My spurs having been poorly fastened came off again, and seeing a pair lying on the trail, I got off my horse to secure them. Standing on the opposite bank of the river and at the very point we wished to gain were three Indians, with their smoking rifles in their hands. The silence was suddenly broken by a loud command given by a hostile chief, which was followed by a terrific volley and a great many of our horses and mules passed over the range. I told him that as I could not carry a gun I thought I had better do something to help the wounded and the dying. He had pleaded guilty to these charges in 2003. He escaped by hiding in a pallet of used mailbags. I gained the shelter of the ravine without a scratch and I was thankful. Where we made our stand there was nothing but sand, gravel, and a little sagebrush. Let's look first at the incident Thompson observed on the banks of the Little Bighorn River, where he said a Crow scout appeared with a Sioux woman on a tether moments before Custer himself rode into sight and ordered the woman released. He shook his head and said he did not know. At the other end of the rope, straining and tugging to get away, was a Sioux squaw. The questioner belonged to my own company and I naturally expected him to sympathize with me in my errand of mercy. By his own word, he was watching through binoculars when Custer attacked at Medicine Tail Coulee. 5 Jan 2023. I was too astonished for a moment to even speak or move, but when I did regain my speech I used it to the best advantage as that was all the weapon I had. Tom Custer and other Seventh Cavalry troopers riding across the river in the moonlight, but it turned out to be Indians in captured Army uniforms.]. While I looked at them, one rose to his feet and beckoned for us in the most friendly manner to advance. Indians were leaving the village in all speed to assist in the fight against the cavalry; others from the battlefield with double burdens of dead and wounded were arriving. [Note: this is an interesting observation -- the first description I know of by a white of the "stationary wheel" technique which allowed the mounted, circling Indian cavalry to (1) maximize the concentration of their firepower, and (2) minimize their exposure to American soldiers's fire. The supports that were used were short pieces of wood of any kind that we could procure without risk. I looked around me and saw what remained of those who had gone down the ravine against such fearful odds. But I was just as positive in my belief that the cavalry would win. The noise gradually became louder and louder until it became indescribably and almost unbearable to the ears of civilized persons. The cause of this commotion was Major Reno with three companies of men about a mile distant from the upper end of the village, dashing along in a gallop towards them. But this soon passed out of my mind, as there was always something going on which attracted my attention. I was not the only one to run for the head of the ravine. After his arrest, he brought a lawsuit against authorities charging the prison commissioners with illegal arrest and used the incident to plan his next escape. The men only fired where they thought they were going to do execution. One of the men began to kick him and yelled for him to get up. I peeped over the fallen tree and saw a group of mounted Indians gesticulating, grunting out their words, and pointing towards the advancing cavalry. OK, WHO WAS the Crow scout Thompson and Custer apparenlty caught mid-murder and/or rape? He came to the same conclusion. I began to watch the actions of the men. Watson, surprised, answered, "No," and again asked what was up. They picked the wrong place", "Six Palestinian prisoners escape Israeli jail through tunnel", "Gangsters use vehicles to ram into Mexico prison and free nine inmates", "Jail Officer and Murder Suspect Missing After Heading to "Bogus" Appointment", "Details emerge about man and 4 grandsons killed by fugitive murderer in Texas: "Good, salt of the earth people", "Roberto Jos Carmona ya ingres al penal de Cruz del Eje", "Armed attack on Mexican jail leaves 14 dead", "George Feigley escapes from jail after being recaptured in West Virginia", "George Feigley recaptured in Tennessee after second escape", I love you Phillip Morris: a conman's story, "City Press, Sondag 23 November 2003, p. 4: The trials and tribulations of a cash heist tycoon", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_prison_escapes&oldid=1139444815. "Fifteen dollars for a canteen of water," said a second. Fifeshire, Scotland. Near the water's edge, some distance up the river, we saw a large body of Indians holding a council, and that we might avoid them we kept as close to the cover of the brush as possible and went as rapidly as we could towards the face of the bluff. But as on the former occasion, when I came to the bend in the ravine I halted and looked carefully around the corner. Join Facebook to connect with Peter Thomson and others you may know. He released my hand and seemed satisfied and then I began to realize what the promise I had made meant. I could see that his days were numbered. Originally reprinted in The Black Hills Trails, by Jesse Brown and A.M. Willard, Rapid City Journal Co., Rapid City, SD, 1924. I then asked Watson if that did not account for Custer's presence away from his command. Both banks were wet with the splashing made by the animals going to and from the village. Jumping to my feet I saw Capt. Suddenly a small band of Indians came up towards us on a jog trot, which made us seek cover. There were numerous ravines leading into the one which we occupied. However, the most likely is Curley, who was at the river alone -- as Thompson described -- and he was always fundimentally evasive about what happened there. It was utterly impossible to move our wounded, as we had no means at hand with which we could do so. He was never captured, but DNA-confirmed remains of his skull were found near Del Valle, Texas on September 8, 2014. The hill we were climbing seemed very long, so much so to me that I fell down and lay there without any inclination to move again, until Watson called my attention to the head of the column of cavalry which now came into plain view. Given his true heroism, the story of the battle that Thompson told late in life was winning in its modesty and compelling in its authentic detail, but among those details are a couple passages that throw the Accepted Consensus View of the Little Bighorn out the window. Box 393 I called Watson's attention to it, but he did not think it was the same horse. Here is An Anonymous Ree's account of what he thought were Thompson's last mintues on this planet. But the only result was that the lead lay buried in the red clay at my side. So we started, following the trail until we were entirely clear of the brush and then began to climb the face of the