Weir, Thomas Benton
From birchyHistory
(Created page with "{{Infobox military person |name= Thomas Benton Weir |birth_date= 28 Sept 1838 |death_date= 9 Dec 1876 |birth_place= |death_place=New York City |placeofburial= |placeofbu...") |
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[[Category:University of Michigan alumni]] | [[Category:University of Michigan alumni]] | ||
[[Category:People of the Great Sioux War of 1876]] | [[Category:People of the Great Sioux War of 1876]] | ||
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| + | Capt. Thomas Weir, a Custer loyalist, drank himself to death within six months of the battle. He was 38. | ||
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| + | After Reno's scramble across the Little Bighorn River to the bluffs above, firing could be heard from the direction where Custer was presumed to be. Weir, without authorization from Reno, led an advance toward the sound of the guns and got within three miles of Last Stand Hill before being driven back. | ||
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| + | He reportedly saw Indians firing at objects on the ground, but died before clarifying what he may have seen. | ||
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| + | The ghost that he left on the battlefield followed him to New York City, where he had been assigned as a cavalry recruiter. Reclusive, depressed and haunted, his alcoholism finally swallowed him on Dec. 9, 1876. | ||
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| + | Read more: http://billingsgazette.com/news/features/magazine/cavalry-men-s-lives-come-to-troubled-ends/article_4d4ad79d-d267-5179-bea7-e34702a8b972.html#ixzz2lcruLrBv | ||
