History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 14

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

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To a fuller understanding of the situation it should be related that when Joshua Pilcher started to go up the river it was with the intention of going to the headwaters with goods for trade, but when he arrived at Fort Recovery he learned that his men on the upper river had met with awful disaster and the leaders, Messrs. Jones and

Immel, and five others had been massacred by the Blackfeet and all of their property destroyed. Pilcher had thereupon decided to take his goods no further than. Fort Recovery and to confine the future operations of the Missouri Fur Company to the Sioux Indians and those further down the stream. It will thus be seen that Mr. Pilcher's interest was confined to the lower river and that he had little personal interest remaining in sub- duing the Rees and keeping the river open to traffic of white men. With the intense rivalry ex- isting between the opposing traders at that period it may be suggested that he might have had some interest in making the road to the upper river as difficult as possible to his competitors, the Rocky Mountain, the American and the Columbia Fur Companies. These observations are made at this time as a possible explanation of some of the complications which followed.

Until the 8th of August, when they were near- ing the scene of the impending military opera- tions, Colonel Leavenworth found Mr. Pilcher exceedingly obliging, helpful and influential with the Sioux Indian volunteers, who appeared to have great respect for him and who were wholly committed to his command. Mr. Pilcher, up to this time, had neglected no opportunity to be serviceable, but had done everything in his power to ensure it success.

During the march by land of the 9th, Leaven- worth was disturbed with all sorts of misleading and contradictory reports in relation to the enemy, his strength, defenses and purposes. The greatest apprehension was lest the Rees should escape from the villages before the military should arrive to hold them in. Pilcher was, therefore, ordered to advance rapidly with his large force of Indians and surround the villages and so pre- vent the escape of the enemy until the soldiers and military should come up. The Indians made a rapid advance forward and Leavenworth, sup- posing that Pilcher was leading them, pushed to the front, then found that Pilcher was more than a mile in the rear, where he had halted the Indians, having wholly failed to carry out his orders. The military having come up, Leaven- worth ordered Pilcher to keep his Indians on the

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right and left flanks of the troops, but the ad- vance was no sooner begun than Pilcher set out and was with the Indians far out of sight in ad- vance. Presently Pilcher returned and, with much ceremony, turned over to Leavenworth an Indian whom he said was a Ree that he had captured. Leavenworth disarmed the follow and placed him under guard and then learned that the prisoner was one of Pilcher's own Sioux. When Leavenworth, moving double quick, got up on the flat, two or three miles below Arickara, he heard and saw an engagement in progress before the towns and many Sioux returning with captured horses, and Pilcher again appeared and reported that the Rees had come out and given battle to the Sioux a short distance below the town and had put up a hard fight and driven the Sioux back. A battle line was at once formed, with Ashley and his volunteers of the Missouri legion on the right, his right resting on the river; next five companies of the regulars commanded by Major Ketchem, Captain Armstrong's company being on the right and Captain Riley's on the left. Thus formed they advanced with all speed, but the Sioux and Rees were so mixed up in front they did not dare fire until their allies were called to the rear, when the Rees broke and re- tired to their towns, which were picketed. The Sioux claimed to have killed ten of the Rees, but Leavenworth only saw three or four bodies which the Sioux had horribly mutilated. The artillery being on the boats and not yet arrived, Riley's company was sent to engage the enemy and keep him inside the pickets. Wooley performed his part splendidly and was up with the boats almost as soon as the regulars arrived and before sun- down the guns were unloaded and placed in the hands of Vanderburgh, Wooley and Morris. The troops then went into camp until the next morn- ing, when Captain Riley and Lieutenant Bradly, accompanied by Captain Vanderburgh with a six- pounder, were sent to invest the upper village, while Ashley and the remainder of the , regulars formed around the lower town, being supported by Morris with the howitzer and other six-pounder. Vanderburgh took his first position on the bluff back of the town, but was so high he

