fred
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Post by fred on Aug 31, 2016 16:31:45 GMT -5
When you say there were no two markers, I think there were lots of two markers and for the same person. I know that there is a marker placed where Weibert found remains near the Birdinground property. Steve, On May 1, 1890, CPT Owen Jay Sweet, Company D, 25th Infantry, left Fort Custer. He was preceded (on April 29th) by 2LT Samuel Burkhardt, Jr., and two enlisted men to mark the reservation’s boundaries. COL James Brisbin may have been with the party, probably as an advisor since he helped bury the dead in June 1876. Also, scout James A. Campbell, who was with LT Roe in 1881, accompanied the expedition. Sweet was originally given 249 markers. He erected 246 on the Custer field, and two—for McIntosh and DeWolf—on the Reno field. One marker—for LT Porter—was returned to the Post QM. Only 217 “resting places” had been found marked. These excluded Autie Reed and Boston Custer. LT Porter’s was not included. At Brisbin’s direction, three headboards were placed for Autie Reed, Boston Custer, and Marc Kellogg, and four unburied, “bleaching skeletons” were found while they were on the field. The headstones were placed between 10 – 20 inches from the mounds where any bones were found, but nothing was placed in Deep Ravine. As of today, there appear to be either 43 or 44 paired markers, especially since one was added in the 141 – 142 cluster on Finley-Finckle Ridge in 2000 after photos taken in 1894 and 1995 were compared and one marker appeared missing. While replaced, this marker—based on the number of men in Custer’s command and its proximity to its fellow—appears paired. Sweet’s work was completed by May 12, 1890. In 1891, the U. S. G. S. sent a topographer, R. B. Marshall, to the Custer field to map out the marker placement. He mapped 244 markers, a discrepancy of two from Sweet—and only one year from when Sweet placed his 246. It also appears the marker map produced from this survey is erroneous in many areas and was incorrectly marked, bearing little correlation to the accurate work done in 1984 – 1985. This is not a map that should be considered when attempting to determine where soldiers fell. Since 1890, six more marble markers were set up. That makes an overage of 42 on the Custer field; 43, counting the one placed in 2000. When we were there this past June, we found and photographed that Webber marker in the valley field. Obviously, one of Reno's troops fell there. Best wishes, Fred. |
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Post by herosrest on Aug 31, 2016 19:41:59 GMT -5
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Post by keogh on Sept 6, 2016 18:52:21 GMT -5
A letter from Walter Camp to Gen. Godfrey regarding the inaccurate number of markers on Custer's field, with my annotations in brackets:
11-6-20
My Dear Gen. Godfrey:
You will remember that I called your attention, 4 years ago, to the mistake that had been made in marking Custer ridge on the Little Bighorn battlefield. In 1908, I discovered that there were 254 government markers there, whereas the number of bodies found there on June 27, 1876, was 207 (or 206?). I think I was, perhaps, the first person to discover this mistake, for the Custodian there then told me I did not know what I was talking about when I acquainted him with the facts. I at once suspected that markers sent for Reno’s killed had been planted on Custer Ridge, and this opinion I was able to confirm a year or two later when I met the officer of the 25th Infantry who set the markers in 1894 [actually 1890]. He was a Lieutenant Burkhardt. I saw him at Fort Leavenworth 8 or 10 years ago. A captain of the 25th Inf. (whose name I cannot recall without my note) [ed. Owen Sweet] had charge, but Burkhardt, who was his lieutenant, did the work. He admitted to me, that, being unable to locate the places where Reno’s men had fallen (Lieut. Roe, of 2nd Cavalry having gathered up all the remains in 1881), he set all of the markers on Custer Ridge. Historically, this was, of course, a bad piece of business. Burkhardt, I think, is still in the service. In 1910, four more markers were placed by custodian Oscar Wright (for Porter, Lord, Sturgis and Harrington), so that there are now 258 markers there, or 51 too many. There are 17 or 18 too many markers in the group at the monument, too many in the group around Keogh’s marker, too many between the monument and the river, and none in the big gully [ie. Deep Ravine] where about 28 ought to be.
