CHAPTER XX
THE STORY OF THE CUSTER FIGHT
"You know my bein' with Major Reno is why I'm able t' tell this story,'cause all th' Old Man's outfit--'Old Man' bein' what we called GeneralCuster--was wiped out.
"Us soldiers didn't know all th' ins an' outs o' what was goin' on, butwe did know that th' Old Man was a whole lot dissatisfied. There'd bin alot o' talk 'bout him havin' gone t' Washington, an' havin' a talk withPresident Grant, at which interview, so 'twas said, th' President'd toldhim th' first duty of a soldier was obedience, but we didn't knownothin' 'bout that--whether 'twas true or 'twasn't true. All we knowedwas that he was away a long time, an' when he come back he sure had firein his eye.
"General Terry was in command at old Fort Buford, an' when th' Injunsbroke out, he was in command of all th' soldiers in that part of th'country. General Phil Sheridan was his chief, but we never seen him.
"Well, when the Injuns broke loose, Terry he thought as it was th'spring o' th' year, it was a good time t' get 'em. So 'bout th' first o'June, '76, all th' get-ready stuff was gone over, an' all th' good-byeswas said with them as had famblies, an' we was loaded onto th' steamerFar West, an' headed down th' old Missouri.
"When we got to th' mouth o' th' Yellowstone it was June twenty-first.We unloaded. An' General Terry says t' our Old Man--don't forget we justcalled him that; General Custer was only thirty-eight years old--Terrysays, 'You take your Seventh men an' scout ahead an' let CharlieReynolds go ahead o' you.' 'Cause everybody knowed that Charlie Reynoldssavvied Injuns an' Injun ways better'n any white man that everlived--him that was known as 'Lonesome Charlie.'
"An' Terry he says t' Custer, our Old Man, 'When you get t' th' LittleBig Horn country you wait for me, as I'm travelin' heavy. I'll be fourdays makin' it.'
"An' again says Terry t' our Old Man: 'If you see any Injuns in force,halt an' stay there till I come up, but don't start any fight unlessthey force it on you, an' if they do force it on you, fight on th'defensive'--which, as you all know, is backin' up. 'Fight on th'defensive till I come up with you, an' then we'll give 'em hell.'
"Our Old Man he said, 'You bet,' an' we left.
"General Custer he was in command, and Colonel Benteen an' Major Renowas his officers. After doin' twenty or thirty miles in th' saddle, wewas sure a s'prised bunch o' rookies when we didn't stop. We didn'tstop. No, siree! We kep' right on a-goin'. We didn't stop when we hitforty miles, nor sixty miles, nor eighty miles. It was ninety miles fromwhere we left Terry when th' Old Man said, 'Coffee an' biscuits,' an'believe me, we wanted 'em bad.
"We'd bin in th' saddle for twenty-two hours, an' if you don't thinkthat's ridin', try it sometime. The hosses was all in. My hoss--'LongTom' I called him--he layed down as soon as I off-saddled him, an' stuckhis face into his nose-bag an' eat layin' down. First time I ever seen ahoss do that.
"Charlie Reynolds, he was ahead, an' he come back an' had a pow-wowwith th' Old Man an' Reno an' Benteen, an' we seen 'em workin' th' fieldglasses overtime. 'Course, we didn't know what was bein' said, or whatwas goin' on. All we c'd see was that they was mighty excited like. Allexcept Charlie. He musta had his say an' then stopped--Injun like.'Cause Charlie, he was just a white Injun.
"I got Lieutenant Hodgson to let me have a peep through his glasses.After a ride like that, in a Injun country, a regular c'n be quite onspeakin' terms with his officers, an' when I looked through them glasseswhat I seed didn't mean much t' me. 'Way off, down by th' river, wassome tepees an' stuff layin' 'round, just like it was a Injun camp.That's what it looked like t' me, an' that's what I found out afterwardswas what it looked like t' th' Old Man.
"Benteen an' Reno, they wasn't expressin' much opinion, as they wasexpectin' t' stay right where they was an' wait devel'pments, like Terrysaid they was t' do, but th' Old Man, he said, 'Attack!' An' right therewas where Charlie Reynolds come in.
