POWDER RIVER COUNTY EXAMINER What Chief Gall Told Us About the Custer Figtit on the Batllefield Ten Years After Sevenith Cava!ry Alet Defeat By D. F. BARRY, Who Took All of the Photographs Illustrating this Article and Who Holds the Copyrights on Them Thirty-five years ago, June 26th, 1886, a reunion of the survivors of Reno’s and Benteen’s battalions of the Seventh Cavalry in the Custer fight was held on the battlefield on the Little Big Horn on the tenth anni­ versary of that disaster. I had the good fortune to be there on that oc­ casion. Chief Gall, one of the great­ est of the Sioux warriors, was there, too, and told the story of the fight as he saw it. I have heard of a num­ I l l i » ber of writers who have written al­ leged histories of the Custer fight, who have said they heard Gall tell about the fight on the battlefield that day. For their benefit I might state VS GENL F W.BEJIfTEBir - ' ' -gltwTÏÏT" GOMMANCHEr TRUMPETER a* -MTCTCnr*. Dr W T - f- u <-/ D. F. Barry, author and illustrator * tu of this article. mi that Gall did not talk on the 26th of June. He told his story of the fight on the' evening of June 24th to a Km]WM small group out on the battlefield, starting to talk about 7 p. m. It was W 10 o’clock when we left the field to go to our camp. Today, of that few who heard Gall tell about the battle «»SS®® —there are but’ three living. They are General E. S. Godfrey, Colonel ÉM1 Partello and myself. The others are sssi dead. Ijâigjî It has been said that the Sioux and » V? Cheyenne village was surprised at the beginning of the fight. Gall told us X. * that the Indians knew where Custer’s Major Tom McDougall was given eonmand of the pack train by Custer before the latter rode into bis last fight. He joined lien teen and Reno, and fought through with them until soldiers camped the night before the Terry and Gibbon arrived and raised the siege. Trumpeter Martin carried Custer’s last orders to Benteen to “come quirk and bring the packs.” Comanche was the only living fight. He said that early in the thing that survived five troops that Custer led into the fight. He was Captain Keogh's charger. Wounded in seven places, he recovered ami died at Fort Rilcv, Kansas, a dozen morning of the battle the Indians saw years later. Dr. H. R. Porter was the only surgeon that survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn. General F. AY. Benteen was a gallant soldier, who had much to do with the soldiers come out of a pass in bringing his and Reno’s men through the fight. The steamer shown is the Rosebud, a well known boat in the upper Missouri and Yellowstone trade. the hills, and pointed out the pass. He said they saw the command div­ ide into three groups and watched charge of Gall, Rain-in-the-Face, Sit­ ting Bull, Crow King and other noted Indians, said he believed Rain-in-the- Face would kill a man for me if 3 asked him to do so— and that no one would be the wiser. He was a crafty, treacherous warrior. 1 have gone over the field many times. Chief Gall pointed out to us where Crazy Horse was stationed , with about 400 Indians in his bunch. ! fighting General Custer. The chiefs j told with pride of the charge Crow [ King made on Custer in that fight. The last order General Custer j sent was to Benteen to bring the j packs. That order was given to j Trumpeter Martin to deliver to Gen- j eral Benteen. Martin reached Ben-1 t » teen and delivered the order, but by ; that time there were too many In- j dians between Benteen and Custer ; for Martin to be able to return. When the men of the Seventh cav­ alry first sawr the Sioux and Cheyenne ; village off in the distance, they were Charlie Reynolds, who knew that de- i eager to fight. Lonesome Charlie j feat and death would result from Reynolds, the famous scout, said: the attack on the Sioux village, and Boys, if we attack that village, we who died bravely with Reno's com­ will get more fight than we want.' Rain-in-the-Face, a fierce and crafty mand on the river bottom. He was right about it. Poor Charlie, fighter, who took credit for killing he was killed in the valley with Reno. Captain Tom Custer anti mutilating their progress toward the Little Big That brave old fighter, General his body. He hated this brother Horn, where the Indian village was. Benteen summed up the cause for de­ of the general, and rejoiced in the They even decided that the “big feat this way: “Too many Indians: opportunity for revenge. Chief,’’ meaning Custer, must be with General George Armstrong Custer good riders, good shots and the best the command that was marching to fighters the sun ever shone on.” started toward the timber along the the left of them, which was correct. light the big chief.” The reasoning Sitting Bull was a medicine man ■ river at the last, but they were met Asked why they thought Custer was of the Indians, their generalship and and undoubtedly had power in that j by Rain-in-the-Face and his band and with that group, Gall replied “be­ their fighting ability have never been line. Officers and newspaper men j were all killed before they could get cause they made the most dust.” excelled in Indian warfare. always wanted to interview him— | back to where Custer was fighting That also was undoubtedly true, be­ Gall said he took no part in fight­ that was his long suit. Gall, Crazy in skirmish line. cause Custer had five cavalry troops ing Reno’s command after Custer had Horse, Crow King and other real j This historic battle will be written warriors, would refuse to talk. John land rewritten by hot air historians bçen wiped out. F. Finnerty, James Creelman and the until the end of time. Probably more One very modern Montana histor­ other newspaper men who were on [ lies have been written about this ian recently claimed he watched the the old frontier in those days made fight than any other that ever took fight early in the morning from a Sitting Bull famous- i place. Most of the men who rode high hill nearby and saw the finish. Some writers have said that Custer out that morning with Custer and I might state for his benefit that the reached and even crossed the Little Reno and Benteen are sleeping the fight took place in the afternoon and Big Horn before he was driven back, sleep that knows no w’aking, and that there is no high hill near the Gall said Custer never reached the what is written now cannot hurt Custer field. This man even has the river. He said he never saw men them. But it is a pity that a true nerve to say he begged Sitting Bull fight so hard. He said it took about story of the fight cannot be written not to mutilate Custer’s body. When 35 minutes to wipe out Custer’s com- and generally accepted, so that future Sitting Bull came on the field the mand. He said some of the men i generations will know the facts. fight was all over and so was the work of scalping and mutilation. sH Sitting Bull, when he arrived, K if made a talk, praising the Indians for • * killing all of CuBter’s men. He said: c M “We will go to our camp and dance. We have lost only a few people. When the other soldiers find out we have killed all of these soldiers, they will be glad to go away.” Many writers about the Custer fight have said that Rain-in-the-Face Major Reno, about whose head a was wounded in that battle. He was storm of controversy beat after the not, but his horse was shot and killed Custer fight. He was dishonorably just as he came out of the timber. discharged from the army in 1880 In 1887, 11 years later, Rain-in-the- Chief Gall a great fighter and Indian general, whose strategy and leader­ as the result of a drunken brawl. Face was on a buffalo hunt, and when ship at the Little Big Horn had much to do with Custer's defeat. Reno bad a brilliant Civil war his horse stumbled his Colt’s revolver This was the first photograph ever taken of Gall. record. —which he had picked up in the Cus­ ter fight— was accidentally discharg­ with him, while Reno and Benteen oner. Dr. H. R. Porter, the only one Captain Tom Custer was terribly mu­ ed, wounding him in the knee. He of the three surgeons who survived tilated. had three each, and McDougall only always limped after that. the one in charge of the pack train. the fight, who examined the bodies I am sorry to say that I am afraid Most historians of the fight say after the battle, denies this and says my friend, Rain-in-the-Face, was a Gall said further that he, Crazy that Rain-in-the-Face cut Captain Horse, Crow King, and Rain-in-the- the heart was not removed.