could not depress his fire sufficiently to strike the town and so moved down the hill. The position of the troops is better indicated upon the accom- panying map, which was drawn by Mr. Har- graves Kippax, from a sketch made by the writer. When everything was in readiness the command to fire was given and the very first shot from Lieutenant Morris's artillery killed the mis- chievous Grey Eyes, who was considered largely responsible for the outbreak in June. The mo- ment the villages were invested, so the Rees could not come out, the Sioux entered the corn- fields, which covered the adjacent bottoms and which were then in roasting ear, and busied themselves in carrying away the corn, all un- mindful of military duty. It soon became evident that the artillery could not dislodge the Rees, and that they would not voluntarily come out and it was determined to make an assault upon the upper town, when Colonel Leavenworth was informed by Pilcher that he could expect no assistance from the Sioux, and from many cir- cumstances the Colonel was led to believe that the Sioux were not friendly and were as likely to join with the Rees against the soldiers as otherwise. The assault was not therefore under- taken and, hearing that the Rees were making preparations to leave the towns in skin canoes, Colonel Leavenworth went on a reconnoissance to discover the facts. While he was gone a few Ree warriors came out of the village into the brush and ravine of Cottonwood creek and had opened a fire upon the men exposed upon the hill. Ketchem came up from the west side of the creek and speedily drove the enemy back of his stockade. Leavenworth then went up on the hill and found Pilcher and his boatmen oc- cupying a safe position lying in a hollow on the opposite side. A desultory fire was kept up until about four in the afternoon when, no results being obtained, the troops, many of whom, especially General Ashley's men, had been with- out rations since the previous day, were with- drawn to the camp below town and rations pro- cured for them, chiefly roasting ears. Leaven- worth went to the cabin of his boat, where almost immediately he was waited upon by

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

103

Pilcher with the information that Captain Riley's company had been attacked. This, too, like much of the information coming from Pilcher, proved to be unfounded. Almost at once after this the Colonel found the Sioux and Rees con- ferring together and a few minutes later Little Soldier, chief of the Rees since the killing of Grey Eyes, approached imploring mercy from the soldiers and with a most pitiful story of their

make up the horses they had killed, which they readily agreed to do and they sat down for a peace council. The pipe was passed round until it reached Pilcher, who refused to smoke and also refused to shake hands with the Indians. This had a very bad effect on the Indians, especially as Colin Campbell, Pilcher's in- terpreter, told the Rees that Pilcher was the first chief of the expedition. After persuasion from

VANDEBURG'S

BATTERY

IST POSITION

2ª0 POSITION

SCALE.

WOOLEY

ANIDILEY

CORN FIELDS

KETGHEM\

UPPER VILLAGE

7/ LODGES

LOWER VILLAGE

LEAVENWORTH'S

70 LOOGES

RIGHT

BANK

T. 20 N.

SEC. 25

SEC. 36

R 30 E

R. 31 E.

MAP OF THE REE VILLAGES CAPTURED BY LEAVENWORTH'S EXPEDITION AUGUST, 1823

losses and suffering. Leavenworth sent him back to the village to bring out the head men, telling him that if they were sincerely disposed to peace that he would grant them terms. He soon brought out ten or twelve men who said for him to do as he would to them, but begged the soldiers to fire no more guns at the town. Leavenworth conditioned them to restore to Gen- eral Ashley all the goods they had taken and to

Leavenworth Pilcher did smoke, but in bad grace, declaring that by so doing he did not assent to peace.

Leavenworth required that five of the Rees remain with him as hostages until such time as Ashley's losses were made good and the five men were selected and the Colonel arose to go to his boat. Campbell now informed the Rees that the heart of the "big chief," meaning Pilcher, was

MISSOURI

ACCRETION NOW GROWN.

RIGHT. BANK

NPO BRUSH

------

390

400 yds.

MORRIS

COTTON WOOD

ASHLEY

1823

ENTRENCHED CAMP

RIVER

.. 22 299

CREEK

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

very bad, all of which was apparent from his looks and actions. He kept his thumb on the cock of his rifle and in every way attempted to alarm and intimidate the Indians, until they be- came alarmed and refused to go further. No persuasion would induce them to go to the boats, declaring Campbell had informed them they were to be kidnapped and killed. Then Leavenworth told them to return to their villages and there would be no peace. Campbell caught up his gun and threatened to kill one of the Rees, but was prevented by Leavenworth. Near by Pilcher told Dr. Gale that the Rees were likely to seize Colonel Leavenworth and carry him away to the village, whereupon the Doctor fired his pistol at the retreating Indians. Pilcher ordered Campbell to fire, which he did, and William Vanderburgh also opened fire; the Indians re- turned to their village and the soldiers to camp.

