USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 75
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 75
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 75
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The abandonment of Fort Reno had been contem- plated in the establishment of Fort Philip Kearny, as Fort Casper had been erected on the Sweetwater, and a fort was to be built both on the Bighorn and Yellow- stone rivers. But the condition of the country was such that Reno must not only not be abandoned, but must be strengthened, and the Yellowstone post was given up, while a company was sent to reënforce Cap- tain Proctor instead. Early in August Lieutenant- colonel N. C. Kinney and Captain Burrows left Fort Philip Kearny with two companies to establish the Bighorn post, Fort C. F. Smith, which reduced the force at Carrington's post to fivecompanies, two-thirds of which was composed of raw recruits. The labor of erecting a strong fort, with sufficient quarters for eight companies, which was expected would be fur- nished, the material all to be obtained in the forest ;
15 These traders, long known at Fort Laramie, were Louis Gazzons and Henry Arrison. The other four were probably herders. The Sioux wife and half-breed family were allowed to escape.
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WYOMING.
and of cutting wood and hay in preparation for a long severe winter, was added to the duty of guarding trains, carrying mail, and escorting detachments of soldiers, or parties of citizens, while engaged in unmili- tary labor.
Carrington had represented to the commander of the department, General P. St George Cooke, that the status of the Indians in his district was that of war, and had made hissituation known to the adjutant- general of the army; but it was December before he was reënforced, and then only by a handful of poorly armed raw recruits. Ammunition was at length wanting for the practice of the recruits, or even for defence, in case of an attack, while at Laramie, where no trouble was apprehended, twelve companies were stationed. In the midst of several thousand hostile Indians was a small garrison of untried men, without the means of making war if forced to it.16 The con- dition of the three posts on the Bozeman road was really that of a state of seige from July to January requiring the greatest caution to prevent capture. The history of Fort Philip Kearny during the autumn and winter was one of a careful defence. The attacks on the timber trains, hay-cutters, woodmen, and escorts were unintermitting. Serious as was the loss in cattle and horses to a community so isolated, the frequent loss of life was yet more painful.
By the 10th of October there were not forty horses left with which to mount mail carriers, escorts, and pickets. On the last of the month the garrison flag floated for the first time from the flag-staff of Fort Philip Kearny. The skirmishing on the wood road, of so frequent occurrence that it was no longer in the nature of a surprise, had resulted in no loss of life for some time, when, on December 6th, in defending a
16 Cochran, in his Hist. Fort Laramie, MS., says: As many as 12 com- panies of cavalry and infantry were stationed at Fort Laramie. The cavalry came late in autumn. One troop, under Lieut Bingham, was ordered on escort duty with a train to Fort C. F. Smith. Bingham was killed while at Fort Philip Kearny. His regt was the 2d cavalry, under Palmer HIST. NEV. 46
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INDIAN WARS.
wood train Lieutenant Bingham, of the cavalry, and Sergeant Bowers were killed, and the road had become so dangerous toward Fort C. F. Smith that it had been determined not to attempt sending mails in that direction. Thus the toils tightened around a devoted garrison.
On the forenoon of the 21st of December an alarm was signalled by the pickets on the wood road, and that the train had corralled for safety, waiting for relief. A detail was quickly organized consisting of seventy-eight officers and men, the command being given by his own request to Lieutenant-colonel Fet- terman. There was a general disposition to volun- teer, both among officers and citizens employed at the post, and a general feeling of exasperation in all minds, which led to the catastrophe which followed. Before the command started a few Indian pickets appeared on Lodge Trail ridge, and a few at the crossing of the Bozeman road below the fort, who were scattered by case shot dropped among them. But the main force was entirely concealed, and a few shot, more or less, would not interfere with the execution of a well- considered plan. A surgeon sent to join the com- mand hastily returned with the report that the train had been relieved and gone on to the woods, but that Fetterman was on the ridge to the north out of view, and surrounded by a large force of Indians. Soon the sound of rapid firing came from the valley of Peno creek beyond the ridge, and then it became evi- dent that Fetterman had been drawn into an unex- pected engagement by Indian cunning, aided by the desire to avenge the death of Lieutenant Bingham, or had been in some inconceivable manner entrapped into disobeying orders. A relief party was dispatched with additional officers, surgeons, ambulances, and even the prisoners in the guardhouse were placed on duty to give all the available force for action should further aid be required to repulse the Indians. The wood train was ordered in, and when all was done
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WYOMING.
there were but 119 men besides those with Fetterman.
