it was a compact for all time. They, too, were io GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER honest in their conviction, and they were ready to fight for the preservation of the Union. The Northern people desired the abolition of human slavery. The Southern people said the work of the South could not be carried on without slaves, and that it was a pretty time to talk about abolish ing slavery after the Northern slave-owners had sold their slaves for good gold. As the crucial time approached, it became neces sary to fill the ranks of officers loyal to the Northern cause from the loyal cadets at West Point. The cadets listed as disloyal claimed that up to this time West Point had been a school for the whole country, for every state, and that they were not disloyal when they sided with their own states. Lincoln was now to be inaugurated and there were rumors of trouble at Washington. In the previous administration the Southerners had done all they could to cripple the military resources of the government, and there was a shortage of war material. In this emergency, the government hastily patched together a battery out of " instruc tion cannon" kept at West Point, and sent it down to take part in the inauguration ceremonies. The assault on Sumter came, and like the pistol- shot which signals the start of a race, the war between the states, North and South, was on. A WEST POINT CADET n But it was a war which the North thought would soon be squelched. It was looked upon as some thing like a big riot. It had to be met. There had to be more officers. Cadets were needed. Ac cordingly the course at West Point, heretofore five years, was shortened to four, which made it possible to graduate two classes in 1861 instead of one, as would have been usual. The regular class graduated in April, Custer s class in June. Almost all of the graduates were ordered at once to Wash ington to drill the raw recruits and assist in general army organization. Custer was an exception to the order because he had been delinquent as to regulations and also as to study. "My offenses against law and order," he declared, "were not great in enormity, but what they lacked in magnitude they made up in number. The forbidden locality of Benny Havens possessed stronger attractions than the study and demonstra tion of a problem in Euclid." At length Custer s detention for contempt of Euclid was to end. With the men of his class he went to summer camp in the usual course, all daily expecting to be ordered to Washington, when it fell to Custer to perform the duties of officer of the guard. Near dusk he was attracted by a commo tion which proved to be due to a quarrel between 12 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER two cadets which developed into a fist fight. In stead of performing his severe duty as officer of the guard, Custer, deeply interested, thrust aside those who were interfering and cried, " Stand back, boys ; let s have a fair fight !" At this moment Hazen, officer of the day, came along and demanded to know why Custer had not suppressed "the riot," which was the first time it had occurred to Custer that it had been anything of that kind. He was put under arrest, the facts were reported to Washington, and a court-martial asked for to determine the degree of punishment. Evidently Hazen was not a warm personal friend of Custer. A few hours later the order arrived for Custer s class to report at Washington for duty and Custer s name was omitted! He was brought before the court-martial with solemn gravity. Of course he had nothing to do but plead guilty to the charge of failing to suppress a riot and of saying, " Stand back, boys ; let s have a fair fight ! " The case went to Washington for decision. There some of his classmates had influential friends who suc cessfully interceded for his liberation. A few days after the trial, the superintendent of the West Point Military Academy received a telegram directing the release of Custer and ordering him to A WEST POINT CADET 13 report for duty to the adjutant general in Wash ington. And Custer, Second Lieutenant in the United States Army, left West Point on July 18, 1861, bound for the front if he could get there. CHAPTER III AT BULL RUN IN passing through New York, Lieutenant Custer stopped an hour or two to buy some articles neces sary for his prospective campaign, took the night train, and alighted in Washington early on the morning of July 20, 1861. He went at once to the Ebbitt House where he discovered that a cadet named Parker, a chum and classmate, was regis tered. He went to Parker s room and found him still in bed, and, although Parker was one of the Southern group, he was glad to see him. Parker was from Missouri. He had remained at the Academy to graduate and get his diploma and then had offered his resignation. The government s reply was an order which lay on the table, dismis sing him from the army. He went over to the Con federacy as he had planned and received a commis sion in that army. Custer reported for duty with the United States army at the office of the adjutant general. 14 AT BULL RUN 15 It was a busy time, and two o clock in the morn ing came and passed before Custer was admitted. The adjutant general glanced at the instructions which he presented, and after a moment s hesita tion suggested that he might like to be presented to General Scott. Scott was then commander of the army and the most respected and distinguished soldier in the country. The new second lieutenant was rather awed at the prospect of meeting him, but he followed to General Scott s room with a brave front. The general was talking with some congressmen about the battle which was expected to take place. The adjutant general said, "General, this is Lieu tenant Custer of the Second Cavalry ; he has just reported from West Point and I did not know but that you might have some special orders to give him." Shaking Custer by the hand most cordially, Scott welcomed him to the service, and after finding that he had been assigned to Company G, Second Cav alry, under Major Innes Palmer with General Mc Dowell, inquired if he would prefer to report for drilling volunteers or to do something more active. Although Custer was little interested in Euclid, he was eager to learn all about war and military life. "I ventured to stammer out," he says, "that 1 6 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER I earnestly desired to be ordered to at once join my company, as I was anxious to see active service." "A very commendable resolution, young man," was Scott s comment. He directed orders to be made out for Custer to join his company in the field. Then something came into his mind. "Have you a horse?" he inquired. Receiving a negative reply, he said, " Secure one, and call at seven this evening for dispatches for General McDowell." Custer was proud to be selected for this important mission and left wondering where the horse was to come from. After a vain search he chanced to meet a soldier of Griffin s Battery who at one time had been stationed at West Point. This man was in Washington to take to the front an extra horse belonging to the battery. He consented to let Custer ride it and also to defer his start till after seven. He would be in waiting with the horse saddled. At the appointed time, with no other baggage but the dispatches and such things as he could carry on his person, Custer was at the place. To his surprise and delight he found that the horse he was to ride was one he had often used at West Point. It was known as "Wellington." Steadily riding through the darkness, they arrived, between two and three in the morning, at Centerville, the place where the Union army was AT BULL RUN 17 preparing for the advance which was to strike terror into the hearts of the hosts of the South. Break fast was over even thus early. The soldiers were lying about, napping. or smoking or chatting to fill in the time. There was small respect as yet for orders and regulations. Custer s companion picked a way among the groups to a cluster of tents with a log fire burning near. This was McDowell s head quarters and Custer expected to hand the dispatches with some pride to the general himself, but before he could do so, Major Wadsworth, of the staff, relieved him of them. Returning, he asked Custer to dismount and have breakfast. Custer was only twenty-one, and fearing it would appear like weak ness to be hungry, he declined, but a few moments later he saw this would not do, and gladly accepted a similar invitation from a West Point friend, Lieutenant Kingsbury, McDowell s aid-de-camp. Steak, corn bread, and coffee formed this first meal in the field, and it was the last morsel Custer ate for another thirty hours. The Confederate forces under Beauregard were at Manassas, seven miles away, both lines being near a stream called Bull Run. It may be well to state here that the region between Washington and Richmond (the latter having been chosen as the Confederate capital) was traversed by numerous c 1 8 GEORGE ARMSTRONG OUSTER streams of considerable size, flowing diagonally, or southeast, to the Potomac River and to Chesa peake Bay. Many of these streams headed well up to the Blue Ridge Mountains, which, running southwest from Harper s Ferry on the Potomac, formed one side of a triangle of which the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay were the other side, Harper s Ferry being at the apex, and the James River, on which Richmond was situated, being the base. A large part of the fighting of the Civil War took place in this triangle. Just beyond the Blue Ridge was the long, easy Shenandoah Valley, by which the Confederates made threatening advances on Washington and the Northern states. The railways converging at Manassas Junction were important. Scott planned to turn the flank of Beauregard s army and defeat him, thus gaining control of the railways. Scott was in no hurry to make this move as his troops were inadequate and untrained, but the newspapers were clamoring and something had to be done. Beauregard, on his part, was planning to turn the flank of the Northern army, under McDowell, and open a way to Wash ington, only thirty miles distant. It was considered a foregone conclusion that the Northern army would easily triumph. Many civilians and members of Congress drove out in AT BULL RUN 19 carriages to witness the coming battle and the dis comfiture of the enemy. It was still dark when Custer, having finished his breakfast, remounted and found his company and regiment. He introduced himself to Lieutenant Drummond, in command, and met the other officers. Moving on at last, the column presently halted again. The sound of a battle raging just ahead of them was now plainly heard. Ordered to the sup port of Griffin s Battery, Custer could hear the vicious hiss of hostile cannon balls, which impressed him as something quite different from the noise made by the "practice cannon" at West Point. Protected by a hill from the enemy-fire, they mounted the hill, expecting to make a charge. With another youth, the latter appointed from civil life, Custer speculated as to the kind of weapon to use. As Custer was from West Point, the civilian recruit took it for granted that he knew all about war, and whatever Custer did, he did. Custer himself being very much at sea, changed from re volver to saber and saber to revolver several times, the greenhorn following each move. But there was no charge after all. When the cavalry reached the summit and remained for a time under a hot fire, there was no prospect of the enemy attacking the battery, and the cavalry fell back. 20 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Custer and a classmate stood on a hill, viewing the scene and rejoicing over the evident victory, when suddenly, out of some timber, they saw a long line of troops appear in the rear of the Union forces. Coming up in this direction, these troops were sup posed to belong to the Union forces, and Griffin s Battery, which could have annihilated them, reserved fire. Then the colors of the Confederacy broke out on the wind, and the next instant a volley was sent into the very backs of the advancing Union troops. At the same moment an enemy-battery, which had arrived unseen, opened fire. A cry of " We re flanked!" ran down the Union lines, only a moment before on the point of victory. They were seized by a panic, threw down their arms, and began a disordered flight, with the exception of the regulars. Officers and men joined in one vast mob whose only impulse was to get back to Wash ington. Custer declares that some never stopped running till they arrived in New York ! For miles the roar of the flight could be heard ; for miles the muddy road was encumbered and clogged with abandoned wagons, ambulances, and carriages. Custer s company and one other fell under the personal command of Major Heintzelman, a regular, who, though wounded, sat his horse and moved the men off the field in proper order ; the last organized AT BULL RUN 21 troops to retire. McDowell tried to halt the mob at Centreville but it was impossible, so he directed his efforts to stopping it at the Potomac bridge. On the other hand Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, coming to the front, thought all was lost, for the Southerners, also, appeared to be beaten though they were less demoralized than their enemy. Custer declares that neither then nor at any sub sequent period did he "ever lose or lessen his faith, his firm belief and conviction, that the cause of the Union was destined in the end to triumph over all obstacles and opposition." The Washington gov ernment had yet to learn that it is the general in the field, not the newspapers and politicians, who must conduct a war. Custer was rather used up by lack of food and exertion. He had ridden nearly all the night before and rode back the next night with his defeated comrades. When he reached Arlington Heights, early in the forenoon, he quickly threw himself under a tree where he fell asleep, "despite the rain, the mud, and the confusion," and slept for hours. So ended his first lesson in war. CHAPTER IV ON McCLELLAN S STAFF AFTER a few days at Arlington, the company to which Custer belonged was sent down the Potomac to Alexandria, where General Phil Kearny soon arrived to command a brigade of volunteers to which Ouster s company was assigned. Kearny had no staff officers and applied to Ouster s com manding officer, who had three, for Custer, who was accordingly detailed as aid-de-camp to Kearny. This advance was agreeable and exhilarating and was no doubt the best thing that could have hap pened to Custer at this time, for Kearny was a man of great distinction and experience, and withal an exceedingly rigid disciplinarian. He had traveled the world over, had studied tactics in foreign armies, had served in the Mexican War and then in France under Napoleon III, where he was com mended by the French military authorities. Kearny was constantly endeavoring to improve his command and to accomplish the best results. 22 ON McCLELLAN S STAFF 23 An early scheme of his was a plan to capture one of the principal picket posts of the enemy, located about five miles from headquarters. Three hundred picked men were chosen for this venture, with Lieutenant Colonel Buck in command and Custer attached as headquarters representative. The chosen night was made brilliant by a clear moon. The troops, stripped of every unnecessary article, marched stealthily toward their object. Sometimes they went along a road, sometimes through woods, arriving finally at one end of a long lane where a house located at the other end was their special goal. Halting for renewed instruc tions, they again crept silently on till voices were heard. The moon emerged at this moment from clouds. "Who conies there?" was the challenge, followed by three rifle shots. "I am sure," remarks Custer, "that while we all may have been facing toward the house when the first shot was fired, we were not only facing but moving in the opposite direction before the sound of the last one reached our ears. I presume, too, that the fellows who fired the shots ran in the opposite direction faster than we did." The force had nothing left to do but to go home. An order prohibiting regular officers from serving on the 24 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER staffs of volunteer officers terminated Custer s service under Kearny, as the latter was a volunteer, but the impression on the young West Pointer was already made and doubtless served him well ever after. The defeat at Bull Run resulted in the retirement of General Scott, and a new man was set up for the manipulation of the newspapers and the civilians in Washington. He was a West Point graduate of 1846, had served in the Mexican War, and had met with success in West Virginia. This was Gen eral George B. McClellan. He took command November i, 1861. He was a skillful organizer and began to whip his raw material into shape till the Army of the Potomac became the one really military body in the country. Custer s company was transferred from Alexandria to Cliff burn, just east of Washington, and in October Custer, because of illness, obtained leave of absence and went to Monroe. Heretofore Custer had been a strict abstainer from alcoholic drinks, but the army life was a great demoralizer of young men. There was much hard drinking then and afterward. Custer had, un fortunately, learned to take stimulants, and one night, while at home, it was evident that he had taken too much. His half-sister Mrs. Reed, who ON McCLELLAN S STAFF 25 was almost a second mother to him, made him a teetotaler that night and ever after; and in later years he performed the same service for some of his fellow-officers. In February, 1862, he returned to his regiment, the Fifth United States Cavalry, under General Stoneman. Another advance was made on Manassas Junc tion in the effort to get control of the railways, and Stoneman was ordered to push a large force along the line of the Orange and Alexandria Railway, to determine the enemy s position and drive him back. The enemy-pickets were discovered at Catlett s Station on a hill about a mile away. Stoneman sent an order to drive them in. Through the absence at that time of the captain and first lieutenant of his company, Custer was in command. He saw a chance for action and requested to be permitted to execute the order with his company. This was readily granted. He advanced his men to the foot of the hill and there, for the first time in his life, gave the com mand which he so frequently gave later : "Charge!" The pickets did not wait to see what would hap pen next but hurried away over a bridge across Cedar Run, and then set the bridge on fire. Custer led his men after them but had to stop at the 26 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER flaming bridge. The enemy, safe on the other side, sent some shots back which were returned. Only one of Custer s men was hit and he was but slightly injured on the head. Wounds were uncommon as yet, and private Bryaud was the object of much interest. Custer says, "It was a question whether private Bryaud suffered most from his wound or from the numerous and inquiring visits of enter prising representatives of the press, each anxious and determined to gather and record for his partic ular journal all the details connected with the shed ding of the first blood by the Army of the Potomac." McClellan was now permitted to carry out his plan of attacking the enemy by way of "the Penin sula," that is to say, by way of the tongue of land lying between the York and the James rivers. Landing his troops near Fortress Monroe, he arrived there himself on the 2d of April, 1862. Here 58,000 men were moved forward at once on Yorktown, which had been fortified by the Con federates with earthworks running across the pen insula and manned by about 13,000 soldiers. McClellan s force was thus greatly superior to that of the enemy, but he did not know it and so began a siege of the place. In the course of these opera tions, Custer was assigned to the work of construct ing and occupying a rifle pit at the nearest point ON McCLELLAN S STAFF 27 to the enemy s line, separated only by the Warwick River, four or five hundred feet wide. In carrying out this project, the voices of the enemy could plainly be heard at night, so Custer s men were allowed barely to whisper. A hundred worked with shovels in the sandy soil, and be fore daylight the pit was so far completed that it could be occupied. This was done by two corps of Berdan s sharpshooters. Their business was to silence a battery which had become troublesome, and this was accomplished. Custer was, at this time, assistant to Lieutenant Bo wen, but in addition he was ordered to make balloon ascensions for observation purposes. A "captive" balloon was used, with a professional aeronaut, named Lowe, who did the operating. At first the aeronaut was relied on for the desired information, but such reports were uncertain, owing to his lack of military knowledge. Con sequently it was determined that an officer must ascend with Lowe. Custer was chosen. He had never been up in a balloon, even to the compara tively low altitude of a thousand feet to which this captive balloon was allowed to mount, and Custer received the order with no little trepidation. He remarked that the proposed ride was far more elevated than he had ever desired or contemplated. 28 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER General Porter, it seems, had recently tried ascend ing alone when the holding-rope broke, and he was being carried toward the enemy s lines when he coolly pulled the valve and made the descent. This was accomplished somewhat too rapidly for comfort, but the intrepid passenger was not hurt. Custer went to the place where the balloon was tethered "like a wild and untamable animal" and examined it. "Professor" Lowe inquired if he wished to go up alone. "My desire, frankly expressed," he says, "would have been not to go up at all ; but if I was to go, company was certainly desirable. With an attempt at indifference, I intimated that he might go along." Custer took his place in the basket, and before he was fully aware of it he found himself ascending toward the clouds, firmly grasping the sides of the frail support. When asked if the basket was safe, the aeronaut proved it by jumping up and down in it. Gradually the novice became accustomed to the situation and the seemingly flimsy support of the basket, and began making observations. After this he went up almost daily, sometimes at night, sometimes at daybreak. On the night of May 3, he made an ascent in the dark and another just before reveille. From what he saw he believed that the enemy had evacuated ON McCLELLAN S STAFF 29 his works. Two contrabands who had just arrived reported the condition which Custer s observations confirmed, and an advance of the army was imme diately ordered. Custer obtained permission to tender his services for the day to General Hancock, an offer which was accepted; "and in this way," Custer says, "a personal association with the battle of Williams- burg was enjoyed which otherwise would not have been probable. " Hancock gave Custer special mention in his report on the battle of Williamsburg. He sent the Fifth Wisconsin into action, preceded by skirmishers and " followed by the Sixth Maine in column of assault across the dam and into the work, Lieutenant Custer, Fifth Regular Cavalry, vol unteering and leading the way on horseback. " At this time Custer was generally oblivious of his personal appearance. His dress was distin guished only by its carelessness. His loose cavalry jacket, mud-bespattered, bore no sign of rank; and his long, flaxen hair floated out from under a broad slouch hat. He was not thinking of his dress but of the work in hand. From Williamsburg the advance was continued to near Richmond where the Chickahominy River barred progress. McClellan established headquar ters about a mile from this river, May 22, 1862, 30 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER and wanted to know its depth and other facts con cerning it. General Barnard, Chief of Engineers, made a reconnoissance. On the second day, catching sight of Custer near by, he hailed him and together they went to the stream through a swamp. They reached the edge of the darkly-flowing water. "Jump in!" said Barnard, and Custer jumped, with his revolver drawn and ready. Wading across, he climbed out and peered through the branches of the little trees that bordered the stream. Not far away he saw the pacing sentry of the enemy. He carefully examined the whole situation before he responded to Barnard s signals for caution and return. General Barnard took him back to McClellan s headquarters where they met the general just starting on his round of inspection. Custer, awaiting his release, fell to the rear, feeling shabby and bedraggled, wet and muddy, as he had come out of the water, but Barnard told McClellan about him and he was brought up before all the officers. General McClellan was too much of a gentleman even to suggest that the young officer was not in parade costume, and remarked that he wanted to know what Custer had seen. Custer was too much interested in conveying the information to give much thought to his clothes, ON McCLELLAN S STAFF 31 and he told the general with enthusiasm how easily he believed the pickets might be captured. The general listened in silence. When Custer had finished he said, "Do you know, you re just the young man I ve been looking for, Mr. Custer. How would you like to come on my staff?" To be suddenly asked to join the staff of the commander in chief was enough completely to overcome a subaltern of only twenty-two, and all Custer could say was, "You don t really mean it, General!" But McClellan really did mean it, and Custer became an officer on his staff, with the rank of captain. He at once asked to be allowed to capture the rebel pickets he had seen, and McClellan ordered two companies of cavalry and one of infantry to be placed at his command for the purpose. He had noticed that the picket station was in a bend of the stream and could easily be cut off; so with his troops, among whom were discovered some old Monroe friends, he made a very early start, and himself struck into the water ahead of all. Just before sunrise he reached his desired position and opened fire, making a complete success of the ven ture. With arms and prisoners, and also an enemy- flag that he had personally captured the first taken by the Army of the Potomac he returned 32 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER in triumph, although the cavalry support had not carried out his directions. McClellan s left wing was now thrown across the Chickahominy, while his right cleared the way for a juncture with McDowell s 40,000 men, as planned to arrive from Fredericksburg. But McDowell was called off by Washington for defense of the capital. Nevertheless, a part of the Army of the Potomac got within five or six miles of Rich mond. Then came the battle of Fair Oaks and the Seven Days Battle, with Malvern Hill, which terminated, unsuccessfully, McClellan s campaign on the Peninsula. During the latter days, Custer and his friend, Lieutenant Bowen, while reconnoiter- ing, suddenly turned on some pursuers and captured them one by one ; but not being able to take them in, they merely relieved them of their arms, and so returned to camp laden with sabers, carbines, revolvers, and other booty, to the great amusement of their comrades. On another occasion, Custer went out with his regiment and some other troops for about twenty miles, surprised an enemy-regiment and captured many of them. Some who were well mounted rode so fast as to escape. Custer had a specially