History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 50

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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This engagement was the last desperate effort of the combined Dakota bands to prevent a farther advance upon our part toward their families. It would be difficult to estimate the number of warriors, but no cool and dispassionate observer would probably have placed it at a less figure than from two thousand two hundred to two thousand five hundred. No such concentration of force has, so far as my information extends, ever been made by the savages of the American continent. It is rendered certain, from information received from various sources, including that obtained from the savages themselves, in conversation with our half-breed scouts, that the remnant of the bands who escaped with Little Crow had successively joined the Sissetons, the Cutheads, and finally the Chank-ton-ais, the most powerful single band of the Dakotas, and together with all these, had formed an enormous camp of nearly, or quite ten thousand souls.

To assert that the courage and discipline displayed by officers and men in the successive engagements with this formidable and hitherto untried enemy were signally displayed, would but ill express the admiration I feel for their perfect steadiness, and the alacrity with which they courted an encounter with the savages. No one for a moment seemed to doubt the result, however great the preponderance against us in numerical force. These wild warriors of the plains had never been met in battle by American troops, and they have ever boasted that no hostile army, however numerous, would dare to set foot upon the soil of which they claimed to be the undisputed masters. Now that they have been thus met, and their utmost force defied, resisted, and utterly broken and routed, the lesson will be a valuable one, not only in its effect upon these particular bands, but upon all the tribes of the Northwest.

When we went into camp on the banks of Apple River, a few mounted Indians could alone be seen. Early the next morning I dispatched Colonel McPhaill, with the companies of the Mounted Rangers and the two six-pounders, to harass and retard the retreat of the Indians across the Missouri River. and followed with the main column as rapidly as possible. We reached the woods on the border of that stream shortly after noon on the 20th. but the Indians had crossed their families during the preceding night. and it took but a short time for the men to follow them on their ponies. The hills on the opposite side were covered with the men, and they had probably formed the determination to oppose our passage of the river, both sides of which were here covered by a dense growth of underbrush and timber for a space of more than a mile. 1 dispatched Colonel Crooks with his regiment, which was in the advance, to clear the woods to the river of Indians, which he successfully accomplished without loss, although fired upon fiercely from the opposite side. lle reported to me that a large quantity of transportation, including carts, wagons and other vehicles, had been leit behind in the woods. I transmitted, through Mr. Beaver, a volunteer aide on my staff, an order to Colonel Crooks to return to the main column with his regiment, the object I had in view in detaching him being fully attained. The order was received, and Mr. Beaver entrusted with a message in return. containing information desired by me. when. on his way to headquarters, he unfortunately took the wrong trait, and was the next day found where he had been set upon and killed by an outlying party of the enemy. His death occasioned much regret to the command, for he was esteemed by all for his devotion to duty and for his modest and gentlemanly deportment. A private of the Sixth regiment. who had taken the same trail, was also shot to death with arrows, probably by the same party. There being no water to be found on the prairie, I proceeded down the Missouri to the nearest point on Apple River, opposite Burnt Boat Island, and made my camp. The

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following day Colonel Crooks, with a strong detachment of eleven companies of infantry, clismounted cavalry and three guns under the command of Captain Jones, was dispatched to destroy the property left in the woods, which was thoroughly performed, with the aid of Lieutenant Jones and a portion of the pioneer corps. From one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty wagons and carts were thus disposed of. During this time the savages lay concealed in the grass on the opposite side of the river, exchanging occasional volleys with our men, Some execution was done upon them by the long range arms of the infantry and cavalry, without injury to any one of my command.

I waited two days in camp hoping to open communication with General Sully, who, with liis comparatively fresh mounted force, could easily have followed up and destroyed the enemy we had so persistently hunted, The long and rapid marches had very much debilitated the infantry, and as for the horses of the cavalry and the mules employed in transportation, they were utterly exhausted. Under all the circumstances ] felt that this column had done everything possible within the limits of human and animal endurance, and that a farther pursuit would not only be useless, as the Indians could cross and recross the river in much less time than my command, and thus evade me, but would necessarily be attended with the loss of many valuable lives. For three successive evenings I caused the cannon to be fired and signal rockets sent up, but all these elicited no reply from General Sully, and I am apprehensive he has been detained by insurmountable obstacles. The point struck by me on the Missouri is about forty miles by land below Fort Clarke, in latitude 46 degrees, 42 minutes, longitude 100 degrees, 35 minutes.