"He says that th' Injun village was a decoy; that he c'd tell by th'stuff, th' buffalo robes an' all, that was layin' 'round; that there waseight thousand fightin' Injuns in that part of th' country, an' that itwas a safe bet that seven thousand nine hundred an' ninety-nine waslayin' right in behind them hog-backs--low hills--a-waitin' for us.
"But th' Old Man was mad. He was out t' do somethin' an' he was a-goin't' do it. An' he says, 'You're all wrong, but we're goin' t' attack,anyhow.'
"An' Charlie he says somethin', an' walks away, an' I seen th' Old Manstarin' an' glarin', an' I says t' m'self, 'When we git back t' th' Fortit's a court-martial for Charlie, sure.' An' then it all happened.
"Boots an' saddles, an' we that was so all-in we c'd just stretch outan' groan with tiredness, was up an' on th' move. My hoss, LongTom,--an' he was as game a animal as ever lived,--just wavered an'swayed when I hit th' saddle. Gee, boys! we was sure an all-in bunch!
"Why did th' Old Man do it? How in thunder do I know? He just done it.I'm supposin' he was sort o' smartin' under them stay-back orders hehad, an' such like, an' just nachally cut th' cable; same as AdmiralDewey done at Manila Bay, only Dewey, he won out, an' our Old Man--well,that's th' story.
"But just to digress or switch off, or whatever that big word is, for aminute. I want t' say that our Old Man, whatever his faults was,--an' Iguess he had a-plenty,--he was game. He was a fighter. He said, 'Comeahead,' every time: he never said, 'Go ahead,' An' if all th' boyslayin' out there on th' prairie in their graves c'd tell, I'm bettin' mysix-shooter ag'in' what you all know about th' Rooshian langwidge thatthey'd say as how th' Old Man died with a sword in one hand an' a gun inth' other, a-lookin' right into th' sun.
"Well, we made a wide circle--a detower--an' come up ag'in 'way behindth' village, an' right there th' Old Man made his great mistake. I ain'tblamin' him none, but it sure shows how a big man c'n lose his head justby bein' crazy mad an' wantin' t' fight. Even th' rookies, what hadseen a lot o' service, knowed that he was makin' himself liable--an' hima general--t' be called up on a drumhead court-martial.
"There he was, a thousand miles from anywhere, dividin' his force in th'face of a superior enemy. An' that enemy th' greatest fighters that everth' sun shined on. You know we men that fighted Injuns knows what theywas made of. All this talk 'bout Injuns not bein' fighters, an' notbein' game, an' one white man bein' as good as ten Injuns, makes me feellike th' organ-grinder Dago what said, 'It makes me sick, an' makes th'monkey sick, too!'
"Well, to git back. Gee, you fellers'll think I'm a Williams J. Bryantrunnin' f'r President. Notice I said runnin'! No, I ain't tryin' t' befunny. I just wish I could be. It'd sort o' take th' weight off th'awfulness of what I remember as what happened, an' what I can't tellright 'cause I ain't got eddication an' brains enough.
"Th' Old Man, he split us up, him takin' companies C, E, F, I, and L,givin' Benteen four companies an' Reno three companies. He ordered Renot' go t' th' left an' cross th' Little Big Horn an' attack, th' Injunsfrom th' rear. Benteen he told t' go straight ahead, an' he himself tookth' right. I was with Reno, an' I saw personal what he was up ag'inst.We crossed th' Little Big Horn an' went right into what seemed a millionwarriors.
"I was right alongside of Lieutenant Hodgson, Lieutenant McIntosh, an'Doctor De Wolf when they fell, an' I see Charlie Reynolds--he'd refusedt' go with th' Old Man--put up a fight that if I was a artist, an' c'ddraw pictures, I c'd make a fortune puttin' it on paper. He started witha Springfield, then went to his six-shooter, an' wound up with a knifebefore he went down with a bullet through his heart an' at least a dozenInjuns piled all 'round him. Suicide, I reck'n it was. He knowed he wasright, but he also knowed he'd disobeyed orders, an' he just kept pilin'right in till he got his.
