247. BATTLE OF WASHITA 7TH CAVALRY OBITUARY AND INDIAN PHOTOGRAPH A good pair of historic items related to the battle of the Washita River during which Custer and his 7th Cavalry massacred scores of Cheyenne men, women and children after defeating the tribe's warriors in a pitched battle on Nov. 27, 1868. First is a fine late nineteenth-century cabinet card showing a group of twelve Cheyenne Indians dressed as warriors and standing in front of a wooden clock tower that has an American flag flying from the roof. A period ink inscription reads, in full: "Survivors of the Custer Massacre taken at the State Fair". Along with an early Indian War document, 1p. 4to., a 7th US Cavalry circular, the obituary for Capt. Louis McLane Hamilton killed by at the battle. Reprinted from the original that appeared in the New York Herald, Dec. 21, 1868, in small part: "...Grandson of General Alexander Hamilton...and late a captain of cavalry in General Custer's command, was recently killed in an encounter with a large, concentrated Indian force on the Washita river. The brave Major Elliot and nineteen privates were also among the dead, and a number of officers dangerously wounded...young Hamilton...aided to...clear a way for [the] grand march of westward empire...fiercely obstructed by mysteriously doomed aboriginal savages, this descendent of...Alexander Hamilton, has contributed his young unsullied life...". Both pieces overall very good. $600 - 700