| This Web Site is Dedicated to 1st Lt. Donald McIntosh, who perished by the hands of the plains Indians on June 25, 1876 in the valley of the Little Big Horn... |
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| 1st Lieutenant Donald McIntosh (Custer’s Forgotten Clansman…) Continued: |
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1st Sergeant John Ryan later wrote in his book ‘Ten Years with Custer’, “The Indians were in great numbers on all sides of us. In this charge there were 30 men killed, my company losing 10, but we reached the river. Lieutenant Donald McIntosh was killed. McIntosh was a brave and faithful officer…” Identifying the Body On the morning of the 27th, Lieutenants Wallace, Hare and a number of enlisted men forded the river a short distance below where Reno had crossed it on his retreat. They moved up to the point of the crossing, identifying most of the men who fell at that point and then turned back following essentially the line of the retreat. Goldin pointed out to Wallace the spot where he saw McIntosh’s horse fall with him, and near there they found the body. Private John Lattman recalled that McIntosh and McCormick’s horses lay together. He had only a calico shirt on when his body was found, which had been otherwise stripped, scalped and mutilated. This fact has been questioned, however, as another unidentified soldier reported that McIntosh was lying on his face directly in their line of march, and he had on a buckskin coat or shirt with his name written inside it. According to Colonel John Gibbon, McIntosh was identified by one of the officers who recognized an article of clothing on the partially clad body. Lattman did not know that it was a calico shirt which aided in identifying the remains. The officer who recognized the shirt was McIntosh’s brother-in-law, Lieutenant Francis Gibson of H Company. Another account by Charles F. Roe further confuses this subject when he recalled that, in front of his troop a dead body was lying. It was naked and badly mutilated, which was often the case but even more so if the person appeared to be of the Indian’s race and yet fought on the side of the whites. This might have been the reason the features on what had once been the Lieutenant’s face had been hammered to what he referred to as ‘a jelly’. Roe goes on to say that as the sergeant-major with them picked up a gutta percha sleeve button, he said ‘this may lead to its identification’. Gibson was shown the stud as a possible means of identifying the body and said ‘yes, I think it will, it is my brother-in-law.’ Supposedly before leaving Fort Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mollie had given him the sleeve buttons. As to the ‘sleeve button’ theory, Goldin believed the story to be a bit of a fairy tale. He stated that he had never known ‘Tosh’ (as they called him) to wear anything requiring cuff links except perhaps in garrison. This, combined with the fact that when he saw him the body had been stripped, led him to discredit Charles Roe’s remarks. However, Goldin’s remarks on this and other details of the battle have likewise been questioned over the years. Final Resting Place 1st Lieutenant Donald McIntosh was buried on the battlefield on June 27th. Lieutenant Gibson later wrote to his wife that he had buried McIntosh and that his grave was nicely marked. Upon ‘burying’ the officers, special care was taken to plant a post into the ground that contained a shell casing with the officer’s name written inside, for future identification purposes. The body was soon exhumed in July, 1877, and reinterred on August 3rd in Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. According to Private Roman Rutten, written years later to Sergeant John Ryan, there was not much left of Lieutenant McIntosh to be shipped east. He had spoken with the man who had prepared McIntosh for shipment and he had stated that there were only a few bones remaining. According to Colonel Sheridan, the remains of almost all of the officers, including Lieutenant McIntosh’s, “…were carefully transferred to pine boxes, that had been made for me by Colonel Buell at Post No. 2, and taken across the river to my main camp…late on the evening of July 4th, the remains of the officers arrived at Post No. 2, and were immediately placed under charge of a guard in the only building at the post, remaining there until July 7th, when they were transferred to the steamer ‘Fletcher,’ and brought by me down to Fort Lincoln where they have been temporarily interred awaiting the arrival of caskets from Chicago, on receipt of which they will be shipped to their various destinations.” |