Meantime the relief party reached a point of obser- vation just as an ominous silence followed the crack- ling noise, increasing in intensity for half an hour, of rifle discharges. They beheld the valleys below them filled with 2,000 Indians, yelling and inviting them to descend, but not a soldier was to be seen. Not an officer or man of Fetterman's command remained alive.17 Tired of their bloody work, with their own dead and wounded, the Indians withdrew at nightfall, and about half the dead soldiers were brought into the fort after dark. On the following day the remainder were found, and a pit fifty feet in length received all of the eighty-one victims, but a few whose families claimed them for burial elsewhere.1 On the night of the 21st a miner named Philips car- ried dispatches to Fort Reno,19 whence the news was dispatched to Fort Laramie, where it arrived in the midst of the festivities of Christmas eve.20
Early in January Carrington received orders to remove district headquarters to Fort Casper,21 and at
17 Trans. Wyom. Acad. Sciences, etc., 1882, 87; Wyom. Territorial Affairs, MS., 15-16; Wyom. Indians and Settlers, MS., 49-50; Montana Post, Feb. 9, 1867; U. S. Sen. Jour., 575-6, 585; 39th cong., 2d sess .; S. F. Alta Cal., Feb. 15, and 28, 1867.
18 The officers killed in this battle were Col Fetterman, Capt. Brown of Ohio, and Lieut Grummond, making with Bingham and Daniels, five com- missioned officers killed while Fort Philip Kearny was building, and over 90 men. William Daly, now a resident of Rawlins, was employed with the quartermaster in erecting Fort Philip Kearney, and was the first carpenter in that section. He was employed by the government at Fort McPherson, Neb., in 1867-8. From there he came to Cheyenne, where he took contracts for putting up railroad buildings in 1869, and was afterward supt of con- struction of the N. P. R. R., between Cheyenne and Ogden until 1873, when he went into lumber and contracting at Rawlins. It is the opinion of Daly that the Indians might have taken the fort on the 21st of Dec. That they did not pursue their victory further was in consonance with their customary intermittent violence.
19 Phillips was one of the Standifer party which I have before mentioned as wintering at Fort Phil. Kearny. Two others, Wheatley and Fisher, were with Fetterman's command, and were killed. It required a stout heart to carry dispatches through the Indian country at that time.
20 Cochran, Hist. Fort Laramie, MS.
21 The ISth infantry regiment built Fort Casper soon after the close of the war. It had been a detached service station to protect the mail. They built, rebuilt, or repaired forts Halleck, Laramie, Sedgwick, Reno, Philip Kearny, Fetterman, and Bridger, several of them mail stations previously, all within the limits of what is now Wyoming, besides Fort C. F. Smith in Montana,
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INDIAN WARS.
the same time Brigadier-general H. W. Wessels, arrived with two companies of cavalry, and took com- mand at Fort Philip Kearny. The cold was so severe that in the three days' journey to Reno all were in danger of perishing, women, children, officers and men, some of the teamsters suffering amputation of the hands and feet on reaching the fort. After getting to Fort Casper, the orders were to go to Fort Mc- Pherson, and again headquarters journeyed through winter weather to within ninety-seven miles of Fort Kearny.
The spring of 1867 opened with a renewal of hos- tilities. The military authorities near the eastern end of the infested line of road, endeavored to prevent the killing of small parties by ordering all such detained at Fort McPherson, which was near the junction of the North and South Platte, until they were organ- ized into companies of not less than thirty men, and by furnishing escorts if danger seemed to threaten. A large number of troops had been sent into the department, with the design at first of sending an expedition against the Sioux who were in force between Fort Philip Kearny and Fort C. F. Smith,22 but being chiefly infantry they were unable to pursue
and McPherson in Nebraska. There was also a sub-post of Fort Laramie at Scott Bluffs, called Fort Mitchell. Abaraka, 70, 270; Sturgis, Common Sense View of the Sioux War, 22-3.
22 The commander of the department of the Platte in 1867 was Gen. C. C. Augru. Early in the year Gov. I. N. Palmer commanded at Fort Laramie, but later Maj. G. W. Howland. After a number of changes the distribution of troops was as follows:
POSTS.
COMMANDERS
COM'D OFFICERS
SUBAL- TERNS.
ENLISTED MEN.
Ft Laramie.
Major G. W. Howland. .
19
7
386
Ft D. H. Russell.
Brig .- gen. J. D. Stevenson
17
9
310
Ft Sanders
Maj .- gen. John Gibbons. .
10
4
168
Ft Reno
Maj. James Van Voast.
7
3
251
Ft Phil. Kearny
Maj .- gen. J. E. Smith
12
4
269
Ft C. F. Smith (Mont)
Brig. - gen. L. P. Bradley
10
7
317
Ft Bridger.