fine mount and, separated from his regiment with only a bugler boy, suddenly heard the ON McCLELLAN S STAFF 33 boy call, " Cap tain, Captain, here are two secesh after me!" The two " secesh" fled on Custer s coming up, and then he and the little bugler became the pur suers instead of the pursued. Custer captured one " secesh" and drove him in front of him till he reached the guard. Then he rode out once more with Lieutenant Byrnes and ten men, soon en countering a squad of twenty of the enemy riding toward them in an attempt to break through to reach their main body. The chief officer rode in front, splendidly mounted, and Custer singled him out and tried to head him off. The man turned toward a stout rail fence. "I reasoned," remarks Custer, "that he might attempt to leap it and be thrown, or, if he could clear it, so could I." The man prepared for the leap and cleared the fence handsomely. Custer s horse did it quite as well, and in a moment Custer was close upon the fugitive, calling upon him to surrender or he would shoot. To this the man paid no attention. Custer fired. The man still rode on. Again Custer called for surrender. No reply. "Then," says Custer, "I took deliberate aim at his body and fired. He sat for a moment in his saddle, reeled, and fell to the ground ; his horse ran on and mine also." 34 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Custer then joined Byrnes and captured another of the enemy, when the bugle call for return sounded. Before responding, Custer secured the horse of the officer he had shot, a bright bay, and kept it for his own. The saddle was a handsome one, covered with black morocco and ornamented with silver nails. To it hung the officer s sword, which Custer carried thereafter all through the war. On its fine blade was engraved in Spanish, "Draw me not without cause, sheathe me not without honor." CHAPTER V ON A SPECIAL MISSION FALLING back on Williamsburg with the army, Custer found there one of his West Point class mates who had gone over to the Southern army. He had been captured and wounded and was on parole. This young man was stopping with a friend, and there Custer visited him, was intro duced to his host and family, all "secesh," but who nevertheless received the Union officer with cus tomary Southern hospitality. Custer accepted their invitation to return for the night, obtained the general s permission, changed his campaign clothes for better garments, and arrived in time for a good supper. There were two beautiful young women in the household, to one of whom his friend was engaged. Nothing would satisfy them except Custer s presence at the wedding, and in order to make sure of this pleasure, it was agreed that the ceremony should take place the next evening. The 35 36 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER other young lady was to be the bridesmaid and Custer the groomsman. The wedding took place as planned, with the bridegroom dressed in a new " rebel" uniform, while Custer attended in full Union garb. After the ceremony the one bridesmaid wept, whereupon Custer s friend chaffed her with the charge that she was disappointed at not being married her self! "But here is the minister," he said, "and here is Captain Custer who will be glad to carry off such a pretty bride from the Southern Confederacy." Custer admired this Southern beauty, and re mained two weeks with his kind friends ; but further enjoyment was terminated by the withdrawal of the Northern army from the Peninsula. Feeling that the enemy would not give him the considera tion his new friends did, he said farewell and went to Yorktown, then to Fortress Monroe where he boarded a boat for Baltimore, taking with him his dog, two horses, and a servant. From Baltimore he went to Washington to await the arrival of McClellan who was to establish his winter quarters there. By the failure of his Peninsular Campaign, McClellan had lost favor. He was relieved from the supreme command and put on waiting orders. ON A SPECIAL MISSION 37 Custer s advanced position as captain on McClel- lan s staff was at an end, but the general s recom mendation secured for him a commission as first lieutenant in the Fifth Cavalry, which was an ad vance. Meanwhile, as little was going on, he secured leave of absence and went to his home in Monroe where he remained several weeks during the winter of 1862-63. During these months a great event of his life occurred. He met and became acquainted with a young lady he had seen before, the belle of the town, and the only daughter of Judge Bacon. Miss Elizabeth Bacon captured his heart com pletely, and for the remainder of his life she was his guiding star. The judge hardly thought the life of any army officer s wife was suited to his daughter, and he demurred at the prospect on that ground. Custer was not discouraged, and it is likely that, as far as the inclination of the young lady herself was concerned, he had good reason to feel hopeful when he was ordered, about the middle of January, 1863, to come to McClellan s assistance in the prep aration of the latter s report. This occupied him till the following April, when Custer was sent back to his company at Falmouth, Virginia. The command of the Army of the Potomac had now been changed twice. Custer believed 38 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER McClellan was the best general of all, and that if Washington had let him alone the results would have been different. He looked upon each new commander as more or less of a usurper, but he put the same energy into his work that he had done before. Hooker followed Burnside as McClellan s successor, and planned to strike Lee s left after moving out of Fredericksburg where the Union army had wintered. A great engagement, the battle of Chancellorsville, took place early in May, 1863, with heavy loss on both sides. The Con federate army scored a success. Custer came out, as usual, without a scratch. A little later in May, 1863, General Hooker sent Custer on a special secret mission into the enemy s lines with a support of seventy-five cavalrymen. The entire party was taken down the Potomac on two steamers, the Caleca and the Manhattan, just after dark on May 21, 1863, landing the next morning at eleven on the bank of the Yocomico River, about five miles above its mouth. The Yocomico enters the Potomac not far from Chesa peake Bay. Here the troops were mounted and in five hours rode forty miles across to the Rap- pahannock, reaching it opposite to and near the town of Urbana, where they hid in the woods till the next morning. Early the next morning a small ON A SPECIAL MISSION 39 sailing vessel was seen coming down the Rappa- hannock, when Custer, taking a small boat, and with nine men and one officer, pushed out after the vessel. It required a chase of ten miles before they got near enough to have their pursuit effective. Then the crew ran the boat aground, jumped over board, and made their escape, leaving the boat, its passengers and contents, to the pursuers, "the passengers," says Custer, "being a portion of the party we desired to capture." There is no explanation as to who the party con sisted of or why they were wanted. Among the passengers was a Jewish family of six, two of whom were young ladies. Custer made prisoners of all, rather regretfully in the case of the young ladies, and then with four of his men went ashore, wading for two or three hundred yards before reaching solid ground. A fine country mansion was seen not far off, and as they approached it, a man wearing a Confederate uniform was observed lying on the piazza, reading. His back was toward the raiders, and he was so quiet that Custer thought there might be a trap for him. He crept cautiously with drawn pistol to within four feet of the intent reader without being discovered. "You are my prisoner," Custer said, "and must come with me." 40 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER The victim, realizing the situation at a glance, replied quite coolly, "I suppose so." He had been reading Hamlet s " Soliloquy" and was evidently in a philosophical state of mind. He was a Con federate soldier at home for a brief visit, and he told Custer that there were Confederate troops within six miles. Inside the house were the officer s sisters. They had heard nothing of the capture till Custer entered and told them that much to his regret he would have to take their brother away. On the return trip to the north bank the officer laughed with Custer over his literary habits. After seeing that his prisoners were secure, Custer took three boats, and with twenty men crossed the Rappahannock again, this time to Urbana, and there he burned two schooners and a bridge, driving the pickets out of the town. Making his way back to the north bank in the boats, he captured twelve prisoners, thirty horses, two boxes of boots and shoes, and two barrels of whisky. The latter he promptly destroyed. The horses were remounted and he returned with all the prisoners to the place where the steamers were waiting. The women were put in carriages which had been captured. To avoid pursuit, the march was continued till two o clock ON A SPECIAL MISSION 41 in the morning, when they camped till daylight. Then they went on, reaching the steamers about noon. The following day the whole party were in Washington. Not a single thing had gone wrong. So much was General Hooker pleased by Ouster s energy and efficiency that he sent for him and personally complimented him on the manner in which the orders had been executed. CHAPTER VI FIGHTING AT GETTYSBURG McCLELLAN had been driven out of the Peninsula and the Confederates had won two important battles, Fredericksburg and Chancellors ville. They did not see why they should not now advance into the North and threaten Philadelphia and New York. A victory in that direction would convince the European nations that the Confed eracy was to succeed and would enforce recognition from England and France. On June 3, 1863, therefore, Lee began that great movement northward which was, in fact, to deter mine the ultimate result of the war. Hooker, in command of the Army of the Potomac, was so hampered from Washington that he resigned on the 2yth of June, when a portion of Lee s cavalry was actually within sight of the spires of Har- risburg, Pennsylvania. General George Gordon Meade was appointed in his place. Custer was now attached to the staff of General 42 FIGHTING AT GETTYSBURG 43 Pleasonton, and a part of this cavalry, reconnoiter- ing, ran upon the cavalry of the brilliant Confed erate general, " Jeb" Stuart, at Aldie where a sharp fight took place. In the confusion, just as the Federals were being forced into a bad situation by Stuart s excellent force, and officers were yelling and beckoning for an advance in the din and tur moil, Kilpatrick and Douty failing even to make an impression, Custer rode calmly forward, wearing a broad straw hat from beneath which his golden curls floated out as he rode, his long saber, the one he had captured the year before, flashing in the air. Pointing this weapon in the direction of the enemy, he galloped alone toward the thickest of the fray, shouting, "Come on, boys!" With Kilpatrick and Douty beside him, he rode swiftly on, while the troops behind followed with a yell. Kilpatrick s horse was shot and its rider went down, Douty fell dead, but Custer s curls floated on, a shining signal for friend or foe. If he had been incased in treble armor he could not have passed more safely. The Confederates were routed but still Custer rode on after them. One turned and fired at him point-blank and missed ; the next instant Custer s magic sword smote him from his horse. Another dashed upon him with a mighty saber, getting him 44 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER on the wrong side. Suddenly Custer stopped. The enemy was carried past, wheeled, and came back fairly in front. " Stand back, boys; let s have a fair fight!" The old West Point slogan flashed through his mind. In another moment Ouster s powerful stroke had laid the gallant fellow on the ground. Looking around, Custer found he was in the very midst of the forces of the enemy and alone. His broad-brimmed straw hat was like those worn by the Southerners and they mistook him for one of their own men. Before they could discover the error, Custer put spur to his strong horse, knocked one opposing warrior out of his way with a blow of his famous saber, and gained his own command, taking in as a prisoner the man he had first struck from his horse. General Pleasonton was deeply impressed with Custer s alertness and ability as a cavalry officer, and four days later Custer was made a brigadier general of volunteers, while Pleasonton himself was advanced to the office of major general. Custer was only twenty-three. Then, June 29, 1863, he was transferred to the Michigan Brigade, the same regiment for whose command he had ap plied when he was at home earlier in the year. The Federal cavalry was rapidly developing efficiency. Three divisions were now formed, FIGHTING AT GETTYSBURG 45 Kilpatrick being in command of the one to which Custer and his Michigan Brigade were assigned. As Lee moved northward toward the accomplish ment of the vast movement projected, he found his communications in danger and concentrated his forces at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Meade ad vanced toward the same point to destroy him, and the greatest battle of the western world began July i, 1863. Custer s first appearance as a commanding officer was in the opening skirmishes of this terrific conflict. His appearance was very striking. His jacket and trousers were of velveteen, his sleeves were ornamented with gold braid to show his rank, the star of a brigadier was worked in one corner of the broad, falling collar of his soft blue woolen shirt, and high top-boots were drawn over his trousers. His necktie was scarlet and of ample dimensions, which so impressed his troops that the entire brigade adopted ties of the same color. The rigid discipline he learned from Kearny he had insisted upon in his new command, in prepara tion for the struggle now beginning. On the first day he was able, just after starting his march, to reverse it and go to the relief of Kilpatrick who was severely beset by Wade Hampton s cavalry. The following day, arriving near Gettysburg late in the 46 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER afternoon with Kilpatrick, during the great engage ment between Sickles and the Confederate General Longstreet, Stuart s famous cavalry was again in the way. Kilpatrick ordered Ouster s and Farns- worth s brigades to attack. As Custer advanced he sent Company A of the Sixth Michigan to charge a group of the enemy who, from a wheat field, were raking the road with their fire. Captain Thompson was about to execute the order, when Custer himself rode to the front, shouting, "I ll lead you this time, boys; come on!" and spurred toward the Con federates. They opened fire so effectively that Thompson dropped mortally wounded and Custer s horse was killed. His men retreated. One of the enemy rode at him as he was extricating himself from the horse, but was shot by a boy of Custer s command named Churchill who had halted near. Custer mounted behind the boy and was soon back among his cavalry, now coming on dismounted. Aided by batteries in their rear, the Federals pressed the enemy till they fell back. On the morning of July 3, Custer received an order to follow from a place called Two Taverns, where he then was, along the road to Gettysburg. Hardly had he begun to execute this order before another came, directing him to throw his command into position on the road from York to Gettysburg, FIGHTING AT GETTYSBURG 47 which was the extreme right of the great battle. Carrying this order into effect immediately, he reconnoitered the situation without discovering any of the enemy till about ten in the morning, when a battery of six guns opened on him from the right. Covering his first position with two guns and a regiment, to hold the road to Gettysburg, he swung the remainder of his troops at right angles to his first line to meet the rain of shot and shell coming into their midst. Two sections of Battery M of the Second Regular Artillery were quickly brought to bear on the enemy and very soon there was silence in that quarter. Custer s whole command was resting in the form of a letter L, supported by the battery. To get the necessary grasp of the situation, he directed Major Webber to send two detachments of fifty men each a mile and a half on the Oxford and York roads. This task Webber performed so well that Custer was able to place his command in an advantageous position. About noon he was ordered to relinquish this position to another brigade under General Gregg and move over to the extreme left of the Federal line. Custer did not consider this wise, and when General Gregg came up, before it could be put in operation, he explained what he had learned through 48 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER his efficient scout system. Gregg accepted Custer s view and told him to remain where he was. The cavalry opposed to him at this time, on Lee s extreme left, was that of Stuart (Wade Hampton s Division), the best the Confederacy had, and probably taken all in all, as good and efficient a body of cavalry as any in the world at that time. Stuart was menacing Meade s line of retreat, and the result was a series of charges and counter charges, for with Custer so rapidly developing skill in this kind of action, Stuart and Hampton met more than their match. The scouting party was presently driven in by Stuart s advanced skirmishers of dismounted cavalry, and when they appeared on a ridge, Custer sent Colonel Alger to attack them. This was so well done that the enemy were completely repulsed in several fierce onslaughts, but the Federals, run ning out of ammunition, had to fall back, when on came the enemy again with two regiments. They were met in a countercharge by the Seventh Mich igan under Colonel Mann, and driven from field to field, till they at length held ground behind a high fence. The Federals were now obliged to retreat, pursued in turn by the Confederates, till the Fifth Michigan came to their aid. Thus far neither side had any advantage, but at this moment Custer FIGHTING AT GETTYSBURG 49 perceived four enemy-regiments approaching on the crest of the hill. He had in reserve only one regiment, the First Michigan, and the battery. Without hesitation he ordered the regiment under Colonel Town to charge this force which out numbered them five to one. Custer himself led the way at a trot. The regiment had sabers drawn and, when within a few yards of the Confederates, charged the front rank with a terrific yell. So fierce was this charge under Custer s impetuous but well-directed lead, that the whole opposing force was driven back pellmell. In his official report Custer says for his men, not for himself, " I challenge the annals of warfare to produce a more brilliant charge of cavalry." Partly respon sible for this great success was the battery so effi ciently handled by Lieutenant Pennington. The attempt to turn this end of the Federal line was now abandoned for the day, and no further serious engagement occurred at this point. Custer had performed his appointed task well. At dark he returned to Two Taverns where he camped for the night. His losses in killed, wounded, and missing were five hundred and forty- two. Custer thanked his officers and men personally for the bravery they displayed, and in his report made special mention 50 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER of many. The command was orderly, well dis ciplined, and well handled. The "boy general" had already dispelled the doubts of some at the wisdom of appointing so young a man to so high a command. Despite the two days of continuous and fierce fighting all over the Gettysburg field, no decision had been reached. Buford at the left and Custer at the right had prevented Lee from turning the Federal flanks, but Lee was not defeated. Failing at the ends, he concluded on the third day to attempt to break the center. Meade, on the third day, somewhat in doubt as to the best course, decided to fight along the same lines as before. It was West Point against West Point. The great battle opened on the third day with tremendous vigor, and a terrific artillery duel took place, the roar of which could be heard forty miles away. This was followed by Lee s attempt to pierce the center of the Federal line by the famous charge of Pickett s brigade. Only a fragment of this brigade ever returned, and nearly every officer was either killed or wounded except Pickett him self. During this time Kilpatrick and Custer tried to pass around the Confederate right, while Stuart was attempting the passage around the Federal right, as on the day before. Both failed, FIGHTING AT GETTYSBURG 51 but the sun set, this 3d day of July, 1863, on a practically defeated Confederacy. The following morning, in a heavy storm, Lee began his retreat. The wounded, in misery, were carried in the rough wagons, and the whole race for the crossing of the Potomac was one of turmoil, with an hourly expec tation of attack. Kilpa trick, in whose command Custer was, started in pursuit to harass the enemy and capture trains, but the weather and other condi tions were equally unfavorable for the Federal troops. There was considerable skirmishing. At the battle of Falling Waters, during the Confederate retreat, Custer, on July 5, by the use of only four companies, captured a whole brigade of the enemy. No systematic pursuit of Lee, however, was at tempted. The great Southern general was pres ently back on Virginia soil and Philadelphia and New York felt safe once more. CHAPTER VII AT HOME AND IN THE FIELD THE day after Gettysburg another victory fell to the Union arms. Vicksburg, the key to the Mississippi, was captured by General Grant whose supreme military skill was soon to make him general in chief. In the eastern field, for a time after Gettysburg, not much was attempted. The Federals having lost some 23,000 men and the Confederates about 28,000, there was much to do in recuperation. Lee, too, had been obliged to leave 7000 of his wounded among the unburied dead, and the Federals had to attend to these men first. There were, however, numerous minor engage ments in which Custer took part, always with such efficiency and success that he was continually being favorably mentioned in the reports to head quarters. General Pleasonton was particularly gratified at Custer s way of doing things because it confirmed his judgment in recommending his advancement. Merritt, the other young man he 52 AT HOME AND IN THE FIELD 53 had recommended, was equally skillful, and so was Farnsworth, but the latter was early killed in battle, while Custer and Merritt seemed to bear charmed lives. About the middle of September, 1863, the general inactivity was broken by the movement of the cavalry toward a place in Virginia called Culpeper, between the Rapidan and the North Fork of the Rappahannock. The line of cavalry, comprising about 12,000 men, was between five and six miles long. Custer had the left of the line. At Culpeper three batteries of the enemy were trained on the advancing Federals to check them till Stuart could get out of the way of what he believed to be the whole Army of the Potomac. As Custer reached a deep creek, in his dash to get at a train on the railway ready to start, the enemy opened fire with three batteries. Custer tried to damage the locomotive by his artillery but did not succeed. He was wounded slightly in the thigh, and it was the first time he had been injured. His horse was killed under him. In a short time Culpeper and all the country around it north of the Rapidan were in possession of the Federal forces. Nevertheless, the Army of the Potomac, having acquired a habit of re treating, fell back before Lee and was speedily 54 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER in Washington, only to make the move all over again in October. On the gth of that month, Custer being on the north bank of feobertson River, his picket line was attacked and he dis covered the enemy moving a heavy column toward his right. He had his command ready to move at three in the morning. The enemy, finding it impossible to surprise him, took possession of Cedar Mountain for a signal station. After some attempt to take James City, night fell and the Federals rested on their arms, re tiring in the morning to Culpeper. There Custer failed to bring on an attack and he continued toward Rappahannock Station. Owing to General Meade s again retreating, the cavalry were left in the lurch. Near Brandy Station, Custer found a brigade of enemy-cavalry immediately in front, cutting him off. The rear of the column just before this became engaged with a superior force; at the same time each flank was threatened by a strong column, while in front was a force more than twice his strength. It was a perilous situa tion for the Federal command. Lieutenant Pen- nington opened with his artillery on the foe ahead, which immediately drew a sharp reply of the same kind. Custer left the Sixth and Seventh Michigan AT HOME AND IN THE FIELD 55 Cavalry to hold the enemy in the rear. Then he formed the Fifth Michigan on his right in column of battalions and on his left the First Michigan in column of squadrons. He next informed the command that the entire force was surrounded and that the only thing to do was to cut a way out with their sabers. This information was received with cheers. The band struck up "Yankee Doodle" and Custer went forward with the two regiments. The enemy failed to stand up to this solid phalanx and broke in dis order, with the elated men of Custer s command in full pursuit. They inflicted considerable dam age in a series of charges and arrived at the river in good order. Custer did a good deal of skirmishing in the next few days. On one occasion, October 19, he was so persistent that the redoubtable Stuart was forced to fly, leaving his untouched dinner behind. Meade at length continued his advance and went into winter quarters at Brandy Station. Having been wounded, Custer secured a twenty days leave of absence and went immediately to Monroe. He was still uncertain as to the outcome of his suit for the hand of Elizabeth Bacon. He had not directly corresponded with her, but he had, through a friend, kept himself fully informed 56 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER about her. He now learned, to his gratification, that her father had withdrawn all objections, and the engagement of the Judge s daughter and Brigadier General Custer was, therefore, an nounced. Custer returned to his regiment with everything in his horizon entirely favorable, and was back in Monroe a few days before the date set for the wedding. This took place February 9, 1864, in the Presbyterian church of Monroe, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. Mr. Boyd. Custer was attended by his staff, wore his full uniform, and even had his hair cut for the occasion. It was a memorable day for Monroe, which then had the reputation of having more pretty girls than any town of its size in the country. But the mothers were opposed to army life for their daughters. One had said to the prospective Mrs. Custer, thinking to induce her to break her en gagement, "Why, girl, you can t be a poor man s wife; besides, he might lose a leg!" But Eliza beth Bacon knew her own mind then and after wards, and has given to the world an example of a woman s devotion, bravery, and balance never surpassed. Scarcely had Custer and his wife reached Wash ington on their wedding trip, than a telegram came ordering him to the front. Mrs. Custer STATUE AT MONROE, MICHIGAN This statue of General Custer was given by the state to the city and unveiled in the summer of 1908 by Mrs. Custer in the presence of President Taft and thousands of visitors. AT HOME AND IN THE FIELD 57 begged so hard not to be left behind that he con sented to her going, and in a few hours she was domiciled in an isolated farmhouse, on the extreme wing of the army, finishing her honeymoon alone. "I had so Besought him to allow me to come," she says, "that I did not dare to own to myself the desolation and fright I felt." One writer declares that "finding him good, she left him perfect, and % her sweet and gracious influence can be traced on all his after life." Before his hurried departure on orders, Custer arranged a guard at his wife s quarters, and his faithful colored servant, Eliza, was her constant attendant. "It was a sudden plunge," she writes, "into a life of vicissitude and danger, and I hardly remember the time during the twelve years that followed when I was not in fear of some immediate peril, or in dread of some danger that threatened." The order which called General Custer so un ceremoniously from the enjoyment of his honey moon, was to make a raid into Albemarle County, Virginia. This is known in the annals of the war as " Custer s Raid." It was begun on February 28, 1864, with 1500 men and one section of artillery. The 28th was Sunday. Custer left at 2 P.M. He found no enemy except a few pickets where a mounted force of about twenty was encountered. 