Indian Fights & Fighters
[Illustration:
THE LAST OF CUSTER
_Drawing by E. L. Blumenschein_
]
AMERICAN FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS SERIES
Indian Fights and Fighters
THE SOLDIER AND THE SIOUX
BY
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY, LL.D.
Author of “Colonial,” “Border,” and “Revolutionary” Fights and Fighters
[Illustration]
Illustrated with Original Drawings by Remington, Schreyvogel,
Blumenschein, Crawford, Elwell, Deming, and Zogbaum
With Maps, Photographs, and Sketches from Life from Original Sources,
many of which are now published for the first time
NEW YORK
THE McCLURE COMPANY
MCMVIII
_Copyright, 1904, by_
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
_Published, December, 1904, N_
Second Impression.
Copyright, 1904, by The Pearson Publishing Company
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To that most eminent and useful
CHURCHMAN AND CITIZEN
OZI WILLIAM WHITAKER, D.D., LL.D.
Bishop of Pennsylvania
Whom I admire as a _CLERIC_, respect as a _MAN_, and love as a _FRIEND_
I dedicate
_This Story of the West_
He served so well
PREFACE
The writing of history requires three operations: (I) The collection of
facts; (II) The classification and arrangement of facts; (III) The
presentation and discussion of facts. I have collected the facts related
in this book from every source open to me. These sources may be divided
into two groups: (1) Published and (2) unpublished, matter. The
published matter includes (a) official records; (b) books, and (c)
magazine or other ephemeral articles. The unpublished matter includes
(a) letters and (b) verbal communications.
I have made use of all these sources of information in gathering the
facts. A list of some of the printed authorities consulted follows this
preface. In addition thereto, I beg to acknowledge written
communications from the following American Army officers, all now on the
retired list except Colonels Godfrey and Brainard and Captain
Livermore:—Lieutenant-General Nelson A. Miles; Major-General Robert P.
Hughes; Brigadier-Generals Henry B. Carrington, George A. Forsyth, Louis
H. Carpenter, Anson Mills, Charles A. Woodruff and Theo. F. Rodenbough;
Colonel Edward E. S. Godfrey, commanding the Ninth Cavalry; Colonel
David L. Brainard, Commissary of Subsistence; Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel
M. Horton; Captains Henry R. Lemly, Francis M. Gibson, Nathan S. Jarvis,
George E. Albee and R. L. Livermore, Tenth Cavalry; and the following
civilians: President E. Benjamin Andrews; Doctors T. E. Oertel and D. D.
Thompson; Messrs. W. Kent Thomas, Sigmund Schlesinger, Edward Esmonde,
Phineas Towne, W. R. E. Collins, Hugh M. Johnson, Herbert Myrick, R. J.
Smyth, William E. Morris, Nicholas E. Boyd, Theo. W. Goldin and Arthur
Chapman; Mrs. Guy V. Henry and Mrs. James Powell.
In addition to these letters I have gathered much information in
conversation with officers and others, not only recently but during many
years spent in the West, where I was a frequent guest at army posts, in
frontier towns, and at some of the Indian reservations. I knew many of
the participants in the stirring incidents and heard the fascinating
stories from their own lips.
The chapters of the Fort Phil Kearney series have been read and
corrected as to matters of fact by General Carrington and Colonel
Horton; those referring to the defense of Beecher’s Island, by General
Forsyth; those describing the relief of Forsyth and the fight on the
Beaver, by General Carpenter; those relating to the Little Big Horn
campaign, by General Woodruff and Colonel Godfrey, and the account of
the affair at Slim Buttes and the death of American Horse, by General
Mills. All of these gentlemen gave me interesting details, anecdotes,
etc., besides answering all my inquiries. Several of them put their
private papers at my disposal. To Colonel Godfrey I am especially
indebted for much interesting matter on the Little Big Horn campaign,
and to Captain Gibson for the use of his unprinted account of the Battle
of the Washita. The Office of the Secretary of War has been most kind in
answering questions and furnishing information not otherwise procurable.
Mr. W. H. Holmes, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian
Institution, has decided all questions as to the proper spelling of
Indian names,[1] and has given me the Indian equivalents of the names of
prominent chiefs, as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, etc.
Several of the papers following are original contributions especially
prepared for this book. The authors of these papers are indicated
hereafter. For all expressions of opinion, for all comments, notes and
inferences, not specifically attributed to somebody else, I alone am
responsible.