The military results of the expedition have been entirely satisfactory, A march of nearly six hundred miles from St. Paul has been made, in a season of fierce heats and un- precedented drouth, when even the most experienced voyagers predicted the impossibility of such a movement. A vigilant and powerful, as well as confident, enemy was found, successively routed in three different engagements, with a loss of at least one hundred and fifty killed and wounded of the best and bravest warriors, and his beaten forces driven in confusion and dismay, losing vast quantities of subsistence, clothing, and means of trans- portation across the Missouri River, many, perhaps the most of them, to perish miserably in their utter destitution during the coming fall and winter.

These fierce warriors of the prairie have been taught by dear bought experience that the long arm of the Government can reach them in their most distant haunts, and punish them for their misdeeds; that they are utterly powerless to resist the attacks of a disciplined force, and that but for the interposition of a mighty stream between us and them, the utter destruction of a great camp, containing all their strength, was certain.

It would have been gratifying to us all if the murdering remnant of the Minday, Wakomton and Wakpaton bands could have been extirpated, root and branch, but as it is the bodies of many of the most guilty have been left unburied on the prairies, to be dlevoured by wolves and foxes.

I am gratified to be able to state that the loss sustained by my column in actual combat was very small. Three men of the cavalry were killed and four wounded, one, I fear, fatally. One private of the same regiment was killed by lightning during the first engage- ment, and Lieut. Ambrose Freeman, of Company D. also of the Mounted Rangers, a valuable officer, was pierced to death by arrows on the same day by a party of hostile Indians, while, without my knowledge, he was engaged in hunting at a distance from the main column. The bodies of the dead were interred with funeral honors, and the graves secured from desecration by making them in the semblance of ordinary rifle pits.

It would give me pleasure to designate by name all those of the splendid regiments and corps of my command who have signalized themselves by their gallant conduct, but as that would really embrace officers and men, I must content myself with bringing to the notice of the major general commanding such as came immediately under my own observa- tion, 1 cannot speak too highly of Colonels Crooks and Baker and Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, commanding respectively the Sixth, Tenth and Seventh regiments of Minnesota Volunteers, and Lieutenant Colonels Averill and Jennison and Majors McLaren and Bradley, and of the line officers and men of these regiments. They have deserved well of their country and their state. They were ever on hand to assist me in my labors, and active, zealous, and brave in the performance of duty. Of Colonel McPhaill, commanding the Mounted Rangers, and of Majors John H. Parker and Orrin T. Hayes, and the company officers and men generally, I have the honor to state that, as the cavalry was necessarily more exposed and nearer the enemy than the other portions of the command, so they alike distinguished themselves by unwavering courage and splendid fighting qualities. The great destruction dealt out to the Indians is mostly attributable to this branch of the service, although many were killed and disabled by the artillery and infantry. Captain Jones and liis officers and men of the battery were ever at their posts, and their pieces were served with much skill and effect. To Capt. Jonathan Chase, of the Pioneers, and his invaluable com- pany, the expedition has been greatly indebted for service in the peculiar line for which they are detailed. Capt, William R. Baxter's Company H of the Ninth Regiment, having been attached to the Tenth Regiment as a part of its organization temporarily, upheld its high reputation for efficiency, being the equal in that regard of any other company. The surgical department of the expedition was placed by me in the charge of Surgeon Alfred Wharton, medical director, who has devoted himself zealously and efficiently. In his official

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report to these headquarters he accords due credit to the surgeons and assistants of the several regiments present with him.

Of the members of my own staff, I can affirm that they have been equal to the discharge of the arduous duties imposed upon them.

