Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1887 — Page 3

WHERE CUSTER FELL

4iie Scene of-the Terribly Disastrous Fight of the Little Big Horn. Story of the Fight as Told by Chief Gall and His Indians—Sitting Bull Not There. I have just returned from the field "where Custer fell, writes J. M. T., in the New York H’or/d. There can hardly be a sadder, lonelier, or more dreary-looking spot in all the United States. A worn and weather-beaten monument crowns the highest point of the battle-field. The shaft is rapidly disintegrating under the combined influences of burning sun, driving rains, winter storms and withering winds. This part of the valley of the Little Horn River, which was the scene of the disaster of June 25, 1876, is fourteen miles above Fort Custer, on the right and left banks of the clear Lesser Horn, as it winds down through the valley from the Big Horn range. It was a hap-hazard selection for a battle-ground, and slightly more favorable to the soldiers than to the red men, otherwise, instead of Maj. Reno and his handful of men escaping after a terribly close conflict, in which defeat meant annihilation and nothing else, not one man would have been left alive to tell the terrible story of that dreadful June day. I have had exceptional opportunities for arriving at the truth concerning the massacre, and lam convinced that neither the reds nor the whites knew what they were about when the battle was begun. General Custer knew that a large and powerful Indian village was over in the Little Horn Valley somewhere, and he determined, with rare pluck though •extreme rashness, to attack that village in his usual pell-mell style, depending upon dash and discipline to •carry him through in spite of the force of numbers opposed to him. Custer made his first mistake when he divided his forces. With less than 240 men he attempted to do what would have required four or five regiments united and in mass. Even with all his force together and making a Swoop down upon the great village the chances were a hundred to one that he would be whipped anyhow, and badly, too. 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 xach 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 wickiups, he can form some idea rs the population it contained. It must be remembered, too, that every red--Bkin in a tribe —bucks, squaws, boys, maidens, and all except the papooses —does his or her level best at fighting when attacked by the enemy. So it was with Sitting Bull’s village in the Little Horn Valley. When the brave cavalry leader swept down on the India s with his usual dash and elan, he was not checked by bullets or arrows; no want of courage caused him to pause or falter, but simply mass of numbers got in his way, beat him back step by ••tep, notwithstanding the leaden hail poured into the savages from the cavalry carbines, and finally overpowered and killed every white man after the ammunition of the latter had been exkausted. Custer’s men fought all they could, fired shot 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-Tonka (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 men’s carbines, and when those weapons were thus rendered useless as firearms 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, knooked 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 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 200 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 embroyo 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 rapine toward 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 very

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 of those 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 descended 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 the force temporarily, keeping their eyes on Rena, 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 them 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; hut 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 footprints 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 farther, were finally caught and knocked on the head with stone clubs. The chief, who was undoubtedly the leader of the red forces on that day, further says that only for-ty-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 240 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. History has been corrected somewhat since that dark and bloody page was recorded, and not the least important is that the Indians outnumbered fully five to one all the white men in the country, including the different commands of Custer, Benteen, Reno, as well as Gen. Terry’s and Gen. Gibbon’s commands, then at the fork of the two Horn Rivers, on the way up to effect a junction with the Seventh Cavalry. Had they only known it the savages could have swept everything before them, as they were in superior force, armed with magazine rifles and fighting for their lives, although asTa rule our North American aborigines have a wholesome dread of artillery, of which Gen. Terry had one or two pieces along. Another correction should be made in the case of Gen. Caster himself. He did not wear long, golden hair, as has been generally supposed, but had it clipped short before he left h:s post to take the field. He was also scalped, like all the rest, but he beiDg slightly bald on the crown of his head, a scalplock was cut from further back. The brave man died game, so every redskin admits, and set an example for courage and bravery which was followed by every soldier in his battalion. Many of the white men were sadly mutilated.

Expectations of Human Life.

