In June, 2002, my brother and I were camped at Medicine Tail Coulee, which is privately owned land that is owned by the Real Bird family who sponsor one of the annual reenactments of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. That is why we were camped there.
In preparations for the reenactment and the expected crowd that would be there to see the show, the Real Birds brought in quite a number of Porta-Potty's for use during the reenactment. At about 2 or 2:30 one morning, I awoke needing to use the latrine. Since all that week we had been wearing our cavalry uniforms, I got dressed and pulled on my cavalry boots, grabbed my hat, and headed for the latrine.
About one-third of the way across the open field, which is all of 100 yards across, I began to hear a bugle. It did not sound like any bugle I had ever heard, and after 24 years in the military I'd heard plenty of them. It was playing recall over and over. I just chalked it up to some of the guys playing a joke on me and continued in my way.
On the return trip I noticed that it had stopped, so I went on to the tent and back to bed. When we awoke about 4 or 5 hours later, I told my brother what happened and he agreed that it was the guys playing a joke on me. There was something that was bothering me and that was: How did the guys know what time I'd be going to the latrine?
An active duty Army Lt. Colonel invited us to breakfast at his camp mostly because I am a retired Army staff sergeant and I asked him who was playing the bugle at around 2:30 a.m. When he replied, my blood ran cold. His reply was, "There isn't a bugle even remotely close to us as we speak, and the battlefield closes at 9 p.m. No one can get in there."
He told me that what (or who) I'd heard was most likely Chief Trumpeter (in 1876 they were called trumpeters) Henry Voss of the 7th Cavalry sounding Recall in the hopes that Reno and Benteen would come to the rescue. He further stated that I was not the first to hear him and most likely would not be the last to hear him.
