Thomas Mower McDougall
The salient point in his military career occurred when he took part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, surviving because he and his unit was not with George Armstrong Custer and the main body of the 7th Cavalry Regiment.
After viewing the Indian village, and being surprised by its size, Custer sent two urgent orders to bring the mules with the ammunition packs to his detachment of five companies, but by the time these messengers reached Captain McDougall the distance between the pack train and Custer made this order difficult if not impossible to comply with, though a debate on this topic remains to this day.
He appeared on the 1860 Federal census of Cornwall, Orange County, New York, in the household of his parents Dr Charles McDougall and Maria Griffith Hanson.
From Kansas, at the age of 18 in 1864, he was appointed 2nd Lt, 10th US Louisiana Volunteers of African Descent, later redesignated as 48th US Colored Infantry.
After the 7th Cavalry was reassembled at Fort Abraham Lincoln, he was engaged with Sioux at the mouth of the Big Horn River, Montana August 11, 1873, when accompanying the David Stanley Yellowstone Expedition.
He also was on Custer's 1874 Black Hills Expedition, Commanding Company E.[3][4] Charged with being drunk on duty, he was acquitted during a court-martial in March 1875 and subsequently he was appointed captain on December 15, 1875.
[5][6] On May 17, 1876, the 7th Cavalry left their base at Fort Abraham Lincoln near present day Mandan, North Dakota to join in a campaign against the Sioux Indians.
[12] On the early morning of the day of battle, June 25, 1876, Custer and the 7th Cavalry were on the divide between Rosebud Creek and the Little Bighorn River.
From this divide, the Crow scouts had discovered indications of a large Sioux and Cheyenne village in the Valley of the Little Bighorn River at about 14–16 air miles distance.
Colonel Custer retained five troops (C, E, F, I, and L) and assigned Major Reno three troops (A, G, and M) and these two groups proceeded down a small tributary of the Little Big Horn River (present day Reno Creek, referred to by the Sioux in 1876 as Sundance Creek) toward the Indian village in the Little Big Horn valley.
"[14] At the Reno Court of Inquiry in January 1879, McDougall testified that at about 11 a.m. on June 25, on the Divide between the Rosebud and the Little Big Horn, he was ordered by Custer to "take charge of the pack train and serve as a rear guard".
[17][18] Reno followed Custer's orders to cross the river with his three troops and made an initial attack on the south end of the village.
[19] Although the large camp appeared to be surprised by this initial contact, the Indians quickly mounted a responsive counter attack that almost immediately halted and then outflanked Reno and his troops.
Custer left his five troops and rode up to the edge of the high bluffs just east of the Little Bighorn Valley and was confronted by a view of a very large Indian village.
[27] After a delay of about 20 minutes McDougall extracted the mules of his pack train from the morass on Sun Dance Creek, and was proceeding toward the Little Bighorn when he heard volleys, "a dull sound" as he later remembered, that resonated through the hills.
The pack train stopped again to allow the strung out mules to close ranks, and then resumed the trail in better order, but "still at little better than a walk".
"[33] McDougall then acted to close up with Benteen, moving more quickly[34] at a trot down Sun Dance Creek and after a delay arrived at Reno's position on the bluffs.
He took part in an advance to the north to Weir Point, but then retreated with the unit back to Reno's original position, where they were attacked by large contingents of Sioux Indians returning from wiping out Custer and his five troops.
The movement of the Indians was in response to the advance of General Gibbons on June 26 up the Little Bighorn valley with additional infantry and cavalry units.
During the night of June 26, McDougall with two enlisted men recovered the body of Lieutenant Hodgson who had fallen in the valley fight and buried it on Reno Hill.
[3] On June 27 Col. Gibbon arrived at the site of the battle with infantry reinforcements, and relieved the 7th Cavalry troops under Major Reno and Captain Benteen.
Although his health had been poor, on Saturday, July 3, he and his wife Alice took a train from Wellsville, New York, to stay at a summer resort, Echo Lake Farm, 6 miles (9.7 km) from Brandon, Vermont, occupying a cottage there.