To all who have aided me to make this series authoritative and
definitive, my most grateful thanks are hereby heartily expressed.
I trust that in thus striving to preserve the records of those stirring
times I have done history and posterity a service. The majority of those
who fought on the plains have passed away. Many of the surviving
participants in the adventures described are growing old. In a short
time it would have been impossible to have secured the information here
presented unless some one else had gone about it as I have.
With intervals devoted to other duties, I have been over a year and a
half engaged in this congenial task. I have written literally hundreds
of letters, to learn, or to verify, a fact, an incident, or a
conclusion. It is interesting to call attention to the fact that
information has been freely and generously given to me from every source
whence I have asked it save three, one of which is noted in the
appendix.
The series of historical books of which this forms the fourth seems to
have won a permanent place for itself. The number of copies which found
a welcome last year was greater than the number of the year before,
although there was no new volume issued last fall to call renewed
attention to the series. These books are generally spoken of by the
title of the first published, “American Fights and Fighters.” It has
been deemed proper, therefore, to adopt that name, which is sufficiently
explicit and descriptive, as the generic name of the series. Hereafter
all the books that have appeared, and those that are yet to appear in
this series, will bear that general name, with the addition of a
distinctive subtitle in each instance. The covers of the earlier books,
accordingly, have been changed to read as follows:
1. American Fights and Fighters, Colonial.
2. American Fights and Fighters, Revolutionary—1812.
3. American Fights and Fighters, Border.
As I have stated, it is my hope to continue this series of books until I
have covered all the wars that have been fought upon the American
Continent since Columbus’s day.
So far as the American people are concerned—save in the case of the
Mexican War—their struggles have generally been to establish a broader,
nobler conception of human freedom. I would not have any one gather from
this that our dealings with the Indian invariably have been
characterized by that honesty and honor which should be at the base of
every national undertaking—far from it! In this book, without growing
sentimental, I have endeavored to be fair to the Indians; as in previous
books, I have tried to deal justly by any and every enemy.[2] To be
honest and to be fair—these things are of prime importance in writing
history and in living life.
I am now at work on two other volumes, a book on “South American Fights
and Fighters” and a second volume of “Indian Fights and Fighters.” In
this proposed Indian book I shall take up the further struggles of the
United States with the Indians of the Northwest, notably Chief Joseph’s
splendid migration with his Nez-Percés, the dash of the Cheyennes for
freedom, Captain Jack and the Modoc War, the Ute War, the last outbreak
of the Sioux, and various other affairs in the Northwest. Thereafter I
contemplate a third book dealing with Arizona and the Apache.
I take this opportunity of asking every individual, soldier or civilian,
who participated in any of these campaigns or battles, who has any
material bearing upon them, and who is willing to allow me to look over
it, kindly to send it to me in care of the publishers of this book, as
soon as possible, as I expect to issue the next volume of the series
next fall. Any such material will be carefully preserved and returned by
express in good order, and due credit—also a copy of the book!—will be
given for any which may be of use to me in the next book, as in this
one.
It is getting late, as I said, to write the history of some of these
things, and I am actuated by an earnest desire to preserve the records
before it is too late. Who will help me? Since I began writing history I
have learned to disregard no authority, however humble, and to neglect
no source of information, however obscure it may appear to a casual
inspection. Therefore send me what you have or can prepare, and allow me
to judge of its value.
American people are usually more familiar with the story of other
peoples than with their own history. How often have I heard the charge
made that there is nothing romantic or interesting in American history.
I do not see how any one could read even the chapter headings of a book
like this and say a thing like that. Where are there more splendid
stories of dauntless heroism, of subtle strategy, of brilliant tactics,
of fierce fighting, than are contained in these pages? I may have told
them indifferently and may be the subject of just criticism therefor,
but the stories at least are there. They speak for themselves. I could
not spoil them if I tried. The facts ring like a trumpet-call to
American manhood, be it white, or red, or black.
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
Brooklyn, N. Y.,
August 1, 1904.
-----
Footnote 1:
Almost every author has a different way of spelling the names of the
sub-tribes of the Siouan family.
