I Was There

Col. Charles A. Varnum's Experience with Custer At The Battle of the Little Big Horn
By E. A. Brininstool

NOTE BY AUTHOR: The death, on February 26, 1936, at San Francisco, of Col. Charles A. Varnum, at the advanced age of 87 years, closes the gaps in the ranks of Custer's old Seventh Cavalry officers who fought at the Little Big Horn, June 25 and 26, 1876, Col. Varnum being the last surviving officer. On Custer's last ill-fated expedition, Col. Varnum, then a lieutenant of the 7th, had charge of the Crow and Arickaree Indian scouts, and as such was operating independently of the main command most of the time being spent in the saddle, scouting far in advance of the regiment, with his Indian allies.

The story of his experience in Custer's last battle begins on the morning of June 25, when he, with his Indian scouts, attached themselves to the command of Major Marcus A. Reno, second in command of the 7th Cavalry. After crossing the Little Big Horn river, and the engagement with the hostile Sioux commenced, Lieut. Varnum's Indian scouts broke and fled, leaving him without a command. He therefore voluntarily joined the troop under Captain Weir.
 
 
 
 
 

Col. Varnum's story presents an interesting array of facts regarding this most disasterous battle between the United States troops and hostile Indians. Much of it is from his correspondence and interviews with the author over a period of several years; some of it is from his personal testimony before the Reno Court of Inquiry, held in 1879. In discussing his thrilling experience with the author, he once remarked:

"IF WE HAD REMAINED IN THE RIVER BOTTOM TWENTY MINUTES LONGER, NOT A MAN OF US WOULD HAVE ESCAPED. We were nearly all out of ammunition when we did leave. WHAT WAS LEFT OF MAJOR RENO'S COMMAND WHEN WE REACHED THE BLUFFS ACROSS THE RIVER DIDN'T AVERAGE FIVE CARTRIDGES TO THE MAN."   -- E. A. BRININSTOOL

"I was absent from the command nearly all the time, scouting with the Indians under my lead, and I heard none of the instructions given to any of the subordinates. When I reported to General Custer Major Reno was passing the general and his staff about a mile from the ford where Reno afterward crossed the river with the three troops.

I joined Major Reno's command there. I started on ahead with my Indians, and fell in with the command as I went on. I saw the battalion going into the fight and I happened to be in the front and dropped in and crossed the ford. I was then riding on the flank of the command. About one company of the battalion had already crossed, and I joined the head of the command as it was forming over there. I don't know whether the Indians could be seen from Major Reno's command at the time I started from Gen. Custer.

"As for myself, I had seen a large force of Indians on the river bottom an hour or more before, but I had been out on the hills, and I am not certain whether they could have been seen from where Custer and Reno separated.

"Major Reno's three companies moved out in columns of fours, I think at a rapid trot. They moved down to the ford and crossed the river. After I had left Gen. Custer's column I did not see it again while I was on that side (east) of the river.

"When I left Gen. Custer he was at the head of a column of troops, and they were moving at a walk, and Major Reno pulled out at a trot. I think, from what I have seen of the country since, that Custer must have turned off somewhere there, so that it was impossible for me to judge what the relative positions of the two commans was. I don't know what direction the two commands took respectively. I could not tell what the distance between the two commands was at that time. I had seen a portion of the Indian village before Custer and Reno separated.

"I can't recollect what time Major Reno's command separated from Custer's column. The last time I remember looking at my watch was 8 o'clock in the morning. That was on top of the mountain, on the divide between the Rosebud and Little Big Horn. I can just calculate from that point, and I have very little to base my opinion on as to the time, unless I connect with some other person's statement which would simply be his own opinion.

"I think that Major Reno's command must have separated from Custer's column soon after 2 o'clock in the afternoon, or about 2. I base that opinion a great deal on other people's opinion, combined with my own, as to the time. The separation must have occurred soon after we passed a tepee that stood on a tributary of the Little Big Horn river. There was a lone tepee there. I did not go down to it. I was out of the column when we passed it, and came back into the column I think soon after passing that tepee. The crossing was made ten to fifteen minutes after the separation. The water was quite deep at the ford, and the river was perhaps 25 to 30 feet wide--possibly more, and in a column of troops going across, there was necessarily a delay, as we could not keep closed up in the water. There was some delay in the first company crossing. I can't tell how much of a stoppage. Everything seemed to be moving over pretty rapidly.

