History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 163

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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Just as he recrossed the Little Big Horn, Benteen, who with three companies, D. 11 and K, was some two miles to the left of Reno when the action commenced, but who had been ordered by General Custer to return, came to the river, and rightly concluding it was useless for his force to attempt to renew the fight in the valley, he joined Reno on the bluffs. Captain MeDougall, with his Company B, was at first at some distance in the rear with a train of pack mules. He also came up to Reno, and soon this united force was nearly surrounded by Indians, many of whom, armed with rifles, occupied positions which commanded the ground held by the cavalry, from which there was no escape. Riti . pits were dug and the fight was maintained, though with a heavy loss, from about 2 30 o'clock of the 25th till 6 o'clock of the 26th, when the Indians withdrew from the valley. taking with them their village.

Of the movement of General Custer and the five companies under his immediate com- mand, scarcely anything is known from those who witnessed them, for no sold er er officer who accompanied him has yet been found alive. His trail from the point where Major Reno crossed the stream passes along and in rear of the crest of the bluffs on the right bank for nearly or quite three miles: then it comes down to the bank of the river, but at once diverges from it, as if he had unsuccessfully attempted to cross ; then turns upon itself, almost completes a circle, and closes. It is marked by the remains of his officers and men and the bodies of his horses. Some of them dropped along the path ; others are headed, where halts appear to have been made. There is abundant evidence that a gallant resistance wa offered by the troops, but they were beset on all sides by overpowering numbers.

Mr. Bristol and Mr. Reed, a nephew of General Custer, were with him and were kill d No other officers than those whom I have named, are among the killed, w unded and miss ing. It is impossible as yet to obtain a reliable list of the enlisted men who were killed! including officers. It must reach 250: the number of wounded is fifty-one

At the mouth of the Rosebud I informed General Custer that I should take the supply steamer Far West up the Yellowstone to ferry General Gibbons' column over the fjer that I should personally accompany that column, and that it would in all ar lability read the mouth of the Little Big Horn on the 26th inst.

The steamer reached General Gibbons' troops, near the mouth of the Bi . 11 ri arl on the morning of the 24th, at 4 o'clock In the afternoon, at 5 o'clock, all His men and animals were across the Yellowstone. The column, consisting of five cumparat of the Seventh Infantry, four companies of the Second Cavalry and a battery of Fire edez guns, marched out to and across Tulloch's Creek, starting soon after 5 o'clock in thetern ing. Fifty infantrymen made a march of twenty-two miles over the most of cult country which I have ever seen in order that the scouts might be sent into the Vall s af tec 1 tile Big Horn. The cavalry with the battery was then pushed on thirteen or fourteen mile further, reaching camp at midnight. The scouts discovered the Indians, who were at tre supposed to be Sioux, but when overtaken proved to be Crows who had been with Cu ter They brought the first intelligence of the battle. Their story was not cre lited It w 1 supposed that some severe fighting, perhaps, had taken place, but it was not lelevel ! ! Custer could have overtaken so large a force as twelve companies of cavalry The int n'ry had broken camp very early and soon came up, and the whole column enter 1 an | m the Valley of the Little Big Horn. During the afternoon efforts were made to send ic si through to what was supposed to be General Custer's position, and to obtain inf rin tien of the condition of affairs, but those who were sent cost were driven Back In partie [f ] who, increasing their numbers, were soon hovering in General Gubben ' ir nt

At 8.40 o'clock on that evening the infantry Lad marched between twenty raise thirty miles. The men were very weary, and daylight was inline The cofinan vas timie fore halted for the night at a point eleven miles n a straight line dac de ili morning the movement was resumed, and after a march of nine nl M entrenched position was reached.

The withdrawal of the Indians from around Remi's commin ul ...... was undoubtedly caused by the appearance of General Glhon' tro

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Captain Benteen, both of whom are officers of great experience, accustomed to see large masses of mounted men, estimated the number of Indians engaged at not less than twenty- five hundred. The officers known to be killed are General Custer, Captains Keogh, Gates and Custer, Lieutenants Cook, Smith, McIntosh, Calhoun, Porter, Hodgson, Sturgis and Reiley, of the cavalry; Lieut. John J. Crittenden of the Twentieth Infantry, and Civilians Boston, Custer, Arthur, Reed, Mark Kellogg, Charles Reynolds, and Frank C. Mann; also Indian Scouts Bloody Knife, Bob Tailed Bull and Stab.

