USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Washington County, Nebraska; its early settlement and present status, resources, advantages and future prospects > Part 2
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
THE PAWNEE WAR.
MILITARY ARDOR AT FEVER HEAT .- ON THE TRAIL .- A FAITHFUL SQUAW .- THE CAPTURE AND THE RESULT.
In the summer of 1859 occurred what has since passed into the realms of history as the " Pawnee war." Fontenelle was no longer the frontier settlement. Thirty miles to the northwest, on the Elkhorn, the town of West Point had been located, and six miles beyond, that of DeWitt. Ten miles southward, on the Platte, Fremont had been staked out two summers previous, while farther to the westward, along the Platte, were the new towns of North Bend and Columbus. The Pawnee Indians then occupied two villages about twelve miles directly south of Fontenelle, and on the south side of the Platte. They had behaved themselves very well, considering, their depredations having consisted mainly in robbing hen roosts and picking up little odds and ends of personal effects belong- ing to the whites, and the settlers had concluded there was no danger whatever to be apprehended from them, but in this they were doomed to disappointment.
In the latter part of June, 1859, the entire tribe of Pawnees-braves, squaws, pappooses and dogs-left their villages and marched across the low land intervening between the Platte and the Elkhorn rivers, and camp on the Elkhorn on the western side of that stream just across from Fontanelle. Here they remained a day or two; after which short delay, they proceeded up the Elkhorn, without crossing it, pursuing a north- westerly direction. They said they were going up the river on a grand buffalo hunt, and would be gone several " moons," On the day after they left their first camp on the Elkhorn, half a dozen "bucks" crossed the river at a point about a dozen miles above Fontenelle, and attacked an old bachelor by the name of Uriah Thomas, who was living alone in a Itttle log hut some distance from any other house. The Indians took his pocketbook, containing $136, a package of valuable papers, including several land warrants, drank up all his whisky (the unkindest cut of all) and then drove off a fine yoke of oxen, after first having taken the pre- caution to lock Mr. Thomas up in his shanty. After the Indians had been gone forsome time, Thomas set about effecting his release, which he accomplished with but little difficulty, and then cautiously proceeded to
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Fontenelle and gave the alarm. Of course, the wildest excitement pre- vailed. A company of a dozen men or so was immediately organized, and an advance was made upon the Thomas mansion, after a careful re- conoitering by scouts. No Indians were discovered, and the party con- cealed themselves in and about the hut, and waited patiently for several hours ; but no Indians making their appearance, the whites returned to Fontenelle. Two days afterwards, the people living at West Point and DeWitt (the settlements spoken of as being farther up the Elkhorn), came down to Fontenelle in a body, and reported that as the Pawnees moved up the river, on the western side of it, marauding bands had crossed over to the eastern side, and had burned the dwellings of the settlers, ripped up their feather beds, scattered the contents, and used the ticks for blankets ; tore to pieces clocks for the purpose of getting the brass wheels to hang in their ears and drove off all kinds of stock.
This was a fine state of affairs. Thirty men, armed with rifles, shot- guns, muskets, and revolvers, started for West Point the next morning in wagons, reaching that settlement about the middle of the afternoon. They saw no Indians that day, and after deliberating over the matter, conclud- ed to return to Fontenelle the next day. As they were on the point of starting, a scout came in with the information that he had seen a small body of Indians crossing the river a mile or so distant. Arrangements were instantly made to capture the party. A portion of the white men took position in one room of a double log house, while the rest of the party kept themselves out of sight. The people of the house were instructed to admit the Indians into the unoccupied room of the house, and after they were all in the room, the outside door was to be securely fastened, then the middle door between the rooms was to be opened; the white men were to rush from the room in which they were concealed into that occcupied by the Indians, and then their capture would be a very easy matter-as they thought. It was a very neat little plan, and looked well, but there was one objection to it-it didn't pan out worth a cent. The Indians, eleven in number, approached the house; they were invited to walk in, which invitation was accepted, as it was evidently their intention to walk in whether they were invited or not; the outside door to the room was closed and fastened; the signal was given; the door between the two rooms was opened; the white men rushed with a yell into the room which was occupied by the Indians, and-captured the whole posse ? Not much. The greasy-skinned, slippery devils shed their blankets, dived down among the legs of the white men, slipped out like so many eels, burst open the door and were out of the room like a flash, and all the white men had to show for their stratageni was the lodgement of a slug in the wrist or one of their own number-Mr. James H. Peters-which was brought about by the accidental discharge of a gun during the melee in the room. The Indians were followed out of the house by the whites who blazed away at them as they ran toward the river. Two or three of the Indians were killed and one wounded; one was captured, having been brought down " on the wing " by a shot which should have been better aimed.