"I had not ridden near the troops from the morning of the 24th, having been out in the hills, and I was so completely exhausted that I could hardly sit in the saddle. Nothing but the excitement of going into action kept me in the saddle at all. I had traveled about 20 miles further than the troops, and I can assure you there is a vast difference between going along a trail and scouting all over the hills.

"There were eight or ten Indian scouts with me at the time I joined Reno, and as soon as the column had passed I was joined by Lieut. Hare, who had detailed to [ ] me in [ ].

"We started out fifty to seventy-five yards ahead of the command. The river bottom opened wider as we went down stream. There was quite a large body of Indians a little ways off, and they appeared to be running away from us, and then running back and forth across the prairie, and then toward us, in every direction, apparently trying to kick up all the dust they could. In fact, there was so much dust in the air that it was impossible to judge anywhere near as to the number of Indians there.

"At times they appeared to be running away, as I stated, then halting and circling around. Suddenly I observed that they had stopped and turned backward, and I glanced back to ascertain the cause, and noticed a column deploying from column into line. The command then moved forward again, and we also rode on, I suppose fifty yards in front of the command, and as we went down the river bottom we worked out toward the bluffs--toward the left of Major Reno's line.

"The Indians let us come in closer and closer as we went down We could see about half way to where the final halt was made. There we observed a number of Indian tepees, and as we worked out toward the left, we could see yet more. The Indians were meantime circling and raising a dust which did not uncover the village very much.

"We went down possibly two miles. The line then halted and dismounted. I was not present--that is, close enough to hear any of the orders, so I do not know what orders were given.

"When the line halted, I rode with Lieut. Hare in toward the line, and the Indian scouts were gone--I don't know where. My old company that I belonged to was in the line--Capt. Weir's troop--and I went back and reported to him, and told him I should stop with his company during the fight.

"The point where Major Reno's skirmish line was formed was about two miles from the nearest point of the Indian village, and I should think about two hundred yards further around the bend of the river to where the nearest tepees were; and the main bulk of the village was below that. There must have been a pretty solid line of tepees right in front close together, in that bend. After cross- [ portion missing ]

When I went to get the horses I had no trouble getting them. There were no Indians in where the animals were. Some of the men who had been left as horseholders were probably firing. The line on the left of the timber was under the same hill that the horses were. All I had to do was to ride down the skirmish line, to and beyond the left of the line. Captain Moyland said the Indians were getting in on his left, and that the horses were not covered by the skirmish line, and that the Indians would probably get in there. I didn't see any Indians in there; neither did I find or see any horses that had been struck by bullets.

"After Major Reno's command got on the hill, there were quite a number of the men firing. I went to the wounded men. I did not watch particularly as to the number of Indians, but I knew from the sound of the shots that there were some Indians firing on us. They were just scattering shots. If the men happened to see any Indians riding along they would fire, if the savages were within range.

"On the other side of the stream where we crossed was a very steep and high hill to the yet higher bluffs beyond. I know the horses were pretty well tuckered out, panting and climbing that awful grade. I don't know exactly what did happen at that time at the head of the column, because my orderly who had been with me was very badly wounded. His horse also was shot and fell with him and I stopped to pick up a loose horse and mount him.

"The head of the command halted there, or there was some sort of delay, and somebody said they were going to move on up to the top of the hill, as there was no use stopping there. When we reached the crest of the bluff I found there were several wounded men, and two or three of them were from my own company--the first sergeant and one or two others. I stopped and helped them down off their horses.

"A few minutes later a column of troops was in sight coming down stream toward us, and we stopped there then or fifteen minutes until they arrived. It was Captain Benteen's battalion. At that time I don't recollect that Captain McDougal's company, with the packs, was in sight. I remember that Lieut. Hare started out soon afterward to hurry them up. We waited there five or ten minutes, when Major Reno told me to take a detachment and go down and bury Lieut. Hodgson's body. There was nothing there to dig a grave with, and I told him I would have to wait until the pack arrived. He said he had been down to the river and got some little trinkets from Hodgson's body, but that his watch was gone.