I discovered these dead in the [Deep Ravine] gully with Capt. McDougal in 1909, and he was clear that there were only 9 dead between the end of the ridge and the gully (not counting the group that lay around the body of Gen. Custer) - only 9 dead between the end of the ridge and the gully, and 28 in the gully. As the markers now stand, there are more than 50 where there should be only 9, on that side hill, and not enough at or in the gully. The marker for Lieut. Hodgson (placed in 1910) down at Reno Hill is in the wrong place - about 2000 feet from where it ought to be. There is no marker for Sergt. Butler of L Co., none for Vincent Charlie of D Co., and none where Mitch Bouyer’s body was found, which lay near the river north of the Cheyenne village - that is, on the opposite [ie. east] side of the river from the Cheyenne village [ed. although battlefield archaeologists identified his remains just north and east of the head of Deep Ravine]. I have authentic information of the location of Bouyer’s body from an officer of the 2nd Cavalry and from the son of Lame Deer, who was fighting with the Sioux. These two independent sources of information are so clear and plausible that I have accepted them as correct. Bouyer’s body was never buried and neither was Vincent Charlie. The latter fell on Weir’s retreat from his most advanced point toward Gen. Custer, and Gen. Edgerly gave me the location of the body.
I have been on the battlefield with four enlisted men who helped bury the dead, and all my sources of information are equally authentic. Col. Mathey gave me important information which could be used to correct some of the mistakes that were made in the planting of these markers in 1894 [actually 1890]. I will not go into further details here. Your interest and influence would go further toward having something done to correct these mistakes than would the intervention of any other man, and I wish the War Dept. would send you out there with authority to straighten out the mistakes. The number of markers on the Custer ridge should by all means be made to correspond with the number of dead found there, which is a matter of official record. The names on the monument, which include those for the dead of Reno’s command, are a further check on the number of markers that should be on Custer Ridge. The presence of the Fetterman markers are a further incongruity - the intermingling of markers for soldiers killed on battlefields more than 100 miles apart. I would suggest that of the surplus markers on Custer ridge, some 27 (if that is the correct number) might be removed and placed in a group or circle on Reno hill, and 29 more might be placed in a circle around the McIntosh marker, if land could not be set aside on which to string them out on the line of Reno’s retreat out of the bottom.
I may not be doing right by proposing to work you like this in your old age, but unless something is done before many years, it will likely never be done, and people will come to lose confidence in the accuracy of the marking of that historical spot. If I were to write up an account of that battle today, I would be bound, for sake of historical accuracy, to call attention to these mistakes. If my service were desired, I would be willing to give all the data I have bearing on the matter, and I think that if you and I were up there, with a wagon, a span of mules and two or three men to help us, we would do a heap in a few days. However, I am not craving the job if someone else will do the thing.
Yours sincerely,
[Signed:] W. M. Camp
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Post by keogh on Sept 9, 2016 11:20:54 GMT -5
A portion of a letter from Walter Camp to the Custer Battlefield Superintendent Oscar Wright, dated June 25, 1909:
... I have recently gone into the history of the marking of the battlefield and the care that has been taken since 1876. I have from the Quartermaster General, in Washington, the data of the principal facts as to the permanent burial of the dead in the plat around the monument, in 1878 [actually 1881], the placing of the marble markers, the erection of the monument and the recutting of it four years later, to efface mutilation, and other interesting matters. I think I was the first one to discover that there are now on the battlefield 44 more markers than there were dead bodies after the battle. I have found an explanation for this, and now understand how it happened. If you do not already know this to be the fact, you can verify it for yourself by counting the names on the monument and then deducting the 56 killed with Reno. There are 263 names on the monument, of whom 207 [actually 209] were killed with Custer and 56 with Reno. On the battlefield are 251 markers, or 44 too many.
The markers for General Custer and nine or ten others who were found near his body are not where they were found and buried. I think this was done to make room for the monument and to make a large level plat on which to bury the remains of the enlisted men killed on the battlefield. When the dead were buried on June 28, 1876, the top of the ridge was not nearly as wide as it is now. I learn this from old photographs and from the testimony of men who buried the dead there. The peak of the ridge must have been graded down some time, probably in 1878, when the remains were reinterred in the trenches. I find, however, that is no record of such work of grading in the War Dept. files, and when I next visit the battlefield, which will be in August of this year, I shall endeavor to see if there remains any indications of such grading work having been done. Should you in the meantime have opportunity to gather any information on this point I hope you will do so, and I will thank you for any assistance you can render me in straightening this matter out. You probably meet an occasional survivor of Reno's fight who may be visiting the battlefield, and Mr. [Fred] Server may know of any changes that have been made on the battlefield since it was made a National Cemetery. Any information that you can gather from such men will be much appreciated.
