I will take occasion in closing to pay deserved tribute to the distinguished toastmaster of the evening, General Godfrey. I began with the battle of the Washita in 1868, and he was there and is now the only surviving officer who participated in that engagement. I told you about the Little Bighorn, and he was there, commanding a company. I have told you of Bear's Paw, and he was there, shot off his horse, desperately wounded. I finished with Wounded Knee, and, behold, he was there. He participated in every one of the four historic battles that made this regiment [the Seventh Cavalry] so famous in Indian campaigns, and these four stand out conspicuously among the illustrious events of the plains.
(Walter Mason Camp, "Address by Walter Camp," in Kenneth Hammer, ed., Custer in '76: Walter Camp's Notes on the Custer Fight [Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990], 10-25, at 25 [book originally published in 1976])
Note from KBJ: This address (by Walter Camp) was given on 17 January 1920. Camp didn't mention it, but Godfrey also served in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine-American War. He was with George Armstrong Custer during the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition and during the 1874 Black Hills Expedition. What an amazing life! I should devote my retirement years to writing this man's biography.
