I recently read “Son of the Morning Star” (by Evan Connell). This is the definitive book about the Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876), in which Custer and all his men were killed.
Many years after the batttle, an Indian trader (W. P. Moncure) erected a monument/mausoleum to the Indian chief Two Moon (a survivor of the battle). Included in the monument (near the town of Busby),was a collection of artifacts:, the following is quoted from the book:
“The trader (W. P. Moncure) built into this mausoleum a secret vault that held various relics: arrowheads, stone tools, a Seventh cavalry gun, …And a manila envelope. In 1956, a Billings newspaperwoman, Kathlryn Wright , was permitted by the Cheyennes to see and photograph the relics., although she did not get to see what was in the manila envelope… I was her opinion that , as well as the opinion of a prominent G.A.C. scholar, Dr. Charles Kuhlman, that this envelope might hold information of very considerable significance…and should be opened sooner that the date specified by Moncure: June 25, 1986… arrangements were made to open it in the spring of 1957. Measures were taken to prevent looting, after which Mrs. Wright published her story in the January issue of “Montana”, but before the vault with its mysterious envelope was to be officially opened, it was opened unofficially by a party or parties unknown. Whatever was inside has now vanished.”
Moncure died in 1958; I have been unable to find anything more about the mysterious envelope. Has anything come out in the past 59 years on this?
I did locate some references to this guy Moncure, but he never said anything about the missing envelope. Have any historians found anything on this?
There are some references to the idea that about $25,000 in US currency vanished (although why an army paymaster would be with a cavalry unit is unexplained). At any rate are there any Custer history buffs here that know more about this?
Supposedly he left a note on the monument that said:
Moncure strikes me as one of the sort of person you meet a lot of in rural bars in this part of the world, full of all sorts of colorful but not particularly substantiated theories about local history. I’m guessing the envelope probably just contained his research on the above topics, probably heavy on rumor and light on tangible facts. It might have been interesting, but I’m guessing probably no earth-shattering revelations.
I think the idea with the cache isn’t that there was payroll with them, it’s that the warriors who looted the soldiers’ bodies were uninterested in the incidental cash they had in their pockets but… someone… at some point managed to gather it all up and bury it. This strikes me as pretty unlikely for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that many of the warriors who fought in the battle had previously lived on reservations so it’s not like the idea that currency was valuable (and worth looting) would have been particularly foreign to them.
Thanks-there is a ton of stuff about the supposed missing $25,000, but I saw nothing more. Thanks for the info on Moncure. I guess the mystery will remain.
I don’t know much about Two Moon’s mausoleum but for my money the authoritative book on the Little Big Horn campaign is William Graham’s The Custer Myth, complete with primary sources and a batch of photographs. Graham was an army lawyer between the First and Second World Wars. He knew and interviewed some of the survivors who were junior officers with the Reno and Benteen battalions and does a fair amount of lawyerly analysis of the various reports and theories and claims to reflected glory.
In the absence of someone having the letter or conclusive proof we can look at whether the claim even makes sense.
The 7th Cav left their posts as part of an offensive campaign specifically intended to seek contact and force tribes involved back to their reservations. Why take alone a paymaster with a significant amount of cash?
Custer was part of an overall column commanded by BG Terry. That column included slower moving infantry and gatling guns. Why plant the paymaster with the mobile strike force instead of with the slower moving elements of the column under the control of Terry?
$25,000 was quite a bit more than the monthly pay for just the 7th Cav. Even if the intent was to pay during the campaign for whatever reason why put enough to more than pay the whole column under one of it’s sub-elements?
Custer divided the 7th Cav into 4 elements before the fateful battle. 3 maneuver battalions and the pack trains (escorted by one Troop). Even if the paymaster was riding with the 7th why attach it to a maneuver column that is going to seek contact with the enemy instead of with the rest of the supplies that you plan to keep protected and out of contact?
Custer maintained the biggest battalion under his direct control. He had a reputation for leading from the front during the Civil War. He planned to attack the enemy camp that day. He knew enough to assume it wasn’t going to be a small fight (even if he didn’t know how big.) Why would he take straphangers who offered no benefit along?
We have to believe that when the Army lost the money, they didn’t either didn’t keep or lost the record accounting for that loss. There were people who would have known the cash was there besides the ones actually carrying it.
There is some testimony that the 7th Cav troops had been paid sometime after leaving Bismarck ND, probably to keep them from visiting the local brothels, with the desertions and disease that went with that. There were lots of Greenbacks blowing around on Custer Hill. In any event, any paymaster would have been left behind at the Yellowstone River base camp (along with the 7th Cav band which was dismounted to supply horses to a substantial contingent of soldiers who walked) or in the alternative the paymaster would have been on the steam boat the accompanied the expedition. There is no indication that any of the officers who went with the Custer column had primary or extra duties as paymaster.