USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 38
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December 6th Indians attacked the wood train. Lieut. Horatio S. Bingham and Sergt. C. R. Bowers were killed. Bowers killed three Indians before he fell. The Indians showed their respect for his bravery by leaving him unscalped. Five other soldiers were wounded. The Indian loss was estimated at ten killed and many wounded.
Thereafter Indians appeared about the fort almost every day until the 19th, when a train was reported corralled on the hill and attacked by a large force.
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December 21st the wood train was again reported corralled about a mile and a half from the fort. A force of eighty-one officers and men and two citizens, James S. Wheatley and Isaac Fisher, were sent to their relief, under the command of Brevet Lt. Col. William Judd Fetterman and Lieut. George W. Grummond, accompanied, without orders, by Capt. Frederick H. Brown. They were attacked near the train when they rashly followed the Indians in flight nearly five miles. Here they were surrounded and all were killed. The bodies of Colonel Fetter- man and Captain Brown were found near four rocks where the last stand had been made, each with a revolver shot in the left temple, and it was believed they had shot each other. The bodies of Wheatley and Fisher were found naked with 105 arrow shots in one and many in the other. The Henry rifle shells and the pools of blood about them told the story of the execution done by them. Pools of blood indicated the point where sixty-five Indians fell in the desperate conflict. Three of these were near Lieutenant Grummond. All of the bodies were shock- ingly mutilated.
The dead were : Officers, Capt. and Brevet Lieut. Col. William J. Fetterman, Capt. Frederick H. Brown, and Lieut. George W. Grummond.
Company A, second battalion, 18th Infantry : First Sergt. Augustus Long ; First Sergt. Hugh Murphy, Corpl. Robert Lennon, Corpl. William Dute; Pri- vates Frederick Ackerman, William Betzler, Thomas Burke, Henry Buchanan, Maxim Diring, George E. R. Goodall, Francis S. Gordon, Michael Harten, Mar- tin Kelly, Patrick Shannon, Charles M. Taylor, Joseph D. Thomas, David Thorey, John Thompson, Albert H. Walters, John M. Weaver and John Woodruff.
Company C, Second Battalion, 18th Infantry: Sergt. Francis Raymond, Sergt. Patrick Rooney, Corpl. Gustave Bauer, Corpl. Patrick Gallagher; Privates Henry E. Aarons, Michael O. Garra, Jacob Rosenburg, Frank P. Sullivan, and Patrick Smith.
Company E, Second Battalion, 18th Infantry: Sergt. William Morgan, Corpl. John Quinn, Privates George W. Burrell, John Maher, George H. Waterbury, and Timothy Cullinane.
Company H, Second Battalion, 18th Infantry : First Sergt. Alex Smith, First Sergt. Ephraim C. Bissell, Corporal Michael Sharkey, Corporal George Phillips, Corpl. Frank Karston, Privates George Davis, Thomas H. Madden, Perry F. Dolan, Asa H. Griffin, Herman Keil, James Kean, Michael Kinney, and Delos Reed.
Company C, Second U. S. Cavalry : Sergt. James Baker, Corpl. James Kelly, Corpl. Thomas H. Herrigan, Bugler Adolf Metzger, Artificer John McCarty, Privates Thomas Amberson, Thomas Broghn, Nathan Foreman, Andrew M. Fitzgerald, Daniel Green, Charles Gamford, John Gitter, Ferdinand Houser, William M. Bugbee, William L. Corneg, Charles Cuddy, Patrick Clancey, Har- vy S. Deming, U. B. Doran, Robert Daniel, Frank Jones, James P. McGuire, John McColly, Franklin Payne, James Ryan, George W. Nugent, and Oliver Williams.
All of the bodies were recovered and fittingly buried in the Post Cemetery.
These facts are mainly gathered from the report of Col. Henry B. Carrington, and his evidence before the congressional investigating committee, found in Senate Document No. 33, 50th Congress, First Session.
WILLIAM A. HOWARD
Sixth governor of Dakota Territory, 1878 to 1880. Died in office, 1880
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
THE GREAT SIOUX RESERVATION
The Fort Phil Kearney massacre led to the adjustment of existing difficulties with the Indians and to the Treaty of April 29, 1868, and the establishment of the Great Sioux Reservation. It was a treaty by Warrior Chiefs on the one side and illustrious soldiers, viz : Lieut. Gen. William T. Sherman, Brevet Maj. Gen. William S. Harney, Brevet Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Brevet Maj. Gen. Christopher C. Augur, Brevet Maj. Gen. John B. Sanborn, and several distin- guished citizens.