58 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER From prisoners he learned that Fitzhugh Lee s division of cavalry was camped near Charlottes- ville. Custer drove in the pickets of this force, and when near Chariot tesville discovered a large force of infantry, two brigades of cavalry, and four batteries of artillery. His object was the destruction of the Lynchburg Railway bridge over the Rivanna River, but this very large force prevented his doing it. He was able, however, to burn another bridge within two miles of the railway and captured and destroyed a large camp after driving the enemy from it. He took six caissons loaded with ammunition, two forges, harness for the caissons and forges, one standard bearing the Virginia state arms, and two wagons, both of them loaded with bacon. They also captured about five hundred horses and burned three flour mills filled with grain. On heading for home, Ouster s force was cut off by a superior force of cavalry and artillery under the brilliant Stuart himself; but Custer was not to be daunted, and charged this opposi tion with such fury that he did not lose a man and had only a few wounded. He not only killed several of the enemy and wounded a large num ber, but he took fifty prisoners. Without further opposition, Custer rode back with his command AT HOME AND IN THE FIELD 59 to his starting-place, arriving at 6 P.M., March 18, having covered one hundred miles since the pre vious morning. There now came a considerable change in army matters. Grant was called from the West and given supreme command as Lieutenant General, while Meade, remaining as he was, became Grant s subordinate. Meade bore himself so nobly that there was no friction. Pleasonton was removed from the cavalry command which was given to Sheridan who had done remarkable work with Grant. Sheridan and Custer had similar qualities. Kilpatrick was sent to Sherman in the West, and Custer was assigned with his command to the First Division under Sheridan. Opposed to the Federal cavalry was the Confederate cavalry under Rosser, who had been Custer s chum at West Point, and Rosser was aided by the indomitable Stuart, Wade Hampton, and Fitzhugh Lee. Sheridan developed the idea of having the cavalry operate as an independent force, instead of always being attached to the infantry, a method the enemy had long before adopted. Grant, knowing that there were many spies in Washington, did not let even the Cabinet know what he intended to do, and affairs at the front moved better in consequence. South of the June- 60 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER tion of the Rapidan and the North Fork of the Rappahannock was a region known as the Wilder ness. The Federal army had wintered on the north side of the Rapidan, and in May, 1864, Lee was intrenched along the western edge of the Wilderness. On May 3, at midnight, the Army of the Potomac, with its thousands of wagons, began to move through the Wilderness to attack Lee. Before Grant s army had passed through the rough ground, Lee fell upon it, on May 5, and a desperate battle began which continued several days. After May 8, Sheridan turned his cavalry toward Richmond, with Ouster s brigade in advance, to ride around the enemy. On the evening of May 9, Custer attacked Beaver Dam Station on the Richmond Railway and charged into it, capturing three trains, two engines, and four hundred Federal prisoners on the way to prison in Richmond. Near Yellow Tavern, seven miles north of Richmond, he ran upon a battery. A personal examination convinced Custer that a successful attack could be made. Sending Alger and Major Kidd, he carried out his plan, and the enemy was eventually driven through the wood where they had made the stand, and out into the open. A prominent Confederate officer was deliberately shot at this time by one AT HOME AND IN THE FIELD 61 of the sharpshooters. It was said to be the brilliant General "Jeb" Stuart. He died in this battle, but his forces turned back Sheridan s cavalry, almost at the gate of Richmond. Without a supporting army, this cavalry raid could not expect to enter the city, so a retreat was made in due form. Much destruction had been wrought, but it probably had no great effect on the war. A second cavalry raid was planned by Sheridan after the close of the battle known as Cold Harbor. Four days after the start, the command reached Trevillian Station, five miles from Gordonsville, where Hunter was to come by way of the Shenan- doah Valley, but couldn t. Fitzhugh Lee with his cavalry was at Trevillian Station. Sheridan drove him back and Custer, with Alger, was able to capture a large number of wagons, ambulances, caissons, about eight hundred men, and fifteen hundred horses, while the enemy was engaged in an attack on the other divisions of Sheridan s force on another road. But Custer was unable to hold his advantage, on account of the failure of another brigade to attack as planned, and presently the enemy nearly surrounded him. The captured wagons, with much of Custer s property in addition, were taken from him, a disaster largely due to a frightened quartermaster moving 62 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER the train without orders. The quartermaster was cashiered for cowardice. In this action, which lasted three hours, Custer saw his color-bearer killed in advance of the charge. The flag was in danger of capture. Custer himself rescued it, though the death grip of the sergeant was so firm on the staff that he was obliged to tear the flag off and wrap it round his own person. Custer was now one of the most prominent generals in the army. In the public estimation and in that of the War Department he was rated along with Sheridan, Kilpatrick, Wilson, Crook, Merritt, and the other leading cavalry generals. And his age was only twenty-four. CHAPTER VIII IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY THE long Shenandoah Valley, fenced off so securely by mountains, made an easy road for the Confederate cavalry constantly to threaten Wash ington. Grant saw that this avenue must be blocked, and he sent Sheridan to command the Army of the Shenandoah for this purpose. Gen eral Early was the leader of the Confederate forces opposed to him, with Rosser, Custer s West Point companion, at the head of the cavalry. The first great clash of arms in the valley, after Sheridan came, was the battle of Opequan or Winchester, in September, 1864. Custer had his command ready to move at two o clock on the morning of this engagement, as he intended to reach Opequan, about five miles away, before daylight. Soon after two o clock he was on the move, taking his army straight across country. He arrived in the vicinity of Opequan Creek before daylight, without detection by the enemy, whose 63 64 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER picket was on the opposite bank. Custer massed his men in the screen of a belt of woods and awaited the arrival of the remainder of the division and the commander. The latter ordered him to cross at daylight at a point a mile and a half away, if it were possible. Custer made this move and charged the ford with the Twenty-fifth New York and the Seventh Michigan, to capture the rifle pits on the other bank. By their own request, the New York regi ment went first. The rifle fire was so intense that they had to return, while the First Michigan went in, under cover of the fire of the Sixth Michigan, on the bank. The First gained a footing and captured some of the riflemen, taking the works. The battle raged along the whole front and the troops were rather evenly matched as to numbers and also as to officers. Early, Rosser, Lomax, and Fitzhugh Lee were, in military skill, about the equals of Sheridan, Custer, Torbert, Merritt, Wil son, and Averell. The enemy withdrew in front of Custer, who, on his own responsibility, ordered an advance. About two miles away he met Lomax s cavalry engaged with Averell. Custer s arrival was so unexpected that confusion overcame the Con federates and they broke. This permitted Custer IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY 65 to join his right with AverelPs left and make an unbroken line for the Federal forces. The Army of the Shenandoah now presented a brilliant spectacle, with banners flying, steel glistening in the bright sun, and bands gayly playing. "It furnished," remarks Custer, "one of the most imposing scenes of martial grandeur I ever wit nessed upon a battlefield." Presently the engagement was so furious and so evenly balanced that Custer said it seemed as if neither side could win. Custer s men charged with the saber while the enemy came on with carbine and pistol. The Confederates were pressed back and pursued. After two attempts, Custer captured two guns on his right, in the enemy s main defense line. He then moved his brigade, unobserved, to within five hundred yards of a strong enemy-force he knew to be lying in wait. His commanding officer, unaware of the presence of this force, ordered Custer to charge, but Custer requested to be allowed to choose his own time, which was granted. He was sure the enemy would soon have to shift his position and then he intended to charge. This occurred as he ex pected and he charged with his five hundred men with sabers alone. Ignoring a volley of bullets, his men plunged into the midst of the foe, slashing 66 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER right and left, and taking prisoners faster than they could be sent to the rear. This skillful charge, breaking the enemy s line, decided the day. The enemy retreated. The battle was won. Darkness prevented pursuit and compelled the Federals to go into camp. Custer s command had captured more than seven hundred prisoners, fifty-two officers, seven battle flags, two caissons, and a large number of small arms. The Federal loss was about 5000 men ; the Confederate about 4000. ; Sheridan continued to drive the enemy up the valley, having another battle at Fisher s Hill, his cavalry penetrating as far as Staunton. The march down the big valley began on the 6th of October. Sheridan destroyed everything as he fell back, sparing only dwellings. More than 2000 barns full of wheat and hay, and more than seventy mills full of wheat and flour, were burned, while thousands of head of sheep and cattle were con fiscated. Custer took the road nearest the Blue Ridge, in this retiring movement. On September 26, 1864, a few days after the battle of Winchester, Custer was transferred to the head of the Second Division, West Virginia Cavalry, taking the place of General Averell. On account of numerous raiding parties he could IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY 67 not immediately join his new command, and went into Staunton with General Torbert. On Sep tember 28 another change was ordered. He was assigned to the Third Division to take the place of Wilson, who was sent out to Sherman s army in the West. This was the same division that Kilpatrick had commanded when Custer had done much brilliant work under him. On October 7, at Tom s Brook, Custer and Merritt had a sharp brush with the enemy under the indefatigable Rosser, whom they forced back many miles, taking from him three hundred prisoners and eleven guns. These actions now took on something of the character of a great game of chess between Custer and his former West Point chum. Under Montana skies they afterwards found much interest in discussing the game. Rosser harassed the Federals most skill fully on their retreat down the Shenandoah, and his feelings may be imagined when he saw the fearful ravages caused by his enemy in this beau tiful valley. October 9 opened with Rosser pressing the Federals more closely, and Sheridan had given orders to engage him. The attack fell to Custer and Merritt. Rosser was seen occupying a hill, with his men behind stone walls at the base. 68 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Custer rode far out in front of his line, with his staff, says Whittaker, so that he should be in plain view, and made a sweeping salute with his broad hat to his enemy-friend. Rosser sent for his staff. "You see that man in front with long hair? Well, that s Custer and we must bust him up to-day!" But Rosser did not do it. On the contrary, after some severe charges the Confederates were forced to flee. Custer and Merritt pursued them for twenty-six miles, and the battle became known as the Woodstock Races. In Montana, after the war, Rosser, lying on a buffalo robe, the old trouble vanished and his friend Custer beside him, declared that this was the worst whipping he received during the war. Custer even captured Rosser s new uniform and sent a note to him, thanking him for it, but com plaining that the coat was too long and suggesting that his next one be somewhat shorter. It was the custom of Custer and Rosser to leave behind them similarly sarcastic notes here and there on their retreats. Sheridan withdrew to Cedar Creek and put his army in camp there while he responded to a sum mons from Washington. At the same time the Confederate leader, General Early, made up his IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY 69 mind to open an offensive, and on the igth of October, 1864, in the misty dawn, the Federal forces suddenly found the enemy in their midst. The attack was made at Crook s end of the line. There was immediate confusion here as the sleepy men roused. They were demoralized and they did the first thing that occurred to them; they ran. At two in the afternoon they were met by Sheridan riding at full speed from Win chester ; the ride which the poet Read has im mortalized. Dashing through the disordered crowd toward the front he shouted, "Face about, boys! We re going back ! We are going to lick them out of their boots!" He found Custer ready. "Go in, Custer!" he shouted. And Custer went in. He and Merritt, from the right wing, punished the invaders mercilessly. The plans of the enemy had been frustrated by their men disobeying orders and halting to loot the deserted camp in stead of pushing their success. By four in the afternoon the tide was turned, and Custer with his entire division was hammering furiously upon the rear of the retreating foe. He captured forty-five of their forty-eight cannon as well as several hundred prisoners. For this he was thanked by the War Department in a special order. He was ordered to go to Washington with 70 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER the flags captured by the cavalry, each flag being borne by its particular captor. There he was rewarded by the brevet of major general of volun teers, as was also his friendly rival, Merritt. Mrs. Custer had remained in Washington during the Shenandoah campaign, but now she returned with her husband to his headquarters at Win chester. She invariably accompanied him, re gardless of discomfort or danger, whenever it was possible to do so. CHAPTER IX CUSTER AT APPOMATTOX THE autumn of 1864 saw Lincoln reflected, and the North, already victorious, determined that the war should end on no other basis than the complete restoration of the Union ; in other words, the settlement of the vexed question, the right of a state to secede, in the negative, as well as the abolition of slavery. McClellan ran on the Democratic ticket against Lincoln, but was defeated and retired to private life. Nothing more of public importance was heard of "Little Mac." The South had always treated manufacturing and " shopkeeping " with contempt, though just why these were any more degrading than slave- driving was never explained. Now everything they needed had to be brought at great risk through the blockade. It was stipulated that every blockade-runner should have a certain proportion of its cargo made up of arms and ammunition. Under these circumstances the end of the great 71 72 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER war became only a question of wearing out a stubborn and courageous people. Several attempts were made by the Confederate leaders to negotiate a compromise peace, but Lincoln would entertain none of them. His only terms were the disbandment of the rebel army and government; the abolition of slavery; and the recognition of the indissolubility of the Union. But though defeated in many directions, the Confederate armies were not ready to yield, and until the armies capitulated or were destroyed there could be no peace. Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, therefore, early in 1865, opened up their campaigns once more. Sheridan began again in the Shenandoah Valley with all his competent generals, including Custer, and moved with the intention of reaching Lynch- burg and, if possible, Sherman s army in North Carolina. His total strength was 9484 seasoned men. The first day they marched thirty miles to Woodstock, and another day brought them near to Harrisonburg, at which point Custer had made a raid a month or two before. This day his division was in advance, also on the next, or third, day. Some of his advance were engaged by skirmishers from Rosser s brigade, but the en counters were of small consequence. CUSTER AT APPOMATTOX 73 At Kline s Mills, seven miles from Staunton, it was learned that the Confederate force under Early had gone to Waynesboro, ten miles south east of Staunton, on the south branch of the Shenandoah and up against the western foot of the Blue Ridge. The following day Custer was ordered to proceed to Waynesboro and engage the enemy there. The day set in with a driving rain storm. The mud was deep and heavy. Custer went blithely forward with three brigades, each about 1500 strong, and it was planned that he should be followed by two other brigades. Reaching Waynesboro, Custer found Early in a well-selected position, with two brigades of infantry in breast works and Rosser s cavalry ready for anything. Custer gave them no time to ponder on what he was to do or what they were to do. His quick eye took in every point of the situation instantly and his mind was made up. He sent three brigades around the left flank of the enemy, while with two others which had arrived he charged the works with such impetuosity that he carried them. Then he rushed on down the streets of Waynes boro, never halting till the South branch of the Shenandoah had been crossed in Early s rear. Here he re-formed his command as foragers and held the south bank of the stream. Then he 74 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER pursued Early s train to the foot of the Blue Ridge. This whirlwind charge had taken the Confederates quite off their feet. Sheridan re ported that "the enemy threw down their arms and surrendered with cheers at the suddenness with which they were captured." Custer s loss was slight. He captured eleven guns, two hundred wagons, sixteen hundred prison ers, and seventeen battle flags. Still unsatisfied, he went on over the Blue Ridge that night and pitched his tents on the forbidden eastern slope. When Sheridan came, the march was continued, with Custer slashing away in the lead, to Char- lottesville where they rested. From here Custer and Merritt raided the surrounding country, destroying locks in the canal, the James River Canal itself, railways, everything that was destructible except dwellings. At Frederickshall Custer reached the Richmond & Gordonsville Railway and he learned, by taking messages from the wires, that Early was following Sheridan with two hundred cavalry to attack at daylight. A regiment was sent to intercept him but he escaped by swimming the South Anna River. By this time his army was gone, and as a military factor one of the best Confederate generals was henceforth out of the war. CUSTER AT APPOMATTOX 75 Custer and Merritt had nothing to interfere with their movements north of Richmond and Custer ran down and destroyed a railway eleven miles from the city. All this time Sheridan, with the remainder of the army, was moving toward Whitehouse, on the Pamunkey, only a short dis tance east of Richmond. He reached it the ipth of March, 1865; and found gunboats and supplies waiting. On the 26th of March, the whole com mand, having crossed the Peninsula and the Potomac, joined Grant in front of Petersburg where he was conducting a siege. The cavalry came in the next day. Lee s only chance to escape was on Grant s left, and by means of a ruse he tried to break through. Where the men were only a hundred yards apart, numbers of deserters had come over to the Federal lines. Some of Gordon s men then came as if to surrender, but they seized the Federal pickets instead, making way for a charge. This was repelled, but it cost the Confederates about 4000 men and Grant half as many. Sheridan was now sent to the extreme Confederate right at Five Forks, arriving on the last day of March. After some brief but bloody righting, he gained Five Forks on April i, taking more than 5000 prisoners. 76 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER The end of the Confederacy was now in sight. Petersburg was then taken from Lee by the Federal generals, Wright and Parke, in a determined assault. This caused Lee to telegraph to the Richmond authorities to vacate that city and immediately awful confusion reigned there. The City Council destroyed hundreds of barrels of liquor; tobacco warehouses were burned by military order; ironclad rams in the river were blown up; tipsy soldiers pillaged the town, and there was nothing but riot and disorder till the Twelfth Maine, under General Weitzel, entered next morning, April 3, 1865, when the flag of the Union was run up once more on the capitol. Meanwhile, Lee was rapidly retreating westward with the Federal cavalry at his heels. He was short of food, and when he tried to get to Burkes- ville for the rations he had ordered there by tele graph, Sheridan, who had intercepted the message, was across his road. Lee then turned toward Lynchburg, to reach the railway at Appomattox Station, but Custer was already moving on Appo mattox Station. On the way there and not a mile from it, two young ladies came running down the road from a fine mansion, screaming, "They are robbing us!" Without a word Custer dismounted and caught a CUSTER AT APPOMATTOX 77 soldier in the Federal uniform coming out of the door. Giving him a terrific blow, he rushed in and saw another leaving by a rear door. Catch ing up an ax, Custer threw it and hit the man in the back of the head. Directing a guard to be stationed at the house, he rode on. Entering Appomattox Station he captured four railway trains out of the seven halted there, running them back to Farmville. There were a number of engagements previous to this as Lee pushed on, trying to secure a strong defensive position and supplies ; but Custer hung on like a bulldog, fighting him successfully in the most important engagement of this phase of the war, at a place called Sailor s Creek. It is re ported that Sheridan cried out, when things were not going to suit him, "I wish old Custer were here; he would have been into the enemy s train before this time!" "Old Custer," then twenty- five years old, was ordered up, and with his men rode right over the breastworks, breaking the Confederate line irretrievably, and capturing four hundred wagons (destroying many more), sixteen guns, and a host of prisoners. Custer s brother Tom was among the first in the enemy s works, taking a flag from its bearer whom he shot as a ball cut through his own cheek and neck. General 78 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Robert E. Lee s son Custis was captured, also General Ewell. Custer was in the lead at Appomattox Court House on the morning of April 9, 1865, with Sheridan s forces across the path of Lee s retreat, when a white flag was seen coming from the enemy. It meant a momentous message. It was a towel on a pole, accompanied by a request from Lee for a conference on surrender. Custer was later presented with this "flag" and ever after treasured it as a souvenir. Lee now saw that the Southern cause was lost, and he was too big and too humane a man to wish to prolong the war into a useless struggle. It was arranged, therefore, that he should meet Grant at a little house on the edge of the village belonging to Wilmer McLean. Lee reached the house first and came courteously forward as Grant entered. They fell into a conversation on old army days in Mexico, a subject which Grant found so agreeable that he almost forgot the object of the meeting. Lee was in full uniform while Grant had on a private s uniform with only shoulder straps indicating rank. He was dusty and dirty from the severe work of the last few days. The terms were such as no vanquished army had ever been given, for they allowed the Confederate CUSTER AT APPOMATTOX 79 forces to lay down their arms and go home, those men having horses being permitted to retain them. The table on which the terms of surrender were signed became historic, and General Sheridan pre sented it to Mrs. Custer, with a letter saying he knew of "no person more instrumental in bring ing about this most desirable event than her own gallant husband." Custer s work in this field was now done. On the day of the surrender he issued a farewell to his troops, the Third Cavalry Division, commend ing their success and their valor. They had never lost a color, never lost a gun, and had never been defeated. All he asked was that his name might be written as that of the Commander of the Third Cavalry Division. He was haggard and worn from his tremendous and continuous exertions and he needed rest. Mrs. Custer hastened down to meet him, and she and Mrs. Pennington rode at the head of the column back to Washington where the whole army passed in review before the President. That day was one of the great days of our nation. The Army of the Potomac came first, with General Meade leading. Then came the cavalry headed by Merritt, Sheridan having al ready started for the Southwest. Custer was at 8o GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER the head of his famous Third Division. As he passed the Treasury Building, a chorus of three hundred young girls in white sang "Hail to the Chief," and showered him with bouquets. He tried to catch some of the flowers, but his fractious horse disliked the attention and bolted at top speed. Off came Custer s hat, his bright curls streamed in the sun, and it was not till the Presi dent s stand was passed that his superb horse manship enabled him to control the powerful brute he called "Don Juan." He was greeted by special applause as he rode by the second time, in regular order, covered, as were the other com manders and many of the men, with garlands of flowers. That evening Custer rode down the line, waving his hat in his last farewells to the troops of the Third Cavalry Division who adored their "boy general." Some one shouted, "A tiger for old Curly!" All hats came off and waved wildly in the air as the hearty cheers were given. "As he rode up to where I was waiting," remarks Mrs. Custer, "he could not, dared not, speak to me." Then they called for the general s wife, but Mrs. Custer, though she tried to ride out into view, could not bring herself to do it. She was too much overcome to endure any more. "As CUSTER AT APPOMATTOX 81 the officers gathered about the general and wrung his hand in parting, to my surprise," she says, "the soldiers gave me a cheer. Though very grateful for the tribute to me as their acknowledged comrade, I did not feel that I deserved it." Custer was ordered to join Sheridan in Texas. There was a third army of Confederates down that way, still holding out, that needed the attention of " Old Curly." CHAPTER X TEXAS AND MAXIMILIAN CUSTER now turned his back on the Virginia field of his remarkable exploits as a cavalry officer, as he was needed by Sheridan in crushing out the last armed opposition lingering in the Southwest. With his full major-general s pay and allowances, he was in exceedingly comfortable circumstances, the pay alone amounting to about eight thousand dollars a year. He had well earned all that he was allowed. There is nothing so discouraging to the soldier who has risked his life for years, and unfitted himself for sedentary occupation, as to find himself without an income, with no way of earning one, and with nobody caring whether he has one or not. He learns that while war is war, business is business and has no sym pathy or sentiment ; and war is not a permanent occupation. Thousands of contractors get rich in a war, but soldiers come home poorer than when they left and are placed at a tremendous disad vantage. 