Capt. Rollin C. Olin, my assistant adjutant general, has afforded me great assistance, and for their equal gallantry and zeal may be mentioned Captains Pope and Atchison. Lieutenants Pratt and llawthorne, and Captain Cox, temporarily attached to my staff, his company having been left at Camp Atchison. The quartermaster, Captain Corning, and Captain Kimball, assistant in charge of the pioneer train, discharged their duties satis- factorily, as did also Captain Forbes, commissary of subsistence. Chief guides, Maj. J. R. Brown and Pierre Bottineau, have been of the greatest service, and the interpreter, Reverend Mr. Riggs, has also renderd much assistance in the management of the Indian scouts. The scouts, including the chiefs, McLeod and Duley, have been very useful, and proved faithful and intrepid. I have the honor to transmit herewith the reports of Colonels Crooks, Baker, and Lieutenant Colonel Marshall, and also of Colonel McPhaill, commanding Mounted Rangers.

I am, major, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

II. H. SIBLEY, Brigadier General Commanding. MAJ. J. F. MELINE, Assistant Adjutant General, Department of the Northwest.

In a subsequent report, General Sibley says that "the combination of Indians defeated by my column in the late engagements may be thus classified : Minnesota River bands, rem- nants, 250 warriors; Sisseton Sioux, 450 warriors; E. Yanktonais, 1,200 warriors; other straggling bands, including Teton Sioux, from the west side of the Missouri River, probably four hundred warriors, making an aggregate force of from two thousand three hundred to two thousand five hundred warriors. These constitute the full strength of the Dakota or Sioux Indians inhabiting the prairies on the east side of the Missouri River, with few and insignificant exceptions."

In another dispatch referring to the country, or a portion of it in Dakota on his line of march in pursuit of the enemy, he observes: "The region traversed by my column between the first crossing of the Cheyenne River and the coteau of the Missouri is, for the most part, uninhabitable. If the devil were permitted to select a residence upon the earth, he would probably choose this particular district for an abode, with the redskin murdering and plundering bands as his ready ministers, to verify by the ruthless deeds his diabolical hate to all who belong to a Christian race. Through this vast desert, lakes, fair to the eye abound, but generally their waters are strongly alkaline or intensely bitter and brackish. The valleys between them frequently reek with sulphurous and other disagreeable odors or vapors. The heat was so intolerable that the earth was like a heated furnace, and the breezes that swept along its surface were as scorching and suffocating as the famed Sirocco. Yet through all these difficulties men and animals toiled on until the objects of the expedition were accomplished."

Concerning the fate of the notorious chief, Little Crow, who is charged with instigating the Indian insurrection from which the several years of hostility on the frontiers ensued, General Sibley, in a dispatch from Camp llackett, Fort Abercrombie, August 23d, while on the return from his Missouri expedition, tells of sending a detachment of the Seventh Minnesota under Captain Erb to that section, and says: "That efficient officer took up the line of march on the 24th of July, and during eight days absence from camp he examined thoroughly the region to the west of Devil's Lake, without discovering any Indians or fresh traces of them, excepting one young man, a son of Little Crow, who was found in a state of exhaustion on the prairie, and was taken prisoner without resistance and brought into Camp Atchison. Ile states positively that his father, Little Crow, was killed at some point in the Big Woods on the Minnesota frontier by shots from white men, while his father and himself were engaged in picking berries; that his father had taken with him his son and sixteen other men and one woman, and gone from the camp then at Devil's Lake, several weeks previously, to the settlements in Minnesota to steal horses, Little Crow stating to his son that the Indians were too weak to fight against the whites, and that it was his intention to secure horses, and then to return and take his family to a distant part of the country, where they would not he in danger from the whites. He has repeated the statement to me without any material variation, and as his account corroborates the reports of the mode in which two Indians, who were engaged in picking berries, were approached by a Mr. Lampson and his son, and one of them killed, and the body accurately described, there is no longer any doubt that the originator of the horrible massacre of 1862 has met his death."