The Indian village in the valley was about three miles long and one mile wide. Besides the lodges proper, a great number of temporary brushwood shelters were found in it, indi- cating that many men besides its proper inhabitants had gathered together there. Major Reno is very confident that there were a number of white men fighting with the Indians. It is believed that the loss of the Indians is large. I have as yet received no official reports in regard to the battle, but what is stated is gathered from the officers who were on the ground then, and from those who have been over it since.

ALFRED H. TERRY, Brigadier-General. .

The voyage of the Far West from the mouth of the Little Big Horn, with its half hundred suffering wounded troopers from Reno's command to the Yellowstone, thence to Bismarck, was graphically described by one of the voya- gers. It provides a leaf of history of thrilling interest, and is here reproduced :

The steamer Far West was moored at the mouth of the Little Big Horn. She had made her way up the Big Horn farther than any other boat. She had performed one feat unprecedented in river navigation in reaching the mouth of the Little Big Horn, and was prepared to perform another unequaled in the annals of steamboating on western waters, an account of which was gleaned from Capt. Grant Marsh of Yankton on his arrival at his destination. The wounded brought down from Reno's command, some fifty-one in number, accompanied by General Terry in person, were placed aboard the boat. Doctor Porter was detailed to go down with them. Terry's adjutant-general, Ed Smith, was sent along with the official dispatches and a hundred other messages. He had a traveling bag full of telegrams for the Bismarck office. Marsh was in command. He put everything in the completest order and took on a large amount of fuel. He received orders to reach Fort Lincoln as soon as possible. He understood his instructions literally, and never did a river man obey them more conscientiously. On the evening of the 3d of July the steamer weighed anchor. In a few minutes the Far West, so fittingly named, was under full head of steam. It was a strange land, and an unknown river. What a cargo on that steamer; what news for the country; what a story to carry to the Government, to Fort Lincoln; to the widows. It was rushing from a field of havoc to a nation of mourners. The steamer Far West never received the credit due her ; neither has the gallant Marsh; nor the pilots, David Campbell and John Johnson. Marsh, too, acted as pilot. It required all their endurance and skill. They proved the men for the emergency. The engineer, whose name unfortunately was not given, did his full duty. Every one of the crew is entitled to the same acknowledgment. They felt no sacrifice was too great upon that journey and in behalf of the wounded heroes. A very moderate imagination can picture the scene upon that floating hospital. There were wounds of every character, and men more dead than alive. The suffering was not termi- nated with the removal from the field to the boiler deck. It continued and ended in death more than once before Fort Lincoln was hailed. Porter watched for fifty-four hours; he stood the test. The Big Horn River is full of islands, and a successful passage even on the bosom of a June rise, is not an easy feat. The Far West would take a shoot on this or that side of an island as the quick judgment of the pilot would dictate. It is no river in the eastern sense of that word; it is only a creek. A steamboat moving as fast as a railway train in a narrow winding stream is not a pleasure. It was no pleasant sensation to be dashing straight at a headland, and the pilot the only power to save. Occasionally the bank would be touched and the men would topple over like ten-pins. It was a reminder of what the result would be if a snag was struck. Down the Big Horn the heroine went, missing islands, snags, and shore. It was a thrilling voyage. The rate was unrivaled in the annals of boating. Into the Yellowstone the staunch craft shot, and down that sealed river to pilots, she made over twenty miles an hour. The bold captain was taking chances, but he scarcely thought of them. He was under flying orders. Lives were at stake. His engineer was instructed to keep up stcam to the highest pitch. Once the gauge marked a pressure that turned his cool head and made every nerve in his powerful frame quiver. The crisis passed and the Far West cscaped a fate as terrible as Custer's. Once a stop was made, and a shallow grave explained the reason. He still rests in that lone spot. Down the swift Yellowstone like shooting the Lachine Rapids, every mile a repetition of the former. From the Yellowstone into the broad Missouri, then there was clear sailing. There was a deeper and wider channel and more confidence. A few minutes were lost at Buford. Everybody at the fort was beside himself. The boat was crowded with inquirers, and their inquiries were not half answered when the steamer was away. At Berthold a wounded scout was put off, and at Fort Stevenson a brief stop to tell in a word what had happened. There was no difference in the speed from Stevenson to Bismarck. The same

