The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Big Horn

67.
    Charles Mills in Harvest of Barren Regrets writes of the rift between Benteen and his father during the Civil War, p. 19, as well the ongoing feud between Benteen’s two commanding officers during much of the war, p. 65. For a reproduction of an erotic drawing by Benteen, see Camp Talk, edited by John Carroll, p. 103. In an Oct. 20, 1891, letter to Goldin, Benteen wrote, “I lost four children in following that brazen trumpet around,” John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, p. 197. Benteen described himself as a “Nihilist sure” in a Mar. 23, 1896, letter to Goldin, John Carroll’s Benteen-Goldin Letters, p. 294. Benteen wrote of the pride that kept him from leaving the regiment and of his curious decision to request Custer’s return prior to the Washita campaign in a Feb. 12, 1896, letter to Goldin, John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, pp. 259, 252. Corroborating Benteen’s claim that he had encouraged Sheridan to bring Custer back is Custer’s letter to Libbie: “even my enemies ask to have me return,” in Frost, General Custer’s Libbie, p. 174. Benteen described his struggles with the pack train in his narrative of the battle in John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, pp. 162–63.
    The scouts’ description of Varnum as “Peaked Face” is in Libby, p. 197. Varnum recounted Custer’s words of praise during the Yellowstone campaign of 1873 to T. M. Coughlan in Varnum: The Last of Custer’s Lieutenants ; Coughlan also wrote that Custer “and some of his young officers had their heads shingled with clippers shortly before leaving Fort Lincoln,” p. 4. Custer’s insistence that Reno had “made the mistake of his life” by not following the Indian trail is also in Coughlan, p. 9. Custer’s letter to Libbie referring to “the valuable time lost” by Reno’s failure to pursue the Indians is in Merington, p. 305. Custer’s claim that a victory over just five lodges of Lakota was sufficient to claim success is in Libby, p. 58. According to Peter Thompson, “all men knew that General Custer, if left to his own devices, would soon end the campaign one way or another. Custer and some of his officers were anxious to witness the opening of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in July 1876,” Account, p. 9.
    Benteen described how he reorganized the pack train in his narrative in John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, p. 163. Thompson described the fall of Barnum the mule in his Account , pp. 11–12. In a Feb. 19, 1896, letter to Goldin, Benteen wrote: “The anti-Custer faction—if there was such a faction—were the people in the regiment that had all of the hard duty to perform and who did it nobly, because they loved their country and the ‘Service,’ ” John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, p. 273. Cooke’s Arikara name of “the Handsome Man” was listed in Mark Kellogg’s notebook in Sandy Barnard’s I Go with Custer, p. 207. Benteen told of Cooke’s defection to the Custer faction in a Feb. 17, 1896, letter to Goldin, in John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, p. 269. Benteen describes his interactions with Cooke and Custer about the pack train in his narrative in John Carroll, Benteen-Goldin Letters, pp. 177–78.
    My description of the regiment’s march up the Rosebud Valley is based in part on my own observations while following Custer’s trail in June 2007. Varnum’s description of the valley as “one continuous village” is from a May 5, 1909, letter from Varnum to Walter Camp in Richard Hardorff’s On the Little Bighorn with Walter Camp, p. 71. Burkman describes his interchange with Custer while riding along the Rosebud in Wagner, pp. 144–45. According to John Gray in Centennial Campaign, “Custer seems to have misinterpreted the signs to mean that the village was breaking up and fleeing,” p. 338. Varnum told of Custer’s order “to see that no trail led out of the one we were following” in Custer’s Chief of Scouts, edited by John Carroll, p. 60.
    Godfrey wrote of the regiment’s activities at the location of Sitting Bull’s sun dance in his Field Diary, edited by Stewart, pp. 9–10, and in “Custer’s Last Battle,” in W. A. Graham, The Custer Myth, pp. 135–36. The article in which Daniel Kanipe described the wickiups as “brush sheds” as well as how Sergeant Finley placed the scalp in his saddle-bag is in W. A. Graham, The Custer Myth, p. 248. Wooden Leg told of how the young warriors stayed in wickiups instead of lodges in Marquis, Wooden