History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 162

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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Results on the Passage of the Bill .- A bill has recently passed the Senate "providing for an agreement with the Sioux Nation in regard to a portion of their reservation, and for other purposes," which has been transmitted to this House and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs, "that bourne whence" it takes a long while to get back, a la other com- mittees. As a dernier resort I am in favor of this Senate bill, but it will take a long while, if it passes this session, to be of any utility to us, as the commissioners authorized thereby cannot report a treaty for want of time until the next session of Congress; and therefore it will be nearly a year before we can reap any benefit therefrom.

We are told to wait until a different policy or a new treaty may enable these Indians to quietly vacate this valuable country; but Young America never waits. It is not the nature of the people of these United States to hesitate to strike the blow while the iron is hot. Remove this dusky cloud title from a portion of the reservation, and thousands of emigrants will flock there annually, not simply as gold-hunters, but as farmers and tillers of the soil. The climate is temperate and salubrious; the soil is rich; forests abound, and the country is well supplied with small streams abounding in fish. There is no portion of the country that presents so many attractions for the emigrant as this hill proposes to open. The passage of this bill will do the Indians no harm, but will greatly advantage the hardy, whole-souled, generous-hearted pioneers. Pass this bill and this rich country is open for exploration and settlement at once, and gives homes to thousands of the homeless. The interests of linmanity demand its passage. It will stop the shedding of innocent blood. Men and women will earn their daily bread in quiet, and after the labors of the day lay down to sleep without fear of being awakened by the yell of the bloodthirsty savage or the glare of the midnight conflagration. The sword will be turned into the plowshare, and "the song of the turtle will be heard in the land."

Christianity demands that these lands shall he occupied and possessed by those who believe in protecting one another, instead of those who only delight in slaying pale-faces. The American people. yes, the civilized world, is tired of this sentimental policy for the "poor Indian," which has almost made a continuons graveyard from the Ohio River to the Pacific Ocean.

The time has arrived when the people are not to be deceived by well-rounded sentences, poetical effusions, or charming fictions. Desolated homes, thousands of widows and orphans cry out that these murderers must leave these lands to the quiet possession of those who are able and willing to assist the earth in giving forth its increase, and establishing homes where they can enjoy the sweet comfort of peace and family, and where "the wicked Indian will cease from troubling and the weary laborer reap the rich rewards of his toil in the possession of a secure home and contented family."

During these anxious days when the President and Congress were endeavor- ing to discover some method by which they could facilitate the opening of the Black Hills to white settlement, it is authentically related that the delegate from the Territory of Dakota, Judge Kidder, called upon President Grant, and asked him if there was no possible way for him to use his executive authority to get the coveted country thrown open to white occupation. Grant knew of no way, but strongly hinted to Kidder if he could get him authority to appoint commis-

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sioners to negotiate with the Indians, and money enough to pay them, he would appoint the commissioners immediately and as speedily as possible make terms with the Indians. The session was drawing to a close. During the last hours at midnight a conference committee upon an appropriation bill was in session. Kidder hurried to and fro through the capitol with an amendment in his hand to go into this appropriation bill. He found the committee just as they were ready to close their report, and tired and exhausted as they were, the good nature of the delegate proved successful in getting their consent to put in his amend- ment. It authorized the President to appoint commissioners to visit the Sioux country, negotiate with the Indians, and made an appropriation to defray ex- penses. The amendment was substantially the provision of law which governed in the making of the agreement with the Sioux for the Black Hills, in 1876. The bill passed Congress during August, and in September and October the important agreement was made by which the Indians relinquished all claims to the hills country.