82 TEXAS AND MAXIMILIAN 83 With Mrs. Custer, his staff, horses, and such baggage as he desired to take, Custer went by rail from Washington to Louisville on the Ohio River, where the party embarked on a river steamer for New Orleans. At one of the stopping-places the ex-Confederate General Hood came on board for a short journey, during which he introduced him self to General Custer, and they had an interesting time. After the war the animosities seemed far stronger among those who did no actual fighting. Of this meeting Mrs. Custer remarks, "They looked as if they were old-time friends happily united." Arriving in New Orleans, the city George W. Cable has enshrined so beautifully in his books, they found Sheridan in command of the Depart ment of the Mississippi. He was comfortably established in a delightful mansion where he entertained the Custers at dinner. Afterwards he and Custer went over the plans for the cam paign that was expected to follow. When all was ready, Custer, with Mrs. Custer and his staff, took passage on a steamer chartered for the purpose, while another steamer in advance carried the troops. Finally they arrived at a place called Alexandria where an abandoned house was appropriated for headquarters. The faithful Eliza, who had ac- 84 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER companied the general and his wife through every circumstance, rain or shine, shot or shell, was still with them, and the faithful soul knew how to bring comfort out of the barest surroundings. She was colored, but no white skin ever inclosed a bigger heart or a more devoted helper. Troops were brought from various directions to this point and Custer endeavored to make a re spectable fighting force out of them. He had an immense task to which was added the problem of keeping the peace with ex-Confederate soldiers. General Kirby Smith, with the last remnant of the Confederate Army, had surrendered, but there were other reasons now for the presence of United States troops in Texas. One was the restoration of order, but another was that a monarchy had been set up in Mexico under Maximilian, backed by the French emperor, Napoleon III. This was contrary to the desire of the United States, and the Civil War being ended, it was the intention to drive Maximilian out and restore to Mexico the republican form of government. From Alexandria, therefore, the command moved further down toward the Mexican border, Mrs. Custer going along with the troops across the hot, dry country. The command was halted at Hempstead for recuperation. Here Sheridan came TEXAS AND MAXIMILIAN 85 and commended Custer for the excellent condition of the 4000 men under him and placed him in command of all the cavalry in the state. Custer s father joined him here and censured him for allowing his wife to accompany him in this desolate land, but as the wife had much to say for herself on this point, his remarks had no effect. The planters round about were sportsmen, and finding Custer of similar taste, they invited him to go with them on their hunts. They all had packs of hounds and Custer was so delighted with the way the hounds responded to each master s particular horn that he bought a horn and was presented with five hounds. Then his brother Tom got a horn also, and the two practiced, with the hounds howling in unison, till the novices mastered the art and could dash away in graceful abandon, sounding their horns, with the dogs joyously yelping, to the meet. Custer was never without a pack of hounds in the West after this. In November, 1865, the command moved on to Austin, Texas, and the march was accomplished in stages of twenty-five or thirty miles a day. Custer had thirteen regiments of infantry and an equal number of cavalry scattered all over Texas, regulating affairs and preventing lawlessness on the part of bandits and outlaws, who were inclined 86 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER to think they could have things their own way without hindrance by the government. At length the civil authorities got their grip on things, the cloud on the Mexican horizon dimin ished, and Custer was mustered out of service as a major general of volunteers in March, 1866. He was now only a captain in the regular army on leave, and he returned to Monroe. His in come at once fell to about two thousand a year with a small allowance for quarters. This did not suit him any more than the prospect of a quiet life, so when the Mexican military leader, Carvajal, offered him the position of adjutant general of Mexico, in the struggle against Maximilian, with double the pay in gold of an officer of that rank in the United States army, Custer was inclined to accept. He was also to raise a command of one or two thousand veteran American soldiers to serve under him. In order to profit by this offer, he would have to resign from the army, as his government refused to grant him the necessary leave of ab sence for a year. Maximilian, left to his fate by Napoleon s withdrawal of the French troops from Mexico, was soon captured and executed by the Mexicans, even without Ouster s aid, but Custer had the satisfaction of having been thoroughly indorsed by General Grant who wrote, May 16, 1866, to the TEXAS AND MAXIMILIAN 87 Mexican minister specifically that he would indorse Custer s application favorably for leave of absence. " Please understand, then," he wrote, " that I mean by this to indorse General Custer in a high degree." Mrs. Custer did not approve of the Mexican project, either, and this, with his own govern ment s objection, prevented Custer from going into the venture. Mrs. Custer s father had become a great admirer of the general. To his daughter he said: "My child, put no obstacles in the way to the fulfillment of his destiny. He chose his profession. He is a born soldier. There he must abide." Just at this time, when Custer was absent from Monroe in May, 1866, on business, the judge was taken ill and died. His last words to his daughter were to urge her to do her duty as a soldier s wife. Mrs. Custer had begun to feel, perhaps, that a soldier s career was a difficult one for his family, and she says that in her maiden days it had never occurred to her that people could become so attached to each other that it would be misery to be separated. The suspense and loneliness of the war days had affected her deeply, but never theless she did not waver in her desire to be with her husband whenever possible, and in the years that followed she was seldom far away. 88 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER In July, 1866, Custer received a commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the newly organized Seventh Cavalry, and still having the desire to go to Mexico, he went in August to Buffalo to consult President Johnson who was then making his noted tour of the country. Mrs. Custer ac companied him. When they met, the President ordered Custer and his wife to accompany his party. They visited many cities and it is related that Johnson insisted on Custer s always occupy ing an adjoining room to his own, for protection, as he feared assassination. As soon as possible Custer extricated himself and returned to Monroe. He attended numerous reunions of war veterans at this period, but he was not a speechmaker. In an emergency he was wont to suggest three cheers for "the Old Brigade," or, if there was a band, to call for "Garryowen," his favorite charging tune. The words to this were not very sensible, any more than those of "Yankee Doodle," or "Dixie," but the final stanza was rather appropriate: "Our hearts so stout have got us fame, For soon tis known from whence we came ; Where e er we go they dread the name, Of Garryowen in glory !" "Garryowen" was now to make the echoes ring under new skies and lead on to meet a different foe. CHAPTER XI RED MEN AND WHITE THE enemy which Custer heretofore had met and battled with so successfully was of an entirely different character from the one he was to en counter when the order came for him to report to Fort Garland, Colorado, in October, 1866, an order quickly changed to Fort Riley, Kansas, for the same purpose. His former foes were his late classmates and kinsmen, and the conflict was over a great political question. The new foe was of another race and color, and the conflict was to determine whether the red man was to submit to dictation, to allow his game to be destroyed, and his home to be appropriated by the whites. If might makes right, then the red man had no rights. If sitting at a machine in a dingy factory ten hours a day is a nobler occupation than living happily under the open sky, then the red man had no title to happiness or lands. The white men could utilize the land to better 89 go GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER advantage than the red men could. At least the red men were in the way of the white men, and the latter thought that sufficient reason for de stroying them. They wanted the land to raise more corn, to feed more men, to work in more factories ; to make more machines, to till more land, to raise more corn, to feed more men, to work in more factories ; and so on, until all the forests and all the waterfalls should be destroyed, all the rivers polluted with sewage, all the banks made hideous, and every few miles a group of ugly dwellings and factories surrounded by tin cans, dirt, disorder, and disease. The white man thought these things good ; he thought the red man ought to think so too, and he proceeded to instill an appreciation of such blessings into the red man with rifle balls. On his part, the red man thought the white man a nuisance and an interloper. The red man was proud. He was courageous. He was skillful in fighting even when he had only lances and the bow-and-arrow to match against the white man s rifle. He was often slaughtered in numbers. But he learned. He bought rifles and used them well, and he made the white man pay in blood for the land taken ; and when the white man had finally broken him and covered his land with factories, then the RED MEN AND WHITE 91 white man began to hark back to the life of the red man for safety from the life of the shop. "When I am gone and my warnings are no longer heeded," said Red Jacket, "the craft and avarice of the white man will prevail. My heart fails me when I think of my people so soon to be scattered and forgotten." The foe with which Custer now was to battle was the Plains Indians, and chief among these were the Cheyennes and the Sioux, ranging from Minne sota to the Rocky Mountains and south into Texas. They were living in the purely hunter state, and their lives and government conformed to that stage of man s development. Subsistence on game requires a wide acreage, and there is no way of improving on this except by tilling the soil. Nearly all the tribes in the United States had long supplemented their game and meat supply by raising corn, beans, and squash, but these tribes of the plains had enormous herds of wild cattle called buffalo, or bison, from which they obtained everything they required, food, clothing, and shelter, and therefore they gave no heed to planting. When they saw the effect on their property of the white man s advance, they were alarmed. They made treaties with the white man s govern- 92 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER ment which were intended to keep certain parts of the land forever in the hands of the Indian for his comfort and subsistence, but there were too many white men who needed more land on which to grow more corn, to feed more men, to make more machines, and the white man s government repudiated the compacts with the red man s gov ernment. Then the policy became the extermina tion of the red man, or putting him in a pen and feeding him, or perhaps half starving him. This was the undertaking that now fell to Custer. He was a soldier and he entered upon the work with his customary skill and good judgment. General Grant, General Sherman, and General Sheridan all had a sublime contempt for anything Indian. Sheridan said that "the only good Indian was a dead Indian," and Sherman declared that "We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women, and children." Two years before the advent of Custer on the plains, there had occurred the Chivington massacre not a massacre of white men by Indians, but a slaughter, by Colorado troops, of Chief Black Kettle s band of Cheyennes. This band had been induced by the authorities of the Territory of Colorado to go to Fort Lyon in southeastern RED MEN AND WHITE 93 Colorado. While there, virtually under the pro tection of the government, Black Kettle observed one morning the approach of a large force of Colorado militia. It was under the command of Colonel Chivington. Black Kettle, as he had been told to do on meeting troops on the plains, ran up to the top of his lodge an American flag with a white flag under it. Mr. Smith, the in terpreter, supposing these were strange troops unaware of the character of the Indians, went out to explain. He was fired on, and then, says the report of the government investigating com mittee, "the scene of murder and barbarity began men, women, and children [quite in the style which General Sherman advocated] were indis criminately slaughtered. . . . Not content with killing women and children, who were incapable of offering any resistance, the soldiers indulged in acts of barbarity of the most revolting character, such, it is to be hoped, as never before disgraced the acts of men claiming to be civilized. . . . For more than two hours the work of murder and barbarity was continued, until more than one hundred dead bodies, three fourths of them women and children, lay on the plain as evidences of the fiendish malignity and cruelty of the officers who had sedulously and carefully plotted the 94 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER massacre, and of the soldiers who had so faith fully acted out the spirit of their officers." 1 After this can we expect to find Black Kettle, and the Cheyennes who escaped with their lives, of a modest and shrinking disposition? No. Black Kettle soon became known far and wide as the "murderous" Black Kettle, and the follow ing year, 1865, was called the " Bloody Year on the Plains." Black Kettle s stepdaughter had married George Bent, son of the well-known frontiersman William Bent, and Owl-Woman, a Cheyenne. He had gone from school to join the Confederate Army under Price, was captured, paroled, and turned over to his father. Then he went to live with the Cheyennes. The government had built forts and was build ing more, and many millions of dollars were spent in the fight to exterminate the Indian. Nobody thought of treating him honestly and fairly. A policy of forcing them on reservations was adopted, with agents to represent the government, the agents receiving the positions, not for ability or knowledge of Indians, but as rewards for political jobbery. Their salaries were small but they were 1 Massacre of Cheyenne Indians, Report of Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, 38th Congress, 20 Session, Jan. 10, 1865. RED MEN AND WHITE 95 expected to steal all they could; and with few exceptions they nobly lived up to the expectations. The Indians knew they were thieves ; so did every body else. The government, too, failed repeatedly to keep its promises. On one occasion Chief Spotted Tail, in a council with one of the Com missioners, sprang up and said, "All the men. who come from Washington are liars, and the bald- headed ones are the worst of all. I don t want to hear one word from you, you are a bald-headed old liar." He then said if the government s promise was not carried out in ten days, he would go on the warpath with 4000 warriors. The promise was kept ! The buffalo which had existed in such astonish ing numbers were slaughtered by white hunters for hides and tallow. One man killed, in eighteen months, 4280 head ! At this rate the Sioux saw they would soon be robbed of their one source of food and supplies. This, in a general way, was the situation when Custer was ordered to Fort Riley, Kansas, in the autumn of 1866, to begin a campaign. He was anything but a cruel man, but he was expected to make his war effective and he did. One of his duties was the protection of the building gangs of the Kansas Pacific Railway, then being pushed 96 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER toward Denver. The Indians were opposed to the building of railways, as they saw clearly enough that the railroads made it easier for their enemies to come into their country and extermi nate them. For the same reason the government desired the roads to be speedily built. Fort Riley, where Custer had been ordered, was for the time being the end of the track. On both the Kansas Pacific and the Union Pacific these temporary terminals, as the roads were building, were a disgrace to civilization. The army had no control and there was no other. Gambling, drunkenness, murder, and every other kind of wickedness the white man is capable of flourished in these places as tadpoles flourish in a slimy pool. The new cavalry regiment organized that year, the Seventh Cavalry, afterwards became famous under Custer. He was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of it by President Johnson, and the officers were all experienced and excellent men. Some of the privates had been in the Confederate Army. Custer took to the frontier life with marvelous quickness and soon became the equal of many a scout who had spent his life in the West. He gave the undisciplined regiment a severe polish ing up, and attacked the curse of drunkenness RED MEN AND WHITE 97 so vigorously that he either reformed an officer or a private or else compelled him to resign. It was not all hard work, for Custer had brought his horses and his dogs along, and there were rides and hunts as occasion permitted; but these could not be continued very far without danger from some lurking party of Indians. The commander of this military department was General Hancock, and in the spring of 1867 he organized an expedition against the Indians to teach them not to interfere with travelers by stage to Denver, with the mail-carriers, or with any party journeying across the plains. The stage company had established stations at in tervals, and sometimes the Indians attacked these stations and robbed and burned them. There was little cooperation between the Indian Depart ment and the War Department, showing a mar velous stupidity somewhere, so they often worked at cross-purposes. The War Department tried to kill the Indians into submission; the Indian Department through its agents wheedled them, and swindled them, and lied to them, and sup plied them with guns and ammunition with which they killed soldiers. There was war between the Cheyennes and the whites, and the Cheyennes did exactly as white g8 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER men do when they go to war; they resorted to all kinds of murder and treachery in order to carry their point. The white men excused them selves on the plea that war was necessary and that all was fair in war, but they excused nothing in the Indian. He was merely a low, treacherous, bloody savage when he did what we know white men did for four long, savage years against each other in the East. Some one had to pay the penalty. We shall see that war with Indians is much like war with white men. War, in fact, is nothing but concentrated brutality, no matter who is carrying it on, and is the purely animal way of settling disputes or carrying on a conquest. CHAPTER XII RESTLESS RED MEN "!N one respect," remarks Mrs. Custer, " there never was such a life as ours; it was eminently one of partings." One of these many separations took place in the spring of 1867. General Han cock, commander of the department, was to sally forth from Fort Riley to prove to the Indians that the government was able to punish them if they molested travelers or were otherwise hostile. Black Kettle s band, of course, was among the foremost in the trouble. There was no doubt that the situation was ominous. It was now a question of how to remedy it, and if the Indian Department could not do it peaceably, the War Department intended to do it the other way. The expedition, made up of eight troops of cavalry, seven companies of infantry, and one battery of light artillery, making in all about 1400 men, marched away to the tune of "The Girl I Left Behind Me," while the wives watched in a silence broken only by sobs. 99 loo GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER The " Indian Ring," as the men in Washington and elsewhere were called who were making large sums of money out of the manipulation of govern ment money (and some of these men were very high up in public office), naturally had about the same feelings toward Hancock and Custer that the Indians had. The great failing in our public officials has always been their readiness to sub ordinate the public interest to personal gain of the most questionable character, and in this whole Indian business they were often shameless. Hancock s idea was to secure, if possible, a conference with the chiefs and impress upon them as well as he could the necessity of their stopping their depredations, and their danger of destruction if they did not. He therefore tried to get in touch with them at the earliest moment and arranged for a council. He marched ninety miles west past Fort Barker and then on about seventy miles southeast to Fort Larned. A hard snowstorm came on while the command was in camp. Al though the day was the gth of April, the snow fell to a depth of eight inches. The Cheyennes and some Sioux were camped about thirty miles away, and they began immediately to maneuver to keep this distance between themselves and the enemy. They did it by diplomacy. They said RESTLESS RED MEN IOI they had started to attend the conference, but finding a large herd of buffalo they had stopped to hunt. Hancock moved nearer to the Indians, who set fire to the dry grass to prevent the troops from getting forage for the horses, and then several of the chiefs, Pawnee Killer, White Horse, and others, came to meet the General. They agreed to a conference next day in the morning, but the hour passed without their arrival. There were more excuses and at eleven o clock the army continued toward the Indian camp. They had not gone far before they saw the enemy in line of battle directly in front, most of them mounted and in their most brilliant uniforms; war-bonnets on their heads, lances decked with crimson pennants, bows and arrows ready, and each one holding in addition a breech-loading rifle or a revolver, " obtained," says Custer, " through the wise forethought and strong love of fair play which prevails in the Indian Depart ment." This battle-line extended far to the right and left, about half a mile in front of the soldiers, who were ordered to form in line of battle also, the cavalry swinging into line on the gallop, their shining sabers flashing out as the infantry brought 102 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER their rifles to "carry." The ground was clear and level; the situation was tense. Hancock sent a messenger asking the chiefs to meet him half-way, and, bearing a white flag, about a dozen of them rode forward. After some hand-shaking and the usual "How-how!" they declared they did not want war, and a council was arranged to take place at the Indian village. On arriving, Hancock found that all women and children had been removed. This was suspicious. The chiefs explained that they feared a massacre; and re membering their experience with Colonel Chiving- ton, it would seem that their fears had reason in them. The chiefs volunteered to bring the whole camp back and departed at seven in the evening. It was discovered later that they were prepar ing to leave the village, and in the night Custer was awakened and was ordered to surround the place with his cavalry and prevent their escape. All chance of noise was guarded against. The white conical lodges being glimpsed from time to time, Custer made a detour and presently had a great circle of his mounted men around the place. The moon, which had been screened by clouds, suddenly came out, and the men could be seen sitting their horses like statues, with the dark foliage of the cottonwood trees, in which the RESTLESS RED MEN 103 camp was pitched, in contrast; the murmuring of a Httle stream was the only sound to be heard. Custer with several of his officers crept forward on hands and knees till at a proper point, when some dogs barked and the interpreter called out. Only the barking dogs replied. Thinking the Indians might be waiting in the shadows, the soldiers nevertheless decided to creep nearer. Listening again, they concluded, and rightly, that the Indians had vanished. The lodges were empty excepting for a little girl and one infirm old man. The Indians plainly had no confidence in any promises the troop commanders might make. Custer was sent to pursue them, but after a day or so the trail vanished, and he found him self in a wide, barren region with no water any where except at the rear. During this pursuit Custer, with his dogs and chief bugler, went ahead to test the speed of the fleet greyhounds, as he saw that the Indians were far in advance. They sighted antelope, the plains then being thick with them, and in a few moments the bugler was left behind. The race ran far. The dogs got winded and Custer called them off. He was alone with an empty horizon save for a large buffalo a mile away. The