Section I declared: "From this day forward all war between the parties to this agreement shall forever cease. The Government of the United States de- sires peace and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace and they now pledge their honor to maintain it."
The United States agreed by this solemn treaty, ratified and proclaimed, that no person excepting certain designated persons, officers, agents and employees of the Government authorized so to do in order to discharge duties enjoined by law, should ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon or reside in the territory set aside for this reservation, the United States relinquishing to the Indians all claim to the land within such reservation. And if there was not enough to give each Indian 160 acres of arable land it was agreed they should have more.
The United States agreed to erect agency buildings, a saw mill and grist mill. Each head of a family was allowed to select 320 acres of land and each other person over eighteen years of age was allowed to select 80 acres of land and each male person over 18 years of age, after residing upon his selection for three years and making certain improvements was to receive a patent for 160 acres. Assistance in farming was provided for and provision made for school houses and schools. Clothing was promised for 30 years for men, women and children. Food was also promised for four years after settling upon the land, to- gether with oxen and utensils for use in operating their farms.
The Indians agreed to allow the construction of the Pacific Railroad and any railroad not passing over their reservation, and that they would not attack or molest any one or carry off white women or children from their homes nor kill and scalp white men.
And yet hostilities continued and eight years later the Custer massacre occurred, growing out of resistence by the Indians to the demands for opening of the Black Hills and the extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad. But the hostilities were at first mere depredations by lawless individual characters.
CHAPTER XXI POLITICS IN INDIAN AFFAIRS
THE CUSTER MASSACRE AND THE CAUSES LEADING UP TO IT-VIOLATED INDIAN TREATIES-STEAMBOAT LOADS OF SUPPLIES STOLEN-HOLDING UP THE INDIAN AND MILITARY TRADERS-THE BELKNAP SCANDAL AND HOW IT WAS SPRUNG- CUSTER'S LAST CHARGE-THE STORY OF THE BATTLE-LISTS OF THE DEAD AND WOUNDED RENO AT THE LITTLE BIG HORN-HEROISM OF DR. H. R. PORTER- LIGHTNING TRIP OF THE STEAMER "FAR WEST"-CAPT. GRANT MARSH-DR. POR- TER'S STORY-FIRST NEWS OF THE BATTLE-THE NEW YORK HERALD.
The story of the Custer massacre, June 25, 1876, is a part of the history of Dakota not only because of its effect in opening the western parts of the territory to settlement, the early construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the forced amendment of the Sioux treaty creating the Great Sioux Reservation, but because of those slain, every one of whom had friends or acquaintances at Bismarck. Some had wives and children there, others near and dear ones. All had friends, and friendship seemed closer then, when Bismarck was a frontier city. The people at Bismarck, Jamestown, Valley City, Fargo, Moorhead and even Brainerd were neighbors, but the nearest and dearest friends of Bismarck and Bismarck people were at the military posts. The families of the officers and men at Fort A. Lincoln were part of the social life of Bismarck. Forts Rice, Stevenson and Buford were also always taken into consideration and were con- sidered their next best friends and next nearest neighbors.
The Sixth United States Infantry had its headquarters at Fort Buford, the Seventeenth at Fort Rice. Both had companies at Bismarck or Fort A. Lincoln. Mrs. Gen. W. B. Hazen, later Mrs. Admiral Dewey, then a bride passed through Bismarck in the spring to join her husband at Fort Buford. She landed at Bis- marck during the raging snow storm early in May, 1873, and passed up the river by ambulance to Fort Buford.
Only construction trains were then run between Fargo and the end of the track, some forty miles east of Bismarck, and there was no regular communica- tion between there and Bismarck. The mails were carried by the quartermaster department, Bismarck receiving its supply from Fort A. Lincoln. Samuel A. Dickey was the postmaster at Bismarck and Mrs. Linda W. Slaughter, his assistant, had charge of the office. She was later appointed postmaster, resign - ing in February, 1876, when Col. Clement A. Lounsberry succeeded her and remained the postmaster until he resigned in 1885, the office having grown in the meantime from fourth to second class. Dickey was post trader at Fort A. Lincoln. Col. Robert Wilson was in charge of the trader's store.
