NOTABLE ARKANSANS
He was born in 1835, in Germany, the son of a forester. His studies at the University of Heidelberg were cut short in 1848, by a political revolution; immigrating to the United States in 1854, he became a fur trader in Minnesota. He traded hides with the Sioux and was a talented artist, painting portraits on animal skins. In 1861, he married Bridget Mary Bird.
During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army and served as a scout in the Iowa Twenty-First Infantry, which was encamped in Arkansas. After the war, he took up residence in Iowa and soon began making a living as a guide for affluent visitors. Before long, he was being referred to by the moniker Captain, although he had served as a private during the war. To the local American Indians, however, he was Eagletail.
Apparently, the military continued to use him as a scout, because on a fateful day — June 25, 1876 — he was in Montana, carrying a message meant for General George Armstrong Custer, when he came upon Custer’s Crow scout, Curley, who had just survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and became one of the first white men to survey the aftermath. Later, he painted a portrait of Curley.
After refusing an offer from “Buffalo Bill” Cody to join his Wild West Show, he and Bridget divorced and he settled in Goshen, Ark., near Fayetteville. In 1889, he married Martha Louisa Mayes. He managed his farm and, for a while, was a whiskey gauger: a federal officer charged with determining the alcohol content of whiskey and collecting the tax imposed.
In 1904, he and his wife built a cabin on East Mountain in Fayetteville. The only way to reach the cabin was by a narrow path, winding up the mountain through the forest. One room in the cabin was used to display paraphernalia and war trophies he had collected throughout his life. A sign over the door stated admission was 25 cents. His first night at the cabin, at 9 p.m., he stepped on the porch and played “Taps” on an old military bugle, the tune echoing down the mountain — and continued to do so every night thereafter.
He became involved with youth programs and was Fayetteville’s first Scoutmaster. He died in 1918 and is buried in Fayetteville National Cemetery.
Who was this “Old Scout,” whom some locals swear can still be sometimes heard playing “Taps” at night from East Mountain?
Who was this “Old Scout,” whom some locals swear can still be sometimes heard playing “Taps” at night from East Mountain?
Charles Ludwig Von Berg