The winter of 1867–68 found me comfortably quartered at Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, on the banks of the Missouri. A considerable
portion of my regiment had been ordered to locate at that post in
the fall, and make that their winter quarters. General Sheridan,
then commanding that military department, had also established his
headquarters there, so that the post became more than ever the favorite
military station in the West. I had not been on duty with my regiment
since my rapid ride from Fort Wallace to Fort Harker in July, nor was
I destined to serve with it in the field for some time to come. This,
at the time, seemed a great deprivation to me, but subsequent events
proved most conclusively that it was all for the best, and the result
could not have been to me more satisfactory than it was, showing
as it did that the best laid plans of mice and men, etc. But I am
anticipating.
Those who have read the tabulated list of depredations committed by the
Indians, as given in the article describing General Forsyth’s desperate
fight on Arickaree Fork, may have noticed the name of William Comstock
in the column of killed. Comstock was the favorite and best known
scout on the central plains. Frequent reference has been made to him
in preceding numbers, particularly in the description of the attack of
the Indians on the detachment commanded by Robbins and Cook. Strange
as it may seem, when his thorough knowledge of the Indian character
is considered, he fell a victim to their treachery and barbarity.
The Indians were encamped with their village not far from Big Spring
station, in western Kansas, and were professedly at peace. Still, no
one familiar with the deceit and bad faith invariably practised by
the Indians when free to follow the bent of their inclinations, ought
to have thought of trusting themselves in their power. Yet Comstock,
with all his previous knowledge and experience, did that which he
would certainly have disapproved in others. He left the camp of the
troops, which was but a few miles from the Indian village, and with
but a single companion rode to the latter, and spent several hours in
friendly conversation with the chiefs. Nothing occurred during their
visit to excite suspicion. The Indians assumed a most peaceable bearing
toward them, and were profuse in their demonstrations of friendship.
When the time came for Comstock and his comrade to take their
departure, they were urged by the Indians to remain and spend the night
in the village.
The invitation was declined, and after the usual salutations the
two white men mounted their horses and set out to return to their
camp. Comstock always carried in his belt a beautiful white-handled
revolver, and wore it on this occasion. This had often attracted the
covetous eyes of the savages, and while in the village propositions to
barter for it had been made by more than one of the warriors. Comstock
invariably refused all offers to exchange it, no matter how tempting.
Months before, when riding together at the head of the column, in
pursuit of Indians, Comstock, who had observed that I carried a
revolver closely resembling his, remarked that I ought to have the
pair, and then laughingly added that he would carry his until we found
the Indians, and after giving them a sound whipping he would present
me the revolver. Frequently during the campaign, when on the march
and while sitting around the evening camp fire, Comstock would refer
to his promise concerning the revolver. After hunting Indians all
summer, but never finding them just when we desired them, Comstock was
not unfrequently joked upon the conditions under which he was to part
with his revolver, and fears were expressed that if he carried it until
we caught and whipped the Indians, he might be forced to go armed for
a long time. None of us imagined then that the revolver which was so
often the subject of jest, and of which Comstock was so proud, would be
the pretext for his massacre.
Comstock and his companion rode out of the village in the direction of
their own camp, totally unconscious of coming danger, and least of all
from those whose guests they had just been. They had proceeded about
a mile from the village when they observed about a dozen of the young
warriors galloping after them. Still suspecting no unfriendly design,
they continued their ride until joined by the young warriors. The
entire party then rode in company until, as was afterward apparent, the
Indians succeeded in separating the two white men, the one riding in
front, the other, Comstock, following in rear, each with Indians riding
on either side of them. At a preconcerted signal a combined attack was
made by the savages upon the two white men. Both the latter attempted
to defend themselves, but the odds and the suddenness of the attack
deprived them of all hope of saving their lives. Comstock was fatally
wounded at the first onslaught, and soon after was shot from his horse.
