In a very short time, however, I was obliged to interfere in

municipal matters in New Orleans, for it had become clearly apparent

that several of the officials were, both by acts of omission and

commission, ignoring the law, so on the 27th of March I removed from

office the Mayor, John T. Monroe; the Judge of the First District

Court, E. Abell; and the Attorney-General of the State, Andrew S.

Herron; at the same time appointing to the respective offices thus

vacated Edward Heath, W. W. Howe, and B. L. Lynch. The officials

thus removed had taken upon themselves from the start to pronounce

the Reconstruction acts unconstitutional, and to advise such a course

of obstruction that I found it necessary at an early dav to replace

them by men in sympathy with the law, in order to make plain my

determination to have its provisions enforced. The President at once

made inquiry, through General Grant, for the cause of the removal,

and I replied:

"HEADQUARTERS FIFTH MILITARY DISTRICT,

"New Orleans, La., April 19, 1867.

"GENERAL: On the 27th day of March last I removed from office Judge

E. Abell, of the Criminal Court of New Orleans; Andrew S. Herron,

Attorney-General of the State of Louisiana; and John T. Monroe, Mayor

of the City of New Orleans. These removals were made under the

powers granted me in what is usually termed the 'military bill,'

passed March 2, 1867, by the Congress of the United States.

"I did not deem it necessary to give any reason for the removal of

these men, especially after the investigations made by the military

board on the massacre Of July 30, 1866, and the report of the

congressional committee on the same massacre; but as some inquiry has

been made for the cause of removal, I would respectfully state as

follows:

"The court over which judge Abell presided is the only criminal court

in the city of New Orleans, and for a period of at least nine months

previous to the riot Of July 30 he had been educating a large portion

of the community to the perpetration of this outrage, by almost

promising no prosecution in his court against the offenders, in case

such an event occurred. The records of his court will show that he

fulfilled his promise, as not one of the guilty has been prosecuted.

"In reference to Andrew J. Herron, Attorney-General of the State of

Louisiana, I considered it his duty to indict these men before this

criminal court. This he failed to do, but went so far as to attempt

to impose on the good sense of the whole nation by indicting the

victims of the riot instead of the rioters; in other words, making

the innocent guilty and the guilty innocent. He was therefore, in my

belief, an able coadjutor with judge Abell in bringing on the

massacre of July 30.

"Mayor Monroe controlled the element engaged in this riot, and when

backed by an attorney-general who would not prosecute the guilty, and

a judge who advised the grand jury to find the innocent guilty and

let the murderers go free, felt secure in engaging his police force

in the riot and massacre.

"With these three men exercising a large influence over the worst

elements of the population of this city, giving to those elements an

immunity for riot and bloodshed, the general-in-chief will see how

insecurely I felt in letting them occupy their respective positions

in the troubles which might occur in registration and voting in the

reorganization of this State.

"I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

"P. H. SHERIDAN,

"Major-General U. S. A.

"GENERAL U. S. GRANT,

"Commanding Armies of the United States,

"Washington, D. C."

To General Grant my reasons were satisfactory, but not so to the

President, who took no steps, however, to rescind my action, for he

knew that the removals were commended by well-nigh the entire

community in the city, for it will be understood that Mr. Johnson

was, through his friends and adherents in Louisiana and Texas, kept

constantly advised of every step taken by me. Many of these persons

were active and open opponents of mine, while others were spies,

doing their work so secretly and quickly that sometimes Mr. Johnson

knew of my official acts before I could report them to General Grant.

The supplemental Reconstruction act which defined the method of

reconstruction became a law despite the President's veto on March 23.

This was a curative act, authorizing elections and prescribing

methods of registration. When it reached me officially I began

measures for carrying out its provisions, and on the 28th of March

issued an order to the effect that no elections for the State,

parish, or municipal officers would be held in Louisiana until the

provisions of the laws of Congress entitled "An act to provide for

the more efficient government of the rebel States," and of the act

supplemental thereto, should have been complied with. I also

announced that until elections were held in accordance with these

acts, the law of the Legislature of the State providing for the

holding over of those persons whose terms of office otherwise would

have expired, would govern in all cases excepting only those special

ones in which I myself might take action. There was one parish,

Livingston, which this order did no reach in time to prevent the

election previously ordered there, and which therefore took place,

but by a supplemental order this election was declare null and void.

In April. I began the work of administering the Supplemental Law,

which, under certain condition of eligibility, required a

registration of the voter of the State, for the purpose of electing

delegate to a Constitutional convention. It therefore became

necessary to appoint Boards of Registration throughout the election

districts, and on April 10 the boards for the Parish of Orleans were

given out, those for the other parishes being appointed ten days

later. Before announcing these boards, I had asked to be advised

definitely as to what persons were disfranchised by the law, and was

directed by General Grant to act upon my own interpretation of it,

pending an opinion expected shortly from the Attorney-General--Mr.

Henry Stanbery--so, for the guidance of the boards, I gave the

following instructions:

"HEADQUARTERS FIFTH MILITARY DISTRICT.

"New Orleans, La., April 10, 1867.

"Special Orders, No. 15.

"....In obedience to the directions contained in the first section of

the Law of Congress entitled "An Act supplemental to an Act entitled

'An Act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel

States'" the registration of the legal voters, according to that law

in the Parish of Orleans, will be commenced on the 15th instant, and

must be completed by the 15th of May.

"The four municipal districts of the City of New Orleans and the

Parish of Orleans, right bank (Algiers), will each constitute a

Registration district. Election precincts will remain as at present

constituted.

"....Each member of the Board of Registers, before commencing his

duties, will file in the office of the Assistant-Inspector-General at

these headquarters, the oath required in the sixth section of the Act

referred to, and be governed in the execution of his duty by the

provisions of the first section of that Act, faithfully administering

the oath therein prescribed to each person registered.

"Boards of Registers will immediately select suitable offices within

their respective districts, having reference to convenience and

facility of registration, and will enter upon their duties on the day

designated. Each Board will be entitled to two clerks. Office-hours

for registration will be from 8 o'clock till 12 A. M., and from 4

till 7 P. M.

"When elections are ordered, the Board of Registers for each district

will designate the number of polls and the places where they shall be

opened in the election precincts within its district, appoint the

commissioners and other officers necessary for properly conducting

the elections, and will superintend the same.

"They will also receive from the commissioners of elections of the

different precincts the result of the vote, consolidate the same, and

forward it to the commanding general.

"Registers and all officers connected with elections will be held to

a rigid accountability and will be subject to trial by military

commission for fraud, or unlawful or improper conduct in the

performance of their duties. Their rate of compensation and manner

of payment will be in accordance with the provisions of sections six

and seven of the supplemental act.

"....Every male citizen of the United States, twenty-one years old

and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition, who has

been resident in the State of Louisiana for one year and Parish of

Orleans for three months previous to the date at which he presents

himself for registration, and who has not been disfranchised by act

of Congress or for felony at common law, shall, after having taken

and subscribed the oath prescribed in the first section of the act

herein referred to, be entitled to be, and shall be, registered as a

legal voter in the Parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana.

"Pending the decision of the Attorney-General of the United States on

the question as to who are disfranchised by law, registers will give

the most rigid interpretation to the law, and exclude from

registration every person about whose right to vote there may be a

doubt. Any person so excluded who may, under the decision of the

Attorney-General, be entitled to vote, shall be permitted to register

after that decision is received, due notice of which will be given.

"By command of Major-General P. H. SHERIDAN,

"GEO. L. HARTSUFF,

"Assistant Adjutant-General."

The parish Boards of Registration were composed of three members

each. Ability to take what was known as the "ironclad oath" was the

qualification exacted of the members, and they were prohibited from

becoming candidates for office. In the execution of their duties

they were to be governed by the provisions of the supplemental act.

It was also made one of their functions to designate the number and

location of the polling-places in the several districts, to appoint

commissioners for receiving the votes and in general to attend to

such other matters as were necessary, in order properly to conduct

the voting, and afterward to receive from the commissioners the

result of the vote and forward it to my headquarters. These

registers, and all other officers having to do with elections, were

to be held to a rigid accountability, and be subject to trial by

military commission for fraud or unlawful or improper conduct in the

performance of their duties; and in order to be certain that the

Registration Boards performed their work faithfully and

intelligently, officers of the army were appointed as supervisors.

To this end the parishes were grouped together conveniently in

temporary districts, each officer having from three to five parishes

to supervise. The programme thus mapped out for carrying out the law

in Louisiana was likewise adhered to in Texas, and indeed was

followed as a model in some of the other military districts.

Although Military Commissions were fully authorized by the

Reconstruction acts, yet I did not favor their use in governing the

district, and probably would never have convened one had these acts

been observed in good faith. I much preferred that the civil courts,

and the State and municipal authorities already in existence, should

perform their functions without military control or interference, but

occasionally, because the civil authorities neglected their duty, I

was obliged to resort to this means to ensure the punishment Of

offenders. At this time the condition of the negroes in Texas and

Louisiana was lamentable, though, in fact, not worse than that of the

few white loyalists who had been true to the Union during the war.

These last were singled out as special objects of attack, and were,

therefore, obliged at all times to be on the alert for the protection

of their lives and property. This was the natural outcome of Mr.

Johnson's defiance of Congress, coupled with the sudden conversion to

his cause of persons in the North--who but a short time before had

been his bitterest enemies; for all this had aroused among the

disaffected element new hopes of power and place, hopes of being at

once put in political control again, with a resumption of their

functions in State and National matters without any preliminary

authorization by Congress. In fact, it was not only hoped, but

expected, that things were presently to go on just as if there had

been no war.

In the State of Texas there were in 1865 about 200,000 of the colored

race-roughly, a third of the entire population--while in Louisiana

there were not less than 350,000, or more than one-half of all the

people in the State. Until the enactment of the Reconstruction laws

these negroes were without rights, and though they had been liberated

by the war, Mr. Johnson's policy now proposed that they should have

no political status at all, and consequently be at the mercy of a

people who, recently their masters, now seemed to look upon them as

the authors of all the misfortunes that had come upon the land.

Under these circumstances the blacks naturally turned for protection

to those who had been the means of their liberation, and it would

have been little less than inhuman to deny them sympathy. Their

freedom had been given them, and it was the plain duty of those in

authority to make it secure, and screen them from the bitter

political resentment that beset them, and to see that they had a fair

chance in the battle of life. Therefore, when outrages and murders

grew frequent, and the aid of the military power was an absolute

necessity for the protection of life, I employed it unhesitatingly

--the guilty parties being brought to trial before military

commissions--and for a time, at least, there occurred a halt in the

march of terrorism inaugurated by the people whom Mr. Johnson had

deluded.

The first, Military Commission was convened to try the case of John

W. Walker, charged with shooting a negro in the parish of St. John.

The proper civil authorities had made no effort to arrest Walker, and

even connived at his escape, so I had him taken into custody in New

Orleans, and ordered him tried, the commission finding him guilty,

and sentencing him to confinement in the penitentiary for six months.

This shooting was the third occurrence of the kind that had taken

place in St. John's parish, a negro being wounded in each case, and

it was plain that the intention was to institute there a practice of

intimidation which should be effective to subject the freedmen to the

will of their late masters, whether in making labor contracts, or in

case these newly enfranchised negroes should evince a disposition to

avail themselves of the privilege to vote.

The trial and conviction of Walker, and of one or two others for

similar outrages, soon put a stop to every kind of "bull-dozing" in

the country parishes; but about this time I discovered that many

members of the police force in New Orleans were covertly intimidating

the freedmen there, and preventing their appearance at the

registration offices, using milder methods than had obtained in the

country, it is true, but none the less effective.

Early in 1866 the Legislature had passed an act which created for the

police of New Orleans a residence qualification, the object of which

was to discharge and exclude from the force ex-Union soldiers. This

of course would make room for the appointment of ex-Confederates, and

Mayor Monroe had not been slow in enforcing the provisions of the

law. It was, in fact, a result of this enactment that the police was

so reorganized as to become the willing and efficient tool which it

proved to be in the riot of 1866; and having still the same

personnel, it was now in shape to prevent registration by threats,

unwarranted arrests, and by various other influences, all operating

to keep the timid blacks away from the registration places.

