USA > Wyoming > The history of Wyoming from the earliest known discoveries > Part 48
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arrested Palmer, his warriors appropriated his goods, and Palmer was for three weeks a prisoner with these Indians on the Lodge Grass near Little Big Horn. The same Indians fought their fight with Custer within ten miles of the Lodge Grass ten years later. Palmer was released and walked to Bozeman, Montana. The next year he was editor of the Salmon River Idaho Mining News and Chief of the Vigil- anties; in August 1868 he returned to Wisconsin, and in November 1868 settled at Plattsmouth, Neb., engaging in the grain business, and sending out the first carload of grain ever shipped from south of the Platte River in Ne- braska. In October 1870 Captain Palmer engaged in the fire insurance business for eighteen years. From February 1, 1872 until May 1889 he was Adjuster and State Agent for Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana for the Home Insurance Company of New York. In 1883 he was elected Grand High Priest of Masons for Nebraska and in 1884 and 1885 served as Department Commander of the G. A. R. of Nebraska. He has also been Commander of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of Nebraska. He moved from Plattsmouth to Omaha May 1889 and opened up what is now the largest local agency for fire and casualty insurance in Nebraska, his son, George R. Palmer, and Mr. J. D. Foster as partners. He was Fire and Police Commissioner of Omaha in 1896 until April 1897. and is now, 1898, a Park Commissioner, has always been an active Republican, never up for an office but always helping his friends. Was married June 1870. His family consists of his wife, Laura Z, his son, George H. and daugh- ter Clara A.
Since 1881 Captain Palmer has been largely interested in Wyoming, for ten years as a large stockholder in the Grinnell Live Stock Company, Sheridan county. In 1882 he helped to organize the Sheridan Land Company and laid out several additions to Sheridan City and today is largely interested financially in that city and portion of Wyoming.
Captain Nicholas J. O'Brien, who had already won dis- tinction as an Indian fighter, as has been mentioned in this volume, was General Connor's Chief of Artillery on the Powder River Expedition. He did good service on this occasion and his prompt action at the battle of Tongue River was commended by General Connor. He succeeded in push- ing forward two Parrot guns and trained them on the In- dian village and hurled destruction into the ranks of the
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savages. This fight occurred near the mouth of Wolf Creek where it empties into Tongue River not far from the place where the Burlington and Missouri Railway crosses that stream. Captain O'Brien's prominence in Wyoming affairs during the last thirty years will bring him before the read- ers of this history many times, therefore I reserve for a future occasion a biographical sketch of this brave soldier and eminent citizen.
Lieutenant Eugene F. Ware, who was with Connor on the Powder River Expedition, belonged to the Seventh Iowa Cavalry. After the Powder River campaign he was pro- moted to Captain of Company F, of that regiment. During the Civil war he enlisted in the First Iowa Infantry and after completing his term of service with that regiment, re-enlisted in the Fourth Iowa Cavalry and from that or ganization was in September 1863 commissioned as a lieu- tenant in the Seventh Iowa Cavalry. After coming to the frontier he was detailed for staff duty by General R. B. Mitchell. Later he was requested by General Connor to serve on his staff and very much desired to do so but General Mitchell objected to his leaving and he therefore was obliged to deny himself the honor of becoming a member of the military family of General Connor. He served in the Sev- enth Iowa Cavalry until the summer of 1866 when he was mustered out. Some time afterward he took up his resi- dence in the state of Kansas and became prominent in pol- itics, serving in the state senate and holding other impor- tant positions. In 1872 he became the editor of the Fort Scott Monitor. In 1874, he commenced the publication of numerous poems under the nom de plume of "Ironquill" and soon won a reputation which placed him in the front rank of poets of the west. His "Washer Woman's Song," published along about 1878 was copied extensively over the entire country and received favorable comment every- where. Captain Ware has in the last few years issued a couple of volumes of poems which take high rank. In early life he commenced the study of law and soon became a lead- ing member of the Kansas bar and is at the present time actively engaged in the practice at the capital of his state. He was born in Hartford, Conn., May 29th, 1847. He saw hard service in Wyoming but he carried away with him an admiration for our mountain peaks and beautiful val- leys. The country over which he campaigned has undergone wonderful transformation. Beautiful cities have been
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built along the line of march of the Powder River Expedi- tion and a railroad now passes near the battlefield of Tongue River.