"Reno done th' only thing he could do. He retreated back across th'river, an' got up ag'in a bluff 'bout three hunderd feet high. RenoHill, they call it now. An' there we fought for five or six hours, whenBenteen, who'd bin fightin' in th' center, heard heavy firin' over onhis right where Custer was. An' Benteen, he bein' a honest-t'-God Injunfighter, he knowed that Custer was gone, so he fought his way t
hrough tous, knowin' that we had th' hill behind us.
"An' for three days we kept goin'--not runnin', just standin' an' layin'down there fightin'. Sure, we stopped firin' at night, but we didn'tstop work. We dug all night long, usin' knives, tin cups, an' platesinstead o' spades an' picks, makin' breast-works; an' then we startedfightin' all over ag'in in th' mornin'.
"Say, boys, I ain't strong f'r prohibition. It'd take me ten years t'git up nerve enough t' put my foot on a brass rail an' order sody-waterin a drug store, but let me tell you somethin'. On th' afternoon o' thatsecond day's fightin' there was nothin' on earth to us like water. Th'wounded was beggin' for it. Oh, boys, they was beggin' for it somethin'pitiful, an' we that wasn't wounded, our tongues was all swollen an' ourlips was parched till they cracked open. So some of th' boys volunteeredt' go to th' river, an' we took canteens an' camp kettles an' started.
"One of us never come back, an' a lot of us got shot up, but we gotwater. Not much, but we got water. I never will forget how I wanted t'wet my hoss, Long Tom's, tongue, but a wounded bunkie he needed it. Thatnight we went ag'in an' got some for th' stock, an' it was just in time,for they sure was dyin' for it.
"Th' fightin' opened ag'in next mornin', an' kept goin' till th'afternoon. It was th' twenty-seventh o' June, when all at once we seen apanic start among th' Injuns, an' they began t' stampede, leavin' theirdead all over th' hills. An' Terry come into sight, an' strong men criedon each other's necks--an' I ain't a bit ashamed t' say that I was oneof 'em.
"When Terry got in, an' congratulatin' an' hand-shakin' was all over,Lieutenant Bradley he come in, sayin' he'd found Custer, an' we alldragged ourselves to th' spot.
"There they was, all dead, two hunderd an' sixty-one of 'em. Not onelived t' tell th' tale. Them that'd bin deployed as skirmishers lay asthey fell, havin' bin entirely surrounded in an open plain. The men inth' companies fell in platoons, an', like them on th' skirmish line,lay just as they fell, with their officers behind 'em in th' rightplaces.
"Th' Old Man, General Custer, was in th' middle, an' round him lay th'bodies of Captain Tom Custer an' Boston Custer, his brothers, ColonelCalhoun, his brother-in-law, an' young Reed, his nephew. An' right nearwas Mark Kellogg, th' Bismarck Tribune's newspaper man. He wasn'tscalped or touched; just lay as he fell.
"Kellogg savvied Injuns, an' used t' say in his paper, 'Hold on aminute, let's talk this over,' when all th' long-whiskered grangers,what had come in from Illinois, would raise a holler, an' want th'United States soldiers t' kick th' Injuns off th' land what they owned.An' th' Injuns remembered, even when they was crazy with fightin'. An'just th' same as they didn't touch th' White Chief, Custer, just th'same they didn't touch th' feller what shoved a lead pencil an' once ina while said, 'Give 'em a chance.'
"Did they ever find out how many Injuns was there? Not def'nite, butnear enough. On th' tenth annivers'ry of th' fight th' survivors held areunion on th' battle-field, an' bein' as I was line-ridin' for Tracy'sTumble H outfit at th' time, I sneaked off an' went over.
"They'd done a wonderful thing; somethin' that'd never bin done before,an' most likely never'll be done ag'in. Dave Barry--him as th' Injunscalled 'th' Shadow Catcher'--was a great friend o' Charlie Reynolds,Barry speakin' Injun talk, an' bein' adopted into th' tribe, an'savvyin' Injun ways just th' same as Charlie did. An' Dave wanted t' getthe real dope on th' fight on Charlie's account, an' him bein' also aclose friend of old John Gall, th' chief what led th' Injuns in th' bigfight.