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desperate rate was kept up to the end. They were approaching home with something of that feeling which always moves the human heart. At It o'clock on the night of the 5th of July they reached Bismarck and Fort A. Lincoln. One thousand miles in fifty-four hours was the proud record of speed. But there was no boasting. The awful solemnity of the boat's mission precluded even more than a brief reference to it at the time.

So intense and universal was the sentiment for the summary punishment of the Indians for this atrocious slaughter of Custer and his men, that public meet- ings were held in many places, resolutions adopted calling for the prompt and vigorous prosecution of the war against the savages, and voices were heard at these assemblings of the people favoring the extermination of the race, a propo- sition that met with surprising manifestations of approval. At the capital of Dakota a public meeting was held on the day succeeding the reception of the shocking intelligence, where resolutions were adopted, as follows:

Resolved, That we have heard with the deepest sorrow of the disaster which has befallen the nation in the slaughter of the gallant Gen. George A. Custer and tus entire brave command while discharging the duty imposed on them by the Government of pro- tecting our frontiers and settlements from the outlawed bands of savages which have so long infested our borders and robbed and brutally murdered our defenseless people.

Resolved, That we extend our most profound sympathies to the wives and families of the officers and men of the Seventh United States Cavatry, who bravely fought and hero- ically died in defense of our frontiers.

Resolved, That the governor of the territory be requested to tender to the secretary of war a regiment of mounted troops to aid in the vigorous prosecution of the present Indian war for such term of service as shall be required by the Government.

A number of excellent speeches were made by prominent citizens of the capital, some of whom expressed a willingness to enlist forthwith as private soldiers for the purpose of protecting the frontiers against what at the time threatened to become a war near home to the settlers of Dakota. After which the meeting adjourned.

Following the action of the meeting, the acting governor of the territory ( the governor being absent ) sent to the secretary of war the following, by telegraph :

Executive Office, Yankton, D. T., July 7. 18;6.

Hon. J. D. Cameron, Secretary of War. Washington, D. C.

By the authority of the people of Dakota, and at their request. I hereby tender to the Government a regiment of troops to aid in the vigorous prosecution of any measures adopted by the Government to subdue the hostile Sioux of this territory and the Northwest GEORGE 11. 11AND. Secretary and Acting Governor.

Replying to the tender of a regiment of volunteer cavalry from the Territory of Dakota, General Sheridan replied as follows in telegram to General Sherman. then in command of the army :

To Gen. W. T. Sherman, Washington.

Your dispatch received. I think it premature to think of asking for volunteer cavalry with the attendant expenses. If the six companies of the Thirty-second Infantry are given Terry he will have about two thousand men. Crook, in a few days, witt have 1.500 men and I send him Merritt's cight companies of the Fifth Cavalry. 400 strong, which w 11 make him over two thousand strong. We are all right ; give us a little time. I derph deplore the loss of Custer, his officers and men. I fear it was an unnecessary serilice due to misapprehension and an abundance of courage. The latter was extraordinarih developed in Custer. * *

* There is nothing to be regretted but poor Custer's deathen l the officers and men with him. The column was sufficiently strong to have handle | the Indians if Custer had waited for a junction with Reno.

