But as on the former occasion, when I came to the bend in the ravine I halted and looked carefully around the corner. He died two months later. The firing was growing less every minute, but the Indians still kept up their seemingly tireless circling, making a great cloud of dust. He soon bandaged up my wounds and told me the only thing that could be done was to apply plenty of water. Calhoun and 2nd Lieut. I told him I was too good a runner for that. A volley was fired but again I escaped. We had scarcely got clear of the underbrush before we became aware of the fact that we had run into a hot place. This was actually an extremely BAD idea, but while they were cruising the banks of the river looking for a ford (see Peter Thompson Detail Map, #13), Thompson said he and Watson stumbled upon Custer and one of Custer's Crow scouts in the midst of some kinky business with a Sioux woman on a tether. He was convicted for a jewelry robbery and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in 1953. Being afraid that the Indian would escape, I worked at it in a desperate manner and finally got it out far enough to use my thumb nail, which proved affective. Peter's a public radio "lifer" who first got hooked on radio journalism in high school, while listening to and then interning with Danny Schechter the News Dissector at Boston's legendary WBCN. meaning Indian Department. No one was more hostile to Thompson, though, than Walter Mason Camp, the most rigidly wrong-headed of the early American collectors of eye-witness accounts of the battle. McNair was captured in October 2007 in Canada and is now held at the. Our horses and mules were cuddled together in one confused mass. Hearing an oath behind me, I looked back and saw my comrade Watson trying to get his horse on its feet. How deceptive are appearances. Up until the destruction of Earth-38, he was serving a life sentence for two counts of murder. The question may be asked why we attempted to join our commands after two hours and a half. I made my way slowly over the small place in which we huddled together and was very pleased to see some of the men stretching canvas over the wounded and dying. At this juncture the dry grass caught on fire threatening the destruction of the village, but the squaws fearless as the braves themselves fought the fire and tore down the teepees which were in danger of burning. This ungainly dismount caused the water to fly in every direction. They were coming from every direction; so unlike what they were a half an hour previous, when they were first surprised by the Seventh Cavalry for surprise it must have been to them. Join Facebook to connect with Peter Thomson and others you may know. Thompson and Watson had spied a Seventh Cavalry guidon in the huge free Sioux and Cheyenne village across the river, and they were under the mistaken impression that they could rejoin their Seventh Cavalry comrades there. 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 Indians while fighting remained mounted, the cavalry dismounted. Some of the men, seeing his action, begged him to stay telling him that it would go hard with the command if anything should go wrong with him and to enforce their arguments a wounded man was brought in who needed his immediate attention. Benteen turned around and walked away to the extreme left, seemingly tireless and unconscious of the hail of lead that was flying around him. I jerked it from his grasp and passed it on to the next. I made up my mind that all but one shot should be fired at the Indians, and that one would go into my head, for I had determined never to be taken alive. While looking on and wondering where the Crow was going we were further astonished by seeing General Custer dash out of the fording place and ride rapidly up to the Crow and commence to talk to him. Then commenced a perfect howl from one end of the village to the other, made by the squaws and papooses. See Mysteries of the Little Bighorn for more info.] It was no wonder that the Indians were in great commotion when they beheld the bold front presented by the cavalry. Considering that Reno's Arikara scouts had murdered a dozen Sioux squaws at the outset of Reno's attack a half hour before, what Thompson described the Crow scout doing with the tethered squaw isn't impossible at all. "Well!" Pictures are on Fotki.com. I turned around, intending to wait until they came up. [Note: August De Voto and an Anonymous Sixth Infantry Sergeant also spoke of white men fighting on the Indians' side at the Little Bighorn. How were we going to transport our wounded? We knew we were surrounded by Indians and we would be very fortunate if we escaped at all. McDougal [Capt. But we ourselves were no better off. THEDEGREE to which conventional Little Bighorn authors have written Thompson out of the history of the battle is as shocking as it is shameful. The Indians let fly with their rifles with the usual result. Marking: [label] Peter Thomson, Philadelphia - New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A message from Ambassador Peter Thomson, UNSG's Special Envoy for the Ocean to the IOC-UNESCO Ocean Literacy Training Courses. Wymyka si milicji 29 razy! Just 148 players - the lowest since 1904 - entered and Thomson showed absolutely no nerves on his debut as he posted a flawless two-under 70 to sit in a tie for third after the opening round. I was curious to know who he was. [Note: Thompson did not overplay the dramatically dangerous nature of his situation after he was left behind by his Seventh Cavarly comrades. After this, I began to feel very sick and looked around for a sheltered place to avoid the heat of the sun. I looked around me and saw what remained of those who had gone down the ravine against such fearful odds. And what are you going to do?" Most wanted criminal in France in 2013. Looking through this opening down the stream, I could see Custer's command drawn up in battle line, two men deep in a half circle facing the Indians who were crossing the river both