CAMP ATCHISON--GEORGE A. BRACKETT'S ADVENTURE--LIEUTENANT FREEMAN'S DEATH.
Camp Atchison was the most important of all the camps on the whole route.
It was here the General was visited by some three hundred Chippewa
half-breeds, led by a Catholic priest named Father Andre, who told him
that the Indians, hearing that General Sully, who was marching up the
west side of the Missouri with a large body of troops, was delayed on
account of low water, were deflecting their course in the hope of being
reinforced by the Sioux inhabiting the country west of the Missouri.
The General, upon becoming satisfied of this, decided to push on as
rapidly as possible after them, and to facilitate the movement he formed
a permanent post at Camp Atchison, which is located about fifty miles
southeast from Devil's Lake, where he left all the sick and broken-down
men, and a large portion of his ponderous train, with a sufficient guard
to protect them if attacked. With these arrangements completed, the
column, with twenty-five days' rations for 1,500 infantry, 500 cavalry,
100 pioneers and artillery, started by forced marches to overtake the
Indians before they reached the Missouri River.
On the morning of July 20th the General, with his selected men and
reduced train, left Camp Atchison to pursue the Indians and engage them
in battle. Attached to the expedition in the capacity of contractor
was Mr. George A. Brackett, who met with an experience, the memory of
which will remain with him during his life. It is most interesting and
exciting, and his own version of it, as narrated at the "camp fire" when
he found his old St. Anthony friends and Captain Chase's company, known
as the "Pioneers," will be read with interest. Mr. Brackett says:
On the fourth day out, in company with Lieutenant Ambrose Freeman, of the
Mounted Rangers, we left the main column for the purpose of adventure
and game. I had my train started and in good hands, and got permission
for the Lieutenant to accompany me. Five miles away, having met nothing
worthy of note, we surveyed the country from the summit of a range of
hills, when we saw several scouts not very far away. We struck a parallel
course, believing we were moving in the same direction as the main
column. While watering our horses in the lake, we espied two other scouts
on the opposite side doing the same thing. We then moved farther on, over
the range of bluffs, covering about three-quarters of a mile. We followed
along parallel, or perhaps a little to the left of the main body, a
distance of three miles. Lieutenant Freeman saw three antelopes, an old
one and two young ones, in the distance. We fired and wounded the old
one, who made off around the bluff. I held the Lieutenant's horse and he
chased her on foot, which took us off our course some distance round the
bluffs. We traversed a section of country bordering a large lake, near
which we succeeded in killing the antelope.
As we were coming down to the lake and while the Lieutenant was creeping
up toward the antelope, I again saw scouts on the opposite side of the
lake, and the train was in sight on the hillside several miles distant.
Instead of taking our course back, we had a curiosity to go around the
lake to where we saw the scouts. On our way around we saw cherry bushes
newly cut and piled up, and I set about to tear them down. Lieutenant
Freeman persisted in saying that they were Indian signs and that Indians
were in the vicinity. In preparation for them we cocked our rifles and
made around the bushes, so as not to put ourselves in a too exposed
position. We took our course, as we supposed, towards the train, or where
the train had recently passed.
Between one and two o'clock we discovered three objects a long distance
off, but between us and the train's course, and making for the train.
This action, as soon as we came near enough to judge, convinced us that
they were Indians, yet we kept on toward them, and they were making
preparations to meet us, one leading and the other two riding their
horses. We got all ready to give them a trial, they creeping around on
one side of the bluff and we creeping around to meet them. I saw one
with a straw hat on rise up and recognized him as one of our scouts. He
beckoned us to come towards him. From all the description I had of him I
supposed him to be Chaska, and the other two were full blood Sioux. Both
had government horses, and armed, one with a Springfield and the other a
carbine. I asked him where General Sibley was. They pointed to a hill,
I should judge, three miles away from where we stood, in the direction
where the train passed.