That the police were taking a hand in this practice of repression, I

first discovered by the conduct of the assistant to the chief of the

body, and at once removed the offender, but finding this ineffectual

I annulled that part of the State law fixing the five years'

residence restriction, and restored the two years' qualification,

thus enabling Mayor Heath, who by my appointment had succeeded

Monroe, to organize the force anew, and take about one-half of its

members from ex-Union soldiers who when discharged had settled in New

Orleans. This action put an end to intimidation in the parish of

Orleans; and now were put in operation in all sections the processes

provided by the supplemental Reconstruction law for the summoning of

a convention to form a Constitution preparatory to the readmission of

the State, and I was full of hope that there would now be much less

difficulty in administering the trust imposed by Congress.

During the two years previous great damage had been done the

agricultural interests of Louisiana by the overflow of the

Mississippi, the levees being so badly broken as to require extensive

repairs, and the Legislature of 1866 had appropriated for the purpose

$4,000,000, to be raised by an issue of bonds. This money was to be

disbursed by a Board of Levee Commissioners then in existence, but

the term of service of these commissioners, and the law creating the

board, would expire in the spring of 1867. In order to overcome this

difficulty the Legislature passed a bill continuing the commissioners

in office but as the act was passed inside of ten days before the

adjournment of the Legislature, Governor Wells pocketed the bill, and

it failed to become a law. The Governor then appointed a board of

his own, without any warrant of law whatever. The old commissioners

refused to recognize this new board, and of course a conflict of

authority ensued, which, it was clear, would lead to vicious results

if allowed to continue; so, as the people of the State had no

confidence in either of the boards, I decided to end the contention

summarily by appointing an entirely new commission, which would

disburse the money honestly, and further the real purpose for which

it had been appropriated. When I took this course the legislative

board acquiesced, but Governor Wells immediately requested the

President to revoke my order, which, however, was not done, but

meanwhile the Secretary of War directed me to suspend all proceedings

in the matter, and make a report of the facts. I complied in the

following telegram:

"HEADQUARTERS FIFTH MILITARY DISTRICT,

"NEW ORLEANS, La., June 3, 1867.

"SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of

this date in reference to the Levee Commissioners in this State.

"The following were my reasons for abolishing the two former boards,

although I intended that my order should be sufficiently explanatory:

"Previous to the adjournment of the Legislature last winter it passed

an act continuing the old Levee board in office, so that the four

millions of dollars ($4,000,000) in bonds appropriated by the

Legislature might be disbursed by a board of rebellious antecedents.

"After its adjournment the Governor of the State appointed a board of

his own, in violation of this act, and made the acknowledgment to me

in person that his object was to disburse the money in the interest

of his own party by securing for it the vote of the employees at the

time of election.

"The board continued in office by the Legislature refused to turn

over to the Governor's board, and each side appealed to me to sustain

it, which I would not do. The question must then have gone to the

courts, which, according to the Governor's judgment when he was

appealing to me to be sustained, would require one year for decision.

Meantime the State was overflowed, the Levee boards tied up by

political chicanery, and nothing done to relieve the poor people, now

fed by the charity of the Government and charitable associations of

the North.

"To obviate this trouble, and to secure to the overflowed districts

of the State the immediate relief which the honest disbursement of

the four millions ($4,000,000) would give, my order dissolving both

boards was issued.

"I say now, unequivocally, that Governor Wells is a political

trickster and a dishonest man. I have seen him myself, when I first

came to this command, turn out all the Union men who had supported

the Government, and put in their stead rebel soldiers who had not yet

doffed their gray uniform. I have seen him again, during the July

riot of 1866, skulk away where I could not find him to give him a

guard, instead of coming out as a manly representative of the State

and joining those who were preserving the peace. I have watched him

since, and his conduct has been as sinuous as the mark left in the

dust by the movement of a snake.

"I say again that he is dishonest, and that dishonesty is more than

must be expected of me.

"P. H. SHERIDAN,

"Major-General, U. S. A.

"Hon. E. M. STANTON,

"Secretary of War, Washington, D. C."

The same day that I sent my report to the Secretary of War I removed

from office Governor Wells himself, being determined to bear no

longer with the many obstructions he had placed in the way of

reorganizing the civil affairs of the State. I was also satisfied

that he was unfit to retain the place, since he was availing himself

of every opportunity to work political ends beneficial to himself.

In this instance Wells protested to me against his removal, and also

appealed to the President for an opinion of the Attorney-General as

to my power in the case; and doubtless he would have succeeded in

retaining his office, but for the fact that the President had been

informed by General James B. Steadman and others placed to watch me

that Wells was wholly unworthy.

"NEW ORLEANS, June 19, 1867.

"ANDREW JOHNSON, President United States,

"Washington City:

"Lewis D. Campbell leaves New Orleans for home this evening. Want

of respect for Governor Wells personally, alone represses the

expression of indignation felt by all honest and sensible men at the

unwarranted usurpation of General Sheridan in removing the civil

officers of Louisiana. It is believed here that you will reinstate

Wells. He is a bad man, and has no influence.

"I believe Sheridan made the removals to embarrass you, believing the

feeling at the North would sustain him. My conviction is that on

account of the bad character of Wells and Monroe, you ought not to

reinstate any who have been removed, because you cannot reinstate any

without reinstating all, but you ought to prohibit the exercise of

this power in the future.

"Respectfully yours,

"JAMES B. STEADMAN."

I appointed Mr. Thomas J. Durant as Wells's successor, but he

declining, I then appointed Mr. Benjamin F. Flanders, who, after I

had sent a staff-officer to forcibly eject Wells in case of

necessity, took possession of the Governor's office. Wells having

vacated, Governor Flanders began immediately the exercise of his

duties in sympathy with the views of Congress, and I then notified

General Grant that I thought he need have no further apprehension

about the condition of affairs in Louisiana, as my appointee was a

man of such integrity and ability that I already felt relieved of

half my labor. I also stated in the same despatch that nothing would

answer in Louisiana but a bold and firm course, and that in taking

such a one I felt that I was strongly supported; a statement that was

then correct, for up to this period the better classes were disposed

to accept the Congressional plan of reconstruction.

During the controversy over the Levee Commissioners, and the

correspondence regarding the removal of Governor Wells, registration

had gone on under the rules laid down for the boards. The date set

for closing the books was the 30th of June, but in the parish of

Orleans the time was extended till the 15th of July. This the

President considered too short a period, and therefore directed the

registry lists not to be closed before the 1st of August, unless

there was some good reason to the contrary. This was plainly

designed to keep the books open in order that under the

Attorney-General's interpretation of the Reconstruction laws, published

June 20, many persons who had been excluded by the registration boards

could yet be registered, so I decided to close the registration, unless

required by the President unconditionally, and in specific orders, to

extend the time. My motives were manifold, but the main reasons were

that as two and a half months had been given already, the number of

persons who, under the law, were qualified for registry was about

exhausted; and because of the expense I did not feel warranted in

keeping up the boards longer, as I said, "to suit new issues coming in

at the eleventh hour," which would but open a "broad macadamized road

for perjury and fraud."

When I thus stated what I intended to do, the opinion of the

Attorney-General had not yet been received. When it did reach me it

was merely in the form of a circular signed by Adjutant-General

Townsend, and had no force of law. It was not even sent as an order,

nor was it accompanied by any instructions, or by anything except the

statement that it was transmitted to the 11 respective military

commanders for their information, in order that there might be

uniformity in the execution of the Reconstruction acts. To adopt

Mr. Stanbery's interpretation of the law and reopen registration

accordingly, would defeat the purpose of Congress, as well as add to

my perplexities. Such a course would also require that the officers

appointed by me for the performance of specified duties, under laws

which I was empowered to interpret and enforce, should receive their

guidance and instructions from an unauthorized source, so on

communicating with General Grant as to how I should act, he directed

me to enforce my own construction of the military bill until ordered

to do otherwise.

Therefore the registration continued as I had originally directed,

and nothing having been definitely settled at Washington in relation

to my extending the time, on the 10th of July I ordered all the

registration boards to select, immediately, suitable persons to act

as commissioners of election, and at the same time specified the

number of each set of commissioners, designated the polling-places,

gave notice that two days would be allowed for voting, and followed

this with an order discontinuing registration the 31st of July, and

then another appointing the 27th and 28th of September as the time

for the election of delegates to the State convention.

In accomplishing the registration there had been little opposition

from the mass of the people, but the press of New Orleans, and the

office-holders and office-seekers in the State generally, antagonized

the work bitterly and violently, particularly after the promulgation

of the opinion of the Attorney-General. These agitators condemned

everybody and everything connected with the Congressional plan of

reconstruction; and the pernicious influence thus exerted was

manifested in various ways, but most notably in the selection of

persons to compose the jury lists in the country parishes it also

tempted certain municipal officers in New Orleans to perform illegal

acts that would seriously have affected the credit of the city had

matters not been promptly corrected by the summary removal from

office of the comptroller and the treasurer, who had already issued a

quarter of a million dollars in illegal certificates. On learning of

this unwarranted and unlawful proceeding, Mayor Heath demanded an

investigation by the Common Council, but this body, taking its cue

from the evident intention of the President to render abortive the

Reconstruction acts, refused the mayor's demand. Then he tried to

have the treasurer and comptroller restrained by injunction, but the

city attorney, under the same inspiration as the council, declined to

sue out a writ, and the attorney being supported in this course by

nearly all the other officials, the mayor was left helpless in his

endeavors to preserve the city's credit. Under such circumstances he

took the only step left him--recourse to the military commander; and

after looking into the matter carefully I decided, in the early part

of August, to give the mayor officials who would not refuse to make

an investigation of the illegal issue of certificates, and to this

end I removed the treasurer, surveyor, comptroller, city attorney,

and twenty-two of the aldermen; these officials, and all of their

assistants, having reduced the financial credit of New Orleans to a

disordered condition, and also having made efforts--and being then

engaged in such--to hamper the execution of the Reconstruction laws.

This action settled matters in the city, but subsequently I had to

remove some officials in the parishes--among them a justice of the

peace and a sheriff in the parish of Rapides; the justice for

refusing to permit negro witnesses to testify in a certain murder

case, and for allowing the murderer, who had foully killed a colored

man, to walk out of his court on bail in the insignificant sum of

five hundred dollars; and the sheriff, for conniving at the escape

from jail of another alleged murderer. Finding, however, even after

these removals, that in the country districts murderers and other

criminals went unpunished, provided the offenses were against negroes

merely (since the jurors were selected exclusively from the whites,

and often embraced those excluded from the exercise of the election

franchise) I, having full authority under the Reconstruction laws,

directed such a revision of the jury lists as would reject from them

every man not eligible for registration as a voter. This order was

issued August 24, and on its promulgation the President relieved me

from duty and assigned General Hancock as my successor.

"HEADQUARTERS FIFTH MILITARY DISTRICT,

"NEW ORLEANS, LA., August 24, 1867.

"SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 125.

"The registration of voters of the State of Louisiana, according to

the law of Congress, being complete, it is hereby ordered that no

person who is not registered in accordance with said law shall be

considered as, a duly qualified voter of the State of Louisiana. All

persons duly registered as above, and no others, are consequently

eligible, under the laws of the State of Louisiana, to serve as

jurors in any of the courts of the State.

"The necessary revision of the jury lists will immediately be made by

the proper officers.

"All the laws of the State respecting exemptions, etc., from jury

duty will remain in force.

"By command of Major-General P. H. SHERIDAN.

"GEO. L. HARTNUFF, Asst. Adj't-General."

Pending the arrival of General Hancock, I turned over the command of

the district September 1 to General Charles Griffin; but he dying of

yellow fever, General J. A. Mower succeeded him, and retained command

till November 29, on which date General Hancock assumed control.

Immediately after Hancock took charge, he revoked my order of August

24 providing for a revision of the jury lists; and, in short,

President Johnson's policy now became supreme, till Hancock himself

was relieved in March, 1868.

My official connection with the reconstruction of Louisiana and Texas

practically closed with this order concerning the jury lists. In my

judgment this had become a necessity, for the disaffected element,

sustained as it was by the open sympathy of the President, had grown

so determined in its opposition to the execution of the

Reconstruction acts that I resolved to remove from place and power

all obstacles; for the summer's experience had convinced me that in

no other way could the law be faithfully administered.

The President had long been dissatisfied with my course; indeed, he

had harbored personal enmity against me ever since he perceived that

he could not bend me to an acceptance of the false position in which

he had tried to place me by garbling my report of the riot of 1866.

