BATTLE OF BEAR RIVER
During the year preceding the period whereof I write, and in fact from
the time of the discovery of the Salmon River mines, nearly every train
or single company of immigrants going in that direction was attacked,
robbed, the animals belonging to it stolen, and frequently many of the
persons composing it slain, by predatory bands of Bannack Indians, which
tribe possessed the entire country for a distance of five hundred miles
north of Salt Lake City. Their rapacity and cruelty had become the great
terror of a journey otherwise full of difficulty and discouragement. So
frequent and terrible had been this warfare, that nearly all
communication between the distant mines and Salt Lake City was
suspended; yet the wretches who conducted it, conscious of their
superior power, hesitated not, meantime, to visit the settlements, and
maintain an apparent friendliness towards the people. Several attacks
had been made upon them by detachments of troops from Camp Douglas,
attended with more or less success, but none of them had the effect to
allay their murderous depredations. Success had made them defiant as
well as bloodthirsty, and long impunity begot in them the belief that
they were invincible.
When the winter began to close in, rich in the spoils of their bloody
forays, a large band of nearly three hundred Bannacks, under their
chiefs Sand Pitch, Sag Witch, and Bear Hunter, established quarters for
the cold months in a ravine on the west bank of Bear River, about four
days’ march distant from the Federal camp. Gen. P. Edward Connor, the
officer in command at Camp Douglas, had carefully watched their
movements with the intention of inflicting the severest punishment upon
them for the enormities they had committed. The example to be salutary,
must be terrible, and Connor contemplated nothing less than the
destruction of the entire band. It was a measure of safety. Many
thousand people in the States and Territories were engaged in active
preparation to make the journey to the northern mines, on the return of
warm weather, and the lives and property of many of them depended, as
General Connor knew, upon the success of his contemplated expedition.
The Indians selected their camp because of the protection it afforded
from the inclemencies of the weather. The general southwest course of
the river was, by a bend, changed so as to be nearly due west where it
passed their encampment. The nook or ravine, open on the bank, stretched
tortuously between high precipitous banks, north from the river several
hundred yards, until lost in the abrupt ascent of a lofty overhanging
mountain. Clumps of willows grew irregularly over the surface of the
little dell, amid which the Indians pitched their buffalo tents, and
fastened their ponies for better protection against wind and snow. Their
women and children were with them, and all the conveniences and comforts
known to savage life were clustered around them.
Perceiving soon after they took possession of the spot, that it united
with its other advantages admirable means of defence against an
approaching enemy, they went to work, and improved, by excavation and
otherwise, every assailable point, until satisfied that it was perfectly
impregnable. During the occasional visits of their chiefs and head men
to the settlements, they learned and came to believe that an attack of
some kind would be made upon them before spring. They relished the idea
as a good joke, and with more than customary bravado declared their
readiness to meet it, boldly challenging the whites to come on.
The winter sped on. Colder than usual even in these high latitudes, both
Indians and whites felt that if nothing else would prevent an attack,
the cold weather was sufficient. General Connor kept his own counsel,
but matured his plans with consummate skill. The citizens of Salt Lake
City, seeing no military preparations in progress, grew restive under
the delay, charged the garrison with neglect of duty, and finally
appealed to the civil authorities. In the latter days of January, when
General Connor’s plans were approaching maturity, Chief Justice Kinney
issued warrants for the arrest of Sand Pitch, Sag Witch, and Bear
Hunter, for murders committed by them on emigrants passing through the
Territory. The officer directed to serve these writs, on one of the
coldest days of the middle of January, applied to General Connor, at
Camp Douglas, for an escort.
“I have an expedition against the Indians in contemplation,” said the
general, “which will march soon. You can go under its escort; but as I
do not intend to take any prisoners, I cannot tell you whether you will
be able to serve your writ or not. My opinion is you will find it
difficult.”
Whether the intimation conveyed in this closing remark touched the
official pride of the marshal, or not, I cannot say. Certain it is that
he concluded at once to accompany the expedition, and arrest the accused
chiefs.
The Indians were on the watch for an attack, and had their runners out
with instructions to bring them the earliest information of an
approaching foe. On the morning of the twenty-second, Captain Samuel N.