"We remained there until the packs came up, about three-quarters of an hour later. I then got two spades from the packs and started with about six men to go down to the river and bury Lieut. Hodgson. About two-thirds of the way down, I saw a lot of men coming out of the woods. There was a citizen and quite a number of soldiers who came out of the timber dismounted, and were climbing the bluffs, coming up out of the river bottom.

"As I started with the men to bury the bodies, somebody--I think it was Lieut. Wallace--called to me that they wanted me to come back, and then I started immediately up the hill. When I arrived there most of the command had started to move down stream along the bluffs, with the exception, I think, of Captain Moylan's company, and possibly some of the others. Moylan had most of the wounded--in fact, I think they were all from his troop and the men he had left and who were able to travel, were hardly sufficient to carry them along. There were very few men there belonging to A Company after the fight, and they moved very slowly. I remained with them some time, and think Capt. McDougal's company sent a platoon to assist in carrying the wounded. I started along with A Company for awhile. I had no company myself at all.

"About a mile and a half from there I joined Capt. Weir's troop. That was on the far point of the long range of bluffs which ran along the right bank of the Little Big Horn. I went where his company was dismounted and firing at the Indians, who seemed to be coming from out of the prairies. It was quite long range, but the Indians also were firing at his command. All the Indians in the country seemed to be coming after us again as fast as they could travel.

"Soon after this, we turned and gradually dropped back. I did not see the troops leave that further point, but I went back to Captain Moylan and helped with the wounded a little while. I rode back slowly to the rear, and the troops gradually fell back to the point I think a little further up the stream than where we touched the bluffs. It was quite a slow movement, as one or two of the companies were dismounted. They got their horses and fell into line and dropped back into the position that was selected and on which we afterward fought.

"The firing was kept up. The entire Indian force seemed to have turned back against us, and we had to fight falling back dismounted to cover the retreat, to the position where we were later located. The firing continued as long as we could see--a very heavy firing against us, and the men fortified as well as they could, using tin cups, knives and whatever came to hand to dig into the flinty soil.

"I supposed the object of the move down stream after Benteen came up, was to go in the direction Genreal Custer was supposed to have gone, and that we were to unite with him.

"The night of the 25th, when the line was first formed, I laid right down on the line with the men while the firing was going on, and until it ceased, and as soon as it slackened I fell asleep--or in a very few minutes afterward--and I didn't know a thing until the bullets commenced to fly around the next morning, and then I got up. I was lying on a little knoll when daylight came, and it was rather exposed, so I started over for French's line and laid down in the trench with him.

"The men had been fortifying in the night, and that was my first sight of how they had been throwing up their fortifications--or rather, digging out the little holes they were occupying. That was the first time I noticed exactly where Major Reno was. He was down on Captain Weir's line to the right. I think there were one or two companies intervening between his position and French's troop.

"I presume most of that day I lay with Captain French in that little hole. I think we were there two or three hours anyway. In fact, the Indians were firing very rapidly at us, and so we just laid still and made no reply to them whatever. We just let them shoot. Occasionally they would start to make a rush on us, and then we would jump up and open on them and they would run back. That sort of tactics alternated for a long time.

"About nine or ten o'clock I went to Captain Moylan's line. I endeavored to get some scouts to try and get outside of the lines with a dispatch. I finally got two or three Crow scouts to say' they would go if the 'Rees would also go. I went over to see Major Reno to get a note. I think he wrote four copies of the note, and I sent it out with the scouts. That was probably on the afternoon of the 26th. The Indian scouts did not get through the lines at all, nor do I think they even made an attempt.

"I don't know exactly how to describe the movement of the Indians on the hill. They would lie behind a ridge from two hundred to five hundred yards off. There was one place where I don't think they were over one hundred yards away. We had to charge on them ourselves and drive them out of there. They would lie just behind the ridge, and it would be just one ring of smoke from their guns around the entire range. We would simply lie still and let them shoot away their ammunition. When their nerve was at the proper point, they would come up and charge us. They would sit back on their horses and ride up and we would pour it into them, and they would then fall back. That was kept up all day long.

