General Nelson Appleton Miles
Editor's Note: This is historically too important to not feature as a stand alone.
The Boy General as he lay in that long sleep from which no mortal wakes. A true leader to the last, he lay at the head of his army on the summit of a ridge overlooking the battlefield, surrounded by his heroic followers. Here, with him, were his two brothers, Tom Custer and Boston, and his nephew Armstrong Reed, Captain Yates, Lieutenants Cooke, Smith, and Reilly, all lying in a circle of a few yards, their horses beside them. The companies had successively thrown themselves across the path of the advancing enemy. The last stand had been made with Yates's company. Not a man escaped to tell the tale, but it was inscribed upon the surface of the barren hills in a language more eloquent than words. In the ravine below lay the troops
As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I used to be in wonder like most people in reading the experts of the past years, revealing that they finally had discovered what really took place that the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25th, 1876 AD in the year of our Lord, but as Libby Custer drew me into this menagerie, I soon discovered something in she knew exactly what took place, as being a woman, none of the military wives was going to leave the story rest, until they knew every detail.
I found the following account which was included in the Boy General by Mrs. Custer, which was written by Annie Gibson Yates and revised by Lt. Gen. Nelson Appleton Miles.
I first came across the Miles review of the battle in one of Libby's other books, and it was startling to find out that everyone knew in 1876 exactly what took place as there was no mystery to it.
In this volume, you will find some personal details in Colonel Michael Sheridan, brother of General Phil Sheridan, was the officer detailed to bring the bodies of the Heroes home. He had charge of the coffins, and Libby states plainly that after their extraction from the ground, Michael Sheridan while they were in mass storage, opened General Custer's coffin and snipped a golden curl from his head, to present to Libby as proof he was really deceased and to give her closure.
That lock of hair was the greatest treasure she ever possessed.
The following description of the Last Stand battle is the displacement of Troops, and in them, they are ALL ordered in line of battle, and as each rank fell, a new rank engaged in the battle. There was absolutely no panic, nor mass cowardice as the Indians proclaimed. Indians exist by deception and are congenital liars. That is an absolute fact and the order of those dead bodies on the field, all in rank, and all at station, proves the Indians were liars, and the Custer command fought absolutely to the end.
While Libby, Mrs. Yates and General Miles, in this segment do not visit the failure to follow orders of Major Marcos Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen, others as have myself come to the exact military conclusion as General Miles did in you can not divide your command, prosecute an attack to relieve the other commands, and then survive, expecting those other commands to follow orders and relieve your position.
Libby also notes that she knew that General Crook was defeated and retired from the field after the Rosebud battle. That proves that not only the Indians were liars, but that the stories put out of Chicago command of General Sheridan's headquarters that it took two weeks for the news to travel was bogus, as every person in this were not right in what was to be less than a thousand Indians was suddenly 3000 reservation Indians pouring into Montana for the 7th to fight against.
I will not touch upon the conspiracy in this concerning the Grant Regime and the actions of General Crook, Major Reno and Captain Benteen, as that is a broader subject, but will instead focus upon something which Mrs. Custer, Mrs. Yates and General Miles focused upon.
At Last Stand Hill, the troops were deployed in perfect order, but Libby Custer, Annie Yates and Nelson Miles keep referring to "the loyalty which General Custer lectured on" for his command. This would mean disloyalty took place.
While that person is not named specifically, he is indeed named a Lieutenant, who was on point with his command, and he did not hold point. It was that event which started the collapse of the lines of the 7th in a rolling motion which took place over 3 hours.
All of this would not have mattered if the Reno and Benteen commands had simply obeyed orders as their reserves would have saved the command. Do not overlook in this at the Reno Benteen position, that they held out against a lessened number of Indians for a day. That is something overlooked in this as Libby relates that the advance counted 9 dead chiefs on poles. That many of their leaders dead, meant that the Custer command sold out extremely hard. It is a conclusion that the reason Reno and Benteen survived was because the Custer forces had thinned enough of those 3000 Indians to be dealt with.
