History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 13

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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It was soon after this affair that a small force, one company of infantry and thirty men additional, with a little mountain howitzer, the latter detachment under my command. were ordered to proceed under my command to Fort Pierre, in charge of a wagon train. Fort Pierre was on the Missouri River, 325 miles northeast of Fort Laramie. Fort Pierre had for many years previously been an Indian trading post, and had but recently been pur- chased from the American Fur Company by the war department. It had been just garrisoned by a few companies of the Second Infantry, and was a part of Harney's command. It was his destination for the winter of 1855-56. The wagon train which Capt. C. S. Lovell's com- mand was to escort to Fort Pierre was for the use of Harney's expedition. The march was made in September and October, 1855. through the very heart of the Sioux country, and yet we marched to Fort Pierre and back to Fort Laramie without seeing an Indian. Our route lay across the famous "Mauvais Terres," or Bad Lands. It was interesting to me, as 1 wis eager to see new regions, notwithstanding the general monotony of the scenery everywhere between the Missouri and the mountains.

At Fort Pierre | first met Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, Second Infantry, afterwards General lyon, whom I have ever regarded as the best and bravest soldier and one of the brightest men intellectually that I have ever known. He died too early in the great war for the good of his country and for his own reputation. If he had lived he would have won fame second to none in my opinion far above all men who figured in the great conflict. I saw Lyon once after this visit to Fort Pierre. It was in St. Louis. He and Lieut. Charles Griffin. of the artillery (afterwards General Griffin), were together. They invited me to take a walk with them on Fourth Street. We walked from the Planter's House down to the court- house. An auction of slaves was in progress at the time. A gentleman of well known name had failed in business, and his slaves had to go to the auction block. Among them was an old woman. the mother of the family sold, about sixty years of age. She was bid off for $50. This was the first and last sale of human beings I had ever witnessed. 1 had read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," Wendell Phillips' speeches, and William Lloyd Garrison's

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

harangnes, but had never fully realized the true character of the institution of slavery till I witnessed the public sale of this family. Lyon and Griffin, I found, were both interested in the question, both strong anti-slavery men, and both really believed that a great conflict was soon to come, and were both fully convinced that the disunionists would be defeated in the end. Both of these brave men lived to see their conviction verified as to the conflict, but Lyon was too daring to live to the end of it. He died at Wilson's Creek, leading a regiment, when he was the commander of an army.

UNION SENTIMENT IN THE ARMY

The winter of 1805-66 was a hard one at Laramie. There were more than twenty young officers who had been compelled to pass the winter there away from their proper com- mands, in consequence of heavy snows which had interrupted all travel. We had no mails after November till the following spring. There was no amusement except such as cards afforded. It is probable that many young men took their first lessons in draw poker that winter. In those days the slavery question dominated all others in the arena of politics. Officers were discussing the question with each other, and the question of disunion was often referred to. I do not remember hearing any officer, cven of southern birth, advocate seces- sion or disunion. At the same time hardly one ever admitted the possibility of a republican l'resident being elected. But I remember one circumstance that occurred that winter that showed how deeply some southern statesmen were interesting themselves at that time in the question of war and of the part the army officers would take in it. It was common rumor that a certain officer of southern birth had questioned his associates with whom he was intimate, on the subject, and endeavored to ascertain which side they would espouse in the event of an attempted dissolution of the Union. This officer subsequently became a promi- nent Confederate general and was already a reputed favorite of Jefferson Davis. 1 remem- ber only one reply made to the inquirer by a northern born officer. It was in effect that he would go with the North, as it was certain that the North would pay best ; that they had all the wealth of the country and would use it for the protection of their interests and their cause. This was doubtless a selfish view to take of the matter. but it was then only a speculative question, and no one should be held responsible literally for the utterance, which may have been a jesting way of postponing a decision. When the time did come the officer referred to remained true to the Urion.

