The battle of Little Big Horn and Custer’s last stand there are well known to many. Although William O. Taylor, who later became a resident of Orange, was not involved in the main battle itself, he served with Major Marcus Renos’ contingent on that day and his journal of that battle can still be read today.
Taylor first enlisted into the military at age 21 in 1872. Along with serving at Little Big Horn, he also served in both the Yellowstone Expedition in 1873 and Black Hills Expedition in 1874 and in the Civil War as well.
Taylor, according to Linda Temple, Historian at the Orange Historical Society, was originally with Custer’s unit but was sent with a message to Gen. Reno, then stayed with Reno’s unit. and because of that he lived, she said.
Taylor was on duty with Reno’s contingent in the battle of Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. While Custer battled at the Little Big Horn battlefield, Reno’s contingent in a valley below skirmished with another band of warriors, said Marvin Dawes, Park Ranger at Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument and member of the Crow Nation. The Little Big Horn battlefield is located on the Crow Nation Reservation.
Reno’s contingent were also involved in gathering the wounded after the battle at Little Big Horn, and burying the remains of the soldiers who were killed. Today, markers at the battlefield, mark where both soldiers and warriors fell.
After leaving the service, Taylor settled in Orange, where he lived for 30 years. In a March 16, 1923 article in the Orange Enterprise and Journal, W. Thornton Parker, another veteran of the wars with Native Americans from Northampton and a friend of Taylor’s, who worked to have the war department publish Taylor’s collection of war records, stated of Taylor: “Taylor was not only an honorable and brave soldier, but he possessed literary ability which he used to good advantage in writing of the Little Big Horn and of Indian War History in the early (18)70s. Because of the accuracy of the same and the various details, hitherto unpublished, his writings are too valuable to be lost.”
Taylor placed the manuscript he wrote in a metal box. His wife, who outlived him, according to Temple, gave the metal box to her niece in Connecticut who, not knowing what to do with it, gave it to Old Deerfield. With Taylor’s manuscript not related to Old Deerfield’s collections, it was deaccessioned along with several other Custer items and went to auction at Butterfield Auction House in the mid 1990s. Proceeds from the sale, according to Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association librarian Heather Harrington, went toward future purchases for the museum and conservation and care of the museum’s existing collection. From there, it was purchased by Greg Martin. Taylor’s manuscript which was published by Martin in book form and titled, “With Custer On the Little Big Horn,” by William O. Taylor. The Orange Historical Society has several copies of the book for sale.
Taylor, through his later years, maintained friendships with those in the area of Little Bighorn, according to the Orange and Enterprise and Journal of Jan. 3, 1923. Among those friendships were with A.C. Stohr of Lame Deer, Montana, located in the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. He began corresponding with Mrs. Stohr as she lived near the Custer battlefield and was able to give him valuable information from time to time concerning the battle which he was using in the compilation of a book, according to the article. She was the wife of the postmaster and trader at Lame Deer. Much of the information she sent Taylor was gathered from Native American Veterans who were in the battle and now living on the reservation. She also sent photographs of Native American Life and Views of the Field which he proposed to use in his history, according to the article.