The Dickinson Press

WHERE CUSTER FELL.

A VISIT TO THE FIELD WITH GALL
WHO LED THE INDIANS.

Sitting Bull Not in the Fight at All The Horses Stampeded by Boy Warriors.

History Corrected—The Losses on Both Sides.

The Indian camp was on the left side of the Little Horn river, extending up and down the stream, in a lovely, fertile bottom, covered with rich herbage and luxuriant grasses, and occupying an area fully three miles in length by half a mile in width.

When one considers the size of this camp, close packed with lodges, tepees and wicki-ups, he can form some idea of the population it contained. It must be remembered, too, that every redskin in a tribe—bucks, squaws, boys, maidens, and all except the papooses does his or her level best at fighting when attacked by an enemy. So it was with Sitting Bull's village in the Little Horn valley

When the brave cavalry leader swept down on the Indians with his usual dash and eclat, he was not checked by bullets or arrows; no want of courage caused him to pause and falter, but simply mass of numbers got in his way, beat him back step by step, notwithstanding the leaden hail poured into the sav-ages from the cavalry carbines, and finally overpowered and killed every white man after the ammunition of the latter had been exhausted. Custer's men fought all they could, fired shot after shot with telling effect, but all to no purpose.

Indians who were in that fight have told me some strange stories. Sitting Bull was not in the fight at all. Gall was the big chief and generalissimo of the day, and while he was leading the bucks and directing the engagement, old Tonka-te-Tonda (Sitting Bull) was back in his medicine lodge making medicine. As the Indians won and Sitting Bull made the medicine he, of course, got all the credit for the victory. One of the Indians says that the shells got stuck in the white man's carbines, and when those weapons were thus rendered useless as fire arms the poor fellows, pressed to the wall and overpowered ten to one, clubbed their guns and fought desperately, with death staring them in the face, until the last doomed man fell in his tracks. When the ammunition was exhausted the Indians walked up, knocked them down with clubs and butchered them with hatchets.

Gall told me that the main object of his young men was to stampede the horses, which carried the saddle pockets in which each soldier had stored his ammunition, The troopers had, perhaps, fifty rounds apiece on their persons, but the main supply was in the saddle bags, being entirely too heavy to carry on the body. In all, the soldiers were supplied with about two hundred rounds per man for the fight. When the cavalrymen were dismounted to fight on foot one soldier was detailed to hold every eight horses.

Gall says he quickly saw the advantage to be gained could the horses, laden with ammunition be stampeded, so he devised a plan to that end. He sent a score or two of young bucks up a ravine to the rear, and these embryo warriors, unmindful of flying lead and the danger of the job, suddenly rose up with yells and shouts just in front of the horses. swung their blankets wildly in the air, and every steed in the outfit broke loose from the holders and scampered down the ravine towards the Little Horn, where they were gathered in by the squaws and old men on the wait for just what had occurred.

Many of the Indians were armed with cavalry carbines and United States muskets, so this very ammunition was turned against Custer and his men, and no doubt had much to do with deciding the fortunes of the day.

From all that can be gathered by questioning Curley, the Crow scout, and the only living survivor who marched with Custer and also from the narrative of Gall, who has since visited the spot and told the story of the day on the ground where he made it, it appears that there were between 6,000 and 7,000 Indians in the village at the time Custer de-scended upon it, and that the attack was not so much of a surprise to the red men as has generally been supposed. Gall says that he saw the soldiers early in the morning crossing the divide, and noted carefully that the white men divided themselves into three divisions.

When Custer's command swept off to the right they lost sight of that force temporarily. keeping their eyes on Reno, who came directly down to the river, seeking a ford to cross over and fight. Reno did cross over, paused a minute to rest and tighten girths, remounted all his men, and rode up alongside some ash timber a mile and a half, when he suddenly came in sight of the village. When the soldiers saw all these Indians the bugles sounded "charge," the soldiers came rushing like the wind upon their women and children and killed many of them, but the braves rallied in great force, turned on the troopers and chased them back to the river, into which everybody tumbled and scrambled up to the top of a steep hill opposite.

When they had Reno on the hill the bucks, in great numbers, tried to drive him off; but not succeeding the women, old men and some bucks were left to guard them while the others recrossed the stream and hurried down to the other end of the village, where the cry had been raised that more soldiers were coming. Of course, this was Custer's outfit, and we have no tale of that terrible affair except what the Indians tell us.

From all that can be gathered, it seems that Custer must have come down as far as the river with his troopers, although Gall says he never got within half a mile of the stream; but the footprints of the cavalry horses led in a broad and well defined trail clear down to the river, notwithstanding Gall's statement to the contrary. Gall went with me, placed his foot on a certain spot, fully one-half a mile from the river, and said flatly and positively that the white soldiers got no nearer the river than that point, and were then first met by his braves and fought back step by step to the ridge, where all finally perished. When asked how these hoofprints came on the bank, the chief explained that they were made by white soldiers on horseback, who had attempted to escape from the field by going down a ravine and then crossing the river. These were met by some bucks on the other side, who turned them up stream again, and, after racing parallel to the village for nearly three-quarters of a mile, were finally crowded into the water, and they recrossed the river once more. They came out just where all the cavalry tracks appeared, and after running half a mile further, were finally caught and knocked on the head with stone clubs.

This chief, who was undoubtedly the leader of the red forces on that day, further says that only forty-three Indians were killed in all, although a great many afterward "fell over and died." This phrase, I think, refers to the wounded who died of their injuries. This seems a very small percentage of casualties among the red men, when it is considered that 204 white bodies were found on the field, although more than 240 men yielded up their lives on Custer's field; not counting the killed and wounded of Reno's and Benteen's commands.—"J. M. T." in New York World.