SOLDIER WHO SHOUTED
"REMEMBER CUSTER"
IS DEAD.
Heart Disease Claims As a Victim
David H. Pingree at the
Age of 56.
You remember the story in the history books about the massacre of General Custer in the Bad Lands of South Dakota, do you not? Especially you remember the stirring incident of the time when the troops who had been sent to revenge the death of the gallant leader and capture the redskin chief, Sitting Bull, wavered and were about to retreat before the withering fire poured out upon them from ambush, a soldier rose in his saddle and cried aloud:
"Remember Custer."
Only two words, but they made history. The soldiers rallied, taking those words for their battlecry and charged, inflicting the most decisive defeat upon the Indian warriors ever suffered in the history of the race.
The man who spoke those words is dead. David H. Pingree, 56 years old, formerly member of the Seventh United States cavalry, dropped dead of heart trouble last Friday morning. He had been honorably discharged from the army with the mark of "excellent" in 1891, after a service of six years. He came to Kansas City, where he remained a short time, but soon went to Iola, Kas., where he went into the hotel business, but for the past two years has been living in this city. A wife, who lives in Rich Hill, Mo., survives.
Besides turning the tide of the battle by giving his comrades a slogan to fight for at the psychological moment Pingree contributed largely to the victory in another way. A party of Indians were hidden behind a tent close to the regiment and they were picking off a cavalryman at every opportunity. Pingree and another soldier loosened up a Hotchkiss gun and trained it on the tent. In a few moments there was no tent left and the Indians were forced to seek another cover.
Pingree was an Elk. The lodge will have charge of the funeral services at 2:30 this afternoon from Eylar Bros. chapel, Fourteenth and Main streets. Burial will be in Mount Washington cemetery.
