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Bill
Recruit
Status: offline |
 Posted - January 13 2005 : 5:18:09 PM
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A few weeks ago someone was offering a brass trumpet on Ebay with the following description:
"CUSTER’S GHOST HORN. This brass horn was taken from the "Little Big Horn" battlefield in Montana back in 1946 by a man who is now deceased. I acquired this horn from one of his relatives who stated that his uncle told him that he cut this brass horn from the top of a grave stone of one of the solders that was killed during the battle of Big Horn and according to this individual his uncle went mad and committed suicide. He told me that his uncle told him he had been cursed by THOMAS BUCKNELL who was one of the trumpeters in the 7th cav. at Little Big Horn Battle, He said his uncle said that every year on JUNE 25th, he would be awaken by the sound of the trumpet blowing and he would see the soldier standing over him with the horn. He said the solder would say; “The souls of Little Big Horn still walk the hills above the Little Big Horn Valley and then would vanish. He said his uncle was afraid to return the horn because he believed he would not come back because he violated their resting place. I truly can say that I too have been awakend by the sound of a trumpet blowing, but I have not seen any ghost holding it. Any way I’m not going to hold on to this any longer to see if one does appear. I would suggest the one who buys this might want to return it."
I lost track of the auction, so I do not know if the trumpet sold or if so, for how much.
Assuming that there is any truth to the description, I have the following questions:
Is anyone aware of whether any of the tombstones at LBH (on the battlefield or in the cemetery) ever had brass horns mounted on the stones?
Were any of the real trumpets/bugles recovered from the Custer battlefield? I assume that at least one bugle must have been present, and a bugle would not deteriorate as quickly as cloth, leather or wood items.
Thanks.
B.
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joseph wiggs
Brigadier General
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Posted - January 13 2005 : 5:25:03 PM
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| Bill, your story is absolutely fascinating. I hope that someone on the forum can provide you with additional information. We have some very knowledge folk here. Good luck! |
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Dark Cloud
Brigadier General
USA
Status: offline |
Posted - January 13 2005 : 5:52:08 PM
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Fascinating is correct. An offering of a stolen desecration of a federal grave marker on federal property on Ebay by the relatives of the guy who bought it from the thief? ARe people that stupid, never mind that disgusting? And who would believe it, much less buy it, and who would not turn them in for dealing in known stolen property?
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Dark Cloud
copyright RL MacLeod
darkcloud@darkendeavors.com
www.darkendeavors.com
www.boulderlout.com |
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Bill
Recruit
Status: offline |
Posted - January 13 2005 : 7:36:24 PM
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Just to clarify -- the story is not "mine". I copied it off an Ebay auction. I do not know who the seller was. I wish I had also copied the photo of the horn, because you could see how it had once been mounted onto some other item, perhaps a tombstone. My opinion is that the story of the horn's origin may just be fanciful to increase the price by linking it to the LBH.
But I am still interested as to whether any of the bugles that might have been used in the LBH battle were ever recovered from the battlefield or elsewhere. I seem to recall reading somewhere that a battered bugle was recovered from the Fetterman battlefield and it appears that the bugler had used it as a weapon to defend himself.
B. |
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Bill
Recruit
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joseph wiggs
Brigadier General
Status: offline |
Posted - January 13 2005 : 8:10:57 PM
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Bill in answer to your inquiry regarding a recovered bugle from the Fetterman battlefield:
"Only one man, bugler Adolph Metzger, had not been touched. His bugle was so badly dented that he must have gone down swinging it like a club, and for some reason the Indians covered his body with a buffalo robe."
John Guthrie, one of the first troopers on the scene. |
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Heavyrunner
Captain
USA
Status: offline |
Posted - January 13 2005 : 8:14:04 PM
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| I'm agreeing with Dark Cloud. However, it all sounds like a scam or, at the very least, an urban legend in the making. |
Bob Bostwick |
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Dark Cloud
Brigadier General
USA
Status: offline |
Posted - January 13 2005 : 8:29:41 PM
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Christmas. That's what they use in foxhunting or the grinch uses sleighing or calling the children to dinner. It could be from Custer's band, but not from the battlefield stones, which I believe were totally unadorned. Of course, if it has been broken off a monument stone - and I doubt it very much - than anyone transacting business in it needs to be arrested since it was a knowing desecration and traffic in stolen property.
In any case, that's the most forced and utterly unbelievable ghost story ever. |
Dark Cloud
copyright RL MacLeod
darkcloud@darkendeavors.com
www.darkendeavors.com
www.boulderlout.com |
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Anonymous Poster8169
Brigadier General
Status: offline |
Posted - January 16 2005 : 9:43:56 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by joseph wiggs
Bill in answer to your inquiry regarding a recovered bugle from the Fetterman battlefield:
"Only one man, bugler Adolph Metzger, had not been touched. His bugle was so badly dented that he must have gone down swinging it like a club, and for some reason the Indians covered his body with a buffalo robe."