CHAPTER LXXIII CUSTER'S LAST BATTLE-BLACK HILLS PURCHASED

I876

TERRY'S FATEFUL EXPEDITION AGAINST SITTING BULL'S 5,000 SIOUX-CUSTER'S MARCH AND LAST BATTLE-THE TRAGEDY OF THE LITTLE BIG HORN-CUSTER DIVIDES HIS REGIMENT AND ENGAGES SITTING BULL'S FORCES WITH FIVE COM- PANIES- COMPLETE SLAUGHTER OF THE GALLANT GENERAL AND IIIS MEN-NOT ONE ESCAPED TO TELL THE STORY OF THE MOST FAMOUS BATTLE IN OUR INDIAN ANNALS- THE STEAMBOAT FAR WEST AND CAPTAIN GRANT MARSII- GENERAL TERRY'S OFFICIAL REPORT-CARRYING THE WOUNDED OF RENO'S COMMAND TO FORT LINCOLN-THE VOYAGE DOWN THE YELLOWSTONE-SENDING THE FATEFUL TIDINGS TO THE WORLD-UNIVERSAL LAMENT AT SACRIFICE OF CUSTER-DAKOTA OFFERS A REGIMENT OF VOLUNTEER CAVALRY-SITTING BULL SEEKS REFUGE IN BRITISHI AMERICA-GREAT EXCITEMENT FOLLOWING CUSTER SLAUGIITER AND TIIREATS OF EXTERMINATING THE INDIANS-NEW BLACK HILLS TREATY COM- MISSION APPOINTED-COMMISSION AT PINE RIDGE-INDIANS QUIET AND

OPPRESSED WITH FEAR OF PALE FACED INDIGNATION-NEW PROPOSED TREATY FOR BLACK HILLS SUBMITTED AND AGREED UPON WITH LITTLE OPPOSITION- THE BLACK HILLS COMPACT WITH THE NAMES OF INDIANS OF ALL THIE TRIBES THIAT SIGNED-SPOTTED TIL AND OTIIERS VISIT INDIAN TERRITORY TO INVESTIGATE TIIE COUNTRY WITH THE VIEW OF REMOVING-SIOUX DECIDE TO REMAIN IN DAKOTA-GENERAL NELSON A. MILES IN THE FIELD -ACTIVE CAMPAIGN DURING FALL OF 1876 LED BY CROOK AND TERRY-CROOK REACIIES BLACK HILLS-BATTLE OF SLIM BUTTES-GENERAL SHERMAN ON THE YELLOWSTONE-INDIAN TROUBLES CONFINED TO THE BLACK HILLS-MAJOR RENO OF CUSTER'S REGIMENT DEMANDS AN INVESTIGATION-MILITARY COURT AT CHICAGO-TESTIMONY OF WITNESSES -RENO'S STATEMENT-COURT EXONERATES RENO-FINDING OF COURT-SITTING BULL AND GALL'S STORY OF THE BATTLE-TIIE LITTLE BIG HORN BATTLEFIELD A NATIONAL CEMETERY.

TERRITORY EXPEDITION- CUSTER MASSACRE

The Indian Expedition of 1876 that terminated in the Custer massacre ren- dezvoused at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, under the immediate command of Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Terry (who was also in command of the Department of Dakota), about the first of May of that year. The force con- sisted of the Seventh United States Cavalry under the command of Gen. George A. Custer; three companies of the Seventeenth Infantry; four companies of the Sixth Infantry, together with a Gatling battery. Its objective point was the Valley of the Yellowstone and its tributaries wherever he might find the large body of hostile Indians who were known to be gathering near the mouth of Powder River, a tributary of the Yellowstone, in strong force, led by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Bald Eagle, and other hostile chiefs; the numbers of their fol- lowing being roughly estimated at from five thousand to seven thousand, which probably included women and children. Many young Indians from the upper

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CALL, UNCPAPA CHIRI

Famon- fighter with sitting Bob

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

agencies, professedly friendly and drawing supplies from the Government, were known to be absent from their reservations, and it was conjectured upon reliable indications that they had secretly joined the hostiles for this campaign. Sit- ting Bull subsequently gave out the statement that the gathering had no hostile signification; that it was simply in conformity to a custom observed by the Sioux who held these annual assemblies for social purposes in order that the young men and young women of the nation might have an opportunity for becom- ing acquainted with one another, with matrimonial alliances as the chief purpose in view, together with the many pleasures to be enjoyed on such vernal occasions.

The expedition under Terry was one of three to take part in the summer's work, which was planned on a comprehensive scale with the design of ending Indian hostilities in the Northwest.

The steamboat Far West, Capt. Grant Marsh with Clerk Walter A. Burleigh, Jr., son of the distinguished Dakotan, that was to play an important part in the summer's Indian campaign, left its harbor at Yankton, on the 16th of May, 1870. carrying 280 tons of freight. The boat had been selected as General Terry's flagship and was destined for the Yellowstone River as far up as the mouth of the Big Horn, and possibly some distance above. Marsh had been selected for the command because of his experience, his knowledge of the Yellowstone Chan- nel, his courage and trustworthy qualities that fitted him for the important position.

