5
hii
Codatiiprmiooretlatiiglon
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
IFTY-SIX years have passed since the
career of Gen. George Armstrong
Custer came to Its dramatic close,
yet the glamor of his name has
kept alive for more than half a
century the memory of that tragedy
while other battles much more im-
portant historically have been all
but forgotten. Scarcely a month
passes without there appearing In
the news of the day ho of
“Custer's Last Battle” to recall to
our minds what took place on the
Little Big Horn river in Montana on that fate
ful day in June, 1876.
It may be an item referring to one of the
“last survivors of the Custer battle” who have
bobbed up with such regularity during the last
five decades and who have so easily been proved
to be fakes,
As 8 matter of fact there were many “sur-
vivors” of the Custer battle if the term “Custer
battle” is interpreted to mean the whole action
which took place on the Little Big Horn on
June 29. 1876. Those were the o flicers and men
who were in the detachment of the Seventh
cavalry, commanded by Maj. Marcus A. Reno,
Capt. Frederick W. Benteen and Capt. Thomas
McDougal, when Custer divided his command
to attack thé Indian village. They were the
members of Troops A, G and M under Reno;
Troops D, H and K under Benteen; and Troop
B, which was guarding the pack train, under
McDougal.
But of Troops C, E, 1, F and L, which were
pnder the immediate command of Custer and
which were so quickly surrounded by the In-
dians, there was one—and ONLY ONE—sur
vivor of “Custer's last stand” and that was not
a man, but a horse. That authentic “sole sur
vivor” was Comanche, the claybank sorrel which
was ridden into the battle by Capt. Myles W,
Keogh of Troop 1. Two days after the battle
he was found wandering about the battlefield,
plerced by seven bullets and so wenk and
emaciated that at first it was decided that the
only humane thing to do was to kill him. But
Lieut, H. I. Nowlan, field quartermaster on
General Terry's staff and an intimate friend of
Captain Keogh, prevailed upon the soldiers to
spare Comanche’s life. His wounds were dressed
and he was go well cared for on the steamer
Far West, which carried the other wounded of
Custer’'s command back to Fort Abraham Lin-
coln, that he pulled through and lived to the
age of twenty-eight years. When he dled in
1802 the Seventh was stationed at Fort Riley,
Kan., and Professor Dyche, a naturalist con-
nected with the University of Kansas, mounted
the skin and today there stands in the Dyche
museum at the University of Kansas the life
Hike form of the only authentic survivor of
*Custer's last stand.”
Or it may be an item about some one who
“fought with Custer” and who “escaped the
massacre because he was detached from the
regiment at the time.” In nine cases out of
ten such Individuals weren't within several hun.
fired miles of the Little Big Horn on that day
and have no more right to clalm that they
“fought with Custer” than have several hun.
dred other men who were in the armies in the
feld against the hostile Indians during the cam.
paign of 1876. Then again it may be an item
referring to some one who asserts that he was
a “Custer scout,” although the name of every
man who has a legitimate claim to that title Is
well-known and all of them, with the possible
exception of some of the Arikara Indian scouts
who accompanied Custer on his last expedition,
are now dead
Considering the amount of publicity that has
been given from time to time to all these “last
survivors,” “Custer fighters” and “Custer scouts”
it seems all the more remarkable that so little
attention was paid recently to the passing of
one important apd genuine sector In the Custer
some
tragedy. For when Brig. Gen. Edward 8. God-
frey, U, 8. A, retired, died at his home In Cooks.
town, N. J., last April, I marked the end of the
last of Custer’s troop commanders. On the day
that Custer perished, Genera 1 Godfrey was Lien-
tenant Godfrey, commander of Troop K of the
Seventh cavalry, and Troop K was a part of
the battalion commanded by Capt. Frederick W.
Benteen, the senior captain in the Sevointh, when
Custer divided the regiment to make his attack
on the Indian village strung along the banks of
the Little Big Horn.
Not only did General Godfrey play an impor-
tant part In the fighting which took place after
Benteen's command Joined forces with the de
tachment commanded by Maj. Marcus A. Reno,
but in later years he became known as the lead-
ing authority on the Custer battle and the chief
defender of Custer when the question was raised
as to whether or not the disaster on the Little
Big Horn was due to Custer’'s disobedience of
the orders of his superior, Gen. Alfred H. Terry.
Not the least of General Godfrey's services to
the memory of his dead commander was in re-
futing the slander that Custer had committed
sulecide when he saw that the destruction of his
command was inevitable and not the least of
his contributions to the truthful history of the
Custer battle was his part in showing up as
impostors the various “last survivors” and “Cas
ter scouts” who sought notoriety through the
reflected glory of Custer's name and who enjoyed
for a little while their spurious fame.