Two days after the Battle of the Little Big Horn the sun rose bright and glorious over The Boy General as he lay in that long sleep from which no mortal wakes.
A true leader to the last, he lay at the head of his army on the summit of a ridge overlooking the battlefield, surrounded by his heroic followers. Here, with him, were his two brothers, Tom Custer and Boston, and his nephew Armstrong Reed, Captain Yates, Lieutenants Cooke, Smith, and Reilly, all lying in a circle of a few yards, their horses beside them.
The companies had successively thrown themselves across the path of the advancing enemy. The last stand had been made with Yates's company. Not a man escaped to tell the tale, but it was inscribed upon the surface of the barren hills in a language more eloquent than words.
In the ravine below lay the troops arranged in order of battle, as they had fought, line behind line, showing where defensive positions had been successively taken up and held till not a man was left to continue the fight.
In a narrow compass horses and men were piled promiscuously. Lieutenant Smith's skirmishers, still holding their gray horses, were lying in groups of fours.
Lieutenant Calhoun was on the skirmish-line, and Lieutenant Crittendon and each of the company had fallen in the place to which the tactics would have assigned them.
The true soldier asks no questions; he obeys, and Custer was a true soldier. He gave his life in carrying out the orders of his commanding general. He was sent out to fight and was expected to accomplish results. He had advanced carefully and cautiously upon the enemy, taking three times as much time for the approach as is regarded necessary in the marches of cavalry troops to-day. He often took counsel with his officers and halted to examine all abandoned camps and trails.
He was instructed not to let any Indians escape, and was expected to compel them to settle down on their reservations. He had trained and exhorted his men and officers to loyalty, and with one exception they stood true to their trust, as was shown by the order in which they fell.
A lieutenant holding an important sheltered position, who should have kept the enemy at bay and could easily have done so, became excited and panic-stricken, gave confused orders and countermanded them, and finally led a stampede which allowed the Indians to concentrate on one point and advance on Custer's band with overwhelming numbers."
Custer, Elizabeth Bacon, 1842-1933; Burt, Mary E. (Mary Elizabeth), 1850-1918. The boy general; story of the life of Major-General George A. Custer, as told by Elizabeth B. Custer
This Lieutenant is the hidden mystery in all of this as he is not named, but I believe in exclusive here I can pinpoint who he is by the following paragraph below which mentions Troopers fighting in the timber yet. That is something not known in there was a group of Troopers alive yet from the Custer command.
"When a relief corps was sent to look up Custer's trail, the column came to a part of the division that had been led by the runaway lieutenant. The men were still fighting in the timber. They gave cheer upon cheer to the soldiers who had come to their relief, and the Indians fell back. The relief pushed on to find Custer and his men. They passed an Indian village which extended three miles along the stream. They saw funeral lodges containing the bodies of nine chiefs. When they came to the Custer field they were appalled. They set to work to bury the dead. There were only two spades, but the soldiers used tin plates, cups, and even their hands in digging the graves."
I have taken pains in this to locate the names of the officers wounded and missing to ascertain exactly who it was that apparently lost his head and did not hold point, which was key to the Custer defense as the lines crumbled after this in being overwhelmed.
Lt. James Calhoun Company L
II Lt. H.M. Harrington (missing) Company C
II Lt. Benj. Hodgson Company B
I Lt. Daniel McIntosh Company G
Lt. Col. Tom Custer Company C
Lt. J. E. Porter (missing) Company I
II Lt. E. Sturgis (missing) Company E
II Lt. W. Van Rielly Company F
The following in this are the commands held in the for divisions. The key to the officer who did not do his duty lies in either of Companies C, E, F, I, L.
Custer's column (Companies C,E,F,I,L),
Reno's column (Companies A,G,M),
Benteen's column (Companies D,H,K),
and the pack
train escorted by
Captain Thomas McDougall's Company B
I am going to fill in the blanks in this, as I reviewed the list of all the dead, and there was one company who had wounded Troopers which means alive, and it was the only company who had any survivors and that was Company C.