When Mr. Johnson decided to remove me, General Grant protested in

these terms, but to no purpose:

"HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES,

"WASHINGTON, D. C., August 17, 1867

"SIR: I am in receipt of your order of this date directing the

assignment of General G. H. Thomas to the command of the Fifth

Military District, General Sheridan to the Department of the

Missouri, and General Hancock to the Department of the Cumberland;

also your note of this date (enclosing these instructions), saying:

'Before you issue instructions to carry into effect the enclosed

order, I would be pleased to hear any suggestions you may deem

necessary respecting the assignments to which the order refers.'

"I am pleased to avail myself of this invitation to urge--earnestly

urge--urge in the name of a patriotic people, who have sacrificed

hundreds of thousands of loyal lives and thousands of millions of

treasure to preserve the integrity and union of this country--that

this order be not insisted on. It is unmistakably the expressed wish

of the country that General Sheridan should not be removed from his

present command.

"This is a republic where the will of the people is the law of the

land. I beg that their voice may be heard.

"General Sheridan has performed his civil duties faithfully and

intelligently. His removal will only be regarded as an effort to

defeat the laws of Congress. It will be interpreted by the

unreconstructed element in the South--those who did all they could to

break up this Government by arms, and now wish to be the only element

consulted as to the method of restoring order--as a triumph. It will

embolden them to renewed opposition to the will of the loyal masses,

believing that they have the Executive with them.

"The services of General Thomas in battling for the Union entitle him

to some consideration. He has repeatedly entered his protest against

being assigned to either of the five military districts, and

especially to being assigned to relieve General Sheridan.

"There are military reasons, pecuniary reasons, and above all,

patriotic reasons, why this should not be insisted upon.

"I beg to refer to a letter marked 'private,' which I wrote to the

President when first consulted on the subject of the change in the

War Department. It bears upon the subject of this removal, and I had

hoped would have prevented it.

"I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant,

"U. S. GRANT,

"General U. S. A., Secretary of War ad interim.

"His Excellency A. JOHNSON,

"President of the United States."

I was ordered to command the Department of the Missouri (General

Hancock, as already noted, finally becoming my successor in the Fifth

Military District), and left New Orleans on the 5th of September. I

was not loath to go. The kind of duty I had been performing in

Louisiana and Texas was very trying under the most favorable

circumstances, but all the more so in my case, since I had to contend

against the obstructions which the President placed in the way from

persistent opposition to the acts of Congress as well as from

antipathy to me--which obstructions he interposed with all the

boldness and aggressiveness of his peculiar nature.

On more than one occasion while I was exercising this command,

impurity of motive was imputed to me, but it has never been

truthfully shown (nor can it ever be) that political or corrupt

influences of any kind controlled me in any instance. I simply tried

to carry out, without fear or favor, the Reconstruction acts as they

came to me. They were intended to disfranchise certain persons, and

to enfranchise certain others, and, till decided otherwise, were the

laws of the land; and it was my duty to execute them faithfully,

without regard, on the one hand, for those upon whom it was thought

they bore so heavily, nor, on the other, for this or that political

party, and certainly without deference to those persons sent to

Louisiana to influence my conduct of affairs.

Some of these missionaries were high officials, both military and

civil, and I recall among others a visit made me in 1866 by a

distinguished friend of the President, Mr. Thomas A. Hendricks. The

purpose of his coming was to convey to me assurances of the very high

esteem in which I was held by the President, and to explain

personally Mr. Johnson's plan of reconstruction, its flawless

constitutionality, and so on. But being on the ground, I had before

me the exhibition of its practical working, saw the oppression and

excesses growing out of it, and in the face of these experiences even

Mr. Hendricks's persuasive eloquence was powerless to convince me of

its beneficence. Later General Lovell H. Rousseau came down on a

like mission, but was no more successful than Mr. Hendricks.

During the whole period that I commanded in Louisiana and Texas my

position was a most unenviable one. The service was unusual, and the

nature of it scarcely to be understood by those not entirely familiar

with the conditions existing immediately after the war. In

administering the affairs of those States, I never acted except by

authority, and always from conscientious motives. I tried to guard

the rights of everybody in accordance with the law. In this I was

supported by General Grant and opposed by President Johnson. The

former had at heart, above every other consideration, the good of his

country, and always sustained me with approval and kind suggestions.

The course pursued by the President was exactly the opposite, and

seems to prove that in the whole matter of reconstruction he was

governed less by patriotic motives than by personal ambitions. Add

to this his natural obstinacy of character and personal enmity toward

me, and no surprise should be occasioned when I say that I heartily

welcomed the order that lifted from me my unsought burden.

CHAPTER XII.

AT FORT LEAVENWORTH--THE TREATY OF MEDICINE LODGE--GOING TO FORT

DODGE--DISCONTENTED INDIANS--INDIAN OUTRAGES--A DELEGATION OF CHIEFS

--TERRIBLE INDIAN RAID--DEATH OF COMSTOCK--VAST HERDS OF BUFFALO

--PREPARING FOR A WINTER CAMPAIGN--MEETING "BUFFALO BILL"

--HE UNDERTAKES A DANGEROUS TASK--FORSYTH'S GALLANT FIGHT--RESCUED.

The headquarters of the military department to which I was assigned

when relieved from duty at New Orleans was at Fort Leavenworth,

Kansas, and on the 5th of September I started for that post. In due

time I reached St. Louis, and stopped there a day to accept an

ovation tendered in approval of the course I had pursued in the Fifth

Military District--a public demonstration apparently of the most

sincere and hearty character.

From St. Louis to Leavenworth took but one night, and the next day I

technically complied with my orders far enough to permit General

Hancock to leave the department, so that he might go immediately to

New Orleans if he so desired, but on account of the yellow fever

epidemic then prevailing, he did not reach the city till late in

November.

My new command was one of the four military departments that composed

the geographical division then commanded by Lieutenant-General

Sherman. This division had been formed in 1866, with a view to

controlling the Indians west of the Missouri River, they having

become very restless and troublesome because of the building of the

Pacific railroads through their hunting-grounds, and the

encroachments of pioneers, who began settling in middle and western

Kansas and eastern Colorado immediately after the war.

My department embraced the States of Missouri and Kansas, the Indian

Territory, and New Mexico. Part of this section of country--western

Kansas particularly--had been frequently disturbed and harassed

during two or three years past, the savages every now and then

massacring an isolated family, boldly attacking the surveying and

construction parties of the Kansas-Pacific railroad, sweeping down on

emigrant trains, plundering and burning stage-stations and the like

along the Smoky Hill route to Denver and the Arkansas route to New

Mexico.

However, when I relieved Hancock, the department was comparatively

quiet. Though some military operations had been conducted against

the hostile tribes in the early part of the previous summer, all

active work was now suspended in the attempt to conclude a permanent

peace with the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Comanches, in

compliance with the act of Congress creating what was known as the

Indian Peace Commission of 1867.

Under these circumstances there was little necessity for my remaining

at Leavenworth, and as I was much run down in health from the

Louisiana climate, in which I had been obliged to live continuously

for three summers (one of which brought epidemic cholera, and another

a scourge of yellow fever), I took a leave of absence for a few

months, leaving Colonel A. J. Smith, of the Seventh Cavalry,

temporarily in charge of my command.

On this account I did not actually go on duty in the department of

the Missouri till March, 1868. On getting back I learned that the

negotiations of the Peace Commissioners held at Medicine Lodge, about

seventy miles south of Fort Larned had resulted in a treaty with the

Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, and Comanches, by which agreement it

was supposed all troubles had been settled. The compact, as

concluded, contained numerous provisions, the most important to us

being one which practically relinquished the country between the

Arkansas and Platte rivers for white settlement; another permitted

the peaceable construction of the Pacific railroads through the same

region; and a third requiring the tribes signing the treaty to retire

to reservations allotted them in the Indian Territory. Although the

chiefs and head-men were well-nigh unanimous in ratifying these

concessions, it was discovered in the spring of 1868 that many of the

young men were bitterly opposed to what had been done, and claimed

that most of the signatures had been obtained by misrepresentation

and through proffers of certain annuities, and promises of arms and

ammunition to be issued in the spring of 1868. This grumbling was

very general in extent, and during the winter found outlet in

occasional marauding, so, fearing a renewal of the pillaging and

plundering at an early day, to prepare myself for the work evidently

ahead the first thing I did on assuming permanent command was to make

a trip to Fort Larned and Fort Dodge, near which places the bulk of

the Indians had congregated on Pawnee and Walnut creeks. I wanted to

get near enough to the camps to find out for myself the actual state

of feeling among the savages, and also to familiarize myself with the

characteristics of the Plains Indians, for my previous experience had

been mainly with mountain tribes on the Pacific coast. Fort Larned I

found too near the camps for my purpose, its proximity too readily

inviting unnecessary "talks," so I remained here but a day or two,

and then went on to Dodge, which, though considerably farther away

from the camps, was yet close enough to enable us to obtain easily

information of all that was going on.

It took but a few days at Dodge to discover that great discontent

existed about the Medicine Lodge concessions, to see that the young

men were chafing and turbulent, and that it would require much tact

and good management on the part of the Indian Bureau to persuade the

four tribes to go quietly to their reservations, under an agreement

which, when entered into, many of them protested had not been fully

understood.

A few hours after my arrival a delegation of prominent chiefs called

on me and proposed a council, where they might discuss their

grievances, and thus bring to the notice of the Government the

alleged wrongs done them; but this I refused, because Congress had

delegated to the Peace Commission the whole matter of treating with

them, and a council might lead only to additional complications. My

refusal left them without hope of securing better terms, or of even

delaying matters longer; so henceforth they were more than ever

reckless and defiant. Denunciations of the treaty became outspoken,

and as the young braves grew more and more insolent every day, it

amounted to conviction that, unless by some means the irritation was

allayed, hostilities would surely be upon us when the buffalo

returned to their summer feeding-grounds between the Arkansas and the

Platte.

The principal sufferers in this event would be the settlers in middle

and western Kansas, who, entirely ignorant of the dangers hanging

over them, were laboring to build up homes in a new country. Hence

the maintenance of peace was much to be desired, if it could be

secured without too great concessions, and although I would not meet

the different tribes in a formal council, yet, to ward off from

settlers as much as possible the horrors of savage warfare, I showed,

by resorting to persuasive methods, my willingness to temporize a

good deal. An abundant supply of rations is usually effective to

keep matters quiet in such cases, so I fed them pretty freely, and

also endeavored to control them through certain men who, I found,

because of former associations, had their confidence. These men,

employed as scouts, or interpreters, were Mr. William Comstock, Mr.

Abner S. Grover, and Mr. Richard Parr. They had lived on the Plains

for many years with different tribes of Indians, had trapped and

hunted with them, and knew all the principal chiefs and headmen.

Through such influences, I thought I saw good chances of preserving

peace, and of inducing the discontented to go quietly to their

reservations in the Indian Territory as soon as General Hazen, the

representative of the Peace Commissioners, was ready to conduct them

there from Fort Larned.

Before returning to Leavenworth I put my mediators (as I may call

them) under charge of an officer of the army, Lieutenant F. W.

Beecher, a very intelligent man, and directed him to send them out to

visit among the different tribes, in order to explain what was

intended by the treaty of Medicine Lodge, and to make every effort

possible to avert hostilities. Under these instructions Comstock and

Grover made it their business to go about among the Cheyennes--the

most warlike tribe of all--then camping about the headwaters of

Pawnee and Walnut creeks, and also to the north and west of Fort

Wallace, while Parr spent his time principally with the Kiowas and

Comanches.

From the different posts--Wallace, Dodge, and Larned Lieutenant

Beecher kept up communication with all three scouts, and through him

I heard from them at least once a week. Every now and then some

trouble along the railroad or stage routes would be satisfactorily

adjusted and quiet restored, and matters seemed to be going on very

well, the warm weather bringing the grass and buffalo in plenty, and

still no outbreak, nor any act of downright hostility. So I began to

hope that we should succeed in averting trouble till the favorite war

season of the Indians was over, but the early days of August rudely

ended our fancied tranquility.

In July the encampments about Fort Dodge began to break up, each band

or tribe moving off to some new location north of the Arkansas,

instead of toward its proper reservation to the south of that river.