temptation was too great for the sportsman, as this was his first 104 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER sight of this big game. Away they raced, horse and buffalo, finally side by side. Even the hounds were left behind. There was nothing in all the immense expanse but Custer and his one great buffalo. All of a sudden the beast wheeled for a charge, and in the attempt to control his horse, Ouster s ready revolver was discharged into the brain of his mount, instead of into the buffalo. The horse fell dead, while Custer was flung head long to the ground. When he gained his feet, not even the buffalo was near. Where to go he did not know all directions looked alike. Then his dogs came up and he followed the way they indicated, guided by the dead body of the horse as long as it was visible. After three or four miles of marching, he perceived some horsemen, whom he scanned, he says, with more anxiety than he ever did an approaching column of the enemy during the late war. Presently he was relieved to see his cavalry guidon flying, and he was soon with his command, sending a squad back on his track for his saddle and bridle. Meanwhile, information came to Hancock that the Cheyennes had committed more depredations, burning stage-stations and murdering the whites, and he decided that this meant war. He there- RESTLESS RED MEN 105 fore ordered the destruction of the abandoned Cheyenne village, with all the property they so suddenly had left behind. This brought down upon him severe condemnation, especially from the Indian agents. "The deprivation of oppor tunities to speculate in Indian commodities, as practiced by most Indian agents," Custer writes, "was too great to be submitted to without a murmur." Some of the protests, however, may have been honest. Hancock assembled at Fort Dodge as many Indian chiefs as possible, hoping he could induce them to be more peaceful than the Cheyennes. Satanta, Lone Wolf, and Kicking Bear of the Kiowas, and Yellow Bear and Little Raven of the Arapahos came. They all promised good behavior; indeed, so eloquent was Satanta that he was presented with the uniform (coat, sash, and hat) of a major general. Hancock then proceeded to Fort Hays, Kansas, where Custer already had gone. Now trouble developed within the command. Men began to desert because of the miserable quality of the food supplied and because of the scarcity of even poor rations. As in the case of the Indian agents, most of the government contractors and post- traders were merely swindlers, aided and abetted io6 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER by the "men higher up" who shared in the plunder. Packages of " rations" were found to contain only stones, and the rancid bacon had flat stones sandwiched between. Bread baked in 1861 six years before was supplied, and it could not be eaten. In one year a regiment lost half its effective force, and the unfortunate soldiers were blamed while the contractors and their rich backers were reaping a harvest. The govern ment thought it was economizing. These men should have been placed in the front ranks and forced to eat the disgusting rations, to march without water, and to be shot with the bullets and rifles they supplied to the Indians. They were the real enemies of peace and order. The next action by Custer against the Indians was to make a sweeping march through the coun try from Fort Hays, near the Smoky Hill River, to Fort McPherson on the Platte. He left Fort Hays on June i, 1867, with three hundred and fifty men and twenty wagons, under the guidance of an excellent young scout, Will Comstock. He was to make a semicircle from McPherson south ward as far as the waters of the Republican River and reach the Platte River again near Fort Sedg- wick. Here he was to replenish supplies, march to Fort Wallace near the Colorado boundary, RESTLESS RED MEN 107 and then follow the overland route back to Fort Hays. With some changes that became necessary these plans were carried out. Owing to the poor food and the excitement concerning mineral discoveries, a feeling of dis content had been aroused in Custer s command. Forty men deserted the night before leaving the Platte, and while still near that river, having stopped apparently for the night, Custer changed his mind and ordered a further advance. This revealed to him thirteen soldiers in the act of leaving camp on the back track, some mounted, others on foot. The bugle failed to call them to their duty. The mounted men escaped; one of the men on foot attempted to fire on Major Elliott when he overtook them. Elliott s squad then fired, killed one, wounded two, and took the whole band back to camp. This action revealed a plot for the wholesale desertion of one third of the command. Custer could not tell whom to trust among the privates and he therefore put his officers on guard duty. At roll call he notified the men that taps would be sounded half an hour earlier than usual, and that after this signal the officers would fire on any one, with a single hailing, who should appear. This io8 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER destroyed the plot and there was no further difficulty, although the conditions naturally com plicated affairs. At McPherson, Sherman, who was further west, telegraphed for Custer to await his arrival, and during the interval Custer held an interview with several chiefs, one of whom was the noted Pawnee Killer, but without satisfactory result. When Sherman came, he directed Custer to follow Pawnee Killer and compel him and his band to move near the fort, in order to separate him from those who were known to be hostile, but Pawnee Killer by this time was far away, and it was no easy task. Custer was to go to the forks of the Republican River, where Pawnee Killer was sup posed to be, and endeavor to locate him. The afternoon of the fourth day the command was at the place agreed upon, and Custer arranged to remain several days so as to carry out the proj ect. It was here that it became necessary slightly to change the plan outlined by Sherman; and more supplies being required, Custer sent a wagon- train under escort to Fort Wallace, about seventy- five miles to the southwest; at the same time sending a special squadron to Fort Sedgwick, the same distance to the northwest, to send and receive dispatches. The region toward Fort Wai- RESTLESS RED MEN 109 lace was available for wagons but that toward Fort Sedgwick was not. This necessitated two expeditions. A full squadron of cavalry was to escort the train to Beaver Creek, whence one com pany should go on with it, under Lieutenant Kidder, while the other reconnoitered under Colonel West. That night, after the two parties had gone, the camp settled down to await their return. Dawn was just breaking the next day when the sharp report of a picket s rifle broke the stillness. Colonel Tom Custer shouted, "They are here !" This remark received an explanatory supple ment almost immediately in the form of a rattling fusillade emphasized by numerous war whoops. Custer, hatless and shoeless, with a Spencer rifle in his hand, darted out of his tent. The whole command was in the field ready for battle. There was light enough to see that hundreds of the enemy were attempting to surround the camp, while a squadron of about fifty, which had stolen very close, were trying to dash through and stampede the horses. They had shot the picket and galloped over him, but he was not killed and his comrades managed to rescue him. The fire of the troops was so hot that the Indians were compelled to withdraw. After some maneu- no GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER vering, Custer succeeded in arranging for a con ference of himself and five officers with six leaders of the enemy. They were to meet at the bank of the river, here very small. Custer went to one bank while the six chiefs came to the other, re moved their leggings, and waded across. The head man was no other than Pawnee Killer ! Each party now tried to discover the plans of the other, but with no success. Then, quite casually, one by one, other warriors began to wade over, to which Custer objected. He told the chief that if one more crossed he would have his bugler sound the advance for his entire com mand. Finally they all started off, and when Custer tried to follow, they galloped out of sight on their well-trained horses. A little later a party of skirmishers was seen. Captain Hamilton was sent after them, and when he approached they retreated, then divided. Hamil ton also divided, which was what they wanted. The enemy multiplied as if by magic. They circled around the troops with consummate skill, shooting as they rode. Dr. Coates, who had be come detached from his party, found himself be tween the enemy and the main camp five miles away, and as they came after him, he rode for his life in the direction of the camp, pursued to within RESTLESS RED MEN in half a mile. He dropped from his exhausted horse in the middle of the camp, when his breath less words sent more troops instantly to Hamilton s aid, but Hamilton had beaten the enemy off before they reached him. CHAPTER XIII A COURT-MARTIAL THE wagon train returned in safety with sup plies, arriving at the camp on the 2yth of June. Custer was relieved to find that his wife had failed to receive a letter from him, suggesting that she might like to accompany this train back to his camp, for the development of sudden hos tilities on the part of Pawnee Killer had changed the situation completely. The wagon train had been visited by the Indians on the way back, about halfway to the point where Colonel West had stopped for reconnoitering. The train was quickly arranged in parallel columns and cautiously proceeded. In this formation the troopers carried on a continuous battle with the Indian cavalry which darted about with their customary skill and daring, gradually contracting the circle they threw about the moving caravan. Whenever they approached near, they would throw themselves on the off side of their horses 112 A COURT-MARTIAL 113 and fire over or under the horses necks. For three hours this fight was continued. The troopers ammunition began to run low, which was what the enemy was planning for. Indian sentries were kept posted on the higher points, and in obedience to their signals, the whole Indian troop vanished as suddenly as it had come, while the troopers with the wagon train wondered. This mystery was soon dispelled, and the action of the enemy explained, by the appearance of a body of fresh troops which had come out from Custer s camp. Major Elliott, who had carried the dispatches to Fort Sedgwick, had brought back messages from Sherman, directing certain movements, and in the course of executing them Custer arrived at Riverside stage-station, whence he again opened communications with Fort Sedgwick. He was informed now that a wagon train, with an escort of ten troopers under Lieutenant Kidder, had departed from that post to join Custer the day after Major Elliott had left, and Kidder had im portant dispatches from Sherman. The dispatches were repeated over the wire. The next question to be settled was, where was Lieutenant Kidder? The Indians had descended on the nearest stage- station to the west the stations were about H4 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER ten miles apart the night before and there had killed three men, another indication that war was on and a warning to get to Kidder as soon as possible with a strong force. Custer decided to return at once to Fort Wallace and examine the country for news of Kidder, who had been ordered to go to Custer s camp and then follow him if he had moved. Kidder s whereabouts, con sequently, was uncertain. It was assumed that, missing Custer s trail, he would make his way to Fort Wallace. When Custer struck the trail to Fort Wallace, Comstock, the guide, saw from the tracks on it that Kidder s party had gone that way and, as yet, had not been attacked. But after a few miles an object was seen lying across the trail. It proved to be a dead horse, without trappings; then another was found, and farther down the valley of Beaver Creek the unfortunate Kidder and his troopers were discovered, murdered and horribly mangled. Each had been scalped and his skull broken, except their Sioux guide, Red Bead, whose scalp, though removed, was thrown down by his side. This, Comstock declared, proved that the murderers were Sioux, as their customs prohibited carrying away the scalp of one of their own tribe. All the clothing had been A COURT-MARTIAL 115 carried off, and each body had been pierced by from twenty to fifty arrows. Custer was deeply moved by the fate of the unfortunates. He writes : " While the details of that fearful struggle will probably never be known, telling how long and gallantly this ill-fated little band contended for their lives, yet the surrounding circumstances of ground, empty cartridge-shells, and distance from where the attack began, satisfied us that Kidder and his men fought as only brave men fight when the watchword is victory or death." Burying the remains in one common grave, the command arrived next day at Fort Wallace to find that the Indians had twice, within a few days, made attacks on that place with considerable losses on both sides. Travel over the Smoky Hill route had been suspended, stages were taken off, and stations abandoned. These frontier " forts" were nothing more than collections of log huts and their defensive powers were slight. To add to the forlorn character of this wretched military "post," cholera had broken out there and at other places, including Fort Hays and Fort Harker, where the accommodations for the men who were to protect the vanguard of this rich government were as uncomfortable and unsanitary as they well could be. The Seventh Cavalry, in camp in n6 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER the burning July sun, outside the log huts of Fort Wallace, suffered severely and many died. The doctors ran out of medical supplies. It was two hundred miles and more to the railway. The common stores were almost gone. The mail failed to arrive; nobody knew when new supplies would come. In this emergency Custer determined to act on his own responsibility, take a hundred of his best men, go through himself to Fort Marker, and send back the needed food and medicines, under this escort. He placed Captain Hamilton in command of this select detachment, and leaving the remainder of the Seventh on July 15, 1867, to protect Fort Wallace, he rode rapidly to Fort Hays, a hundred and fifty miles away, and there left Hamilton and the squadron to rest a day, while he pushed on with a smaller number to Fort Harker, sixty miles, so as to save time and have the supplies ready for Hamilton s immediate re turn to Fort Wallace. He made the ride of a hundred and fifty miles to Fort Hays in fifty-five hours, and the sixty miles to Fort Harker in twelve hours more, arriving at the latter place at two in the morning. Here he was in touch with the telegraph again, so he promptly reported first to headquarters and then in person to General A. J. A COURT-MARTIAL 117 Smith, in command of this department. The rail way had been extended as far as Fort Harker, and obtaining leave from General Smith, Custer went by train ninety miles east to Fort Riley. There Mrs. Custer had been waiting anxiously for news of what the Indians and the cholera might have done to her husband, and good soldier that she was, she went back with him to camp. During the remainder of the year nothing was done to punish the Indians, although extensive preparations had been made to carry on an active campaign. "A determined struggle," writes Cus ter, " between the adherents of the Indian Ring and those advocating stringent measures against the hostile tribes, resulted in the temporary as cendancy of the former." As a consequence the army was unable to .proceed with the plans laid out. Custer returned with his command to Fort Leavenworth where he was court-martialed for leaving Fort Wallace and making the journey to Fort Riley without permission; for marching his men excessively; for allowing two to be killed on the way; for losing several government horses; and for excessive cruelty and illegal conduct in putting down the mutiny in the Seventh. Notwithstanding the fact that Custer explained all his actions and showed that they were neces- n8 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER sary, the court found a verdict of guilty on the first charge of leaving Fort Wallace without per mission. It has been said that, as the campaign against the Indians in 1867 was not a success, Custer was selected as the scapegoat ; others have said he was the victim of jealousy. At any rate, he was found guilty of the first charge, and for this he was sentenced to suspension from rank and pay for a year. Custer himself said, "This result seemed satisfactory to those parties most intimately concerned." In these ways govern ments reward devotion. As Custer now had no quarters, Sheridan placed his own at Fort Leaven- worth at his service indefinitely. After an agreeable winter at Fort Leavenworth, the troops in the spring marched away again for an Indian campaign under General Sully, while Custer repaired to the shores of Lake Erie and gave himself up to hunting, fishing, and boating expeditions. Time passed pleasantly but his thoughts were constantly with his command. He did not expect to be permitted to rejoin it till his sentence was served out. He was surprised and gratified consequently when, on the evening of September 24, 1868, he received from Sheridan a dispatch reading : " Generals Sherman, Sully, and myself, and nearly all the officers of your A COURT-MARTIAL 119 regiment, have asked for you, and I hope the application will be successful. Can you come at once? Eleven companies of your regiment will move about the ist of October against the hostile Indians, from Medicine Lodge Creek toward the Wichita Mountains." Custer knew that such an application to the authorities in Washington could not fail to meet with a favorable reply, so he telegraphed to Sheridan that he would start by the next train ; leaving the expected order to overtake him on the way, which it did very speedily. At Fort Leavenworth he had his horses and dogs sent forward, and he reached Fort Hays the morning of September 30. Re ceiving there personal instructions from Sheridan, Custer pushed on to join his regiment which was camped on a little branch of the Arkansas about thirty miles southeast of Fort Dodge. CHAPTER XIV THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA UP to this time the troops everywhere on the plains had made rather a poor showing against the Indians. The latter in quickness of movement, in strategy, and in general maneuvering had plainly outgeneraled the United States army, hampered though the Indians were by the constant presence of their families. On the other hand, a few soldiers were expected to defeat many times their number of Indians. The business of an army in war time is to kill, and the Indian army had been doing more of that since the Chivington massacre than the white troops. In their war raids they killed or captured any whites that came in their way, and many frontier families had been murdered or cap tured. They were even treating the soldiers in their very camps with contempt. The citizens of Kansas, in response to the governor s proclamation, raised a regiment of cavalry, whose services the gen eral government accepted for a period of six months. 120 THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 121 It was necessary to have Custer, the brilliant cavalry general, back again on the front, and to give him more or less of a free hand, to aid in de stroying or otherwise overcoming this enemy. He arrived at the main camp in the afternoon, and as he was about sitting down to dinner he heard the familiar shots and shouts of the red enemy at his very elbow. This performance Custer learned later was of almost daily occurrence ; it was now to be discontinued. The custom of the Indians was to throw out a small skirmishing party to harass the camp, draw out a larger force, lead it to where their large force was concealed, and attempt to annihi late the detachment". As soon as darkness fell, Custer ordered out four separate troops of one hundred men each, all well mounted and well armed and having good guides. Custer knew the Indians must have a rendezvous not far off, and he proposed in time to play their own game on them. The four scouting detach ments were a preliminary move partly to rouse the cavalry after their inaction. No Indians were en countered. Custer s next move was to transfer the whole command over to Medicine Lodge Creek, and before they were fairly under way, the rear guard was attacked by a body of fifty Indian cavalry. The number of Indians increased and 122 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER their fire became so fierce that a second troop of cavalry had to be ordered back to repel them. After looking the ground over, Custer determined on a winter campaign when the grass should be dead, when snow would be on, and when the In dian would not be so nimble on his horse. He therefore took the command back to the Arkansas near Fort Dodge, to train the men in marksman ship and otherwise to perfect them. A record of all shots was kept for a month and, out of the best, forty were selected who would travel by them selves and not be subject to guard or picket duty. At the same time about a dozen Indians of the friendly Osage tribe were engaged as scouts. On the 1 2th of November, 1868, the entire force which was to operate in the campaign marched for several days, under Colonel Cook, to a point where the junction of Beaver and Wolf creeks (Middle River) forms the North Fork of the Cana dian River in Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, and there a permanent camp was established called Camp Supply ; afterwards named Fort Supply. Near this place the trail of a large war party, about twenty-four hours old, moving northeasterly, was found. Here General Sheridan came in order to determine what was best to be done, or rather to have a last conference with Custer on the subject? THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 123 with the result that Custer was ordered to find the hostiles and punish them as far as his command was able. He was to move out on this expedition on the morning of November 23, 1868. The evening of the 22d a snowstorm set in. At four in the morning, when the bugle call sounded, the snow was a foot deep and still falling. Sheri dan was a little perturbed but Custer declared that the start was most propitious, and the column rode away with the band playing "The Girl I Left Be hind Me." It was necessary for Custer to direct the course by compass in the direction he believed to be cor rect from his map. About two in the afternoon they reached Wolf Creek, on the way south to the Antelope Hills and the Canadian River. On or near the latter stream Custer expected to find evi dences of Indians and these would control his future movements. On the fifth day the Canadian River was reached near the five Antelope Hills, and there Major Elliott was sent out with three full troops to scout up the north bank of the Cana dian, while Custer, despite floating ice, quicksand, and a stiff current, put the command on the south side. Elliott was to rejoin him further south on the Washita, and all would continue in a southerly direction till Indians were found. 124 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Custer halted on the Antelope Hills for all the command which had crossed with him to get to gether, and was on the point of ordering an advance, when far in the distance, on the vast whiteness, a horseman was observed approaching from the direction in which Elliott had gone. It proved to be Elliott s scout, Corbin, who reported that they had found a fresh trail of a war party of at least a hundred and fifty, and Elliott was following it down the Washita. With orders for Elliott to go on till eight o clock that night, Corbin returned to him. Custer immediately decided to leave his sup ply train under a guard of eighty men, with orders to follow, while with the remainder of the men, each carrying one hundred rounds of ammunition, a small amount of coffee and hard-tack, with a little forage for his horse, he would catch up to Elliott. Tents and extra blankets were to be left with the wagons. Custer intended to move In dian-fashion, unencumbered by camp utensils and other unnecessary things. Captain Hamilton s duty that day would be with the wagons, but he so strongly wished to go with his troop that when another officer offered to stay in his place he gladly accepted. The other officer was afflicted with snowblindness, which was both painful and troublesome, and the wagon train was THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 125 the best place for him. Reaching Elliott s trail, Custer pushed along it rapidly, but it was nine o clock at night before camp was pitched beside him. Small fires were built under the banks of the creek to prevent their being seen by their foes, and the men ate their hard-tack with hot coffee. The horses were fed with oats and then, as western horses learn to do, they pawed for grass through the snow. After an hour s rest the moon came up. Without a sound the command was ordered to mount. The Osage scouts were sure that the Indians sought were not far off. Little Beaver wanted to wait till day, but not being able to give any reason, Custer ignored his desire. The command went silently on. The only sound was the crunching of the snow- crust. Presently the Osage who was leading suddenly halted. Why? "Me don t know- me smell fire !" Nobody else smelled fire and the soldiers said he was mistaken. In about half a mile he exclaimed, "Me told you so!" There, a few yards off, was the fire, a handful of dying embers in the edge of the timber. There was a halt till the fire could be investigated. No one was near it. The Osages thought the village was about two miles further on and Custer led the way with the two chiefs. At the crest of each hill the 126 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Indians would steal ahead and peer over very cau tiously. At one place one of them exclaimed in a whisper, "Heap Injun down there!" Custer looked over with equal caution and in the moonlight saw a large herd of what seemed to be buffalo. They were Indian horses. "Me hear dog bark" whispered the Osage. Custer heard a bark, too, then the tinkling of a bell, such as is hung on a horse s neck. A moment later on the clear, frosty air came the cry of a baby. Would the white man have mercy on that little baby? But it was only an Indian baby, after all ! It was past midnight. A new day, November 27, 1868, was beginning a fatal day for many. The officers were assembled and Custer gave them his plan and his orders. The village was to be sur rounded and at daylight the attack was to begin from all sides. The eight hundred men were sepa rated into four detachments, and while two started on a detour to reach the farthest points, the third moved to position about an hour before day. Cus ter, with the fourth, was to attack from the point of first discovery of the village. The village was that of Black Kettle and his Cheyennes who were now to have another taste of the white man s justice. Custer hoped to pre vent the escape of every one and teach them to be THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 127 peaceful, yet he did not intend to sacrifice any more lives than he had to. The waiting men tried to snatch a little sleep, but the night was very cold and they had only their overcoats for protection. No shot was to be