THE PURCHASE OF FORT PIERRE

It seems necessary to digress at this point and return to the beginning of this campaign in order to explain some matters in connection with this march to the Missouri and Fort Pierre. In preparing the plan of the campaign the war de- partment considered that the army's operations would be confined to the country north of the Platte River in Nebraska, east of the Black Hills, south of the Cheyenne River, and west of the Missouri River in Dakota. That not more than seven thousand Indians would be encountered and that it was advisable to have a decisive engagement with the whole body rather than permit them to break up into small detachments; and to this end three rendezvous for troops and depots of supplies were established. viz: at Fort Kearney, and Fort Laramie. Nebraska, and the third at some point on the Missouri River between the White and Cheyenne rivers, in the vicinity of Fort Pierre. As the department had no reliable information regarding Fort Pierre, which at the time was a fur trading post that had stood the wear and tear of time and tempest for twenty-five years, the quartermaster general at Washington about the last of March. 1855. in- structed Major Vinton, the quartermaster at St. Louis, to obtain the most reliable information possible as to the suitableness of Fort Pierre Choteani, at the month of Bad River, for a depot of supplies. Major Vinton seems to have had the means of securing the information desired with little delay, for on the thirtieth of the same month he sent a rough draft of Fort Pierre to Washing- ton accompanying it with a report stating that he had conversed with Mr. John B. Sarpy, the active partner of the firm of 1. Choteau, Jr., & Company, and from the conversation he gathered that Fort Pierre was not a suitable post for a depot of supplies for any considerable force. He says the fort itself is small and is located in the "mauvaise terre" ( Bad Lands) where for hundreds of miles there is no grass that can be made into hay ; no good ground for corn and fodder and no fitel for twenty miles; and although his opinion is very unfavorable he feels compelled to state that there is no other point on the river more eligible.

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

A few days later, however, Mr. Vinton had met a Mr. Picotte, probably the Yank- ton pioneer and an old employee of the American Fur Company, from whom he received a statement that flatly contradicted that of Mr. Sarpy, and this statement Mr. Vinton sent forward to the quartermaster general. Picotte's statement seems to have agreed with the views held by the war department officials, who at once resolved to secure Fort Pierre, and on the 13th day of April an agreement was made between Charles Gratiot, representing the firm of P. Choteau, Jr., & Co. and Quartermaster General Jesup of the United States army, whereby Choteau was to sell to the United States the "trading establishment on the Missouri River. known as Fort Pierre." for $45,000, together with the buildings within and around the picket of the fort and the lumber and material, as well as an island in the vicinity, and give possession by the Ist of June, 1855.

The orders for the movement of the Harney expedition were issued March 23, 1855, and provided that four companies of the Second Infantry at Carlisle Bar- racks, Pennsylvania, and two from Fort Riley, should proceed up the Missouri River in boats and establish a military post near Fort Pierre. This was a few days before the old trading post was purchased. The remainder of the expedition, consisting of about one thousand troops, dragoons, infantry and artillery, gath- ered at Forts Kearney and Laramie, in Nebraska, where the hostilities were to be punished. Owing to those impediments to navigation for which the Missouri was notorious, coupled with the mistakes of the officials in selecting unsuitable boats for the upper river channel, a great deal of difficulty and vexatious delays were experienced in getting the troops and supplies to their destination. One boat, the Australia, sank in nine feet of water. Two boats, the William Baird and Grey Cloud, were purchased by the Government on account of their light draught, but both were compelled to discharge part of their cargo at Niobrara and again at White River, taking the remainder to Fort Pierre and then returning for the por- tions left at these points.

The first boat to reach Fort Pierre was the Arabia, July 7th, carrying Com- pany G, of the Second Infantry, numbering 100 officers and soldiers. A few days later the Grey Cloud reached the landing with eighty-two men of Company A and supplies and the William Baird with eighty-four men of Company I, under com- mand of Capt. Henry W. Wessels, Second Infantry. During the following week Maj. W. R. Montgomery, the regimental commander, and Major Gains, of the pay department, Capt. P. T. Turnley of the quartermaster department, Captain Simpson, commissary of subsistence, Asst. Surg. T. C. Madison and Lieut. G. K. Warren, of the topographical engineers, arrived. These officers formed the first military officials of Fort Pierre with Major Montgomery in command.