above and below them. But now it was deserted. While meditating upon the combination of circumstances which had brought me into this unhappy condition, I looked ahead and saw Watson, but was unable to overtake him slow as he was going. I knew that if the cavalry drove the savages from their village, they would scatter in all directions, and if any of the straggling devils came across such an unfortunate as myself, I would stand a poor show. Both banks were wet with the splashing made by the animals going to and from the village. He had made the mistake of placing the box the wrong way, the edge of the crackers toward the outside. They had closed in around us on three sides and so close were they, that we could hear them talking. He gave me a strange look and turned his horse around and rode towards the rear, leaving me to shift for myself. He escaped from prison after serving only one month of his sentence. She must have noticed the movement for she made a short circle around us, ran over the bank, crossed the river, and disappeared in the village. When one fell either dead or wounded he was carried from the field; but there remained plenty to take his place; but if a soldier fell there was no one to take his, and if wounded there was no one to bring him water to quench his thirst; if dying, no one to close his eyes. A short distance from me was a man belonging to Company A. He said, "This is our only weak and unprotected point and should the Indians succeed in passing this in any force they would soon end the matter as far as we are concerned." Hardcover. "Twenty dollars," said a third and so the bidding went on as at an auction. Capt. They had undoubtedly been cut down by the Indians during some severe winter when the snow was very deep and the ponies had to live upon the bark, not being able to get the grass. He struggled to his feet; his face bore tokens of great fear. I then told him when he passed our scouts on the trail above. But we waited in vain. While I was thus engaged and when Watson had forded to the middle of the stream, I heard the crack of three rifles which caused me to straighten up quickly and look around to see what the trouble was. He escaped from Chelmsford Prison less than a year later. When he saw my maneauvers, he took aim at me and shot. There was but one gasp and all was still. On examining my saddle, I was glad to find everything as I had left it. On hearing me, he checked up his horse and looked around. Coming out of the river was one of our Crow scouts, mounted on his horse with the end of a rawhide rope over his shoulder, which he held firmly in his right hand. 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. Watson took hold of the sleeve of my coat and pulled me down urging me to be careful, as the Indians might see me and called my attention to the village which was in a perfect state of turmoil. He seemed to come to one conclusion, and that was that the 7th Cavalry was going to be whipped. Each man, commencing at the head of the company calls out in turn his number; one, two, three, four, and so these are repeated until the company is all numbered into sets of fours. The stench would become so great that it would drive us from our present position and where were we to go? No sooner had I faced them than they stopped, turned their horses across the trail, dismounted, threw their guns across their saddles, and took aim at us. Medal of Honor winner Peter Thompson was the last Seventh Cavalry trooper to get out of George A. Custer's doomed command alive.The Astonisher.com Map (above) reveals how he escaped the fate of his comrades, told in the eye-witness accounts of Thompson himself, fellow Seventh Cavalry survivor, John McGuire, and an Anonymous . [Note: this was clearly the slow part of the troop -- Sgt. The man was almost frightened to death. I knew it was useless for me to try to avoid being seen so I depended on my ability to escape the bullets of the Indians. I answered, "If you don't get off your horse at once, you will get shot." Or at least that's one plausible way to read the eye-witness record of the battle. Slaper also questioned the timing of Thomspon's tale (he saw dark significance in the fact that Thompson's battlefield companion, Pvt. I had made haste to fill the canteens and started on my way to camp bidding Mike Madden to be of good cheer and he made a cheerful reply. The Indian threw up his hands and fell with his head between the legs of his pony. With a cry of rage he drew his revolver from beneath his overcoat and taking aim at me he told me to skip or he would put a hole through me. When close enough I gave them to understand the condition I was in and asked for an exchange of mount. In that case, I told him, that he had better leave it as it would take us all our time to take care of ourselves. Although the Indians denied it, there are several eye-witness accounts that suggest that there were one or more whites fighting on the Indians' side at the Little Bighorn, although not with the Sioux. The red devils seemed determined to crush us. 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. [Note: Curley also spoke memorably of the continuous roar of battle.] The well formed ranks of the cavalry did fearful execution, for every time the soldiers fired I could see ponies and riders tumbling in the dust, I could also see riderless ponies racing away in every direction as if anxious to get away from such a frightful scene. I had left nearly a hundred rounds in my saddle bags, but owing to the incomplete condition of my prairie belt I was unable to carry more with me. When he was passing us he slightly checked his horse and waved his right hand twice for us to follow him. I gained the shelter of the ravine without a scratch and I was thankful. I gave them the other canteen and told them that if they should not require all the water that I would like it to be passed around to some other wounded ones lying close by, which was so done. 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