In another dispatch, referring to the condition of the frontier, Sibley says: "Should General Sully take up the pursuit of the Indians at the point on the Missouri River where 1 was obliged to abandon it. as I trust he will, and inflict further chastisement upon them. it might be consistent with the security of the Minnesota frontier to diminish the force in this military district ; otherwise I have the honor to submit that there may be and probably will be a further necessity for the use of the whole of it in further operations against these powerful bands should they attempt, in large numbers, to molest the settlements in retaliation for the losses they have sustained during the late engagements."

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While the Indian war of 1862 led to no actual battles or open hostilities on the part of the Chippewas of Red River, the uneasiness of members of that tribe, and the hostility of half-breed subjects of the British Canadian government north of the boundary line, rendered it necessary to station a force of United States troops at Pembina, and an independent battalion of Minnesota volunteers under Maj. E. A. C. Hatch was kept at that point during the winter of 1862-63. This battalion remained at l'embina until May 1, 1863. It was ascertained during the winter that these British half-breeds were furnishing guns and ammunition to the hostile Sioux and were intriguing to induce the Chippewas to join hands with Little Crow's forces. In the language of General Sibley, in one of his reports to General Pope about this time, "If it can possibly be effected by the influence of the Red River half-breeds we may anticipate that the Chippewas will soon be added to the number of our enemies." During the winter while Major Hatch was at Pembina, about ninety Sioux Indians from British America who had found an asylum on that side of the boundary line, men, women and children, came across to Pembina and surrendered.

Just before Sibley's command started on this campaign, a young Englishman joined the expedition, whose name was Fred I. Holt Beever. He brought to Sibley letters from John Jacob Astor, Hamilton Fish and other prominent citizens of New York. These letters contained personal requests that Beever be allowed to join the command. The general, though reluctantly, acceded to these requests and attached Mr. Beever to his personal staff as an aide-de-camp. Beever acquitted himself creditably on the march to the Missouri. On the day of the fight near the present site of the Town of Bismarck, or in the Apple Creek Val- ley, Colonel Crooks was placed in the advance and marched with his soldiers into the woods along the river. Wishing to recall him Sibley sent an order to him. This order, at Beever's own request, he was allowed to carry. Before starting he was warned to keep within the skirmish line, to follow the main trail, and keep a lookout for Indians. Beever reached Colonel Crooks in safety, deliv- ered his orders, and started back alone. But he lost the main trail, got outside of the skirmish line, and in passing a fallen tree was attacked by several Indians concealed behind it. To avoid attracting attention he was first shot with an arrow and mortally wounded. But cool and brave to the last, he turned on his horse, shot two of the Indians, and then horse and rider fell dead, finally killed by a gun- shot. His body was not mutilated, but his pistols, field glass, saber and saddle, and all his clothing but his drawers and shirt were taken. The next day search- ing parties sent out by General Sibley found his body and he was buried on the camp grounds with Masonic honors. Later Sibley had his remains removed to St. Paul and interred in Oakland Cemetery.

The strange part of Beever's career remains to be told. He was an ordained clergyman of the Church of England. He came from a prominent family, but some disappointment in life sent him to the wilds of America to hunt. He spent two years with the Astors and others in New York and then learning of the intended expedition of General Sibley against the hostile Indians secured a place in it as has been related. The year he was killed was to have been his last in America, for he expected to return to England at the close of Sibley's campaign. General Sibley and Reverend Mr. Patterson, of the Episcopal Church, opened correspondence with his friends and relatives and informed them of his death. His mother was at Aix la Chapelle, France, and she wrote back sending a sum of money for placing over his grave a tablet, which General Sibley has since taken charge of. Another interesting fact came to light that after Beever's tragic cleath, an uncle had died and left him and his brother about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This is all that is known of the man. His grave is appro- priately decorated each year by soldier friends of Sibley, as a mark of respect to an Englishman who died in a heroic defense of the Northwest.

