Terry C. Johnston - Wolf Mountain Moon: The Plainsmen

Tongue River Cantonment, 1876-1877.

(Courtesy National Archives)

Artillery at Tongue River Cantonment,
December 29, 1876.

(Courtesy National Archives)

First Lt. Frank D. Baldwin.

(Courtesy Library of Congress)

As his mother began to wash the white mans head and face, the boy turned away.

She used a strip of dirty, stiffened white clothone of the dead soldiers stockings. If only these white men wore moccasins instead of the clumsy black boots that made their feet hot and sticky. With moccasins the white men would not need to wear these silly stockings. He smiled and began to feel better for it.

This was his seventh summer. He was too old to act like a child, the boy decided.

Finally he turned back to watch his mother scrub the last of the black grainy smudges from the edges of the bullet hole in the soldiers left temple. Little blood had oozed from the wound.

Perhaps this pale man had already been dying from that messy bullet wound in his side. The boy had seen enough deer and elk, antelope and buffalo, brought down with bullets. And he knew no man could live long after suffering a wound in the chest as terrible as this. This soldier had been dying, and he was shot in the head to assure his death.

Someone had wanted to make certain that this soldier was not taken alive. Someone had saved this pale-skinned soldier from the possibility of torture by sending a bullet through his brain.

George Armstrong Custer, in one of
the last portraits made of him in April, 1876.

(courtesy of Custer Battlefield National Monument)

John Liver-Eating Johnston.

(Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Section)

Luther S. Yellowstone Kelly.

(Courtesy Denver Public Library, Western History Section)

Colonel Nelson A. Miles and officers of the Fifth Infantry, December 29, 1876. From left: Lt. O.F. Long, Surgeon H.R. Tilton, Lt. J.W. Pope, Col. N.A. Miles, Lt. F.D. Baldwin, Lt. C.E. Hargous, and Lt. H.K. Bailey.

(Courtesy Montana Historical Society)

Wooden Legs drawing of his rescue of Big Crow.

(Courtesy Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument)

Fifth Infantry soldiers at Tongue River Cantonment in winter dress.

(Courtesy Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument)

BOOKS BY TERRY C. JOHNSTON

Cry of the Hawk
Winter Rain
Dream Catcher

Carry the Wind
Borderlords
One-Eyed Dream

Dance on the Wind
Buffalo Palace
Crack in the Sky
Ride the Moon Down
Death Rattle
Wind Walker

S ONS OF THE P LAINS N OVELS
Long Winter Gone
Seize the Sky
Whisper of the Wolf

T HE P LAINSMEN N OVELS
Sioux Dawn
Red Clouds Revenge
The Stalkers
Black Sun
Devils Backbone
Shadow Riders
Dying Thunder
Blood Song
Reap the Whirlwind
Trumpet on the Land
A Cold Day in Hell
Wolf Mountain Moon
Ashes of Heaven
Cries from the Earth
Lay the Mountain Low

for all his enthusiastic assistance
helping me write
the past four Plainsmen novels,
the dedication of this novel to
the widely respected National Park Service historian
and published Indian Wars authority
Jerome A. Greene
is long overdue

Cast of Characters

Seamus Donegan Samantha Donegan

Military

Brigadier General George C. CrookDepartment of the Platte

Colonel William B. Hazencommanding Sixth U.S. Infantry, Fort Buford, M.T.

Colonel Nelson A. Milescommanding Fifth U.S. Infantry, Tongue River Cantonment, M.T.

Colonel Ranald S. Mackenziecommanding Fourth U.S. Cavalry

Lieutenant Colonel Elwell S. OtisTwenty-second U.S. Infantry

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph WhistlerFifth U.S. Infantry

Major Alfred L. HoughSeventeenth U.S. Infantry, commanding at Glendive Cantonment

Major Henry R. TiltonSurgeon, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Major Edwin F. TownsendCommanding Officer, Fort Laramie, W.T.

Captain Charles J. DickeyE Company, Twenty-second Infantry

Captain Ezra P. EwersE Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

CaptainRandallQuartermaster, Fifth U.S. Infantry, Tongue River Cantonment, M.T.

Captain Wyllys LymanI Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain James S. CaseyA Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain Andrew S. BennettB Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain Edmond ButlerC Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain Simon SnyderF Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain Edwin PollockNinth U.S. Infantry, commander of Reno Cantonment

First Lieutenant Frank D. BaldwinFifth U.S. Infantry

First Lieutenant Cornelius C. CusickF Company, Twenty-second Infantry

First Lieutenant Mason CarterK Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

First Lieutenant George W. Bairdregimental adjutant, Fifth U.S. Infantry

First Lieutenant Robert McDonaldD Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Second Lieutenant Russell H. DaySixth U.S. Infantry, commanding garrison at Fort Peck

Second Lieutenant David Q. RousseauG Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Second Lieutenant William H. WheelerEleventh U.S. Infantry

Second Lieutenant Frank S. HinkleH Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Second Lieutenant Charles E. HargousFifth U.S. Infantry, commanding mounted infantry to Wolf Mountain

Second Lieutenant Hobart K. BaileyFifth U.S. Infantry, aide-de-camp to Miles

Second Lieutenant James Worden PopeE Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry, commanding Rodman gun