On the 2nd day of August, Capt. Nathaniel Lyon, with Company B, Second Infantry, thirty-seven men, and Company C, thirty-five men, arrived on the steam- boat Clara, and on the 19th of Angust Capt. William M. Gardner, with two officers and eighty men, arrived on the steamboat Genoa.

This garrison was the furthest advanced of any that had been sent to the frontiers, its distance from St. Louis being given at 1,525 miles. The nearest postoffice at that time was Council Bluffs, though one was established at Sargent's Bluffs and Sioux City that winter.

The military officers were very much dissatisfied with Fort Pierre. A council was held to inspect the place and found the whole establishment in "bad order, bad condition and bad repair," the buildings so dilapidated that they would have to be rebuilt-everything in fact nearly worthless, and estimated that it would re- quire $22,000 to put the establishment in anything like the conditions called for under the agreement of purchase. Maj. Chas. E. Galpin was there as the agent of Choteau to turn over the property. In replying to the complaint, he said his company was selling a trading post, not a military post-that it was all it had been represented to be. Finally the government paid the $45.000 agreed upon.

General Harney with his command, consisting of four companies of the Sec- ond Dragoons, five companies of the Sixth Infantry, one of the Tenth Infantry

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

and Light Battery G, of the Fourth Artillery, arrived on the 19th of October, 1855, expecting to go into winter quarters at Pierre. The troops that had previously reached there by river were the six companies of the Second Infantry. Recog- nizing the impossibility of wintering this force at Pierre, General Harney sent four companies of the Second Infantry under Major Wessels to a point five miles above on the east bank to establish a winter camp. The two other companies of the Second with two troops of the dragoons were sent to a point eighteen miles above, also on the east, under Captain Gardner, who established Camp Miller; four companies of the Sixth Infantry under Major Cady to a point ten miles above, named Camp Bacon ; and Major Howe with a troop of dragoons and fifty men of the Second Infantry to a point far below between the White River and the Niobrara, where they established Camp Canfield. The whole number of officers and men in the command was given at 900. General Harney's reports to headquarters exhibit the utmost dissatisfaction with nearly everything that had been done by the Missouri division of his expedition. He finds at Pierre neither grass, nor fuel, nor accommodations, and after enumerating a number of unfor- tuinate things, concludes by stating that the most unfortunate of all was the absence of an officer of energy, experience and industry.

After disposing of his forces as best he could, the general set about finding a suitable location for a permanent military post, although he had been directed to cause a military reservation to be laid off about Fort Pierre. This duty he in- trusted to Lieut. G. K. Warren of the Topographical Engineer Corps, who went ahead and surveyed out an area of 270 square miles, or about 175.000 acres, in order to secure about ten thousand acres of good timber and hay land, but the commander had determined that Pierre was not the place for the permanent post and the following winter and spring of 1856 were employed in reconnoitering the river for a suitable location. Fort Lookout on the west bank, near the present town of Chamberlain, was at one time decided upon and was occupied during the winter as headquarters, and arrangements for the removal of the buildings at Fort Pierre to that post were partially made; when in the month of June Harney dis- covered a site on the west bank of the Missouri thirty miles above the mouth of the Niobrara River that met his requirements, and notified the War Department of his selection, suggesting that the post be named Fort Randall as a token of respect to the memory of Daniel Randall, late a colonel and paymaster general of the army. This disposed of this very important affair, which had occupied the attention of the commanding general for nearly eight months. In the meantime the troops that had come in with the expedition had been quartered at various points and had been subject to frequent assignments caused by the difficulty of procuring supplies and not from any hostility on the part of the Indian tribes, who were perfectly disposed to peace.

