Sheridan's Camp; Discovery of Elliot and Companions; A Truce; Capture of
Comanches and Kiowas Return to Camp.
The night of the battle, Custer started for Camp Supply and very nearly
overtook his scout, California Joe, as the latter had to hide so much on
the way to avoid being caught by the Indians; and I believe that Custer
made a record trip, as he was afraid of the same thing. When he returned
and Major Elliot's absence was not satisfactorily explained, General
Sheridan showed great dissatisfaction. He issued an order to get
everything in readiness at once and decided to take a hand in that
business himself to see if he could not discover what had become of
Elliot. The Kansas volunteers having lost most of their horses in the snow
banks on the Cimmaron River, with the remainder unfit for service, were
organized as infantry and taken along. In fact, every available man was
taken from Camp Supply except those who were required to guard the
provisions and look after the stock. Although Sheridan was a graduate of
West Point, he never encumbered himself with any West Point tactics in
fighting Indians. He just put on his fighting clothes and set out to whip
them into subjection regardless of any military parade, and usually
accomplished what he set out to do. There was one feature of all his
expeditions which he never neglected, and that was that he never failed to
keep in touch with the best and most reliable scouts and guides to be
found, and once he had secured them he never failed to be governed by
their instructions, as he was well aware that such men understood the
topography of the country much better than some titled professor of a
military academy. Such scouts he found on this occasion. He took along as
his guide and chief of scouts, one Ben Clark, because Ben was married into
the Cheyenne tribe and understood and spoke the tribal languages fluently.
He also took along California Joe, as he was a good scout and was familiar
with all the customs and habits of the Indians, having lived and dealt
with them all the way from California to Texas. He was invaluable as a
scout and guide, but had one fault, of which I shall speak later on, that
tried the patience of the general sorely at times, but still Sheridan
could not afford to part with him. Those two, with the addition to two
Osage Indian scouts, were all that he brought into service. When
everything was in readiness the general set out with the firm
determination to settle the Indian trouble for once and for all time to
come, if possible. He took General Custer with him, as he was familiar
with the route and also with the locality of the recent battle. He took as
his ambulance driver Johnny Murphy, a lad scarcely out of his teens and
who acted in that capacity until the close of the campaign. The first
night out they camped on the south bank of Wolf Creek where they found an
abundance of timber and living water, two essentials at that time as the
weather was hovering around the zero mark. The men were becoming
accustomed to the cold and stood up in it like Esquimaux. Next morning
they were up and away to cross the divide to the South Canadian. The snow
was still quite deep on the flats and the moisture had softened the soil
which had not frozen sufficiently to hold up the heavy freight wagons,
which made it a tedious and toilsome trip to reach the river. Clark being
acquainted with the country guided them down a canyon where they found
timber and a fair shelter. There they went into camp for the night. Next
morning one of the real trials of the journey confronted them. The river
had to be forded and they were forced to repeat the labors that Custer had
performed on the former occasion and as the ice was not thick enough to
bear a heavy weight. They had to cut a channel and remove the ice from it
and trample the quicksand with the cavalry to make it fordable for the
wagons. They accomplished the crossing with a great deal of difficulty and
hardships, as most of them were wet from trampeling through the stream or
assisting the lumbering wagons on their way. When the last team had
crossed they were glad to know that this difficulty had been overcome.
(The reader sitting on a balcony, viewing troops of cavalry prancing along
the paved streets seems to enjoy the spectacle and can easily come to
imagine that the cavalry man's life is one continual round of pleasure,
but let him change his location and go and sit with me on the south porch
of a snow bank and see those same soldiers fording a treacherous stream in
the winter season and his impressions of the gay and happy life will be
suddenly changed.) When out of the brakes and the canyons they were on the
last lap of their journey to the battle ground where Custer had wound up
the wild and turbulent career of Black Kettle and his band of Cheyenne
warriors. This day was but a repetition of the day before except that at
noon they camped long enough to feed the stock some grain, as the mules
were becoming tired and jaded from the bad condition of the prairie. After
dinner they resumed their journey and that evening went into camp about
two miles from the scene of Custer's fight with the Cheyennes a few days
previous. Next morning they set out and in a short time arrived at the
battle ground. They stopped to examine the place which gave every evidence
of a severe conflict. After Sheridan had examined the field he sent out
scouts and squads of soldiers to scour the surrounding country in search
of Major Elliott and the fifteen missing men. They were found about two
miles from the battle ground, dead, and stripped of their clothing and
mutilated in the most horrible manner. The mutilation was the work of the
squaws. They had not been scalped and their bodies lay not very far apart
and the number of empty shells lying near each body showed the desperate
defense they had made. It was learned afterward that Major Elliott had
followed a band of fugitives and captured them, and when returning was met
and overpowered by a large band of Kiowas and their dead bodies were left
there for the squaws to mutilate. When this discovery was made and the
news brought to Gen. Sheridan, he was in no frame of mind to adopt any
conciliatory measures towards the Indians, besides it had a strong
tendency to lessen his respect for Gen. Custer for not making some effort
to learn what had become of Major Elliot and his fifteen companions.