The following table of the expectation of life at 25 years of age coincides with singular accuracy with the whole experience of one of the oldest and most reliable life assurance establishments in London, England: Age. Expect'n.|Age. Expect n Age. Expect'n 25 37.86 42 ‘28.34 39. 14 <cj 26 37.14 43 25.73 60 14J34 27 36.41 44.... ‘25.00 61 13.82 28. 35.6j* 15 ‘24,46 62.... .13 ‘2l 29 35.00 to. '....23.85 63 12 81 30 34.24 47 23,17 64 ’.7.123.) 31 ...33.68 48 22.50 65... . 11 79 32 .33.03 49 21.81 06 11>27 31 32.36 H) .....21.1167. 1 .75 31 * ...31.68 51 20.39 63 10-^3 35 31.01 52 19.68 69 9.70 36 30.32 53 14.97170 9.13 37 29.64 54 18 28 71 3 65 38 28.96 55 17.58 72 8.16 39 23.28 56 16.89 73 7.71 40 27.6157 10.21174 7 33 41 26.97 58.... 70 7.01

THOSE BATTLE FLAGS.

A Calm View of the Situation—- “ Let Peace.” [From the New York Herald, Ind. ] When making up our judgment on an important matter it is better to be cool than excited. The mere partisan seizes every opportunity to create political capital anil will use this battle flag incident as a stepping stone to the attainment of his personal ambition. But the thoughtful American citizen, whose motto is "With malice toward none, with charity for all,” and who wishes to form an opinion from cold facts rather than Lot prejudices, will look twice before he leaps to a conclusion. Let us take a quiet view of thp situation. A large number of Hags, riddled with bul- # lets—proof of an unparalleled struggle in* which the South stoutly defended them, but were compelled to give way to the allconquering onset of the Boys in Blue—were placed for 6afe-keeping in charge of the United States War Department They were the sacred relics of a fratricidal contest which left behind it a million graves. They had and always will have a value not to be measured by bullion, but by the unquenched and unquenchable spirit of patriotism which summoned our fathers and sons, and even our sisterß and wives, to the battle-field to do and die in defense of the best Government the sun ever shone upon.

These tattered battle flags, some of them borne by Northern troops, many of them wrested from Southern regiments, were for a time on exhibition in the Winder Building in Washington. For nearly a score of years they were one of the chief attractions in the capital of the country. Old soldiers sought them out, ana with flashing eyes recounted the scenes which in this hurrying aga are rapidlly fading from the nation’s memory, to be preserved, however, on the glowing page of history. Strangers from abroad gazed upon them as proof of the ability of a people without a standing army to create an army of volunteers by a magic unknown in other countries to prptect their institutions at all hazards. At last, however, these battle flags were packed away in boxes and stored in cellar or attic, where access to them was impossible. The time had arrived when the spirit of Charles Sumner’s resolution in the Senate, that “it is inexpedient that the names of victories obtained over our fellowcitizens should be placed on the regimental colors of the United States,” began to dissipate the fierce animosities engendered by war. Sumner read the problem aright, but he was twenty years ahead of his time. He saw, and we all Bee it now, that a magnanimous victor can afford to forget; that if North and South are to stand shoulder to shoulder in coming generations the fiery and terrible