Then I learned presently that a party of Cheyennes had made a raid on

the Kaws--a band of friendly Indians living near Council Grove--and

stolen their horses, and also robbed the houses of several white

people near Council Grove. This raid was the beginning of the Indian

war of 1868. Immediately following it, the Comanches and Kiowas came

to Fort Larned to receive their annuities, expecting to get also the

arms and ammunition promised them at Medicine Lodge, but the raid to

Council Grove having been reported to the Indian Department, the

issue of arms was suspended till reparation was made. This action of

the Department greatly incensed the savages, and the agent's offer of

the annuities without guns and pistols was insolently refused, the

Indians sulking back to their camps, the young men giving themselves

up to war-dances, and to powwows with "medicine-men," till all hope

of control was gone.

Brevet Brigadier-General Alfred Sully, an officer of long experience

in Indian matters, who at this time was in command of the District of

the Arkansas, which embraced Forts Larned and Dodge, having notified

me of these occurrences at Larned, and expressed the opinion that the

Indians were bent on mischief, I directed him there immediately to

act against them. After he reached Larned, the chances for peace

appeared more favorable. The Indians came to see him, and protested

that it was only a few bad young men who had been depredating, and

that all would be well and the young men held in check if the agent

would but issue the arms and ammunition. Believing their promises,

Sully thought that the delivery of the arms would solve all the

difficulties, so on his advice the agent turned them over along with

the annuities, the Indians this time condescendingly accepting.

This issue of arms and ammunition was a fatal mistake; Indian

diplomacy had overreached Sully's experience, and even while the

delivery was in progress a party of warriors had already begun a raid

of murder and rapine, which for acts of devilish cruelty perhaps has

no parallel in savage warfare. The party consisted of about two

hundred Cheyennes and a few Arapahoes, with twenty Sioux who had been

visiting their friends, the Cheyennes. As near as could be

ascertained, they organized and left their camps along Pawnee Creek

about the 3d of August. Traveling northeast, they skirted around

Fort Harker, and made their first appearance among the settlers in

the Saline Valley, about thirty miles north of that post. Professing

friendship and asking food at the farm-houses, they saw the

unsuspecting occupants comply by giving all they could spare from

their scanty stores. Knowing the Indian's inordinate fondness for

coffee, particularly when well sweetened, they even served him this

luxury freely. With this the demons began their devilish work.

Pretending to be indignant because it was served them in tin cups,

they threw the hot contents into the women's faces, and then, first

making prisoners of the men, they, one after another, ravished the

women till the victims became insensible. For some inexplicable

reason the two farmers were neither killed nor carried off, so after

the red fiends had gone, the unfortunate women were brought in to

Fort Harker, their arrival being the first intimation to the military

that hostilities had actually begun.

Leaving the Saline, this war-party crossed over to the valley of the

Solomon, a more thickly settled region, and where the people were in

better circumstances, their farms having been started two or three

years before. Unaware of the hostile character of the raiders, the

people here received them in the friendliest way, providing food, and

even giving them ammunition, little dreaming of what was impending.

These kindnesses were requited with murder and pillage, and worse,

for all the women who fell into their hands were subjected to horrors

indescribable by words. Here also the first murders were committed,

thirteen men and two women being killed. Then, after burning five

houses and stealing all the horses they could find, they turned back

toward the Saline, carrying away as prisoners two little girls named

Bell, who have never been heard of since.

It was probably the intention to finish, as they marched back to the

south, the devilish work begun on the Saline, but before they reached

that valley on the return, the victims left there originally had fled

to Fort Harker, as already explained, and Captain Benteen was now

nearing the little settlement with a troop of cavalry, which he had

hurriedly marched from Fort Zarah. The savages were attacking the

house of a Mr. Schermerhorn, where a few of the settlers had

collected for defense, when Benteen approached. Hearing the firing,

the troopers rode toward the sound at a gallop, but when they

appeared in view, coming over the hills, the Indians fled in all

directions, escaping punishment through their usual tactics of

scattering over the Plains, so as to leave no distinctive trail.

When this frightful raid was taking place, Lieutenant Beecher, with

his three scouts--Comstock, Grover, and Parr--was on Walnut Creek.

Indefinite rumors about troubles on the Saline and Solomon reaching

him, he immediately sent Comstock and Grover over to the headwaters

of the Solomon, to the camp of a band of Cheyennes, whose chief was

called "Turkey Leg," to see if any of the raiders belonged there; to

learn the facts, and make explanations, if it was found that the

white people had been at fault. For years this chief had been a

special friend of Comstock and Grover. They had trapped, hunted, and

lived with his band, and from this intimacy they felt confident of

being able to get "Turkey Leg" to quiet his people, if any of them

were engaged in the raid; and, at all events, they expected, through

him and his band, to influence the rest of the Cheyennes. From the

moment they arrived in the Indian village, however, the two scouts

met with a very cold reception. Neither friendly pipe nor food was

offered them, and before they could recover from their chilling

reception, they were peremptorily ordered out of the village, with

the intimation that when the Cheyennes were on the war-path the

presence of whites was intolerable. The scouts were prompt to leave,

of course, and for a few miles were accompanied by an escort of seven

young men, who said they were sent with them to protect the two from

harm. As the party rode along over the prairie, such a depth

of attachment was professed for Comstock and Grover that,

notwithstanding all the experience of their past lives, they were

thoroughly deceived, and in the midst of a friendly conversation some

of the young warriors fell suddenly to the rear and treacherously

fired on them.

At the volley Comstock fell from his horse instantly killed. Grover,

badly wounded in the shoulder, also fell to the ground near Comstock

Seeing his comrade was dead, Grover made use of his friend's body to

protect himself, lying close behind it. Then took place a remarkable

contest, Grover, alone and severely wounded, obstinately fighting the

seven Indians, and holding them at bay for the rest of the day.

Being an expert shot, and having a long-range repeating rifle, he

"stood off" the savages till dark. Then cautiously crawling away on

his belly to a deep ravine, he lay close, suffering terribly from his

wound, till the following night, when, setting out for Fort Wallace,

he arrived there the succeeding day, almost crazed from pain and

exhaustion.

Simultaneously with the fiendish atrocities committed on the Saline

and Solomon rivers and the attack on Comstock and Grover, the

pillaging and murdering began on the Smoky Hill stage-route, along

the upper Arkansas River and on the headwaters of the Cimarron. That

along the Smoky Hill and north of it was the exclusive work of, the

Cheyennes, a part of the Arapahoes, and the few Sioux allies

heretofore mentioned, while the raiding on the Arkansas and Cimarron

was done principally by the Kiowas under their chief, Satanta, aided

by some of the Comanches. The young men of these tribes set out on

their bloody work just after the annuities and guns were issued at

Larned, and as soon as they were well on the road the rest of the

Comanches and Kiowas escaped from the post and fled south of the

Arkansas. They were at once pursued by General Sully with a small

force, but by the time he reached the Cimarron the war-party had

finished its raid on the upper Arkansas, and so many Indians combined

against Sully that he was compelled to withdraw to Fort Dodge, which

he reached not without considerable difficulty, and after three

severe fights.

These, and many minor raids which followed, made it plain that a

general outbreak was upon us. The only remedy, therefore, was to

subjugate the savages immediately engaged in the forays by forcing

the several tribes to settle down on the reservations set apart by

the treaty of Medicine Lodge. The principal mischief-makers were the

Cheyennes. Next in deviltry were the Kiowas, and then the Arapahoes

and Comanches. Some few of these last two tribes continued friendly,

or at least took no active part in the raiding, but nearly all the

young men of both were the constant allies of the Cheyennes and

Kiowas. All four tribes together could put on the war-path a

formidable force of about 6,000 warriors. The subjugation of this

number of savages would be no easy task, so to give the matter my

undivided attention I transferred my headquarters from Leavenworth to

Fort Hays, a military post near which the prosperous town of Hays

City now stands.

Fort Hays was just beyond the line of the most advanced settlements,

and was then the terminus of the Kansas-Pacific railroad. For this

reason it could be made a depot of supplies, and was a good point

from which to supervise matters in the section of country to be

operated in, which district is a part of the Great American Plains,

extending south from the Platte River in Nebraska to the Red River in

the Indian Territory, and westward from the line of frontier

settlements to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, a vast region

embracing an area of about 150,000 square miles. With the exception

of a half-dozen military posts and a few stations on the two overland

emigrant routes--the Smoky Hill to Denver, and the Arkansas to New

Mexico--this country was an unsettled waste known only to the Indians

and a few trappers. There were neither roads nor well-marked trails,

and the only timber to be found--which generally grew only along the

streams--was so scraggy and worthless as hardly to deserve the name.

Nor was water by any means plentiful, even though the section is

traversed by important streams, the Republican, the Smoky Hill, the

Arkansas, the Cimarron, and the Canadian all flowing eastwardly, as

do also their tributaries in the main. These feeders are sometimes

long and crooked, but as a general thing the volume of water is

insignificant except after rain-falls. Then, because of unimpeded

drainage, the little streams fill up rapidly with torrents of water,

which quickly flows off or sinks into the sand, leaving only an

occasional pool without visible inlet or outlet.

At the period of which I write, in 1868, the Plains were covered with

vast herds of buffalo--the number has been estimated at 3,000,000

head--and with such means of subsistence as this everywhere at hand,

the 6,000 hostiles were wholly unhampered by any problem of

food-supply. The savages were rich too according to Indian standards,

many a lodge owning from twenty to a hundred ponies; and

consciousness of wealth and power, aided by former temporizing, had

made them not only confident but defiant. Realizing that their

thorough subjugation would be a difficult task, I made up my mind to

confine operations during the grazing and hunting season to

protecting the people of the new settlements and on the overland

routes, and then, when winter came, to fall upon the savages

relentlessly, for in that season their ponies would be thin, and weak

from lack of food, and in the cold and snow, without strong ponies to

transport their villages and plunder, their movements would be so

much impeded that the troops could overtake them.

At the outbreak of hostilities I had in all, east of New Mexico, a

force of regulars numbering about 2,600 men--1,200 mounted and 1,400

foot troops. The cavalry was composed of the Seventh and Tenth

regiments; the infantry, of the Third and Fifth regiments and four

companies of the Thirty-Eighth. With these few troops all the posts

along the Smoky Hill and Arkansas had to be garrisoned, emigrant

trains escorted, and the settlements and routes of travel and the

construction parties on the Kansas-Pacific railway protected. Then,

too, this same force had to furnish for the field small movable

columns, that were always on the go, so it will be rightly inferred

that every available man was kept busy from the middle of August till

November; especially as during this period the hostiles attacked over

forty widely dispersed places, in nearly all cases stealing horses,

burning houses, and killing settlers. It was of course impossible to

foresee where these descents would be made, but as soon as an attack

was heard of assistance was always promptly rendered, and every now

and then we succeeded in killing a few savages. As a general thing,

though, the raiders escaped before relief arrived, and when they had

a few miles the start, all efforts to catch them were futile. I

therefore discouraged long pursuits, and, in fact, did not approve of

making any at all unless the chances of obtaining paying results were

very evident, otherwise the troops would be worn out by the time the

hard work of the winter was demanded from them.

To get ready for a winter campaign of six months gave us much to do.

The thing most needed was more men, so I asked for additional

cavalry, and all that could be spareds--even troops of the Fifth

Cavalry--was sent tome. Believing this reinforcement insufficient,

to supplement it I applied for a regiment of Kansas volunteers, which

request being granted, the organization of the regiment was

immediately begun at Topeka. It was necessary also to provide a

large amount of transportation and accumulate quantities of stores,

since the campaign probably would not end till spring. Another

important matter was to secure competent guides for the different

columns of troops, for, as I have said, the section of country to be

operated in was comparatively unknown.

