From far Montana’s canons,/ lands of the wild ravine, the dusky Sioux, the lone-/some stretch, the silence,/ haply, to-day, a mournful wail/ haply, a trumpet/ note for heroes.
Walt Whitman, “A Death-Sonnet for Custer,” July 10, 1876,
Lead, South Dakota founded.
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Conservatives rebelled in Colombia over the Liberal government's attempts to secularize education.
This is a little hard to grasp in a modern context, but European Liberals at the time were deeply hostile to the Catholic Church and that attitude carried on into liberals in Latin America. Therefore, the liberals in charge in Colombia were hostile to the Church, and many Colombians were opposed to them.
Gen. Terry determined to coordinate his forces with Crooks and authored a letter to that effect. Three soldiers volunteered to carry the message, Irish born Pvt. James Bell, Irish born William Evans, and Benjamin F. Stewart. All three men would receive the Medal of Honor for their efforts, which were successful and which took three days.
They traveled mostly by night.
Bell was a carrier soldier, married in 1888, and spent his retirement in Chicago where he died in 1901. Stewart was remarkably suffering from injuries at the time and was discharged from the Army later that month for medical reasons. Evans was also a career soldier and apparently died while still in the service in 1881.
That two out of the three of the men were Irish was fairly typical for the Army at the time.
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The New York Times and the Bismarck Tribune reported the disaster at the Little Big Horn.
The Montana Column caught up with the Far West at Pease Bottom. The wounded were disembarked so that troops and horses could be transported to the northern bank of the Yellowstone.
Gen. Terry wrote two telegrams to Gen. Sheridan. One blamed Custer for failing to follow his orders, stating:“had Custer followed his directions received at the Rosebud June 22nd, the disaster may not have happened at all! I do not tell you this, to cast any reflection on Custer. For whatever errors he may have committed, he has paid the penalty, and you cannot regret his loss more than I do.”
The blame game had begun.
Benteen wrote his wife, estimating native combatants at 5,000.
At Ft. Fetterman supplies were loaded to resupply Crook at Goose Creek. Crook, however, was not at the base of Cloud Peak, hunting.
His party took two Bighorn Sheep and and a nice rustic meal, complete with peaches suspended in alcohol, consumed.
The first news reports of Custer's defeat were published by the The Canton Repository and Helena Herald.
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The wounded from the Battle of the Little Big Horn reached the steamer Far West. It was a rainy day.
The steamer departed at 1:40, continually hitting the banks of the river on the way downstream.
The Cheyenne who had been at Little Big Horn had moved down near where they had fought Crook on the Rosebud. They were pursuing game.
Gibbon was left completely in charge of his command at 4:00 p.m. that day. A roster was called of the 7th Cavalry to see who remained.
Crook's troops remained in camp on Goose Creek on what was a rainy day there as well. Scout Frank Grouard went sent scouting and returned finding nothing. In fact, Sitting Bull's camp was moving straight for them.
Three miners strayed into the camp and told Crook that natives had told them of a large battle in which cavalrymen had been wiped out. Crook didn't believe them and began to organize a hunting party into the Bighorns in what would become one of the greatest hunting and fishing expeditions of all time.
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Marcus Reno's detail began burying the dead on Last Stand Hill in shallow graves.
The graves were very shallow, reflecting that cavalry in the field really didn't have equipment suitable for digging graves. During the battle itself digging in had proven to be difficult. The extent to which the soldiers were barely covered would be shocking under modern circumstances, but then burying men where they fell would be too. In the 19th Century, however, there was little other choice.
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The 7th Cavalry halted at where Busby Montana presently is. Knowing that the Sioux were somewhere in the vicinity, scouts were sent ahead to the Crow's Nest in the Wolf Mountains. The command then married a further fifteen miles at night towards the location.
Keeping in mind that sundown occurs in this region on this day at about 9:00 p.m., this means the already exhausted command was making a difficult night march.
Not all that far off, the Sioux/Cheyenne camp was holding the Dying Dancing Ceremony in which teenagers vowed to lose their lives in battle to defend the camp.
Terry's command was ferried to the southside of the Yellowstone near the mouth of the Big Horn to proceed up the river's valley with the goal of reaching the mouth of the Little Big Horn by June 26. It was hoped that Custer's command would have maneuvered to the south of the camp by the 26, which was an approximate date, allowing the camp, which was known to exist somewhere in the area, to be trapped. As it was, Custer had maneuvered to the southwest of the camp by the late night of the 25th.
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The 7th Cavalry, under George A. Custer, departed the Yellowstone River under orders to ride south the entire length of the Rosebud, then went until they encountered the Sioux. Gibbon and Terry marched the rest of the command to the South, with there being the thought they would accordingly trap the Sioux in this fashion.