memories of the past must be obliterated by the loyalty that was born when the family quarrel came to an end. That same policy was adopted by Mr. Cleveland. But he, too, is possibly ahead of his time. When the national drill occurred in Washington and he saw the Northern and Southern soldiers drawn up in line together the scene itself suggested the action which he afterward took. He saw the representatives of the whole country from the lakes to the Gulf march in review. Sectional differences had disappeared forever. Mason and Dixon’s line no ‘ longer existed. Slavery bad been extinguished. North and South stood for “liberty and union, one and inseparable, now and forever. ” Perhaps he recalled the fact that the Ninth Connecticut Volunteers had given back to the Third Mississippi the flag they captured from that regiment, and also the fact that the Confederates had returned their flag to the One Hundred and SixtyFourth New York Volunteers, and other incidents of a like nature, which show that the American people can fight like heroes, and forgive like brothers. With v the consciousness that the spirit of unity is to be fostered, that sectional ties are to be strengthened, he leaped, too hastily, perhaps, to the conclusion that the riddled flags might bo returned to the Northern regiments which had deposited them in the War Department, and to the Southern regiments from which they were captured. It was a plan worthy of "the President of a united people. It had its origin in that prescience which takes in the future and would prepare to fitly welcome it. It reminds us of the words of Grant on his death-bed: “I feel that we are on the eve of a new era, when there is to be great harmony between the Federal and the Confederate. I cannot stay to be a living witness to the correctness of this prophecy, but I feel it within me that it is to be so. * * * Let us have peace. ” But there are reasons why it cannot be at once successfully carried out. Mr. Cleveland recognizes the statute which throws the matter, and rightly, into the hands of Congress. The people, it is said, are not ready for it. As a whole we believe that they are quite ready. At any rate it will be done ten or twenty years hence, when our children take our places. Then the last remnant of sectional feeling will have passed away, and we shall be really one people, tbe noblest, strongest nation on the globe. Air. Cleveland, therefore, throws the responsibility upon the shouldors of Congress and the country. General Fairchild, a churlish aspirant for the Presidency himself, invoked the palsy on the’hand, brain and tongue of the man who hoped to make the country a solid nnit. His capital in trade would disappear were sectional feeling to die. His hope is to lift the tide of hatred that he may ride on its crest to power. His language is that of a charlatan, and his curses can do no better than come home to roost. He does not represent the veterans, only his personal scheme for preferment. Let that pass. The soldiers have beer the first to forget a wrong, aud if they place the country which they saved on a better vantage ground by giving np the trophies of war to those from whom they were captured, history will not be unmindful of the fact that the Northern volunteer knew how to face tbe foe, and, after the battle, to bury everything except his love of his native land in the grave which covers “the lost cause.”