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Photos by D. F. Barry, Superior, Wis, Chief Gaul Rain-in-the-Face
Sitting Bull Bull Head
NOTED SIOUX
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In the spring of 1873, Gen. George A. Custer arrived at Fort Rice with the Seventh U. S. Cavalry, and participated in the expedition of that year to the Yel- lowstone. The cavalry barracks at Fort A. Lincoln were built that year and occu- pied on the return of the expedition, as regimental headquarters, a portion of the regiment being located at Fort Rice, and two troops at Fort Totten on Devils Lake.
In 1874 General Custer conducted an expedition to the Black Hills and set- tled the question as to the existence of gold in that region. Professor Winchell, of the Minnesota University, accompanied the expedition, together with other specially invited scientists. Gen. Frederick D. Grant, then a lieutenant in the army, went as the special representative of President Grant. William E. Curtis, the famous newspaper correspondent, represented the Chicago Inter-Ocean, Na- than H. Knappen, the Bismarck Tribune. H. N. Ross, then of Bismarck, was selected as the head of a mining party, equipped for prospecting. It was under- stood that the scientific portion of the expedition was organized to disprove the stories of the existence of rich gold fields in the Black Hills. A solemn treaty had been entered into with the Sioux Indians reserving almost an empire, lying west of the Missouri River and embracing the Black Hills, for the exclusive use of the allied tribes, as related in the preceding chapter.
Custer's expedition to the Black Hills was permitted by General Sheridan but it was stipulated that the expedition should not return within sixty days. It left Fort Abraham Lincoln July 2d, and returned August 3Ist. It is quite certain that the organization of the mining party was not authorized. It was the good fortune of the Bismarck Tribune to have its correspondent assigned to the mining party with instructions to report the facts. The scientific party found no gold. The representatives of the other great newspapers saw none. The per- sonal representative of President Grant was oblivious to its presence, but the miners found it and the representative of the Bismarck Tribune saw it and gave to the world the first information concerning the fact, and the Tribune had the first assay made of Black Hills ore. General Custer sent Scout Charles Reynolds to Camp Robinson, Nebraska, with official dispatches in which he in- formed General Sheridan of the discovery of gold, and this scout carried the dispatch to the Bismarck Tribune, and by the Tribune was given to the Associated Press before it became public from any other source.
As the result of these discoveries the Black Hills were invaded from every direction. The Government issued drastic orders and many trains loaded with mining outfits or supplies were destroyed by the military and many arrests were made, while other parties were destroyed by the Indians, for the Indians were enraged beyond endurance by this new act of bad faith. The miners were rapid- ly concentrating in the hills; among the Indians the young men inclined to war were concentrating in the Little Big Horn country. They were well armed and the immense herds of buffalo then in existence gave them abundant supplies, which they were unable to obtain at the agencies, notwithstanding the treaty obligations of the Government.
The treaty of 1868, which provided for the Great Sioux reservation, also provided that certain supplies should be delivered to the Indians annually at their several agencies, along the Missouri River. At the Standing Rock agency there was an alleged enrollment of some 7,000 Indians. There was actually less
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than half of that number. The winter of 1873-4 set in early and a large portion of their supplies were not delivered until the next spring, on account of the early closing of the Missouri River. And when delivered it is charged that they were stolen by the boat load; that a small portion of each cargo was delivered, but the whole receipted for, while the bulk went on up the river where it was dis- posed of to the traders or others. And it was charged that much of their regular supplies were disposed of in the same manner.
It was apparent to any observer that, notwithstanding the liberal provisions made by the Government for the Indians, the Indians were suffering from hunger, and their attitude became constantly more threatening. There were other ugly rumors, which unfortunately proved to be true, that the traders were paying enormous tribute to persons connected with those in official position, and that the quota apportioned to each of the traders at Forts Buford, Lincoln and Rice, to be paid monthly, was $1,000, with lesser sums for the smaller posts.
General Custer was a man of action and of high ideals, and believed in a square deal. These rumors, backed with absolute proof, reached him. He also believed that smuggling of arms and liquor was carried on to a great extent and that by this means also money was provided to pay the tribute exacted of the traders. The wife of the then Secretary of War was the beneficiary on the part of the military traderships, while one related to the President was sharing the profit from the Indian traderships.
