USA > Montana > Then and now; or, Thirty-six years in the Rockies. Personal reminiscences of some of the first pioneers of the state of Montana. Indians and Indian wars. The past and present of the Rocky mountain country. 1864-1900 > Part 21
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THIRTY-SIX YEARS IN THE ROCKIES.
" 'The department commander desires that, on your way up the Rosebud, you should have your scouts thoroughly examine the upper part of Tullock's fork, and that you should endeavor to send scouts through to Colonel Gibbon's command with the result of your examination. The lower part of this will be ex- amined by Colonel Gibbon's scouts.
" 'The supply steamer will be pushed up the Big Horn as far as the forks of the Big and Little Big Horn, if the river is found navigable that far.
" 'The department commander, who will accompany the col- umn of Colonel Gibbons, desires you to report to him there no later than the expiration of the time for which your troops are rationed, unless in the meantime you receive further orders.'
"After sleeping about two hours that same night we got fresh horses and Custer started us with instructions to go to the east of Tullock's fork and to follow it down to its mouth at Tullock's creek and to keep a sharp lookout for any signs of Indians, and to report to him again that night if possible. This we did, seeing nothing but the trail of a small war party going toward the Big Horn.
"We had been rolled up in our blankets but a few hours when Charlie Reynolds and a half-breed Sioux scout, Bill Cross, came in with a report which caused Custer to send for us again. After getting fresh horses we were given a dispatch to carry to Colonel Gibbon's command. We reached the river, which we crossed by the aid of our horses' tails with our clothes tied so as to keep them as dry as possible. We reached the com- mand that day. The next morning I was sent back to the supply train, which was still at Powder river, and my companion was sent to join Benteen's command. He was with the latter during his engagement with the Indians, and he gives Colonel
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Benteen great credit for bravery. . The colonel, he says, when the men behind the breastworks ran short of ammunition, with his own hands carried it and threw it over to them, being all the time exposed to the deadly fire of the enemy.
"In twenty-four hours I reached the supply train and was afforded another opportunity to fill up and get some sleep. On the 26th we met a Sioux scout, Bloody Knife, coming in badly scared and he seemed to think that Custer had been killed, although he had not seen him. Another scout, George Mulligan, and myself had been sent out to find Custer.
"We had not gone far when we met Bill Cross and eight Ree Indian scouts. They had a few Sioux ponies which they said they had captured. They told us that Custer and his command were killed, but they did not seem to know much about it. They could not tell us just where the fight took place, hence we took little stock in their story. We learned afterward, however, that when Custer made the charge they gathered up the Sioux horses that had strayed out on the hills, and pulled out for a more healthy climate. Scout Rey- nolds had the same privilege, but chose to go into the battle, and was afterward found in the same deadly circle with Gen- eral Custer with many empty shells around them as evidence of a desperate fight.
"Reynolds well knew of Custer's ability to deal with the Indians against fearful odds, for he had previously fought with him. He also knew the odds he had to face that day, as we spoke of it when we last met and he proved by his actions that he could not have been aware of any wrong-doing on the part of the general when he, of his own free will, followed him that day.
"After leaving Cross and the Ree scouts we met Curley, the Crow Indian scout, who was with Custer at the beginning of the fight. That pock-marked villain and liar, Rain-in-the-
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RAIN-IN-THE-FACE (SIOUX WAR CHIEF).
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Face, says Curley is a liar, that he was not there, but I know for a fact that Rain-in-the-Face had never met Curley, nor to the best of my knowledge has he ever seen him since. I have heard Rain talk and he will never get into the happy hunting grounds if veracity is to be his passport.
"When we met Curley he was so badly scared that I doubt if he would have known himself. He had a Sioux medicine or war pony in full paint and feathers, a Sioux blanket and part of a war bonnet that he wore in his escape, and which he got from a dead Sioux medicine man who was killed near him in the first attack. The blanket had some blood on it. His own horse was killed and he appropriated the medicine man's property, and instead of trying to run the gauntlet he moved along with the enemy, trusting to his disguise to de- ceive them. When he saw an opportunity he dropped out of his bad company and escaped. When I last saw him with Cus- ter he had his Crow clothes on and had his own pony, and he had no other chance to get the outfit. Had he been a white man he would not have had any chance of escape even with that rig. He does not claim to have tried to fight, but only to escape, and his first account of the affair is no doubt the correct one, as anyone acquainted with the Indians and their mode of fighting will admit its feasibility.
