USA > Wyoming > The history of Wyoming from the earliest known discoveries > Part 39
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The military districts of the mountains and plains had up to this time been too numerous, the result being that the commanders of these districts did not feel justified in following the Indians from one local military division to another and consequently there were vexatious delays and much controversy as to whose duty it was to chastise rov- ing bands of savages. The tribes on the war path were pursued into the adjoining district and there left to be dealt with by the troops of the locality in which the hos-
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tiles took refuge. Marauding bands were chased out of the District of Nebraska into that of Colorado. Here plenty of opportunity offered to rob emigrant trains, capture mail coaches, kill and scalp white people to their heart's content. When the depredations were reported to the headquarters of the military district, a force was sent against them and they were promptly driven into the district of Utah and the thieving bands were again given a chance to commit more depredations farther west. At last General G. M. Dodge, commander of the Department of the Missouri, re- solved to organize a new department, and on March 28 consolidated the districts of Utah, Colorado and Nebraska into one district to be known as the District of the Plains: and assigned Brigadier General P. E. Connor to the com- mand with headquarters at Denver. The new commander assumed charge of the enlarged district on the day the order was issued, and at once proceeded to inaugurate a vigorous campaign and yet little success could be hoped for until large reinforcements arrived. When General Connor was tendered this command, he was on a return trip from the east, where he had been for some weeks, and it is highly probable that he saw and talked with General Dodge at his headquarters at St. Louis and that the new department was created for the purpose of giving General Connor an opportunity to fight Indians on a large scale. On the day following Connor's acceptance of the command of the Department of the Plains, General Dodge telegraphed him that the troops enroute to Laramie and Julesburg would give him over 2,000 mounted men and a train of 400 pack mules, and he adds with some severety, "I want this force pushed right after the Indians." On the same day that this dispatch was sent, General Dodge wrote Connor a letter of some length and from this I make a short extract for the reason that it relates to operations in Wyoming and the surrounding country.
"The District of the Plains was formed so as to put under your control the entire northern Overland route and to render effective the troops along it. With the force at
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your disposal you can make vigorous war upon the Indians and punish them so that they will be forced to keep the peace. They should be kept away from our lines of travel and made to stand on the defensive. Sufficient infantry to hold most of the posts will be sent you from the regiments raised from Confederate prisoners in our hands for service on the plains. They are officered by our own men. Depots should be designated where we can put in one year's supply. These depots should be fortified. An engineer from these headquarters is now out examining these posts. I think there should be depots at Fort Kearney, Cottonwood, Jules- burg, Fort Laramie, Fort Halleck, Valley Station (or some point between Julesburg and Denver), Denver, Fort Lyon, and Utah. As it is each station is a partial depot, whereas with a few depots that other posts can draw from we can put proper staff officers at them and have our stores prop- erly taken care of and protected. The overland mail and telegraph must be protected at all hazards, and no excuse be given or allowed for stopping the mails. Order No. 41 from these headquarters prescribes manner of organizing trains, etc., and you must see that no interference with em- igrant or private trains is allowed. The troops that have been lying at the different posts should, as soon as possible, be relieved and put in the field. I hear many complaints of them."