Custer as given written orders, stating:
Headquarters of the Department of Dakota (In the Field)
Camp at Mouth of Rosebud River, Montana Territory June 22nd, 1876
Lieutenant-Colonel Custer,
7th Calvary
Colonel: The Brigadier-General Commanding directs that, as soon as your regiment can be made ready for the march, you will proceed up the Rosebud in pursuit of the Indians whose trail was discovered by Major Reno a few days since. It is, impossible to give you any definite instructions in regard to this movement, and were it not impossible to do so the Department Commander places too much confidence in your zeal, energy, and ability to wish to impose upon you precise orders which might hamper your action when nearly in contact with the enemy. He will, however, indicate to you his own views of what your action should be, and he desires that you should conform to them unless you shall see sufficient reason for departing from them. He thinks that you should proceed up the Rosebud until you ascertain definitely the direction in which the trail above spoken of leads. Should it be found (as it appears almost certain that it will be found) to turn towards the Little Bighorn, he thinks that you should still proceed southward, perhaps as far as the headwaters of the Tongue, and then turn toward the Little Horn, feeling constantly, however, to your left, so as to preclude the escape of the Indians passing around your left flank.
The column of Colonel Gibbon is now in motion for the mouth of the Big Horn. As soon as it reaches that point will cross the Yellowstone and move up at least as far as the forks of the Big and Little Horns. Of course its future movements must be controlled by circumstances as they arise, but it is hoped that the Indians, if upon the Little Horn, may be so nearly inclosed by the two columns that their escape will be impossible. The Department Commander desires that on your way up the Rosebud you should thoroughly examine the upper part of Tullock's Creek, and that you should endeavor to send a scout through to Colonel Gibbon's command.
The supply-steamer will be pushed up the Big Horn as far as the forks of the river is found to be navigable for that distance, and the Department Commander, who will accompany the column of Colonel Gibbon, desires you to report to him there not later than the expiration of the time for which your troops are rationed, unless in the mean time you receive further orders.
Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,
E. W. Smith, Captain, 18th Infantry A. A. J. G.
Much has been made of this order, but it is clear that it gave Terry's wishes, while also giving Custer operational freedom.
Col. Gibbon was in command of the 7th Infantry of the Montana Column consisting of the F, G, H, and L of the 2nd Cavalry under James S. Brisbin from Fort Ellis.
Reno of the 7th Cavalry, as noted, had seen traces of a Sioux party on the Rosebud, which was likely the band that had earlier hit Crook, a battle which the Montana Column was unaware of. Crook was drawing off towards the Big Horn Mountains at the time.
Custer's command made ten miles that day.
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The Battle of Prairie Dog Creek, also known as the Skirmish at Tongue River Heights, or the Battle of the Tongue River, occurred at the confluence of Prairie Dog Creek and the Tongue River primarily in Wyoming Territory, but also in part of Montana.
Crooks command was camped on the creek when it was attacked by a large party of Sioux, which engage them with volley fire. Crook had his men mount an attack in response, which pushed the Sioux back three times before they disengaged. Two Sioux warriors were killed in the battle.
The Sioux goal had been to steal the Army remuda.
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General Douglas MacArthur issued the first regulations against fraternization between American soldiers and Japanese citizens as an attempt to stop soldiers from consorting with prostitutes. The regulations would grow into an extensive program of segregation.
Montana Democrat Senator James Murray convened his Committee on Education and Labor for the first hearing on comprehensive national health insurance. His concern arose from his prior role as a labor lawyer for coal miners.
Murray had been born in Ontario and was moved to Butte upon the death of his father that very year. He was left a very wealthy man by an inheritance that came about when his uncle, who raised him, died.
Murray was an Irish American/Canadian Catholic and died in 1961.
It's really dispiriting to realize that national health insurance, which was a desire of the Truman Administration, has never come about. All the arguments against it really fail, but the opposition to it has left the United States the only major nation without it and has contributed enormously to the decline of the United States as a first rate nation since the 1970s.
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I had no idea that this is what this train was called. Thanks go out to MKTH for letting me know!
I've been looking into local passenger train travel as part of my efforts with a novel. What I found is that I knew very little about it. Probably more than your average bear, but that's about it. I'd long assumed that a person could board a train in Casper in 1916 and take the train to Douglas or Cheyenne, and then return that evening, but the more I looked into it, that was just an assumption.
I'm not the one who figured out how it really worked. That goes to MKTH. the result is fascinating.
It turns out I was right sort of. The Burlington Northern ran a train from Denver Colorado, to Billings Montana, and vice versa, daily. This article takes a look at it.