Col H. R. Mizner
4
2
106
Ft Sedgwick.
Brig. - gen. J. H. Potter
15
1
246
Ft Morgan, (Colo) ..
. . Maj. W. H. Powell
4
98
The troops employed in the department were the 2d cavalry, the 4th, 10th,
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WYOMING.
well mounted Indian forces, which appeared in the most unexpected places, and were off as soon as their mischief was perpetrated. The damage done to prop- erty this year was greater than since 1863-4 when Colorado suffered so severely, and the country was again cut off from communication with the east by telegraph, while overland wagon trains, and even railroad trains were interrupted. In May the stage lines refused to carry passengers, their horses which were not stolen being withdrawn from the road, sev- eral of their stations burned, and some of their drivers killed and wounded. The public survey was interrupted, and the whole region in a state of arrested growth.23 The Montana route, over which the Sioux pretended to be so much excited, was untravelled, no citizen trains venturing upon it. General Augur, commanding the department of the Platte, reported that it was a daily struggle still to keep open the route from forts Laramie to C. F. Smith, for the passage of government trains, without having to guard citizen trains. Thirty wagons owned by J. R. Porter of Plattsmouth, Nebraska, carrying government supplies to Fort Philip Kearny, escorted by Major Powell, Lieutenant Guiness, and forty men, was attacked near that post by a large force of Indians, with whom they fought for three hours, until relief reached them from the fort, in the shape of two full companies and a howitzer. The train was saved, but all the mules and horses captured, and Lieutenant Guiness killed. Thirty thousand dollars' worth of government prop- erty was destroyed en route for Fort C. F. Smith; three months having been spent in attempts to get it
13th, 18th," 22d, 27th, 30th, 31st, and 36th infantry. Fort Fetterman was erected this year by the 4th and ISth infantry under Major and brevet Col W. McE. Dye, at the mouth of Sage creek, where the road to Montana left the Platte. It had a garrison of 472 men, and 19 com. officers. Two com- panies also were encamped near Laramie, under Maj. C. H. Carleton, during summer, which went into garrison late in the autumn. Rept Sec. War, i. 438, 440; 40th cong., 2d sess .; Cochran's Hist. Fort Laramie, MS., 65; Mont. Post., July 20, 1869.
23 Communication of Gen. Sherman to the asst adjt-gen. of the army, in Rept. Sec. War, i, 65-8,
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INDIAN WARS.
to its destination from Julesburg.24 No attempts were for some time afterward made to reach this post with supplies, and its abandonment was suggested as a means of restoring peace.
Early in 1867 congress resorted to the customary commission to settle the Indian question, and General John B. Sanborn, General W. T. Sherman, General W. S. Harney, General C. C. Augur, N. J. Taylor, John B. Henderson and S. F. Tappan were appointed. To subsist friendly Indians $300,000 were appropri- ated, and half that amonnt for other expenses. After a month spent in endeavors to have a general council, a treaty promising much, and requiring some submis- sion to government, was drawn up, signed by a few of the so-called friendly Indians, April 29th, and given in charge of the military authorities at Laramie, who were to use every means to induce the chiefs of the Sioux, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes to sign it. That they were in no haste the above narrative proves. General Augur reported against abandoning the line of posts erected to guard travel on the Bozeman road, urging the importance to the people, and the loss to the government of the money expended in erecting and maintaining them, to say nothing of the moral effect on the Indians. No understanding was arrived at, while the summer passed in war, and the winter was spent in holding one of the northern posts on the Missouri in a state of siege and annoying others. In the spring of 1868, two years having been spent in a warfare exhausting to the means of the Indians, their courage began to fail them. Now was the time for the peace commissioners to score a triumph. The treaty left at Fort Laramie with instructions to the interpreter to make the meaning clear to every Indian of any consequence who came about the fort, began to get his signatures. In the first place, in May, a band of Ogalallas arrived with two chiefs, who signed
4 U. S. Mess. and Doc. Abridg't, 390, 40th cong., 2d sess.
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WYOMING,
the treaty. The commanding officer then issued to them an ample supply of provisions, and the Indian agent blankets, cloth, cooking utensils, knives, guns, and ammunition. In a few days they departed, and others came of the Sioux bands, then many Arapa- hoes. All signed the treaty, and received arms and ammunition in addition to food and clothing. But Red Cloud and Spotted Tail held aloof, waiting to have their will, saying that when the posts on the Bozeman road were abandoned they would sign the treaty. In August the posts were abandoned,25 the troops from C. F. Smith, Philip Kearny, and Reno being assigned to other stations. Though they may have been glad to leave the wilderness behind them, there were few if any who were not reluctant to quit the country with the Fetterman defeat unavenged. Still Red Cloud did not sign until November, and Spotted Tail not at all.
