Nearly a year ago I posted Bog Number 10 about William Moodie, the Edinburgh man who was killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. At that time I thought whilst it was worth a story it would be too much of a stretch to make it feasible. But the idea stayed with me, never quite letting go. Since then I have discovered there were several Scots enlisted in the Seventh Cavalry at the time. Most escaped harm because they were on detached duties elsewhere and were not present, one was decorated for bravery for his part in fetching water for wounded comrades, and Moodie got himself killed. He was part of Reno's battalion. Kismet, Fate, call it what you will. The other Scot killed was with Custer's battalion.
Regular followers of the blog will know I am working on the third part of my Roman trilogy "Centurion of The Boar." From out of nowhere, in the midst of that, Moodie's story popped back into my head and to cut a long story short I found an angle that made it possible.
"The Bugle" is not what I intended or expected to write. It is not about the battle or Moodie per se. It is a more oblique take on history.
I will post it to the website on 4th December, a year to the day I found William Moodie waiting for me.
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