In those days the railroad town of Hays City was filled with so

called "Indian scouts," whose common boast was of having slain scores

of redskins, but the real scout--that is, a 'guide and trailer

knowing the habits of the Indians--was very scarce, and it was hard

to find anybody familiar with the country south of the Arkansas,

where the campaign was to be made. Still, about Hays City and the

various military posts there was some good material to select from,

and we managed to employ several men, who, from their experience on

the Plains in various capacities, or from natural instinct and

aptitude, soon became excellent guides and courageous and valuable

scouts, some of them, indeed, gaining much distinction. Mr. William

F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill"), whose renown has since become world-wide,

was one of the men thus selected. He received his sobriquet from his

marked success in killing buffaloes for a contractor, to supply fresh

meat to the construction parties, on the Kansas-Pacific railway. He

had given up this business, however, and was now in the employ of the

quartermaster's department of the army, and was first brought to my

notice by distinguishing himself in bringing me an important despatch

from Fort Larned to Fort Hays, a distance of sixty-five miles,

through a section infested with Indians. The despatch informed me

that the Indians near Larned were preparing to decamp, and this

intelligence required that certain orders should be carried to Fort

Dodge, ninety-five miles south of Hays. This too being a

particularly dangerous route--several couriers having been killed on

it--it was impossible to get one of the various "Petes," "Jacks," or

"Jims" hanging around Hays City to take my communication. Cody

learning of the strait I was in, manfully came to the rescue, and

proposed to make the trip to Dodge, though he had just finished his

long and perilous ride from Larned. I gratefully accepted his offer,

and after four or five hours' rest he mounted a fresh horse and

hastened on his journey, halting but once to rest on the way, and

then only for an hour, the stop being made at Coon Creek, where he

got another mount from a troop of cavalry. At Dodge he took six

hours' sleep, and then continued on to his own post--Fort Larned

--with more despatches. After resting twelve hours at Larned, he was

again in the saddle with tidings for me at Fort Hays, General Hazen

sending him, this time, with word that the villages had fled to the

south of the Arkansas. Thus, in all, Cody rode about 350 miles in less

than sixty hours, and such an exhibition of endurance and courage was

more than enough to convince me that his services would be extremely

valuable in the campaign, so I retained him at Fort Hays till the

battalion of the Fifth Cavalry arrived, and then made him chief of

scouts for that regiment.

The information brought me by Cody on his second trip from Larned

indicated where the villages would be found in the winter, and I

decided to move on them about the 1st of November. Only the women

and children and the decrepit old men were with the villages, however

enough, presumably, to look after the plunder most of the warriors

remaining north of the Arkansas to continue their marauding. Many

severe fights occurred between our troops and these marauders, and in

these affairs, before November 1 over a hundred Indians were killed,

yet from the ease with which the escaping savages would disappear

only to fall upon remote settlements with pillage and murder, the

results were by no means satisfactory. One of the most noteworthy of

these preliminary affairs was the gallant fight made on the

Republican River the 17th of September by my Aide, Colonel George A.

Forsyth, and party, against about seven hundred Cheyennes and Sioux.

Forsyth, with Lieutenant Beecher, and Doctor J. H. Mooers as surgeon,

was in charge of a company of citizen scouts, mostly expert

rifle-shots, but embracing also a few Indian fighters, among these

Grover and Parr. The company was organized the latter part of August

for immediate work in defense of the settlements, and also for future

use in the Indian Territory when the campaign should open there. About

the time the company had reached its complement--it was limited to

forty-seven men and three officers--a small band of hostiles began

depredations near Sheridan City, one of the towns that grew up

over-night on the Kansas-Pacific railway. Forsyth pursued this party,

but failing to overtake it, made his way into Fort Wallace for rations,

intending to return from there to Fort Hays. Before he started back,

however, another band of Indians appeared near the post and stole some

horses from the stage company. This unexpected raid made Forsyth hot

to go for the marauders, and he telegraphed me for permission, which I

as promptly gave him. He left the post on the 10th of September, the

command consisting of himself, Lieutenant Beecher, Acting Assistant

Surgeon Mooers, and the full strength, forty-seven men, with a few pack

mules carrying about ten days' rations.

He headed north toward the Republican River. For the first two days

the trail was indistinct and hard to follow. During the next three

it continued to grow much larger, indicating plainly that the number

of Indians ahead was rapidly increasing. Of course this sign meant a

fight as soon as a large enough force was mustered, but as this was

what Forsyth was after, he pushed ahead with confidence and alacrity.

The night of the 16th of September he encamped on the Arickaree

branch of the Republican, not far from the forks of the river, with

the expectation of resuming the march as usual next day, for the

indications were that the main body of the savages must be still a

long way off, though in the preceding twenty-four hours an occasional

Indian had been seen.

But the enemy was much nearer than was thought, for at daybreak on

the morning of the 17th he made known his immediate presence by a

sudden dash at Forsyth's horses, a few of which were stampeded and

captured before the scouts could reach them. This dash was made by a

small party only to get the horses, so those engaged in it were soon

driven off, but a few minutes later hundreds of savages--it was

afterward learned that seven hundred warriors took part in the fight

--hitherto invisible, showed themselves on the hills overlooking the

camp and so menacingly as to convince Forsyth that his defense must

be one of desperation. The only place at hand that gave any hope of

successful resistance was a small island in the Arickaree, the

channel on one side being about a foot deep while on the other it was

completely dry; so to this position a hurried retreat was made. All

the men and the remaining animals reached the island in safety, but

on account of the heavy fire poured in from the neighboring hills the

packs containing the rations and medicines had to be abandoned.

On seeing Forsyth's hasty move, the Indians, thinking they had him,

prepared to overwhelm the scouts by swooping down on one side of the

island with about five hundred mounted warriors, while about two

hundred, covered by the tall grass in the river-bottom attacked the

other side, dismounted. But the brave little band sadly disappointed

them. When the charge came it was met with such a deadly fire that a

large number of the fiends were killed, some of them even after

gaining the bank of the island. This check had the effect of making

the savages more wary, but they were still bold enough to make two

more assaults before mid-day. Each of these ending like the first,

the Indians thereafter contented themselves with shooting

all the horses, which had been tied up to some scraggy little

cottonwood-trees, and then proceeded to lay siege to the party.

The first man struck was Forsyth himself. He was hit three times in

all--twice in one leg, both serious wounds, and once on the head, a

slight abrasion of the scalp. A moment later Beecher was killed and

Doctor Mooers mortally wounded: and in addition to these misfortunes

the scouts kept getting hit, till several were killed, and the whole

number of casualties had reached twenty-one in a company of

forty-seven. Yet with all this, and despite the seeming hopelessness

of the situation, the survivors kept up their pluck undiminished, and

during a lull succeeding the third repulse dug into the loose soil till

the entire party was pretty well protected by rifle-pits. Thus covered

they stood off the Indians for the next three days, although of course

their condition became deplorable from lack of food, while those who

were hurt suffered indescribable agony, since no means were at hand for

dressing their wounds.

By the third day the Indians, seeming to despair of destroying the

beleaguered party before succor might arrive, began to draw off, and

on the fourth wholly disappeared. The men were by this time nearly

famished for food. Even now there was nothing to be had except

horse-meat from the carcasses of the animals killed the first day,

and this, though decidedly unpalatable, not to say disgusting, had to

be put up with, and so on such unwholesome stuff they managed to live

for four days longer, at the end of which time they were rescued by a

column of troops under Colonel Bankhead, which had hastened from Fort

Wallace in response to calls for help, carried there by two brave

fellows--Stilwell and Truedell--who, volunteering to go for relief,

had slipped through the Indians, and struck out for that post in the

night after the first day's fight.

CHAPTER XIII,

FITTING OUT THE WINTER EXPEDITION--ACCOMPANYING THE MAIN FORCE--THE

OTHER COLUMNS--STRUCK BY A BLIZZARD--CUSTER'S FIGHT ON THE WASHITA

--DEFEAT AND DEATH OF BLACK KETTLE--MASSACRE OF ELLIOTT'S PARTY

--RELIEF OF COLONEL CRAWFORD.

The end of October saw completed the most of my arrangements for the

winter campaign, though the difficulties and hardships to be

encountered had led several experienced officers of the army, and

some frontiersmen like Mr. James Bridger, the famous scout and, guide

of earlier days, to discourage the project. Bridger even went so far

as to come out from St. Louis to dissuade me, but I reasoned that as

the soldier was much better fed and clothed than the Indian, I had

one great advantage, and that, in short, a successful campaign could

be made if the operations of the different columns were energetically

conducted. To see to this I decided to go in person with the main

column, which was to push down into the western part of the Indian

Territory, having for its initial objective the villages which, at

the beginning of hostilities, had fled toward the head-waters of the

Red River, and those also that had gone to the same remote region

after decamping from the neighborhood of Larned at the time that

General Hazen sent Buffalo Bill to me with the news.

The column which was expected to do the main work was to be composed

of the Nineteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, commanded by Colonel

Crawford; eleven troops of the Seventh United States Cavalry, under

General Custer, and a battalion of five companies of infantry under

Brevet Major John H. Page. To facilitate matters, General Sully, the

district commander, was ordered to rendezvous these troops and

establish a supply depot about a hundred miles south of Fort Dodge,

as from such a point operations could be more readily conducted. He

selected for the depot a most suitable place at the confluence of

Beaver and Wolf creeks, and on his arrival there with Custer's and

Page's commands, named the place Camp Supply.

In conjunction with the main column, two others also were to

penetrate the Indian Territory. One of these, which was to march

east from New Mexico by way of Fort Bascom was to be composed of six

troops of the Third Cavalry and two companies of infantry, the whole

under Colonel A. W. Evans. The other, consisting of seven troops of

the Fifth Cavalry, and commanded by Brevet Brigadier-General Eugene

A. Carr, was to march southeast from Fort Lyon; the intention being

that Evans and Carr should destroy or drive in toward old Fort Cobb

any straggling bands that might be prowling through the country west

of my own line of march; Carr, as he advanced, to be joined by Brevet

Brigadier-General W. H. Penrose, with five troops of cavalry already

in the field southeast of Lyon. The Fort Bascom column, after

establishing a depot of supplies at Monument Creek, was to work down

the main Canadian, and remain out as long as it could feed itself

from New Mexico; Carr, having united with Penrose on the North

Canadian, was to operate toward the Antelope Hills and headwaters of

the Red River; while I, with the main column was to move southward to

strike the Indians along the Washita, or still farther south on

branches of the Red River.

It was no small nor easy task to outfit all these troops by the time

cold weather set in, and provide for them during the winter, but by

the 1st of November I had enough supplies accumulated at Forts Dodge

and Lyon for my own and Carr's columns, and in addition directed

subsistence and forage for three months to be sent to Fort Gibson for

final delivery at Fort Arbuckle, as I expected to feed the command

from this place when we arrived in the neighborhood of old Fort Cobb,

but through some mismanagement few of these stores got further than

Gibson before winter came on.

November 1, all being ready, Colonel Grawford was furnished with

competent guides, and, after sending two troops to Fort Dodge to act

as my escort, with the rest of his regiment he started from Topeka

November 5, under orders to march straight for the rendezvous at the

junction of Beaver and Wolf creeks. He was expected to reach his

destination about the 20th, and there unite with the Seventh Cavalry

and the battalion of infantry, which in the mean time were on the

march from Dodge. A few days later Carr and Evans began their march

also, and everything being now in motion, I decided to go to Camp

Supply to give the campaign my personal attention, determined to

prove that operations could be successfully conducted in spite of

winter, and bent on showing the Indians that they were not secure

from punishment because of inclement weather--an ally on which they

had hitherto relied with much assurance.

We started from Fort Hays on the 15th of November, and the first

night out a blizzard struck us and carried away our tents; and as the

gale was so violent that they could not be put up again, the rain and

snow drenched us to the skin. Shivering from wet and cold, I took

refuge under a wagon, and there spent such a miserable night that,

when at last morning came, the gloomy predictions of old man Bridger

and others rose up before me with greatly increased force. As we

took the road the sleet and snow were still falling, but we labored

on to Dodge that day in spite of the fact that many of the mules

played out on the way. We stayed only one night at Dodge, and then

on the 17th, escorted by a troop of cavalry and Forsyth's scouts, now

under the command of Lieutenant Lewis Pepoon, crossed the Arkansas

and camped the night of the 18th at Bluff Creek, where the two troops

of the Nineteenth Kansas, previously detailed as my escort, were

awaiting our coming. As we were approaching this camp some

suspicious looking objects were seen moving off at a long distance to

the east of us, but as the scouts confidently pronounced them

buffalo, we were unaware of their true character till next morning,

when we became satisfied that what we had seen were Indians, for

immediately after crossing Beaver Creek we struck a trail, leading to

the northeast, of a war party that evidently came up from the

head-waters of the Washita River.