bluff in order to reach the trail on which we saw the cavalry were moving [Watson's concern was legitimate. What I discovered was several Indians peering at us over the edge of the bluff; in all I counted eight and concluded that they were too many for us, especially with an uphill pull on our side. Had it not been for the watchfulness of our men, they certainly would have got the best o f us. We saw plenty of Indians on our side of the stream; they seemed to get bolder and more numerous, but so far they were some distance away. I had not gone far before I heard my name called and on looking around I saw Watson coming after me at full speed. We wondered why none of his staff were with him. "Get out of here," he cried, And do your duty!". I discovered a pool of blood a short distance from him which had come from a terrible wound in his leg. My wounded neighbor gave a scream of agony and lay still. He soon bandaged up my wounds and told me the only thing that could be done was to apply plenty of water. Crow scout Running Wolf described how "Custer went ahead to look for a trail for the wagons" in the Bad Lands, and both Daniel Kanipe and John Ryan described how Custer left his command and rode ahead with just Chief Trumpeter Henry Voss and a few scouts on the morning of June 25. My answer is, a sense of duty, and love for our comrades in arms. Benteen seemed to be aware of the impending danger, and was forming all the men he possibly could into line at the point where it was expected that the Indians would attack us. The Crow then left Custer and rode in a jog trot towards the river and disappeared. I soon turned the bend of the ravine, but no signs of them did I see. When about half way up the bluff, I noticed something that made me hesitate. Ladies and Gentlemen, In these days of virtual communication, it is often difficult to know whom one is addressing and how you are all faring as we work our way out of this global . I wondered if any of the other members of Company C had been as unfortunate as myself. And with a cheer, away they dashed, their revolvers in one hand and their carbines in the other. After getting everything in shape, I started on the run. Confident this will flow on to benefits for SDG14 & Ocean biodiversity. He said he was sick. The Indians who seemed to be detailed to bring in the dead and the wounded were continually coming into the village with double burdens showing that the soldiers though greatly decreased in numbers were still doing eff ective work. While the hottest of the fight was going on and the tide of battle seemed to be against us, our doctor dropped his bandages, and grasping a gun started toward the skirmish line. For his valor at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Thompson was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Peter Thomson has been covering the the environment for more than 20 years and signed on as The World's environment editor in 2008. The problem that now perplexed us was what we were to do. The poor brute had fallen and was struggling to gain an upright position. -- Bruce Brown By the time we had everything arranged, the sun was going down. This canvas the officers had brought along for their own use, but it was given by them for the humane purpose of sheltering the helpless. How were we going to transport our wounded? Louis, MS. After we had climbed nearly half way up the bluff, the Indians commenced to fire at us, but that did not trouble us, because we knew that the Indians when excited were very poor shots; and in our case the bullets went wide of the mark. The unexpected bonus in Thompson's tale is that he may reveal what Curley was up to when he vanished just before the start of the Custer fight -- and why he was always evasive about what happened at the river. DURING THE SUMMER OF 2004. See Mysteries of the Little Bighorn for more info.] After Custer excused the scouts from further service, Goes Ahead said he and Hairy Moccasin and White Man Runs Him went together to the river on their own, and Sioux warrior White Cow Bull said he saw three Crows on the bluffs above Medicine Tail Coulee just before Cuter attacked the village. The following is a list of historically famous prison escapes, and of people who escaped multiple times: There have been many infamous escapes throughout history: Merrill, Anthony. I found that very little change had taken place since the incident in the morning. Powell later died of his injuries in an Oklahoma City hospital three days later. The plan we had mapped out for ourselves was to climb the right bank of the river and gain the trail of the cavalry and then, if possible, join our company. [Curley and Foolish Elk also reported that Custer's men charged into a gallop when the Indian village came in sight.] One party of Indians were dashing down the river; others were rushing toward the upper end of the village. WHEN YOU ACTUALLY look at them, Thompson's "problematic passages" are really no problem at all, except that they honestly tell Americans some things they don't want to hear -- e.g., that the Seventh Cavalry under Custer murdered and quite possibly raped its way to annihilation. I straightened myself up and said, "I will tell you what I will do." He escaped from prison and manage to evade the police for a year until he was recaptured in 1999 in. There was but one gasp and all was still. The three men were arrested a couple of weeks later and returned to the same facility. I now heard the clatter of hoofs behind me. Suddenly he left the trail and made his way up the river. We finally decided to go down the right bank of the stream and see if we could not get sight of Custer's command, and join our ranks where we were much needed. Benteen standing by my side. In a clump of red berry bushes we found a log which made quite a comfortable seat for us. I was astonished at seeing a soldier sitting on a bank of earth facing the river with his back towards me. Ooops! All urging on my part was useless. As I strolled around, I could see something of the horrors of our position. The same is also true of what seems, on the face of it, the wildest parts of Thompson's story: (1) the eye-witness account of how a white man with an Indian shot at him while he was fleeing to join Reno, (2) the hearsay claim (via his Seventh Cavalry straggler companion) James Watson, that Custer took a shot at half-Sioux Seventh Cavalry Scout Billy Jackson just before the beginning of the Custer fight. This gave the savages a good opportunity to close in on us and they were not long in doing so. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The numbered items below are in chronological order, and correspond to the numbers on the "Peter Thompson at the Little Bighorn Map," shown above. I was anxious to save him and if I did I must act quickly. Detroit Institute of Arts. 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