I am planning to bring with me, in August, two men who were with Reno and Benteen, on June 25 and 26, 1876, and who saw the dead when they were buried on the battlefield. I will also bring with me my correspondence with the War Dept. At Pine Ridge, Rosebud, and Standing Rock reservations I have interviewed a number of Sioux who were in the fight against Custer, and next year I contemplate writing a history of the Little Big Horn expedition.
Yours truly,
[Signed:] W.M. Camp
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Post by herosrest on Sept 11, 2016 3:52:58 GMT -5
Link to supplementals - supplementalsAnecdote - The lady who tended the graves (in 1876-7) Buell - Brien papers.
About 125 letters make up the correspondence of Mrs. George P. Buell (Rochie Brien) and her son, Don Carlos. In addition to these letters, there is a little diary kept by Mrs. Buell from March, 1876, to October, 1877. The diary begins with a trip from Fort Griffin, Texas, to Ringgold, Texas, which required two months. The country is described as being very beautiful for most of the trip. Several days were spent at San Antonio. After Custer's forces were massacred in Dakota by the Sioux Indians, General Buell was ordered to construct a fort farther west than Fort Abraham Lincoln from which Custer had set out on his fateful advance against the Indians. Mrs. Buell went home to Nashville in August, 1876 to be with her mother, Mrs. Brien. She joined her husband in November, 1876, at the Cheyenne Agency.
The diary ends with a description of the battlefield where Custer made his last stand.
DucemusAre soldier's remains still beneath the monument? Following on into minutae - From a Keogh Wiki - There was more than a tinge of melancholy in Keogh's nature, which seemed somehow at odds with his handsome, dashing persona. While he was not given to self-analysis, Keogh once noted: "Impudence and presumption carry with them great weight and a certain lack of sensitiveness is necessary to be successful. This lack of sensitiveness I unfortunately do not inherit."[3] Keogh was also fond of the ladies, though he never married: "My great weakness is the love I have for the fair sex, and pretty much all my trouble comes from or can be traced to that charming source."[3] "I never propose to form any ties. I might often have married for money but I never gave it a moment's serious thought & never propose to."[3] He did, however, carry a photograph of Capt. Thomas McDougall's sister, Josephine Buel, with him to Little Bighorn.Buell treasures - link [3] ISBN 0-912783-21-4The joy of Gemini - (Castor's Pollux) - LBHA - The Buel saga |
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Post by keogh on Sept 18, 2016 15:28:13 GMT -5
Letter from Walter Camp to Maj. Chauncey Baker, dated April 4, 1911, from the Camp Collection , LBBNM:
Dear Sir:--
Referring to the battlefield of the Little Big Horn, I understand that in 1876 the ridge on which the dead bodies of Gen. Custer and many of his command were found ran to a peak or well defined summit, all along, the top of the ridge being not much wider than would admit the driving of a wagon. The monument stands on the extreme northwest end of the ridge, where the group of bodies including that of Gen. Custer was found, and for a length of some 150 yards the top of this part of the ridge is now flat and level, apparently having been graded down at some time, as is plainly indicated by made ground on the north side of the ridge. Where the monument stands this flat top of the ridge is 140 feet wide, and on this flat place, about 100 feet from the monument, are buried the remains of 111 soldiers removed from the cemetery at Ft. Phil Kearney, under supervision of Capt. J.M.J. Sanno, of the 7th U.S. Infantry, in October, 1889.
It would be of considerable interest to learn when this leveling down of the northwest end of the ridge was done, but the records of the Quartermaster General's Officer, in Washington, afford no details. Photographs taken in 1886 show that at that time the present level plat referred to did not exist. At that time, also, the corners of the monument had been mutilated, presumably by relic hunters, and there was no fence around it. Since then, however, the corners have been trimmed or beveled off, and a high iron fence has been erected around the monument.
