The story of a Welshman who fought at Little Bighorn
The tale of a Pembrokeshire man who died at the Battle of Little Bighorn kicks off the On Land’s Edge Festival in Fishguard next month, writes Jenny White...
ON MAY 17, 1876, in the run-up to the Battle of Little Bighorn (also called Custer’s Last Stand), some of the troops destined to die in the battle rode out from Fort Abraham Lincoln to confront the Native Americans. As their wives watched them go, a strange meteorological phenomenon made it appear as if they were riding into the crowds. This set off a panic in the camp, with the wives seeing it as a portent of death.
Author Mike Lewis, who has become an expert on this passage in history, picks up the story: “It really spooked all the wives,” he says. “So much so that Libby Custer, Custer’s wife, called a meeting two or three days later with the fort doctor, who explained how this phenomenon had occurred – that it was a natural phenomenon and they shouldn’t worry. But that didn’t allay their fears. A lot of the wives felt the soldiers would never come back – and, of course, history tells us that that was the case.”
The haunting image is the inspiration behind the title of a new play about the battle, Ghost Rider From Dinas Cross, which is based on Mike Lewis’ book If God Will Spare My Life. In it, he tells the story of William Batine James, a Welshman from Dinas Cross in Pembrokeshire, who was among 210 soldiers killed by Native Americans at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Mike’s interest in the story was sparked by a 2002 BBC Wales documentary about William.
“It was an interesting little documentary, but unfortunately they didn’t quite get his family background right,” he says. “As a local newspaper reporter, I then followed it up and managed to find some relatives of this last Victorian soldier living fairly nearby.
“I subsequently did a piece on it, which caused a bit of a stir and, over the next few years, it just stayed with me and I found myself wondering more and more about him – what kind of person he was, why he left Wales when he did and what happened to him during the battle.”
Mike’s research took him to the Pembrokeshire Archives, where he found five previously undiscovered letters that William had sent from Dakota territory to his brother. In military terms, they were disappointing because he did not reveal what he was doing there – but, in other ways, they revealed a lot.
“He was clearly disguising what he was doing there,” says Mike. “I suspect that he didn’t want to worry his mother.
“In two of letters he wrote his address as FA Lynchon, which was clearly Fort Abraham Lincoln, but his family back home wouldn’t have known that and if he had disclosed that he was at Fort Abraham Lincoln, they’d have known he was a soldier. He was very devious, so this got me thinking – what was this guy running from?”
The letters also revealed family tensions and money worries.
“The letters contain a tangible darkness. He’s always complaining about the lack of news from home and asking why they don’t send him letters.
“There’s one memorable line in there that says, ‘I’ve enclosed my address for you to write to me, but I’m sure you won’t write to a brother in a strange land. Out of sight out, out of mind’.”
In another letter he asks John, his youngest brother, to send him some money, which surprised Mike because by then William had risen to the well-paid rank of corporal.
The more Mike read, the more intrigued he became. He discovered that a solicitor had spent years trying to track William down because was the heir to a large farm in Fishguard and this became a way to frame William’s story in the novel.
When writer Anne Garside read the book, she was hooked – and the novel’s lasting impression on her led her to write Ghost Rider From Dinas Cross, which premieres at Theatr Gwaun September 22, opening the On Land’s Edge Festival/ar ymyl y Tir 2023.
Recalling the impact of the novel, she says: “I lived in America for 35 years, so I was very familiar with Custer’s Last Stand and when I got to the last stages of the book – and you see Custer making one disastrous mistake after another – I couldn’t put the book down.
“I’m an early-to-bed person, but I stayed up till nearly two in the morning because it was so enthralling as you saw it unfold.”
When Patrick Thomas, the play’s producer and the festival’s chairman, asked Anne if she knew of a good idea for a play for this year’s festival, she had no doubts about her answer.
“I knew the last section of the book would have the drama needed to hold the audience’s attention, so I began drafting play,” she says.
The result is an intense play featuring an innovative all-female cast and atmospheric soundscape. It has elements of magical realism, but also stays true to the facts conveyed in Mike’s play.
“Until Mike researched this story, no one locally had any idea that a Welsh a farm boy from Dinas Cross had taken part in a battle that’s legendary in America,” says Anne.
Both she and Mike are mindful of the challenges that come with portraying an episode in history that still holds shame today due to the suffering inflicted by settlers on Native Americans.
“Every schoolchild in America has grown up with the story of Custer’s Last Stand – and, of course, nowadays there’s a realisation that it was a desperate last stand for the Native Americans who were fighting to keep their own tribal homelands,” says Anne.
I found myself wondering more and more about him – what kind of person he was, why he left Wales when he did and what happened to him during the battle
“It was a pyrrhic victory. They won the battle at Little Bighorn, but lost the war. Nowadays I hope the audience would also take away a feeling of sympathy for the Native Americans.
“I resisted trying to impose our 21st century political correctness on Will, but in the book he comes to realise that he is as much a disgraced person as the Indians.”
It’s likely that the real William was a complex character – mysteries remain as to how and why he ended up a soldier in America and, while he airs grievances and asks for money in his letters, he also shows kindness to his brother John.
“I believe he was a commercial traveller at one point and in one of the letters he passes on names of his best customers and proceeds to reel off a list of drapers in the Llanelli area and advises John to approach them – so I think he was being quite a good older brother,” says Mike.
“As to what he was like from a personal point of view – I don’t know and I’ve been mindful of the fact I’m writing about a cavalryman who attacked Native Americans. I’ve always felt that the fates of all of us are governed by the actions of others and never is that more true than in a military situation.
“I don’t doubt that a lot of the guys who followed Custer probably didn’t want to go – soldiers have got their own minds, but they’ve got to do what they’re told. And it obviously backfired spectacularly.
“It was the greatest victory by Native Americans over US federal troops and what happened on that field resonates to this day.”
The performance of the play will mark the opening of this year’s edition of On Land’s Edge Festival/ar Ymyl y Tir, a festival that began in 2021 following conversations between artists, writers and musicians in the area.
“In September 2021, we had a three-day festival which was very successful and, the following year, we managed to hit Arts Council funding, which helped us to pay performers properly,” says Patrick.
“We’ve got literature, lots of music, film and various things that don’t fit into neat categories. We’ve got a particular theme this year of journeys, so some of the work is around pilgrimage and other kinds of journeys. For example, we have Stone Club, who are obsessed with standing stones and cromlechs – they do talks about stones and a DJ set, inspired by stones.”
Other highlights include a live set by singersongwriter Eve Goodman, Celtic-influenced Trio Walters-favrau-pinc, a final night concert fusing classical and modern music and literary contributions from writers including Sophie Mackintosh, who was recently named by Granta as one of the 20 best young British novelists, and Jon Gower, who has been involved in the festival from the beginning and will be talking about his latest book, The Turning Tide, a biography of the Irish sea.
“Everybody’s welcome,” says Patrick. “Come along and you’ll find something that surprises you. Theatre Gwaun is the friendliest theatre anywhere and we’re delighted to be working with the other festival venues, Ffwrn and Peppers and with Fishguard Art Society.”
Ghost Rider is on September 22 at 6.30pm. The festival runs from September 22 to September 24. More details can be found at www.theatrgwaun.com/events/on-lands-edge