Fort Lookout, though deemed to be lacking in the requirements for a per- manent military post, became the temporary abode of numerous bodies of troops during the years 1856 and 1857 and Fort Pierre with a strong garrison remained headquarters during the same period. Capt. Nathaniel Lyon was in command at Fort Lookout. Fort Randall, however, was designed to be the permanent military post and depot of supplies for all the Upper Missouri country. When completed it seemed to form the final link in the chain of military establishments that partly encircled the frontier of the Northwest. Fort Leavenworth had been built in 1827 and seems to have supplied all that was necessary in the way of a depot of supplies for twenty years, when in 1848, Fort Kearney, in Nebraska, was erected, probably demanded by the increasing Mormon emigration and commerce between the States and Salt Lake. This was followed a year later by the Government purchasing the American Fur trading post on the North Fork of the Platte River called Fort Laramie, which was converted into a strong military post. About 1852 Fort Ridgely, at the head of the Minnesota River, was established, and Fort Riley at the junction of the Smoky Hill and Republican rivers in Kansas was built. It would seem that a depot of supplies, with a suitable garrison, should Vol. 1-5

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

have been established in this Upper Missouri country long before the coming of General Harney, but it was not done, though frequently recommended by military men even as far back as the period of Lewis and Clark's exploration, so that Fort Randall became the first military establishment on the Upper Missouri coun- try, and was designed to furnish the link which completed the chain from Fort Ridgely in Minnesota around by way of Laramie to Riley and Leavenworth, and while it was the last of the old frontier forts it was the first of a new line of forts to follow in a few years along the Missouri River reaching to Fort Benton.

About the last of June, 1856, the first troops reached the site of Fort Randall. They consisted of eighty-four recruits of the Second Infantry under command of Lieut. George 11. Paige, regimental quartermaster, and First Lieut. D. S. Stanley, of the First Cavalry, who laid out the fort and built the first barracks. In August following, companies C and I of the Second Infantry and D, C, H and K of the Second Dragoons reached there, commanded by Col. Francis Lee, of the Second Infantry, and formed the first garrison of the post with Colonel Lee in command.

In the spring of 1857 Fort Pierre was practically abandoned as a military post and its military stores removed to Fort Randall on the steamboat D. H. Morton, which had been sent up the river for this purpose. The fur trading firm of D. M. Frost & Co. of St. Louis, who had been trading at Pierre and at other points in the upper country, was given charge of the United States property, consisting prin- cipally of the buildings and material at Fort Pierre and also at Fort Lookout, which had likewise been abandoned. Maj. Charles E. Galpin, who was in the em- ploy of the American Fur Company at the time, took the contract for taking down and removing a portion of the buildings at Pierre and Lookout to Fort Randall. In this he was assisted by Mr. Dupuis, an independent trader, and so much inter- ested in the improvements begun in that year at Yankton that he selected enough of the best cedar logs from the old fort at Pierre to make a raft and floated them down to Yankton, where they were used in the construction of the first trading post for Frost, Todd & Company.

Fort Pierre was continued as the abode of a small force of troops under com- mand of Captain Lovell, Company A, Second Infantry. Capt. Alfred Sully, Company F. of the same regiment had marched across the plains in 1856, from Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, to Fort Pierre, and with Lovell's forces formed the Fort Pierre garrison until 1858, when the post was altogether abandoned and Sully returned to Fort Ridgely or Fort Abercrombie in Dakota. Captain John B. S. Todd of Company A, Sixth Infantry, who came with General Harney, re- mained at Fort Pierre during the winter of 1855-6, and resigned his commission on the 16th day of September, 1856, to take up a business career. He was appointed sutler at Fort Randall immediately after quitting the army, at which time, 1856, the firm of Frost, Todd & Co. was organized at Sioux City.

At the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion in 1861, Fort Randall was garrisoned by five companies of the Fourth Regiment of Artillery under the com- mand of Lieut .- Col. John Monroe. In May of that year three companies of the command were sent East to be used in putting down the insurrection of the seced- ing states, leaving but two companies under Capt. John A. Brown, of Maryland, in command of the post. And these were now the only troops left of all of Ilarney's forces in this upper country. They had been withdrawn and distributed at various frontier posts, by the secretary of war, John B. Floyd, known to be in sympathy with the rebellious states, and a very large proportion of the officers had already cast their fortunes with the Confederacy. Captain Brown, who was in command at Randall, was inclined to favor the Union cause, but it is said that he was influenced by the tie of marriage and against his inclinations, to join the Confederates. He left the post without permission and the next heard of him was his resignation sent to Washington from the South, in July. Fort Randall was thus left in command of Second Lieut. T. R. Tannatt, of the Fourth Artillery, the only commissioned officer at the post. This officer was a staunch U'nion man and remained in charge of the post until the following winter. The