In thinking over this matter it has occurred to me that the leveling down of the top of the ridge at the place in question might have been done by Capt. Sanno, in 1889, in order to make room there for the reinterments from Ft. Phil Kearney. If such was the case the monument must have been lowered several feet at the same time. As Capt. Sanno is dead, and you were Second Lieutenant in his company (K, 7th Inf.) in 1889, I wish to ask you if you can give me any of the details of the removal of the remains from Phil Kearney to the Custer battlefield, and particularly in reference to any grading or leveling down of the top of the ridge where the remains were buried....
Yours truly,
W.M. Camp
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Post by keogh on Sept 18, 2016 15:38:15 GMT -5
Letter from Col. George Young, 21st Infantry to Walter Camp (Camp Collection, BYU) dated June 13, 1911:
My dear Sir:--
... I was then informed that it was the intention to take up and remove the bodies of the officers and soldiers at old Fort Kearney, who had been massacred in 1866 by Indians, to the Custer battlefield, and I was directed to take charge of the work. Captain J.M.J. Sanno, with Company K, 7th Infantry, was detailed to act as guard, and furnish the necessary labor. My recollection is that the date was October, 1888, and not 1889.... I buried these bodies near where the Custer monument now stands and I am sure no leveling was necessary, and none was done by me. I had charge of the work, the bodies were taken up under my supervision, the bones put into the smaller coffins and taken by wagon train to the Custer battlefield, where I buried them. As I recollect it, the ridge was amply wide for the purpose without doing any great amount of work. Being on the ground at the time of the Custer Massacre, and again in 1888, I am sure my statement is about correct.
Very respectfully,
Geo. S. Young
Colonel 21st Infantry.
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Post by keogh on Sept 19, 2016 22:33:26 GMT -5
Letter from Walter Camp to Col. George Young, 21st Infantry (Camp Letters, BYU) dated Oct. 5, 1911:
Dear Sir:--
... Let me thank you for the full and explicit statement that you have given me in reference to the removal of the remains of the soldiers from Ft. Phil Kearney to the Custer Battlefield Cemetery. I am accepting as final your statement to the effect that no grading down of the ridge was done at the time of these reinterments in 1888. The date Oct. 1889 was given me by the Quartermaster General, U.S.A., but in the Annual report of the War Dept. I find that 1888 is correct. You say further that you have the impression that no regular grading was ever done at this place, except for the base of the monument. I am disposed to accept this also as correct, but here I meet with a little difficulty in reconciling such what seems to be reliable accounts of the lay of the ground at the end of the ridge when the bodies of Custer and his men were found there. If you can have patience to discuss this matter with me a little further I shall be much pleased, particularly as you were there June 28, 1876, when the bodies were buried, and also in later years.
Several officers of the 7th Cavalry who were there when the dead were buried tell me that the extreme end of the ridge, where the body of Gen. Custer lay, was considerably higher than any other part of the ridge, being, in fact, a little round knob or peak not more than 20 feet wide on top, but not exactly level on top; that Capt. Tom Custer's body lay at the highest point, the General's body the third from it and a little lower down; and that three dead horses lay across this so-called little peak or rise. Gen. Roe tells me that he erected the monument in 1881, only 6 feet from the stake where Gen. Custer's body had been buried [ed. actually found -- not buried], and that he did no grading or cutting down the crest of the ridge.
Under separate cover I send you a photograph of the Custer monument which I took last summer, and which you may keep. This monument stands at the west end of the ridge (to be accurate, the ridge runs from southeast to northwest, and the view in the picture is looking toward the northwest, along the top of the ridge). If the picture were continued toward the right the reinterments from Ft. Phil Kearney would be seen where the red marks appear, in the margin of the card. The Ft. Phil Kearney graves are at the same level as the base of the monument. Now, the end of the ridge, where the monument stands, is 140 feet wide and dead level. In the picture you see a team of horses tied to the iron fence surrounding the monument, and a wagon. This wagon is about at the center fo the level plat on which the monument stands. The markers on the left are supposed to stand where the group of dead bodies lay about that of Custer's. The marker of Custer stands among this group and near the top, being under the arrow which I have marked with black pencil. According to Roe it should be within the iron fence.