The next morning it was found that Pilcher's Sioux braves had all disappeared, with six mules belonging to the quartermaster and six or seven of Ashley's horses. In the opinion of the soldiers there was no longer doubt of an understanding between the Rees and the Sioux and a joint at- tack was looked for and to provide against it the camp was entrenched. The next morning the Little Soldier again appeared and upon sight of him Campbell, who over night had boasted that he had broken up the treaty of the previous day, ran toward him with drawn rifle. Leavenworth called him back and ordered a sentinel to fire upon him if he refused. Seeing the de- termination of the Colonel, he reluctantly came back and was put under guard and retained in that position for several days. Leavenworth then went to the Little Soldier and, after a good many explanations relating to the trouble of the previous evening, arrived at an understanding with him. He said his people were very much alarmed and it would be very difficult to get them to come out again after the event of the night before. He wanted some of the soldiers to go into the village and Edward Rose, the same who had been the Astorians' guide twelve years be- fore, agreed to go in. Upon his return he fully confirmed all the Rees had said about the de-

struction wrought by the artillery and his story was confirmed by Dr. Gale and Lieutenant Mor- ris, who went in a little later. Wishing to ascer- tain who were really the recognized chiefs and head men with whom it would be safe to treat, Major Wooley was sent to ascertain the fact. He made a thorough examination of the village and inhabitants and reported that they were un- questionably thoroughly flogged and humbled, and that a certain list of men were the chiefs having power to treat and he had arranged for them to come out and sign the treaty. Colonel Leavenworth invited sub-agent Pilcher to draft this treaty, but he would have nothing to do with it. Leavenworth then drew the treaty him- self and it was duly signed by the chiefs. The treaty was lost in transmission to Washington and its exact terms cannot be stated, but it pro- vided that they should restore to General Ashley, as far as possible, the property taken and in future to treat the Americans as friends. Copies of the treaty were at once sent to Pilcher and Henry, sub-agents, and Pilcher took occasion to write Leavenworth that two of the principal chiefs had not signed the treaty. Leavenworth, however, takes pains to dispute this contention, declaring that he had ascertained that every chief of any standing were signers. After the signing of the treaty unrestrained and friendly inter- course between the Indians and the soldiers was opened, but Pilcher and his men took the ground that, not having joined in the treaty, they were not bound by it, and in every way acted in a manner to alarm the Indians and make them suspicious. Rose reported that the women were packing up and he feared that they were going to leave. He said they were again exceedingly alarmed and every unusual noise filled them with terror. Late on the afternoon of the 12th Little Soldier came to the boats and declared that three rifles, sixteen robes and one horse, which they had previously delivered, was all they could do toward re-embursing Ashley, as they were desti- tute. He professed the utmost friendship for the Americans and begged in the case of the re- sumption of hostilities because of their inability to restore the goods to Ashley, to be permitted

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to stay with the Americans and cravenly gave Leavenworth some valuable pointers on how to most effectively attack the town. A council was held as to the course to pursue and, though the voice of the officers and men was for attacking the towns, Colonel Leavenworth, with whom the decision lay, concluded not to do so. Little Soldier was told that he must bring out more goods and was. dismissed. He returned to the town and returned with a few more robes. Rose reported that there was no doubt that they intended to leave before another morning, and in this he was right. On the morning of the 13th the villages were found abandoned and, though messengers were sent to bring them back, they could not be found. Major Ketchem was sent at once with two companies to take pos- session of the towns and protect the houses and Indian property. They found that the artillery had riddled the houses and there were thirty- one new graves, showing how seriously the Rees had suffered. They stayed until ten o'clock on the morning of the 15th when, leaving every- thing in the best possible shape in the villages, Leavenworth and his men set sail down river. Fifteen minutes later they discovered the villages in flames. They had been fired by McDonald, the Missouri Fur Company's trader at Arickara, and William Gordon, another employe of Pil- cher's. In speaking of this act of vandalism, Colonel Leavenworth says :

