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Could one of Gallatin’s earliest pioneers have buried General George Custer’s men after his disastrous defeat at the Battle of Little Big Horn during the Indian War?
There is only the briefest reference in a family history to suggest that he did. But historical background, which we have taken the liberty to insert, would seem to bear out such a claim.
The following is a family account of the exploits of James Pinkney Tarwater as written down by his son, Dewey M. Tarwater. Dewey M. Tarwater is the father of John Tarwater, a resident of Daviess County.
According to the 1882 Daviess County History Book, the third cabin to be raised in Daviess County was by John Tarwater. John and Nancy, his wife, and Nancy, his daughter (afterward Nancy Nation) lived in the cabin. This would have been around 1830. The first birth in Daviess County was that of Elizabeth Tarwater, who was born Jan. 8, 1832. She was the daughter of John and Ruth Tarwater, the former being the son of John and Nancy Tarwater.
In 1906, James Pinkney Tarwater was elected Judge of Daviess County. During his term the group of judges then in office did much to improve the affairs of the county. The new courthouse and many new county structures were erected. James Pinkney Tarwater’s name was on the corner stone of the courthouse.
Dedicated to the memory of my father and mother
by Dewey M. Tarwater
My father, James Pinkney Tarwater, was born June 17, 1854, on what is now known as the Charles Henry farm in a log house near where Monroe Chapel Church stood and near the Whitt Graveyard southeast of Gallatin. He was the youngest of 16 children.
After grandfather died, grandmother moved to Cainsville and lived there about 10 years. This was the place where father cut the big pile of cord wood for his second reader and dropped corn for 25 cents a day and did anything else he could get to do to make a living and get a schooling.
The family moved from Cainsville to the old Stone farm. Father lived here with his mother four years with the exception of one year when he attended school at Cainsville. At the age of 15, while he was still living on this farm, he joined the Methodist Church during a revival meeting conducted by Reverend Jewell at the Blue School House.
He then went to Golden, Colo., where he spent his 18th birthday. While he was working in a lumber camp there, he cut his foot nearly off.
As soon as he was able, he went to Denver and joined an exploring party under Lieutenant Marshall, and later under Lieutenant Bergland. He was employed as a map-maker during suitable weather and at other times as a packer.
The geographical surveys west of the 100th meridian of the United States were under the supervision of First Lieutenant (later Captain) George M. Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. Among his assistants were Executive Officers and Field Astronomers 1st Lieutenants Corps of Engineers W.L. Marshall and Eric Bergland. The first expedition took place in 1869; the last in 1879.
Typically included on the survey team were a topographer, naturalist, geologist, surveyor, meteorologist, zoologist, collector in natural history and mineralogy and their assistants; surgeon and two hospital stewards (who doubled as assistants to the above); photographer (the well known Timothy O’Sullivan); cook; and 30 guides, packers, and laborers.
Transportation was accomplished with two mule teams of forty and fifty pack mules, an instrument wagon, two instrument carts, two odometer vehicles, and riding animals for the entire party.
Troop I, 3rd U.S. Cavalry provided the escort service for all the expeditions. [Taken from the University of Nevada, Reno: Special Collections: A Guide to the "Wheeler Survey".]
James Pinkney Tarwater would no doubt have been among the 30 guides, packers, and laborers that formed one of these surveys.
It was while my father was working in this capacity that Marshall Pass over the mountains was discovered, named in honor of Lieutenant Marshall.
Marshall Pass was discovered in 1873 by Lieut. William L. Marshall, later chief of engineers in the United States Army, not as the result of systematic exploration, but when he took a shortcut through the mountains in order to get to Denver quickly so he could find relief from a toothache.
At another time with this party in the company of a German officer of the command, he discovered a boiling geyser, and the German said, "Mine Gott, Tarwasser. Hell iss not von mile avay."
Once while they were exploring various mountain passes, the lieutenant’s mule fell and would have fallen hundreds of feet with the lieutenant’s foot in the saddle, had not the stirrup caught in a tree. When my father cut the mule loose to save the lieutenant’s life, he asked, "What the hell did you do that for?"
Father replied, "There are plenty of mules, but only one Lieutenant Marshall."
Father joined Crook’s command at Cheyenne, Wyoming, in the spring of 1876, as a herder and a packer, the latter being a very important job in those days. His knee was injured by a mule, and he was left behind at the Red Cloud Indian Agency.
As stipulated in the Fort Laramie Treaty (1868), Indian agencies were constructed for the various Lakota tribes, forerunners to the modern Indian reservations. For the Oglala Lakota, the Red Cloud Agency was established in 1871 on the Platte River in Wyoming Territory. The location was one mile west of the present town of Henry, Nebraska.
When my father was able to work, he joined a bull whacker train and worked until he met a part of Crook’s command and rejoined as a packer and scout and went to fight the Indians.