I saw a large number of men on a bluff, judged to be about two hundred
in number, whom I supposed to be General Sibley's men looking for us. We
all started directly for them, and as we did so, saw what we supposed
to be a guard of cavalry starting towards us. After we had started the
scouts turned to a little lake to water their horses, but the Lieutenant
and myself having previously watered ours, did not go with them. We still
saw the cavalry, as we supposed, about fifteen in number, coming towards
us.
I remarked to Lieutenant Freeman that they must have turned back, as
they had disappeared and were out of sight. We were soon surprised,
however, by seeing fifteen Indians charging upon us as with a flag of
truce; but they were not coming evidently in a friendly spirit, as they
fired a volley upon us. I yelled to the scouts that they were Indians,
and remarked to Lieutenant Freeman that we had better at once join
the scouts, which we endeavored to do. When we got within twenty or
twenty-five rods of the scouts we were riding about three rods apart. One
Indian rode up to Lieutenant Freeman and shot an arrow through his back,
on the left side, and at the same time another Indian dismounted and
discharged his gun at me, but I laid low on my horse's neck, as close as
I possibly could, and he shot over me, and Chaska stepped up to the top
of a knoll and shot this same Indian who had fired at me.
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[Illustration: George A. Brackett Telling the Thrilling Story of His
Escape to the Members of Capt. Chase's Company of "Pioneers."]
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THE MINNESOTA MASSACRE OF 1862.
Price, to any address, { 60 Cents in Paper.
{ $1.00 and $1.50 in Cloth.
_A. P. CONNOLLY, Chicago._
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As Lieutenant Freeman dropped from his horse I asked him if he was hurt.
He replied, "I am gone." He wished me to cut a piece of string which
was around his neck, and supported a part of the antelope which he was
carrying. As I cut the string he changed his position more on his side
and more up hill. He asked faintly for water, which I gave him from my
canteen, and by this time the scouts had mounted their horses and left
us. The Indians were then all around us, and one at the side of the lake;
but as the scouts ran toward them they fell back. Lieutenant Freeman,
by this time being dead, I took his rifle and revolver and followed the
scouts as fast as I could. The Indians mentioned as near the lake, seeing
the Lieutenant's horse, which followed me, left us and started for the
horse, thus enabling me to overtake the scouts. The Indians succeeded in
catching the horse, and the whole crowd again started after us. We rode
for about four miles, when we were overtaken and surrounded by them by
the side of a little marsh. We all jumped from our horses. The scouts
made motions and ran up to meet them, but Chaska motioned for me to jump
into the tall rushes on the marsh. I saw nothing more of the scouts, and
the Indians all rushed down to where the horses were. I cocked my rifle,
and lay in the rushes within ten feet of where they were, and heard them
quarrel about the possession of the horses. They presently settled their
dispute and started off, for fear, as I supposed, of being overtaken by
some of our forces. They took their course around the marsh in which
I lay for an hour; this was about three p. m. A shower came up, and
immediately after it cleared I started on my course, with the sun to my
back, and traveled for two hours. I followed this direction for two days,
stopping in marshes during the night. On the evening of the second day I
struck a river of clear water, about a quarter of a mile wide, running
in a southerly direction. Next morning I started due south, and traveled
until almost night, when I took a westerly course, concluding that the
trail was not in that direction; traveled a little to north of west, and
struck Gen. Sibley's trail the afternoon of the third day, about twelve
miles from where we camped the night before. I left the main column,
and made the deserted camp that night. I started next morning on the
back track for Camp Atchison, and made the painful journey in two days,
arriving there the second night, between eight and nine o'clock, making
the distance of the four camps in two days, bare-headed, barefooted and
coatless. I was obliged to leave my rifle on the last day of my travel,
but I could not carry it any farther, and made up my mind that this would
probably be my last day. It was probably about nine o'clock, and I was
about to give up when I came to a few tents and found them to be those of
the Pioneers (Captain Chase's company of the Ninth Minnesota Infantry),
and fell to the ground faint and unable to rise again. But, thank God!
around that fire were sitting some of my old St. Anthony friends, who
kindly picked me up and carried me to my tent.