Hon. Simon Cameron, the then secretary of war, made a special roger: in the President concerning the Little Big Horn massacre, on the 13th ci bis following, in which he states:

The accidental discovery of gold on the western border of the Big S and the intrusion of our people thereon, have not caused this war, and Tol. 1-60

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cated it by the uncertainty of numbers to be encountered. The young Indian warriors love war, and very frequently escape their agents to go on the hunt or the warpath, their only idea of the object of life. The object of these military expeditions was in the interest of the peaceful sort of the Sioux Nation, supposed to embrace at least nine-tenths of the whole, and not one of these peaceful treaty Indians has been molested by the military authorities. The recent reports touching the disaster which befell the Seventh Regular Cav- alry, led hy General Custer in person, are believed to be true. For some reason, as yet unex- plained, General Custer, who commanded the Seventh Cavalry, and had been detached by his commander, General Terry, at the mouth of the Rosebud, to make a wide detour up the Rosebud (a tributary to the Yellowstone), across the Little Horn and down it to the mouth of the Big Horn, the place agreed upon for meeting, attacked en route a large Indian village with only a part of his force, having himself detached the rest with a view to intercept the expected retreat of the savages, and experienced an utter annihilation of his immediate command. The forces of General Terry and Gihbon reached the field of battle the next day, and rescued fifty-two wounded men, buried 261 dead men, including all the officers, soldiers and civilians who were with Custer's detachment. (The wounded were taken on litters to the mouth of the Little Big Horn, where the steamboat Far West lay awaiting the arrival of General Terry, with Capt. Grant Marsh in command, and were taken down the Big Horn and Yellowstone to Fort Abraham Lincoln.) * * In the * meantime General Crook had also advanced from Fort Fetterman, and on the 18th of June, eight days before the Custer attack, had encountered this same force of warriors at the head of the Rosebud, with whom he fought several hours, driving the Indians from the field, losing nine men killed, one officer, and twenty wounded.

(Signed) CAMERON.

Sitting Bull, on his retreat to the British possessions. was intercepted by General Miles at Clear Creek, a tributary of the Missouri, October 2Ist. He eluded General Miles, who followed him sixty miles, but was unable to stop him. The Indians divided, partly going toward the Missouri River agencies, but the chief and his followers struck toward Fort Peck, and made the crossing of the Missouri on the 24th of October; Miles was then obliged to give up the chase for the season. Sitting Bull could reach the British line and find a secure refuge on British soil before Miles could cross and overtake him. Miles, how- ever, kept up a vigorous campaign during the winter succeeding, captured many hostile camps and drove the Sioux out of the Northern Pacific country, nearly all who had gone with Sitting Bull making their way back to the Missouri River agencies.

EDMUNDS COMMISSION APPOINTED

Following the Custer tragedy (June 26, 1876) there came a great wave of excitement, and a sentiment that the Indians should be exterminated seemed to be rapidly forming in the public mind. A race that could commit and counte- nance such a wanton slaughter, it was said, were no longer entitled to any consid- eration except such as would terminate their career by extinguishing the race. Whatever the defense the Indian might have had could get no hearing amid the general clamor for speedy vengeance. The Indians, in place of gaining a great victory by this atrocious butchery, apparently had accomplished their own defeat-a defeat that left them not only powerless, but without a foot of soil in the United States that they could safely flee to. They were themselves awe- struck and trembling with fear as they began to realize their helpless and dan- gerous situation, and such of them as could do so without running the risk of detection, fled back to their reservations and agencies, and denied that they had participated in the atrocity or were connected with it in any way; and it would have been a difficult matter to prove the contrary, while Sitting Bull, fully aware that his part in the slaughter was well known to the authorities, fled with precipi- tate haste, with such of his followers as shared his mortal fear, to the British possessions, where they could find an asylum and enjoy the immunity afforded by exiling themselves on a foreign soil.

With the public mind in this inflamed condition, the Government was induced to take action to quiet the general indignation. and at the same time to apprise the Indians that they were no longer to be fostered and supported except by an

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absolute surrender to the control of the Government, and by agreeing to relinquish all claim to ownership of the soil except such a reservation as the Government might set apart for their future homes. The Custer tragedy was the signal for a summary and radical departure from the lenient policy formerly pursued Congress was in session at the time, and initiated new methods by providing in the Indian appropriation bill, which passed and was approved August 15, 1870, less than a month after the Little Big Horn atrocity, as follows :

"None of the moneys appropriated for said Indians shall be paid to any band thereof while said band is engaged in hostilities against the white people; and hereafter there shall be no appropriations made for the subsistence of said Indians unless they shall first agree to relinquish all right and claim to any country outside the boundaries of the permanent reservation established by the treaty of 1868 for said Indians, and also so much of the said permanent reserva- tion as lies west of the to3d meridian of longitude ; and shall also grant right of way over said reservation to the country thus ceded for wagon or other roads from convenient and accessible points on the Missouri River, in all not more than three in number; and unless they will receive all supplies herein provided for by said treaty of 1868, at such points and places on their reservation, and in the vicinity of the Missouri River as the President may designate ; and provided also that no further appropriation for said Sioux Indians shall be made until some stipulation, agreement or arrangement shall have been entered into by said Indians with the President of the United States, which is calculated and designed to enable said Indians to become self-supporting."