My only question or point which I am asking to have discussed is in reference to the topography of the ground where the monument stands. Bearing in mind that the plat on which the monument stands is 140 feet wide, in a direction transverse to the general direction of the ridge, does the ground in the picture appear as you recollect it on June 28, 1876, when you first saw it? Any comments that you may have to make will be appreciated.
Yours truly,
W.M. Camp
[Note: To our knowledge, Col. Young did not respond to this letter.]
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Post by keogh on Sept 20, 2016 19:13:12 GMT -5
Letter from Gen. Owen Sweet to Walter Camp (Camp Letters, LBBNM) dated Nov. 24, 1912, with my annotations in brackets:
Dear Sir:
IN 1890 I camped on the Custer Battlefield with my company for several weeks, surveying the boundaries of that field, identifying and designating the resting places wherever brave men fell, erecting the headstones and markers, etc. I also spent several days on the Reno Fields, on the ground of the fight on the flat of the Little Bighorn, the line of retreat across the stream and up through the ravines to the top of the bluffs where the final stand was made, etc. I was most materially assisted in my work and study by visits from Gen. James S. Brisbin, U.S.A., who was on the field with his command immediately after the battle, as major of the 2nd Cavalry. It was he who gathered up the notes and data found near and on the remains of Mark Kellogg, the New York Herald correspondent and who made the first reports of the fight to the press of which, among very much other data, maps, pictures, etc., I have copies. Yes. Each headstone shows where one or more bodies were buried after the battle and the remains, i.e., what was left of them, were still lying there when the headstones and markers were placed in 1890. It must be remembered the bodies were more or less terribly mutilated. The heads and parts of limbs being cut off. In many instances these members were found missing from the balance of the remains found in the graves.
As to the identification followed in placing the headstones, I deployed my company in close skirmish order and in this way, to the close of my duty there, we repeatedly and daily crossed and recrossed the field in every direction as on the Reno Fields, searching every foot of ground for remains or part of remains. Every foot of ground was examined and dug into where there was the slightest indication of remains, and all such spots examined by an officer or N.C. officer to prevent error. In erecting the markers each grave was dug into to see enough of the skeleton to determine which was the head to thus be sure in placing the headstone at the head. If the head was not found at all, then search was continued to find the shoulders, etc., thereby avoiding placing the markers at the feet. In the case of the officers, I found board markers with the officer's names on them as in the case of the civilians who fell with Custer.
As to the battle monument on the ridge. I last visited the field in Sept. 1897. At that time there had been no change in the configuration of the nearly level plat of ground on which the monument stands. I cannot believe the ground has been graded down or any change made whatever. There could be no mortal reason to grade it down. You many recall the point of ridge on which the monument stands is wider than at any other place back for over 100 rods, and from a military standpoint it might be called level as the ground slopes but the slightest. On the Reno Fields all the remains had been supposedly disinterred and removed to the Custer Field and buried under the monument at the time of the erection.
In my search on the flat, the scene of Reno's [valley] fight there, I found a board over a mound with Lieut. McIntosh's name on it. In digging into th egrave some parts of the skeleton were found, hence to the memory of that gallant officer I placed his headstone on the spot where he fell [ie. actually, where he was buried, not where he fell]. As I found no remains [of Reno's men] in the bottom, I placed no markers there, nor on the banks of the Little Bighorn, nor on the bluffs -- the scene of the final fight e're the Sioux retreated. The only headstone erected on the Reno Field, or to be exact, on the line of retreat to the bluffs, is a headstone where Asst. Surgeon J.M. DeWolf, U.S.A., is believed to have fallen, and the location determined after a long search, study, and both written and personal information. This stone was located on the last bench from the top of the bluffs.
I would state that on the Custer Field you may have noticed more than one marker at a grave. In that case [we assumed that] two or more bodies were buried there. [Note: Archaeological evidence found no support for that assumption.] I found that the resting places of 217 officers and men had been located only [note: there were only 210 men in total in Custer's wing], hence 29 [ed. actually 33] remains were not accounted for, exclusive of Boston Custer and Arthur P. Reid [sic. Autie Reed] and Lieut. Porter, hence my most persistent and scrutinizing search until the missing remains were found under many varying conditions. [Note: In other words, Sweet admits that he placed all of the Reno wing casualties on Custer's field.] To show an extreme case, one is that of Asst. Surgeon C.E. Lord, U.S.A., whose headstone is set in a group of four near the big deep-cut ravine [ie. Deep Ravine]. I found no mark to indicate where he fell, [but] in digging into the remains at this spot I found pieces of clothing, a staff officer's button or two which Dr. Lord [-- among others --] was known to wear, hence the headstone was erected.... [Note: Dr. Lord's body was identified by Lt. Thompson on Last Stand Hill, hence the location of his current marker is likely incorrect.]