His companion, being finely mounted, wisely intrusted his life to the
speed of his horse, and soon outstripped his pursuers, and reached camp
with but a few slight wounds. The Indians did not seem disposed to
press him as closely as is their usual custom, but seemed only anxious
to secure Comstock. He, after falling to the ground severely wounded,
was completely riddled by steel-pointed arrows, and his scalp taken.
The principal trophy, however, in the opinion of the savages, was the
beautifully finished revolver with its white ivory handle, and, as they
afterward confessed when peace was proclaimed with their tribe, it
was to obtain this revolver that the party of young warriors left the
village and followed Comstock to his death. Thoroughly reliable in his
reports, brave, modest, and persevering in character, with a remarkable
knowledge of the country and the savage tribes infesting it, he was the
superior of all men who were scouts by profession with whom I have had
any experience.
While sitting in my quarters one day at Fort Leavenworth, late in the
fall of 1867, a gentleman was announced whose name recalled a sad and
harrowing sight. It proved to be the father of Lieutenant Kidder, whose
massacre, with that of his entire party of eleven men, was described
in preceding pages. It will be remembered that the savages had hacked,
mangled, and burned the bodies of Kidder and his men to such an extent
that it was impossible to recognize the body of a single one of the
party; even the clothing had been removed, so that we could not
distinguish the officer from his men, or the men from each other, by
any fragment of their uniform or insignia of their grade. Mr. Kidder,
after introducing himself, announced the object of his visit; it was to
ascertain the spot where the remains of his son lay buried, and, after
procuring suitable military escort to proceed to the grave and disinter
his son’s remains preparatory to transferring them to a resting place
in Dakota, of which territory he was at that time one of the judiciary.
It was a painful task I had to perform when I communicated to the
father the details of the killing of his son and followers. And equally
harassing to the feelings was it to have to inform him that there was
no possible chance of his being able to recognize his son’s remains.
“Was there not the faintest mark or fragment of his uniform by which
he might be known?” inquired the anxious parent. “Not one,” was the
reluctant reply. “And yet, since I now recall the appearance of the
mangled and disfigured remains, there was a mere trifle which attracted
my attention, but it could not have been your son who wore it.” “What
was it?” eagerly inquired the father. “It was simply the collar-band of
one of those ordinary check overshirts so commonly worn on the plains,
the color being black and white; the remainder of the garment, as well
as all other articles of dress, having been torn or burned from the
body.” Mr. Kidder then requested me to repeat the description of the
collar and material of which it was made; happily I had some cloth of
very similar appearance, and upon exhibiting this to Mr. Kidder, to
show the kind I meant, he declared that the body I referred to could
be no other than that of his murdered son. He went on to tell how his
son had received his appointment in the army but a few weeks before his
lamentable death, he only having reported for duty with his company a
few days before being sent on the scout which terminated his life; and
how, before leaving his home to engage in the military service, his
mother, with that thoughtful care and tenderness which only a mother
can feel, prepared some articles of wearing apparel, among others a few
shirts made from the checked material already described. Mr. Kidder
had been to Fort Sedgwick on the Platte, from which post his son had
last departed, and there learned that on leaving the post he wore one
of the checked shirts and put an extra one in his saddle pockets. Upon
this trifling link of evidence Mr. Kidder proceeded four hundred miles
west to Fort Wallace, and there being furnished with military escort
visited the grave containing the bodies of the twelve massacred men.
Upon disinterring the remains a body was found as I had described it,
bearing the simple checked collar-band; the father recognized the
remains of his son, and thus, as was stated at the close of a preceding
chapter, was the evidence of a mother’s love made the means by which
her son’s body was recognized and reclaimed, when all other had failed.