The evening of November 21st arrived at the Camp Supply depot, having

traveled all day in another snowstorm that did not end till

twenty-four hours later. General Sully, with Custer's regiment and the

infantry battalion, had reached the place several days before, but the

Kansas regiment had not yet put in an appearance. All hands were hard

at work trying to shelter the stores and troops, but from the trail

seen that morning, believing that an opportunity offered to strike an

effective blow, I directed Custer to call in his working parties and

prepare to move immediately, without waiting for Crawford's regiment,

unaccountably absent. Custer was ready to start by the 23d, and he was

then instructed to march north to where the trail had been seen near

Beaver Creek and follow it on the back track, for, being convinced that

the war party had come from the Washita, I felt certain that this plan

would lead directly to the villages.

The difficulties attending a winter campaign were exhibited now with

their full force, as the march had to be conducted through a

snow-storm that hid surrounding objects, and so covered the country as

to alter the appearance of the prominent features, making the task of

the guides doubly troublesome; but in spite of these obstacles fifteen

miles had been traversed when Custer encamped for the night. The next

day the storm had ceased, and the weather was clear and cold. The

heavy fall of snow had of course obliterated the trail in the bottoms,

and everywhere on the level; but, thanks to the wind, that had swept

comparatively bare the rough places and high ground, the general

direction could be traced without much trouble. The day's march, which

was through a country abounding with buffalo, was unattended by any

special incident at first, but during the afternoon, after getting the

column across the Canadian River--an operation which, on account of the

wagons, consumed considerable time--Custer's scouts (friendly Osages)

brought back word that, some miles ahead, they had struck fresh signs,

a trail coming into the old one from the north, which, in their

opinion, indicated that the war party was returning to the villages.

On the receipt of this news, Custer, leaving a guard with the wagons,

hastily assembled the rest of his men' and pushing on rapidly,

overtook the scouts and a detailed party from his regiment which had

accompanied them, all halted on the new trail awaiting his arrival.

A personal examination satisfied Custer that the surmises of his

scouts were correct; and also that the fresh trail in the deep snow

could at night be followed with ease. After a short halt for supper

and rest the pursuit was resumed, the Osage scouts in advance, and

although the hostile Indians were presumed to be yet some distance

off, every precaution was taken to prevent detection and to enable

our troops to strike them unawares. The fresh trail, which it was

afterward ascertained had been made by raiders from Black Kettle's

village of Cheyennes, and by some Arapahoes, led into the valley of

the Washita, and growing fresher as the night wore on, finally

brought the Osages upon a campfire, still smoldering, which, it was

concluded, had been built by the Indian boys acting as herders of the

ponies during the previous day. It was evident, then, that the

village could be but a few miles off; hence the pursuit was continued

with redoubled caution until, a few hours before dawn of the 27th, as

the leading scouts peered over a rise on the line of march, they

discovered a large body of animals in the valley below.

As soon as they reported this discovery, Custer determined to

acquaint himself with the situation by making a reconnoissance in

person, accompanied by his principal officers. So, sending back word

to halt the cavalry, he directed the officers to ride forward with

him; then dismounting, the entire party crept cautiously to a high

point which overlooked the valley, and from where, by the bright moon

then shining, they saw just how the village was situated. Its

position was such as to admit of easy approach from all sides. So,

to preclude an escape of the Indians, Custer decided to attack at

daybreak, and from four different directions.

The plan having been fully explained to the officers, the remaining

hours of the night were employed in making the necessary

dispositions. Two of the detachments left promptly, since they had

to make a circuitous march of several miles to Teach the points

designated for their attack; the third started a little later; and

then the fourth and last, under Custer himself, also moved into

position. As the first light grew visible in the east, each column

moved closer in to the village, and then, all dispositions having

been made according to the prearranged plan, from their appointed

places the entire force to the opening notes of "Garry Owen," played

by the regimental band as the signal for the attack--dashed at a

gallop into the village. The sleeping and unsuspecting savages were

completely surprised by the onset; yet after the first confusion,

during which the impulse to escape principally actuated them, they

seized their weapons, and from behind logs and trees, or plunging

into the stream and using its steep bank as a breastwork, they poured

upon their assailants a heavy fire, and kept on fighting with every

exhibition of desperation. In such a combat mounted men were

useless, so Custer directed his troopers to fight on, foot, and the

Indians were successively driven from one point of vantage to

another, until, finally, by 9 o'clock the entire camp was in his

possession and the victory complete. Black Kettle and over one

hundred of his warriors were killed, and about fifty women and

children captured; but most of the noncombatants, as well as a few

warriors and boys, escaped in the confusion of the fight. Making

their way down the river, these fugitives alarmed the rest of the

Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and also the Kiowas and Comanches, whose

villages were in close proximity--the nearest not more than two miles

off.

Then of course all the warriors of these tribes rallied to attack

Custer, who meantime was engaged burning Black Kettle's camp and

collecting his herds of ponies. But these new foes were rather wary

and circumspect, though they already had partial revenge in an

unlooked for way by cutting off Major Elliott and fifteen men, who

had gone off in pursuit of a batch of young warriors when the fight

was going on at the village. In fact, the Indians had killed

Elliott's whole party, though neither the fate of the poor fellows,

nor how they happened to be caught, was known till long afterward.

It was then ascertained that the detachment pursued a course due

south, nearly at right angles to the Washita River, and after

galloping a couple of miles over the hills, crossing a small branch

of the Washita on the way, they captured some of the fugitives. In

bringing the prisoners back, Elliott was in turn attacked on the open

prairie by a large number of savages from farther down the Washita,

who by this time were swarming to the aid of Black Kettle's village.

The little band fought its way gallantly to within rifle-range of the

small creek referred to, but could get no farther, for the Indians

had taken up a position in the bed of the stream, and from under

cover of its banks Elliott and all his remaining men were quickly

killed. No relief was sent them, for Custer, not having seen Elliott

set out, knew nothing of the direction taken, and, besides, was busy

burning the villages and securing the ponies, and deeply concerned,

too, with defending himself from the new dangers menacing him.

Elliott and his brave little party were thus left to meet their fate

alone.

While Custer was burning the lodges and plunder and securing the

ponies, the Indians from the villages down the Washita were gathering

constantly around him till by mid-day they had collected in

thousands, and then came a new problem as to what should be done. If

he attacked the other villages, there was great danger of his being

overwhelmed, and should he start back to Camp Supply by daylight, he

would run the risk of losing his prisoners and the ponies, so,

thinking the matter over, he decided to shoot all the ponies, and

keep skirmishing with the savages till nightfall, and then, under

cover of the darkness, return to Camp Supply; a programme that was

carried out successfully, but Custer's course received some severe

criticism because no effort was made to discover what had become of

Elliott.

Custer had, in all, two officers and nineteen men killed, and two

officers and eleven men wounded. The blow struck was a most

effective one, and, fortunately, fell on one of the most villainous of

the hostile bands that, without any provocation whatever, had

perpetrated the massacres on the Saline and Solomon, committing

atrocities too repulsive for recital, and whose hands were still red

from their bloody work on the recent raid. Black Kettle, the chief,

was an old man, and did not himself go with the raiders to the Saline

and Solomon, and on this account his fate was regretted by some. But

it was old age only that kept him back, for before the demons set out

from Walnut Creek he had freely encouraged them by "making medicine,"

and by other devilish incantations that are gone through with at war

and scalp dances.

When the horrible work was over he undertook to shield himself by

professions of friendship, but being put to the test by my offering

to feed and care for all of his band who would come in to Fort Dodge

and remain there peaceably, he defiantly refused. The consequence of

this refusal was a merited punishment, only too long delayed.

I received the first news of Custer's fight on the Washita on the

morning of November 29. It was brought to me by one of his white

scouts, "California Joe," a noted character, who had been

experiencing the ups and downs of pioneer life ever since crossing

the Plains in 1849. Joe was an invaluable guide and Indian fighter

whenever the clause of the statute prohibiting liquors in the Indian

country happened to be in full force. At the time in question the

restriction was by no means a dead letter, and Joe came through in

thirty-six hours, though obliged to keep in hiding during daylight of

the 28th. The tidings brought were joyfully received by everybody at

Camp Supply, and they were particularly agreeable tome, for, besides

being greatly worried about the safety of the command in the extreme

cold and deep snows, I knew that the immediate effect a victory would

be to demoralize the rest of the hostiles, which of course would

greatly facilitate and expedite our ultimate success. Toward evening

the day after Joe arrived the head of Custer's column made its

appearance on the distant hills, the friendly Osage scouts and the

Indian prisoners in advance. As they drew near, the scouts began a

wild and picturesque performance in celebration of the victory,

yelling, firing their guns, throwing themselves on the necks and

sides of their horses to exhibit their skill in riding, and going

through all sorts of barbaric evolutions and gyrations, which were

continued till night, when the rejoicings were ended with the hideous

scalp dance.

The disappearance of Major Elliott and his party was the only damper

upon our pleasure, and the only drawback to the very successful

expedition. There was no definite information as to the detachment,

--and Custer was able to report nothing more than that he had not

seen Elliott since just before the fight began. His theory was,

however, that Elliott and his men had strayed off on account of

having no guide, and would ultimately come in all right to Camp

Supply or make their way back to Fort Dodge; a very unsatisfactory

view of the matter, but as no one knew the direction Elliott had

taken, it was useless to speculate on other suppositions, and

altogether too late to make any search for him. I was now anxious to

follow up Custer's stroke by an immediate move to the south with the

entire column, but the Kansas regiment had not yet arrived. At first

its nonappearance did not worry me much, for I attributed the delay

to the bad weather, and supposed Colonel Crawford had wisely laid up

during the worst storms. Further, waiting, however, would give the

Indians a chance to recover from the recent dispiriting defeat, so I

sent out scouting parties to look Crawford up and hurry him along.

After a great deal of searching, a small detachment of the regiment

was found about fifty miles below us on the North Canadian, seeking

our camp. This detachment was in a pretty bad plight, and when

brought in, the officer in charge reported that the regiment, by not

following the advice of the guide sent to conduct it to Camp Supply,

had lost its way. Instead of relying on the guides, Crawford had

undertaken to strike through the canyons of the Cimarron by what

appeared to him a more direct route, and in the deep gorges, filled

as they were with snow, he had been floundering about for days

without being able to extricate his command. Then, too, the men were

out of rations, though they had been able to obtain enough buffalo

meat to keep from starving. As for the horses, since they could get

no grass, about seven hundred of them had already perished from

starvation and exposure. Provisions and guides were immediately sent

out to the regiment, but before the relief could reach Crawford his

remaining horses were pretty much all gone, though the men were

brought in without loss of life. Thus, the regiment being dismounted

by this misfortune at the threshold of the campaign, an important

factor of my cavalry was lost to me, though as foot-troops the Kansas

volunteers continued to render very valuable services till mustered

out the next spring.

CHAPTER XIV.

A WINTER EXPEDITION--HERDS OF BUFFALO--WOLVES--BLIZZARDS--A TERRIBLE

NIGHT--FINDING THE BODIES OF ELLIOTT'S PARTY--THE ABANDONED INDIAN

CAMPS--PUSHING DOWN THE WASHITA--THE CAPTURED CHIEFS--EVANS'S

SUCCESSFUL FIGHT--ESTABLISHING FORT SILL--"CALIFORNIA JOE"--DUPLICITY

OF THE CHEYENNES--ORDERED TO REPAIR TO WASHINGTON.

A few days were necessarily lost setting up and refitting the Kansas

regiment after its rude experience in the Cimarron canyons. This

through with, the expedition, supplied with thirty days' rations,

moved out to the south on the 7th of December, under my personal

command. We headed for the Witchita Mountains, toward which rough

region all the villages along the Washita River had fled after

Custer's fight with Black Kettle. My line of march was by way of

Custer's battle-field, and thence down the Washita, and if the

Indians could not sooner be brought to terms, I intended to follow

them into the Witchita Mountains from near old Fort Cobb. The snow

was still deep everywhere, and when we started the thermometer was

below zero, but the sky being clear and the day very bright, the

command was in excellent spirits. The column was made up of ten

companies of the Kansas regiment, dismounted; eleven companies of the

Seventh Cavalry, Pepoon's scouts, and the Osage scouts. In addition

to Pepoon's men and the Osages, there was also "California Joe," and

one or two other frontiersmen besides, to act as guides and

interpreters. Of all these the principal one, the one who best knew

the country, was Ben Clark, a young man who had lived with the

Cheyennes during much of his boyhood, and who not only had a pretty

good knowledge of the country, but also spoke fluently the Cheyenne

and Arapahoe dialects, and was an adept in the sign language.