Lieutenant A. V. Richards, who was with General Con- nor on the Powder River campaign, was a brother of W. A. Richards, the present Governor of Wyoming. He had served with the Army of the Potomac all through the Civil War, having enlisted at the breaking out of the Rebellion in the Seventh Wisconsin Infantry In 1862 he was detailed to serve in the signal corps and in 1864 was promoted to a Lieutenancy. He was in active service in the field until the surrender of Lee at Appomatox, after which he was ordered to report to General Connor for service in the campaign against the Indians that season. He was a gallant soldier, a brave and tried officer and one who passed through many trying scenes in his long and arduous service in the south and in the west. His brother officers with whom he served in Wyoming speak of him in the highest terms not only of his bravery but of his lofty patriotism and stern sense of duty while serving his country. He was born in Illinois May 31, 1841 and died at Freeport in the same state March 10, 1891.
Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Walker, who commanded the middle column of the army that invaded Powder River, was an able, fearless and untiring officer. He had seen service in the free state war of Kansas, having enlisted in 1855 in the Free State Volunteers and was made Captain of a com- pany and was afterwards promoted to Colonel of the Fourth Cavalry serving under Major General Robinson and Brig. adier General Lane. He enlisted in the First Regiment of the Kansas Volunteers. He served with that regiment until it was mustered out and then joined the Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry of which he was made Lieutenant Colonel. His march to the Black Hills was an achievement of no ordin- ary kind and his services on that occasion won for him the promotion to Brevet Brigadier General. He was born Octo. ber 19, 1822, in Franklin county, Pennsylvania and was the grandson of Samuel Walker, who served in the Revolu- tionary war.
Colonel Nelson Cole who was in command of the right column of the Powder River Expedition won renown as an Indian fighter. He met the hostiles on many occasions and punished them severely but while on this expedition he failed to form a junction with General Connor and in con-
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sequence his troops suffered severely for the want of sup- plies. Colonel Cole won distinction in the Civil war and bore the general reputation of a brave and skilful com- mander. After being mustered out of service he made his home at St. Louis and in 1898 I find him again entering the service of his country in the war between the United States and Spain. He was appointed by President Mckinley in May this year Brigadier General of Volunteers and was assigned to service in the West Indies.
Another hero of the Powder River Expedition, though of quite another sort was the Rev. Thomas Johnson Ferril, Chaplain of the Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry. This brave chaplain located at Lawrence, Kansas in 1854 and being opposed to slavery, took an active part in making Kansas a free state. He was a Methodist, an earnest and eloquent preacher, and by his fearless and outspoken words incurred the displeasure of the pro-slavery party. Through what seemed a miracle he escaped again and again. He preached the first Methodist sermon in Lawrence Kansas and during the Civil War was a resident of that town. When Quantrill, the guerilla, made his raid on Lawrence, August 21, 1863, and brutally murdered 143 of the leading citizens of the town and desperately wounded thirty more, Chaplain Fer- ril was on the list to be killed but it was his fate or luck to escape as usual. The Ferril family was among the early pioneers to cross the Rocky Mountains and they were also Indian fighters in Ohio, Kentucky and Kansas. John D. Ferril, a brother of Chaplain Ferril was in Wyoming in the summer of 1850, being with a party who were on their way to California. The cholera was bad that season and there was much suffering and many deaths among the emi- grants. The brave chaplain is still living and I am told he is fond of recounting the days he spent in the Powder River country. He was born at Independence, Missouri, Decem- ber 24, 1831. William C. Ferril, Curator of the State His- torical and Natural History Society of Colorado, is a son of this patriotic pioneer preacher.
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Thrilling Erents on the Bozeman Road.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THRILLING EVENTS ON THE BOZEMAN ROAD.