Unlike His Party.

It is pleasant to remember, in these days of threatened secession and disloyal attacks on the Government, that the greatest of all the Union Generals, Grant, counseled peace, conciliation, and fraternity, and asked that rebel Generals unite with Union Generals in bearing his body to the tomb. —Keokuk Constitution. It is estimated (hat there are in the British army and navy over 13,000 declared Methodists.

AMONG THE BALL TEAMS.

Mike Nelly’s Beturn to Chicago Signalized by Great Crowds and Great Enthusiasm Anson's Lads Sweeping Everything Before Them in the League Peuant Race. [CHICAGO CORRESPONDENCE.] If ever a season of base-ball promised great things before tbe penuant races ended, that of 1887 is as bright with promises of a great finish as any lover of the national game, be ho ever so enthusiastic, could wish for. The wholly unexpected and remarkable spurt made by the White Stockings toward the close of their last Eastern trip still continues, aud the pfospects for its eventually placing them at the head of the string, in the race for the flag, seem better with each day. Boston came Friday with the famous Mike Kelly at its head, and not before in the history of the game in this city has the arrival of a ball team created such great enthusiasm as that which marked the return of Chicago’s old favorite. KELLY’S RECEPTION. Kelly has hundreds, ves, thousands of admirers in Chicago, and upon the day of his arrival (Friday* these admirers spread themselves ont at the park—spread themBelves in flowers and spread themselves in yells. But before going to the park they performed the reception act at the Leland Hotel, where Kelly and his confreres are stopping. At 2p. m. the street opposite the north entrance to the Leland was jammed with people. Not less than 5,000 were in the crowd. In the middle there was a big brass baud playing “See the Conquering Hero” and other things of an adulatory character. In the hotel rotunda Kelly was holding a levee. A circle of people twenty deep craned their necks and jostled each other to see the hero, and those in his immediate vicinity shook hands with him until his patience gave out. The Imperial Quartet crowded in and surrounded him and saug at him, Alike meantime looking as if he wished they would go to Jericho and leave him alone. Then the White Stockings arrived, and a row of carriages and horses driven by coachmen in drab liveries drove up, and the White Stockings got into the three first carriages, and Anson and Kelly into the next, and the Bostons into the next three carriages; next followed a lot of lordly sporting reporters in other carriages. Then the band struck up "Biddy McGee,” and the procession started as grand as could be to parade the streets just like a circus, 5,000 people cheering the start and other thousands cheering all along the line. The procession went parkwards. OUB SECOND VICTORY. No one could have asked for a more rarely beautiful day than that which dawned on Saturday for our second game with the Bostons. Kelly was suffering greatly from an attack of “Charley Horse,” or contraction of the. muscles in his left leg, and young Madden, of the Bostons, had to do the running for him. Still, Mike played with much of his old-time vim, aud the game was a great one in every way. The crowd was nearly as large as that of the day before. Men and boys were packed in the side stands like figs, and the grand stand was so full that men sat in the aisles. There was a deep senji-circle of plug hats and bonnets in front of the grand stand in the space reserved on either side of the catcher’s path, while the outfield wus fringed with at least two thousand men. Baldwin pitched for Chicago, while Conway filled the box for Boston. The score was one of tbe most remarkable ever recorded at White Stocking Park, the clubs standing tied in the fourth inning and again in the eighth, and Chicago winning by a single run in the ninth. Following is the score by innings: Chicagos 2 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 I—B Bostons 1 0 0 1 3 0-0 1 I—7 CHICAGO’S IMPROVEMENT. A noticeable feature in the work of the White Stockings is the improvement in their batting, while their fielding is far more brilliant than it was a year ago. .Against such strong points as these opposing clubs will find it a difficult task to win games. VAN HALTEEN ARRIVES. George Van Haltren, the young California pitcher, about whom there has been more newspaper talk than any ball player of the present time, Mike Kelly alone ex-, cepted, arrived from Frisco Friday. He certainly looks like a ball player, and it is to be hoped will prove one. I had a brief chat with him in A. G. Spalding & Bros.’ Madison street store, the morning of his arrival when he said: “I pitched my first leagne game about fourteen months ago, retiring the opposing side with five hits. In one game I struck ont three men on nine pitched balls, and my greatest strike-out record was nineteen men. On another occasion 1 retired the Pioneers without a hit and strnck out seventeen men. At the end of that season I was fourth in batting, and was No. 1 in batting this season, with an average of .456. During this season I led in pitchers’ averages, and gave but four bases on balls in a total of nine games.” Van Haltren says that he would not feave gone to Pittsburgh or Detroit for any amount of money. HOW THEY STAND. In the League race the Delroits still hold the lead, with the Bostons second, closely pursued by New York third, and both so closely followed by the Chicagos that they are uncomfortable. The Pbiladelphias will do well to hold fifth place. Pittsburgh, Washington and Indianapolis bring up the rear. They are all out-classed and do not belong in the League. In the Association race the St. Louis team is firmly fixed in the lead, with the Baltimores second, closely followed by Cincinnati third, and Louisvilles and Athletics ne\t- The Brooklyns, Metropolitans, and Cleveland bring np the tail end of the list. The fight is a hot one between the Milwaukee and Oshkosh teams for the Northwestern League pennant. The Milwaukee team leads by a small majority, with tke Oshkosh team second; the Des Moines and St. Paul teams come next, and the La Crosse and Minneapolis teams follow, with the Dnlnth and Eau Claire teams last.