The first day we made only about ten miles, which carried us to the

south bank of Wolf Creek. A considerable part of the day was devoted

to straightening out matters in the command, and allowing time for

equalizing the wagon loads, which as a general thing, on a first

day's march, are unfairly distributed. And then there was an

abundance of fire-wood at Wolf Creek; indeed, here and on Hackberry

Creek--where I intended to make my next camp--was the only timber

north of the Canadian River; and to select the halting places near a

plentiful supply of wood was almost indispensable, for as the men

were provided with only shelter-tents, good fires were needed in

order to keep warm.

The second day, after marching for hours through vast herds of

buffalo, we made Hackberry Creek; but not, however, without several

stampedes in the wagon-train, the buffalo frightening the mules so

that it became necessary to throw out flankers to shoot the leading

bulls and thus turn off the herds. In the wake of every drove

invariably followed a band of wolves. This animal is a great coward

usually, but hunger had made these so ravenous that they would come

boldly up to the column, and as quick as a buffalo was killed, or

even disabled, they would fall upon the carcass and eagerly devour

it. Antelope also were very numerous, and as they were quite tame

--being seldom chased--and naturally very inquisitive, it was not an

unfrequent thing to see one of the graceful little creatures run in

among the men and be made a prisoner. Such abundance of game

relieved the monotony of the march to Hackberry Creek, but still,

both men and animals were considerably exhausted by their long tramp,

for we made over thirty miles that day.

We camped in excellent shape on the creek and it was well we did, for

a "Norther," or "blizzard," as storms on the Plains are now termed

struck us in the night. During the continuance of these blizzards,

which is usually about three days, the cold wind sweeps over the

Plains with great force, and, in the latitude of the Indian

Territory, is weighted with great quantities of sleet and snow,

through which it is often impossible to travel; indeed, these

"Northers" have many times proved fatal to the unprotected

frontiersman. With our numbers the chance of any one's being lost,

and perishing alone (one of the most common dangers in a blizzard),

was avoided; but under any circumstances such a storm could but

occasion intense suffering to all exposed to it, hence it would have

been well to remain in camp till the gale was over, but the time

could not be spared. We therefore resumed the march at an early hour

next morning, with the expectation of making the south bank of the

main Canathan and there passing the night, as Clark assured me that

timber was plentiful on that side of the river. The storm greatly

impeded us, however, many of the mules growing discouraged, and some

giving out entirely, so we could not get to Clark's "good camp," for

with ten hours of utmost effort only about half a day's distance

could be covered, when at last, finding the struggle useless, we were

forced to halt for the night in a bleak bottom on the north bank of

the river. But no one could sleep, for the wind swept over us with

unobstructed fury, and the only fuel to be had was a few green

bushes. As night fell a decided change of temperature added much to

our misery, the mercury, which had risen when the "Norther" began,

again falling to zero. It can be easily imagined that under such

circumstances the condition of the men was one of extreme discomfort;

in truth, they had to tramp up and down the camp all night long to

keep from freezing. Anything was a relief to this state of things,

so at the first streak of day we quit the dreadful place and took up

the march.

A seemingly good point for crossing the Canadian was found a couple

of miles down the stream, where we hoped to get our train over on the

ice, but an experiment proving that it was not strong enough, a ford

had to be made, which was done by marching some of the cavalry

through the river, which was about half a mile wide, to break up the

large floes when they had been cut loose with axes. After much hard

work a passage-way was thus opened, and by noon the command was

crossed to the south bank, and after thawing out and drying our

clothes before big fires, we headed for a point on the Washita, where

Clark said there was plenty of wood, and good water too, to make us

comfortable till the blizzard had blown over.

We reached the valley of the Washita a little before dark, and camped

some five or six miles above the scene of Custer's fight, where I

concluded to remain at least a day, to rest the command and give it a

chance to refit. In the mean time I visited the battle-field in

company with Custer and several other officers, to see if there was a

possibility of discovering any traces of Elliotts party. On arriving

at the site of the village, and learning from Custer what

dispositions had been made in approaching for the attack, the

squadron of the escort was deployed and pushed across the river at

the point where Elliott had crossed. Moving directly to the south,

we had not gone far before we struck his trail, and soon the whole

story was made plain by our finding, on an open level space about two

miles from the destroyed village, the dead and frozen bodies of the

entire party. The poor fellows were all lying within a circle not

more than fifteen or twenty paces in diameter, and the little piles

of empty cartridge shells near each body showed plainly that every

man had made a brave fight. None were scalped, but most of them were

otherwise horribly mutilated, which fiendish work is usually done by

the squaws. All had been stripped of their clothing, but their

comrades in the escort were able to identify the bodies, which being

done, we gave them decent burial. Their fate was one that has

overtaken many of our gallant army in their efforts to protect the

frontiersmen's homes and families from savages who give no quarter,

though they have often received it, and where the possibility of

defeat in action carries with it the certainty of death and often of

preceding torture.

From the meadow where Elliott was found we rode to the Washita, and

then down the river through the sites of the abandoned villages, that

had been strung along almost continuously for about twelve miles in

the timber skirting the stream. On every hand appeared ample

evidence that the Indians had intended to spend the winter here, for

the ground was littered with jerked meat, bales of buffalo robes,

cooking utensils, and all sorts of plunder usually accumulated in a

permanent Indian camp. There were, also, lying dead near the

villages hundreds of ponies, that had been shot to keep them from

falling into our hands, the scant grazing and extreme cold having

made them too weak to be driven along in the flight. The wholesale

slaughter of these ponies was a most cheering indication that our

campaign would be ultimately successful, and we all prayed for at

least a couple of months more of cold weather and plenty of snow.

At the Kiowa village we found the body of a white woman--a Mrs.

Blynn--and also that of her child. These captives had been taken by

the Kiowas near Fort Lyon the previous summer, and kept close

prisoners until the stampede began, the poor woman being reserved to

gratify the brutal lust of the chief, Satanta; then, however, Indian

vengeance demanded the murder of the poor creatures, and after

braining the little child against a tree, the mother was shot through

the forehead, the weapon, which no doubt brought her welcome release,

having been fired so close that the powder had horribly disfigured

her face. The two bodies were wrapped in blankets and taken to camp,

and afterward carried along in our march, till finally they were

decently interred at Fort Arbuckle..

At an early hour on December 12 the command pulled out from its cosy

camp and pushed down the valley of the Washita, following immediately

on the Indian trail which led in the direction of Fort Cobb, but

before going far it was found that the many deep ravines and canyons

on this trail would delay our train very much, so we moved out of the

valley and took the level prairie on the divide. Here the traveling

was good, and a rapid gait was kept up till mid-day, when, another

storm of sleet and snow coming on, it became extremely difficult for

the guides to make out the proper course; and fearing that we might

get lost or caught on the open plain without wood or water--as we had

been on the Canadian--I turned the command back to the valley,

resolved to try no more shortcuts involving the risk of a disaster to

the expedition. But to get back was no slight task, for a dense fog

just now enveloped us, obscuring all landmarks. However, we were

headed right when the fog set in, and we had the good luck to reach

the valley before night-fall, though there was a great deal of

floundering about, and also much disputing among the guides as to

where the river would be found Fortunately we struck the stream right

at a large grove of timber, and established ourselves, admirably. By

dark the ground was covered with twelve or fifteen inches of fresh

snow, and as usual the temperature rose very sensibly while the storm

was on, but after night-fall the snow ceased and the skies cleared

up. Daylight having brought zero weather again, our start on the

morning of the 17th was painful work, many of the men freezing their

fingers while handling the horse equipments, harness, and tents.

However, we got off in fairly good season, and kept to the trail

along the Washita notwithstanding the frequent digging and bridging

necessary to get the wagons over ravines.

Continuing on this line for three days, we at length came to a point

on the Washita where all signs indicated that we were nearing some of

the villages. Wishing to strike them as soon as possible, we made a

very early start next morning, the 17th. A march of four or five

miles brought us to a difficult ravine, and while we were making

preparations to get over, word was brought that several Indians had

appeared in our front bearing a white flag and making signs that they

had a communication to deliver. We signaled back that they would be

received, when one of the party came forward alone and delivered a

letter, which proved to be from General Hazen, at Fort Cobb. The

letter showed that Hazen was carrying on negotiations with the

Indians, and stated that all the tribes between Fort Cobb and my

column were friendly, but the intimation was given that the

Cheyennes and Arapahoes were still hostile, having moved off

southward toward the Red River. It was added that Satanta and Lone

Wolf--the chiefs of the Kiowas--would give information of the

whereabouts of the hostiles; and such a communication coming direct

from the representative of the Indian Department, practically took

the Kiowas--the village at hand was of that tribe--under its

protection, and also the Comanches, who were nearer in to Cobb. Of

course, under such circumstances I was compelled to give up the

intended attack, though I afterward regretted that I had paid any

heed to the message, because Satanta and Lone Wolf proved, by

trickery and double dealing, that they had deceived Hazen into

writing the letter.

When I informed the Klowas that I would respect Hazen's letter

provided they all came into Fort Cobb and gave themselves up, the two

chiefs promised submission, and, as an evidence of good faith,

proposed to accompany the column to Fort Cobb with a large body of

warriors, while their villages moved to the same point by easy

stages, along the opposite bank of the river--claiming this to be

necessary from the poor condition of the ponies. I had some

misgivings as to the sincerity of Satanta and Lone Wolf, but as I

wanted to get the Kiowas where their surrender would be complete, so

that the Cheyennes and Arapahoes could then be pursued, I agreed to

the proposition, and the column moved on. All went well that day,

but the next it was noticed that the warriors were diminishing, and

an investigation showed that a number of them had gone off on various

pretexts--the main one being to help along the women and children

with the villages. With this I suspected that they were playing me

false, and my suspicions grew into certainty when Satanta himself

tried to make his escape by slipping beyond the flank of the column

and putting spurs to his pony. Fortunately, several officers saw

him, and quickly giving chase, overhauled him within a few hundred

yards. I then arrested both him and Lone Wolf and held them as

hostages--a measure that had the effect of bringing back many of the

warriors already beyond our reach.

When we arrived at Fort Cobb we found some of the Comanches already

there, and soon after the rest of them, excepting one band, came in

to the post. The Kiowas, however, were not on hand, and there were

no signs to indicate their coming. At the end of two days it was

plain enough that they were acting in bad faith, and would continue

to unless strong pressure was brought to bear. Indeed, they had

already started for the Witchita Mountains, so I put on the screws at

once by issuing an order to hang Satanta and Lone Wolf, if their

people did not surrender at Fort Cobb within forty-eight hours. The

two chiefs promised prompt compliance, but begged for more time,

seeking to explain the non-arrival of the women and children through

the weak condition of the ponies; but I was tired of their duplicity,

and insisted on my ultimatum.

The order for the execution brought quick fruit. Runners were sent

out with messages, by the two prisoners, appealing to their people to

save the lives of their chiefs, and the result was that the whole

tribe came in to the post within the specified time. The two

manacled wretches thus saved their necks; but it is to be regretted

that the execution did not come off; for some years afterward their

devilish propensities led them into Texas, where both engaged in the

most horrible butcheries.

The Kiowas were now in our hands, and all the Comanches too, except

one small band, which, after the Custer fight, had fled toward the

headwaters of the Red River. This party was made up of a lot of very

bad Indians--outlaws from the main tribe--and we did not hope to

subdue them except by a fight, and of this they got their fill; for

Evans, moving from Monument Creek toward the western base of the

Witchita Mountains on Christmas Day, had the good fortune to strike

their village. In the snow and cold his approach was wholly

unexpected, and he was thus enabled to deal the band a blow that

practically annihilated it. Twenty-five warriors were killed

outright, most of the women and children captured, and all the

property was destroyed. Only a few of the party escaped, and some of

these made their way in to Fort Cobb, to join the rest of their tribe

in confinement; while others, later in the season, surrendered at

Fort Bascom.

