CMR POETRY CONTEST WINNER - 2005

          -Harold Roy Miller -
                 I RODE WITH CUSTER
                       

                     (I grew up  less than 50 miles from The Custer Battlefield; and I was delighted to receive a poem about Custer
                                                      and The battle Of The Little Bighorn. Any more out there? Wacobelle )  

General George A. Custer

      While many people have heard of "Custer's Last Stand" or "The Battle Of The Little Big Horn" that took place in eastern Montana, they may not know much about Custer himself.  After graduating at the bottom of his class in West Point Military Academy, he was court-marshaled for not obeying his duties as an officer of the guard. But the Civil War was raging in full force and the North needed officers, so he was not punished but served as a General in that war. After the war, he was stripped of his commission; and he enlisted  in the regular army.

     He continued to have trouble with his superiors and had a reputation for not following orders; but nevertheless, he regained his commission as a General.  In 1876 Custer was sent, along with Generals Crook and Gibbon, to lead the 7th Cavalry of the United States Army. They were ordered to defeat the rebellious Indian tribes. Including the Cheyenne, Sans Arcs, Miniconjoux Sioux, Oglala Sioux, Blackfeet and Hunkpapa Sioux, it has been estimated that there were anywhere between ten to fifteen thousand Indians with over 2,500 warriors.
             
      The Indian tribes were camped along the Little Bighorn River. Crazy Horse had just returned from turning back General Crook's forces. Custer's men advanced much faster than Gibbons. Contrary to orders, Custer decided not to wait for Gibbons; and he split his men up in order to attack the Indian encampment from two sides. He miscalculated both the size of the Indian encampment and the depth of the river he would have to cross in order to reach it. Witnesses say that Crazy Horse quickly recognized this mistake and led a band of warriors to ambush Custer's men.  All 210 or more of Custer's men were killed in the Battle of Little Bighorn, including Custer himself.                                               

 

I Rode With Custer

Harold Roy Miller

 

My  Indian name was” Runs From Bear”.

I was a half-breed scout for Yellow Hair.

The reason no one knows my story

is because cowards receive very little glory.

 

I rode with Custer that day in June.

I sensed trouble would dog me soon.

From the crow’s nest I saw the giant village below.

I knew it was time for me to go!

 

My Indian part wanted to stay and fight

but my other half was lily livered white.

I was torn between fear and honor.

I figured if I stayed I was a goner.

 

I was sure the 7th was in for a lickin’,

and this brave scout was a cringing chicken.

I did not wish to meet my end

at the hand of a savage Sioux redskin!

 

The impatient boy general would cut no slack

to a man with a yellow streak down his back.

I had always been kind of shallow,

and was pretty sure my whole body was yellow.

 

So I decided to take a chance

before my scalp decorated some warrior’s lance.

I told General Custer, like any good guide,

over yonder ridge I would ride.

 

Over the ridge I rode all right,

until I was plum clean out of sight.

I found a high spot on the sloping land

and watched ol' Custer make his last stand

 

  

 

 

    



"The Scout" by Charles M. Russell

 

 

 

 
 

      I regret not being able to find and present a copy of  "Custer's  Last Stand" by Charles M. Russell. This  painting was the inspiration for  Harold Roy Miller's poem. Can anyone out there help me?
       The image above is "Piegan War Party"
   by Russell. The Piegans ( Blackfeet) were
  among  the tribes that  fought in "The Battle At
   The Little Big Horn".  
 
          

 


                                                                          


                                      Here's how the newspapers of that time portrayed it.................

 

                                
 

                                                                    

       

New York Times
The Little Big Horn Massacre
July 6, 1876
 
LATEST ACCOUNTS OF THE CHARGE. FORCE OF FOUR THOUSAND INDIANS IN POSITION ATTACKED BY LESS THAN FOUR HUNDRED TROOPS - OPINIONS OF LEADING ARMY OFFICERS OF THE DEED AND ITS CONSEQUENCES - FEELING IN THE COMMUNITY OVER THE DISASTER.

The dispatches giving an account of the slaughter of Gen. Custer's command, published in THE TIMES of yesterday, are confirmed and supplemented by official reports from Gen. A. H. Terry, commanding the expedition. On June 25 Gen. Custer's command came upon the main camp of Sitting Bull, and at once attacked it, charging the thickest part of it with five companies, Major Reno, with seven companies attacking on the other side. the soldiers were repulsed and a wholesale slaughter ensued. Gen. Custer, his brother, his nephew, and his brother-in-law were killed, and not one of his detachment escaped. The Indians surrounded Major Reno's command and held them in the hills during a whole day, but Gibbon's command came up and the Indians left. The number of killed is stated at 300 and the wounded at 31. Two hundred and seven men are said to have been buried in one place. The list of killed includes seventeen commissioned officers.

It is the opinion of Army officers in Chicago, Washington, and Philadelphia, including Gens. Sherman and Sheridan, that Gen. Custer was rashly imprudent to attack such a large number of Indians, Sitting Bull's force being 4,000 strong. Gen. Sherman thinks that the accounts of the disaster are exaggerated. The wounded soldiers are being conveyed to Fort Lincoln. Additional details are anxiously awaited throughout the country.

New York Times

 

 

 

Harold Roy Miller writes:

 

     I have been intrigued with the cowboy way since childhood, when my dad would take the kids to the movie show in downtown Corinth, Mississippi to watch Roy Rogers and Gene Autry gallop across the silver screen.  I try to capture the lighter side of horses

and cowboy life in my writings.  As my daddy said, “You might as well laugh as to cry; the outcome’s gonna be the same.”

 

      Born in Mississippi, raised in Arizona, I now lives in Stagecoach, Nevada with my wife Diana.  We raise gaited horses “for fun and poverty” and are advocates of Nevada’s wild horses.  My other life iclude working  security at the Nevada National Guard. 

 

       My  poems have been published in The Gaited Horse, Natural Horse,Trail Rider, Back Country Horsemen, Cowboy Times, ETI  and Riding Magazines; Horse Valley News and HorseTales; The Missouri Fox Trotter Journal and their 2005 Celebration Calendar; and on internet websites Cowboy Poetry.com , Save Cloud Foundation, The Tombstone Bard, and The Wyoming Companion.  I have performed at poetry gatherings in Arizona, Idaho, California, Missouri, Nevada and Utah.  My book “Horse Daze - A Lighter Look at Horses and Cowboys” is available now.  

                        You can contact me by email:


Billboard featuring Harold Miller
as model.  He is also the model featured in newspaper and web site commercials of the Greater Nevada Credit Union.


Harold Miller and wife,Diana


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