—The following patents have been granted to Indiana inventors: James Boyd and W. F. Goldenbnrg, Vevny, gate; Francis A. Coffin, assignor to Indianapolis Cabinet Company, letter file; James N. Crabb, Richmond, horse collar; Henry B. Lowe, Kokomo, tax duplicate and receipt: Frank Prox, Terre Haute, sectional steam boiler; Franz P. H. Prox, Terre Haute, radiator; Harvey J. Schrock, Goshen, nutoinatio gnte; Alark A. Smith and J. Nnrre, Evansville, washboard; Clnrence C. Sprinkle, Alajenica, barn-door fastening; Rnrlolph Stuckwisch, Cory, combined harrow aud cultivator; William Thom, Indianapolis, lock-seam elbow machine. —At Ireland, Huntington County, Ollie, the 7-vear-old son of Isaac Alexander, of that place, was driving a team aud wagon on his father’s farm, when the horses became frightened and stnrted to run, the sudden lurch throwing the boy out of the wagon. The wheels passed ovor his abdomen, crushing him horribly, from the effects of which he died in about an hour. —The other day, James, son of Russell Nicholson, of Washington Township, JJreen County, was thrown from a horse and his nock broken. He was riding sideways upon the horse, which was harnessed. The horse jumped and threw him off, one foot catching in the harness. The horse ran nnd broke his neck. He was about seventeen years old. —The reunion of Wilder’s Brigade will occur this year at Greoncastle, on Sept. 7 and 8. This brigade was known during the war on the Union side ns “Tbe Lightning Brigade," amt among tbe rebels as “Wilder’s Hellions. ” It was composed of brave men who never knew defeat, nnd who are bound together with a bond never to be broken. —A fatal accident occurred at Roger’s lumber-yard, Jeffersonville. Clarence Vaughan, the G-year-old son of Lemmon Vaughan, was playing on a lumber-pile, when it suddenly fell over, burying the boy under the heavy boards. His skull was frightfully crushed aud internal injuries were sustained. There is no hope of his recovery. —John D. Turley, a prominent merchant at Galveston, has been arrested on the charge of sending a claim out of this State for the pmpose of garnishment. The case wjU bo watched with interest by Indiana merchants, who are in the habit of sending claims ngainßt railroad employes to Chicago and St. Lonis for collection every month.

—The women of Indianapolis are trying to purify the city. They have secured a large number of indictments against owners and keepers of disorderly houses. It has been decided in some States that the owner of a building let to a person who maintains it for immoral purposes, is him* sef legally the keeper of the house. —The Shelbyville School Board has elected Prof. J. C. Eagle, of EdiDburg, to succeed Prof. W. H. Fertich as Superintendent of the public schools. Prof. Eagle has tyeen Superintendent of the Edinburg schools for the past eight years. His salary here will be $1,350. Prof. Fertich goes to Lamed, Kansas. —Patrick Crady, an Irishman living near Boachdale, and who is said to be 125 years of age, recently walked from Greencastle to bis home, a distance of about eighteen miles. His wife is living, and is said to be 110 years of age. They live on a small farm which lies along side the abovenamed place. —The State Board of Health has appointed Dr. Edward J. Church, of LaPorte. as a member of the State Board of Dental Examiners. The board is now complete, the other member being Drs. Kirk, of Kokomo, Hunt of Indianapolis, Chapel of Knigbtstown, and Van Valzah of Terro Haute. —While William Barnhouse, of Muncie, was handling a *.ouble-barreled shotgun it was accidentally discharged and the contents of both barrels, one of which was heavily loaded, lodged in the head of the 5-year-old son of William Moffat, tearing his head almost from his body. —George McGregor, a man about 50 years of age, was killed near Oakland City, while at work in a field. He was kicked to death by a mule. Some neighbors witnessed the accident, and went to his assistance, but it was too late, as he was dead when reached. —ln Harrison County James McKinney disguised himself as a tramp, and stealing Miss Katie Hardin from her adopted parents walked with her twenty-four miles, to Corydon, where they were married. It was the second attempt the couple had made. —The purchasing committee of the Nickel Plate Bailroad will at once reorganize the company by filing articles of incorporation in the States through which the road passes. The incorporation for Indiana has been filed with the Secretary of State. —David Bady, a young man living at Ladoga, bursted a blood vessel while turning died instantly.

CON CREGAN.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

—A most distressing case of poverty was revealed at Indianapolis. A deaf mute, Hiram Mobley, who has a wife and three children, was recently turned out of a house on Washingion street, on the other side of the river, aud the family have been unable since to provide themselves with permanent shelter. The youngest child, about three months old, became ill, and the father took the sick child to the rooms which be formerly occupied, where the poverty-stricken family watched it die. It was a distressing sight to witness their grief, which the mother and father could only make known by 6lgns. The coroner was notified, and after holding an inqnest, reached the conclnsion that death resulted from starvation.