A Summertime History Lesson: Tales of Local Legends

This edition of the Putnam County Courier will hit the streets on Thursday, June 25th, school is out for the summer, and a history lesson is the last thing on students' minds today. But for Putnam residents, particularly those in and around Cold Spring, where the "River People" live—the following history lessons found in this column should be read with interest. We all know that the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is responsible for producing a vast number of officers in the U.S. Army. We will talk today about three of them who not only played a significant role in American history, but also left an indelible mark on Cold Spring.

In July of 1862, seven days after the Seven Days' Battles at Harrison's Landing near Richmond Virginia, General Daniel Butterfield, the wounded Commander of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, V Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, made a lasting contribution to military service recognition that continues today. Reworking with his bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, another bugle call at the time, "Scott's Tattoo," he created "Taps." He thought the regular call for "Lights Out" was too formal. Taps was adopted throughout the Army of the Potomac, and even adopted by a few Confederate units who used it, as well. My editor, Joe Lindsley, gave me the heads-up that General Butterfield is buried in the Cold Spring Cemetery. The Butterfield Hospital there is not named by happenstance.

When I was just a boy, Memorial Day parades in the hamlet of Carmel always stopped at the cemeteries up Gleneida Avenue where the rifle carrying Honor Guard would give a 3-shot salute, followed by a buglers playing of "Taps," followed by another "echo" rendition from the top of Nichols Mountain. It gave me chills then, as a Boy Scout at Camp Read in the Adirondacks, when the flag was lowered each night, and still does today whenever and wherever it is played.

Robert Parker Parrott was born on October 5, 1804, and died December 24, 1877, at Cold Spring. He graduated third in his class at West Point in 1824. He achieved rank of captain and served out west in the never-ending Indian Wars, and was later assigned to the Chief of Ordinance at the West Point Foundry in Cold Spring. He resigned his rank as captain and became Superintendent of the Foundry on Oct. 3, 1836, and served it well for the next 41 years. His popular 10-pound Parrott Rifle, followed by 20- and 30-pound cannons, saw heavy service by both sides in the Civil War. His guns were cast with iron smelted at the foundry after being mined at sites across Putnam County, and with more concern for the welfare of his country than with becoming a rich man, the guns were sold at reasonable prices in government contracts. In 1867 he turned the foundry over to other parties, but he continued to experiment in projectiles and fuses until his death in 1877.

If you are reading this history lesson on June 25, it is a significant date that reflects on another West Point graduate near the bottom of his class, and two Cold Spring boys who joined the army and became pony soldiers with hopes of touring the Wild West. It was on May 17, 1876, that "General was sounded at Fort Lincoln, a bugle call to take down tents and prepare to move." As the Seventh Cavalry left the gates of the fort the band played "The Girl I Left Behind Me," but General George Armstrong Custer had his Wife Libby (Elizabeth B. Custer) riding on horseback next to him, returned to the fort the next day. They were followed by the entire Seventh Cavalry, consisting of 700 men, and a wagon train consisting of 114 six mule teams, 37 two mule teams, and 35 pack mules, all necessary to transport an immense and expensive amount of forage and rations, giving employment to 179 men, the entire expedition to seek out and destroy Native Americans camping at the mouth of the Little Bighorn River. Libby Custer would never see her husband again, but would go on to write a popular book Boots and Saddles, or My life in Dakota with General Custer.

General Custer led 207 Seventh Cavalry troops, split into three forces, and a total of 264 souls, into an overwhelming force of 2000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Lakota braves, under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, Rain-In-The-Face, and others intent on saving their wives and children at their camp on the Little Big Horn River. It was June 26, 1876. A brave rode off with Custer's scalp, wearing his uniform jacket. No one survived, and a burial party returned many days later to haphazardly bury the remains of the Seventh Cavalry under Custer's direct command, including the two boys from Cold Spring, NY.