General Custer was instrumental in having Ralph Meeker sent out by a New York newspaper to report on this matter. He reported to General Custer. His mission was known to the writer of these pages, then editor of the Bismarck Tribune, and to James A. Emmons at Bismarck, who had previously flaunted the main facts in the face of the Secretary of War by means of a printed circular, when General Belknap was on an official visit to Fort A. Lincoln. Meeker gained employment through General Custer at the Berthold Indian Agency, and thereby gained opportunity for interviews with a number of the Sioux whom he met there and at Fort A. Lincoln and Standing Rock. Custer was not backward in supplying Meeker the facts that had come to his attention, and the publication of the story resulted in the impeachment of Secretary Belknap, who resigned rather than have the facts, of which he was not wholly conscious, become a matter of record.
The exposé occurred in February, 1876. General Custer had been in Wash- ington arranging for the expedition and was on his way home when the matter became known. Congress immediately appointed an investigating committee.
It was the custom then to close the Northern Pacific Railroad from Fargo to Bismarck for the winter. The Black Hills travel caused an attempt to open the road early that spring and on March 5th, a train left Fargo for Bismarck but was snow bound three weeks at Crystal Springs. Among the passengers on this train were General Custer and wife and several officers of the Seventh Cavalry, a large number of recruits, Mayor McLean of Bismarck and Colonel Lounsberry who were returning from Washington, where they were on the floor of the House of Representatives and exhibited specimens of gold from the Black Hills. They were granted an audience by President Grant and Secretary Belknap, General Grant remarking, "that settles the question as to whether there is gold in the Black Hills."
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William Budge, and a large party of miners from Grand Forks, were also on the train. General Custer and family left the train by team and on his arrival at Fort A. Lincoln he was summoned by telegraph to give testimony before a committee of Congress appointed to investigate the charges against Secretary Belknap. Some of his testimony gave offense to the administration and the plans for the Yellowstone expedition were changed, and Gen. Alfred H. Terry was assigned to the command of the expedition which left Fort A. Lincoln May 17, 1876.
Custer was in command of his own regiment. Some of the companies were commanded by officers related to him by blood or other ties or intimate personal friends.
Colone! Lounsberry, who represented the New York Herald and the Asso- ciated Press through its St. Paul office, was the only correspondent who had se- cured authority to accompany the expedition, but sickness in his family at the last moment prevented his going and he chose Mark H. Kellogg to represent him on the expedition. On reaching the Rosebud, Custer's knowledge of the country became invaluable and he was ordered to take his regiment and locate the Indians. At an assembly of the officers June 22d, at dusk, General Custer stated that he had investigated as to the number of the hostiles through the Indian Bureau and other sources and he was satisfied that they would not find more than 1,000 to 1,500 warriors.
General Gibbon's command had already reported to General Terry and had started up the left bank of the Yellowstone as Custer made camp at the mouth of the Rosebud on the right bank.
General Custer's instructions from General Terry directed him to take trails and follow till he should ascertain definitely the direction in which they would lead, then report; if he found it leading to the Little Big Horn to still proceed south perhaps as far as the head waters of the Tongue River, the object being to locate the Indians and determine as accurately as possible all facts necessary to a successful prosecution of the campaign against them. General Terry avoided giving positive orders and left action to General Custer's discretion when so near the enemy.
The information which had been forwarded by General Sheridan that the Indian agencies had been deserted by large numbers of Indians had not reached General Terry before the battle of the Little Big Horn. In locating the enemy Major Reno with three troops was assigned to the advance and ordered to attack, and advised that the whole command would support him. This was before reach- ing the ford and before General Custer divined the situation as it later appeared. He gave these orders on first reaching the open valley, on seeing the Indian villages, expecting no doubt to follow Reno, considering the possible flight of the Indians south toward the mountains or northward into the Bad Lands, expecting only a running fight and that they would not make a stand at their villages, expos- ing their women and children to direct attack. Such a conclusion would be in accord with all previous experience in Indian warfare.
Custer's immediate command when the massacre occurred consisted of five companies, the others being appropriately assigned to other parts. Reno was put to flight. Custer attacked with the five remaining companies.
The history of the battle has been written in the light of investigation and
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research by Gen. E. S. Godfrey in the Century Magazine of January, 1892, and also by others after a thorough investigation of the subject.
The matter which follows must be considered in the light of a narrative and as an evidence of enterprise in gathering and publishing matter supposed to be facts, but in the confusion and excitement of the occasion, inaccuracy may have occurred in some particulars, though not in the list of casualties.