Colonel Moonlight, who had asked to have charge of the Powder River expedition, was somewhat disappointed when he learned that General Connor was to command it in person. His position in Denver was anything but agree- able to himself and on the return of General Connor he made known his desire for more active service. Opportunity was soon found to place him in command of Fort Laramie and thus it was that Colonel Moonlight became prominent in military matters in Wyoming. He had long been colonel of the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, but being assigned to the command of the military department of Colorado, Lieu- tenant Colonel Plumb was left in command of the regiment. Moonlight had won distinction in the service but was unfor- tunate in his surroundings in the west. He made himself unhappy in nearly every position in which he was placed and his assignment to the command of Fort Laramie did not end his tribulations, and yet he sought activity, which was
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given him in full measure before the year was out. From the day General Connor arrived, after his visit to the east, he was actively employed in carrying out his instructions regarding the numerous small posts along the route. He suffered considerable annoyance from the non-arrival of troops which were reported sent from Leavenworth, some of the regiments being more than two months on the road, On April 20th he announced the following officers as mem- bers of his staff: Captain M. G. Lewis, Assistant Adjutant- General U. S. Volunteers, Assistant Adjutant-General; First Lieutenant Oscar Jewett, First Battalion Nevada Cavalry, aid-de-camp; Major George Armstrong, First Nebraska Veteran Cavalry, chief of cavalry; Major J. H. Peabody, surgeon U. S. Volunteers, medical director; Captian Parmenas T. Turnley, Assistant Quartermas- ter U. S. Army, chief quartermaster; Captain Will- iam R. Irwin, commissary of subsistence, U. S. Vol- unteers, chief commissary; Captain George F. Price, Second California Cavalry, district inspector; Captain E. B. Zabriskie, First Battalion Nevada Cavalry, judge advocate; Captain John C. Anderson, Veteran Battalion First Colorado Cavalry, assistant commis- sary of musters at Denver, Colorado Territory; Captain John A. Wilcox, First (Fourth) U. S. Cavalry, assistant commissary of musters at Fort Kearney, Nebraska Terri- tory; First Lieutenant S. E. Jocelyn, Third Battalion Cali- fornia Infantry, assistant commissary of musters at Camp Douglas, Utah; First Lieutenant Charles C. Hawley, Veteran Battalion First Colorado Cavalry, acting ordnance officer for the South and West Sub-Districts of the Plains, station at Denver, Colorado Territory; First Lieutenant William H. Northrop, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, acting ord- nance officer for the North and East Sub-Districts of the Plains, station at Fort Kearney, Nebraska Territory.
Major N. A. Adams of the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, with a detachment of thirty-five men, left Deer Creek Station April 22nd in pursuit of a war party of Sioux and Chey- ennes numbering from fifty to a hundred, who had been
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committing depredations on La Prelle Creek. The detach- ment marched twenty miles and went into camp on Sage Creek at sundown. About nine o'clock that evening the camp was attacked from a high point by a well armed band. The fight only lasted a few minutes, the soldiers succeeding in driving off the warriors. Major Adams, in reporting the affair, said that the Indians were well posted and had a large number of guns and revolvers but being on higher ground most of their shots passed over the soldiers. The troops lost five of their cavalry horses but none of the men were injured. The next day Major Adams called for rein- forcements and on their arrival pursued the Indians for two days, when it was found that they had scattered in small bodies among the hills. The command then returned to Deer Creek station.
Colonel Thos. Moonlight, who had been placed in com- mand of Fort Laramie, organized an expedition on May 3rd for the Wind River country, on receipt of the informa- tion that 300 Cheyenne lodges were concentrated in the Wind River Valley. Colonel Moonlight had under him 500 cavalry composed of the Eleventh Ohio, Seventh Iowa, and Eleventh Kansas regiments. The command marched by night, the moon being favorable, and on the 12th they reached the vicinity of Wind River, from which point scouts were sent out in every direction and brought back informa- tion that the hostiles had made a circuit, going as far south as the Sweetwater Mountains and from there had turned north toward the Powder River country. The command suf- fered greatly from the cold, as they had encountered a heavy fall of snow and consequently were unable to pro- cure feed for their horses. The expedition returned by way of Platte Bridge, having accomplished nothing. Colonel Moonlight in his report said that his command had traveled 450 miles and the Indian scouts must have kept watch of them, for no sooner had they returned to Fort Laramie than their war parties were harassing the stations at all points. Jim Bridger was the guide for this expedition. Lieutenant- Colonel Preston B. Plumb, who later was for many years
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a United States senator from Kansas, was in command of the Eleventh Kansas on this occasion.