After being fed, clothed, and supplied with arms, the Sioux and their allies cast about for a provocation to further hostilities, and this they found in the condi- tions of the treaty. The country set apart for their exclusive use by its terms extended from the east bank of the Missouri river where the 46th parallel crosses it down to the Nebraska line; thence west across the Missouri and along the Nebraska line to the 104th meridian ; thence north to the 46th parallel and east to the place of beginning, "together with all existing reservations." Upon this territory none but officers and agents of the government should intrude. It was also stipulated that the country north of the Platte and east of the Bighorn mountains should be held as unceded Indian territory, which no white per- son should be permitted to occupy without the con- sent of the Indians. On their part they promised to remain at peace, to relinquish all claim to the lands north of the Platte which was outside of their reser-
25 Mont. Post, May 2d, and July 31, 1868; compiled Laws of Wyom., 1876, 1xxii.
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INDIAN WARS.
vation, except to hunt; not to oppose railroad con- struction, except on the reserved lands, not to attack any persons travelling or at home, not to steal cattle or horses, not to capture white women or children, and not to kill or scalp white men. Should the gov- ernment build a road, it would pay for the land taken ; and benefits were to be bestowed such as the govern- ment bestows upon all treaty tribes.26
The offence given was in an order of the president of the peace commission, General Sanborn, that after the signatures of all the chiefs had been obtained, the Sioux and their allies should no longer be permitted to come to Fort Laramie, as it was not within the boundaries of their reservation. But the distance to Fort Randall, where they were directed to go for sup- plies, was considerable, and the dissatisfaction great in proportion. They were unwilling to submit to the inconvenience so rigorously imposed upon the people of Montana. Depredations continued to be com- mitted upon travellers, and upon the few settlers near the forts, and along the line of the Union Pacific railroad, which was now approaching completion, and for the safety of which Fort Frederick Steele was erected this year, near the present site of Rawlins. Meanwhile Red Cloud and Man-afraid-of-his-horses retired to Powder river from which they could follow the chase, invade the Crow country as they should feel inclined, while the Cheyennes were warring against their own race 27 on the plains. And there, for a space, I will leave them, to turn to the progress of affairs connected with the existence of Wyoming.
26 Deer Lodge, Northwest, Sept. 5, 1874; Helena, Mont. Post, May 29, 1868.
27 In the autumn of 1868, 35 Kaw Indians, being on a buffalo hunt 60 miles southwest from Fort Larned on the Arkansas, they were attacked by 60 Cheyennes, the battle continuing for two hours. The Cheyennes lost heavily, the Kaws being warlike and brave. Returning to the Kaw agency with 45 captured horses, they were again attacked by the Cheyennes, who had been reënforced to 100, who beseiged the agency for 48 hours, killing 9 of the Kaws and capturing all the horses and stock. I have this account from George W. Munkers, of Buffalo, Wyoming, who was present in both battles. Munkers was born in Mo., in 1852, and brought up in Kansas. At the early age of 10 years he was employed as interpreter on the Kaw reser-
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WYOMING.
vation, and was sent to Fort Sill, and other posts, to negotiate for the restor- ation of white captives, in which he was successful. He afterward travelled with a party of Indians to exhibit their war-dances, under the management of P. J. Barnum. In 1873 he went to Col., engaging in mining and freight- ing in the San Juan country. Subsequently he constructed 21 miles of the Denver and New Orleans railroad, and 7 miles of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad. His next enterprise was in town-building, having acted as manager in the affairs of Robert Foote, in starting the growth of Buffalo in the Powder river country. His wife is a daughter of J. P. Mather, a pioneer, who erected the first grist-mill in Johnson co. He was elected town trustee in 1883, and was always an influential member of the commonwealth.
CHAPTER V. POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND MATERIAL AFFAIRS.
1867-1888.
GOLD DISCOVERY -SOUTH PASS CITY ORGANIZED - ORGANIZATION OF COUNTIES- FOUNDING OF CHEYENNE- ADVANCE IN TOWN LOTS-BAD ELEMENT - VIGILANCE COMMITTEES - NEWSPAPERS ESTABLISHED - A MAGIC CITY - THE NAME WYOMING - TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION - FEMALE SUFFRAGE-JUDICIAL DISTRICTS-COUNTY SEATS AND COUNTY OFFICERS -- ELECTIONS-LAW MAKING-MILITARY POSTS-ADMINISTRA- TION OF GOVERNOR CAMPBELL-THAYER, HOYT, AND HALE-MASSACRE OF CHINESE-LEGISLATION.
