ON THE PLAINS WITH CUSTER SECOND EDITION [Illustration: AND NOW AT FULL SPEED PASSING NED ALSO HE LEANED, INDIAN-WISE] ON THE PLAINS WITH CUSTER THE WESTERN LIFE AND DEEDS OF THE CHIEF WITH THE YELLOW HAIR, UNDER WHOM SERVED BOY BUGLER NED FLETCHER, WHEN IN THE TROUBLOUS YEARS 1866–1876 THE FIGHTING SEVENTH CAVALRY HELPED TO WIN PIONEER KANSAS, NEBRASKA, AND DAKOTA FOR WHITE CIVILIZATION AND TODAY’S PEACE BY EDWIN L. SABIN _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY_ CHARLES H. STEPHENS _AND PORTRAITS_ “The bravest are the tenderest,— The loving are the daring.” —BAYARD TAYLOR [Illustration] PHILADELPHIA & LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1913 PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U. S. A. TO THE ARMY WOMEN MOTHERS, WIVES, AND SWEETHEARTS WHO WORKED AND SMILED AND WEPT AND PRAYED WHILE SOLDIERS MARCHED AND FOUGHT FOREWORD This is a story of Ned Fletcher, and the Seventh Regular Cavalry, United States Army, when upon the Western plains they followed the yellow-haired General Custer. Yet it is not all a story of fighting; for to be a good soldier does not mean that one must serve only to fight. Indeed, there are worthy battles other than those with lead and steel, horse and foot. Every earnest citizen is a good soldier. General Custer was as great in peace as in war; in his home as in the field, and he loved his home duties as much as he loved his other duties, which is token of a true man. General Custer is real to-day. Men and women live who marched with him. As to Ned Fletcher, who may say? A little girl named Fletcher was captured by Cheyennes and Sioux, as Ned’s sister was captured; and Chief Cut Nose called her “Little Silver Hair.” General Custer would have rescued her, as official records show. Two little children were found in the Cheyenne village on the Washita. In the battle here a bugler boy was wounded just as Ned was wounded. Aye, and at Fort Wallace a little bugler boy was slain. So that boys served in the old Seventh Cavalry, under General Custer. As a brave boy, Ned might have been there, even though by a different name.