fired till a given signal. The east began to brighten. The regimental band was at Ouster s elbow, all mounted with instruments ready, the leader with his cornet to his lips. As Custer neared the village, all was so still he feared the place was deserted. Then a rifle shot rang out on the wintry air from the far side of the village. Custer gave the signal; the band struck up " Gar ry o wen" while cheers came from troops all around as they closed in on the fated tribe. Bugles sounded ; rifles cracked. Black Kettle and his people were taken com pletely by surprise, and with their horses half- starved and not at hand they were at an immense disadvantage. However, they were quickly be hind trees, firing on the troops, while some even jumped into the Washita River and used the banks for breastworks. They all fought "with a desperation and courage which no race of men could surpass," Custer reports. The battle was rapid and furious, and the troops even under favorable circumstances did not have it all their own way. The gallant Captain Hamil- 128 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER ton was one of the first to fall. The order to kill only warriors could not always be observed, for some of the women were fighting as bravely as the men. So too were young boys, one of whom, on a strong horse, disregarded Major Benteen s command to surrender and rode at him so fiercely, shooting a revolver, that Ben teen had to kill him in self-de fense. He was the son of a chief. A squaw, dragging after her a little white boy- captive, finding herself cornered, stabbed the child to the heart and one of the troopers shot her dead. Many warriors were killed by the sharpshooters; the remainder were driven into the open. The women and children remaining in the lodges were being rounded up and put under guard when Cus- ter noticed a large force of Indian cavalry on a hill about a mile away. Who were they? Sending for the interpreter, Custer learned from one of the Cheyenne women that just below, on the same stream, were located all the villages of Southern Cheyennes, the Arapahos, a small band of Kiowas, and the Comanches. It was apparent that the troops had run into a real hornet s nest, and to verify it, Colonel Barnitz was brought in with a rifle ball next to his heart (he recovered finally), while of Major Elliott nothing could be learned. A hospital was improvised, the dead and wounded THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 129 of the troops collected, and the ponies which had been captured were rounded up. All were heavily guarded. The situation was now perilous for the troops. Major Bell had scarcely arrived with fresh ammunition when the enemy began to attack more vigorously but cautiously, so as to avoid killing their own women and children. Custer ordered all the teepees pulled down and all the Indian prop erty gathered together and burned with the teepees. While this was being done, the Indians advanced from many directions. They attacked the soldiers with skill and vigor. It was charge and counter charge, the enemy always returning to the troops, like an elastic band. By three in the afternoon Custer began to feel anxious concerning his supply train, guarded by only eighty men. If the enemy sighted it they would capture it, and then the troops would be in a difficult situation, their lim ited rations being now gone and ammunition scarce. The soldiers had taken more than fifty prisoners and still held the huge herd of eight hundred and seventy-five horses captured in the beginning. The latter could not be taken on the retreat toward the wagon train, so Custer ordered all of them shot except such as the captives should select to ride, and seven hundred were killed, a work that required the services of three companies for an hour and a 130 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER half. A middle-aged woman asked to speak to him, and the request being granted she delivered an address, translated by the interpreter, "which for wisdom of sentiment and easy, natural, but impassioned delivery, might have been heard with intense interest by an audience of cultivated re finement," says Custer. Her name was Mahwissa. She spoke as a sister of Black Kettle, the head chief, whose troubles were now ended as he had been killed early in this attack of the enemy whom he consid ered, with some reason, dishonorable and perfidious. She declared frankly that the Indians had brought this trouble on themselves as the last war party against the whites had returned only the night before. It was, in fact, their carousing till a late hour which had caused the camp to sleep so soundly that they were taken by surprise. " But," she said, "if you are a big chief, show that you can act like a chief and secure for us that treat ment which the helpless are entitled to." Mahwissa then placed the hand of a young maiden in that of Custer and appeared to pronounce a benediction. Custer asked an interpreter to explain. "Why, she s marryin you to the squaw ! " he replied with a grin. Custer explained to Mah wissa the impossibility of his accepting this honor, and turned his attention to other matters, among THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 131 them the search for Major Elliott and the nineteen men with him when he was last seen charging into the village. Nothing could be learned at that time but George Bent told the story later. Elliott had charged through the village and was finally cut off by a squadron of warriors just arrived from the lower villages. Elliott dismounted his men and tried, from reclining positions in a ravine, to beat off his assailants. But his situation was so bad that he could not effectively defend himself, and besides his men must have run out of ammunition for they did not shoot much. Inside of two hours they all were killed, 1 and the warriors who had been fighting Elliott went on to attack Custer. He, not being able to discover Elliott s fate, al though parties were sent two miles in the direction in which he was seen to go, began a retrograde movement. He had accomplished the entire de struction of this village and he could do no more at that time. As evening fell he marched (for the benefit of the enemy scouts) in the direction of the villages lower down the river, to a point several miles below 1 A story of how Elliott had defended himself for nearly two days, which appears in "Reminiscences of Fort Dodge," by Robert M. Wright, Kansas Historical Society Collections, is seen to be untrue. 132 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER the scene of the battle, with the apparent intention of attacking them, but as soon as darkness came on he immediately reversed his line of march, as planned, and as rapidly as possible made his way back toward the approaching wagon train. At ten in the morning, having made but one halt, they reached the train. This was then turned about and, without a stop, the entire caravan went back to a point from which the scout, California Joe, was sent with dispatches for Sheridan at Camp Supply, while the command rested. The results of this Battle of the Washita were as follows: 103 warriors killed, women killed, 53 women and children captured, 875 horses killed, 1123 buffalo robes and skins taken, as well as 535 pounds of powder, 1050 pounds of lead, 4000 arrows, 700 pounds of tobacco, and numerous rifles, pistols, saddles, bows, and lassos. Quantities of dried meat and other provisions were destroyed. The loss to the troops was as follows : Major Elliott and Cap tain Hamilton killed ; nineteen soldiers killed ; Colonel Barnitz wounded, also Lieutenant Colonel T. W. Custer, Second Lieutenant March, and eleven soldiers. CHAPTER XV 9 FORCEFUL MEASURES WHEN California Joe returned from Camp Supply, he brought back from General Sheridan thanks and congratulations to the officers and the troops, and special congratulations to their dis tinguished commander, Brevet Major General George A. Custer, for "the efficient and gallant services rendered which have characterized the opening of the campaign against hostile Indians south of the Arkansas. The energy and rapidity shown during one of the heaviest snowstorms that has visited this section of the country, with the temperature below freezing point, and the gallantry and bravery displayed, resulting in such signal suc cess, reflect the highest credit upon both the officers and men of the Seventh Cavalry." Custer decided to enter Camp Supply in triumph and pass in review before Sheridan, who was accord ingly notified. The snow had disappeared by De cember 2, the day they reached a point two miles 133 134 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER from the camp, where one of Sheridan s staff met Custer with the information that the commanding general would be pleased to review the Seventh Cavalry. The cavalcade marched down a gradual slope, then rode into the camp and past Sheridan and his staff, all mounted, in the following order: First Custer, wearing a fringed buckskin hunting- shirt and leggings, a broad hat surmounting his yellow curls which fell to his shoulders, and carry ing a long rifle ; then the Osages dressed in the full war paraphernalia of their tribe, chanting war songs, firing guns, and occasionally giving the war whoop; then the scouts riding abreast, followed by Indian prisoners. A little in the rear of this group rode the troops with the band playing the Seventh s great charging air, "Garryowen," the platoon of sharpshooters coming between the band and the main body. Afterwards Sheridan declared it was one of the most beautiful and interesting scenes he remembered ever to have seen, and it certainly was a picture that never again will be possible within the limits of the United States. Leaving Camp Supply again, this time with Sheridan s company, Custer and the Seventh Cav alry, on the morning of December 7, 1868, with the Kansas troops, ten companies of the Nine teenth volunteer cavalry, marched southward to FORCEFUL MEASURES 135 the Washita on the way to Fort Cobb, reaching the Washita near the late battle-ground. The Canadian River was forded in a temperature of 18 F. below zero. With a hundred men Custer and Sheridan together rode over the place, dividing the troops into small parties to search for the re mains of Elliott and his men. In about two miles the bodies were found at a distance from their dead horses, showing that they had fought dismounted, as Bent said, and as the prisoners said also. A grave was made on a knoll near the main camp and all but Elliott were buried there. His body was taken for interment to Fort Arbuckle ; and the bodies of Mrs. Blinn and her little boy, captives killed to prevent rescue, were also carried back. The weather was exceedingly cold throughout this march. The village destroyed was now seen to be the first of many extending almost continuously down the river for twelve miles, in all at least six hundred lodges. Their occupants had disappeared. Cus ter with the Seventh Cavalry started after them, and on the morning of December 17 they met some Indians with a white flag. At the same time they met a scout from Fort Cobb with a dispatch from General Hazen stating that all Indians beyond that point were friendly. The scout also said that 136 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER a large party under Satanta and Lone Wolf were about a mile ahead with a captive scout, his com panion, who was held as a prisoner. Going out to meet the flag, Custer found Lone Wolf, Satanta, and a number of other leaders all painted and plumed for war, each armed with a rifle, two re volvers, and bows and arrows, but they refrained from hostilities. 1 Custer compelled the release of the captive scout and then proceeded towards Fort Cobb accom panied by the chiefs, who said they were going there also. Although very suspicious of them, Custer could not divine their purpose. They de clared their hearts had become good, their tongues had become straight [truthful], and no more would they be wicked. Originally there were about twenty of the chiefs, but as the march proceeded the number dwindled, under one pretext or another, till only Satanta and Lone Wolf remained. Cus ter then seized these as prisoners of war. On ar riving with them at Fort Cobb, December 18, 1868, they were informed that unless their people came to the agency near the fort and remained peaceably there, the war begun on the Washita would be con- 1 It was claimed that Satanta and Lone Wolf were engaged in the Battle of the Washita, but conclusive proof was later pro duced to show that on that night they slept at Fort Cobb. FORCEFUL MEASURES 137 tinued even more vigorously. Through Satanta s son, negotiations were conducted with the people but every promise they made to come was condi tioned on the prior release of the prisoners. Fi nally Sheridan, who had accompanied Custer thus far, said to him, "You can inform Lone Wolf and Satanta that we will wait till sundown to-morrow for their tribe to come in ; if by that time the vil lage is not here, Lone Wolf and Satanta will be hung and the troops sent in pursuit of the village." Custer himself went to Satanta and Lone Wolf with this message, and when he told them the final decree, neither one gave the slightest evidence that anything unusual had been proposed. But Satanta gave his son an earnest message and the next afternoon the whole tribe arrived. Early in 1869 another attempt was made to get the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, who had run from the battle-ground of the Washita, to come in. They were somewhere on Red River, and an Apache chief called Iron Shirt offered to go to their camp. Mahwissa agreed to go, too, and see what she could do with her people. In three weeks Iron Shirt returned but Mahwissa was not allowed to come back. The chiefs said their horses were out of con dition, but Little Robe and Yellow Bear finally came with a re port that many were in favor of com- 138 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER ing. Custer then proposed to Sheridan that with forty men, two officers, and a doctor, and with Yellow Bear, the Arapaho, and Little Robe, the Cheyenne, he would strike for the hostile camps to see what he could do. Sheridan declined to give an order for such an undertaking but did not oppose it. Custer then chose his company from the sharpshooters, took his brother Colonel Tom, Cap tain Robbins, Doctor Renick, and a Blackfoot named Neva who had been with Fremont, and who claimed to be a son-in-law of Kit Carson. They took an interpreter; also a young man named Brewster, who was in search of his sister who had been captured some time before. He was allowed to go as he believed his sister was with these Indians. Only pack mules would be taken to carry supplies and baggage. This venture of Custer s was considered fool hardy and it would have been for most men, for few had his good judgment and quick decision. Reach ing the vicinity of the last peak of the Wichita Mountains without seeing Indians, Little Robe and Yellow Bear gathered a quantity of dry grass and weeds and on a prominent point, a thousand feet above the plain, made a fire. As soon as it began to burn, it was partly smothered by pulling the leaves over it ; this caused a column of smoke to FORCEFUL MEASURES 139 rise ; then they placed over it a blanket held close to the ground by the four corners. When this was suddenly removed, the column of smoke which had been confined burst out like a balloon and rose into the air. By repeating this operation, they made a series of telegraphic puffs which could be seen for many miles. They peered into the far dis tance for a reply but none came. It became evi dent, two days later, that the chase would be longer than anticipated, and a message to Sheridan asking for more" rations was imperative. A young trooper volunteered to return alone. He started after dark, while in the early morning Custer and his command proceeded as indicated by the chiefs. The next day about noon two Indians were dis covered who, in reply to Yellow Bear s signals, came up to the party. One was sent away to the village not far off, and before long Ouster s little force was surrounded, ten to one, by fully armed warriors. He proceeded with them to their camp on Mulberry Creek and pitched his own camp alongside, but on the other bank of the stream. All had been very friendly, and after a council in the evening, at which Custer explained his errand, they expressed a will ingness to go to the reservation assigned to them. Little Raven, the head chief of the Arapahoes, was a progressive leader and had always desired to 140 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER follow out the treaty of 1867, but had not been able to persuade his people to do so. All was satisfactorily arranged with him and he promised to start in three days. Then Custer wanted to find the Cheyennes and Little Raven gave him two of his young men as guides. Little Raven and his people accordingly started back with Yellow Bear, the latter bearing a message for Sheridan, while Custer waited for the arrival of the extra supplies he had sent for, Little Robe, the Cheyenne chief, remaining with him, to go on to his people. Brewster also de sired to go on, for Little Raven, not knowing his mission, had admitted that there were two white women captives with the Cheyennes. Three days later Colonel Cook came with the supplies and Custer went on, while Neva, the two Arapahoes, and young Brewster (by his own re quest) pushed ahead. Custer s horses were now nearly starving, although cottonwood trees were felled so that they could eat the twigs and young branches, a resource often utilized in the West. One of the horses died and the troops concluded to eat him. Neva and Brewster at length returned to report that the two Arapahoes had decided to follow on a two- weeks-old trail they had found. Custer, owing to lack of forage for the horses and FORCEFUL MEASURES 141 supplies for the men, was forced to go back to the main camp where he was heartily welcomed by Sheridan and his staff who had all been exceedingly doubtful as to his safe return. Sheridan left for Camp Supply while Custer, with the Seventh Cavalry and the Kansas volunteer cavalry, in all about 1500 or 1800 men, with his Osage scouts, went back to the country he had just left to catch, if possible, the roaming Cheyennes. Monaseeta, Little Rock s daughter, was taken along to act as intermediary if practicable. After considerable travel and search, Custer finally overtook them, the first ones being a group on a hill. Up to this time he, had advanced with such extreme caution that the Cheyennes did not know of his presence, and had felt perfectly secure beyond what they thought an impassable desert for the troops. It was very necessary, as the Cheyennes had the two white women with them and might kill them, to be exceedingly diplomatic in all that was now to be done. A parley was arranged with the advance guard which had been met, and Medicine Arrow, the chief, said it would be desirable for Custer himself to proceed with him to their main camp to avoid excitement which the appearance of the entire force would create. 142 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER To this Custer agreed, and taking only Colonel Cook, he rode rapidly to the village with the body of chiefs, feeling that with all their women and children at hand, and his large force in the back ground, there was no great danger of treachery. The village was a very large one, the largest Custer had ever seen. They went to Medicine Arrow s lodge and he sent the town crier to call a council. Fifteen came. They sat in a circle with Custer at Medicine Arrow s right and the chief priest, or " medicine man" as the whites call him, on Custer s right. Grasping Custer s right hand with his left, the priest, who had previously filled the council pipe, pressed the visitor s hand to his heart with a prayer or incantation. Then he made a similar incantation over the pipe, pointing the stem to each of the cardinal compass points, finally putting the mouthpiece in Custer s mouth. After more incantation and a second grip on Custer s right hand, the hand was released, a match lighted, and a sign made for Custer to begin to smoke, which he, of course, did, although he was not a smoker and was somewhat uncertain as to the effect. But his smok ing was brief for the pipe was passed on. Then, at last, Custer was allowed to explain his presence. He said nothing at the time about the captives, but Monaseeta reported that both were in the village. FORCEFUL MEASURES 143 The whole command presently came up, and Medicine Arrow assigned a camp site for the troops about three quarters of a mile from his own and hidden from it. The Kansas troops were angry at being restrained from an immediate attack, but Custer ruled them. After a time the chief came to Custer s tent to say that some of his young men wished to serenade him, and soon they arrived ; about a dozen, beautifully mounted and gorgeously dressed, with reed pipes resembling fifes. They rode about making what they thought were musical sounds. Custer discovered that this was merely a ruse to permit the village to pack up and get away and he instantly made up his mind what course to pursue. The officers were told to leave, one by one, and order some of their best men to come thoroughly armed and mingle with the crowd as if listening to the performers. About one hundred were disposed in this fashion while the Indians gradually diminished in number to about forty, among whom were the half dozen chiefs. Indicating to the men nearest him the chiefs he intended to capture, he told the in terpreter to command silence, as he wished to speak. Rising, Custer unbuckled his revolver and threw it on the ground saying that in what he was about to do he did not wish to shed any blood 144 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER unless forced to do so. Then he told the chiefs to look around and count the armed men among them, asking them quietly to submit. If their people responded properly to the reasonable demands, all would be well. For a moment or two it looked like a hand-to- hand fight. The soldiers behaved with great dis cretion. The young Indians made a rush and broke away, which was what Custer wanted, telling his men not to fire. Then the chiefs were cornered. Custer told them he knew their plans ; that he knew they had two white women in the camp whom he intended to release, and that he wanted them all to return to the reservation. After some trouble, the chiefs Big Head, Fat Bear, and Dull Knife were securely held. Custer then told one of the Cheyennes who had been chosen as a messenger by the chiefs, to tell the tribe that he demanded the unconditional sur render of the captives and the return of the entire tribe to the reservation. He also requested Little Robe to come for a conference, and added that if his demands were not complied with he would begin a war at once. There was considerable evasion for a day or two, when Custer at last informed the chiefs that if the captives were not restored to him unharmed by sun- FORCEFUL MEASURES 145 set the next day, the three chiefs would be executed and active hostilities would be resumed. While the sun was still an hour high, about twenty dis mounted figures appeared in the distance, and field glasses disclosed the white women among them. The Kansas troops were sent out to receive these captives who were overjoyed at their deliverance. They had been treated with much severity and brutality and were dressed only in garments made of flour sacks. Custer returned to Camp Supply, taking the three chiefs as hostages, and at last the whole tribe followed, settled on their reservation, and promised to abandon the war path forever. The Kansas troops were mustered out at Fort Hays and they described how under Custer they had been fed on one hard-tack a day and the "Arkansaw Traveler ! " The successful march of this volunteer regiment and the Seventh Cavalry over the barren country has few parallels in the history of the army. The trouble with the Indians in that region was practically over, thanks to the energy and effi ciency of the tireless Custer. He had proved to them that opposition was hopeless, and that they must henceforth accept the dictates of the white man s government. CHAPTER XVI ATTACKED BY Sioux THE close of the successful campaign against the Indians south of the Platte River gave Custer an opportunity to rest and hunt, and the summer of 1869 was pleasantly passed in excursions and hunt ing-trips, on many of which his wife and various tourists and visitors accompanied him. Deer, elk, wild turkey, antelope, and buffalo were the princi pal game, and the sportsmen had great rivalry in the chase. Custer killed three elk in one run of four miles, and with a party, killed sixteen in one day, so the camp was well supplied with fresh meat the whole time. On another day, without moving from his position, he shot three antelope, the nearest being three hundred and twenty yards away. The winter coming on, Custer and his wife re paired to Fort Leavenworth where he began to write his "War Memoirs" and carried them as far as the battle of Williamsburg. A trip to New York varied the monotony of garrison life, but by the 146 ATTACKED BY SIOUX 147 spring of 1870 they were again on the plains and the season was again spent largely in hunting. Custer s fame as a sportsman, as a horseman, and as a fine shot rivaled his reputation as an Indian fighter and cavalry general. Again many tourists came out to hunt the buffalo or other game and they always sought out Custer at Fort Hays, in the midst of the buffalo country. In the autumn the Seventh Cavalry was broken up and sent in sections to different posts. Custer applied to be assigned to Fort Hays for duty but this was not granted ; instead he was ordered east, and in March, 1871, was assigned to a two-company post at Elizabethtown, Kentucky, not far from Louisville. Here he remained for two years and wrote articles concerning "Life on the Plains" for the Galaxy Magazine. In January, 1872, Custer was ordered to meet the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia at Omaha, and was there placed by General Sheridan in charge of the field operations of the sporting party that was to show Alexis the plains. The party went out in a special train on the Union Pacific. By means of his scouts Custer located the bison in the region of the camp (named Camp Alexis) which was estab lished in the vicinity of Red Willow Creek, now Hays County. By daylight on the i4th of January, 148 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Custer had everything in order for the hunt and knew exactly where the buffaloes were. He and Buffalo Bill were to keep near the Grand Duke all the time. Everybody had a jolly experience and the hunt was a success. Custer gave an exhibition of horsemanship that the Duke declared was the finest he ever saw. In the evenings there were grand dinners and Indian entertainments; alto gether the hunt was a memorable affair. It was the last great buffalo hunt. During the next twelve years the bison was exterminated as a wild animal, with the exception of a few small herds. Custer accompanied the Grand Duke further west, then back to Louisville where Mrs. Custer joined the party and, with her husband, was the guest of the Duke during his short southern tour, just before he sailed for home. In March, 1873, the whole Seventh Cavalry was ordered to the plains of Dakota. They were first assembled at Memphis, Tennessee. By means of three steamers they went to Cairo, the most south erly city of Illinois, whence the journey was made by rail as far as Yankton, South Dakota, where the line then ended in that direction. In July the march