cultivation in wheat, corn, oats, barley, and all garden vegetables,
with an unlimited range for cattle, horses and sheep, etc. I do
not know a single enterprise in which the United States has more
interest than in the extension of the Northern Pacific railroad
from its present terminus at Bismarck to the mouth of Powder river
on the Yellowstone. After that is done we can safely leave to time
the extension of the road to the head of navigation on the Columbia
river. After a couple of months I can speak with more confidence on
that point. I now regard the Sioux Indian problem as a war question
as solved by the operation of General Miles last winter, and by the
establishment of the two new posts this summer. Boats can come and go
now where a year ago none would venture except with strong guards.
Woodyards are being established to facilitate navigation, and the great
mass of the hostile Indians have been forced to go to the Agencies
for food and protection, or have fled across the border into British
territory. I have driven all about this post, looked into the barracks,
which are as yet mere huts of cottonwood posts, with dirt floors and
dirt roofs, but will soon be replaced by good frame barracks and
quarters. The stores of all kinds on hand are abundant and good, so
that no apprehension is felt on account of the enemy or severity of the
winter. Six small companies of infantry are here, two more are on the
way, and four are mounted on captured ponies and are out on a scout.
The Seventh Cavalry are also near here, scouting to the north, but
discover no marks of an enemy.
“As winter approaches, part of the cavalry will doubtless be sent
back to Fort Lincoln for economy of maintenance. Tomorrow night we
resume our trip up the Yellowstone and Big Horn to the other new post
building, at the forks of the Big and Little Horn. There I expect
to meet General Sheridan. * * * I beg you not to construe this as
official, as I have been constantly interrupted, and must close, as the
steamer is ready to go. With great respect, etc.,
“W. T. SHERMAN, General.”
LETTER II.
“On the Steamer Rosebud, Big Horn River, July 25, 1877.
“My Dear Sir: We left the cantonment at the mouth of the Tongue river
on the evening of July 18, and reached the mouth of the Big Horn in
three days, then entering the Big Horn, we steamed hard for three days
against a powerful current, and reached the new post at the forks
of the Little and Big Horn yesterday morning early. Many boats had
preceded us, all, or nearly all, discharging part of their freight on
the west bank, from which hauling is comparatively easy. Our boat,
which was built especially for the navigation of this and similar
streams, had to land four miles below the post one-third of her cargo.
The difficulty was not the want of water, but by reason of the strong
current, which in the bends must be about eight miles an hour.
“We found at the post the United States steamer General Sherman, which
has a good hull, a good engine, but too much and too fine cabin for
this work. It will be kept in the Big Horn as long as the water lasts,
and will be employed in carrying up to the post the freight dropped
on the river bank by the contract boats. The post already has a good
supply of all essential stores, and there is no doubt that long before
the season closes all invoiced for its use will be on hand and stored.
The day before we reached the post we met General Sheridan and party,
who had come across the country from Fort Stambaugh. We had a long
conference and agree that this new post is well located, and that it
can be supplied with reasonable economy in the future. The new post
will be garrisoned by six companies of the Eleventh Infantry and four
companies of the Second Cavalry, under command of Lieutenant Colonel
Buell, of the Eleventh Infantry, an officer of great energy, and by
profession an engineer. He served under me during the war as colonel
of an engineer regiment, and afterwards as a brigade commander. He has
been on the ground less than a month, but has a steam sawmill at work
and a large mass of cottonwood logs being rapidly sawed up into lumber
for the new barracks. He has about 200 civil mechanics at work and six
buildings in progress, besides temporary shelters for his stores as
received, and he entertains no fear but that he will finish his post
substantially before winter.
“The location of this post is in the very heart of the Sioux country.
With this one and the one at the mouth of the Tongue river, occupied
by strong, enterprising garrisons, these Sioux can never regain this
country, and they will be forced to remain at their agencies or take
refuge in the British possessions. At present there are no Indians here
or hereabouts. I have neither seen nor heard of any. General Sheridan
saw none nor any trace of any, so that the principal end aimed at by
the construction of these posts is already reached, and it is only to
make this end permanent that we should persist in their completion. The
one at Tongue river can be supplied by steamboats. This one, at the
mouth of the Little Big Horn, cannot depend on this river, the current
being too strong to be navigated by ordinary boats with a fair cargo.
General Terry and his quartermaster, General Card, are at this moment
reconnoitering to select some point near the mouth of the Big Horn
whereat to establish a supply depot, at which all freight destined for
this post can be landed and hauled up here.
