Riverboat Pilot Grant Marsh and His Record-Setting Run
Grant Marsh is known beyond the realm of Little Bighorn lore. In fact, a statue stands in his honor along the Missouri River in Yankton, South Dakota. Before the Sioux Campaign of 1876 Marsh was known for his skills in piloting steamboats up and down the Missouri River with its ever-shifting sandbars, “sawyers” and snags.
However, for many if not most historians, it was the Little Bighorn that truly gave Marsh his river-pilot renown. More specifically, it was his legendary run down the Missouri to Fort Abraham Lincoln that gave him hero status. He made his run transporting wounded soldiers to much-needed medical care.
Early Career
Born in 1837 in Rochester, Pennsylvania, Marsh was cabin boy by the age of 12. At least one source states he ran away from home in order to do so. Regardless, he seems to have felt at home on the rivers and became a quick study. By 1858 he was a first mate on a riverboat and served with another man who claimed river roots – Sam Clemens, who went on to use the pseudonym “Mark Twain.” [See footnote.]
By the time America’s Civil War broke out, Marsh was piloting his own vessels. He served along strategic rivers, including the Ohio and Mississippi, supplying Union troops. He served at the Fort Donelson and Shiloh campaigns and then Vicksburg. The Confederate surrender of the strategic Vicksburg, the day after Gettysburg, marked the mid-point if not the turning point of the war.
After Vicksburg, Marsh turned to the Missouri River. He hauled supplies to remote military outposts in the Dakota Territory, where Sioux conflicts helped to strain Union resources. As the Missouri rose and fell, froze and thawed, and experienced shifting sandbars, Marsh gained experience and renown as a skilled pilot.
Post-War Piloting
After the war Marsh continued piloting. Booming gold strikes and other expansion led to great demand for supplies to be freighted up the Missiouri River in particular. That river became Marsh’s new home. He raised a family in riverside towns – mainly Yankton. Marsh also earned such respect that he oversaw the building of “shallow-draft” steamboats like the Far West and Josephine.
Steamboat Terms
A boat’s draft refers to how far its hull sits below a river’s surface. The Far West was built long and broad and drafted only two feet. Its draft remained shallow even when it was loaded with 200 or more tons of freight. Marsh was said to be able to move a steamboat “on a heavy dew.”
Marsh was known for his skill in using steam power to get boats over sandbars and shallow spots. One technique was known as “grasshoppering.” Captstans, or steam-powered spools, ran off the boats engine. They could be used as winches to drag a boat using ropes secured to trees or other solid anchors. They could also be used, along with upright poles or “spars,” to move much like a grasshopper’s legs. The boat would lurch forward or backward as the poles were moved by capstans and pulleys.
The First Highways
By 1876 the Northern Pacific Railroad had still reached only as far west as Bismarck, Dakota Territory. Construction had stalled due to the economic Panic of 1873. However, mining, ranching and other symptoms of westward expansion still grew and boomed. Unrest among non-treaty Indian tribes grew with it; therefore new military posts were built and existing posts still required supplies.
Some freight was hauled out by bull trains (ox trains) or other wagon types and also pack animals. Fort Benton, a trade fort acquired by the U.S. Army, sat at the highest point to which steamboats could ascend the Missouri. It served as a hub from which freight was hauled out in nearly every direction, including to North West Mounted Police forts in the new Dominion of Canada.
More Military Contracts
Some freight could be shipped up the Yellowstone River as well, but not much farther than the Big Horn River’s mouth. Its level fell rapidly as summer progressed, limiting steamboat travel. Still, General Terry saw its value and wisely made use of it for supplying his Sioux Campaign of 1876.
From Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota Territory, General Terry contracted with he Coulson Packet Company, in which Marsh was a partner. They would freight supplies up the Missouri and its tributary, the Yellowstone, to supply Terry’s Dakota Column. Its boats the Far West and the Josephine both transported supplies and even troops at times, but the troops mainly marched or rode overland by more direct routes. The Josephine remained at a supply base established at the Powder River’s mouth while the Far West continued up the Yellowstone with Terry’s troops.