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
The whites then hastily got their wagons together, put the wounded Indian in one of them, and started back to Fontenelle, being very anx- ious to vacate that particular section of the country before the Indians who had made their escape from the house should reach the Pawnee camps, and tell the tribe of the fracas. The whites " stood not upon the order of their going, but went at once, rattling over the level prairie road at a deucedly rapid pace, They had not proceeded far before the wounded Indian gave evidence of being dead. He was closely examined by those in the wagon, who agreed unanimously that he was defunct-that he would never again smash up a brass clock for the purpose of getting the wheels to hang in his ears, nor rip up a feather bed in order to get a sub- stitute for a blanket. He was a goner, and as it would not pay to haul dead Indians, the wagon was driven to the bank of the Elkhorn, near which the road ran, the corpse was picked up and pitched into the river. As soon as the supposed-to-be-dead Indian struck the water, he dived down and swam under water for the opposite bank, and it was then dis- covered that he had been playing " possum," and that he was better than a dozen dead men yet. But even an Indian cannot stay under water all the time; he must come up to breath, and when that red rascal's head broke the surface of the stream, as he came up to get a whiff of air, â load of buckshot was deposited in the back portion of his cranium by a white mau who never could appreciate a practical joke, and had but a poor opinion of jokers, whether white, black, or red. The buckshot was evidently too heavy a load for the Indian to carry conveniently, for he never reached the other side of the river alive.
It did not take many days for the news with regard to the killing of the Indians at West Point to be carried to every part of the Terriory, and the entire country was in a blaze of excitement. It wasgenerally thought that the Pawnees would at once declare war against the whites, and the outlying settlements were supposed to be in danger of immediate exter- mination. Governor Black issued orders to the few militia companies then organized, to hold themselves in readiness to move at a moment's notice, and muskets were shipped to the different settlements, with or. ders for the immediate organization of other companies. The settlers along the Elkhorn river flocked to Fontenelle, which village was turned into a military camp. The growing crops were neglected, and suffered much damage thereby. Pickets were thrown out during the day, and a cordon of sentinels surrounded the place at night. All the ammunition was collected together, and pewter teapots, teaspoons, etc., were moulded into bullets. Blunderbusses which had done good service in patriot hands during the revolutionary war, and which had not been loaded nor cleaned since, were dragged forth and furbished up. Old sabres which had figured prominently on "muster days" celebrated by the forefathers of their present owners, were produced, and measures adopted for the pur - pose of inducing them to leave their scabbards, from which they had not been drawn for years. It was reported every day for a week that ten thousand Indians were approaching the town fully attired in the traid-
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tional war paint and feathers, and in consequence of these cheerfulstories the people were constantly kept in a pleasant state of exciting suspense. At night each bush or shrub would be transformed into a stealthily ap- proaching redskin.
