AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



31 



On the 8th General Custer received orders to advance and chastise the 

 Indians, whose hastily abandoned camps we had been passing for several 

 days, as village after village joined the main band. He set out at 8 p. m., 

 with 450 cavalrymen and our Indian scouts, and by a forced march over- 

 took them about daylight on the morning of the 11th near Pompey's Pillar. 

 The Indians were on the east bank of the river, but at once proceeded to 

 cross and, 500 strong, opened an attack upon him from all sides. The fight- 

 ing for a time was very sharp, but finally the cavalry were ordered to charge, 

 and the Indians soon scattered in every direction. Custer had three men 

 killed, including his orderly, and Lieut. Brayden was severely wounded in 

 the thigh. For the next twelve hours our camp presented a decidedly 

 warlike aspect, with our battery mounted for action and five companies of 

 the 22d Infantry doing picket duty. An attack seemed probable, but our 

 foes evidently decided we were too well prepared, and slowly retired. 



These incidents gave proof that our heavy military escort was not a 

 needless demonstration. It was only three years later, and about sixty 

 miles south of Pompey's Pillar, on the Little Big Horn, that General Custer 

 and his whole command were massacred in a fight with this same band of 

 Sioux Indians. 



The opportunities for natural history collecting and field research on 

 this expedition were far from ideal, but we did not return empty handed 

 nor without well-filled notebooks. Very little of the large area traversed 

 had previously been visited by a naturalist, and was still unrepresented by 

 specimens in the National Museum. Much valuable information was 

 gathered respecting the general character of the country and its biology, a 

 portion of which was promptly published. 1 Besides the birds, their nests 

 and eggs, and mammals, small collections of reptiles, fishes, insects and 

 plants were made, and also of invertebrate fossils, which were everywhere 

 scarce. The badlands were searched at every opportunity for vertebrate 

 remains, but always, to our great disappointment, in vain. Mr. Konopicky, 

 the artist, made colored drawings from life of the few fishes obtained, and 

 many excellent sketches of geological exposures and striking topographic 

 features in the bad lands. The photographer also secured many char- 

 acteristic views of the country traversed. To me it was an experience of 

 great value from the naturalist's point of view, and one I have never ceased 

 to recall with much pleasure for its personal associations and its dash of 

 military flavor. 



1 Cf. Notes on the Natural History of portions of Dakota and Montana Territories, being the 

 substance of a report to the Secretary of War on the collections made by the North Pacific Railroad 

 Expedition of 1873, Gen. D. S. Stanley, Commander. By J. A. Allen, Naturalist of the Expedition. 

 Proc. Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. XVII, pp. 33-91, June, 1874. Also separately, repaged. 