What I imagined, for novel purposes, was boarding in Casper, and traveling to Douglas. I may, as I work at it, make it Cheyenne.
Anyhow, this is a really interesting article and give a really good look at what traveling on the Denver to Billings night train was like, complete with stops for food, which is something I hadn't considered. It also picked up mail, and my source indicates, cream, something I also hadn't figured, but that may explain why the creamery my family owned was just one block from the Burlington Northern. In fact it probably does.
The trip took 19 hours. It take 8 hours today by car, assuming good weather conditions, and not figuring in stops for food, etc. The train moved about 34 miles an hour.
We'll look at the return trip first. The train having come up from Cheyenne boarded there at 12:49 in the morning. Uff.
It got to Casper at 6:20 in the morning, having made a couple of stops along the way.
What I imagined?
Not really. And I also had no idea that there was a major cafe right off the railroad. This article deals with the early 1960s, but I can see that some variant of it was there decades prior. That makes piles of sense, really. Of course there would be. How else would people eat if they were making the long journey?
It simply hadn't occurred to me.
In my imaginary trip., that'd be it. If I stuck with the Douglas variant of this, my protagonist would be boarding the train in the early, early morning hours and get in a couple of fitful hours of sleep, probably interrupted by a stop in little Glenrock. Indeed, this train stopped everywhere to pick up mail, and a few passengers.
What about the other way around?
Well that was a day trip, but as we can see, the 19 hours the train traveled in total meat that it took a good 6.5 hours to travel just from Cheyenne to Casper. Going the other way would mean the same thing, and likely a bit in reverse. The 6.5 hour trip from Cheyenne to Casper was the second major leg of the trip (it'd still stop in numerous small towns in between), the first being Denver to Cheyenne. Going the other way around meant that the Cheyenne to Denver leg was about five hours. The article notes that the train actually arrived from Billings 40 minutes before its 7:00 p.m. departure. So it arrived, more or less, at 6:00 p.m. and changed crews. That would have meant that it left Cheyenne, on the way to Denver, at about 1:00 p.m. or so, which makes sense. Passengers traveling all the way to Denver would have eaten lunch there.
By extension, however, that meant that the train left Casper at about 6;00 in the morning, approximately.
These times are almost unimaginable now. When we had good air travel to Denver I'd frequently board United Express here about 6;00 a.m. and be in Denver about 8:30, and take the train downtown and be to work by 9. I'd be back in Casper on the redeye about 10:00, or if I was lucky, 6:00.
And when I go to Cheyenne, I drive. Normally that takes me a little under three hours. I haven't stayed overnight in Cheyenne for years, although I recently had an instance which should really cause me to.
Anyhow, if I'm looking at 1916, why not just drive?
Well, in 1916 most Americans, including most Wyomingites, didn't own automobiles, and those who did, didn't normally make long trips with them. They frankly weren't that reliable, even though they were simple. Roads also tended to be primitive, and not really maintained for weather. Could a person have driven from Casper to Cheyenne in a Model T, the most likely car they would have had? Yes, but it wouldn't have been any faster. It may well have been slower, quite frankly, as well as much riskier.
Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds of the 2nd Cavalry opened the Great Sioux War with an attack on a Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Lakota village near the location of present day Broadus.
Much native property was destroyed by the attack was poorly executed and the inhabitants of the village largely escaped. Reynolds was accused of dereliction of duty for failing to properly support the first charge with his entire command; for burning the captured supplies, food, blankets, buffalo robes, and ammunition instead of keeping them for army use; and for losing hundreds of the captured horses.
When I was a student in Laramie I lived for a time on Reynolds Street, named after Col. Reynolds.
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March 8, 1876
Executive Mansion
By an Executive order dated October 20, 1875, the following-described tract of country, situated in Montana Territory, was withdrawn from public sale and set apart for the use of the Crow tribe of Indians in said Territory to be added to their reservation, viz: “Commencing at a point in the mid-channel of the Yellowstone River, where the one hundred and seventh degree of west longitude crosses the said river; thence up said mid-channel of the Yellowstone to the mouth of Big Timber Creek; thence up said creek 20 miles, if the said creek can be followed that distance; it not, then in the same direction continued from the source thereof to a point 20 miles from the mouth of said creek; thence eastwardly along a line parallel to the Yellowstone—no point of which shall be less than 20 miles from the river—to the one hundred and seventh degree west longitude; thence south to the place of beginning.” The said Executive order of October 20, 1875, above noted, is hereby revoked, and the tract of land therein described is again restored to the public domain.
U. S. Grant
Note how the White House was called the "Executive Mansion".
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