Very truly yours,
O.J. Sweet
Brigadier General
U.S. Army Retired
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Post by herosrest on Sept 21, 2016 18:45:38 GMT -5
If you bump down this blog to fig 9, there is comment referencing grading the monument hill, attributed to WAG. Here is a starter for 10. linkYou can DL the article, here ‘THE BULLETS BUZZED LIKE BEES’: GUNSHOT WOUNDS IN SKELETONS FROM THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIGHORN by P. Willey and D.D. Scott If the two items, WAG reference and gunshot trauma evolve a symmetry, it is entirely unintentional, unplanned and wholly obscure. Life is such fun unless it is a female K9.  |
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Post by keogh on Sept 29, 2016 0:57:02 GMT -5
A letter from Walter Camp to Gen. Godfrey, dated March 31, 1909, (Godfrey Family Papers), with my annotations in brackets:
Dear Sir:--
..... In order that the subject may not grow cold, I will bring up a question that I imagine will be of some interest to you, at least in a genaral way, as well as to me for particular reasons. I refer to the absence of markers for the twenty-odd bodies that were found in the deep gully or ravine about half-way between the point where the General's body was found and the river. In your [Galaxy] magazine article published in 1892, you refer to the bodies of 28 men that were found in this [Deep] ravine, near together. There seems to be abundant evidence that the bodies were found there, but I will ask whether this was a fact that came within your own knowledge, and if you know whether the bodies were buried in the [Deep] ravine or were carried out and buried upon the bank. At any rate, no markers were placed in the [Deep] ravine or anywhere near it.
I once overheard a conversation at this spot between the custodian and some man who professed to have been present when the dead were buried on June 28, 1876. This party told the custodian that he saw the bodies lying in the [Deep] ravine and had counted "twenty in a heap," and he could not understand why no markers had been placed there. Now let me digress to say that between this gully and the top of the ridge, where the monument is [on Last Stand Hill], there are some 40 or more markers pretty much in line [note: early researchers of the battle would often refer to these markers as the "South Skirmish Line"], not counting ten or a dozen scattered about at some distance from this imaginary line, and not counting any of the 50 or more markers in the group where that of the General stands, on the side of the [Last Stand Hill] hill, about 15 or 20 yards below the monument.
Returning to the conversation of the veteran referred to above, this party said, in substance, something like this: "It looks to me as though the markers that should have been placed for the men found in that [Deep] ravine were strung out between here and the monument to give the [false] appearance of men fighting in [skirmish] a line. I am sure that I saw only a few dead bodies lying between the deep ravine and the group where the General lay at the top of the ridge, whereas there are more than 40 markers distributed along with considerable regularity over this interval of 600 or 700 yards." He also said that Dr. Lord's body was one of those found in the gully, but the marker for him is located about 300 feet from the gully and on a line between it (the gully) and the monument. [Note: Other participants list Dr. Lord as MIA or locate his remains about 20 feet southeast of Custer's remains at the top of Last Stand Hill.]
.....
Yours truly,
W.M. Camp
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Post by keogh on Sept 29, 2016 23:30:14 GMT -5
Gen. Godfrey's response to Walter Camp, dated May 3rd, 1909 (Camp Letters, BYU) with my annotations in brackets:
My dear Mr. Camp:
.... Yes, I saw the bodies you mention, but only in a hasty manner. I did not see them buried -- most of the bodies were in the [Deep] ravine. I know that Dr. Lord's body was not identified [by any officers of the 7th Cavalry]. His pocket case was found, but nothing else to show for him. The underclothing of [Lt. Jack] Sturgis and the buckskin blouse of [Lt. James] Porter and the pocket case of Dr. Lord were found by me and my men in the Indian village opposite and across the river from the lower end of the battlefield when we were destroying the village, but the bodies of Sturgis, Porter and Lord were not identified. [Note: These bodies were not identified by any 7th Cavalry officers at the time, but Dr. Lord's remains were identified by Lt. Thompson of Gibbon's command, who described the location as being about 20 feet southeast of the monument on Last Stand Hill. Others believe he may have been killed in the basin outside of Deep Ravine.] Nothing was found of [Lt. Henry] Harrington.