I lost my coat, hat and knife in the fight the first day, so I took
Lieutenant Freeman's knife, and with it made moccasins of my boot legs,
as my boots so chafed my feet in walking that I could not possibly wear
them. These improvised moccasins were constantly getting out of repair,
and my knife was much needed to keep them in order for use, as well as
to make them in the first place. But just before reaching the trail of
the expedition on the fifth day I lost the knife, and the loss, I felt
at the time, would have decided my fate if I had much farther to go.
But a kind Providence was in my favor, for almost the first object that
greeted my eyes upon reaching the trail was a knife, old and worn to be
sure, but priceless to me. This incident some may deem a mere accident,
but let such a one be placed in my situation at that time and he would
feel with me that it was given in answer to a prayer made to the great
Giver of Good. On the third day, about ten miles from the river spoken
of, I left Lieutenant Freeman's rifle on the prairie because I became too
weak to carry it longer; besides, it had already been so damaged by rain
that I could not use it. I wrote upon it that Lieutenant Freeman had been
killed, and named the course I was then pursuing. The pistol I retained
and brought with me to Camp Atchison.
While wandering I lived on cherries, roots, birds' eggs, young birds and
frogs, caught by my hands, all my ammunition but one cartridge having
been spoiled by the rain of the first day. That cartridge had a gutta
percha case and was preserved. It was my only hope for fire when I should
need it, or when I dared venture to make one. I had also some water-proof
percussion caps in my portmanteau, which were also put to good use. I
took one-half the powder in the cartridge, with a percussion cap, and
with the use of my pistol and some dried grass, started a fire at which
I cooked a young bird. How did I catch the bird? Well, Providence again
favored me, and as I was lying low and making no noise, the bird wandered
so near that by firing a stick I had with me in such a manner as to make
it whirl horizontally, it struck the bird on the side of the head and
broke its neck. This was on the second night. On the fourth I used the
remainder of the cartridge in the same way and for a like purpose. The
rest of the time I ate my food uncooked. Except some hard bread (found at
the fourth camp mentioned above), which had been fried and then thrown
in the ashes. I have forgotten one sweet morsel (and all were sweet
and very palatable to me), viz., some sinews spared by wolves from a
buffalo carcass. As near as I am able to judge I traveled in the seven
days at least two hundred miles. I had ample means for a like journey
in civilized localities, but for the first time in my life found gold
and silver coin not legal tender. My boot-leg moccasins saved me, for
a walk of ten miles upon such a prairie, barefooted, would stop all
farther progress of any person accustomed to wearing covering upon the
feet. The exposure at night, caused more particularly by lying in low
and wet places, in order to hide myself, was more prostrating to me than
scarcity of food. The loneliness of the prairies would have been terrible
in itself, but for the drove of wolves that after the first day hovered,
in the day time, at a respectful distance, and at night howled closely
around me, seemingly sure that my failing strength would soon render me
an easy prey. But a merciful Providence has spared my life by what seems
now, even to myself, almost a miracle.
The body of Lieutenant Freeman was afterwards found and buried by members
of General Sibley's main force. An arrow had pierced his breast, and the
tomahawk and scalping knife had left bloody traces about his head. He was
buried on the desolate plain, five hundred miles away from his beloved,
bereaved wife and children. After the war closed his body was exhumed,
carried to his late home, and re-interred by loving hands, with all the
honors due a brave soldier. The peculiar circumstances of his death, my
last moments with him, my subsequent days of weary, dangerous wandering,
my suffering, anxiety and happy deliverance have made an impression upon
my memory so indelible that time has not, nor cannot efface them.
My friend Brackett and myself came to St. Anthony, Minn., on the same
day, May 1st, 1857, and we "put up" at the same hotel, and it is most
interesting to hear him relate this wonderful adventure and marvelous
escape. He yet lives to tell the story, and poor Freeman! It seemed sad
to leave him in his lonely grave on the prairie wild, but such is the
fate of war.