"I understand that there was an ex-soldier at the World's Fair in Chicago, who posed as a soldier in the Seventh car- alry, who escaped from the fatal field. He was an impostor, for none but Curley left the ground alive. He may have dreamed it and believes in dreams.
"When the Seventh cavalry rode away from Fort Lincoln with the White Horse company, the band belonging to it played one of Custer's favorites, 'The Girl I Left Behind Me.' Ever after that, when I heard the familiar tune on the plains, my mind was carried back to the parting scene at the fort,
4.
A CROW SCOUT (Winter costume).
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and in the foreground of memory's picture stands, with tear- dimmed eyes, a sad, brave woman. Well might her heart nigh break, for she knew, as no one else did, that her brave hus- band was going on an expedition fraught with untold, hidden dangers, and not upon a summer outing.
"Crazy Horse and Goose, cach with a band of Cheyennes, fought against Custer. In fact, the former was looked upon as the head war chief, Sitting Bull being more of a medicine man and prophet. The prevalent belief is that Sitting Bull was the worst Indian and head war chief. This is a mistake. There were several worse than he and more treacher- ons, but as most of them are dead and good Indians, I will not take the trouble to name them or to recount their good ( ?) deeds. Gall was the head man among those who fought Reno and Benteen, and would have got away with them only for the personal bravery of the latter.
"When General Terry left the field and General Miles took command all Terry's and Custer's scouts who were alive went to work for the new commander. except George Mulligan and Jimmy-from-Cork. But there were only five of us left-Bob and Bill Jackson, Vick Smith, Cody and myself. However, Miles re-enforced us with several others.
"Scout Billy Jackson was with Custer on the morning of the 25th, but left before the engagement to join Reno, and knew nothing of the terrible conflict until the next day. On the 27th they came to the battlefield, and Jackson, with four other scouts, identified the remains of General Custer and Scout Reynolds. His report of the battlefield may be vouched for, as he was ever known as a brave, cool, clear-headed and truthful scont, whom General Miles said he could always depend upon. He, too, maintains that Custer did not go contrary to orders."
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Custer had divided his force into three parts. Benteen had orders to sweep everything before him to the left, and Reno was to drive right at the enemy. . But it seems that neither he nor any other officer who was in this campaign had an idea that the Indian forces were as strong as they proved to be. There were at least eight Indian warriors to one soldier; neither did he know that they were so well supplied with arms and ammuni- tion. Here is where Custer was deceived, or likely he would have kept his men together and won the battle.
On the arrival of General Gibbon the dead were buried and the wounded men of Reno's and Benteen's commands were given attention. After Gibbon and his men returned to Fort Shaw, I had an interview with the general and with many of the soldiers who were on the battlefield and assisted in bury- ing the dead. They said that all the men, except Custer, were horribly mutilated and divested of all their clothing.
Again we return to Sitting Bull. Soon after the death of Custer, Sheridan, who was at the head of the war depart- ment, called out troops and fought him the balance of the season almost continuously, but the great chief always avoided open battle. In October General Miles drove him across the Missouri river, killing some Indians, capturing two thousand men, women and children, and destroying many of their sup- plies. The warriors who remained were scattered and dis- couraged ; skulked back into the mountains, while Sitting Bull, with his followers crossed the line into the British possessions. In the meantime Generals Crook and Terry fought and de- feated Chief Crazy Horse on the Rosebud towards the close of the year.
To give an idea of the vastness of the country where the hostile Indians had established their camps, I will give the approximate area, which was 125 by 200 miles, or 25,000 square miles. The Yellowstone river is about 350 miles long,
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200 of which was included in this area. The length of Powder river is 150 miles; the Tongue river the same, the Rosebud 125, the Big Horn about of similar length. With all of the tributaries of these rivers, and with the hills and mountain passes, the Indians were familiar; in this respect they had the advantage over the military. To go into details of those campaigns, extending over this great territory-the fearful severity-the long marching for months at a time through an untrodden wilderness, and sometimes a scarcity of food, cloth- ing and bedding-the many battles that were fought, to which I have made no reference; burying the dead and taking care of the wounded- to tell all this would make a book in itself. But one thing I will insert here: That monument in Cus- ter county, which marks the graves of those who have given their lives for this mountain land, and are peacefully sleep- ing at the base of it, will be kept erect by the Montanians as long as those everlasting peaks which overlook this sacred spot from the mountain tops near by shall remain.