Sheridan was now in the right humor for a fight. He wanted to fight and
was going to have a fight or a footrace with the first Indians he met. He
started down the Washita, where the Kiowas and the Comanches had their
headquarters. His progress was closely watched by the Indians. They pulled
up everything and moved on in advance of him, but well out of his reach.
They were certainly in a predicament as they could not cover up their
trail by scattering out over the plain, as they would do in summer time,
as the snow on the prairie gave evidence of every move they made and
things were in such a shape that it was either fight or surrender. Gen.
Sheridan did not seem to care which. They continued to move down stream
with Sheridan in pursuit until the third day when they sent a messenger
back carrying a white flag and a letter from Gen. Hazen, chairman of the
peace committee, asking for a conference with the General. The reader can
readily see about how Sheridan felt on the subject. He sent back word to
them that there was but one way in which he would recognize Hazen's
request for a conference and that was that he would give them twenty-four
hours to surrender and come in as prisoners of war, or a fight would start
at the expiration of that time. He was compelled to acknowledge the flag
of truce and the Indians were well aware of that fact. Reluctantly he gave
them the 24 hours to surrender or prepare for battle, as the recent
outrages on the settlers on the Saline and Solomon Rivers, the barbarous
treatment of Major Elliot and his companions were fresh in the mind of
Sheridan. The Indian, aware of the value of the flag of truce used it
always to his advantage when in a tight place, though they had no respect
for it in their own dealings with others. Sheridan was waiting anxiously
for the expiration of the time of truce, but the Indians forestalled the
allotted time by about four hours. If the thing was to be done over again,
I do not believe that Sheridan would have paid any attention to the flag
of truce, as the first sight that met the General's eye after he had
marched into their camp and taken Chief Lone Wolf and Chief Satanta
prisoners, was the body of a white woman who had been kidnapped from near
Fort Lyon by Satanta and kept to gratify his savage lust. When he found
escape impossible, he shot her to avoid giving her up to her rescuers and
took her white child by the feet and dashed its brains out against a tree.
When the fiend shot the woman, whose name was Mrs. Blynn, he held the gun
so close to her that her face was powder-burned. In her death, I imagine
that there was relief brought to one poor tortured soul.
During the armistice, which did not last twenty-four hours, the Indians
killed all their ponies rather than turn them over to their conquerors.
After the preliminaries of surrender were completed, they were ordered
back to Ft. Cobb and accordingly started back to fulfill their agreement.
Any one familiar with the lay of that country can begin to appreciate the
difficulty Gen. Sheridan had on hand. Moreover, the reluctance of the
Indians to return made the journey all the more difficult. They had a
thousand different excuses to delay the journey, but it availed them
nothing. They were kept on the move and closely watched. In spite of the
vigilance exercised by the troops, some of the Indians managed to escape.
At every opportunity some of them would dodge through the brush along the
way and make their escape. Satanta seeing the success of his companions,
made a dash for liberty also. He was immediately captured by the soldiers
and put in handcuffs. To show no partiality in the matter, Chief Lone Wolf
was also manacled. To give further proof of his intentions to compel them
to submit, he told Lone Wolf and Satanta that unless those Indians who had
made their escape did not return very soon, he would hang the two of them
without ceremony. That put a different complexion on things. The two
chiefs immediately communicated with their followers, who at once sent out
runners in different directions to bring back the escaped prisoners. They
succeeded in bringing in most of them in fact enough of them returned to
move Sheridan to defer the hanging of the two chiefs.
It is my belief that Sheridan afterward regretted that he did not hang the
two of them, as they richly deserved it for their past atrocities. I had
the pleasure last year, 1912, of seeing old Chief Lone Wolf strutting
around the streets of Hobart, Okla., wearing a celluloid collar and derby
hat, breaking himself into the habits and customs of the white man. The
sight of him caused me to wonder if he ever stopped to consider how near
he came to having his neck cracked by Gen. Sheridan and how richly he
deserved it.
After carefully looking over the situation in all its different aspects,
Sheridan concluded that Fort Cobb was not the proper place to establish
his headquarters. He decided to take all his prisoners over to Cache Creek
where he would have more and better material to construct a small fort for
the protection of the frontier of Texas. This part had been subjected to
the raids of the Indians very frequently in the past and they were likely
to make an incursion at any time. When he had brought most of the Indians
there, he set to work building temporary headquarters and gave the place
the name of Fort Sill, after one of his old schoolmates. He held Satanta,
Lone Wolf; Little Robe, and several other lesser chiefs as hostages for
the faithful performance of all the conditions of the surrender with the
explicit understanding that any violation of any of the terms of it would
mean the hanging of the whole party. This understanding had a very
salutary effect and a strong tendency to establish order and discipline.
These acts may seem to show Sheridan to be a cruel man, but I will say,
judging from his action in caring for the remains of Mrs. Blynn and her
child who had been so brutally murdered, in taking them to Fort Arbuckle
and giving them a Christian burial, he has shown that his heart was in the
right place.