A week of this sort of life drifted by, and no attack had been made. By this time a force of about two hundred men had gathered in and about Fontenelle, and it was then resolved by the officials of the Territory that it would be a fine stroke of policy to cross the Elkhorn, follow the trail of of the Indians until they were overtaken, and then and there attack then and administer a lesson which they would not soon forget. A sufficient number of wagons were provided, with the necessary camp equipage and a large amount of provisions (several barrels of whisky being included in the latter), and on the 5th day of July the force moved across the river, and went into camp on Maple creek, a few miles from Fontenelle. Gov. Black accompanied the expedition, of which he was the commander- in-chief, though the battalion was under the direct command of Col .- since Major General-Thayer, which gentleman had served in the Mexi- can difficulty, and was consequently supposed, by a credulous public, to be thoroughly conversant with the art of war. At this time I cannot re- member the names of all the officers of the various companies, but of that from Fontenelle Win. Kline was Captain, James A. Bell, First Lieuten- ant, and Wm. Flack, Second. Capt. Hazen commanded the Fremont company, J. J. Turton the one from North Bend, and Peter Reed that or- ganized in Richland precinct. Capt. Bob Howard commanded the Oma- ha gun squad, and Lieut. Robinson 50 U. S. dragoons. The late General Samuel R. Curtis also accompanied the expedition, but took no active part in its management, although he, no doubt, rendered much service in the way of practical suggestions. I shall never forget the appearance that military organization presented when on the march. We had a mounted force of about sixty men, and the remainder of the two hundred rode in wagons. When every thing was in readiness for breaking camp in the morning, Col. Thayer would take position and give the order: "At ten-t-i-o-n, bat-tal-i-o-n! For-w-a-r-d, m-a-r-c-h !"' the last word of com- mand being pronounced in an indiscribable squeal, about two tones higher than Watchel's "high C."
Our mounted force always rode at the head of the columns, preceded by a few scouts, a considerable distance in advance. The sun beat down upon us with terrible force, and the sandy stretches of country over which we passed, at intervals, threw out an immense amount of heat. Our hor- ses were very poor and weak, and the excessive heat together with the heavy loads, soon began to tell on them, and consequently the progress made was very slow indeed. We had no roads, as the country had not yet been surveyed, and no settlements had been made. We struck the trail of the Indians and followed it steadily, over hills, through valleys, and across streams, which last named were always mirey. Here we would generally be delayed somewhat, as a bridge of some description was re- quired before we could get the wagons across. A force would be set to
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
work to cut brush, while another would mow down the heavy slough grass. The brush would be thrown into the stream, the grass piled on the brush, and then if the banks were very steep, the horses would beunhitch- ed from the wagons, which would be let down by ropes, and then drawn up the opposite bank by the teams which had been previously taken across. Notwithstanding the many difficulties to be encountered, we usually traveled as far in one day as the Indians we were pursuing would march in three, it being an easy matter to locate the places where they had camped each night, these encampments being about seven miles apart. The utmost precaution against surprise was observed when, at the close of a long tedious day, a convenient spot for a camp would be selected, the wagons coralled, and the animals turned out to graze. At an early hour in the night, sentinels would be posted all around the camp, and re-
lieved every two hours. After about a week's travel, during which we had not seen a human being, excepting those of our own party, we came one evening upon a single Indian lodge. We knew that we could not be very far behind the Indians, as the last few camps we had passed gave un mistakable signs of having been but recently vacated, and when this lodge was discovered, it was surrounded at once, and found to be occupied by "Jim Dick." an under chief among the Omahas, who told us that the Pawnees had been joined by the Omaha and Ponca tribes, and that with this increase of their numbers, there were at least 5,000 Indians in the party we were in pursuit of, and that they would encamp that night about seven or eight miles farther on, having occupied the camp at which we found Jim Dick's lodge, the night previous, he having laid over one day's tramp on account of his squaw being sick, This somewhat startling news called forth a hurried consultution. Five thousand Indians could utterly annihilate our force of two hundred undisciplined and poorly armed men, provided the Indians were disposed to fight. Jim Dick told us that the Omahas would not join the Pawnees as they wished to remain at peace with the whites, but it was impossible to say what the Poncas would do. It was finally determined to go forward. The Omalia and his squaw were compelled to go with us under guard, in order to prevent the news of our approach being conveyed to the Indians, in camp.