July 24, 1899.
ROBERT VAUGIIN.
GENERAL SHERMAN'S LETTERS.
The following letters were written by General Sherman, then general of the United States Army, to Secretary Mccrary, de- scribing his tour through the valley of the Yellowstone soon after the Sioux war. They were published at the time in some newspaper, the clippings of which I have had in my possession ever since.
Thinking that there are no other records of these interesting letters, I give them place in this book, for they are a valuable addition to the history of Eastern Montana, or what was then termed "the Sioux country," and of that eventful time when the military had taken possession after Sitting Bull and his followers had been driven across the border into Canada.
LETTER I.
"Cantonment on Tongue River, M. T., July 17, 1877. "To Hon. Geo. W. McCrary :
"My Dear Sir: Before leaving Washington I promised to write you from time to time of matters of public and private interest.
"As originally appointed, I left St. Louis the evening of July 4, accompanied by my son; reached Chicago on the 5th and St. Paul the 6th. Here I was joined by my aides, Colonels Poe and Bacon; also by Gen. Terry and his aide, Captain Smith, and the quartermaster of his department, General Card. Leaving St. Paul by rail the morning of the 7th, we reached Bismarck the evening of the 8th. There were three steamers
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there, two of which, the Rosebud and the Ashland, were load- ing for the Yellowstone, and we selected the former because she was smaller and safer, and better adapted to the strong current of the river. During the day of the 9th we crossed over by ferry to Fort Abraham Lincoln, and inspected the post. It is composed of two distinct posts-a small infantry post, perched on a high hill overlooking the country and valley of the river, and a larger cavalry post on the river bank below, raised about twenty feet above the bottoms, which are usually overflowed by the spring freshets. There is but a small gar- rison there, because the Seventh Cavalry, its regular garrison, is detached to this point, and is now out on a scout.
"The Rosebud was boarded by 4 p. m. on the 9th, dropped down from Bismarck three miles to Fort Lincoln, to take us on board, and began the ascent of the Missouri, which was full, with a strong current. It was about as large and of the same character as at Sioux City. In three days we reached Fort Buford, on the north bank, just below the mouth of the Yel- lowstone. We stopped there over the night of the 12th, mak- ing as much of an inspection as the mosquitoes would allow, and at daybreak on the 13th resumed the trip, entering the Yellowstone, which for a hundred miles seemed almost as large as the Missouri, with numerous islands and a wide valley. This valley contracted after about a hundred miles, and the river changed its character somewhat, being lined on either side with fantastic hills, known as 'bad lands,' making short bends with a powerful current, against which we made slow headway, but in four days we reached this post, on the south bank of the Yellowstone, just above the mouth of Tongue river. The troops, mostly the Fifth Infantry, occupy the huts made last winter, but a new post is in process of construction, about a mile higher, and half a mile back from the Yellowstone, the ground being higher and less in danger of an overflow.
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GEN. WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN, U. S. A.
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"General Miles is in command here-has about three hun- dred Indian prisoners-says none of the boats on the river this year have been molested-that all the hostiles which swarmed hereabouts last year are gone, the greater part to the agencies, while Sitting Bull has taken refuge across the border in Canada, about 250 miles north. When the new post is finished, which will be before winter, the troops will be comfortably quartered, and the Indians cannot return. Already a class of frontiers- men are making ranches and settlements hereabouts, and in a few years we can make the route to Montana by way of the Yellowstone as safe as the Platte and Arkansas, thus forcing the hostile Indians to break up into small and harmless parties. For some years hence we will have to keep a pretty strong gar- rison here, because, besides defending this point, detachments must go out to protect other threatened points, and to follow any small parties engaged in depredations. In other words, the forts along this line will not only have to defend themselves, but be able to send out strong detachments.