Terry's expedition got away from Fort Lincoln on the 17th of May. Gen- eral Crook had engaged a portion of this hostile force near the forks of the Rosebud on the 16th of June, and reported the affair as of the most serious character. The Indians were well mounted, in large force, well armed with modern guns, and fought desperately, but could not be brought into a battk. pursuing their tactics of darting out on the troops from behind the natural defenses, which were abundant, and doing mortal injury to a number of soldiers whom they would find separated from the main body, as is irually the case in such affairs. In this series of fights Col. Guy Henry was dangerously wounded and Crook lost nine troopers killed and a much larger number wounded. He had with him about one hundred and thirty Crow and Shoshone scouts who fought desperately with the Sioux and lost several of their number. It will be noticed that the Indian scouts serving with the Government forces, were none of them from the Sioux tribes, but were taken from tribes that were, and had always been, at war with the Sioux.

It appears from the terms of the Laramie Treaty, sometimes called the Sher- man Treaty of 1868 that the Sioux Indians were given for their reservation alt that part of the Territory of Dakota south of the Cannon Ball River, practically, and west of the Missouri River, and the Big Horn country in Wyoming and Mon- tana guaranteed to their occupation to roam and hunt in ; hence it may be clamed that Sitting Bull and his people were on their own ground, set apart for them by this treaty, when the battle of the Little Big Horn occurred. Sitting Bull clmed that such was the case.

Sitting Bull became famous in our Indian annals, as much so as Powhatan, Tecumseh, or Little Crow, and probably superior to them in intellect. He was a Dakotan born and bred, and a member of the Unepapa tribe of Sious or Dakota Nation. Ile was the most influential Indian leader of modern times, a chief Among chiefs, and yet he was never a chief, as the Indians regard that digmty, but was the general of the armies of the Sioux nation the commander in chief, and an implacable foe to civilization. He was willing that peace should prevail tic condition being that the white man must keep out of the Indian country terms of peace were so impracticable, that they amounted in effect to & lo lim- tion of war upon all extension or advancement of white settlements seil paille improvements in the West : and there is little doubt that the gret tel at shared his sentiments, but were unwilling, knowing the futility of nouns.

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go to the length Sitting Bull required of his followers, to enforce his exclusion policy.

The hostiles who were fighting with Sitting Bull during this summer were said to represent every tribe of the Sioux nation, but not openly. The leading Indians of the southern tribes-the Ogalalas, Brules, Cheyenmes and Lower Yank- tonnais, were all opposed to hostilities; but they could not control their young men who, because of their Indian love for war and its excitement, secretly made their way to the hostile camps, joined in their forays, and would then return to their agencies, draw their rations, and be ready to repeat the offense. It was claimed that the hostile force in 1876, with Sitting Bull as their leader, constituted the most effective hostile Indian army ever assembled on American soil, and they were as well equipped for battle as were the regular soldiers, many of them being armed with Winchester rifles and needle guns. Sitting Bull's army, independent of the element surreptitiously furnished from the agency Indians, was made up of the hostiles enumerated in the report of General Stanley, given on a preceding page. They disowned all treaties. Sitting Bull was the leader of the force, though denying that he was a war chief.

On the 20th of June, five days before Custer's fatal battle, the hostiles, under Sitting Bull, were reported by General Crook's scouts "as thick as grass" on the south side of the Yellowstone River, near the mouth of the Rosebud River where Sitting Bull's forces were concentrating. They numbered, as near as could be estimated, between three and four thousand fighting men. General Gibbons' com- mand was then encamped on the north side of the Yellowstone, opposite the Rose- bud and within sight of the enemy. Gibbons had sent two companies across to attack the Indians, but the Sioux compelled them to return. General Terry's com- mand was then within two or three days' march of Sitting Bull's rendezvous, and reached it on the 22d, but the Indians had then withdrawn up the Rosebud. General Crook at the time, the 20th, was near old Fort Fetterman, about eighty miles distant, on his way to the Rosebud. The plan of the campaign at this time seemed to promise the best of results to the Government.