HITHERTO the territory which was the scene of so many adventures, and so much activity of an itinerant character, had no permanent population, no political organization, and no name. It was spoken of as the North Platte, with the sub-titles of the Sweet- water, the Wind River Valley, the Bighorn Country, or the Black Hills. Really it was a part of Da- kota,1 but had never been districted, and possessed no local machinery of government. Originally it was a part of the Louisiana purchase,? confirmed by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1846. I have referred in a previous chapter to the fruitless attempts to discover the precious metals, which from time to time were put forth in this region, while Col- orado and Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada were pouring their millions of treasure into the lap of a luxurious civilization. Notwithstanding the repeated failures, it was no surprise when in the summer of 1867, upon the sources of the Sweetwater, gold was found in paying quantities by prospectors, among
1 Zabriskie, Land Laws, 848, 777; Slaughter, Lafe in Colo and Wyom., MS., 6.
2 U S. H. Misc. Doc., 45, pt 4, vol. 2. 105, 47th cong., 2d sess. (730)
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WYOMING.
whom were Henry Ridell, Frank Marshall, Harry Hubbell, Richard Grace, and Noyes Baldwin, who dis- covered the Cariso lode and made the first locations at South pass. When the news reached Salt Lake, a company of about thirty men repaired to South pass prepared to winter there while they prospected. Their camp was surprised by a band of hostile Arapahoes, looking for plunder. In the first onset they killed Lawrence, the captain of the party, and drove the prospectors to the Sweetwater, where, after killing another man, they abandoned the pursuit, it was sup- posed because they feared to meet the Shoshones in whose country they were. The miners being on foot, could not overtake them if they would; nevertheless there were soon 700 persons on Willow Creek, con- stituting the municipality of South Pass City, which was laid out in October. From the Cariso $15,000 was taken out by crushing in hand mortars before winter set in. The Atlantic ledge, six miles north- east of Cariso, was considered a very important mine. Miners' Delight, two miles northeast of the Atlantic, was even more promising, while the Summit, King Solomon, Northern Light, Scott and Eddy, Lone Star State, Hoosier Boy, Copperopolis, Mahomet, Cali- fornia, Elmira, Colonel Mann, and Jim Crow were regarded as valuable discoveries. Late in the autumn placer mines were also found, which yielded flatter- ingly. They were in gulches running into Willow Creek, which was a branch of the Sweetwater head- ing in Wind River mountains, and flowing south. The Dakota was the first gulch discovered, after which followed half a dozen others. A ditch five miles in length was partly constructed, before cold weather set in, which was to carry water to Dakota gulch. A sawmill was also in operation before the winter. Be- sides the population at South Pass City, there were several mining districts each with its hundred or more inhabitants. Such is the magic progress which gold inspires.
732
POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND MATERIAL AFFAIRS.
In January the county of Carter was organized,' with Hubbell as recorder, and John Murphy as sheriff. By the middle of February, although the snow was deep and drifted, parties from Salt Lake struggled through in order to be on the ground with the opening of spring.+ In April another town of 300 miners had sprung up four miles northeast of South Pass City, in the midst of a quartz district situated on Rock Creek; and soon a third town called Hamilton was started four miles north of that. Game of many kinds was plenty, and water power convenient, but the first set- tlers pronounced against the prospect of raising farm products in that section. Business was good if the merchants could get their goods upon the ground, which was difficult.'
The Indians continued to infest the roads, making travel dangerous; and notwithstanding detachments of troops were stationed at intervals, who patrolled the highway or pursued depredating parties, a number of persons were killed in the summer of 1868, and again in 1869. A newspaper called the Sweetwater Miner was started at Fort Briger in Feburary 1868, by Warren andHastings, which was active in promoting immigra- tion to thisregion. The existence of a mother lode was
3 Named after W. A. Carter of Fort Bridger.
4 J. F. Staples, John Able, John M. Neil, William F. Berry, John Hol- brook, James Leffingwell, Frank McGovern, John Eaves, Peter Brade, Louis Brade, Alexander and bro., H. A. Thompson, Jeff. Standifer, Kit Castle, George Hirst, W. Matheney, Chris. Weaver, and Moses Sturman passed Fort Bridger in February, and Col Morrow, in command, was forced to pub- lish a special order, warning citizens not to expect to obtain supplies from that post. Wyoming Scraps, 13.
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