"There is a great deal of valuable country along the line of the Northern Pacific railroad. That road, from Duluth to Bismarck, although a financial failure, has been and will continue to be of advantage to the country at large. As far as Bismarck it is done, and well done. The next link, from Bismarck to the mouth of Powder river, is very important. It will be a distance of 250 miles, but will cut off 300 miles of the Missouri river and 150 of the Yellowstone, leaving the Yel- lowstone from Powder river to the mouth of the Big Horn for navigation.
"The valleys of the upper Yellowstone afford lands capable of cultivation in wheat, corn, oats, barley, and all garden vegetables, with an unlimited range for cattle, horses and sheep, etc. I do not know a single enterprise in which the United States has more interest than in the extension of the Northern
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THIRTY-SIX YEARS IN THE ROCKIES.
Pacific railroad from its present terminus at Bismarck to the mouth of Powder river on the Yellowstone. After that is done we can safely leave to time the extension of the road to the head of navigation on the Columbia river. After a couple of months I can speak with more confidence on that point. I now regard the Sioux Indian problem as a war question as solved by the operation of General Miles last winter, and by the establishment of the two new posts this summer. Boats can come and go now where a year ago none would venture except with strong guards. Woodyards are being established to facili- tate navigation, and the great mass of the hostile Indians have been forced to go to the Agencies for food and protection, or have fled across the border into British territory. I have driven all about this post, looked into the barracks, which are as yet mere huts of cottonwood posts, with dirt floors and dirt roofs, but will soon be replaced by good frame barracks and quarters. The stores of all kinds on hand are abundant and good, so that no apprehension is felt on account of the enemy or severity of the winter. Six small companies of infantry are here, two more are on the way, and four are mounted on captured ponies and are out on a scout. The Seventh Cavalry are also near here, scouting to the north, but discover no marks of an enemy.
"As winter approaches, part of the cavalry will doubtless be sent back to Fort Lincoln for economy of maintenance. To- morrow night we resume our trip up the Yellowstone and Big Horn to the other new post building, at the forks of the Big and Little Horn. There I expect to meet General Sheridan. % I beg you not to construe this as official, as I have been constantly interrupted, and must close, as the steamer is ready to go. With great respect, etc.,
"W. T. SHERMAN, General."
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LETTER II.
"On the Steamer Rosebud, Big Horn River, July 25, 1877.
"My Dear Sir: We left the cantonnent at the mouth of the Tongue river on the evening of July 18, and reached the mouth of the Big Horn in three days, then entering the Big Horn, we steamed hard for three days against a powerful cur- rent, and reached the new post at the forks of the Little and Big Horn yesterday morning early. Many boats had pre- ceded us, all, or nearly all, discharging part of their freight on the west bank, from which hauling is comparatively easy. Our boat, which was built especially for the navigation of this and similar streams, had to land four miles below the post one-third of her cargo. The difficulty was not the want of water, but by reason of the strong current, which in the bends must be about eight miles an hour.
"We found at the post the United States steamer General Sherman, which has a good hull, a good engine, but too much and too fine cabin for this work. It will be kept in the Big Horn as long as the water lasts, and will be employed in carry- ing up to the post the freight dropped on the river bank by the contract boats. The post already has a good supply of all essential stores, and there is no doubt that long before the sea- son closes all invoiced for its use will be on hand and stored. The day before we reached the post we met General Sheridan and party, who had come across the country from Fort Stam- baugh. We had a long conference and agree that this new post is well located, and that it can be supplied with reasonable economy in the future. The new post will be garrisoned by six companies of the Eleventh Infantry and four companies of the Second Cavalry, under command of Lieutenant Colonel Buell, of the Eleventh Infantry, an officer of great energy, and by profession an engineer. He served under me during the
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war as colonel of an engineer regiment, and afterwards as a brigade commander. He has been on the ground less than a month, but has a steam sawmill at work and a large mass of cottonwood logs being rapidly sawed up into lumber for the new barracks. He has about 200 civil mechanics at work and six buildings in progress, besides temporary shelters for his stores as received, and he entertains no fear but that he will finish his post substantially before winter.