Council in the Far West’s Cabin
Aboard the Far West, General Terry, Colonel Gibbon of the Montana Column, and Lt. Colonel Custer met to discuss plans and strategy the evening of June 21, 1876. Custer then set out with 12 troops of 7th Cavalry the next day. Terry and Gibbon would descend the Yellowstone to the Bighorn River, then ascend the Little Bighorn toward a point where they believed non-treaty “hostiles” would be gathered. Things didn’t go as planned or expected.
Terry little imagined how badly the Far West would be needed. Rather than hauling jubilant troops it would transport most of the 52 surviving wounded soldiers from the 7th Cavalry’s unimaginable defeat. Some wounded would have survived regardless, but we will never know how many lived due to Grant Marsh and the Far West’s rapid transport of wounded soldiers to hospital care 700 miles away.
A Versatile Resource
Colonel Gibbon had fallen ill. Grant Marsh skillfully ran the Far West up the Bighorn River and delivered Gibbon to the mouth the Little Bighorn. Gibbon was able to join his command on the morning of June 25th. Whether for strategic reasons of in search of a challenge, Marsh ran the Far West further up the Bighorn but soon reached his limit and had to bring it back down to the Little Bighorn’s mouth.
Moored there, the Far West was found first by the Crow scout Curley. Due in part to language barriers, Curley’s account of Custer’s defeat met skepticism. However, scouts Henry Bostwick and Muggins Taylor had been sent by Gibbon to locate the Far West. After delivering the shocking news they returned, relaying to Gibbon and Terry that the Far West lay at the Little Bighorn’s mouth, 15 miles away.
With mule litters rigged and working smoothly, the general opted to keep moving the wounded rather than bivouac. They pressed forward into the dark, rainy night, not reaching the Far West until 1:30 a.m. As noted in the previous post, fires were built to make the route down a steep ridge to the boat. Its broad deck was covered with layers of grass covered with canvas in order to make beds for the wounded.
A Slow Start
The Far West left at noon June 30th headed for Gibbon’s supply base on the Yellowstone’s north bank. The reason for its late start is uncertain. Exhausted, the remaining soldiers moved across to the north bank of the Little Bighorn and camped again for the night. Finally, they rose early and marched overland to the supply base, arriving late on July 2.
The Far West ferried soldiers across the Yellowstone on July 3rd. She finally embarked with the wounded around 5 p.m. Normally steamboats would tie up along the banks at night rather than risk hitting snags, sawyers or unseen sandbars. Grant Marsh went “full steam,” however, hauling the wounded 710 miles to Bismarck in a record 54 hours.
The Far West ran with flags at half-staff and stopped briefly at Fort Buford and Fort Stevenson to obtain black bunting. Draped in black, it then steamed rapidly to Fort Abraham Lincoln to deliver the wounded and the shocking news of Custer’s annihilation. It arrived at 11 p.m. on July 5th.
Breaking the Shocking News
On July 4th America had celebrated its first centennial. Messengers had reached Fort Ellis and Helena, where news was telegraphed to Salt Lake City and sent out on AP “wires.” For many, the centennial was marred by this devastation. However, the New York Herald trumpeted more lengthy reports and sensational accounts telegraphed by the Bismarck Tribune for days to come.
Final Destination
Grant Marsh continued piloting on the Missouri until railroads replaced steamboats as the more efficient mode of transportation. He then moved eastward and continued as a pilot of various crafts on the Mississipi. He would eventually return to the Missouri, piloting boats until 1907.
Marsh died in Bismarck in 1916 and was buried on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. It was a fitting place. It had been the destination of his heroic, record-setting run with wounded soldiers from the Little Bighorn.
[Footnote: The name Mark Twain was not random. It played on a dual meaning. The term was used to assure river pilots that the water was at least two fathoms, or 12 feet, deep — enough for them to steer through safely. A 30-foot rope was knotted or at intervals of six feet (one fathom) and weighted at one end. When the rope descended to the second marker, “mark twain,” meaning two fathoms, was called out, assuring the pilot he could navigate safely.
The name Tome Sawyer used a riverboat term too. “Sawyer” referred to a submerged tree that “sawed” back and forth in currents and would reek havoc on hulls of passing boats.]
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