Hoyt, with forty men of Company K of infantry, two howitzers, and a
train of fifteen baggage wagons, left Camp Douglas with secret orders to
march leisurely in the direction of the Indian encampment. The Indian
spies, under promise of secrecy, were told by some who assumed to know,
that this was the army sent to exterminate the Indians. They carried the
intelligence to the Indians, where it excited great derision. The little
company marched very slowly, making their roads through the snows of the
divides, and were careful to afford the Indian scouts full opportunity
to learn their strength and armament. The chiefs unconcernedly gave
orders to their warriors to prepare for a warm reception of the foe,
while they visited the settlements. On the morning of the sixth day’s
march, Captain Hoyt and his men reached the vicinity of the present town
of Franklin, within a few hours’ march of the Indian stronghold. Bear
Hunter, who was there at the time, seeing how few the men were in
number, left immediately in high glee, at the prospect of cutting them
off the next day.
At midnight that night, after a ride of four nights, one of sixty miles,
the others of easier marches, through deep snows and a piercing, bitter
wind that nearly disabled a third of the command, Major McGarry, at the
head of two hundred cavalry, accompanied by General Connor and his aids,
rode into the little camp, and bivouacked with the infantry. The Indians
knew nothing of this arrival. So far the plan for their destruction was
successful. The troops slept on their arms. Orders were given to the
infantry to march an hour after midnight. They were obliged to break
their road through the snow, which completely covered the entire region
to the depth of one or two feet. The heavy howitzers were dragged
through it, over the unequal surface, with great difficulty, and for the
purpose of concealment, kept in the rear. Several hours after the
infantry started, the cavalry dashed by them and drew up on the south
bank of Bear River before the dawn broke over the Indian camp. The
savages were prepared for the attack. The ravine rang with their fearful
and defiant howling.
[Illustration:
GENERAL P. E. CONNOR
_Commander at Battle of Bear River_
]
The passage of the river was very difficult. Covered at the bottom to
the depth of a foot or more with anchor-ice, its rapid current, too
strong for congealment at its surface, was filled with floating masses
of ice, whose sharp edges and great weight threatened disaster to every
horse which ventured the treacherous passage. But there was no
alternative. The troops who had dismounted to load their pistols, now
remounted their horses, and led by Majors McGarry and Gallagher, by
slow, tedious, and careful effort, succeeded in reaching the northern
bank in safety. Before the passage was completed, however, the companies
of Captain Price and Lieutenant Chase, which were the first to land, had
drawn up in line of battle. Captain McLean and Lieutenant Quinn, with
their commands, had barely joined them, when the Indians opened the
fight with a shower of balls, wounding one of the men.
General Connor had instructed McGarry to surround the ravine, and was
himself at this moment awaiting the arrival of the infantry on the south
side of the river. He had not anticipated so early a commencement of the
fight, but leaving his orders to be given by his aid, he hastily crossed
the river and joined McGarry. That officer finding it impossible with
the two companies at his disposal to outflank the Indians, ordered them
to advance as skirmishers. Up to this time the Indians had been
tantalizing our troops by their appearance upon the benches, over which
it was necessary to pass before an attack could be made from the east on
their stronghold. At the approach of the skirmishing party they
retreated under cover of the precipitous bank, where, entirely protected
from our guns, they opened a galling and deadly fire, killing and
wounding several of Connor’s men. The General ordered his men to protect
themselves as much as possible, and sent McGarry forward with a
detachment to scale the mountain which enclosed the ravine on the north,
and outflank the Indians on the left, while the companies on the benches
attacked them in front.