"The location of this post is in the very heart of the Sioux country. With this one and the one at the mouth of the Tongue river, occupied by strong, enterprising garrisons, these Sioux can never regain this country, and they will be forced to remain at their agencies or take refuge in the British posses- sions. At present there are no Indians here or hereabouts. I have neither seen nor heard of any. General Sheridan saw none nor any trace of any, so that the principal end aimed at by the construction of these posts is already reached, and it is only to make this end permanent that we should persist in their completion. The one at Tongue river can be supplied by steamboats. This one, at the mouth of the Little Big Horn, cannot depend on this river, the current being too strong to be navigated by ordinary boats with a fair cargo. General Terry and his quartermaster, General Card, are at this moment re- connoitering to select some point near the mouth of the Big Horn whereat to establish a supply depot, at which all freight destined for this post can be landed and hauled up here.
"We have on board a company of infantry to guard this depot, and we are nearly agreed that the best place will be a point on the Yellowstone proper, three miles above the mouth of the Big Horn, where the hauling will be about thirty miles by ox trains. These can be hired here, and will do the work more surely and better than the steamboats, for they have been sometimes two weeks in working up the Big Horn and have
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left their loads strung along its banks at points hard to reach by wagons. I am convinced that this is the wisest course, and thus we can maintain a strong military post in the very heart of the hostile Sioux country, with only a haul of twenty miles, which is insignificant as compared with most of our posts south of this. The country west of this is a good country and will rapidly fill up with emigrants, who will, within the next few years, build up a community as strong and as capable of self- defense as Colorado.
"I have Company L of the Second Cavalry, Captain Nor- wood, which belongs at Fort Ellis, M. T., now camped on the west bank of the Yellowstone, opposite the mouth of the Big Horn, to escort me up to Ellis. As soon as we have decided on the merits of the point mentioned as a supply depot for this post, I will land and start for Ellis, leaving Gen. Terry with this boat to return to Bismarck for a new load. I will instruct General Terry to report in full all these matters to the adjutant general, so that this letter is only preliminary.
"Here we have no news from Idaho or Oregon, or the world generally, but I suppose in Montana there will be need of the four companies of the Second Cavalry, temporarily taken to Tongue river, and I instructed General Sheridan to so order when he reached Tongue river. This will leave General Miles the whole of the Seventh Cavalry available if the Indian Bureau wishes to escort Sitting Bull from British America to an agency.
"The weather has been intensely hot-as hot as Texas-but last night we had a thunder-squall, since which the air has be- come perfect. General good health prevails here, and I am impressed with the value of this country. X * Truly yours,
"W. T. SHERMAN, General." .
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LETTER III.
"Fort Ellis, M. T., August 3, 1877.
"Dear Sir: I wrote you last from the steamboat Rosebud, coming down the Big Horn in company with General Terry and others on the 25th of July. We had concluded that the current of the Big Horn was too swift to be managed economi- cally, and that the garrison at Post No. 2, at the mouth of the Big Horn, could best be supplied by establishing a depot on the Yellowstone, just above the mouth of the Big Horn, where stores could be hauled thirty miles to the new post. A com- pany of the Eleventh Infantry was left there to establish and guard the depot when the steamer Rosebud dropped down to the point just below the mouth of the Big Horn, where Company L, Second Cavalry, Captain Norwood, was camped with an out- fit. This consisted of six Indian horses, two light spring wagons, and one light baggage wagon. The Rosebud landed us at 2 p. m., when she started down the river, leaving us to begin our real journey. In a few minutes the escort saddled up, and we started on horseback up the Yellowstone.
"The valley is strongly marked, about three miles wide, flat, with good grass, the banks of the river and the streams well wooded with cottonwood trees. In this valley, the Yellowstone, a broad, strong stream, meanders back and forth, forming on both sides strong, perpendicular bluffs of rock and clay, forcing the road constantly out of the flat valley over the points, and causing wide deflections in the road to head the ravines or 'coolies,' which flow to the river. There is a strongly-marked wagon trail, but no bridge or cuts, a purely natural road, with steep ascents and descents, and frequent gullies, about as much as wagons could pass. We sometimes shifted into our light wagons, to save the fatigue of travel.
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