On May 13th Indians attempted to run off some stock near Julesburg and at the same time made an attack on Captain Porter's post wagon and wounded two of his men. Troops from Fort Sedgwick went to the rescue and killed three of the Indians. Captain O'Brien sent out a small force but they failed to come up with the hostiles. On the 18th of the same month Indians attacked a detachment of men enroute to Fort Kearney. Two of the soldiers were killed and six wounded. These men were sent forward from Fort Leavenworth unarmed and were intended for service in Wyoming. The commander at Fort Leavenworth directed the sergeant in charge to procure arms at Fort Kearney. General Connor instituted an immediate and searching in- vestigation with a view to properly punishing the officer who would send an unarmed force through a region known to be infested by savages who were on the war path. There was an investigation at Fort Leavenworth but what came of it I am unable to find out from any papers on file in the War Department. On the same date as the above, an event of considerable importance occurred at Fort Laramie. It was the capture of Two Face and Black Foot, Sioux chiefs of the Ogalalla tribe, together with their warriors. To tell of this circumstance I will quote the report of Colonel Thos. Moonlight, the commander of the post.
"About the 18th instant some Indians were discovered on the north side of the Pltate near the Indian villiage, en- camped ten miles east of Laramie. Mr. Elston, in charge of the Indian village, took a party of Indian soldiers and cap- tured what was found to be Two Face, having a white woman prisoner (Mrs Eubanks) and her little daughter, whom he had purchased from the Cheyennes. During the same evening and next morning early the other Indians who were with Two Face, and who had fled on approach of Elston's party, were also captured and all lodged in the guard house here. Mrs. Eubanks gave information of the whereabouts of Black Foot and the village, and a party of Indian soldiers started to bring them in, dead or alive. The village was found about 100 miles northeast of here, on
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Snake Fork, and compelled to surrender without any fight. Black Foot and his companions were placed in the guard house with the others, making six men in confinement. Both of the chiefs openly boasted that they had killed white men and that they would do it again if let loose, so I con- cluded to tie them up by the neck with a trace chain, sus- pended from a beam of wood, and leave them there without any foothold. The property captured was as follows: Six U. S. mules, 3 U. S. horses, 5 mules not branded, but I believe claimed by some party down the river; 15 ponies in miserable condition, which I left in charge of Mr. Elston for the use of the Indian soldiers in scouting. The other animals were turned in to the acting assistant quarter- master, to be taken up on his return. On the person of Two Face was found $220 in greenbacks which I gave to Mrs. Eubanks; Also $50 taken from another of the band. This lady was captured by the Cheyennes on Little Blue Creek last fall, where her husband was killed along with several others. She was treated in a beastly manner by the Chey- ennes, and purchased from them during the winter by Two Face and Black Foot, who compelled her to toil and labor as their squaw, resorting in some instances to lashes. She was in a wretched condition when she was brought in, hav- ing been dragged across the Platte with a rope. She was almost naked, and told some horrible tales of the barbar- ity and cruelty of the Indians."
The execution of these two Indian chiefs caused quite a sensation at Fort Laramie at that time. There was much comment on the proposed execution, by army officers and civilians connected with the post. Colonel Bullock, the post trader, was particularly outspoken in condemnation of such a proceeding and he visited headquarters to remon- strate with Colonel Moonlight and in courteous language said to the post commander that in his judgment the exe- cution of these two chiefs could not serve any good purpose, but on the contrary he believed that it would so aggravate the combined hostile tribes as to induce them to seek a favorable opportunity and then in overwhelming numbers attack the garrison of Fort Laramie and carry the place by assault, and then would follow a massacre of so barbar- ous and inhuman a character as had never been witnessed in the west. The commander heard Colonel Bullock with
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great courtesy, never once interrupting him in his plea, not for mercy for the savages but for the adoption of a policy which would serve better the purposes of the government in its war against the Indians. When the plea was finished the post commander very quietly remarked:
"Well, Colonel Bullock you think there will be a mas- sacre? Let me tell you that there will be two Indians who will not take part in it. Good day, sir." The post com- mander followed his dismissal of the post trader by po- litely bowing him out of the door of his quarters.
On May 20th 200 Indians attacked Deer Creek station and after a vigorous fight on the part of the detachment in charge of the station, the Indians were repulsed; seven of their number were killed and others wounded. No one at the station was injured. The hostiles succeeded in driv- ing away twenty-two horses which were in a herd a short distance from the station. Lieutenant-Colonel P. B. Plumb of the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, with thirty men, gave chase and succeeded in killing one Indian and wounding several. One soldier of Plumb's command was killed. The Indians, it was said, were in command of a man named Bill Comstock, formerly of Fort Laramie. The horses were not recaptured. No trains were allowed to pass up or down the Platte that year without an escort.