MOUNTAIN DISTRICT ORGANIZED -- COLONEL H. B. CARRINGTON ASSUMES COMMAND-EXPEDITION MOVES FROM FORT KEARNEY-THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT FORT LARAMIE-RED CLOUD'S POSITION AND BRAVE WORDS-THE MARCH TO FORT RENO-THE BUILDING OF THE NEW FORT-SELECTING THE SITE FOR FORT PHIL. KEARNEY-ERECTION OF THE POST COMMENCED-CONFERENCE WITH THE HOSTILES-FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE SAVAGES-ATTACK ON TRAIN AT CLEAR CREEK-LIEUTENANT DANIELS KILLED-FORT C. F. SMITH LOCATED -GENERAL HAZEN INSPECTS THE POSTS-FORT PHIL. KEARNEY PRAC- TICALLY COMPLETED OCTOBER 3IST.
The War Department had plenty of opportunity during the winter and early spring of 1866 to discover that a great mistake had been made in not permitting General Connor to make a winter campaign in the Powder River country. Hunters, trappers and other white men who were more or less among the Indians, reported that the hostiles would under no circumstances make peace. Red Cloud who had made himself very popular in the war against the whites on the two lines of road across Wyoming, was very active during the winter sending out runners among the various tribes urging them not to attend the peace conference at Fort Laramie, fixed for the month of May. Many of the Indians were heartily in favor of peace for they realized that the Government would in the end defeat them at every point. But Red Cloud's agitators worked upon this class until they agreed to continue the war unless the Govern- ment at the coming conference should promise to withdraw the troops north of the Platte River and keep white men off their hunting grounds. This was the last thing, Red Cloud felt sure, the Government would agree to do. Spotted Tail openly advocated peace and thereby lost his prestige among
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the great leaders of the Sioux tribes. The War Department now aimed to muster out all the volunteer regiments and employ none but regulars, together with a small force of Indians to be used as scouts. General Pope felt much an- noyed over the outlook. The opinion prevailed among op- timistic people generally that the peace commission was going to settle everything and that there would be no more trouble on the mail line, the telegraph line or the Bozeman road, but General Pope as well as General Dodge knew better. They had carefully estimated Red Cloud's ability to make trouble and had come to the conclusion that the Indians who made their homes in the Powder River country were going to fight, and they had reached another import- ant conclusion, which was, that these hostiles had the pow- er and ability to defend their country.
General Pope on March 10, 1866, organized the Moun- tain District and directed the building of two new forts on the Bozeman road beyond Fort Connor. The name of the latter fort was changed to Fort Reno. Colonel H. B. Car- rington of the Eighteenth Infantry was made commander of the new district with orders to take post at Fort Reno. The expedition was organized at Fort Kearney during the winter of 1865-6 and everything was made ready to move as early in the spring as circumstances would permit. The following officers composed the command: District Com- mander, Colonel H. B. Carrington, Eighteenth U. S. Infan- try; Assistant Adjutant General, Brevet Captain Fred- erick H. Phisterer, Adjutant Eighteenth U. S. Infantry; Chief Quartermaster, Lieutenant Frederick H. Brown, Quartermaster Eighteenth Infantry; Chief Surgeon, Brevet Major S. M. Horton, Assistant Surgeon U. S. A .; Acting Assistant Surgeons, Dr. H. M. Matthews, Dr. B. N. McCleary, and Dr. H. Baalan; Mounted Infantry, Captain T. Ten Eyck, Eighteenth Infantry; Battalion Adjutant, Brevet Captain Wm. H. Bisbee, Second Battalion. The additional officers were Captain and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel N. C. Kinney, Captain J. L. Proctor, Captain T. B.
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Burrows, Lieutenant J. J. Adair, Lieutenant Thaddeus P. Kirtland, Lieutenant Isaac D'Isay. As chief guide, Major James Bridger had been selected, assisted by H. Williams, and thus organized the command was ready to move.
On May 19th the expedition left Fort Kearney and pur- sued its way up the Platte, following the North Platte route to Fort Laramie. There were nearly 2,000 troops in the com- mand, but 1,300 of these were intended to relieve volunteer troops who were guarding the telegraph and mail line in Wyoming. Those intended for the Powder River and Big Horn country only numbered 700 and these being infantry were not at all adapted to the service upon which they were being sent, although the order had been given to mount these troops on their arrival at Fort Laramie but this would not make of them trained cavalrymen. The expedition reached Fort Laramie on June 13th while the peace confer- ence was going on. It is true there was a considerable gathering of hostiles but few of them were from the Powder River country. Red Cloud and Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses were both there, but they were not taking any part in the peace talks, yet doing a great amount of hard work among the tribes on the outside. Nothing was allowed to escape the attention of these chieftains. The conference had been formally opened and speeches had been made by white men and Indians covering a period of more than three weeks, and yet nothing had been accomplished. What the govern- ment wanted and hoped to secure by treaty was the right to use the Bozeman road and establish thereon two military posts beyond Powder River. The country in question was occupied by the Ogallala and Minneconjoux bands of Sioux Indians, the Northern Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes and the Mountain Crows.