"I don't know how many wounded we had the night of the 25th. I didn't go down where Dr. Porter was at work with the hospital until some time on the 26th. There may have been about twenty wounded men, but I can't say exactly.

The horses and pack animals were all corraled in a circle, all in together, by tying the reins of about a dozen horses together and fastening them to the legs of the head horses. The corral was covered by Captain Moylan's company behind the pack saddles, and on the left was Captain Weir's troop, and I think Godfrey's also. On the right was French's company, with Wallace's and McDougal's--that in commencing at about the center of the line, and that took it around to the left until McDougal's left rested on the river. On the up-stream side was a little knoll that was higher than the ground where most of us lay, and on that ground Captain Benteen got his company in line. I do not think the command was in position to do any very hard work, at least more than they were forced to do under the circumstances, and probably the majority of them slept that night.

"I was not with Major Reno at the time we were moving back to our original position, after having advanced down toward where Captain Weir had gone. The only time I was in a position where I could hear him give an order was when we were going back to this far point where the command stopped--at least, I found a portion of it halted. As I came back I rode up near to him, and heard him say something to the effect that he was going to select his position to make his fight a little further on. We were moving up stream then.

"As to his exercising the functions of a commanding officer directing the troops, the movements and positions of the men, in the presence of great danger, he certainly did that. He was present with the command, giving orders. Certainly there was no sign of cowardice or anything of that sort.

"Referring again to the attempt made on the 26th to get a scout through to General Terry, I would state that the letter said in the first place that we had arrived at this point about such-and-such a time; that we had attacked the Indians and that we did not know where General Custer was. It described our location on the hill, and stated that we were holding the Indians in check. I am also very certain that is asked for medical aid and assistance. That is about as near as I can remember. This letter was written by Major Reno.

"At the time I saw the gray horse troop, while we were fighting in the river bottom, the men in that troop were certainly in a position to see exactly what we were doing down there. What part of the column the gray horse troop was in I cannot say. How far General Custer was in advance of the gray horse troop I cannot tell. But asuming that he was riding there with the column he had just passed the point where I had seen the gray horse troop. He certainly must have been in a position to know exactly what was going on. I certainly believe that General Custer would be watching the progress of the fight at that time. If he saw us there--and I certainly can't help thinking that he must have seen us--then it was the last information he got concerning us.

"General Custer may have attempted to cross the river at the fording place and have been driven back, and left no particular signs, unless there were tracks where the horses came down, or else where someone had been wounded, or there had been dead horses; but I don't know of any dead horses or bodies or anything that indicated a fight, although he may have gone in there.

The first evidence I found showing where General Custer's command had been engaged with the Indians was in coming up over the field where those dead bodies were found. There was just a few in that vicinity, here and there. It must have been about two miles from Major Reno's position on the hill. It may have been a little more than that.

"As to whether Captain Benteen's command could have united with Reno in the timbered place we occupied in the river bottom, it would depend. At the time we left the timber the Indians turned from us. Now if we had remained there and Captain Benteen had started to come in there, what force the Indians would have put against us is a problem--and the Indians are the only ones who know anything about that. When Benteen came up, he came to us from up stream on the right hand bank. From what I understand of the direction in which he came, he would have joined us probably on that trail by which Major Reno went into the woods. I suppose of course the firing would have attracted him, and he would have come in unless he had different orders. Whether the Indians would have had force enough to have attacked him as soon as they saw him coming and prevented him from uniting with us, I cannot say. If they had sent men enough down there, they might have sent him into the timber and prevented him from uniting with us on the hill.

If Benteen had joined Reno in the river bottom with the pack train and all the extra ammunition they could certainly have held the bottom for some time. Of course the presence of our troops as near as we were to the village, would necessarily have kept a force of Indians in our front to fight up; they could not leave the village while we were there.

"As far as forming a junction with Custer -- by going through the village in that direction -- I don't believe that either Custer or Reno either could have done that - that is, that either command could have joined the other by charging through the village.

"Custer must have been in action before Major Reno and Captain Benteen united their forces.

