killed, but circumstances indicated that he had been captured and met his death by the savage cruelty of torture.
The probable fate of the thirty-five missing men and their three officers is too horrible to contemplate without a shudder. It is claimed by Indians who were in the fight and afterwards returned to their agencies, that the horses of a portion of the calvary were captured by the Indians early in the engagement, while the situation of those surrounding the group of men and officers, with whom Custer made his last stand, would seem to indicate that they had been killed by the soldiers to form a barricade, behind which to defend themselves, until the relief which they doubtless then expected from Reno and Benteen should arrive.
How vague and satisfactory are these pitiful details of this most horrible of modern massacres, the exact occurrences of which will probably never ba known! The sole survivors of all that proud array of men and steeds, so recklessly hurried to their impending doom, are the Upsaroka scout, 'Curley,' and the horse of Captain Keogh, Comanche, which was found near the battle-field with seven wounds. Major Reno, thinking him mortally wounded, ordered the noted war-horse to be shot; but Comanche was a veteran of the 7th Cavalry, and the men who knew and loved him, begged for his life, and by careful treatment and nursing he was restored, and remains to-day the only living survivor of the fated five companies who plunged into the carnage that engulfed alike, rider and steed, in the lonely valley of the Little Big Horn.
Soon after the discovery of the dead bodies on the battlefield, they were given hasty burial by their comrades of the surviving companies. Then, the Indians having escaped, and the supplies being exhausted, General Terry took up the line of march toward the Yellowstone, and returned with all possible haste to his headquarters at St. Paul, Minn., and thus ended one of the most disastrous and disgraceful campaigns in the annals of the country; and in the language of
General Sherman in his annual official report to the Secretary of War, who submitted the same to the next session of .: Congress (the Forty-fourth), which convened in December, j j/r 1876, said, ' And had it not been for the brave and heroic *
Reno, not a man would have been brought off the field to tell the tale! '
In the entire management of the expedition, from its first organization down to the closing affray, there is but one redeeming feature mingled with our pity for the gallant boys in blue, who there met an untimely death-the warmest Admiration for the knightly courage, to which their lifeless bodies, ranged in order along the battle lines, bore dumb but eloquent witness.
' Even thus the sword of Custer, In his disastrous fall, Flashed out a blaze that charmed the world, And glorified his pall.'
APPENDIX TO THE PRECEDING SECTION.
We will here make brief mention of the filling up of the rank and file of the pet regiment on the plains, and some of its duties since the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Of the companies that were lost in that memorable battle, their places were at once filled by officers who survived to command them, and were soon recruited to the maximum by recruits sent forward from the East, who were recruited with a special view to closing the Indian war in the northwest, if possible. The field officers of the regiment that survived were veterans, and gallant and skillful men, who had seen many a hard-fought battle, and had won laurels on many a field, and lived only to take part in further operations to open and pave the way for civilization.
They had survived numerous battles during the war of the late rebellion, and had experienced hard service on our extreme frontier in subjugating the Indians, all the way from tho Wichita mountains to the valley of the Little Big Horn, where their gallant and chivalrous comrade, Lieutenant-
I
Colonel Custer, fell at the head of their dashing and fearless troopers. This regiment has been on duty at different military stations-mostly in north-western Dakota-and generally commanded by its Lieutenant-Colonel, Elmer Otis, and one or more of the Majors belonging to the regiment.
Brevet-Colonel Elmer Otis, Lieutenant-Colonel of the 7th U. S. Cavalry, received his appointment from the military academy at West Point before the war, and has been deservedly promoted from time to time up to the assignment to duty with this regiment. He is an industrious, zealous, and faithful officer. He has been the commanding officer at Fort Lincoln a greater portion of the time since his assignment to duty with the 7th Cavalry. He is much admired as an officer and a gentleman by his command, and in army circles as well as by the citizens in general.
Brevet-Colonel Joseph E. Tilford, the senior Major of the 7th Cavalry, was appointed from the military academy at West Point in 1851. He has been a brave and faithful officer, and his conduct ' was gallant and meritorious in the battle of Valverde, N. M.' He has been commanding officer at various military stations in north-western Dakota since his regiment came to Fort Rice in 1873. He is really the model and most gentlemanly Major in the U. S. Army. His record as a military officer and a gentleman is too well known to make mention at length in this volume. Suffice it to say, that he is an excellent military adviser, one of the best of disciplinarians, always having an eye to the morale of the army.
Brevet-Brigadier-General Lewis Merrill, a Major in the 7th Cavalry, has been in the service since July, 1855. He received his appointment from the military academy at West Point, and served with distinction all through the late war. During the rebellion his services were specially gallant and meritorious against the rebels in north Missouri, and in the capture of Little Rock, Ark., also against the rebel forces in north-western Georgia.
Major Merrill was well known through the late war as Colonel of one of the finest regiments of cavalry in the service, ' known as Merrill's Horse.' Since the war he has filled
important military positions in various parts of the country,, at times sitting as Judge Advocate on court martials.
As a military law officer, lie has no superior in this department, and we think we can safely say, no equal, unless it be General Alfred H. Terry, the Department Commander. For the past two seasons, he has had charge of protecting the line of the Northern Pacific Kailroad from Bismarck, D. T., to Miles City, M. T. The main duty of his command has been, and now is, to guard against roving bands of marauding Indians who infest the plains more or less, roaming from one section of the country to another, more for the purpose of stealing and running off stock, than to engage in actual warfare. He is a thoroughly schooled and skilled officer, and highly esteemed by all who know him.
Edward Ball, another Major of the ' brave and intrepid 7th,' joined his regiment in April, 1880. His career with this regiment has been short, and but very little service in the field has been performed since his assignment as one of its Majors. He is a brave, skillful and gentlemanly officer, and well worthy the uniform he wears, having served in the regular army since 1844. His record for bravery, industry and zeal stands among the first in the country.
Colonel Wm. Thompson, a retired officer from the 7th Cavalry, is a sturdy Pennsylvanian, and a true type of the American soldier and gentleman. At one time before the war, he was Professor of Law and Science in an Institute in his native State. Soon afterward he settled in Iowa and represented the Keokuk, or Southern district of that State in the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congress. Colonel Cork-hill, the District Attorney at Washington, who has charge of investigating ' Giteau's case,' was at one time a pupil under this veteran officer. He served through the late war with distinction, receiving promotion at different times for gallant and meritorious service on various battle-fields, and specially in the action of Prairie Grove and Bayou Meteo, Ark. He has seen hard service in Indian warfare all the wav from the Staked Plains to the headwaters of the Mis-souri. He is a genial gentleman in and out of the army, and devotes the greater portion of his time to matters pertaining to science, agriculture, and the general development of the new northwest.
The people throughout the States and other countries can now rest assured this section of our country, and more generally known as the new northwest, is in the hands of experienced and well-disposed officers, who have the good of their country at heart, as well as their own personal affairs, and reputation for bravery and achievements. There are other officers on the frontier t deserving of equal credit as those above mentioned, but having been in fields at too great a distance, the writer does not feel at liberty to make mention of matters of fact as they have transpired, that he is not quite familiar with.
Now that we have the unconditional surrender of Sitting Bull and all of his war chiefs, the survivors of the 7th Cavalry, as well as members of the other regiments in this department, who have for many years defied the