John Guthrie, one of the first troopers on the scene.
Guthrie never said that. The clean grammar is the first tip-off.
R. Larsen |
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joseph wiggs
Brigadier General
Status: offline |
Posted - January 16 2005 : 10:20:03 PM
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Post Trauma,
Son of the Morning Star, Evan S. Connell, page 130: "Only one man, bugler Adolph Metzger, had not been touched. His bugle was so badly dented that he must have gone down swinging it like a club, and for some reason the Indians covered his body with a buffalo robe."
Where, pray tell, do you surmise this information was gathered? Connell researched the papers concerning Guthrie's statements. Knowing nothing, you insist upon playing the role of an egotistical jerk. Continue to do so, you perform the role so well. The first "tip-off" of an acute odious redolence on this forum is any thread by you and your inexplicable inability to refrain from personal remarks rather than deal in mature debate. How old are, 12?
Gadzooks!! I just realize that I'm replying to another person's "figment" of imagination! |
Edited by - joseph wiggs on January 16 2005 10:24:26 PM |
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Anonymous Poster8169
Brigadier General
Status: offline |
Posted - January 16 2005 : 10:28:57 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by joseph wiggs
Post Trauma,
Son of the Morning Star, Evan S. Connell, page 130: "Only one man, bugler Adolph Metzger, had not been touched. His bugle was so badly dented that he must have gone down swinging it like a club, and for some reason the Indians covered his body with a buffalo robe."
Where, pray tell, do you surmise this information was gathered? Connell researched the papers concerning Guthrie's statements. Knowing nothing, you insist upon playing the role of an egotistical jerk. Continue to do so, you perform the role so well. The first "tip-off" of an acute odious redolence on this forum is any thread by you and yourinexplicable inability to refrain from personal remarks rather than deal in mature debate. How old are, 12?
Connell isn't quoting Guthrie, Wiggs. He's writing that himself. Don't call me an egotistical jerk just because I correctly pointed out that you misattributed a quote. You owe me an apology.
I don't know precisely where Connell is taking the Metzger info from, since he doesn't provide citation, but my guess (if he isn't just borrowing from Dee Brown) is that he's using the Finn Burnett biography.
Anyone who's ever read Guthrie (and anyone who's ever read Connell has) would know instantly what I speak about when I said that the clean grammar was a tip-off. Your response is way out of line.
R. Larsen
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Anonymous Poster8169
Brigadier General
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Posted - January 17 2005 : 01:24:05 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Warlord
If you can corroborate that the remark Wiggs attributed to Guthrie is indeed by him, then step up and prove me wrong. Absent that, all you're doing is squealing ignorance.
R. Larsen |
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joseph wiggs
Brigadier General
Status: offline |
Posted - January 17 2005 : 4:45:31 PM
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I over reacted to your statement, "the clean grammer is the first tip-off." I assumed you were referring, again, to my written responses. I see now that you were not. I also realize, now, that your post was not a personal slam while mine was. Althought it hurts, I must beg your pardon for my error. I could not consider myself to be a man if I failed to do so.
I'm going to do further research regarding the trumpeteer. I remember, sometime long ago ago, reading a story that confirms Connell. |
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Anonymous Poster8169
Brigadier General
Status: offline |
Posted - January 18 2005 : 06:54:31 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by joseph wiggs
I over reacted to your statement, "the clean grammer is the first tip-off." I assumed you were referring, again, to my written responses. I see now that you were not. I also realize, now, that your post was not a personal slam while mine was. Althought it hurts, I must beg your pardon for my error. I could not consider myself to be a man if I failed to do so.
I'm going to do further research regarding the trumpeteer. I remember, sometime long ago ago, reading a story that confirms Connell.
No problem, Wiggs -- sorry there was such a misunderstanding. If you want to look into Metzger I'd suggest looking up the biography of Finn Burnett titled, conveniently, "Finn Burnett". It includes some of Burnett's recollections of the story, albeit given third-hand. Also a rather fanciful theory that the Indian who is supposed to have put the blanket over the trumpeter's body was Red Cloud.
R. Larsen |
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HxBuff
Recruit
USA
Status: offline |
Posted - June 17 2005 : 5:07:06 PM
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A battered bugle,supposedly carried by Metzger in the Fetterman Fight,can be seen at the Jim Gatchell Museum in Buffalo,Wy.
Michael K. Scott |
Michael K. Scott |
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"Custer's Ghost Horn"?