"We started on the 28th to go down to the Custer field and bury the dead, and we went down on a trail which I supposed was General Custer's. When we got to the high hill with lots of little stones and Indian medicine bags on top of it, I went up to see what it was. I rode off the trail and circled around and came down to it where I supposed the point "B" on the map made by Lieut. McGuire is located. That point was very much cut up by pony tracks. It was evidently a watering place. Very soon after that, we went up to where I had seen two or three bodies, and we received an order from Major Reno to go away back on some bluffs, well out from the river, with the Indian scouts and operate as a lookout while the men deployed around the field burying the dead. I was not over the field at all until the burial took place. The bodies I did see were in a gully or ravine.

"You ask my judgment as to the number of Indians that were engaged, and whether they were not sufficient in number to have overcome both commands even if each had been separately engaged at the same time. My reply is that I would not like to take half the warriors they had and take the command we had with us, and fight them. There must have been a great many warriors there. From the estimates of other people and what I heard the Indians estimate later, and putting everything together that I could pick up, I do not believe there were less than four thousand warriors to fight.

"Regarding the number of Indian warriors in that village, I have heard it estimated at from twenty-five hundred to twelve thousand. I think myself that there were at least fifteen thousand men, women and children in the village, and four thousand warriors, if they all had their families with them; but I don't think they all had their families along. I know there were a great many wickiups at the lower part of the village left standing, and they were quite thick along the edge of the timber on the stream, and at the lower end of the village.

"If there were fifteen thousand Indians in the village it would take not less than twenty thousand ponies to move them. I did not see the village moving. I saw those ponies when I was on the bluffs the night before the fight. The Indian scouts with me described them as they stood with me and looked at them. They said that there were more ponies than they had ever seen together before in their lives, and that it looked like an immense buffalo herd; but I could not see a thing myself, for my eyes were bothering me terribly from the heat, dust and loss of sleep. The Indians tried to show me the pony herd by advising me to "look for worms crawling in the "grass." General Custer came up there, too, and he looked, but he could not make out any pony herd.

"While we were on the hill, just after Captain Benteen had arrived, I heard firing away down stream, and I spoke of it to Lieut. Wallace. I had just borrowed a rifle from him and had fired a couple of shots at long range at the Indians in the river bottom. Just as I was handing back the rifle I heard firing, and remarked, My, Oh My! What does that mean? -- It was not like a volley, but a heavy firing -- 4a sort of crash! crash! I do not mean that it was necessarily the general's command which were doing the firing; it may have been the Indians. It was from that end of the village down in the vicinity where Custer's body was found. I thought he was having a pretty hot time down there, as the firing was very heavy.

"I do not know anything about the plan of the fight -- if plan there was. I merely saw the companies going into action and I went in with them.

"When I saw the command going along the bluffs -- at the time I observed the gray horse troop -- I noted of course, that some battalion or command was going to attack the village -- was going in or engage the other end of the Indian camp; but how large the command was, or exactly what it was going to do, I cannot tell.

"In regard to the guns used by the Indians against us, I believe the longest range rifles they had had were those they had taken from General Custer's command, with some few exceptions. There were one or two Indians on a particular point who had very long range guns. As regards the range of the Winchester rifles used by the Indians, it was not as great as the carbines we carried. The Winchesters carried a considerably less charge of powder than did the Springfield carbine, the caliber of which was 45-70, while probably the Winchesters used by the Indians in that fight were the Model 1873 44-40 caliber--only a little more than half that direction at least to fire over the bluff's the powder our own cartridges carried. One could shoot with reasonable accuracy up to a thousand yards with the Springfield carbine.

"I don't believe the plains Indians, such as the Sioux, would have been likely to have charged the troops in the timber while mounted on their ponies. It would not have been a very healthful place for an enemy to go in mounted while the troops were in there. Indians will try to take advantage of every sort of cover rather than risk their lives. Major Reno's troops in that timber were under cover, and the Indians -- while they were out on the plains where we could see them -- they also had an advantage of timber above and below on the stream, which they could have used as we did.

"Every Indian fights for himself. Each one has his own method of fighting. The way they will fight depends very largely upon their numbers and the forces of the enemy.

"In conclusion I would state that I have related this engagement of the battle of the Little Big Horn just as I experienced it and as things came under my own observation. Probably no two men will relate the same incidents alike, as they may have been viewed from entirely different angles."