ON THE PLAINS WITH
CUSTER
SECOND EDITION
ON THE PLAINS
WITH CUSTER
THE WESTERN LIFE AND DEEDS OF THE CHIEF WITHTHE YELLOW HAIR, UNDER WHOM SERVED BOY BUGLERNED FLETCHER, WHEN IN THE TROUBLOUS YEARS1866–1876 THE FIGHTING SEVENTH CAVALRY HELPEDTO WIN PIONEER KANSAS, NEBRASKA, AND DAKOTAFOR WHITE CIVILIZATION AND TODAY’S PEACE
BY
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
AND PORTRAITS
The loving are the daring.”
—Bayard Taylor
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1913
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A.
MOTHERS, WIVES, AND SWEETHEARTS WHO
WORKED AND SMILED AND WEPT AND PRAYED
WHILE SOLDIERS MARCHED AND FOUGHT
FOREWORD
This is a story of Ned Fletcher, and the SeventhRegular Cavalry, United States Army, when upon theWestern plains they followed the yellow-hairedGeneral Custer. Yet it is not all a story of fighting;for to be a good soldier does not mean that one mustserve only to fight. Indeed, there are worthy battlesother than those with lead and steel, horse and foot.Every earnest citizen is a good soldier. GeneralCuster was as great in peace as in war; in his homeas in the field, and he loved his home duties as muchas he loved his other duties, which is token of atrue man.
General Custer is real to-day. Men and womenlive who marched with him. As to Ned Fletcher, whomay say? A little girl named Fletcher was capturedby Cheyennes and Sioux, as Ned’s sister was captured;and Chief Cut Nose called her “Little Silver Hair.”General Custer would have rescued her, as officialrecords show. Two little children were found in theCheyenne village on the Washita. In the battle herea bugler boy was wounded just as Ned was wounded.Aye, and at Fort Wallace a little bugler boy was slain.So that boys served in the old Seventh Cavalry, underGeneral Custer. As a brave boy, Ned might have beenthere, even though by a different name.
General Custer has left his own story of his plainsdays