Company C was commanded by Captain Tom Custer, but this company was under the command of Lt. Henry Moore Harrington.
It would make sense that the General's brother would have the honor of stationing his command on the point to hold the lines. We know that Tom Custer did not run away when in fact he was butchered by the Sioux terrorist Rain in the Face.
"Tom Custer. Both arms and both legs had been removed and the head had been
cut off. The torso had been split open and the entrails left on the ground. The
only way that the body was recognized was by the tattoo "TWC" found on a nearby severed arm."
Lt. Harrington though was never recovered. The only way that Libby Custer, Annie Yates and General Miles would know that someone lost his head, gave orders and counter orders, and ran off, was by survivors who were military and not some Crow Indian Scout in Curly.
Company C must be the company which bolted due to their commander, Lt. Harrington not doing his duty, and this is what collapsed the 7th Cavalry defenses.
This is what got the command killed, as the companies were lined up defending their stations, in all but one led by Lt. Harrington as Tom Custer must have been near his brother as Company C would not require two officers.
Libby Custer had related that one of the Benteen Reno group let her husband down which was a fact and every military tactician points to that, but hidden in the Last Stand was something she knew due to the evidence gathered, and due to the military prowess of General Custer's friend, hunting companion and fellow officer, Nelson Miles who rode over the battlefield and filed a report on this issue.
The world was not going to be told that one Lieutenant was a coward and his men stampeded, but apparently regrouped in the timber and fought it out where three of them survived.
Henry Harrington's body was not found, and his wife visited the field to no avail. There was found though the traps of two Cavalry men later by accident away from the field. It might be Harrington and someone else took horses and fled, but were caught in their escape.
In either event as the always experts have hashed over this, there was a new dimension in this which was known by the insiders and that was three officers in the 7th failed General Custer, the 7th Cavalry and the United States that day in not obeying orders in either malice or cowardice in Major Marcus Reno, Captain Frederick Benteen and it appears Lt. Henry Harrington, who caused the collapse of the 7th's crucial point, to keep the Indians off of the command.
The only suspect officer which Annie Yates, General Nelson Miles and Libby Custer do not mention is Lt. Harrington.
This is the type of information which they sign million dollar book deals and cinema contracts over. This is the epic historical work of this Lame Cherry blog, exclusive in matter anti matter only here.
Commanding Officer: Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer (killed)
Maj. Marcus Reno
Adjutant: 1st Lt. William W. Cooke (killed)
Assistant Surgeon George Edwin Lord (killed)
Acting Assistant Surgeon James Madison DeWolf (killed)
Acting Assistant Surgeon Henry Rinaldo Porter
Chief of Scouts: 2nd Lt. Charles Varnum (detached from A Company, wounded)
2nd in command of Scouts: 2nd Lt. Luther Hare (detached from K Company)
Pack Train commander: 1st Lt. Edward Gustave Mathey (detached from M Company)
A Company: Capt. Myles Moylan, 1st Lt. Charles DeRudio
B Company: Capt. Thomas McDougall, 2nd Lt. Benjamin Hodgson (killed) as Adjutant to Major Reno
C Company: Capt. Thomas Custer (killed), 2nd Lt. Henry Moore Harrington (killed)
D Company: Capt. Thomas Weir, 2nd Lt. Winfield Edgerly
E Company: 1st Lt. Algernon Smith (killed), 2nd Lt. James G. Sturgis (killed)
F Company: Capt. George Yates (killed), 2nd Lt. William Reily (killed)
G Company: 1st Lt. Donald McIntosh (killed), 2nd Lt. George Wallace
H Company: Capt. Frederick Benteen, 1st Lt. Francis Gibson
I Company: Capt. Myles Keogh (killed), 1st Lt. James Porter (killed)
K Company: 1st Lt. Edward Settle Godfrey
L Company: 1st Lt. James Calhoun (killed), 2nd Lt. John J. Crittenden (killed)
M Company: Capt. Thomas French
agtG