Mark Kellogg's last dispatch to the Bismarck Tribune read: "We leave the Rosebud tomorrow and by the time this reaches you we will have met and fought the red devils, with what result remains to be seen. I go with Custer and will be at the death."
He had written of the events of the expedition, of the preparation for the morrow, and of the incidents of personal interest, up to the very moment of marching, and, as was his custom, had his dispatches ready for the first depart- ing courier. He was personally known to many of the Indians and known to be their friend, and to be "the man who makes the paper talk." His body was found not mutilated in the slightest degree. His notes were gathered up and brought to Mr. Lounsberry without a missing page. Lieutenant Bradley, Seventh Infantry, was the first to reach "the field of carnage."
Maj. James S. Brisbin of Gibbon's command filled a pass book with incidents as he saw them on the battlefield, the position and condition of the dead. There were no wounded in Custer's party. All were slain save the Crow scout Curley, who put on a Sioux blanket and managed to escape but completely dazed. Bris- bin's contribution was brought by Dr. H. R. Porter, with the request that it be given to the New York Herald. It was but a small part of the story as given to the Herald, and to the world through that great newspaper. Other papers had brief bulletins: The Herald had it all; their telegraph tolls amounting to some $3,000 for that single story sent by one newspaper correspondent. But every officer and every man was ready and anxious to assist in making the story complete. When General Terry reached Bismarck he filed his official dispatches and at the same time notified Colonel Lounsberry, whom he caused to be fur- nished with an official list of the dead and wounded and with all possible facts. His staff officers were equally courteous. Dr. Porter, Fred Gerard and a score of others contributed to the story begun by Kellogg in his brief dispatch from the Rosebud. John M. Carnahan was the manager of the Bismarck telegraph office. S. B. Rogers was his able assistant. Here is absolutely the first account published July 6, 1876, as it came hot from the field of battle and dropped from the lips of those who saw the dead and participated in the affair with Reno or in other incidents of the expedition. And Grant Marsh, whose boat fairly skipped on the surface of the waters of the Missouri, coming down at the rate of twenty miles an hour, also contributed his mite to the story as published in the New York Herald, delayed in part one day in transmission from St. Paul.
The battle was June 25th. The Far West arrived at Bismarck at II P. M., July 5th. Before her arrival there was uneasiness at Fort A. Lincoln. The expected courier did not come. There was reticence and strange actions on the part of the Indians in the vicinity. It was felt that they had heard some news or that they were contemplating an uprising, but no whisper of the great disaster was heard. Bismarck shared the anxiety of those at Fort A. Lincoln. Longing eyes were cast to the west in the hope that the expected courier might appear.
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From Salt Lake there came a rumor that a battle had been fought, but there were absolutely no details. When or where no one pretended to know. General Sheridan was most emphatic in his denunciation of the story. The first news that gave any information came from Bismarck, and the first publication, aside from a bulletin sent out by the Tribune which appeared in the New York Herald of July 6th, was in the Bismarck Tribune of that date.
There were no Mergenthalers then. Composition was by the slow hand process and there were but two printers in town. They took the pages as they fell hot from the hand of one who was at the same time furnishing a 50,000 word press report, who had only time to give them facts, and here is the account as it was then published, and it is indeed worthy of a place as it was then written, in the history of Dakota.
MASSACRED.
General Custer and 261 Men the Victims. No Officer or Man Left to Tell the Tale.
Three Days' Desperate Fighting by Major Reno and the Remainder of the Seventh.
Full Details of the Battle. List of Killed and Wounded.
The Bismarck Tribune's Special Correspondent Slain.
Squaws Mutilate and Rob the Dead.
Victims Captured Alive Tortured in a Most Fiendish Manner.
What Will Congress Do About It? Shall This Be the Beginning of the End?
"We leave the Rosebud tomorrow and by the time this reaches you we will have
Met and Fought
the red devils with what result remains to be seen. I go with Custer and will be at the death."
How true! On the morning of the 22d (it was at noon) General Custer took up the line of march for the trail of the Indians reported by Reno on the Rosebud. General Terry, apprehending danger, urged Custer to take additional men but Custer, having full confidence in his men and in their ability to cope with the Indians in whatever force he might meet them, declined the proffered assistance and marched with his regiment alone. He was instructed to strike the trail of the Indians, to follow it until he discovered their position, and report by courier
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