The winter and spring of 1868 were uneventful, so far as Indian
hostilities or the movements of troops were concerned. To be on the
ground when its services could be made available in case the Indians
became troublesome, the Seventh Cavalry left its winter quarters at
Fort Leavenworth in April, and marched two hundred and ninety miles
west to a point near the present site of Fort Hays, where the troops
established their summer rendezvous in camp. It not being my privilege
to serve with the regiment at that time, I remained at Fort Leavenworth
some time longer, and later in the summer repaired to my home in
Michigan, there amid the society of friends to enjoy the cool breezes
of Erie until the time came which would require me to go west.
In the mean time, until I can relate some of the scenes which were
enacted under my own eye, and which were afterwards the subject of
excited and angry comment, as well as of emphatic and authoritative
approval, it will not be uninteresting to examine into some of the
causes which led to the memorable winter campaign of 1868–’69,
including the battle of the Washita; and the reader may also be
enabled to judge as to what causes the people of the frontier are
most indebted for the comparatively peaceable condition of the savage
tribes of the plains during the past three years. The question may
also arise as to what influence the wild nomadic tribes of the West
are most likely to yield and become peaceably inclined toward their
white neighbors, willing to forego their accustomed raids and attacks
upon the frontier settlements, and content to no longer oppose the
advance of civilization. Whether this desirable condition of affairs
can be permanently and best secured by the display and exercise of a
strong but just military power, or by the extension of the olive-branch
on one hand and government annuities on the other, or by a happy
combination of both, has long been one of the difficult problems
whose solution has baffled the judgment of our legislators from the
formation of the government to the present time. My firm conviction,
based upon an intimate and thorough analysis of the habits, traits of
character, and natural instinct of the Indian, and strengthened and
supported by the almost unanimous opinion of all persons who have made
the Indian problem a study, and have studied it, not from a distance,
but in immediate contact with all the facts bearing thereupon, is
that the Indian cannot be elevated to that great level where he can
be induced to adopt any policy or mode of life varying from those to
which he has ever been accustomed by any method of teaching, argument,
reasoning, or coaxing which is not preceded and followed closely in
reserve by a superior physical force. In other words, the Indian is
capable of recognizing no controlling influence but that of stern
arbitrary power. To assume that he can be guided by appeals to his
ideas of moral right and wrong, independent of threatening or final
compulsion, is to place him far above his more civilized brothers of
the white race, who, in the most advanced stage of refinement and
morality, still find it necessary to employ force, sometimes resort
to war, to exact justice from a neighboring nation. And yet there are
those who argue that the Indian with all his lack of moral privileges,
is so superior to the white race as to be capable of being controlled
in his savage traits and customs, and induced to lead a proper life,
simply by being politely requested to do so. The campaign of 1868–’69,
under the direction of General Sheridan, who had entire command of
the country infested by the five troublesome and warlike tribes, the
Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches, was fruitful in
valuable results. At the same time the opponents of a war policy raised
the cry that the military were making war on friendly Indians; one
writer, an Indian agent, even asserting that the troops had attacked
and killed Indians half civilized, who had fought on the side of the
Government during the war with the Confederate States. It was claimed
by the adherents of the peace party that the Indians above named had
been guilty of no depredations against the whites, and had done nothing
deserving of the exercise of military power. I believe it is a rule
in evidence that a party coming into court is not expected to impeach
his own witnesses. I propose to show by the official statements of the
officers of the Indian Department, including some of those who were
loudest and most determined in their assertions of the innocence of the
Indians after prompt punishment had been administered by the military,
that the Indian tribes whose names have been given were individually
and collectively guilty of unprovoked and barbarous assaults on the
settlers of the frontier; that they committed these depredations at
the very time they were receiving arms and other presents from the
Government; and that no provocation had been offered either by the
Government or the defenceless citizens of the border. In other words,
by those advocating the Indian side of the dispute it will be clearly
established that a solemn treaty had been reluctantly entered into
between the Indians and the Government, by which the demands of the
Indians were complied with, and the conditions embraced in the treaty
afterwards faithfully carried out on the part of the Government; and at
the very time that the leading chiefs and old men of the tribes were
pledging themselves and their people that “they will not attack any
persons at home or travelling, or disturb any property belonging to
the people of the United States, or to persons friendly therewith,” and
that “they will never capture or carry off from the settlements women
or children, and they will never kill or scalp white men or attempt
to do them harm,” the young men and warriors of these same tribes,
embracing the sons of the most prominent chiefs and signers of the
treaty, were actually engaged in devastating the settlements on the
Kansas frontier, murdering men, women, and children, and driving off
the stock. Now to the evidence. First glance at the following brief
summary of the terms of the treaty which was ratified between the
Government and the Cheyennes and Arapahoes on the 19th of August, 1868,
and signed and agreed to by all the chiefs of these two tribes known or
claiming to be prominent, and men of influence among their own people.