During the early part of the summer of 1865 a distin- guished party consisting of the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lieutenant Gov- ernor Wm. Bross of Illinois, Albert D. Richardson of the New York Tribune, and Samuel Bowles, editor of the Spring- field Republican, passed west in an Overland coach for Cal- ifornia. Fortunately the party was not molested by the Indians. Mr. Bowles wrote a book covering the incidents of the trip. Mr. Richardson also published a volume, giving the incidents of his journey, which was very popular for many years, being entitled "Beyond the Mississippi. Mr. Colfax was one of the best friends the west ever possessed. During his long and brilliant service in Congress he never lost an opportunity to champion any cause that was in-
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tended to help the country west of the Missouri. President Lincoln was assassinated only a few weeks before Mr. Col- fax came to the Rocky Mountains. A few days before the assassination he called on the President to inform him that he was expecting to leave for the Pacific coast, overland, almost immediately. In reply Mr. Lincoln said, "I have been thinking of a speech I want you to make for me. I have," said he, "very large ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I believe it is practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, and its development has scarcely commenced. During the war, when we were adding a couple of millions of dollars to our national debt every day, I did not care about encouraging the increase in the volume of the precious metals. We had the country to save first. But now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we know pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more gold and silver we mine makes the payment of that debt so much the easier." "Now," said he, speaking with much emphasis, "I am going to encourage that in every possible way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of dis- banded soldiers and many have feared that their return home in such great numbers may paralyze industry by fur- nishing suddenly a greater supply of labor than there will be a demand for. I am going to try to attract them to the hidden wealth of our mountain ranges, where there is room for all. Tell the miners for me that I shall promote their interests to the utmost of my ability because their prosper- ity is the prosperity of the nation and we shall prove in a very few years that we are the treasury of the world."
Mr. Colfax delivered this posthumus speech of Presi- dent Lincoln wherever there was an opportunity to talk to western men and its delivery was listened to with pro- found attention on every occasion. In this far-off wilder- ness it fell on the ears of men as a voice from the grave of the martyred president. Verily this was the first full and complete recognition of the west by a president of the United States. It convinced western men that Abraham
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Lincoln was entitled to be called the president of the whole country. His words cheered many a weary miner by increas- ing his faith in the minerals of the Rocky Mountains.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE BLOODY YEAR ON THE PLAINS-[CONTINUED. ]
HEADQUARTERS REMOVED FROM DENVER TO JULESBURG-COLONEL MOON- LIGHT PLACES ADDITIONAL TROOPS ON THE TELEGRAPH LINE-DIS- TRICT INSPECTORS APPOINTED-COMMANDERS OF THE DIFFERENT POSTS-INDIANS ATTACK ROCK RIDGE AND SWEETWATER STATIONS- ATTACK AND BURNING OF ST. MARY'S STATION-AFFAIR AT PLATTE BRIDGE-TROUBLE AT SAGE CREEK, PINE GROVE AND BRIDGER PASS STATIONS-SECOND ATTACK ON SAGE CREEK STATION-THE STAGE COMPANY REFUSES TO RUN COACHES-SOLDIERS MUTINY-SO-CALLED FRIENDLY INDIANS MUTINY-COLONEL MOONLIGHT'S TROUBLES- GENERAL CONNOR GETTING READY FOR A CAMPAIGN ON POWDER RIVER-TROOPS DELAYED BY BAD ROADS-ADDITIONAL TROUBLES ON THE TELEGRAPH LINE AND THE STAGE ROUTE ACROSS LARAMIE PLAINS-NIOBRARA AND MONTANA WAGON ROAD.