Footnote 2:
For instance:—Every time a body of troops engages in a fight with
Indians and the troops are outnumbered, or caught at a disadvantage,
and the battle is continued until the troops are slaughtered, such an
affair is popularly called a “massacre”; as “The Fetterman Massacre,”
“The Custer Massacre.” I believe this to be an unwarranted use of the
term. Fetterman and Custer attacked the Indians and fought desperately
until they and their men were all killed. I call that a “battle” not a
“massacre.” When an Indian war party raided a settlement or
overwhelmed a train, or murdered children and women, that, I think,
was a “massacre”; but these two instances were not. Consequently, I
have carefully refrained from making use of that term in this book,
except where it is justifiable. The reader may not agree with me in
this position, but I would like to ask if any one ever heard of the
“Massacre of Thermopylæ”? The Greeks fought there until all, save one,
were killed. The results there were exactly those of the Fetterman
affair and the battle of the Little Big Horn, but I have yet to read
in history that the Persians “massacred” the Greeks in that famous
pass. What is sauce for the Persians is sauce for the Red Men as well.
PREFACE
It will be noticed that this book differs from others of the AMERICAN
FIGHTS AND FIGHTERS SERIES, and especially its immediate predecessor,
“Indian Fights and Fighters,” in that I am not the author of all or most
of it. In response to a request for contributions from participants in
the Modoc and Nez Percé wars, numerous papers were submitted, all of
such high value, not only from an historic but from a literary point of
view as well, that I had not the presumption to rewrite them myself—not
even the proverbial assurance of the historian would warrant that.
Therefore, I have contented myself with writing a general and
comprehensive account of each of the two wars considered, leaving to the
actors themselves the telling in full of the detailed story of the
splendid achievements in which they were making history. I can affirm,
therefore, that never before has there been included in a single volume
such a remarkable and interesting collection of personal experiences in
our Indian Wars as in this book.
And as I admire the doers of the deeds so, also, do I admire the tellers
of the tales. Their modesty, their restraint, their habit of relating
adventures which stir the blood and thrill the soul as a mere matter of
course,—“all in the day’s work”—enkindles my enthusiasm. And how
graphically these old soldiers wield their pens! What good story tellers
they are!
And what different sorts and conditions of men are here represented!
Major-generals and scouts, captains and sergeants, frontiersmen and
troopers, soldiers and civilians, to say nothing of an Indian chief and
a bishop, have all said their say in their own way. The reader will be
glad, I know, that I have permitted these men, like Paul, to speak for
themselves.
The whole book constitutes a trumpet call to American manhood, and
honor, and courage, and that I believe to be true of the whole series.
The Army of the United States is sometimes slandered. A case in point is
now in mind. The chief official of a city of no little prominence, who
is also an author and a publicist of national repute, has recently put
forth a bitter diatribe against our soldiers. Such a book as this
refutes these unfounded accusations. The Army is not perfect—neither is
the Church!—but not only man for man, but also as an organization it is
the equal of any, and the superior of most, of the armies of the world!
And I am sure that no one can get a much better training for the battle
of life that he gets in the peace loving, hard working, honor seeking,
duty following, never failing, hard fighting service of the United
States—on sea or shore. I have been in both, worn the Army and also the
Navy blue, and I know. We all deprecate the necessity for armies, but if
we must have them, let us thank God for an army like that of our beloved
country. I am glad to express this my deliberate and matured conviction,
begot of much study, wide observation, and ripe experience.
CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY.
LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE, CENTRE HARBOR,
NEW HAMPSHIRE, _July, 1907_.
CONTENTS
❦
PART I
PROTECTING THE FRONTIER
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE POWDER RIVER EXPEDITION 3
II. THE TRAGEDY OF FORT PHIL KEARNEY 19
III. THE THIRTY-TWO AGAINST THE THREE THOUSAND 40
IV. PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF FORT PHIL KEARNEY AND THE
WAGON-BOX FIGHT 59
V. FORSYTH AND THE ROUGH RIDERS OF ’68 72
VI. THE JOURNEY OF THE SCOUTS AND THE RESCUE OF FORSYTH 97
VII. A SCOUT’S STORY OF THE DEFENSE OF BEECHER’S ISLAND 113
VIII. CARPENTER AND HIS BRUNETTES. THE FIGHT ON BEAVER CREEK 123
IX. A FURTHER DISCUSSION OF THE BEAVER CREEK AFFAIR 136
X. THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 146
XI. CARR AND TALL BULL AT SUMMIT SPRINGS 170