Apr 07, 2022 - Sale 2600

Sale 2600 - Lot 258

Price Realized: $ 812
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(WEST.) Walter Scribner Schuyler. Letter written by a cavalry officer three weeks before Little Bighorn. Autograph Letter Signed "Walter" to sister Evelyn Schuyler Schaeffer. 2 pages, 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches; folds, minimal wear. Fort Laramie, WY, 5 June 1876
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"I find that the Indian massacres have been greatly exaggerated . . . most of the Indians have concentrated in the north"

This letter was written by an officer in General Crook's command just weeks before the Battles of the Rosebud and Little Bighorn. Walter Scribner Schuyler (1850-1932), a future Army general, was at this time a second lieutenant in the 5th Cavalry, and was en route from Kansas to serve as an aide to General George Crook, trying to catch up with the main army. Three large columns of cavalry were converging for a long-planned offensive against the Sioux in south-central Montana. Crook's column set out from Fort Fetterman to the south. Twenty days later, a detachment from Terry's column led by Colonel Custer would find defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn--a disaster which of course Schuyler could not see coming when he wrote this breezy letter to his sister:

"I arrived here . . . in good order except as to my face, which was badly chapped by the wind. The stage makes the ninety-odd miles in about 12 hours, there being five changes of horses on the route. I find that I shall have to wait here for some days, until a wagon train goes to Fetterman, as I cannot travel thence without escort. At that point I shall have to wait until about the 20th instant, when Gen'l C. is expected to send in a wagon train for supplies. I dislike the waiting, as I am of no use to anyone, and fear that I may miss all the fighting. Nearly all of my regiment has been ordered here from Kansas to reinforce Crook, a very welcome addition to our force. I meet many friends here, whom I used to know at Russell. I am the guest of Lieut. [William Wallace] Rogers, 9th Inf'ty whose company has but recently come in from the Black Hills. I find that the Indian massacres have been greatly exaggerated to me, and for the present there is but little danger in this section as most of the Indians have concentrated in the north, at the mouth of the Powder River on the Little Missouri. If I do nothing else, I shall have a chance to see the country. I hope that some fortunate chance may take us into the famous Yellowstone Park."

Schuyler had no way of knowing, but Crook's column had already departed from Fort Fetterman, MT on 29 May toward the Sioux encampment. He was correct about the relative safety of his present location in Wyoming, but a bit off base about the real danger--the mouth of the Powder River was more than 150 miles from the Battle of the Rosebud where Crook's column would be engaged on 17 June, and from the Little Bighorn site where Custer would be wiped out on 24 June. One thing we can be sure of: in the coming weeks, Lt. Schuyler had no time for a side trip to Yellowstone Park.