At this stage of the fight, the most disastrous to our troops, Captain
Hoyt arrived with the infantry on the south bank of the river. He had
heard the firing at a distance, and hurried forward his men, who in
their eagerness for the fray, attempted to ford the river, but found it
impossible. Wet and chilled they crossed the river on cavalry horses
sent from the north side, and galloped up to the battle, just in time to
enable McGarry, with their assistance, to complete his flanking
movement. Captain Hoyt now came up with a portion of his men on the west
side of the ravine, extending the cordon so as to form about
three-fourths of a circle, embracing three sides of the Indian camp. The
fight now became very brisk. By the enfilading fire from the east, west,
and north sides of the ravine, the Indians were gradually driven to the
centre and south. Their stronghold proved a complete _cul de sac_, and
they were entirely at the mercy of the troops. Taken at this great
disadvantage, and seeing their chiefs and head men falling around them,
they fought with desperate bravery, moving slowly toward the mouth of
the ravine on the west side of which General Connor had stationed a
detachment of cavalry to cut off their retreat. The great slaughter
occasioned by the incessant fire of the troops, at length broke the
Indians’ line. Each man sought how best to save himself. Many of them
ran in the most disorderly manner to the mouth of the ravine, where they
fell in heaps before the deadly fire of the rifles. Some attempted to
cross the river, but did not live to effect it. Others crawled into the
willow clumps with the hope of escaping notice, but the troops were
ordered to scour the bushes, and dislodge them. Many of these latter
disclosed their places of concealment by firing from them upon the
troops, as if resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. The
last Indian foe waited his opportunity. While Major Gallagher was
leading a detachment into a thicket, the savage fired upon him. The ball
passed through his left arm into his side. Again the Indian fired, and a
cavalryman fell from his horse beside General Connor. The flash of his
rifle revealed his hiding-place, and a volley from the detachment ended
the bloody contest.
The details I have here given of this battle, while they sufficiently
demonstrate the skill and bravery of the officers and men by whom it was
fought, would be wanting in justice to them did I fail to mention other
incidental facts connected with it, which entitle them to additional
claims upon our gratitude and admiration. Few people who have never
experienced a winter in the Rocky Mountains know how to appreciate the
elemental difficulties attending the march of such an expedition as this
one of General Connor’s. The sudden storms, the deep snows, the
trackless wastes, the rapid, half-frozen mountain torrents, the lofty
divides, the keen blasts, and the pinching nights, coupled with all the
unavoidable demands which must encumber the movements of troops and
artillery through a country that for most of the distance is entirely
desolate, should give this expedition a conspicuous place among the
remarkable events of our country’s history. Seventy-four of the number
engaged in it had their feet frozen by exposure. The night rides of the
cavalry to overtake the infantry would furnish as thrilling a theme for
song as any of the rides during our National struggle, which have been
thus immortalized. The transportation of munitions, camp equipage, and
heavy artillery through eighty miles of snow, which for most of the
distance was unmarked by a road, over mountains, through cañons, and
across unbridged streams, furnishes a chapter that can find no parallel
in our former military experience. I mention them, that my readers may
form some idea of the amount of labor and care necessary to carry such
an enterprise through with success, and give the proper credit to those
who accomplished it.
Through the kindness of General Connor I am enabled to give the names
and rank of those who were killed and wounded. All the officers and men
fought with great bravery. General Connor himself, during the entire
four hours the battle was in progress, was always in the thickest of it,
and seldom out of range of the deadly rifles of the Indians. The
historian of the battle says:
“General Connor exhibited high qualities of command, and his perfect
coolness and bravery are the universal theme of praise. Possibly some
might have been better pleased with less exposure of their commander,
but I have the best authority for saying it was the call of duty, and
not indifference.”
The object of the fight was fully accomplished. Two hundred and
sixty-seven Indians were killed, several of their leading chiefs among
the number. Not fifteen escaped to tell the story of the battle.
This victory removed at once and forever the greatest impediment in the
way of emigration to the new Territory and a safe exit from it for those
who wished to return to their homes in the States. Previous to it people
could not, with safety, pass in either direction except in large and
strongly armed companies; and with certain exposure to the Indians on
the one hand, and the robbers and brigands on the other, with no other
possible outlet for escape except by crossing the Territory to Fort
Benton or over the Cœur D’Alene Mountains to Walla Walla, both very
uncertain and dangerous routes, the inhabitants of the Territory were
completely at the mercy of their assailants. No more fortunate event
could have occurred at the time, than this successful extermination of a
dangerous foe.
The lesson this battle taught the Bannacks has never been forgotten. The
instance of an attack by other bands upon the emigrants has never been
known since that day. It so reduced their tribe in number that they have
ever since been a broken and dispirited people. They are the vagrants of
the mountains, as remarkable for their pusillanimity, as, in the days of
Bonneville, they were for their bravery, and the commanding position
they held among the mountain tribes.