NAPOLEON

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

post was surrounded by Indians whose loyalty to the Government had been seri- ously impaired by the counsel and influence of agents of the South and the dis- loyal military officers who had been stationed here and had frequent and unre- stricted intercourse with them for several years. Tannatt conducted the public affairs very creditably, and in December, '61, was relieved by three companies of the Fourteenth Iowa Volunteers under Capt. Bradley Mahana, of lowa City. Lieutenant Tannatt and the two companies of artillery were then ordered to Louisville, Kentucky, where his companies were united to form a light battery and as such performed most heroic and valuable service for the Union cause.

While Fort Pierre, as it existed from 1832 to 1858, had been demolished, its name remained and has continued to have a local habitation up to this day, and will doubtless become more celebrated as an emporium of commerce and the seat of various institutions possibly for centuries to come. But its local habitation has been changed. The site of the old fort was abandoned when its buildings were finally demolished, but the name attached to another locality near by where Joseph La Fromboise had built a trading post, at first known as Fort La From- boise and afterwards called Fort Pierre.

That vicinity continued to be a favorite trading ground for the Indians of the western portion of the territory, and the American Fur Company had maintained two trading posts in the neighborhood of the mouth of the Cheyenne after dis- posing of Fort Pierre to the Government in 1855. When the early Government agents were sent up the river to distribute gifts and pay annuities to the Indians which began with annual regularity about 1857. the principal point for assembling the Sioux on the west of the Missouri was known as Fort Pierre, but was in fact the La Fromboise post. Subsequently when the settlement of the country was so far advanced as to demand a trading center for the civilized whites, a town was laid out at the mouth of Bad River and the City of Fort Pierre has grown up there with all the attendant advantages of modern cities, including schools and churches, and has enjoyed a very prosperous career. Three of the Mathieson boys, who were among the young lads of early Yankton in the Gos. George, and Richard, were among the founders of this town, and are yet to be found among the leaders of its best enterprise. These boys including the young- est son, Robert, with their mother, were survivors of the Spirit Lake, Iowa, mas- sacre, led by Inkpaduta, in 1857. Mr. Mathieson, the father, was killed in that dreadful slaughter.

Starting with that insignificant show of bravado by two thoughtless young Indians back at Laramie in 1853 we find the train of events leading to an Indian war, resulting in Harney's march to the Missouri, the establishment of Fort Ran- dall, the ushering into civil life of Captain Todd, and the pioneer history of Dakota Territory has its beginning, with the Missouri Valley as the theater of the important pioneer movements leading up to the political organization of the terri- tory, and the location of its seat of government. "Behold what a great flame a little fire kindleth."

The foregoing account of the cause of the famous Harney expedition was substantially furnished to President Franklin Pierce by an army officer, who wished to induce the President to pardon a number of the Indians who possibly would have been executed for their crimes committed during the first outbreake of hostilities. The President seemed to believe that the Indians had been "more sinned against than sinning" and granted a full pardon, restoring them to all their annuities.

And here begins the story of the opening up and settlement of the Upper Missouri Valley of Dakota. Capt. John B. S. Todd, who was destined to bear so conspicuous a part in the early history of Dakota Territory, was now in civil life. and resided at Fort Randall with his family. He had charge of the sutler's store as a member of the firm of Frost, Todd & Co., and was beginning to interest him- self in those affairs which were to engage his attention during the remainder of his life.

CHAPTER X GEOLOGICAL DAKOTA-FIRST LAND SURVEYS

GEOLOGICAL-SIOUX FALLS ROCK-THIE RED PIPESTONE-THE MISSOURI RIVER AND OTHER WATER COURSES-FIRST GOVERNMENT SURVEYS-ORIGIN OF THE UNITED STATES SYSTEM OF SURVEYS-PRE-EMPTIONS, HOMESTEADS, AND TIMBER CUL- TURE CLAIMS-PUBLIC LANDS-PRINCIPAL RIVERS AND LAKES.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 13

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198