On the 23d or 24th, Terry's forces from Fort Lincoln had all reached the mouth of the Rosebud, where the steamboat Far West was moored, and was held as headquarters of Terry's expedition. Custer led the first detachment of Terry's expedition composed of his entire regiment, the Seventh Cavalry, and was sent forward from this point, following up the Rosebud on the trail made by Sitting Bull on his departure a few days earlier. After Custer's departure, Terry moved the remainder of his command, accompanied by the Far West, up the Yellow- stone to the mouth of the Big Horn ; while Gibbons' command marched up on the north side and were ferried across to the south side, by the steamer Far West, the same evening. A camp, however, was established on the north side opposite the mouth of the Big Horn. From this point, General Terry dispatched his second column up the Big Horn, or up Tulloch's Creek, a tributary of the Big Horn and running nearly parallel with it, with the design of intercepting the Indians, or of supporting Custer, who was presumed to have come up with the hostiles, and had possibly engaged them. Terry, with the remainder of his force, marched up the Big Horn, with the view of intercepting the Indians. The Far West also ascended the Big Horn River as far as the mouth of the Little Big Horn, where agreeable to Terry's orders it tied up.

Custer's orders to his majors, just before he separated from them to engage in the fight which ended so disastrously, were substantially these :

Reno was ordered to proceed to the left, and proceed in search of the Indians -the orders were apparently indefinite. Reno's command consisted of three companies.

Benteen, with three companies, was ordered to the left, with similar in- structions.

General Custer, with four companies, taking the center.

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This disposition was made on the afternoon of June 25th, near the Little Big Horn and it would seem a few miles below where the battle occurred. This was about the last reliable information from Custer.

Following the distribution of the troops and their departure, we next meet with Reno and his command, who had gone several miles in the direction ordered and meeting with no enemy, had set out on his return, when he reached a point supposed to be about two miles from the Custer battlefield, he met the Indians, who came with such force and fury that Reno was driven back to the shelter of the timber which, fortunately, was not far away. Ilere Reno made a stand, and succeeded in holding his ground, though at considerable loss, until relieved the following day by General Gibbons. Reno in the meantime had been reinforced by the return of Benteen and his command, and then the rifle pits were hastily constructed, and the Indians kept at bay for about twenty-four hours, entailing. however, severe loss upon the troops.

It was early in this engagement of Reno's that the firing was said to be heard some distance away, down the Little Big Horn, and it was presumed that this firing proceeded from the Custer battlefield, and it was further presumed that if Reno had persisted, he could have reached the scene of carnage in time to have relieved Custer. But it also appears that the Indians whom Reno met in such force and fury were, many of them, those who had already been through the Custer engagement, and leaving it victors, had set out on their ponies to wreak a like atrocious slaughter upon the remaining detachments. From all accounts it is apparent that Sitting Bull had kept thoroughly informed of the disposition Custer had made of his forces, and planned, first, to destroy Custer, and then assail the Reno and Benteen detachments, which were widely separated.

It is further apparent that Sitting Bull was apprised of the proximity of Terry's "foot-soldiers," as he called them, and learning of their approach he abruptly changed his plans, and the order went out to the Indians to retreat and save themselves, which the wily medicine chief had already set about doing with much haste and disorder.

Regarding General Custer's movements with his regiment after leaving the main column of the Rosebud, the reader is referred to General Terry's official report, and more particularly to the testimony given in the court-martial trial of Major Reno, one of Custer's majors, which is given in the concluding page- in this chapter.

The first intelligence concerning Custer's lamentable and tragic fate that reached the cars of white men, is related in Joseph Mills Hanson's interesting work entitled the "Conquest of the Missouri," based upon the statement of Capt Grant Marsh, commander of the steamboat, Far West, which was lying at the mouth of the Little Big Horn, moored to the west bank. During the day of the 26th of June the captain and those on the boat were startled at seeing . naked Indian, armed, and mounted on a pony, crash through the bushes which fringed the east bank, and half dismounting and half falling from his animal. gestured to be taken aboard. Captain Marsh recognized the Indian as Curley, one of Custer's Crow Scouts, and without delay complied with his request. The Indian was terribly agitated, and piteously weak from exhaustion. It was some time before he could attempt to speak, but moaned, cried, and threw himself prone upon the deck, mumbling his agony of grief in short frow sentences, for he could neither speak or understand a word of the English language Emilly of Curley's becoming more composed, they drew from his gestures, mutterings. 00 one word that he pronounced which Marsh recognized as meaning "soller that an awful calamity had fallen to the troops, and that the solcher, But he defeated : which was all that Curley knew at the time, for he had kit tla ban - field while the fiereest of the slaughter was going on. As appeared from Outer statement made a little later and interpreted to March, turkey wasthe field, and realizing that the white soldiers would be annihilate 1. 1 Custer and endeavored to persuade him to escape He offered tule

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

in which he could disguise himself, and his own pony, and urged him to save himself. Custer, however, refused to desert his troops, and Curley reluctantly left him, and made his own way to the mouth of the Little Big Horn where he found the steamboat, knowing nothing of its being there, it appeared: and was taken aboard, where by gesture, cries and groans, he related the disaster of the previous day.