A party or detail of men [was] sent up to the battlefield in 1877, or 1878, I am not sure which year [ed. it was 1877], and they put up stakes where they found any remains. Several years later it was found that many of these stakes had been washed away, or carried away, or rotted -- at any event, there were not very many [ left] in place. About the time the marble markers were to be placed, details were sent to mark the graves again. They put a marker wherever the vegetation was rank, or [wherever there was] a depression (wolves dragged the bodies about -- ESG) or [wherever] there was any indication that a burial had been made. I have not the least doubt from the accounts given me many years ago that the last resting places of [the] horses were marked [on Last Stand Hill].
The heavy rains had washed out the last vestige of many shallow graves. I don't know who had charge of the marking. Much of this information I got when at [the] Custer Battlefield in 1886. from Lt. J.E. Wilson who was stationed there and [who] had been detailed to make a survey of the field. He had been a Sgt. of Engineers with [Gen.] Terry's Hdqts in the '76 campaign and was quite familiar with the conditions. I shall refer your letter to Major McDougall for his recollections of the situation of the bodies and markers in the [Deep] ravine. It would, I think, have been unwise to put markers in the ravines as the torrents would wash everything out. That is perhaps the explanation of the markers outside of the [Deep] ravine.
Sincerely yours,
E.S. Godfrey
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Post by keogh on Oct 2, 2016 18:44:47 GMT -5
A recollection from Wooden Leg (A Warrior Who Fought Custer, by Thomas Marquis, p. 284-85) regarding the dearth of soldier cartridge cases found on the LBH battlefield, with my annotations in brackets:
We went then across the river and over to the [Battle] ridge where we had killed all of the soldiers.... Dirt and sagebrush mounds now were at the places where [there] had been dead the soldiers. In a few places we could see some parts of their bodies exposed, but mostly the graves were good, except they had no stones piled over them. At one end of many different ones of the graves was a straight board stuck into the ground, to stand up there. They were straight boards, not crosses. Dead horses were lying here and there among the graves. Wolves had been eating at the horses. I did not notice any place where it appeared wolves had been at the graves....
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Post by keogh on Oct 3, 2016 12:51:49 GMT -5
A letter from Walter Camp to Gen. Godfrey, dated Jan. 7, 1920 (Edward Settle Godfrey Papers, Library of Congress) with my annotations in brackets:
My Dear Gen. Godfrey:--
I hope you will be able to get some action on the matter of having [the graves] removed [of] the Fetterman dead on Custer Ridge, or, more properly speaking, the [graves from the] whole cemetery that was removed from Ft. Phil Kearney (111 graves) to the Custer Battlefield, in 1888 or 1889 (official correspondence that I have give both dates). These [grave] removals [from Ft. Kearney] were made by Capt. [James] Sanno, of the 7th U.S. Infantry. There is plenty of room in the [National] cemetery for these graves, and there is where they ought to be. [Note: The remains of the dead soldiers from Ft. Phil Kearney were eventually removed from Battle Ridge and re-interred at the National Cemetery.]
By the way, the grading of the peak of that ridge on which the monument stands [on Last Stand Hill] must have been done by Sanno. You must recall that when you buried the dead (June 28, 1876) there was no level plat where the monument stands. A sure check on the question is a photograph taken in 1886, when you, Benteen and others were there for the tenth anniversary of the battle. The said photo shows the monument on the peak of the ridge or knoll, with several officers sitting against the monument with their feet on a downhill slope....
