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Capt. Thomas H. French was slower drinking himself to death than Weir, but no less haunted by the Little Bighorn. His ghosts may have been more plentiful.

A little more than a year later, French took part in the fight with the Nez Perce at Canyon Creek near Laurel, where he was slightly wounded. Always noted for his courage and leadership, he laughed off a bullet that struck a seal ring he wore on his left hand.

"If they shoot a little closer they may hit me," he is said to have remarked as the battle raged.

By 1879 French was so dissipated that he was tried and found guilty of three counts related to a drinking binge with a laundress and was suspended from rank at half-pay for a year. He was reportedly sent to an asylum to dry out.

Before the year expired, French was retired from service as "mentally unfit and physically incapable to perform any military duties." He died of a stroke in 1882.

"Shattered and broken with wounds received in serving his country, his last few years were full of pain and suffering," said French's obituary in the Army & Navy Journal. He was 39.

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