It was nearly night when we came upon the lodge, and we proceeded but a mile or so before going into camp. Arrangements were made tostart out as silently as possible, at three o'clock the next morning. After supper had been disposed of, the cooking utensils and camp equppage were re-loaded, and every thing made ready for a start as soon as the signal should be given. The arms were put in as good condition as possible ; bullets were moulded, and each man was instructed with regard to his duties. It was a misty moon-light night. The camp was near the banks of the Elkhorn, whose waters, rising in the far off Black Hills, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, rippled past with a monotonous sound. Oo- casionally the sharp cry of the coyote would be heard, as he wandered forth on a marauding expedition, or the hoot of the owl would break sud- denly on the night air. The sentinels paced up and down through the
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tall grass, watching with vigilant eye and prepared to give notice at the earliest approach of danger. The tired animals nipped the rich grass, which abounded in the greatest profusion, keeping close to the wagons, as they always do when away from the settlements, evidently being taught by instinct that their safety depends upon keeping close to their masters. Orders were given for the fires to be extinguished at an early hour, and the men gathered about the wagons in little groups, and talked in low tones of what the coming day would bring forth. There was but little sleeping among us that night, but few jokes, and no boisterous laughter. It will be seen at a glance that the situation was not particularly exhil- arating nor inspiring. We were a hundred miles or so out on the plains, shut off from all chance of reinforcement. We were in pursuit of, and ex- pected to attack the Pawnee tribe, numbering 3,500 in all, and this tribe we found on coming up with it, to be reinforced by nearly as many more, so that if they were all " on the fight," there would be at least 2,000 braves for us to attack, and we were then within a few miles of that body of In- dians who were quietly encamped and resting in blissful ignorance of our proximity.
At 3 o'clock in the morning the camp was aroused, and in a very short time we were on the move. Orders were issued in a low tone as we passed rapidly along. The trail ran near the river bottom, on the table- land adjoining, and we met with no obstacles whatever until daylight, when we came to a small stream which ran out from the bluff's and into the river. The scouts approached this stream carefully, for it was thought the Indian camp could not be far away. The creek was skirted with timber, which shielded our approach; and when the stream was reached, the Indian camp was seen on the opposite side, near where it ran into the river. A large extent of ground was covered by the lodges, and here and there Indians were to be seen gliding about, entirely unconscious of our approach. In a very few moments, however, we were discovered, and the camp vanished like magic, and in an incredibly short space of time the wide river bottom -stretching out before us was swarming with red- skins, some mounted, some on foot, but all striving, shouting and yelling, to make their escape. They leveled their lodges to the ground, but did not attempt to take them away; they thought only to save themselves. The Omahas did not run, neither did they strike their tents, but remained in them knowing that they had no reason to fear the whites. Our mount- ed force crossed the stream at once and followed up the flying Indians, but some time was lost in getting the wagons across the mirey stream. Finally the entire force, wagons and all, were safely landed on the western side of the creek, and moved up the river at once. The tall slough gra-s through which we passed concealed a good many of the weaker ones among the Indians, who, finding themselves unable to keep up with the others, had dropped down in the rank grass, hoping to be passed by. On either side of us could be heard the cries and yells of papooses, who had been thrown away by the frightened squaws, in their endeavors to "travel light." Small dogs, pet badgers, wolves, and "sich," had also been left
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON
by their masters to shirk for themselves, and they added their voices to the noise and contusion. It was a lively time. The sun had just risen, and was tipping the tops of the hills and the trees along the river with golden splendor. In a very short time not an Indian was to be seen, where but half an hour before hundreds and thousands had swarmed. They had taken shelter among the willows on the river bank, and in the breaks along the bluffs on either side of it.
But they did not escape us. An under chief of the Pawnees, a fat old codger, who was trying to get away on foot, was overtaken by a horseman who shot at him and missed him, but just as he had secured a better aim for a second attempt, the Indian threw up his hands and surrendered. He was told to call his tribe together for a parley immediately, or he would be murdered in cold blood, The Indian was very glad of this chance for saving his life, and he at once set up a series of terrific yells, in answer to which one redskin would show himself at this place, another at that, and · then after an interchange of yells and calls, the Indians gradually ap- proached our prisoner, who explained to them that a parley with the " Chemokee man " was of the utmost importance at that particular junc- ture.