across country was begun on the six- hundred-mile journey to Fort Rice. It consumed six weeks. During the whole time Mrs. Custer ATTACKED BY SIOUX 149 rode at the head of the column with her sister-in- law Mrs. Calhoun, Mrs. Yates, and Mrs. Smith. From Bismarck, the ladies returned to Michigan by the Northern Pacific Railway, then finished to the Missouri River. It was the desire to push the railway on westward, and a military escort was necessary, to protect the engineers. Custer and the famous Seventh Cavalry were chosen for the work, as the Sioux considered this railway extension through their country a violation of their treaty, and indicated their resentment very plainly. The troops altogether consisted of about 1700 men, the entire command being under General Stanley. The engineering work of the Northern Pacific was under the direction of no less a person than General Rosser, Custer s friend at West Point, his Civil War antagonist in Virginia, now his good friend and companion. Proceeding far up the Yellowstone, the country soon became so rough that the wagon train was delayed in searching for a possible route, and this led Custer to suggest that each day, with two companies of his cavalry and Indian scouts, he should explore a way. General Stanley agreed, and it became the daily order for Custer to do this. The treaty of 1868 distinctly reserved a large portion of the country for the use of the Sioux and 150 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER prohibited building railways without their consent, so the more independent Sioux were in a rebellious mood over the Northern Pacific survey, which mood was fostered by the crafty ecclesiastical leader, Sitting Bull, whose power at this time was so potent that he dominated not only his immedi ate tribe but all of the Sioux. By the middle of 1872 the Indian situation was bad. The Sioux became decidedly hostile. The Western bands had lost what little faith they ever had in the white man s promises the promises of the "Great Father," as the government was styled by the interpreters. Certainly it was any thing but fatherly to the Indians. On August 4, 1873, as Custer pushed on in his scouting near the mouth of Tongue River, with eighty-six men and five officers, Bloody Knife, his favorite scout, discovered signs of Sioux. The command followed the trail till about ten in the morning as it led their way, and then stopped for a rest in the shade of a cottonwood grove near the bank of the river. The men were drowsy, owing to an early start, and most of them, including Custer, were napping when there was a cry, "Indians!" It was followed by the crack of the picket s rifle. A small band of Sioux were riding down, on the camp. In a moment the enemy were checked suffi- Photograph by U. S. Bureau of American Ethnology. SITTING BULL He was a politician and high priest rather than a chief, his power lying in necromancy and intrigue. ATTACKED BY SIOUX 151 ciently to enable the troops to saddle and mount, and with twenty men, Custer, his brother, and Calhoun started to drive off the half dozen or so, well aware that more were near. The riders were fleet and kept in advance, so after a time Custer ordered all to hold back while with his orderly he rode forward to try for a parley. By this time they were near an immense tract of timber and about two miles from the place where they had rested and where the other troops were stationed. When nearly opposite the first point of this timber, Custer signaled a halt to his men. The Indians also halted. Custer rode in a circle, indicating a desire for a talk. They watched him a moment and then rode on. Custer was sus picious of a trap and sent his orderly back to warn his brother to watch a certain place; and as the orderly returned, the small squad of Sioux came on as if to attack. Instantly from the wood on the left three or four hundred warriors in full battle array rode out at full speed, moving in perfect line and order like the best cavalry. They came on with whoops and yells. Custer was in a predicament! He was sepa rated from his men, few though they were. He was at one apex of a triangle with equal sides, while his brother and the troops were at the other on his 152 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER right, and the enemy at the remaining apex on his left. Moylan, with reserves, was a good distance in the rear. Ouster s problem was to ride to his men before the enemy could overtake him or head him off. He wheeled and drove in his spurs. Away he flew ! The frightened horse sped as if for life ! Custer shouted " Dismount your men!" but he was not heard. Colonel Tom saw the need himself and the order was given. In a twinkling three out of every four were on the ground, the fourth holding the horses. Custer was nearing friend and foe at once. The fifteen men dropped to one knee for steady aim. The Sioux thundered on toward them as if they did not exist, and it seemed that the solid red phalanx was about to trample to death the little band of soldiers that remained so silent before them. "Now let them have it ! " said Colonel Tom, and fifteen shots from the breechloaders went home, followed almost instantly by another fifteen. Several warriors went down in their saddles and had to be supported by others. Yet again the breechloaders spoke, and still again, the troopers standing like a rock in a mountain stream. The Sioux, not expecting such volleys from so few men, wavered, and their splendid onrush was tempora rily halted. Then they caught sight of Moylan s ATTACKED BY SIOUX 153 reserves coming on the gallop, and they fell back to the woods to re-form. Meanwhile, Custer had outstripped the enemy and was again with his handful of good men and true, with Moylan coming fast. It would be several hours before the main force could arrive, and during this time Custer knew he would have hard work to hold back the enemy, who now ap peared again with tactics changed to each man riding singly and for himself, instead of all in one squadron. Forming all the soldiers in a circle, with the horses in the center, Custer slowly retreated on the defensive to the woods they had left, where a sort of natural parapet was used as breastworks. Bloody Knife with his " Henry " (the original Win chester) seventeen-shooter was doing great work as he was an excellent shot. Custer used his Remington with equal effect, while the troopers were not far behind with their Spencers. One bold warrior of the enemy repeatedly dashed near within two hundred yards contemptu ously. No one could hit him. Then Custer told Bloody Knife to shoot the Indian and he, Custer, would kill the horse. When the warrior came the next time, two reports rang out together and horse and rider went to the ground. The fight had lasted three hours. Ammunition was getting low. 154 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER The Indians tried to start a fire in the grass. It would not burn. They tried to sneak in behind, under cover of the river bank, but this move was discovered and foiled. The situation was desper ate, and the Indians were persistent and well managed. What would happen if the main troops did not arrive ? They were not due for hours. Suddenly the enemy withdrew. The reason was soon clear. They had sighted four squadrons of cavalry riding hard, with banners flying, and as soon as this force came up, Custer, in his turn, was after the Indian enemy, although they out numbered his men five to one. The chase was not kept up for long and the pursuers returned to the rendezvous. The reason the cavalry squadrons had arrived so opportunely was that, as the main column advanced, they came upon the dead bodies of the veterinary, Dr. Honzinger, the sutler, Baliran, and another man who had remained about two miles behind Custer. They had been killed and scalped. This led Gen eral Stanley to send on the troopers posthaste, for he was sure Custer would run upon a strong force of the enemy. CHAPTER XVII EXPLORING THE BLACK HILLS ON August 8, an unmistakable trail up the Yel lowstone was discovered. It was only two days old. That night Custer started to follow it by moonlight, with four squadrons of the Seventh, and by daylight he had made thirty miles. Con cealing the horses and men in a ravine for a three hours rest, they went on at eight in the morning till noon, when Custer hid the command again, this time in timber. At evening they continued for six miles to where the trail crossed the Yellow stone River. This was about three miles below the mouth of the Bighorn. The Indians had crossed in haste, leaving property along the trail. The river was about one third of a mile wide and there was an island in the middle of it to which Cus ter took his men at dawn by difficult fording. Be yond the island the current ran at least seven miles an hour and the water was deep. After repeated attempts to get a line over by swimming, they were 156 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER obliged to kill cattle, which had been driven along for food, and make coracles, or " bull-boats," in frontier style, out of their hides stretched on wicker frames. These were, in fact, large, floating bas kets. While engaged in this work they were dis covered by the enemy, who in large numbers soon crossed above and below, knowing the river well. The Indians attacked the troops in force and again there was some brisk fighting which resulted in considerable loss on both sides. Private Tuttle, a fine marksman, killed several Sioux and was then killed himself. Custer s horse was shot under him as was also Lieutenant Ketchum s. A general charge was ordered, with the band playing " Garry - owen," and the enemy, which was operating under Sitting Bull, was driven nine miles and forced back across the river, where they scattered in the hills. The expedition was not molested after this. At a place called Pompey s Pillar the whole ex pedition crossed the Yellowstone River, then the Bull Mountains north to the Musselshell River, which was as far as the expedition penetrated at this time. Custer wished to do a little exploring on his own account and to return by a new route. He was allowed to make the attempt and without desiring it he was given authority to destroy his wagons if he found such a course necessary. EXPLORING THE BLACK HILLS 157 With six companies of cavalry and the engineers, he struck out into an unknown region. On Sep tember 6, 1873, he had arrived at " Stockade," a hundred and fifty miles distant, without any loss of men or material, and on the 23d of the same month he was safely back in Fort Lincoln, North Dakota. On this trip he collected geological speci mens for Michigan University, sketched out a new route, and killed much game. This included forty- one antelope, four buffaloes, four elk, seven deer, two white wolves, and one red fox, besides geese, ducks, and prairie chickens without number. From the taxidermist of the party he had learned skillfully to mount his trophies and with these he adorned his quarters. He also brought back a live wild cat and a porcupine for the Central Park Menagerie of New York City. After these operations Custer was ordered East for a time, and he went with Sheridan to attend an army reunion at Toledo, Ohio. At the end of his leave of absence he was ordered to command Fort Lincoln, opposite the town of Bismarck, in North Dakota. The Seventh Cavalry was in stalled there and all went pleasantly. Custer was proud of the Seventh and declared it was the best cavalry in the service certainly it was the steadiest in an Indian fight, the men by this time 158 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER being so accustomed to this kind of work that they would even joke while the enemy s bullets were singing past them. At Fort Lincoln Custer again had an opportunity to hunt, and he must have been a picturesque figure on his spirited horse. He wore high top- boots, fringed buckskin trousers, and a dark navy blue shirt with a roll collar and red tie. His wavy golden hair at this period was cut short ; his mus tache was long and tawny; his hat was a broad felt. His eyes were clear blue and deeply set, and his complexion was florid from sunburn. He was now thirty-four years of age, nearly six feet in height, and weighed a hundred and seventy pounds. He was never ill, even for an hour. He had at this time about forty hounds and he en joyed nothing more than his hunting trips. Winter in that region is very cold ; temperatures of twenty and thirty degrees below zero are com mon, with plenty of snow. In the midst of such a winter, Ouster s quarters caught fire and, in spite of all exertions, the house was a total loss. Without his wife s knowing it, he had another house fur nished completely, and then suggested that she should go there one evening to consult about fur niture. The band was already in waiting and playing "Home, Sweet Home," while the whole EXPLORING THE BLACK HILLS 159 garrison was on hand for the housewarming which took place. Custer was as much on the alert for white men s dishonesty as he was for ugly Indians. He knew the government was being swindled, and he knew that men in high office were taking some of the prof its. The post-traders charged exorbitant prices, and the Secretary of War would not allow the men to buy elsewhere, so the luckless soldiers were being robbed right and left by the very officials who should have been their first protectors. This was common knowledge all over the West at that time. The officers were not allowed to make complaints except through the Secretary of War, and as the Secretary was one of the chief beneficiaries of the robbery, nothing could be done. Custer was outspoken on this subject. He was an honest man and it hurt him to see his men swindled ; it hurt him to see the Indians swindled on all sides by supposedly respectable officials and their henchmen. On one occasion, although the military had no right to do so, he suddenly entered the town of Bismarck with an armed troop and recovered a large quantity of grain (identified by the bags) which had been deliberately stolen from his post, and he arrested the thieves, who were sent to the 160 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER penitentiary. The men responsible for the dis graceful conditions of this period were, of course, very much down on Custer and they intended to "get even" with him. General Grant, then serving his second term as President, had one fail ing ; being honest himself, he never could see that any relative or friend of his was dishonest. So he shielded the Secretary of War and other officials whom he should summarily have removed from office. The fair name of his second administration, in fact, was jeopardized by the dishonesty which he either winked at or did not see. When the Secretary of War visited Fort Lincoln, Custer was so disgusted with his attitude, and had such knowledge of his dishonest transactions, that he declined to meet him at the edge of the reserva tion, as was customary with an official of his rank, although the necessary military salute was fired. Custer met him at his own door where he had waited. The business was transacted quickly and the visitor departed. It is hardly necessary to state that for this, and Custer s general attitude toward these matters, Grant and the grasping Secretary had a rod in pickle for him. Grant was angry and his wrath finally smote Custer in a sen sitive spot his pride in the Seventh Cavalry and in his own powers as an Indian fighter. EXPLORING THE BLACK HILLS 161 As the spring of 1874 opened, the Sioux were again on the war path. Notwithstanding this activity (which was another protest against the government s bad faith with them) it was decided that the Black Hills, in the western part of South Dakota, although specially reserved to the Sioux by solemn treaty, must be explored. On July i of this year a force of 1200 men, under General Forsyth, accompanied by Custer and by Lieutenant Fred Grant, the President s son, who was on Cus- ter s staff, started in that direction. Custer was extremely enthusiastic over the beauty and richness of the Black Hills. On July 1 8 they were on the Belle Fourche River, in country not then mapped out and generally unknown to white men. On the 2oth they crossed the river and entered the Black Hills, and on the 22d Custer climbed Inya Kara (Wyoming), the highest of the western hills, 6600 feet above sea level. On the western side of the mountains they followed a valley which at that season was such a garden of flowers that Custer named it Floral Valley. Bloody Knife discovered five lodges of Sioux and Custer was able to surround them. Then he en tered their village and cordially shook hands all around. On August 2d he was near Harney s Peak and on the i5th, at Bear Butte. During this 1 62 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER journey he was busy as a sportsman as well as an explorer, for he killed his first grizzly bear, "after a most exciting hunt and contest." The photog rapher made a picture of the four persons who were on this hunt and it is here reproduced, Custer, Colonel Ludlow, Bloody Knife, and Private Noonan. The bear measured eight feet. The report which Custer made of the region in September was a glowing one. There were also reports of the discovery of gold. Thousands of men were fired with a desire to secure homes and fortunes in this beautiful land. General Hazen, on the other hand, declared that the description was exaggerated. Professor Jenny was sent, in 1875, to determine scientifically the value of the mineral resources of the Black Hills, over which differences of opin ion had arisen. The region was so speedily and so widely advertised that the miners and ranchers who refused to obey the mandate to vacate had their ranks augmented. " Custer City" had been started by some enthusiastic pioneers, and the people entirely disregarded the claims of the Sioux, while the latter were in a rage over the per fidy of the white man s government. The govern ment tried, ineffectually and half-heartedly, to drive the miners and all others out, with no success. Photograph by W. H. Illtngworth. OUSTER S FIRST GRIZZLY General Custer was a keen sportsman. On this occasion he had with him Colonel Ludlow, Private Noonan (in the rear), and Scout Bloody Knife. EXPLORING THE BLACK HILLS 163 In January, 1875, news came that Rain-in- the- Face, who had confessed to the killing of Dr. Hon- zinger and Baliran, was at Standing Rock Agency. Custer sent his brother Tom with a detachment to capture him ; this was skillfully accomplished and Rain-in-the-Face was lodged in jail at Fort Lincoln. Here Custer personally secured his confession. He was kept there for several months when some hay thieves, who were locked in the same place, made a hole for their own escape and the Indian followed. The treaty with the Sioux had been repudiated ; despite their protests, the Northern Pacific Rail way was building, and their Black Hills were over run with miners and prospectors. The Western Sioux, incited by their high priest and counselor Sitting Bull, were in a desperate mood. Early in 1876 the army were in pursuit of the Sioux Custer after Sitting Bull and General Crook after another of the great chiefs named Crazy Horse. Owing to the difficulty of providing for age for the horses, the forces at length withdrew till the grass should grow green. Meanwhile, preparations were under way for one of the most vigorous campaigns against the Sioux yet made, and Custer was named as the commander in the field of these operations. 1 64 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER While he was in the midst of his preparations, he received a summons to go to Washington and testify before the committee which was investigating the conduct of the Secretary of War. Naturally he was disinclined to leave his task and delay the preparations for the campaign, and he begged to be allowed to give his testimony where he was. This was not permitted. He left Fort Lincoln reluctantly and testified in Washington, as the committee required. As he had expected to take the field against the Sioux early in April, he was eager to join his commanci as soon as he was excused by the committee, but the President was offended by Custer s frank state ments about the Secretary of War, who was his personal friend, and he ordered that "some one other than Custer should be placed in charge of the expedition from Fort Lincoln." Custer, of course, was sorely disappointed and three times he called on the President to try to in duce him to relent in this determination, but he was not granted an audience. Finding he could not see the President, and General Sherman being out of town, Custer received permission from the Inspector General to leave for his post. At Chicago he was intercepted by a dispatch and ordered to wait there, while the expedition was directed to EXPLORING THE BLACK HILLS 165 proceed without him. At the last moment he was permitted to rejoin his regiment, and in command of it, but not in command of the whole movement as at first had been contemplated. General Terry, Commander of the Department, himself took charge. As for the Secretary of War, he was proven guilty on every charge against him, but he escaped pun ishment because, having resigned, the committee were divided on the technical point of jurisdiction. CHAPTER XVIII ASSEMBLING OF THE Sioux THE Indians were known to be out in the buffalo country, somewhere in the region west of the Black Hills, but exactly where they were, or how many had congregated there, were questions the troop commanders could not definitely answer. It was known that Sitting Bull, the high priest and prophet, was exercising his powers to their full capacity, while Gall, Crow King, and Crazy Horse, the three generals, were obliged to subject themselves, more or less, to Sitting Bull s necromancy, although they had not much faith in him. With three divisions of troops, General Terry s plan was to converge in the region of the Little Bighorn River near the Bighorn Mountains, where the Indians were believed to be, one division under himself, Custer accompanying with the famous Seventh Cavalry, to go west from Fort Lin coln ; a second under Gibbon to come east from Fort Ellis, and the third, under Crook, to come north from Fort Fetterman. Terry hoped to strike the 166 ASSEMBLING OF THE SIOUX 167 Indians from the three directions at about the same time. Crook had 1300 men, Gibbon about 400, and Terry about noo, including Indian scouts and teamsters. The entire force, therefore, was about 2700. Crook left Fort Fetterman May 29, and on the i7th of June was defeated on the Rose bud River by the Sioux he encountered under Crazy Horse. He then fell back to the head of Tongue River while Crazy Horse with his band retired to where the other Sioux were encamped. This was on the west bank of the Little Bighorn, or Greasy Grass as they called it, and the entire camp extended down the river for three or four miles, some of the groups being a little back from the river. The Indians were all well armed but they were not eager to fight. They wanted to be left alone so that they might enjoy a fine, old- fashioned time, with plenty of buffalo and other game, as well as an abundance of wood and water ; all, in fact, that goes to make for sylvan comfort. At the lower, or north, end of the vast camp were the Hunkpapas, under Black Moon, Crow King, and Gall ; next above came the Oglalas and B rules away from the river, under Crazy Horse, Big Road, and Low Dog ; then the Minneconjous, under Fast Bull and Hump ; next the Sans Arcs, under Spotted Eagle and Fast Bear ; then the Blackfeet Sioux 1 68 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER (not related to the regular Blackfeet tribe), under Scabby Head. The Northern Cheyennes were a little north of the Minneconjous, and their leaders were White Bull, Two Moon, and Ice Bear, while farther south and last, at the upper part of the valley, were the Santees and Yanktonnais, under Inkpaduta. This immense congregation of tribes was armed with the latest pattern Winchester rifles which shoot seventeen times without reloading, and for sudden offense or defense are wonderfully effective. They had revolvers also and other arms, including bows and arrows which, at short range, are not to be despised. Charles Eastman ("Ohiyessa") estimates that there were between 1000 and 1500 warriors, which was about Ouster s estimate of what they would find, but all other estimates were much lower. Custer s was the only one before the fight which came near the Eastman estimate, and the latter was made up from talk afterwards with the Indians engaged ; but McLaughlin, whose knowledge of the Indians and the whole affair from the In dian side, is probably superior to any other, states that there were between 2500 and 3000 warriors assembled on the Greasy Grass. 