If the nation has been deprived of the advan- tages which might have resulted from the magnanim- ity of her troops toward a fallen and humbled enemy, it is chargeable to that company, or to those individ- uals who set the town on fire. Had not this been done there is no room to doubt but that the Ricara Indians would in the future have been as well be- haved as any other Indians on the river. It is now my deliberate opinion that those Indians will be ex- cited to further hostilities if it is in the power of the Missouri Fur Company to effect it. It is under- stood that this company have withdrawn their trade from above the Sioux country. Not so with Messrs. Ashley and Henry: they have a small number of men and a large amount of property at the mouth of the Yellowstone river and they were deeply interested in the correction and pacification of the Ricaras. Their zeal and efficiency in aiding in chastising those

Indians was conspicuous and highly honorable and could have been excelled by nothing but the zeal of the Missouri Fur Company to prevent the pacification of them after they were chastised and humbled into the dust.

On the 27th of August the troops returned to Fort Atkinson without further incident. The entire cost of the expedition was two thousand thirty-eight dollars and twenty-four cents. The importance of this event in the early history of South Dakota renders it necessary that some- thing of the lives and characters of the men en- gaged in it shall be here divulged, and that some further light be shed upon the purposes and ac- complishments of the expedition than is revealed by the foregoing brief summary of the facts. There has been more or less criticism of Leaven- worth's conduct. Even so eminent and so fair a writer as Captain Chittenden says the affair was considered a complete fiasco. Joshua Pilcher, of course, was violent in his denunciation of the course of the commandant. Whether or not these criticisms are just must be determined from an impartial review of the circumstances. Mani- festly, if the campaign was a failure it could not be attributed to the inexperience of Colonel Leavenworth. He was a native of Connecticut and at this time was forty years of age. He was a distinguished soldier of the war of 1812 and won his commission as colonel for distinguished bravery at the battle of Chippewa and at the battle of Niagara. He was one of the most re- liable and most trusted officers in the army and was constantly entrusted by his superiors with the arduous and responsible commands of the remote frontier, where he was compelled to act in grave emergencies upon his own initiative and without communication with his superiors, as was the case in the present difficulty. When he learned of the outrage upon General Ashley he did not hesitate for a moment, but within two days had his little army equipped and was mov- ing with all possible celerity a distance of eight hundred miles into a savage wilderness to reach a powerful, entrenched enemy with a force so small that a braver captain might well have hesi- tated to undertake the enterprise. Undismayed

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by disasters of wind and water, which left him almost without rations for his men, he hurried along and reached the seat of the disturbance as early as could possibly have been hoped. Thus far there is no evidence of lack of courage or of energy upon the part of Colonel Leavenworth. Even before he engaged the enemy he discovered that he had associated with him an auxiliary force of Indians, under a white leader in whom he could place no reliance for assistance, and in whom there was much reason to fear treachery. With a known enemy of vastly superior strength in front, with a possible enemy of vastly superior strength in his rear, in the heart of the wilder- ness, without supplies, without possibility of re- cruits, practically without ammunition, it was a situation which counciled the utmost caution and the marvel is that he came out without disaster. But he did more than to come safely away ; he really accomplished' all that he set out to ac- complish ; he destroyed the leader of the insur- rection and brought the insurgents, severely chastised, to humble subjection and it is no fault of Leavenworth's that these Indians were ex- cited to break their treaty obligations by the provocation of white traders who had an object in stirring them to hostility to the injury of business competitors. All of Leavenworth's life, before and after this expedition into South Dakota, refute the imputation that he was lack- ing in decision, courage, activity or enterprise. It is the conclusion of this writer that for the loss to the nation of the legitimate results of his action in the Ree conquests, that he rightly placed the blame upon Joshua Pilcher and his Missouri Fur Company, and that opinion re- ceived the hearty endorsement of his superior officers and was fully concurred in by General Ashley. Pilcher was not slow to bring to the attention of the war department his criticisms upon Leavenworth and with a full knowledge of these charges and of all the circumstances, Major General Edward P. Gaines, commanding the department of the West, refutes Pilcher's im- putations and declares, "I am decidedly of the opinion that the conduct of the Colonel (Leaven- worth), with that of his officers and men, was

such as to merit marked applause," and he par- ticularly recommends Leavenworth for promo- tion for his distinguished services in the Ree campaign. Two years later Gen. Henry Atkin- son, as a member of the Indian commission to treat with the Indians of the Missouri river, visited these Indians and in his report to congress says, after speaking of the erratic and hostile tendencies of the Rees during their intercourse with white men: "It is believed, however, that the offensive operations against them by our troops under Colonel Leavenworth has brought them to a full sense of their misconduct and that they feel chastised and chastened." General Atkinson was an experienced Indian fighter and 10 man knew the characteristics of a "licked" Indian better than did he. Leavenworth con- tinued to enjoy the complete confidence of the inilitary authorities and died while upon duty in the Indian territory in 1834.