By this time our scattered forces had collected together; the wagons were correlled; a line of battle formed, with the six-pound brass piece in front of it, and the horsemen on the flanks. When the Indians, who were lurking about, discovered the full strength, or weakness rather, of the force they had been running from, they left their hiding places and approached us quite readily. They were ordered to keep a respectful dis- tance in front, and only the chiefs were allowed to come to the wagons. The Indian force constantly received additions to its numbers, and before an hour had passed, we were confronted by about 2,000 redskins. The Pawnee chiefs were told that they could have their choice-give up the braves who had been engaged in the robbing and burning about West Point (for it was found that but a small party had been engaged in those depredațions); pay the expenses of the expedition out of certain moneys due them from the government, or-fight us. One of the chiefs, a black, scowling fellow, with a sort of sheep thief look about him, wanted to fight us. He said that he had two hundred and fifty braves, and he knew he could clean us out, but the older and wiser heads of the tribe had been to Washington-that moral city of which we are all so proud ;- they had held big pow-wows with the Great Father; they had gained a somewhat cor- rect idea ot the numbers of the whites, and of the power and majesty of the nation which we, with our single brass gun represented; and last but not least, those old coveys had a very distinct recollection of that exploit of Gen. Harney at Ash Hollow, and they begged of that bloodthirsty, belligerent young devil to "abate the ardor of his wrath," " for," said they-said those old sages, "if you do kill off this pusillanimous looking crowd of palefaces, you have not gained anything, for the Great Father at Washington will soon hear of it and he will send out more soldiers than
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there are sands on the Elkhorn, and we will be wiped from the face of the earth."
It was finally arranged, after several hours had been occupied in the discussion of the matter, that the terms proposed by us would be acceded to, and then began a hunt for the Indians who had been raising Cain back in the settlements. By the middle of the afternoon we had seven young fellows tied behind one of our wagons, and we were moving off toward a suitable place to encamp for the night. Each of the head chiefs had at- tached his " sign manuel " to a portentious looking document which set forth in the most grandiloquent terms the fact that the individuals whose crosses were thereunto attached, regretted exceedingly the depredations which had been committed by certain unruly and headstrong young men of the Pawnee tribe of Indians, and that they, the undersigned, anthor- ized the keeping back from certain moneys due the tribe from the govern- ment, a sufficient amount to defray the expenses of the expedition, and the signers further agreed that they would make no effort to release the seven young men who had been turned over to our tender mercies, no matter what we chose to do with them.
When the young Indians were given up to us, a squaw belonging to one of them, insisted on being allowed to go with her brave, and when this request was denied, she screamed and cried, tore the hair out of her head by great handfulls, threw her arms around the young fellow's neck, and gave way to the most violent grief. She was dragged away from him with difficulty, and we then proceeded on our way, traveling but a few miles before going into camp. One of the prisoners seemed to be suffering a great deal from some cause, and upon one of our doctors making an ex- amination, it was found he had been shot through the body, and that the wound was mortifying. He was one of the party of eleven who had been shut up in the room at West Point, and as he ran off, after getting away from the house, he had been shot by one of the whites, but was not so se- riously injured but that he was able to reach the Pawnee camp, but since that time his wound had been getting more and more painful, each day. The doctor said he would not live to reach the settlements, and he was therefore set free and told to go back to his tribe. He was found the next morning a short distance from camp, dead.
We enjoyed a happy, easy time the afternoon and nightafter the con- ference with the Indians, naturally supposing that all danger was now past, and that we could return home at once. It was arranged that we should proceed up the Elkhorn a few miles further, then travel in a south- erly direction until we struck the head of Beaver Creek, and then follow down that stream to its intersection with the Loup Fork, follow the Loup until we came to the Platte, and then keep along the Platte until we reached the settlements. We had a beautiful camp that night. Huge cottonwood, walnut and elm trees spread their branches over our heads. A noisy little stream rippled at our feet, and the ground was covered with a rich green carpet of nature's weaving. Our minds were free from care or the apprehension of danger for the first time for many days, and
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