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The following graphic account and description of the killing of att Indian at Fort Thompson was received in a letter to the compiler of this book, dated July 21, 1803. The writer, who was a soldier, says :

I witnessed a singular spectacle last week. Some time ago a Santee Indian fatally wounded a squaw in a fracas, and was consigned to the custody of Captain Miner of Company A, Dakota Cavalry. When Sully's expedition arrived here, the accused Indian was, by order of the commanding general, turned over to the Indians to be punished accord- ing to their custom. The Indians held a council and sentenced the man to be shot. Captain Miner delivered the accused and now condemned man to the executioner in a secluded spot near the agency, when suddenly the condemned Indian drew a knife he had concealed and instantly fell upon the executioner, plunging the knife into his breast and inflicting what was supposed to be a mortal wound. All the Indians standing by, and there were a number, took alarm at this; they fled with all speed to a remote distance and could not be induced to return. As there was now no one to execute the sentence, it was decided that a fifteen- year-old son of the stabbed Indian should kill the offender with a minie rifle. But the boy's nerve failed him when the condemned man came toward him with bared breast and a defiant look, so as to offer a more certain mark for the bullet. A half-breed standing near and observing that the boy had weakened, seized his gun, and without taking aim, blazed away, the ball entering the Indian's abdomen, causing a large wound from which his intestines protruded. The stricken man reeled and fell writhing and groaning in his agony. Captain Miner then ordered the half-breed to take his ( Miner's) pistol and dispatch him, but his aim was poor and he inflicted a wound in his shoulders. The poor fellow then began to chant his death song, when someone sent a ball that crashed through his head and ended the revolting and cruel scene. The poor fellow boasted that he was a brave and would die bravely, and he did exhibit the most determined fortitude to the last. It was a painful tragedy, and lingers unpleasantly in memory despite carnest resolves to forget it.

A treaty unique in the annals of statecraft as practiced by the Indian tribes was a written, subscribed and witnessed agreement of amity between the Yank- ton tribe of Indians and the Pawnee nation, made in 1863. It was the first treaty between Indians that was reduced to written terms that we have record of, and was in words and terms as follows :

A treaty for the establishment of peace and restoration of friendship, made and con- cluded in grand council at the peace village on the Ponca Reservation in the Territory of Dakota, on the 23d day of January, A. D. 1863, by and between the Pawnee Nation and Yankton Sioux Tribe of Indians represented by their chiefs, warriors, and head men, they being duly authorized by their said nation and tribe, namely :

Witnesseth: That whereas hostilities have existed between the said nation and tribe for more than a year past, to the great injury and loss of life and property to each; and that now we have been called together in grand council at the village of our mutual friends, the Poncas, by their white father, J. M. Moffman. United States Indian agent, to whose friendly words of rebuke, warning and advice we have listened, we the chief warriors and head men, representing for and on behalf of the Pawnee Nation and Yankton Sioux Tribe of Indians, do hereby agree and ordain as follows :

First. That the hostilities which have existed between the said Pawnee Nation and Yankton Sioux Tribe of Indians, shall from this day henceforth and forever cease; that all the injuries inflicted and all animosities which have been held by either toward the other shall be, and are, forgiven and forgotten, and the peace between the said nations and tribes. and relations of friendship between the members of each toward the other shall be and are hereby established.

Second. That the representative parties hereto do, on behalf of their nation and tribe, pledge themselves each to the other, and jointly to the great father, the President, and to the Government of the United States, faithfully to observe and obey the conditions of this instrument.

In testimony whereof, we, the said chiefs and warriors and head men of the Pawnee Nation and Yankton Sioux Tribe of Indians, duly authorized and empowered as aforesaid, hereunto set our hands and seals, at the place and on the day and year hereinbefore written. Done in triplicate.

Pawnees La-shah-lu-get-lus, or Crooked Iland, His X mark. Yalı-koo-we-te-roo. or One Strikes First, Ilis X mark. Yn-tu-re-kah, or Holds The Enemy First, His X mark. Yu-la-goo-chah, or Leads In War, Ilis X mark. Yah-ka-re-kah, or The Sentinel, llis X mark. Lu-tu-kaw-we, or White Feather. His X mark.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 50

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