General William H. Ashley was at the time of the Ree troubles at the head of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and was at the same time lieutenant governor of the then new state of Missouri. He was a native of Virginia and acquired his title of general as commander of the Missouri territorial militia. He accumulated a fortune in the fur business. He was second only to Thomas H. Benton in the esteem of the citi- zens of St. Louis and served in congress from 1831 to 1837. His business extended all over the west and he was among the first to visit the Great Salt Lake country of Utah and is generally con- sidered the discoverer of the lake, though as a matter of fact he is not entitled to the honor. Except as a trader he had no other connection with the Dakota country and his only extended stay on our soil was during this summer of 1823 when, as we have seen, he was within our state from early in May until the end of August. He was a man of large ability, resourceful in emer- gency, in business as bloodless as the modern trust ; there is strong ground for the inference that throughout his late years he enjoyed a large annual revenue from a contract which stipulated simply that he should not engage in the fur busi- ness. As a citizen and statesman he was public-

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spirited and able. His death occurred shortly after leaving congress, in 1838.

Joshua Pilcher was also a Virginian by birth and was thirty-three years old when the Ree campaign came on. While his conduct upon this occasion appears to have been reprehensible in the highest degree, he usually bore a good char- acter and enjoyed a reputation for integrity. His lapse on this campaign must be attributed to his zeal for his business and his is not the only case where the terrific competition of the fur trade led otherwise true and honest men into conduct which cannot by any stretch of charity be justified. He enjoyed high social standing and business relations in St. Louis and after retiring from the river trade became superintendent of Indian affairs for the west in 1838, a position he held with credit until his death, in 1847.

One other gentleman laid the foundation of fame and fortune in this campaign, whom. be- cause of his relation to the beginnings of Chris- tian influence in South Dakota, deserves special consideration in this connection. This gentle- man is Jedediah S. Smith, the boy who made the prayer on the blood-smeared deck of the "Yel- lowstone," amid his dead and dying companions, on the morning of June 2, 1823, as the vessel drifted down the Missouri near the mouth of Grand river, and who, as he rose from his knees, took up his Bible and his rifle and started upon that desperate commission to the men of Major Henry, four hundred miles away, through the savage wilderness on the Yellowstone and who, sixty days later, having in the meantime doubled the Missouri river, served with credit as a cap- tain of the Missouri Legion. Smith was a native of northern New York, where before coming west he had become a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He came to St. Louis in the winter of 1823, but eighteen years of age, and promptly joined the party of "one hundred en-

terprising young men," for whom General Ashley was advertising. His fearlessness, char- acter and energy on this occasion made a deep impression upon General Ashley, who at once took him into his full confidence and four years later transferred his fur business to the firm of Smith, Sublette & Jackson, of whom Jedediah S. Smith was the senior partner, being but twenty-three years of age. Smith extended the enterprises of the firm clear to the Pacific coast, to which he made three trips, suffered severely from the Indians and the Spaniards, but in spite of many losses made money, and finally was killed by the Comanches while endeavoring to open the famous Santa Fe trail. During his energetic life in the wilderness he never forgot to read his Bible and every one of his rough companions regarded him as he was, a sincere, consistent praying Christian, undaunted by any danger, ever ready to do his part and more, a friend upon whom the utmost reliance could always be reposed. He was more than a woods- ranger ; though with little training in the schools, he constantly improved every opportunity to se- cure information and was a close observer of all the phenomena of the new land and found time in his busy life, which, it must be borne in mind, ended in his twenty-seventh year, to pre- pare an atlas and geography of the Rocky moun- tain region, which, though never published, is found to be, under all of the circumstances, re- markably accurate. The manuscripts for these books are now the property of the Kansas His- torical Society.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 14

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998