Marsh, Grant (1834-1916). Pilot of the Far West, the steamboat that transported wounded troops from (and news of) the Battle of Little Bighorn. ALS, 1p, 6.5 x 10.125 in., "Memphis, Tenn." February 18, 1914. Addressed to Captain I.P. Baker. Marsh writes about a number of matters including boats going to Paducah and Mound City for repair, a letter from Baker intended for "Grant," the building of a boat at Wabasha, Minnesota, boatyards at Dubuque, Iowa and Still Water, Minnesota, and his ability to furnish money to pay certain expenses of "the men." Grant P. Marsh worked on and around steamboats for much of his life, becoming a cabin boy at the young age of twelve and serving as first mate aboard the A.B. Chambers No. 2 with Samuel Clemens when he was 24. During the Civil War, he worked as a cub pilot on Union Fleet boats in the lower Mississippi, and after the war he proved his skill as captain of the North Alabama by braving long distances and icy conditions to deliver provisions to troops. He is most remembered, however, for commanding the Far West, which he took on a 54-hour, 710-mile trek to Bismarck, transporting more than fifty of Major Reno's wounded troopers and news of the Seventh Cavalry's defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn. In 1883, Marsh piloted a boat carrying Sitting Bull and his followers from Fort Yates to Fort Randall, where they had been detained after returning from Canada.Â