“We have on board a company of infantry to guard this depot, and we are
nearly agreed that the best place will be a point on the Yellowstone
proper, three miles above the mouth of the Big Horn, where the hauling
will be about thirty miles by ox trains. These can be hired here, and
will do the work more surely and better than the steamboats, for they
have been sometimes two weeks in working up the Big Horn and have left
their loads strung along its banks at points hard to reach by wagons. I
am convinced that this is the wisest course, and thus we can maintain
a strong military post in the very heart of the hostile Sioux country,
with only a haul of twenty miles, which is insignificant as compared
with most of our posts south of this. The country west of this is a
good country and will rapidly fill up with emigrants, who will, within
the next few years, build up a community as strong and as capable of
self-defense as Colorado.
“I have Company L of the Second Cavalry, Captain Norwood, which belongs
at Fort Ellis, M. T., now camped on the west bank of the Yellowstone,
opposite the mouth of the Big Horn, to escort me up to Ellis. As soon
as we have decided on the merits of the point mentioned as a supply
depot for this post, I will land and start for Ellis, leaving Gen.
Terry with this boat to return to Bismarck for a new load. I will
instruct General Terry to report in full all these matters to the
adjutant general, so that this letter is only preliminary.
“Here we have no news from Idaho or Oregon, or the world generally, but
I suppose in Montana there will be need of the four companies of the
Second Cavalry, temporarily taken to Tongue river, and I instructed
General Sheridan to so order when he reached Tongue river. This will
leave General Miles the whole of the Seventh Cavalry available if the
Indian Bureau wishes to escort Sitting Bull from British America to an
agency.
“The weather has been intensely hot--as hot as Texas--but last night we
had a thunder-squall, since which the air has become perfect. General
good health prevails here, and I am impressed with the value of this
country. * * * Truly yours,
“W. T. SHERMAN, General.”
LETTER III.
“Fort Ellis, M. T., August 3, 1877.
“Dear Sir: I wrote you last from the steamboat Rosebud, coming down
the Big Horn in company with General Terry and others on the 25th of
July. We had concluded that the current of the Big Horn was too swift
to be managed economically, and that the garrison at Post No. 2, at the
mouth of the Big Horn, could best be supplied by establishing a depot
on the Yellowstone, just above the mouth of the Big Horn, where stores
could be hauled thirty miles to the new post. A company of the Eleventh
Infantry was left there to establish and guard the depot when the
steamer Rosebud dropped down to the point just below the mouth of the
Big Horn, where Company L, Second Cavalry, Captain Norwood, was camped
with an outfit. This consisted of six Indian horses, two light spring
wagons, and one light baggage wagon. The Rosebud landed us at 2 p. m.,
when she started down the river, leaving us to begin our real journey.
In a few minutes the escort saddled up, and we started on horseback up
the Yellowstone.
“The valley is strongly marked, about three miles wide, flat, with
good grass, the banks of the river and the streams well wooded with
cottonwood trees. In this valley, the Yellowstone, a broad, strong
stream, meanders back and forth, forming on both sides strong,
perpendicular bluffs of rock and clay, forcing the road constantly out
of the flat valley over the points, and causing wide deflections in
the road to head the ravines or ‘coolies,’ which flow to the river.
There is a strongly-marked wagon trail, but no bridge or cuts, a purely
natural road, with steep ascents and descents, and frequent gullies,
about as much as wagons could pass. We sometimes shifted into our light
wagons, to save the fatigue of travel.
“Thus we journeyed for four days, when we sent a courier from Fort
Ellis with a copy of General Townsend’s dispatch to me, saying that the
President desired my immediate return, unless I had information that
the serious riots then in full career had ceased.
“Light wagons can out-travel horses and baggage wagons. Up to that
date we averaged twenty-five miles a day. I therefore turned the
courier back with a fresh horse, and orders to reach Fort Ellis in
two days with answer, to be sent from Bozeman by telegraph, and, with
my immediate party, I followed, taking one more day, being time for
answers. On reaching Fort Ellis the day before yesterday (August 1), I
was delighted to hear that the riots had ceased, and that you and the
President had consented that I should go on as originally intended.
“The escort company came in yesterday, so that we are now all here at
Fort Ellis. When we arrived there was but one company of the Seventh
Infantry here, Captain Benham, thirty men. The arrival of the escort
gives an addition of sixty men.
“There is no seeming danger here or hereabouts, but the Nez Perces
are reported to have entered Montana, from Idaho, and are now in the
valley of the Bitter Root, about 300 miles west of this; they are
reported en route to the buffalo range, east and north of this point.
It seems that for many years these same Nez Perces, along with some
Flatheads from the western part of Montana, have been accustomed to
come to the sources of the Musselshell and Yellowstone to gather meat
for the winter, traversing the whole of Montana, doing little or no
damage. But the buffaloes of the great northern herd, like that of the
southern, are being rapidly slaughtered for their skins, so that now
they are becoming scarce. We only saw four buffaloes, two of which were
killed, in our course, whereas ten years ago we would have encountered
a million.
