Gordon Clinton Harper - The Fights on the Little Horn Companion: Gordon Harper’s Full Appendices and Bibliography

Published in the United States of America and Great Britain in 2014 by

CASEMATE PUBLISHERS

908 Darby Road, Havertown, PA 19083

and

10 Hythe Bridge Street, Oxford, OX1 2EW

Copyright 2014 Gordon Clinton Harper

Digital First Edition: ISBN 978-1-61200-280-4

Cataloging-in-publication data is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

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CONTENTS

DEDICATION

Lovingly dedicated to my Dad, MOC and ICEr for life, whose passion for truth lead to 50 years of Montana adventures. Todays teardrops are tomorrows rainbows See you on our next Jaunt, Daddy.

Tori Harper

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would first like to thank Casemate for taking a chance on an unknown author, and making my Dads dream a reality. I give my sincere thanks and love to Monte Akers and Gordon Hunk Richards; without these two gentlemen I would have given up this journey long ago. You have both shown my Dad ongoing respect, from the moment he passed to now, seeing this book come to fruition. I am so very grateful for you. I would also like to thank my fellow ICEr, Steve AZ Ranger Andrews, for filling in a very big hole in my heart. My biggest thank you goes to my Daddy, Gordon Clinton Harper, who is the greatest man I will ever know, and who has taken me on the best adventures of my life, I love you, Ol Boppa.

In addition, sincere appreciation must go to Elisabeth Kimber, whom Gordon Richard credits with being invaluable for keeping him on the right path regarding the Little Bighorn for the last nine years, being knowledgeable yet receptive to new possibilities, and especially for being a true friend yet a firm critic.

Monte Akers expresses his sincere appreciation to Tori and Gordon for making him a part of the team for this very worthwhile project, to Bob Jutton for his assistance with the maps, to the Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, Dr. James S. Brust, the artist Andy Thomas, to the staff at the Little Bighorn National Battlefield Monument, and to his son, Nathan Akers, for his unflagging support and assistance, all of whom have made this book a reality.

Tori Harper, Gordon Richard, and Monte Akers

August, 2013

INTRODUCTION

Gordon Harpers remarkable book, Fights on the Little Horn: Unveiling the Mysteries of Custers Last Stand (Casemate Publishing, 2014) was conceived, researched, compiled, and written over a fifty-year period. It began when Mr. Harper, then a young minor league baseball player, accidentally exited a bus at the wrong placewhat is now the Custer Battlefield National Monumentand ended when he passed away in May 2009.

After becoming fascinated with the story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Gordie (as he was known) discovered that many of the stories, secondary publications, and accounts of the battle were based on erroneous information. Speculation sometimes became fact, errors were repeated and enlarged, and the truth became lost behind legend. Gordies stated goal in writing the book was to compile all of the primary sources related to the battle and campaignletters, reports, interviews, testimony, diary entries, and contemporary newspaper articlesand glean from them the information that was reliable, factual, and untainted by subsequent embellishment. His intent was to have all of those primary sources, plus the book he compiled based only on those sources, published simultaneously. The problem with that plan was that there were more than 1,700 pages, nearly two million words, of primary source material which, in addition to the 400 pages of his manuscript and more than 80 pages of bibliography, amounted to a larger publication than is realistic or cost beneficial for modern publishing houses.

Casemate Publishers overcame that problem by publishing the book both in traditional hard copy and in an electronic version, and the only as an e-book. That e-book is now available and before you.

In this publication readers will find a treasury of hard-to-find research material, including the orders issued by Brigadier-General Alfred H. Terry during the campaign, pertinent correspondence from key figures, the various accounts, narratives, journals and testimony from participants, plus a reference section covering such matters of significance as the proper organization of a cavalry regiment, Armstrong Custers Court Martial in 1867, the Seventh Cavalrys rosters, and reports on the reburials at the battlefield.

All of these records are thoughtfully annotated by the author, where relevant, using the unique insight into all of these matters he gained from a lifetime of study of this fascinating episode in history. Everyone who uses this e-book has the rare privilege therefore, of benefiting from the extraordinary detective work of an extraordinary man.

Contained in these virtual pages are the words that made the Custer legend. Of all battles in the history of the world, few have generated more books and publications than the Little Bighorn, all of which had, or should have had, their genesis in these pages. Mr. Harpers half century of research and writing, which sometimes required exhaustive searches for elusive manuscripts and obscure first-person accounts, has resulted in a compilation of materials unavailable in any other single place than here. They will not, and cannot, provide final answers to all of the questions that will forever be associated with that brief, brutal battle, but they represent the ultimate source book of information that no student, scholar, or history buff who is interested in Custers Last Stand should be without.

Gordon Richards and Monte Akers

CAMPAIGN ORDERS

[CN] 1.1

[CT] THE ORDER FOR THE RENO SCOUT

The following is the Special Field Order for the Reno Scout to the Tongue River. This is the order that Reno disobeyed by marching to the Rosebud, disobedience which gave rise to much comment at the time but was of little actual importance as it turned out. The details of the scout itself are covered in some detail in the body of the text.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT

(In the Field) Camp on Powder River, June 10, 1876.

SPECIAL FIELD ORDERS NO. 11

1. The Quartermaster of the expedition is hereby ordered to purchase, for public use, two Mackinac boats, at a price not to exceed twenty-five dollars apiece.

2. Major M. A. Reno, 7th Cavalry, with six companies (the right wing) of his regiment, and one gun from the Gatling battery, will proceed, at the earliest practicable moment, to make a reconnaissance of the Powder River from the present camp to the mouth of the Little Powder. From the last-named point he will cross to the head waters of Mizpah Creek, and descend that creek to its junction with Powder River; thence he will cross the Pumpkin Creek and Tongue River, and descend the Tongue to its junction with the Yellowstone - where he may expect to meet the remaining companies of the 7th Cavalry and supplies of subsistence and forage.

Major Renos command will be supplied with subsistence for twelve days, and with forage for the same period, at the rate of two pounds of grain per day for each animal.