It was claimed to be a rule among the Indians that they would not kill a scout of the opposing forces, but if caught as a spy, his punishment was death. This may have protected Curley from the Sioux on the battlefield, or he may have taken his chances of not being recognized in the maelstrom of slaughter then occurring when the hostiles were looking only for white foes and giving no atten- tion to persons of their own race.

General Terry was the first to arrive at the Far West after Curley. He came on the 27th, bringing with him the wounded from Reno's command. Upon coming aboard, Terry's first words to the captain were, "This disaster should never have happened." He said no more; but the captain inferred that the original plan of the movement had not been followed, resulting in a terrible misfortune. The responsible parties were not named at this time nor later ; but it seemed to be read between the lines of the official reports that temerity had cost a great sacrifice, suggesting that the plan of the movement against Sitting Bull had been frustrated and defeated by precipitate action.

The Custer massacre occurred the 25th. Terry reached the battle field on the 27th, rescued Reno's besieged forces ; the Indians retiring on his approach with his "foot soldiers," and breaking up into small bands were able to escape to the west and south, Terry having no force to pursue. He buried the slain of Custer's force, and with fifty-one wounded men from Reno's battalion, borne on litters improvised, he made his way to the steamboat, placed his wounded aboard, and moved to the mouth of the Big Horn. Here, after a day's necessary delay, he dispatched the Far West with the wounded to Fort Lincoln, which carried also the official dispatches of the Custer tragedy. The boat reached Bismarck July 5th, and the first intelligence of the slaughter of Custer and his men was sent out to the world from the Bismarck office. The shocking intelligence created intense feeling throughout the nation. Custer was a favorite of the people. They had learned of his gallantry and courage during the Civil war, and regarded him with admiration due to a hero. He was one of the youngest, in years, of the country's general military commanders, and won his rapid promotion solely upon merit. His professional career had been a succession of victories; and his campaigns against the Indians, though brief, had demonstrated his ability in frontier warfare. He did not regard the Indians as a formidable enemy. and doubtless underestimated their prowess on the battle field, especially where their numbers were so far in excess of the troops as proved to be the case in this, his last battle.

TERRY'S OFFICIAL REPORT

The Custer tragedy occurred on the 25th of June. General Terry's official report furnishes the most reliable intelligence of the carnage, and is here given. It was dated near the battle field which Terry reached the day following the fight :

The reader is here referred to the subjoined official report, and to the testi- mony given at the inquiry of the military court subsequently held in Chicago, which appears near the close of this chapter, for the facts and incidents of Custer's command after its departure at the mouth of the Rosebud. In the Reno investi- gation will be found a statement of the march of Custer's column and the orders given by him to his subordinate officers previous to the battle of the Little Big Horn.

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Headquarters Department of Dakota,

Camp on Little Big Horn River, June 27, 1870.

To Adjutant-General Military Division Missouri, Chicago :

It is a painful duty to report that day before yesterday, the 25th inst., a great disaster overtook General Custer and the troops under his command. At 12 o'clock of the 22d lie started with his whole regiment, and a strong detachment of scouts and guides, from the mouth of the Rosebud. Proceeding up that river about twenty miles he struck a very heavy Indian trail, which had previously been discovered, and pursuing it, found that it led, as it was supposed that it would lead, to the Little Big Horn River. Here he found a village of almost unexampled extent, and at once attacked it with that portion of his com- mand which was immediately at hand.

Major Reno, with three companies, A, G and M, of the regiment was sent into the valley of the stream at the point where the trail strikes it. General Custer, with five con - panies, C, E, F, I and L, attempted to enter it about three miles lower down. Reno forded the river, charged down its left bank, dismounted and fought on foot, until finally, com- pletely overwhelmed by numbers, he was compelled to mount and recross the river and seck a refuge in the high bluffs which overlooked its right bank.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 162

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