The region through which the road passed was most attractive and valuable to Indians. It abounded with game, flocks of mountain sheep, droves of elk and deer, and herds of buffalo ranged through and lived in the country, and the Indians with propriety called it their last and best hunting
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grounds. All these Indians were reluctant to allow the proposed road to pass through this territory, but would con- sent to this for a liberal consideration, but they were re- quired to stipulate further that the government should have the right to establish one or more military posts on this road in their country. All the Indians refused thus to stipulate, and through the chiefs, headmen and warriors protested against the establishment of any military posts on their hunting grounds along that road north of Fort Reno.
While negotiations were going on with Red Cloud and other leading chiefs to induce them to yield to the govern- ment the right to peaceably establish these military posts, which right they persistently refused to yield, saying that it was asking too much of their people-asking all they had, for it would drive away all the game-Colonel Carrigton with about seven hundred officers and men arrived at Lara- mie, enroute to their country to establish and occupy mili- tary posts along the Boseman road, pursuant to General Orders No. 33. The destination and purpose of Colonel Carrington and his command were communicated to the chiefs. They seemed to construe this as a determination on the part of the government to occupy their country, even without their consent or that of their people. Red Cloud, who had all through the conference held aloof, now spoke out in ringing tones in favor of war. He claimed that the peace commissioners were treating the assembled chiefs as children, that they were pretending to negotiate for a coun- try which they had already taken by conquest. He accused the government of bad faith in all its transactions with Indian tribes. In his harrangues to the Indians he told them that the white men had crowded them back year by year and forced them to live in a small country north of the Platte, and now this last hunting ground, the home of their people, was to be taken from them. This meant that they and their women and children were to starve, and for his part he preferred to die fighting rather than by starvation.
RESIDENCE OF JIM BAKER, DIXON, WYO.
A-HAGENER BENVEN
OLD FORT RENO.
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He promised that if the combined tribes would defend their homes they would be able to drive the soldiers out of the country. He said it might be a long war, but as they were defending their last hunting grounds they must in the end be successful. This land which had cost them so many braves and so many years of bloody war with the Crows must not be given up to the greedy white man. The elo- quence of this chief put an end to the peace conference, as far as the Indians who lived in the country through which passed the Bozeman road were concerned. As soon as prac- ticable, they withdrew from the conference with their ad- herents, refusing to accept any presents from the commis- sion, and returned to their country, and with a strong force of warriors commenced a vigorous and relentless war against all whites who came into it, both citizens and sol- diers.
Quite a large number of Indians, who did not occupy the country along this road, were anxious to make a treaty and remain at peace. Some of this class had for a long time resided near Fort Laramie. Others (Brules) occupied the White Earth River valley and the sand hills south of that river. The commissioners created and appointed several of the leading warriors chiefs among their people to be recognized by the government, viz., Big Mouth, Spotted Tail, Swift Bear, and Two Strikes. A part of these Indians resided near Fort Laramie, and a portion of them on the Republican Fork of the Kansas River, and these strictly complied with their treaty stipulations.
The number of Sioux Indians who considered them- selves bound by the treaty and remained at peace was about two thousand, while the Minneconjoux and a portion of the Ogalalla and Brule bands, the Northern Cheyennes and Arapahoes, with a few Sans Arcs, numbering in the aggre- gate about six hundred lodges, remained in their old coun- try and went to war under the auspices of Red Cloud, Man- Afraid-of-His-Horses and other chiefs.
