Thursday marked the 150th anniversary of the death of Mark Kellogg, an early Associated Press journalist who perished with Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his men at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Kellogg, 43, was embedded with Custer's Seventh Cavalry and was reporting for The Bismarck Tribune and New York Herald when Custer underestimated the size of a Sioux village and launched an attack.
Custer and his outnumbered soldiers made a last stand on a hill and were ultimately annihilated by Native American defenders. Kellogg's body was found near the soldiers. His final dispatch, circulated by the AP, read in part, “I go with Custer and will be at the death.” Historians interpret "at the death" as a foxhunting term, suggesting Kellogg anticipated Custer's victory rather than his own demise.
Kellogg was one of 38 journalists who have died on the job while working for The Associated Press over its 180-year history. His death, however, was the very first in the news organization's history. Over the years, other AP journalists have died from various causes, including artillery fire, aircraft crashes, gunfire, disease, and execution in conflict zones around the world. Recent examples include Mariam Dagga, killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza last August, and Anja Niedringhaus, a photographer shot in Afghanistan in 2014.
Kellogg's role in the 1876 campaign differed significantly from modern war reporting. He carried a rifle into action and expressed bias against Native Americans, referring to them as "red devils." Sandy Barnard, a historian and author of a Kellogg biography, noted that Kellogg was likely "more of a soldier than he was a newspaper man" in the final stages of the campaign. His diary, preserved by the State Historical Society of North Dakota and now digitized, provides a day-to-day account of the campaign, including weather, distances, and troop movements, ending before the battle itself. Barnard described the diary as a valuable primary source for understanding the historical event and Custer's Seventh Cavalry.
Despite the differences in reporting methods and attitudes, Barnard stated that Kellogg was performing the same fundamental role as contemporary reporters entering combat zones. Kellogg, a widower supporting two daughters, worked various jobs and became a well-known figure in death due to his final words and fate being widely circulated.