This sudden appearance of Evans in the Red River region also alarmed

the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and their thoughts now began to turn to

submission. Food was growing scarce with them, too, as there was but

little game to be found either in the Witchita Mountains or on the

edge of the Staked Plains, and the march of Carr's column from

Antelope Hills precluded their returning to where the buffalo ranged.

Then, too, many of their ponies were dead or dying, most of their

tepees and robes had been abandoned, and the women and children,

having been kept constantly on the move in the winter's storms, were

complaining bitterly of their sufferings.

In view of this state of things they intimated, through their

Comanche-Apache friends at Fort Cobb, that they would like to make

terms. On receiving their messages I entered into negotiations with

Little Robe, chief of the Cheyennes, and Yellow Bear, chief of the

Arapahoes, and despatched envoys to have both tribes understand

clearly that they must recognize their subjugation by surrendering at

once, and permanently settling on their reservations in the spring.

Of course the usual delays of Indian diplomacy ensued, and it was

some weeks before I heard the result.

Then one of my messengers returned with word that Little Robe and

Yellow Bear were on their way to see me. They arrived a few days

later, and, promptly acceding to the terms, promised to bring their

people in, but as many of them would have to come on foot on account

of the condition of the ponies, more time was solicited. Convinced

of the sincerity of their professions I gave them a reasonable

extension, and eventually Yellow Bear made good his word, but Little

Robe, in spite of earnest and repeated efforts, was unable to deliver

his people till further operations were begun against them.

While these negotiations were in progess I came to the conclusion

that a permanent military post ought to be established well down on

the Kiowa and Comanche reservation, in order to keep an eye on these

tribes in the future, Fort Cobb, being an unsuitable location,

because too far to the north to protect the Texas frontier, and too

far away from where it was intended to permanently place the Indians.

With this purpose in view I had the country thoroughly explored, and

afterward a place was fixed upon not far from the base of the

Witchita Mountains, and near the confluence of Medicine Bluff and

Cash creeks, where building stone and timber could be obtained in

plenty, and to this point I decided to move. The place was named

Camp Sill-now Fort Sill--in honor of my classmate, General Sill,

killed at Stone River; and to make sure of the surrendered Indians, I

required them all, Kiowas, Comanches, and Comanche-Apaches, to

accompany us to the new post, so they could be kept under military

control till they were settled.

During the march to the new camp the weather was not so cold as that

experienced in coming down from Camp Supply; still, rains were

frequent, and each was invariably followed by a depression of

temperature and high winds, very destructive to our animals, much

weakened by lack of food. The men fared pretty well, however, for on

the rough march along the Washita, and during our stay at Fort Cobb,

they had learned to protect themselves materially from the cold. For

this they had contrived many devices, the favorite means being

dugouts--that is, pits dug in the ground, and roofed over, with

shelter-tents, and having at one end a fire-place and chimney

ingeniously constructed with sod. In these they lived very snugly

--four men in each--and would often amuse themselves by poking their

heads out and barking at the occupants of adjacent huts in imitation

of the prairie-dog, whose comfortable nests had probably suggested

the idea of dugouts. The men were much better off, in fact, than

many of the officers, for the high winds frequently made havoc with

our wall-tents. The horses and mules suffered most of all. They

could not be sheltered, and having neither grain nor grass, the poor

beasts were in no condition to stand the chilling blasts. Still, by

cutting down cottonwood-trees, and letting the animals browse on the

small soft branches, we managed to keep them up till, finally even

this wretched food beginning to grow scarce, I had all except a few

of the strongest sent to Fort Arbuckle, near which place we had been

able, fortunately, to purchase some fields of corn from the

half-civilized Chickasaws and Choctaws.

Through mismanagement, as previously noted, the greater part of the

supplies which I had ordered hauled to Arbuckle the preceding fall

had not got farther on the way than Fort Gibson, which post was about

four hundred miles off, and the road abominable, particularly east of

Arbuckle, where it ran through a low region called "boggy bottom."

All along this route were abandoned wagons, left sticking in the mud,

and hence the transportation was growing so short that I began to

fear trouble in getting subsistence up for the men. Still, it would

not do to withdraw, so I made a trip to Arbuckle chiefly for the

purpose of reorganizing the transportation, but also with a view to

opening a new route to that post, the road to lie on high ground, so

as to avoid the creeks and mud that had been giving us so much

trouble. If such a road could be made, I hoped to get up enough

rations and grain from the cornfields purchased to send out a

formidable expedition against the Cheyennes, so I set out for

Arbuckle accompanied by my quartermaster, Colonel A. J. McGonigle.

"California Joe" also went along to guide us through the scrub-oaks

covering the ridge, but even the most thorough exploration failed to

discover any route more practicable than that already in use; indeed,

the high ground was, if anything, worse than the bottom land, our

horses in the springy places and quicksands often miring to their

knees. The ground was so soft and wet, in fact, that we had to make

most of the way on foot, so by the time we reached Arbuckle I was

glad to abandon the new road project.

Finding near Arbuckle more fields of corn than those already

purchased, I had them bought also, and ordered more of the horses

back there to be fed. I next directed every available mule to be put

to hauling rations, having discovered that the full capacity of the

transportation had not yet been brought into play in forwarding

stores from Gibson, and with this regulation of the supply question I

was ready to return immediately to Camp Sill. But my departure was

delayed by California Joe, who, notwithstanding the prohibitory laws

of the Territory, in some unaccountable way had got gloriously tipsy,

which caused a loss of time that disgusted me greatly; but as we

could not well do without Joe, I put off starting till the next day,

by which time it was thought he would sober up. But I might just as

well have gone at first, for at the end of the twenty-four hours the

incorrigible old rascal was still dead drunk. How he had managed to

get the grog to keep up his spree was a mystery which we could not

solve, though we had had him closely watched, so I cut the matter

short by packing him into my ambulance and carrying him off to Camp

Sill.

By the time I got back to Sill, the Arapahoes were all in at the

post, or near at hand. The promised surrender of the Cheyennes was

still uncertain of fulfillment, however, and although Little Robe and

his family had remained with us in evidence of good faith, the

messages he sent to his followers brought no assurance of the tribe's

coming in--the runners invariably returning with requests for more

time, and bringing the same old excuse of inability to move because

the ponies were so badly off. But more time was just what I was

determined not to grant, for I felt sure that if a surrender was not

forced before the spring grass came, the ponies would regain their

strength, and then it would be doubtful if the Cheyennes came in at

all.

To put an end to these delays, Custer proposed to go out and see the

Cheyennes himself, taking with him for escort only such number of men

as could be fairly well mounted from the few horses not sent back to

Arbuckle. At first I was inclined to disapprove Custer's

proposition, but he urged it so strongly that I finally consented,

though with some misgivings, for I feared that so small a party might

tempt the Cheyennes to forget their pacific professions and seek to

avenge the destruction of Black Kettle's band. However, after

obtaining my approval, Custer, with characteristic energy, made his

preparations, and started with three or four officers and forty

picked men, taking along as negotiators Yellow Bear and Little Robe,

who were also to conduct him to the head-waters of the Red River,

where it was supposed the Cheyennes would be found. His progress was

reported by couriers every few days, and by the time he got to the

Witchita foot-hills he had grown so sanguine that he sent California

Joe back to me with word that he was certain of success. Such

hopeful anticipation relieved me greatly, of course, but just about

the time I expected to hear that his mission had been achieved I was

astonished by the party's return. Inquiring as to the trouble, I

learned that out toward the Staked Plains every sign of the Cheyennes

had disappeared. Surprised and disappointed at this, and discouraged

by the loneliness of his situation--for in the whole region not a

trace of animal life was visible, Custer gave up the search, and none

too soon, I am inclined to believe, to save his small party from

perishing.

This failure put a stop to all expeditions till the latter part of

February, by which time I had managed to lay in enough rations to

feed the command for about thirty days; and the horses back at

Arbuckle having picked up sufficiently for field service they were

ordered to Sill, and this time I decided to send Custer out with his

own and the Kansas regiment, with directions to insist on the

immediate surrender of the Cheyennes, or give them a sound thrashing.

He was ordered to get everything ready by March 1, and then move to

the mouth of Salt Creek, on the North Fork of the Red River, at which

place I proposed to establish a new depot for feeding the command.

Trains could reach this point from Camp Supply more readily than from

Arbuckle, and wishing to arrange this part of the programme in

person, I decided to return at once to Supply, and afterward rejoin

Custer at Salt Creek, on what, I felt sure, was to be the final

expedition of the campaign. I made the three hundred and sixty miles

from Sill to Supply in seven days, but much to my surprise there

found a despatch from General Grant directing me to repair

immediately to Washington. These orders precluded, of course, my

rejoining the command; but at the appointed time it set out on the

march, and within three weeks brought the campaign to a successful

close.

In this last expedition, for the first few days Custer's route was by

the same trail he had taken in January--that is to say, along the

southern base of the Witchita Mountains--but this time there was more

to encourage him than before, for, on getting a couple of marches

beyond old Camp Radziminski, on all sides were fresh evidences of

Indians, and every effort was bent to strike them.

From day to day the signs grew hotter, and toward the latter part of

March the game was found. The Indians being in a very forlorn

condition, Custer might have destroyed most of the tribe, and

certainly all their villages, but in order to save two white women

whom, it was discovered, they held as captives, he contented himself

with the renewal of the Cheyennes' agreement to come in to Camp

Supply. In due time the entire tribe fulfilled its promise except

one small band under "Tall Bull," but this party received a good

drubbing from General Carr on the Republican early in May. After

this fight all the Indians of the southern Plains settled down on

their reservations, and I doubt whether the peace would ever again

have been broken had they not in after years been driven to

hostilities by most unjust treatment.

It was the 2d of March that I received at Camp Supply Grant's

despatch directing me to report immediately in Washington. It had

been my intention, as I have said, to join Custer on the North Fork

of the Red River, but this new order required me to recast my plans,

so, after arranging to keep the expedition supplied till the end of

the campaign, I started for Washington, accompanied by three of my

staff--Colonels McGonigle and Crosby, and Surgeon Asch, and Mr. Deb.

Randolph Keim, a representative of the press, who went through the

whole campaign, and in 1870 published a graphic history of it. The

day we left Supply we, had another dose of sleet and snow, but

nevertheless we made good time, and by night-fall reached Bluff

Creek. In twenty-four hours more we made Fort Dodge, and on the 6th

of March arrived at Fort Hays. Just south of the Smoky Hill River, a

little before we got to the post, a courier heading for Fort Dodge

passed us at a rapid gait. Suspecting that he had despatches for me,

I directed my outrider to overtake him and find out. The courier

soon turned back, and riding up to my ambulance handed me a telegram

notifying me that General Grant, on the day of his inauguration,

March 4, 1869, had appointed me Lieutenant-General of the Army. When

I reported in Washington, the President desired me to return to New

Orleans and resume command of the Fifth Military District, but this

was not at all to my liking, so I begged off, and was assigned to

take charge of the Division of the Missouri, succeeding General

Sherman, who had just been ordered to assume command of the Army.

CHAPTER XV.

INSPECTING MILITARY POSTS IN UTAH AND MONTANA--DESIRE TO WITNESS THE

FRANCO-GERMAN WAR--ON A SAND-BAR IN THE MISSOURI--A BEAR HUNT--AN

INDIAN SCARE--MYRIADS OF MOSQUITOES--PERMISSION GIVEN TO VISIT

EUROPE--CALLING ON PRESIDENT GRANT--SAILING FOR LIVERPOOL--ARRIVAL IN

BERLIN.

After I had for a year been commanding the Division of the Missouri,

which embraced the entire Rocky Mountain region, I found it necessary

to make an inspection of the military posts in northern Utah and

Montana, in order by personal observation to inform myself of their

location and needs, and at the same time become acquainted with the

salient geographical and topographical features of that section of my

division. Therefore in May, 1870, I started west by the

Union-Pacific railroad, and on arriving at Corinne' Station, the next

beyond Ogden, took passage by stage-coach for Helena, the capital of

Montana Territory. Helena is nearly five hundred miles north of

Corinne, and under ordinary conditions the journey was, in those

days, a most tiresome one. As the stage kept jogging on day and

night, there was little chance for sleep, and there being with me a

sufficient number of staff-officers to justify the proceeding, we

chartered the "outfit," stipulating that we were to stop over one

night on the road to get some rest. This rendered the journey more

tolerable, and we arrived at Helena without extraordinary fatigue.