Week 26: June/July
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6/25 of…1865
David Butterfield‘s first wagon train carrying 150,000 lbs. of goods and escorted by 250 troopers left Atchinson, KS on The Smokey Hill route for Denver, CO, 592 miles west. Improvements were made to the route as they went and locations for stage way stations were selected. Butterfield Overland Dispatch stagecoaches would soon follow. {001}
1876
Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, age 36, defeated and killed with 261 cavalry troopers at The Battle of the Little Bighorn, MT (Battle of the Greasy Grass). Led by Sioux Chiefs: Gall, Sitting Bull and Oglala Lakota Chief Crazy Horse; possibly as many as 2500 Cheyenne [Tsitsistas'] ( Sioux term: Sha hi ye na-), Arapaho, and Sioux warriors decimated Custer’s command in less than thirty minutes. Legend has it that warrior Rain in the Face killed Custer (he said he didn’t; (see: Wk. 14, 09/14/1905). White Cow Bull said he shot a buckskin clad man from his horse in the middle of the Little Big Horn River at Medicine Tail Coulee on the first charge. Later, he described a fight with a tall strong soldier in a blue shirt, armed with a rifle, not a carbine at “The Last Stand”. This may well have been Custer who was armed with a Remington-Hepburn. Brass casing from that rifle were found around and under his interestingly mutilated body (all of the bodies were mutilated one way or another). There is a claim that a Sgt. Finkel escaped the massacre when his horse bolted (debated). One has to wonder if Custer felt some regret at having left the Gatling Guns and Rodman cannons behind. Custer’s sorrel horse (four white socks): Victory.
Captain Fredrick Benteen, Major Marcus Reno and their commands barely survived. (see: 06/27/1876, below). (Photo- Grabill LOC: Legend has it that Capt. Miles Keogh’s horse Comanche was the sole 7th Cavalry Survivor. Far too complex for the OWDR, endless debate follows this event, look it all up and enjoy! (Background, see: Wk. 23, 06/09/1876 & Wk. 24, 06/17/1876). (also: Quotes – Indians, by Boyer, Benteen & Custer) (then: reference to Custer’s wife, Libby, Wk. 14, 04/04/1933) 001 & 007
1876
Mitch Boyer (Bouyer) Kar-pash [born c. 1837), died with Custer at the Little Bighorn; said to have been shot off his horse at Medicine Tail Coulee (killed later). One of the finest scouts in the old West; it was said that when Boyer was convinced that Custer would attack, he gave away all of his possessions, knowing he would die that day. {001}
1876
Sioux woman warriors Moving River Woman, Buffalo Calf Road Woman and Hunkpapa Sioux, Moving Robe were said to have fought well in the battle. Girls were also said to have been among the Sioux “Suicide Boys”. {001}
1938
Mary Hallock Foote, age 90, died in Grass Valley, CA . Author and Illustrator; firsthand accounts and fine, eyewitness illustrations from one who was there. A Frequent contributor