Yours sincerely,
W.M. Camp
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Post by keogh on Oct 5, 2016 1:01:16 GMT -5
A letter from Walter Camp to Gen. Godfrey, dated Nov. 6, 1920, (Godfrey Papers, Library of Congress) with my annotations in brackets:
My dear Gen. Godfrey:--
You will remember that I called your attention, four years ago, to the mistake that had been made in marking Custer Ridge on the Little Bighorn battlefield. In 1908, I discovered that there were 254 government markers there, whereas the number of bodies found there on June 27, 1876, was 207 (or 206?) [note: actually 210]. I think I was, perhaps, the first person to discover this mistake, for the custodian there then told me I did not know what I was talking about when I acquainted him with those facts. I at once suspected that markers sent for Reno's killed had been planted on Custer Ridge, and this opinion I was able to confirm a year or two later when I met an officer of the 25th Infantry who set the markers in 1894 [sic. actually 1890]. He was Lieutenant [Samuel] Burkhardt. I saw him at Ft. Leavenworth eight or ten years ago. A Captain of the 25th Inf. (whose name I cannot recall without my note [ie. Capt. Owen Sweet]) had charge, but Burkhardt, who was his lieutenant, did the work. He [ie. Sweet] admitted to me that, being unable to locate the places where Reno's men had fallen (Lieut. Roe of the 2nd Cavalry having gathered up all the remains in 1881), he set all the markers on Custer Ridge. Historically, this was, of course, a bad piece of business. Burkhardt, I think, is still in the service.
In 1910, four more markers were placed by custodian Oscar Wright (for Porter, Lord, Sturgis and Harrington), so there are now 258 markers there, or 51 [sic. 48] too many. There are 17 or 18 too many markers in the group at the monument [on Last Stand Hill], too many in the group around Keogh's marker, too many between the monument and the river, and none in the big gully where about 28 ought to be. I discovered these dead in the [Deep Ravine] gully with [sic. from] Capt. McDougall in 1909, and he was clear that there were only 9 dead between the end of the [Battle] ridge and the [Deep Ravine] gully, and 28 in the gully. As the markers now stand, there are more than 50 where there should be only 9, on that side hill [in the basin area], and not enough at or in the [Deep Ravine] gully.
The marker for Lieut. Hodgson (placed in 1910) down at Reno Hill is in the wrong place -- about 2000 feet from where it ought to be. There is no marker for Sergt. Butler of L Co., none for Vincent Charley of D Co., and none where Mitch Bouyer's body was found, which lay near the river north of the Cheyenne village -- that is, on the opposite side of the river from the Cheyenne village. I have authentic information of the location of Bouyer's body from an officer [ie. Charles Roe] of the 2nd Cavalry and from the son of Lame Deer [ie. Flying By], who was fighting with the Sioux. Those two independent sources of information are so clear and plausible that I have accepted them as correct. Bouyer's body was never buried and neither was Vincent Charley's. The latter fell on Weir's retreat from his most advanced point toward Gen. Custer, and Gen. Edgerly geave me the location of the body. I have been on the battlefield with four enlisted men who helped bury the dead, and all my sources of information are equally authentic. Col. Mathey gave me important information which could be used to correct some of the mistakes that were made in the planting of these markers in 1894. I will not go into further details here.
Your interest and influence would go further toward having something done to correct these mistakes than would the intervention of any other man, and I wish the War Dept. would send you out there with authority to straighten out the mistakes. The number of markers on the Custer ridge should, by all means, be made to correspond with the number of dead found there, which is a matter of official record. The names on the monument, which includes those for the dead of Reno's command, are a further check on the number of markers that should be on Custer Ridge. The presence of the Fetterman markers on a further incongruity -- the intermingling of markers for soldiers killed on battlefields more than 100 miles apart. I would suggest that of the surplus markers on Custer Ridge, some 27 (if that is the correct number) might be removed and placed in a group or circle on Reno Hill, and 29 more might be placed in a circle around the McIntosh marker, if land could not be set aside on which to string them out on the line of Reno's retreat out of the bottom.
I may not be doing right by proposing to work you like this in your old age, but unless something is done before many years, it will likely never be done, and people will come to lose confidence in the accuracy of the marking of that historical spot. If I were to write up an account of that battle today, I would be bound, for sake of historical accuracy, to call attention to these mistakes. If my services were desired, I would be willing to give all the data I have bearing on the matter, and I think that if you and I were up there, with a wagon, a span of mules, and two or three men to help us, we would do a heap in a few days. I am not craving the job if someone else will do the thing.
Yours sincerely,
W.M. Camp
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