1 There 1 See : My Friend the Indian, by James McLaughlin, New York, 1910. ASSEMBLING OF THE SIOUX 169 were many warriors there from the reservations to enjoy the hunt, and they joined in the fight; but as they could not admit their presence, and slipped away as soon as possible to return to their reservations, it is probable that the number of men available on the Indian side on that occasion was more than 3000, possibly more than 4000, The Terry division, leaving Fort Lincoln May 17, 1876, went across Powder River, thence to the mouth of Tongue River, and there, on June i, met Gibbon and his command. Crook, as noted, had fallen back to the headwaters of Tongue River and he was not at any time in touch with the others. Major Reno of the Seventh Cavalry was sent on a scout, with six companies, up Powder River to look for Indians and to try to communicate with Crook, while Terry and Custer waited near the steamer Far West at the mouth of Tongue River. Reno, making a wide circuit, came back, reporting no Indians on Tongue River, but telling how he struck a heavy trail on the Rosebud River. This indicated that the Indians were probably either on the Rosebud, the Little Bighorn, or the main Bighorn. After a consultation between Terry, Gibbon, and Custer, they decided that the enemy were either at the head of the Rosebud River or on the Little Big horn. Gibbon was to move to the Bighorn and up 170 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER that river to the Little Bighorn, while Custer was ordered up the Rosebud to swing over to the Little Bighorn and go down that river to the mouth. Thus the Indians were expected to be crushed be tween these two columns. As Terry did not know where Crook was, Crook could not be counted on for immediate aid. In special and final orders ,- Terry said to Custer that he thought, if the trail turned toward the Little Bighorn, Custer should go on southward, perhaps as far as the head of Tongue River, and then turn toward the Little Big horn. His idea in this was that the Indians might be trying to escape on Custer s left, and this move would preclude their doing so. He was fearful ^ the whole time that the Indians might escape. But said Terry in the order, "the Department Com mander places too much confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability, to wish to impose upon you pre cise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in contact with the enemy." In other words, Custer was to use his own judgment, and this was probably well understood, because aside from the formal order necessary for the records, in a previous conference between Terry, Custer, and Gibbon, on the steamer Far West, the whole matter had been carefully gone over, and Custer, with his experience, was doubtless the ruling spirit. ASSEMBLING OF THE SIOUX 171 The country was the same as that in which Custer had pioneered under General Stanley for the Northern Pacific survey, so he felt at home in it. To his officers Custer said, " We will follow the trail for fifteen days, unless we catch them before that time expires, no matter how far it may take us from our base of supplies. You had better carry along an extra supply of salt, for we may have to live on horse meat before we get through." Nothing was known of the defeat of General Crook by the Sioux under Crazy Horse. Proceeding up the Rosebud on the 23d of June, 1876, following a very large, but old, lodge-pole trail, the command made thirty-three miles. The next day, still going on up the Rosebud, twenty- eight miles were covered and the trail grew fresher. Here the scouts, including the faithful Bloody Knife, were sent out. Custer also called his officers together and told them the village was undoubtedly in the Little Bighorn Valley, and that he intended to cross over the divide at eleven that night. Ac cordingly the command proceeded at that hour. At two in the morning the scouts said the crossing could not be made in the dark and a halt was made for three hours. Hot coffee was served for all hands . The march then continued till eight in the morning, when the entire force was in the valley of a small I 172 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER branch of the Little Bighorn, only a few miles from the camp of the Indians. Custer had intended to surprise the Indians, but his inability to cross the divide in the night made this impossible, even if his trail had not been discovered. The scouts, especially Bouyer, were certain there would be a big fight, and the Indian scouts believed the same thing and went through their incantations continually, to invoke the aid of their guardian spirits. They were anointed by their priests and their prayer-ceremonials were of a weird and solemn character. Meanwhile, the great camp of 10,000 or more Sioux had no knowledge of the immediate presence of this powerful force of the white enemy. But their chiefs were not fearing any force whatever. They knew they were strong ; they were elated over the recent defeat of General Crook, and their con fidence was high. Yet they were not expecting an immediate battle for they thought they were now out of the white man s country and would be let alone. "He can live there, we will live here," said Chief Two Moon afterwards; this was what the Indians thought. So they prepared for feast ing and rejoicing to celebrate the conviction that they were now secure and would have no more trouble; the old times had come again when the ASSEMBLING OF THE SIOUX 173 white man did not trouble them and they were masters of the mountains and the plains. But on the night of June 24, the very night that Custer took his troops across the divide, Sitting Bull learned that the soldiers were approaching and how powerful the force was. He hurriedly made several dozen " medicine bags/ filled them with the potent " mystery," the control of which formed the basis of his influence in the tribe, and distributed them among the chief warriors and others of importance, to secure for them protection and success. The women, notwithstanding the confidence of the leaders, got their property together in compact form for a possible hasty move. Then all waited for the coming of the soldiers. CHAPTER XIX OUSTER S LAST BATTLE HAD his trail not been discovered it was now reported that it had Custer s intention was to conceal his force during the day and deliver the attack at the earliest possible hour next morning, June 26, as he had done in the battle of the Washita, but this was now out of the question, so he contin ued down the tributary valley toward the Little Bighorn River. The Indians by this time knew exactly where he was and how many men he had. They intended to fight when attacked, though they decided not to go far from their camp to bring on the battle. They waited, uncertain just when and where the troops would attack them. On Sunday morning, June 25, 1876, the troops, about six hundred strong, approached on the east side of the river to give battle in the open day to the Indians who were all on the other, or west, side. About noon, when twelve or fifteen miles from the 174 OUSTER S LAST BATTLE 175 enemy, Custer halted, and after a consultation, divided his forces into four parts. With five com panies, about two hundred men, he followed on down the main Indian trail ; Major Reno, with three companies, about one hundred and fifteen men, marched on Ouster s left, very near and abreast, in the same direction ; and Captain Benteen, with three companies, about one hundred and fifty men, marched to Reno s left, at an angle of about forty- five degrees, with orders to attack any Indians he might meet. Captain McDougall, with one com pany, about forty-five men, was ordered to follow in the rear of the pack-train, which necessarily would move more slowly than the mounted troopers. The pack-train had with it about a hundred men, all told. The command had no wagons; every thing was packed on the backs of animals. Reno was to cross the river and attack the head or nearest part of the camp, while Custer planned to swing to the right and make his attack farther down, at about the same time. For seven or eight miles Custer proceeded abreast of Reno, from fifty to three hundred yards apart, and then ordered him to push forward as rapidly as he con sidered prudent till he reached the Indians, who were reported to be in flight, then to charge them vigorously and drive everything before him. 176 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER After two or three miles further down the Indian trail, and when within about one mile of the Little Bighorn, Custer turned squarely to the right and led his force up the bluff, or ridge, where he saw some Indians. When he reached the summit the Indians were gone, but from this position the Indian camp was plainly visible, extending about four miles along the west side of the river, with a width of about two miles. Reno was seen going full speed down the valley with his troops. When within a half mile of the east side of the camp, Captain Tom Custer sent Sergeant Kanipe back with a message to Captain McDougall to bring the pack-train straight across country quickly, even to leave behind any packs that came loose, and also a message to Benteen to come on rapidly as the camp was a big one. The order was sent to Ben- teen because Reno was supposed to be engaged in executing his attack. Reno, who had had no previous experience in Indian fighting, forded the Little Bighorn and halted for a few moments to re-form his battalion. Then he proceeded to carry out his further orders. Captain Benteen, an experienced Indian fighter, was unable to execute his orders, owing to the character of the country, and he was obliged to turn to the right and take very much the same route CUSTER S LAST BATTLE 177 that Reno and the others had followed. Kanipe met him watering his horses and then pushed on to reach McDougall, to tell him to hurry up the pack- train. In about four miles Kanipe met the train which at once went on as swiftly as possible to the bluff, where Kanipe had left the Custer brigade, to follow on Custer s trail. Meanwhile, the Indians were not expecting the troops so soon, and many of them were eating when from the upper or south end of the camp was heard the sudden cry "Woo! Woo! Hay-ay! Hay-ay! Warriors, to your saddles! The white soldiers are upon us J" Immediately the bullets began to fly. Reno, having reached his designated position, dismounted his men to fight on foot near a point of timber, and he began the fight in this way instead of making a vigorous charge. Gall, the principal Indian chief, had not expected the first blow in this quarter, but further on, as he had seen Custer on the ridge, moving in that direc tion. He did not know that the forces were divided. Custer advanced along the ridge in plain view of the Indians, intending to cross the river lower down and hit the village, or camp, at that end, exactly where Gall was expecting him. Custer did not arrive at that locality till after Reno s at tack began. 178 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER The onslaught of Reno threw the Indian camp into confusion at that point, as it was not expected, but Chief Gall managed to get there speedily, and riding about with Black Moon and the other chiefs, he soon reorganized the people and brought a strong force to bear on Reno. At the same time, Sitting Bull, not being physically very brave, was thoroughly frightened, and believing the day to be lost, he packed his effects hastily, losing one of his twin boys in the hurry, and with his beloved family scurried away on his horses for the safer, distant hills. Reno was soon in a precarious situation. In less than half an hour the Sioux warriors worked around his left and even to his rear, while pressing him severely on the front. Reno thereupon con cluded to withdraw to the timber, with the river at his back, where the battle went on for about three quarters of an hour longer. Perceiving that he was in danger of being completely surrounded by the enemy who swarmed on the further side of the river, Reno ordered the command to remount and began a precipitate retreat along the bends of the river toward a place about a mile and a half below the ford, over which he had recently come, heading for a ravine by which to mount the bluffs on the other side, so as to secure a defensive position. His CUSTER S LAST BATTLE 179 men, quite demoralized, crossed the stream in wild fashion and many were killed by the Indians riding along with them even across the water. One officer and sixteen soldiers were left in the timber, as well as several civilians, some of whom later re joined the command. In this retreat Reno lost twenty-nine men killed and wounded besides three officers. 1 Reno has been severely condemned for making^ this retreat instead of charging the Indians with more vigor, or at least holding the position in the wood, and Chief Gall said afterwards he believed that if Reno had persisted in his first attack, with out dismounting his men as he did, the end might have been different. In view of the vast number of warriors available, it is extremely doubtful if Reno with his hundred and fifty troopers could have attacked in any way to achieve a permanent success. If the weight of all the troops had been thrown against this particular place, with sudden fury, the Indians might have been compelled to give way at least there would have been more chance for victory. ^ 1 Major Reno was court-martialed at his own request on his action at the Battle of Little Bighorn and many of the facts in this chapter are drawn from the manuscript record of the trial, in the archives of the War Department. The court decided that " no further proceedings " were necessary. i8o GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER i At the time of this retreat and when the bluff was reached, brisk firing was heard down the river, which was probably the beginning of the engage ment of Custer and his division with the Indians. Reno finally reached the bluffs about two o clock and there stood at bay, his men scraping out, as well as they could with three spades and their tin cups, some shallow rifle pits. In about half an hour Captain Benteen came up, and the addition of his force to that of Reno made it more difficult for the Indians to charge with success. This addition to his numbers probably saved Reno from annihila tion. About four o clock the pack-train, and Cap tain McDougall with his company, came safely through. There were now plenty of supplies but there was no water nearer than the river. Meanwhile Custer had led his command along the ridge, or ridges, toward the north, or " down river" end of the encampment, and at length, about two miles from his battlefield, sent a second messenger back with orders for Benteen to hurry up and bring the packs. When Reno had distrib uted ammunition and provided for the wounded, he moved along the bluffs down the river with his command, following Captain Weir and his company previously sent out that way, to try to get in touch with Custer. This was the direction it was thought CUSTER S LAST BATTLE 181 Custer had taken and in which it was known Terry s command was to be found. By this time all sounds of firing had ceased. After proceeding some dis tance, it was found that the continuance of this move would imperil the whole command, and it was deemed necessary to return to the position formerly occupied, where a successful defense was maintained. Although two distinct volleys previ ously were heard that might have indicated it, none of Reno s command realized that Custer was in distress. Custer, at first, had mistaken the signs of commo tion in the Sioux camp for evidences of retreat, arid he charged along the heights he was on with his cus tomary vim and gallantry till he arrived at a posi tion about four miles below the place afterwards held by Reno. He had become convinced of the vast number of warriors waiting for him, as is indi cated by his sending back the messengers. There was a ford of the river about three miles down his course but Custer did not attempt to cross there ; he seems to have passed it about half a mile to the northeast and to have made for another ford at the north end of the camp. The river could be forded at many places, except for the steep banks. While Custer was approaching along the high ground, Chief Crazy Horse, an excellent general, 182 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER with a powerful force of Cheyennes, was skillfully crossing the river below unseen, and, under the screen of another ridge, deploying his men into a ravine by which, without discovery, hejxmldjsass around to the north and east of the position which Custer presently would occupy. Consequently, in a short time there were a great number of fully armed, determined warriors in readiness to fall upon Custer s rear at the proper moment, and they were all hidden from Custer by the nature of the ground. The cavalry were permitted to advance well down the slope toward the river before the main body of the Sioux showed themselves in front. Then the Indians made an avalanche attack on the troopers. Custer immediately saw the peril of his situation, although he still did not know of the large body in his rear. He ordered a quick retreat to gain better ground. Chief Gall afterwards said it was appar ent to him that Custer was surprised at the great number of warriors and the suddenness and fury of the attack. There was no time on Custer s part for maneuver ing ; no time for orders ; no time for anything but a general effort to stem the mighty onslaught of the Indians who swept upon the little group of sol diers with irresistible power. When Custer, with some of his force, managed to reach the elevated Photograph by U. S. Bureau of Ai CHIEF GALL trlcan Ethnology. Gall was the supreme general of the Sioux forces. It was he who kept the strength of the Indians on the Little Bighorn concealed from the whites, and whose plans brought victory. OUSTER S LAST BATTLE 183 position he was trying for, to secure a decent defen sive, the squadrons which Gall had sent up the ra vine under Crazy Horse, to strike in the rear of the soldiers, rose up and surrounded them. Now there were hosts of Indians in front, or south ; hosts on the east; hosts on the north; probably not less than ten or fifteen warriors to each trooper. These movements all took place with amazing rapidity. On the elevation, Keogh s and Calhoun s troops apparently were halted and dismounted to fight on foot, the horses being left in a ravine. Many of the horses were stampeded and captured by the Indians; there was ammunition in the saddlebags (each trooper carried fifty rounds on his person and fifty in his saddlebags) and this left many soldiers with only a small number of car tridges. The troops of Smith and Yates were further down the hill. While shifting to the final positions, there was swift and furious fighting; according to Red Horse, the troops fell back five times. When Chief Gall gave the final signal, the im mense horde of warriors under Crazy Horse, who had so cunningly slipped up the ravine to Custer s rear, fell upon the soldiers from that direction and the trap was complete. Now with their wild yells the Cheyennes, the Hunkpapas, the Blackfeet 1 84 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Sioux, the Minneconjous, the Oglalas, the Sans Arcs, and the Brules, all dashed swiftly and mercilessly upon the cavalry at bay, in an overwhelming charge from three different quarters, raining volleys from their repeating Winchesters. What if the brave soldiers did pour out their bullets as fast as their single-loading carbines, sometimes inoperative, would permit ! Time and opportunity for defense were gone. They were enveloped as a whirlwind envelops a haystack. They might as well have been shooting into a tidal wave or a monsoon. The air was dark with smoke and dust; it was rent asunder by the multitudinous yells, shrieks, and whoops of the terrible foe surging about like the cohorts of Satan. It was a cyclonic human storm. In half an hour, or less, the fierce tempest had passed. All was over. Above the silent dead the sky spread calmly as if nothing appalling had happened. Not one of Ouster s devoted command escaped. The only person surviving was the Crow scout, Curley, who quickly made himself up to resemble a Sioux and so mingled with them undiscovered till he caught a pony and rode away. It is related that when he perceived the hopelessness of the defense, he went to Custer and suggested that Custer might escape by following his plan, but the General scorned to dp it. Bloody Knife also fell. OUSTER S LAST BATTLE 185 Having disposed of this part of the foe, Gall, with Crow King and Grass, intended to move at once on Reno and destroy him, but for the moment the warriors were too much excited over the pros pect of spoils of war to be controlled. Then the women and boys came on the scene with clubs, hatchets, guns, and knives. They shot into the dead bodies ; they hacked and they mutilated the dead enemy, according to their horrible way. Custer s body was respected and was left intact. He was the great chief. As he had recently cut his locks, his body was at first not recognized, but was finally identified by the maps in the pockets and by his dress. Keogh also was not mutilated because around his neck was discovered an Agnus Dei, an emblem often worn by Catholics. Of course all clothing and valuables were taken as well as the scalps ; all except Custer s and Keogh s. With Custer in this maelstrom were swept away, at one stroke, his brother Colonel Tom, his brother Boston, his brother-in-law Captain Calhoun, and his nephew, Autie Reed. The number killed on this field was two hundred and twelve, Custer s entire immediate command, including scouts and civilians. Reno lost fifty-six. The Indian losses were a hundred and thirty-six dead and a hundred and sixty wounded in the special engagement with 1 86 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER Custer. The total losses of the whites in the entire battle were two hundred and sixty-four killed and fifty-two wounded. The battlefield has been made a National Cemetery, and the spot where each sol dier fell is marked by a marble slab ; in trie case of officers, the slab bears his name and rank. The place where Custer fell is indicated by a cross, near a substantial monument on which all the officers and privates names are carved. Custer was buried at West Point. After a time Chief Gall was able to assemble his warriors again and return to the assault on Reno s position, but as night came on, most of the braves could not resist the temptation to go down to the camp to join in the general exultation over the victory. The intrepid Sitting Bull, overtaken miles away by a courier with the news of triumph, returned to the scene and coolly claimed that in the hills he had been actively interceding with the gods for this glorious result and that it was entirely due to his own marvelous powers ! Before daylight, on the 26th of June, Reno was besieged by Gall and his legions. Reno now had the active aid of Benteen, and the Indians would have found the assault costly, though owing to lack of water in the defenses they had merely to wait, CUSTER S LAST BATTLE 187 but a change suddenly came over them. One of their scouts brought news of the approach of the " walking soldiers" (Terry s and Gibbon s com mands) and offensive operations were speedily abandoned. "The coming of the walking soldiers," said Red Horse, "was the saving of the soldiers on the hill." The whole Indian encampment was soon on the move, and by sunset all had vanished into the west. The last great stand of the Indians, in the long battle with the whites for supremacy on the Plains, was over. Custer did not die in vain. Perhaps the Sioux had a lurking feeling that their success had been too complete. In the discussions of the Battle of the Little Big horn, it appears to be generally assumed that soldiers ought to win, no matter how heavy the odds, but the facts are that in this battle the Sioux were overwhelmingly superior in numbers; that they were admirably handled as a fighting force; that they were quick, brave, and tireless ; ^and that their fine, seven teen-shoo ting Winchesters were far more effective under the existing conditions than the single-loading carbines of the troops. Must we not admire the Indians for their intelligence, for their skill and courage, and for the military ability displayed in this battle, however much we may mourn the result ? 1 88 GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER From Bull Run to the Little Bighorn ! The race was run. And how glorious the record ! For fifteen years the noble Custer had met his foe with joy in every battle, and in every battle he had been triumphant ; in the manner of his death, on that 25th day of June, 1876, he was equally triumphant, and the story of his life will shine bright forever as a guiding star for all soldiers. Taps had sounded for him for the last time ! The lights were out ; but one was waiting far away, and the brave Ouster s final thought was certainly of her waiting, as so often she had waited before. His last fight had been fought. In the annals of his country the gallant and heroic Custer holds an exalted place as a skillful and daring cavalry officer and as one of the best Indian fighters the army has ever pro duced. From time immemorial "taps" has been sounded over the soldier s grave, and every military person is familiar with the words so long associated with it. It is appropriate, therefore, to quote these words as we say farewell to this great soldier : "Love, good night, must thou go, When the day and the night need thee so ! All is well speedeth all to their rest." Printed in the United States of America. "T^HE following pages contain advertisements of a few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS " Should be read by every boy and girl." This important new series of brief and vivid biographies will give to the young mind an intimate picture of the greatest Americans who have helped to make American history. In each instance the author has been chosen either because he is particularly interested in the subject of the biography, or is connected with him by blood ties and possessed, therefore, of valuable facts. Only those, however, who have shown that they have an appreciation of what makes really good juvenile literature have been entrusted with a volume. 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Few of the * heroes of peace attract the youthful reader more than the one chosen by this writer. 1 Christian Standard. Illustrated. $.50 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN By E. Lawrence Dudley As a statesman, diplomat, scientist, philosopher, and man of letters, Benjamin Franklin was the foremost American of his time. The story of his life is an inspiring and stimulating narrative, with all the fascination and interest of Colonial and Revolutionary America, Mr. Dudley has written a book that will find favor with every right-minded boy or girl. Illustrated. $.50 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS The Lives of National Heroes Told in a New Way for Children CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS By Mildred Stapley The story of the discovery of America has been told and retold, but always on the same foundation of conjecture and tradition. Mildred Stapley has consulted new and recently discovered sources of contemporary information, and the his tory of Columbus 1 voyages is revised and corrected, though the romance and excitement still glow through the record of his achievements, and his fame as a daring navigator remains an example of courage and unequalled valor. Illustrated. $.50 CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH By Rossiter Johnson The adventurous Captain who founded Virginia lived the life of a typical hero of romance Soldier of Fortune in America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, pirate, slave, and friend of princes. He was an able executive and a man of energy and capacity. " The picturesque story is one of the bright spots in the somewhat dreary early American history, and all children should know it." New York Sun. Illustrated. $.50 WILLIAM PENN By Rupert S. Holland The life of William Penn is of especial interest and value because the events of his career are closely related to American and English history at a time when America was separating herself from her parent country and shaping her destiny as an independent Republic. Mr. Holland presents the great Amer ican as a man of noble character and a fearless champion of liberty. Illustrated. $.50 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New Tork TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS New Illustrated Biographies for Young People ROBERT E. LEE By Bradley Oilman Robert E. Lee ranks with the greatest of all English-speaking military leaders. Bradley Oilman has told the story of his life so as to reveal the greatness and true personality of a man " who has left an enduring memory of the highest idealism." " The story of Lee s life is sympathetically told and with a fine appreciation of those traits in his character that have commanded universal respect." Review of Reviews. Illustrated. $.50 DAVY CROCKETT By William C. Sprague No fictitious tale of perils and adventures could surpass the true story of Davy Crockett, pioneer. His life and adventures are closely bound up with the great est events of American history. He was an explorer, and scout in the Indian wars, and first to open up much of the new territory beyond the Alleghanies; he was killed fighting under the lone-star flag of Texas at the siege of the Alamo in San Antonio. Illustrated. $.50 NATHAN HALE By Jean Christie Root There is hardly another story in the whole range of American history which contains so much of inspiration and splendid heroism as that oi Nathan Hale. " There is more than the work of a gifted biographer here. There is a mes sage." New York World. Illustrated. $.50 NEW VOLUMES GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER By F. S. Dillenbaugh JOHN PAUL JONES By L. Frank Tooker GEORGE WASHINGTON By W. H. Rideing U. S. GRANT By F. E. Lovell Coombs ABRAHAM LINCOLN By Daniel E. Wheeler LA SALLE By Louise S. Hasbrouck DANIEL BOONE By Lucile Gulliver LAFAYETTE By Martha F. Crow OTHER VOLUMES BEING PREPARED THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue Hew York 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. PEC15J9%JL LD 21 A-60m-2, 67 (H241slO)476B iversity cf California Berkeley U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES C03flS1112M *; ,< *>*