Samuel McCormick - Horseless and in Trouble

There is a grave in Bear Butte Cemetery at Sturgis, South Dakota, with a simple and understated marker. It marks the final resting place of a soldier who, by a twist of fate, survived one of the most famous confrontations between plains Indians and the U.S. Army - the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Samuel McCormick was born in Ireland in 1848. After coming to the United States, he enlisted in the 7th U.S. Cavalry on September 29, 1873. He had grey eyes, brown hair, ruddy complexion, and was 5’ 6 ½” tall. At the Battle of the Little Big Horn, McCormick was a member of Company G. He was under the command of 1st Lieutenant Donald McIntosh. Company G was assigned to Major Reno and was ordered to attack the Indian village along with Companies A and M. A skirmish line was deployed. The fighting became hotter and the troopers eventually retreated into a patch of timber. It was chaos. Major Reno gave the order to mount up and leave the timber to head to some high bluffs across the river. In all the confusion, some troopers didn’t hear the order and others were scrambling to get to their horses. Lt. Donald McIntosh...led his scattered company from the timber. He had lost his horse, and a private [Samuel McCormick] offered his mount to the officer. As he got within 30 yards of the river, McIntosh was surrounded by a group of about 30 warriors...The lieutenant fired his revolver at the warriors until he was killed. McIntosh was stripped of his clothing, with the exception of his neckband with an attached button. He and his borrowed horse lay near one another, both filled with arrows. He was scalped from his forehead to the back of his neck, and a nearby brush fire scorched his body. Another account has McCormick not wanting to give up his mount, but McIntosh appropriated it nonetheless. Lieutenant McIntosh's horse, Puff, was being led around the timber by his orderly, Private John Rapp, who was searching for McIntosh. Rapp was killed while looking for his lieutenant. The horse was caught by Private John Lattman, who later abandoned him in the river, and the Sioux captured Puff. Corporal John Hammon, Company G, also stated that Lt. McIntosh took McCormick’s horse while trying to leave the timber on Reno’s retreat, leaving McCormick on foot. Whether he gave up his horse voluntarily or it was poached by his commander, McCormick found himself without his horse while his fellow troopers were leaving and retreating across the river. He had but one chance to survive - try and hide out in the timber until the danger passed.

McCormick wasn’t the only one left in the timber during the confusion of the battle and retreat to the bluffs. He eventually joined up with some other stranded troopers including scout, George Herendeen. They were able to stay hidden in the timber and later rejoined their comrades on the bluffs above the Little Big Horn River. The 7th Cavalry survivors were eventually found by General Terry and rescued. Private Samuel McCormick went on to live another 32 years. He died on September 10, 1908, in Sturgis, South Dakota. He is the one buried in the grave at Bear Butte Cemetery with the simple and understated marker.

SAMUEL MCCORMICK PAGE

Sources

Frederic C. Wagner, III, Participants in the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Jefferson, NC; McFarland & Company, Inc., 2011).

Michael N. Donahue, Where the Rivers Ran Red: The Indian Fights of George Armstrong Custer (Montrose, CO; San Juan Publishing, 2018).

Bruce R. Liddic, Vanishing Victory: Custer’s Final March (El Segundo, CA; Upton and Sons Publishers, 2004).

Richard G. Hardorff, The Custer Battle Casualties: Burials, Exhumations, and Re-interments (El Segundo, CA; Upton and Sons Publishers, 2002).