F. Girard, Truth or Consequences

[tbw]

One of the well known stories concerned F. Girard's sighting of hundreds of Indians charging upon Major Reno's force who were just crossing the river at Ford "A". Was this fact or fiction?

It was known and told about by many of the participants that they were chasing some 40 - 50 fleeing Indians whom Lt. Hare and Girard both had spotted some little time earlier. None of the other men ever reported this phenomenon that Girard reportedly saw. Girard of course, according to his testimony at the COI, knowing the impression upon which Gen. Custer was, as he put it "laboring", wanted this information relayed to Custer. He thus, according to his RCOI statements said that he went back and informed Maj. Reno and then proceeded to ride off towards Custer to tell him about it. Just after this he rounds the same knoll where supposedly he made this sighting, mere - mere feet from the Ford when he happens upon Lt. Cooke, Custer's adjutant, and the rest of course is history.

The focus of this is, exactly what impression was Custer operationally "laboring" under? Where such information was vital for Girard to get this information back to Custer? And of course what could he have possibly observed to make him believe there were more than 40 - 50 Indians directly ahead of them? Especially when that apparently wasn't the case, as Reno and his battalion freely advanced for about 2 miles unhindered before stopping to draw up his skirmish line directly after this reported incident.

[whitebull]

Here's my humble opinion. No one could know the amount of Indians the troops were facing because of the huge amount of dust kicked up by the Indians. That they were coming was factual but, nothing else was. Girard heard a few scouts yelling, "Oto Sioux" which basically means, "a whole lot of Sioux" and made as assumption.

He then runs to Cooke who then relays the info to Custer.
In the meantime, Reno goes into "skirmish" still not knowing the numbers he faces because of the old In-jun trick of running your ponies in circles to kick up masses of dirt into the air.

[Cutter]

I agree. Does anyone have any kind of weather observation of the 25th other then"it was hot". If the wind was still, and granted the air was dry, the dust was a major factor when things started to cook up.

[tbw]

The men from Terry's column who rode up the Tullochs on the evening of the 24th reported that it rained. Don't know how widespread it was or whether or not it was a localized shower/thunderstorm event. As no one in Custer's command ever reported rain that night, it may have been a localized shower, interesting thing about it, it lasted some time, so i'm not sure about the humidity factor being low, my guess would be that it would have been high humidity as well.

As for the wind speed and direction. I believe it was Girard who reported that it was a very light wind, if at all, thus variable, and that it came out of the north. From reports, the plumes of smoke that arose because of the fires went pretty much straight up and then after getting aloft above the level of the surrounding high terrian it would tail off towards the south, which tells us that the winds on the ground could be obstructed and very likely none at all in places that were and could have been occluded by obstructions. We've all been there and done this, where you round the bend or top the ridge just to feel what little breeze there is - it was that type of day.

[stumblingbear]

I don't know for a fact about the weather conditions but a lot of my readings point out that numerous clouds of dust were seen by the Indians and the soldiers. Custer is believed to have seen the dust clouds moving in three different directs from the village. North (women and children running away) West (toward the horse herds) and South (toward Reno).

The Indians saw the dust from Reno's approach before he actually arrived.

[joewiggs]

It did rain on the 24th. but, at the time of the battle it was as dry as could be and very hot to boot! Much of the the dirt on the various areas were combat took place was substantially alkaline. The soldiers were sometimes described, by the warriors, as appearing covered in white dust from head to toe.

In other words, between the dust kicked up by warriors (traditional done to conceal their loved ones) on ponies who rode furiously in circles, alkaline dirt, clouds of black powder from the weapons being discharged, and altogether dry conditions; visibility was very limited.

[whitebull]

It's kind of amazing when you think about it, the fact that people seem a little put out (not on this board)when you support the fact that soldier's movement could be followed by dust being kicked up. It makes sense!

I remember one dude on another board saying how could Benteen know where Custer was? Hell, everybody else did!

[joewiggs]

There are those who believe that every word that fell from Benteen's lips were sanctimonious in value, despite his own admission in personal letters that he had "fudged" on his testimony at the Inquiry. Go figure!