| However, the destination of Fort Leavenworth was not to be the Lieutenant’s final resting place yet. The remains of the body was once again exhumed on October 28th, 1909, and re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery, in Section 1. Lieutenant McIntosh was survived by his widow Mollie, who received a pension of $30 per month until her death on May 12th, 1910. The Army and Navy Journal, in addition, allocated $510 to Mrs. McIntosh as part of the money from the relief fund established to benefit the families of the victims. There is a bit of uncertainty as to how close the battlefield marker is to where ‘Tosh’ originally fell. The Indian on whose allotment the grave was located admitted to having moved the stone once or twice, but claimed that where it is located now is where it was when he first moved it. Goldin believed the marker to be too far southward and that the spot McIntosh’s marker now stands might actually be closer to the final resting site of Farrier Benjamin Wells, marked by mistake. |
| Walter Camp later interviewed Private James Boyle who stated that Benjamin Wells’ body was found in the river about due north or northwest of where McIntosh had fallen. If this is true, it supports Goldin’s theory, as far as geographical directions go. On a side note, Goldin also mentioned that originally McIntosh’s marker was a cross enclosed by a white picket fence. This gravesite had been constructed by Mollie McIntosh and at one time was completely grown over by rose bushes that she had planted inside the fence. |
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| Note from the ‘Author,’ The proceeding information was taken from a number of sources, many of which cite ‘first hand’ accounts of the various events (which surprisingly differed from one another a great deal many times). As my original intent for collecting this information on the good Lieutenant was for my own personal reason of doing so in order to portray the officer at living history events, I did not record all of the sources from which this information was taken. I have listed most of the citations within the context of this ‘collection’ but apologize for any source that has not been given proper credit. |
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| Jason E. Heitland portrays 1st Lt. Donald McIntosh throughout the year at living history events across the country. |
| The text you have just read is a rough draft of the final version, please contact me at McIntosh@US7thCavCoF.com to obtain a copy of the final revision... |
| Perhaps, Mollie’s sister, Katie Garrett (Gibson), captured the sentiments best when she explained why her husband chose Arlington as his final resting place, ‘because Donald and I will always be within sound of the trumpet calls we loved.’ She went on to say, "…and here, someday, in this beautiful, peaceful spot, I, too, will rest, happy in the knowledge that all around me and mine are sleeping many dear old friends." His Story Continues… In 1992, animal rights extremist / environmental activist Rod Coronado, a Native American, stole McIntosh’s diary (valued at $120,000) from the museum at the Little Big Horn. The book had been displayed at the battlefield until poor security led to its theft. The majority of the sources state that Coronado, after holding the ledger for ransom, later claimed to have destroyed it. Alternate sources claim that it was later recovered and has been locked away ever since and not available for the general public to view. For this and other charges, Coronado was sentenced to 57 months in prison. He was convicted of theft and destruction of federal property. Regardless of the ‘final resting place’ of the original ledger, thankfully there are copies in general circulation. Lieutenant McIntosh’s mark in the history books again continued when during the summer of 1995, a ring was dug up on the site of Reno's battle near McIntosh's memorial marker by a man named Jason Pitsch, who then owned the land on which Reno’s attack had taken place. Pitsch has found numerous artifacts on his land including one of Roe’s infamous Gutta Percha sleeve buttons, which is assumed to have belonged to the Lieutenant as well. As with the eyewitness reports of the battle, accounts of the discovery of the ring are twisted as well, as some reports have Pitsch finding not only the ring, but the finger bone inside it also! According to Willert, the ring was identified by a man named Glen Swanson (an authority on battle artifacts) as McIntosh's wedding band by the inscribed initials of the slain officer and his wife, and the date of their wedding. Swanson stated that “The ring looked like a woman’s wedding band, but was of heavier material, so it probably belonged to Lieutenant McIntosh. It had a precious stone setting, but I do not know what the stone is.” The reasoning why the ring was lying loose in the ground raises many questions as to why it was not taken from the scene or found with the body of McIntosh in 1876. The ring and button are now in a private museum in Garry Owen, Montana. date of their wedding. It now is in a private museum in Garry Owen, Montana. |