The following is a list of the killed and wounded in the fight:
SECOND CAVALRY, COMPANY A
_Killed._—Privates, James W. Baldwin, George German.
_Wounded._—Lieut. D. J. Berry; Privates, John W. Wall, James S.
Montgomery, John Welsh, William H. Lake, William Jay.
_Frozen._—Corporal Adolph Spraggle; Privates, John D. Marker, J.
Kearney, Samuel L’Hommidieu, R. McNulty, G. Swan.
COMPANY H
_Killed._—Privates, John K. Briggs, Charles L. Hallowell.
_Wounded._—Capt. Daniel McLean, Sergeant James Cantillon;[4] Corporals,
Philip Schaub and Patrick Frauley; Privates, Michael O’Brien,[4] H. L.
Fisher, John Franklin, Hugh Connor, Joseph Clows, Thomson Ridge, James
Logan, Bartele C. Hutchinson, Frank Farley.[4]
_Frozen._—Sixteen names not obtained.
COMPANY K
_Killed._—Privates, Lewis Anderson, Christian Smith, Shelbourne C. Reed,
Adolphus Rowe, Henry W. Trempf.
_Wounded._—Lieut. Darwin Chase,[4] Sergeant Sylvanus S. Longley,
Corporal Benjamin Landis; Privates, William Slocum,[4] Albert N. Parker,
John S. Lee, Walter B. Welton, Nath’l Kinsley, Patrick H. Kelly, Eugene
J. Brady, Silas C. Bush, John Daly, Robert Hargrave, Morris Illig,
Alonzo A. P. V. McCoy.
_Frozen._—Sergeant Wm. L. Beach; Corporals, Wm. L. White and James R.
Hunt; Privates, Stragder Ausby, Matthew Almone, David Bristow, Fred W.
Becker, Nath’l Chapman, Sam’l Caldwell, Joseph Chapman, John G. Hertle,
Chas. B. Howe, Joseph Hill, George Johnston, Jefferson Lincoln, Arthur
Mitchell, James McKown, Alonzo R. Palmer, Charles Wilson.
COMPANY M
_Killed._—Wagoner, Asa F. Howard; Privates, Geo. C. Cox, Geo. W. Hoton,
Wm. Davis.
_Wounded._—Sergeants, Anthony Stevens[4] and Lorin Robbins, Corporal L.
W. Hughes; Privates, W. H. Wood, L. D. Hughes, J. Legget, E. C. Chase,
F. Barcafer, R. Miller, M. Forbes, John Stevens, P. Humbert; Bugler, A.
Hoffner.
_Frozen._—Sergeant John Cullen; Corporals, A. P. Hewitt and Wm. Steel;
Privates, W. W. Collins, James Dyer, John McGonagle, A. G. Case.
THIRD INFANTRY, COMPANY K
_Killed._—Privates, John E. Baker, Samuel W. Thomas.
_Wounded._—Major P. A. Gallagher; Sergeants, A. J. Austin and E. C.
Hoyt; Privates, John Hensley, Thomas Walker.
_Frozen._—Sergeants, C. J. Herron and C. F. Williams; Corporals, Wm.
Bennett, John Lattman, and John Wingate; Privates, Joseph German, James
Urquhart, Wm. St. John, Algeray Ramsdell, James Epperson, A. J. T.
Randall, Wm. Farnham, John Baurland, Giles Ticknor, Alfred Pensho, B. B.
Bigelow, J. Anderson, F. Bacralso, F. Branch, A. L. Bailey, Wm. Carlton,
D. Donahue, C. H. Godbold, J. Haywood, C. Heath, J. Manning, Wm. Way.
Footnote 4:
Died of wounds.
RECAPITULATION
REGIMENT KILLED WOUNDED FROZEN TOTAL
2nd Cavalry, Co. A 2 6 6 14
2nd Cavalry, Co. H 2 14 16 32
2nd Cavalry, Co. K 5 15 19 39
2nd Cavalry, Co. M 4 13 7 24
3rd Infantry, Co. K 2 5 27 34
—— —— —— ———
_Total_ 15 53 75 143