Centennial Fourth in New York City
Here’s a final look back at events 150 years ago. In its July 22, 1876 issue, Harper’s Weekly covered the centennial July 4th celebration and reported on an incredible disaster in Montana territory:
THE MONTANA SLAUGHTER.
CLOSE upon the intelligence of the check to General CROOK’s command on Rosebud River comes the news of a disaster on the Little Horn River so terrible and ghastly in its details that at the first announcement it was considered incredible or grossly exaggerated. Later dispatches, however, confirmed the dreadful story in all its shocking particulars.
many reservations out west
The map on this page gives the scene of the disaster, and the sketches on page 592, engraved from drawings sent us by officers in the field, show the character of the country where our troops are operating against the Indian forces under the command of SITTING BULL, the famous Sioux chief. It is admirably adapted by its rough, broken character, its precipitous, craggy hills and deep, narrow defiles, for a defensive war on the part of the Indians; and SITTING BULL, a chief of great natural sagacity and intelligence, sharpened by fifteen years of fighting, knows how to avail himself of every advantage offered by the terrain. The region where the recent battles have taken place lies, as a reference to the map will show, between the Big Horn spur of the Rocky Mountains and the Yellowstone River, and through it flow the Big and Little Horn and the Rosebud rivers. Early last spring a campaign was planned against the Indians located in this region to compel them to remove to the reservation set apart for them by the government, which they had refused to do. Three columns, under command of Generals GIBBON, TERRY, and CROOK, were equipped and placed under marching orders, their objective point being SITTING BULL’S camp, in the Big Horn country. These columns were to meet on the Powder or the Tongue river, and combine their forces in the heart of the hostile territory. General CROOK, at Fort Reno, was to strike north; General TERRY, with General CUSTER’S cavalry, at Fort Lincoln, was to march west; and General GIBBON, at Fort BUFORD, was to descend the Yellowstone Valley and join General TERRY.
General CROOK set out from Fort Fetterman, of which we give an illustration on page 592, on the 29th of May, and after a short halt at Fort Reno advanced to the head waters of the Tongue River. On the 9th of June the Indians attacked his camp, and were gallantly repulsed. On the 16th of June the march was resumed, in the direction of the Rosebud Valley. The next day the Sioux surprised the troops while on the march. The attack was made with great vigor, the Indians having all the advantages of position and superior numbers. Ten of the troops were killed and nineteen wounded, and General CROOK deemed it necessary to order a retreat to Goose Creek.
immediate attack
Meanwhile General TERRY, with 1500 men, had left Fort Lincoln, striking for the Powder River and the Yellowstone, where he was to meet General GIBBON, with 500 men, coming from Fort Ellis. At the Rosebud, General CUSTER, with twelve companies of cavalry, left TERRY to make a detour around by the Little Horn. This was on the 22d of June. On the 25th he struck what was probably the main camp of SITTING BULL. He had pushed forward with greater rapidity than his orders directed, and arrived at the point where a junction of the forces was intended, a day or two in advance of the infantry. Without waiting for the rest of the troops to come up, General CUSTER decided upon an immediate attack. The Indians were posted in a narrow ravine, about twenty miles above the mouth of the river. At the head of five companies of cavalry he charged into the ravine, while Colonel RENO, with four companies, made an attack on the other side, three companies being held in reserve. According to the story of the scout who brought the intelligence of the disaster, CUSTER led his brave men into a fearful slaughter-pen. The Indians poured a murderous fire upon them from all sides, and not one of the detachment escaped alive. General CUSTER himself, his two brothers, his brother-in-law, and his nephew were all killed. The Indians surrounded Colonel RENO’s command, and held the troops on the hills, cut off from water, for a whole day, when the force under General GIBBON, for which CUSTER should have waited before going into the fight, arrived on the ground. The Indians then broke up and retired under cover of darkness.
A survey of the disastrous battle-ground disclosed a dreadful slaughter. Two hundred and seven men were buried in one place, and the total number of killed is estimated at three hundred and fifteen, including seventeen commissioned officers. The bodies of the dead were terribly mutilated. The Indians are supposed to have numbered from 2500 to 4000, and all the courage and skill displayed by our troops was of no avail against such overwhelming odds. The Indian loss can not be ascertained, as they carried off both killed and wounded. They stripped our killed of arms and ammunition.
General GEORGE A. CUSTER, of whom we give a portrait on page 601, was a native of Ohio. He graduated at West Point in 1861, with the grade of Second Lieutenant of Cavalry. He was attached to the Army of the Potomac, and distinguished himself at Williamsburg in the Peninsular campaign, for which he was made a First Lieutenant. Promotion now came to him rapidly, as a reward for gallant services. He was soon made Captain, and displayed so much ability while acting as a brigade commander of mounted cavalry that in 1863 he was appointed a Brigadier-General of Volunteers. General CUSTER participated in many important engagements, and won great honor for dash and gallantry during the terrible campaign in the Wilderness and in SHERIDAN’S brilliant campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, for which he received the commission of Major-General of Volunteers. He participated with distinguished ability in the grand movements which decided the fate of LEE’s army and of the rebellion in 1865, and was breveted Colonel and Brigadier-General in the regular army for his eminent services. Since the close of the war General CUSTER has been chiefly engaged in the Indian country. At the time of his death he was acting simply as commander of his regiment, the Seventh Cavalry.
Of the illustrations on page 592 not mentioned in the foregoing account, the first shows the monument erected in the grave-yard of old Fort Phil Kearney to the memory of FETTERMAN, BROWN, GRUMMOND,and eighty-three men, who were massacred by the Indians a short distance north of the fort on the 22d of December, 1866. The second gives a view of Rosebud River, taken from the north side of the Yellowstone. The fourth is a sketch of General CROOK’s supply camp on Tongue River, mouth of Prairie Dog Creek. The mountains in the background are a part of the Big Horn range.
Centennial Fourth at Independence Hall
page 592
on the warpath
In its June 17, 1876 issue Harper’s Weekly didn’t seem too concerned about Sitting Bull and used the possible threat out west to promote one of its advertisers selling a centennial souvenir (page 498):
Spotted Tail and Sitting Bull have dug up the hatchet and are on the war path, but the “Little Hatchet” Watch Charm will cause more excitement among the whites. See advertisement on page 499.—[ Com. ]
Centennial Charm