General Godfrey was born In Ohlo and enlist.
ed in the Union army at the outbreak of the
Civil war, serving in the Twenty-first Ohio in
fantry from April to August, 1861. He became a
cadet In the United States Military academy at
West Point July 1, 1863, and was graduated in
June, 1867, being Immediately appointed a second
leutenant in the Beventh cavalry. He was pro.
moted to first lleutenant February 1, 1808, and
while holding that rank took part in various
Indian campaigns of the Seventh cavalry which
added so much luster to Custer's reputation as
an Indian fighter,
Appointed a captain of the Seventh In Decem-
ber, 1876, Godfrey took part in the campaign
against Chief Joseph and his Nez Perces the
next year and at the battle of the Bear Paw
mountain on September 380, 1877, he won the
brevet of major and the Medal of Honor for
“most distinguished gallantry in leading his
command into action where he was severely
wounded,” At the time of his death he was not
only the only surviving troop commander of
Custer's regiment, but he was also sald to have
been the oldest living graduate from West
Point,
Mention of West Point recalls the fact that
another echo of the Custer tragedy was heard
recently when President Hoover reappointed
Gen. E.S. Godfrey
(Pictures of Lieutenant Harrington, Courtesy
United States Military Academy.)
é
Miss Grace Alleen Harrington us postmaster
the United States M y
the academy know Miss
utive lady on whose
ways a smile ag she
them. But to others, i
history, she Is the symbo
tragic episodes in the greater traged
Custer battle, For she Is the daughter of Lic
Henry Moore Harrington, a subaltern in
Tom Custer's C troop of 1e¢ Seventh caval
who died on the Little Big Horn,
A pative of New York, Harrington was grad
uated from West Point In 1568. His first duty
wns in North Carolina, but desiring more active
gervice he was transfererd to the
alry In 1872 and roined that regiment in time to
participate in several minor Indian fights. He
was on leave In 1876 when the Seventh cavalry
was ordered to join General Terry's army,
was to be sent into the field against the hostile
Sioux and Cheyennes. Upon hearing of this,
Harrington Immediately telegraphed that he was
giving up his leave and rejoining his troop. So
he was one of those who rode away from Fort
Abraham Lincoln in North Dakota and took the
trail ‘which led to the Little Big Horn, to death
and to utter mystery as to his end.
For Lieutenant
three officers (the others being
James E. Porter of 1 troop and James RR. Sturgis
f E troop) whose bodies were never found, st
least, not identified after the battle.
noted authority on Indian history, E. A.
stool, in his book, “A Trooper With ( aster.”
writes:
and while It has always been su;
Seventh cav-
which
Harrington was one of the
Lieutenants
Of them a
‘Nothing was ever learned of thelr fate
posed that they
were killed,
not beyond reason
have escaped, badly
way place
that they were d
but poss bly it identified,
out-of-the
tured to death that night
which was flashed with
The Sioux, howeve
at they took no
on of the Little Big Horn figh
Not only Is the jgr
one of the
woman who
go many of Cu
but there Is another tragic memory whie
hais carried through life—a memory of her mu
er, who sudde
ster's officers were once
nly disappeared several years
the Caster battle. “Amnesia It would be
nowadays,” Miss Harrington says, “but at
time It was ascribed to grief and the uncertain-
ty of what had happened to my eral
times we heard from Indians that a lady dressed
in black had been seen on the battlefield. Other
reports came from Indian Territory, We investi-
gated all these rumors and finally after two
years we found her in Texas where a severe at-
tack of pneumonia had served to bring back her
memory so that she knew who she was. But
she wag never able to give any account of her
wanderings while she was gone or why she was
there”
Tragedy also stalked through the life of
Miss Harrington's great-aunt, Miss Blanche Be
rard, who was postmaster at West Point for al-
most 50 years. Appointed by President Polk In
1847, she served In that post anti] 1807. As a
young girl she was engaged to an officer. “One
afternoon this officer brought his horse to the
pest office to show my great-aunt,” Miss Har
rington tells the story: “While exercising him
and demonstrating his good points, the officer
was thrown and killed. This aunt never married,
remaining true to the mémory of her first and
only love, One big thrill did come to her In her
later life. While on leave of absence from the
post office, which she spent In Europe, Miss Pe.
rard had the honor of being presented to Queen
Victoria.”
The war record of the Harrington family dates
back to the birth of the United States, for
among the family papers In Miss Harrington's
possession is the honorable discharge of her
great-great-grandfather, Niles, who was a sol-
dier in the Continental army, This historic doe
ument is signed by George Washington. In the
Civil war members of her family participated
in many engagements as volunteers,
Over Miss Harrington's desk In the postoffice
hang two piétures. There In the busy turmbil
of mail distribution for the 1.200 cadets at the
father. Sey
cers and soldiers, Is a constant reminder of de-
votion to duty, the cornerstone of Miss Har.
rington’s life and that of her distinguished an-
cestors. One of them is a picture of her father
as a cadet and the others a picture of him as an
officer in the regimentals of the Seventh eav-
alry, the uniform worn when he disappeared
forever. The picture of him in cadet uniform
is enclosed In a frame made of beads and these
beads were obtained by her mother from In-
dians In Dakota—perhaps from members of the
same tribe whose warriors rode over the troop
ers of Custer and his captains and his leuten-
ants In a red wave of savage triumph that fear.
ful day on the Little Big Horn fifty-six years
1
ago (® by Western Newapaver Union.)
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