It was in this service that he engaged a part of Sitting Bull’s tribe in Wyoming, believed to have been near Big Horn Range. When the skirmish was over, he went to hunt for valuables, preferably moccasins, as they had lost their shoes. As he entered a good-looking wigwam, a bullet came through where his head would have been if he had not stopped just as soon as he had entered. He and a friend found the offender burying his gun and inflicted punishment.
To take possession of the Black Hills (and thus the gold deposits), and to stop Indian attacks, the U.S. decided to corral all remaining free plains Indians.
Maj. Gen. George Crook, commander of the Department of the Platte, had been ordered to locate the camps of several bands of Sioux and Cheyenne that had left their reservations and appeared to be preparing to go on the warpath. The camps of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were thought to be located in the region of the headwaters of the Powder, Tongue, and Rosebud rivers. Crook left Fort Fetterman on March 1, 1876, with 883 men from a variety of cavalry regiments, along with civilian and friendly Indian scouts and a herd of 45 beef cattle.
It’s impossible to know exactly which "skirmish" James Pinkney Tarwater is referring to, but history recounts that there were numerous, scattered fights taking place.
My father stayed with Crook’s command until the spring after Custer’s massacre. He had been engaged in doing scout work leading up to this battle and had helped bury the victims.
The family account, unfortunately, does not give many details. The following is a brief account of what was happening just before "Custer’s Last Stand." It gives a better understanding of how James Pinkney Tarwater, riding as a scout under Crook’s command, might very well have arrived with the soldiers after the Battle of the Big Horn.
As Gen. Crook came from the south with his soldiers, two other expeditions entered the area. From the east marched General Terry, with almost as many infantry and cavalry as had Crook, and a few light pieces of artillery. From the west General Gibbons led a group of frontier soldiers. Gibbons rendezvoused with Terry near the mouth of the Tongue.
In the meantime, over 6,000 braves had left their reservations and joined Sitting Bull. A great mass of these Indian warriors were situated between Crook and Terry and Gibbons, cutting off communication between the army commanders.
Crook’s Company was surprised by some 1,500 Indians at the Rosebud just north of the Wyoming Line, resulting in Crook’s withdrawal back to the Tongue River. Crook sent for the entire Fifth Cavalry and all available infantry, and waited until they could reach him.
Meanwhile, Sitting Bull moved up the valley to the Little Big Horn.
At the head of Terry’s cavalry was Brevet Major-General George Armstrong Custer. General Terry knew the Indians had moved further along the valley and planned to send Custer to hold the Indians from the east, while he and Gibbons’ troops pushed up the Yellowstone in boats. The plan was to coordinate an attack on June 26.
Custer and the 7th Calvary rode day and night and got there a day ahead of time on June 25. Custer divided his force into three battalions. The rest is well-known history — Custer and five companies under his direct command died at the Little Bighorn.
When the main column of soldiers arrived, they buried Custer’s men where they fell and marked the graves with wooden stakes. The following year the officers were exhumed and re-buried at military installations. Custer’s body was buried at West Point.
In the spring of 1877 James Pinkney Tarwater was returning to the headquarters of the exploring party under Bergland at Las Animas, Colo., when he learned that Josephine Worley was at Pueblo. He stopped there, and before he left, they were engaged to be married.
After he had severed all connections with the exploring party and the government command, he returned to Pueblo and married Josephine Worley on Nov. 27, 1877. They went immediately to Gallatin via the Santa Fe Railroad.
About Josephine, wife of Pinkney
My mother, Josephine Worley, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, Feb. 28, 1855. Her parents, Daniel J. and Rechael, were of Scotch and Pennsylvania Dutch descent. They moved to Knox County, Ohio, when she was three years old and lived there until she was 14. They then came to Daviess County, near Gallatin.
It was here that she joined the Methodist Church under Reverend Bond. At this time she was working at Benton Miller’s. She was baptized in Grand River near the Wabash depot.
Grandmother Worley died when mother was but six and was buried at Mount Zion, Knox County, Ohio. She was 36 years old at the time of her death. Grandfather later married Cynthia Gatton.
Mother worked for Stephen Henry when she was 15. She met father while she was working at the home of his sister, Nancy Harold, on Honey Creek. Later she went with her brother Burn to Pueblo, Colo, in a covered wagon in 1875.
1875 was the year of the grasshopper plague in Kansas. Everyone had either moved out or starved out or both. The Santa Fe railroad was just being built. It reached Pueblo one month after the wagon caravan in which mother went to Colorado arrived in Pueblo.
En route to Pueblo they passed by the site of Fort Bent near Prowers, Colo., and Fort Lyon near Las Animas, Colo., which was then occupied by the Indians as a reservation. The buffalo had all been killed as was evident form the piles of bones.
While mother was in Pueblo, she worked for $20 a month for two years. Her acquaintance was renewed with father, and they were married in 1877.