"Now, Barry he persuaded--nobody knows how he done it--he persuaded JohnGall t' go along t' this reunion. An' then, as if one miracle wasn'tenough, he pulled another. By golly, he got th' old man t' make a talk.Boys, it sure was some picture, on that June evenin', t' see that Injunwhen th' blanket fell off his shoulders, standin' like one o' thembronze statutes, with th' settin' sun a-hittin' him. I sure never willforget it. Old Gall, he pointed here an' there, showin' whereRain-in-th'-Face was, an' where Crazy Hoss was, an' where Crow Kingwas--an' all th' rest of th' other chiefs.
"An' then Barry, who was interpretin' for th' old Injun, asked himquiet-like, in th' Injun lingo, 'How many of you was there, John?' An'th' old Injun he paused like, while every one waited t' hear, an' thenhe pointed to th' ground, an' said some Injun words. An' Barry, he saidin that quiet, firm, even voice o' his'n, 'We were like the blades ofgrass on the ground.' So you see what th' old Seventh was up ag'inst,boys.
"A mighty funny thing happened after th' talk. You all know Will Curley.He's s'posed t' be th' only survivor of Custer's men. No, I ain't surehe is. How should I know? I wasn't there, I was with Reno, two milesaway. Well, th' bunch sorta interduced, or tried t' interduce, Old Johnt' Will Curley.
"Will Curley had somehow got himself a brand-new Stetson, in celebrationof th' occasion, an' when Barry said, in Injun talk, 'John, this is WillCurley,' Old John he never moved a muscle, but his eyes looked likeforked lightnin'. You know, Curley is a Crow--th' perpetual enemy of th'Sioux--an' in addition t' that, Curley he was a scout for th' whites.Old Gall he walked slowly over t' Curley, with a walk that made me thinko' nothin' else on earth but a painter, an' when he got t' Will hepaused, with everybody holdin' their breath t' see what'd happen, an'then it did happen!
"Th' old man reached out an' took that brand-new Stetson off WillCurley's head, an' shook it an' knocked it on all sides, an' put it onhis own head an' walked away. Insultin'!--all I c'n say is, if it everhappened t' me, it'd be my dyin' wish that I'd have a gun in each hand."
* * * * *
A few moments of silence followed the old cow-puncher's story. Inreciting this page from the book of his life he had lost thought of hissurroundings, but now he remembered, and seemed startled at havingtalked so much. He retired within himself, his eyes taking on anintrospective look as though, as one of the boys expressed it, "he wastellin' stories t' himself."
He paid no heed to the comments the men made on his story of the Custerfight. It had impressed them because it had rung true. The comments weremade in murmurs or whispers. As Injun had sat during the tale he satnow; stolid, expressionless. Now and then Whitey stole a look at him. Inhis mind Whitey was connecting the old puncher's story with the oneInjun had told in the bunk house at the Bar O, and with what Bill Jordanhad said afterwards; that Injun had revealed the start or source of thegreatest Indian fight the country ever knew.
It had been a hard day, and one by one the men dropped off to sleep,until only Whitey and the old puncher were left, he rolling anoccasional cigarette, and living in that past which the events of thenight had brought back to him. Whitey realized this, and had to admitthat it was a pretty exciting place in which to live. And he wondered ifthe old puncher would like to have another page in his book of life; asort of explanatory page, like the key in an arithmetic.
It was almost dark in the tent. Only one lighted lantern hung from apole. And in low tones, so as not to disturb the sleepers, Whitey toldthe old man the story of Injun's mamma's brother and his friend thescout; and of the White Chief, and the dance, and the arrest and theescape; and of Injun's father's resolve that "we fight heap!"
The old puncher didn't know who these Indians were of whom Whitey wastalking, but he listened politely at first and interestedly at last. Andwhen Whitey had finished the story, he added, "Injun's uncle was oldRain-in-the-Face, and he was a great friend of Charlie Reynolds, thescout."
Then Whitey crept off to bed, and allowed the old man to figure out inhis mind--as Bill Jordan had done--the start of "the doggonedest Injunfight this country ever knowed!" And far into the night the oldcowpuncher thought of this other page, added to the book that was toentertain him as he went down the steeper side of the hill of life.