As the terms of the treaty are almost identical with those contained
in most of the treaties made with other tribes, excepting the limits
and location of reservations, it will be interesting for purposes of
reference.
First. Peace and friendship shall forever continue.
Second. Whites or Indians committing wrongs to be punished according to
law.
Third. The following district of country, to wit, “commencing at
the point where the Arkansas river crosses the 37th parallel of
north latitude; thence west on said parallel--the said line being
the southern boundary of the State of Kansas--to the Cimarron river
(sometimes called the Red fork of the Arkansas river); thence down
said Cimarron river, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to
the Arkansas river; thence up the Arkansas river in the middle of the
main channel thereof to the place of beginning, is set apart for the
Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians.”
Fourth. The said Indians shall have the right to hunt on the unoccupied
lands of the United States so long as game may be found thereon, and so
long as peace subsists among the whites and Indians on the border of
the hunting districts.
Fifth. Is a provision for the selection and occupation of lands for
those of said Indians who desire to commence farming on said reserve,
and for expenditures for their benefit.
Sixth. The United States further provides for an annual distribution of
clothing for a term of years.
The treaty with the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribes, ratified August
25, 1868, embraced substantially the same provisions as those just
quoted, excepting that relating to their reservation, which was as
follows: “Commencing at a point where the Washita river crosses the
98th meridian west from Greenwich, thence up the Washita river, in
the middle of the main channel thereof, to a point thirty miles west
of Fort Cobb, as now established; thence due west to the north fork
of Red river, provided said line strikes said river east of the 100th
meridian of west longitude; if not, then only to said meridian line,
and thence south on said meridian line to the said north fork of Red
river; thence down said north fork, in the middle of the main channel
thereof, from the point where it may be first intersected by the lines
above described, to the main Red river; thence down said river, in the
main channel thereof, to its intersection with the 98th meridian of
longitude west from Greenwich; thence north on said meridian line to
the place of beginning.”
To those who propose to follow the movements of the troops during the
winter campaign of 1868–’69, it will be well to bear in mind the limits
of the last named reservation, as the charge was made by the Indian
agents that the military had attacked the Indians when the latter were
peacefully located within the limits of their reservation.
To show that the Government through its civil agents was doing
everything required of it to satisfy the Indians, and that the agent
of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes was firmly of the opinion that every
promise of the Government had not only been faithfully carried out, but
that the Indians themselves had no complaint to make, the following
letter from the agent to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs is
submitted:
FORT LARNED, KANSAS, August 10, 1868.
SIR: I have the honor to inform you that I yesterday made the
whole issue of annuity goods, arms, and ammunition to the Cheyenne
chiefs [the Arapahoes and Apaches had received their portion in
July. G. A. C.] and people of their nation; they were delighted
at receiving the goods, particularly the arms and ammunition, and
never before have I known them to be better satisfied and express
themselves as being so well contented previous to the issue. I
made them a long speech, following your late instructions with
reference to what I said to them. They have now left for their
hunting-grounds, and _I am perfectly satisfied that there will be
no trouble with them this season, and consequently with no Indians
of my agency_.