On May 4th, General Connor moved his headquarters from Denver to Julesburg, so as to be nearer the scene of active operations, and on the following day telegraphed General Dodge for permission to visit headquarters for the purpose of consultation. The request was granted and the visit to St. Louis was made, but before going he directed Colonel Moonlight, the commander of Fort Laramie, to dis- tribute two companies of the Third U. S. Volunteers along the North Platte, Sweetwater, and as far west as South Pass. One company was to make headquarters at the Three Crossings and the commanding officer was instructed to detail one or two non-commissioned officers and twelve men for each of the following telegraph stations: South Pass, Saint Mary's and Sweetwater. The headquarters of the other company was to be at Camp Marshall, with similar details posted at Horse Shoe, Deer Creek and Platte Bridge,
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and besides this a squadron of cavalry was ordered on the line and four troopers were to be detailed at each station to assist the telegraph operators in repairing the line when required. The saw mill near Fort Laramie was ordered to be kept running night and day to furnish lumber needed at the various stations. The following officers were announced by General Connor as sub-district inspectors: Captain J. S. Cochrane, Third U. S. Volunteers, for service in the South Sub-District of the Plains; Captain John H. Dalton, First Battalion Nevada Cavalry, for the West Sub-District of the Plains; First Lieutenant Edward Donavan, First Nebraska Veteran Cavalry, for the East Sub-District of the Plains.
Brigadier General Guy V. Henry was placed in com- mand at Denver, which department was then styled the South Sub-District of the Plains. Henry was a good soldier and thoroughly qualified for an important command. He conducted the affairs of his district in such a manner as to give confidence to the people of Colorado, but it was found necessary to send him elsewhere, when Colonel C. H. Potter of the Sixth U. S. Volunteers was assigned to the command. At this time, Captain J. L. Humfreville of the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry was in command of Fort Halleck. This post was made prominent by events which had transpired around it since the spring of 1863. The troops had beeen required to operate both east and west for a long distance and conse- quently troops stationed there had seen hard service. Fort Bridger, that summer, was in command of Major Noyes Baldwin, an officer with a splendid record, and a man of ability. The War of the Rebellion being over, there was soon to be available troops for service on the plains, but it required time to transfer this force to the far west. The spring was far advanced and the Indians were beginning to leave their winter camps in large numbers, and there not being sufficient force in Wyoming to operate against roving bands, traffic on the Overland had to be conducted by the use of military escorts. There seemed to be no way of pro- tecting the telegraph line; the best that could be done was to repair it whenever broken. During 1865, there was but
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one line of telegraph across our state, and this was the one built by Creighton in 1861. At the time the stage line was removed from the Sweetwater and the South Pass route, the government had to protect the stages on the new route across the Laramie Plains and at the same time to maintain the telegraph up the North Platte, along the Sweetwater, and across South Pass. This necessitated a large number of troops and it should not have been undertaken. Ben Hol- liday argued, when he wanted to change the line, that the Indians would not trouble the mail route from Denver west, and consequently the government would be at little or no additional expense. It was true there were no hostilities on the Laramie Plains previous to the location of the mail route in 1862, but there was a very good reason for this; as there had been no traffic on that line-no people to rob or kill on the Laramie Plains or in Bridger Pass, but as soon as the mail, express and passenger business was transferred to that route, Indian depredations followed and the govern- ment was called upon for protection and tried to furnish it. The emigrant trains preferred the old Overland road, be- cause it was shorter, and so they kept going up the North Platte. Troops had to be maintained on that road to pro- tect the telegraph system and the emigrants. Had all the protection been given to the North Platte route it would have been much easier for the government and better for the mail business west of the mountains. Leaving Jules- burg, the new route went south eighty-four miles before it reached Denver, and then in returning to the west by way of Laramie Plains and Bridger Pass it had all this distance to work back, and this increased the length of the road more than 150 miles to all passengers who had come by the Platte route.
I have found it very difficult to confirm the reports of , many old timers regarding Indian attacks on Overland sta- tions. Too often it has occurred that two or three individu- als told as many different stories regarding the same inci- dents, and consequently for the sake of accuracy I have been obliged to depend largely on official reports made by
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officers at the time to the War Department. These were at least accurate and formed a basis upon which to construct the history of those times. The events of the spring and summer of 1865 commenced on the Sweetwater and are re- corded by Lieutenant-Colonel Plumb, who with his com- mand, the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, was operating along the line from Fort Laramie west. In an official report dated June 1st, at Camp Dodge, which was located a short dis- tance above Platte Bridge, he says:
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