Custer’s Last Messenger: Battle of the Little Bighorn

 

Giovanni Martini was born in the winter of 1851-52 in southern Italy and abandoned at an orphanage on January 28, 1852.  He immigrated to the United States in 1873, working as a laborer in New York City.  One year later he enlisted in the United States Army under the name John Martin.

By 1876 Martini was attached to the U.S. Seventh Cavalry under the command of George Armstrong Custer.  On the morning of June 25, 1876, Martini was temporarily assigned to serve as one of Custer's three bugler-orderlies. On that day at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, five companies of the U.S. Seventh Cavalry, under the direct command of George Armstrong Custer were wiped out.  Martini survived.  General Alfred Terry later said to him, “Well, you are a lucky man.”

As the attack unfolded and Custer first viewed the enormous size of the village he gave his orderly, Martini, a verbal message for Captain Benteen to bring his battalion forward with the pack train containing the reserve ammunition as quickly as possible. Adjutant Cooke stopped Martini and scribbled a written message to reinforce Custer's order to Benteen.  Cooke apparently felt Martini, who had a thick Italian accent, needed a written message to clarify Custer's order. Cooke's scribbled message read:

“Benteen, Come on.  Big village. Be quick. Bring packs.  P.S. Bring packs.”

Martini started back on the trail in search of Captain Benteen.  He met Boston Custer riding to join the command. Martini was later fired on by Indians who wounded his horse in the hip. 

Martini rode on and met Benteen.  According to Martini, Benteen asked: "Where is General Custer?" Martini said: "About 3 miles from here." Benteen said, "Is Custer being attacked or not?" and Martini said: "Yes, he is being attacked" and said no more. Benteen was later to testify that Martini told him that the Indians were skedaddling.  Martini told later chroniclers that he did not tell Benteen ... that the Indians were skedaddling.  Some say that Benteen prevaricated after the battle, others say that remembering many years after the battle an old and feeble Martini just got it wrong.  Yet, another mystery of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Martini and the remaining Seventh Cavalry companies not riding with Custer defended Reno Hill for 36 hours until rescued by General Terry’s column.

After the battle, Martini remained in the army, transferring to the artillery.  He served in the Spanish American War and retired as a sergeant on January 4, 1904.  He died on December 24, 1922 in New York City.  He married in 1879.  His eldest son was named George, in honor of George Armstrong Custer.

Custer’s final message to Captain Benteen to “Come quick, bring packs”, written down by Adjutant Cooke went missing for decades. 

 

In the 1920’s one of Custer’s early biographers, William Graham tried to locate the missing document, only to be told by Benteen’s son that all his father's papers had been destroyed when their house had burned down many years before.  This turned out to by incorrect. 

 

Captain Benteen had given the famous message to an army officer friend, Captain Price. The message finally came to rest in the hands of a New Jersey collector for fifty years, before being put up for auction.  By a happy circumstance Colonel Charles Francis Bates learned of the existence of the message and secured it for the museum at West Point, where it resides today.

Custer’s Last Stand: Portraits in Time