While at Fort Laramie, Colonel Carrington received -(35)
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further orders which were slight modifications and addi- tions to those of March 10. These were dated June 23d and directed that the Second Battalion, Eighteenth Infan- try, should take post as follows: Two companies at Fort Reno, on Powder River, two companies about eighty miles nearly north of Reno, on the headwaters of Powder or Tongue River, which post should be known as Fort Philip Kearney, named in honor of Major General Philip Kearney, a distinguished officer of the Federal army, who was killed at Chantilly, Va., September 1st, 1862. The two other com- panies were to build a post at the crossing of the Big Horn River on the same road and about seventy miles beyond Fort Philip Kearney, to be known as Fort C. F. Smith, and di- rected that the colonel of the regiment should take post at Fort Philip Kearney and command the "Mountain District."
Colonel Carrington was a good soldier, but he had learned the arts of war in a field quite different from the one he was now entering. His force had been organized not to fight Indians, but to garrison certain posts in the Indian country; yet how General Pope, with his great knowledge of the Indian character, could permit 700 men to go into that wilderness which was inhabited by bloodthirsty sav- ages, and there to be divided up into three detachments and garrison as many different posts, is past understanding. True, these troops were in part well armed with Spencer carbines. When they left Fort Kearney that post was short of ammunition, but it was expected that the deficiency could readily be made up at Fort Laramie, but it turned out the supply was short there also, and consequently Carrington's small army started north indifferently supplied with powder and lead. This proved to be a very serious matter. Colonel Carrington was informed that additional supplies such as he might make requisition for would be furnished him later and that the ammunition could be sent with these, but it turned out that it was many months before this important material was supplied. The ammunition taken along was
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sufficient for present needs, but the time came when there was a great scarcity of this important material.
The worse than failure of the Fort Laramie peace com- mission was at once apparent. No good had come of it, but on the contrary Red Cloud and other chiefs had made use of this conference to organize their forces to defy the government. It was just what they needed to prove to their followers that it was the intention of the white men to take the Indian lands regardless of the owners; in fact, the proof of this was, the forces under Carrington were to build two new posts north of Fort Reno. The government had decidedly the worst of the peace conference, for it re- vealed to the Indian double dealing and cupidity and conse- quently brought death and destruction to many emigrants that year. Red Cloud had a golden opportunity, and he made the most of it, laying firmly the foundation of his fu- ture power among the northern tribes. He made use of the wrongs suffered by the Indians in the past at the hands of white men, the present attitude of the government, which had been caught in the very act of appropriating the choic- est and last hunting grounds of the red men. These were the themes by which he roused the Indians to resistance and attack. The tribes of the north were moved to action by his impassioned eloquence. His recruiting campaign was so successful as to place under his absolute command a powerful army.
These were golden days for ambitious chieftains, who sought opportunity to distinguish themselves, first as diplo- mats and orators, and later as great military leaders. In- dian eloquence has been handed down among these tribes for hundreds of years. It was the same old story of the "wrongs of the red men," varied to suit the occasion. They were simply old songs sung to new tunes and they were ef- fective in preparing the Indians for resistance and arousing them to action. . When Red Cloud charged upon the gov- ernment the intention to rob them of their land by sending white men to occupy the country, his followers knew that
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he spoke the truth. When he described in words of burning eloquence the beauty of that country which abounded with buffalo, elk and deer that the white men would destroy or drive away and leave the Indians to perish by starvation, he again spoke the truth and his people realized it. Is it any wonder that these wild men of the mountains and plains should as one man rise in their might and resolve to drive back the invaders? It was as the Indians claimed; the gov- · ernment was treating them as children, attempting to rob them and to induce them to submit to this by giving them a ' few gaudy trinkets. As I have often remarked on this sub- . ject, the policy of the government was to exterminate the Indian, but those in authority were pleased to satisfy their · own conscience by calling it something else. General Con- nor understood the intentions of the government and he `had made war in a manner which had for its object the sub- · duing of the wild tribes-the direct purpose of the govern- ·ment-and if extermination followed it was the fault of the Indian policy and not his. He made war and the savages held him in high regard because of his bravery, while they despised the government and its peace commissioners. These untutored savages were expert diplomats, understood the science of deception, could lie and steal when occasion required and would murder when oportunity offered. It is no wonder that they were indignant when those connected with the government entered into their chosen field and at- tempted to beat them at their own games.
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