With this law to govern its action, the President appointed a commission of eight eminent men, seven civilians and one soldier of great experience in treating and fighting the red men, General Sibley, to negotiate a new agreement with the Sioux Nation that would clear the way for the opening of the Black Hills and leave no just ground for complaint on the part of the Indians. The commissioners so appointed were: Hon. George W. Manypenny, Columbus, Ohio; H. C. Bullis, Esq .. Decorah, lowa; Hon. Newton Edmunds, Yankton. Dakota Territory; Rt. Rev. H. B. Whipple, Faribault, Minn. ; A. G. Boone, Esq., Denver, Colo. ; Hon. A. S. Gaylord, assistant attorney general, Washington ; Gen. H. H. Sibley, St. Paul, Minn. : J. W. Daniels, Esq. St. Peter, Minn. The members of this commission first met at Omaha on the 28th of August. 1570, eleven days after the law became operative, and proceeded to Red Cloud Agency, also known as the Pine Ridge, where on the 7th day of September they met Chief Red Cloud and the head men of the Ogalalla tribe of the Sioux and the northern tribe of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, representing 4901 indians

The commissioners here submitted to the Ogladas and others the provisions of the Act of Congress, and certain articles of agreement, as follows.

THE BLACK HILLS TRE VIY

Article 1. The said parties hereby agree that the northern and western I unlaries of the reservation defined by article 2 of the treaty between the U'mted State anl c ram tribes of the Sioux Indians, concluded AApril 20, INS, and proclaimel Fort ry st 12) shall be as follows: The western boundaries shall commence at the 101l mer rin al longitude with the northern boundary of the State of Nebraska, thence n rtv alme mal meridian to its intersection with the south fork of the Cheyeine River ; thenier down stream to its junction with the north fork ; thence up th north fork Ert Cicy ine River to the said 103d meridian ; thence north along said mert an to the wuth bran Cannon Ball River, or Cedar Creek; and the northern boun dary of their al reverso shall follow the said south branch to its intersection with the mert'in 11-11 R

thence down the said Cannon Ball River to the Missil River, and th hereby relinquish and cede to the United States all the territory Ivinen , reservation, as herein modified and described, inchiheg all privileges of mine at article 16 of said treaty is hereby abrogated.

Art. 2. The said Indians also agree and consent that waren and other ing three in number, may be constructed and muntitel, ir mi Any rit points on the Missouri River, through said re ery thon to the vitre Te

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west thereof, upon such routes as shall be designated by the President of the United States; and they also consent and agree to the free navigation of the Missouri River.

Art. 3. The said Indians also agree that they will hereafter receive all annuities provided for by the said treaty of 1868, and all subsistence and supplies which may be provided for them under the present or any future act of Congress, at such points and places on the reservation, and in the vicinity of the Missouri River, as the President of the United States shall designate.

Art. 4. The Government of the United States and the said Indians, being mutually desirous that the latter shall be located in a country where they may eventually become self- supporting and acquire the arts of civilized life, it is therefore agreed that the said Indians shall select a delegation of five or more chiefs and principal men from each band, who shall without delay, visit the Indian Territory under the guidance and protection of suitable persons to be appointed for that purpose by the Department of the Interior, with the view of selecting therein a permanent home for the said Indians. If such delegation shall make a selection which shall be satisfactory to themselves, the people whom they represent, and to the United States, then the said Indians agree that they will remove to the country so selected within one year from this date. And the said Indians do agree in all things to submit themselves to such beneficent plans as the Government may provide for them in the selection of a country suitable for a permanent home, where they may live like white inen.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 163

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