“The time has come when these restless Indians must cease to look to
buffaloes as a means of maintenance, and they should not be allowed
to traverse the scattered and explored settlements of Montana, where
hunger will sooner or later compel them to kill tame cattle and steal
horses, thus leading to murder and war.
“Besides these the Nez Perces should be made to answer for the murders
they committed in Idaho, and also to be punished as a tribe for going
to war without just cause or provocation.
“Hitherto all danger to Montana has come from the north and the Sioux
to the east, and the few troops stationed in the territory were posted,
as it were, at the eastern doors or passes through the mountains, over
Ellis, Baker, Benton and Shaw, but last year a new post was selected
at or near Missoula, the door of the western frontier. Two small
companies, not over sixty men, of the Seventh Infantry, under Captain
Rawn, were sent to Missoula to build a post there, but he had hardly
arrived when the Nez Perces war began. When it was reported that
General Howard had defeated the hostiles and that they were retreating
to Montana by what is known as the Lo-Lo trail, some of the citizens of
the neighborhood joined the soldiers for the purpose of stopping the
Indians until the troops from Idaho could come up with them. But it
seems the Indians passed around Captain Rawn’s fortified point and then
entered the Bitter Root valley, but in such force (300 armed warriors)
as to claim to be able, if opposed, to force their way through.
“The country is so large and the passes so scattered that concert of
action is most difficult, if not impossible.
“Gen. Gibbon, colonel of the Seventh Infantry, has command of this
district, and General Terry is the department commander. Gibbon is
stationed at Fort Shaw, on Sun river, 200 miles north of this. As
soon as he perceived Captain Rawn’s critical position, he collected
about 100 men, and has gone rapidly toward Missoula to take command
and control them. The governor of the territory, General Potts, has
also gone in the same direction--Deer Lodge--and has organized some
volunteer companies, and these may be able to get ahead of the Indians
somewhere on the Big Hole or Wisdom river, and hold them in check or
turn them back toward Idaho, where General Howard must have a pretty
respectable force, able to destroy them, unless, as I suspect, they
will scatter, when pursuit becomes impossible. I do not propose to
interfere, but leave Howard or Gibbon to fight out this fight.
“Too many heads are worse than one.
“I have sent word to Governor Potts that if the citizens in their own
interest will join the regular troops and act with and under them,
that the commanding officer will loan them arms and ammunition when
possible, and may certify to beef or food taken en route, but that
congress alone can raise troops for any purpose. I have telegraphed
to General McDowell that I expect that his troops now in Idaho will
follow up those Indians to the death, go where they may, regardless of
boundaries. He answered that such are still, and were General Howard’s
orders from the beginning. So I expect soon to hear of the arrival
at or near Missoula of the troops from that quarter. The nearest
point from which troops may come to Montana from the east is by the
route I came. When I parted with General Terry at the Big Horn it was
understood he would detach for General Miles’ command at Tongue river
the companies of the Second Cavalry which belong here. It will be two
weeks before they reach here, but if they arrive in time, and the
troops and volunteers now in the Bitter Root country do not succeed in
stopping this band of Nez Perces, these three companies and the one I
brought will get on their trail, and change their proposed buffalo
hunt into a fight. If, however, they escape, I see no alternative but
to drive them across the British border to join Sitting Bull.
“Tomorrow I will start for the park, taking only five soldiers with
me, so that my presence here will not materially reduce the fighting
force, for I have sent word to General Gibbon that my escort company
is subject to his orders. I do not suppose we run much risk, for we
are all armed, and the hostile Indians rarely resort to the park, a
poor region for game, and to their superstitious mind associated with
hell by reason of the geysers and the hot springs. We expect to be
gone from here about fifteen days, during which we can receive or send
no letters. On our return here, say August 18th, I will go rapidly to
Helena, when I will learn all about the movements of the troops, and
I will be governed somewhat by them. But I still intend in August to
visit Forts Shaw and Benton, and to reach Missoula in the first week of
September.
“It is all important that a route or trail be opened between Missoula
and Walla Walla, but I can better judge of this after I have passed
over the road.
“We found ranches established all along down the Yellowstone, and the
mail contractors have already put on a line of two-horse spring wagons,
so that soon the route we passed over will fill up with passes. The
land is susceptible of cultivation on a small scale, but admirably
adapted to cattle raising.
“Fort Ellis is a small post, built of pine logs, all the mountains
around being covered with pines.
“We are all perfectly well, and enjoy the isolation and freshness of
camp life. Truly yours,
“W. T. SHERMAN, General.”
LETTER IV.
“Fort Ellis, M. T., August 19, 1877.
“The Territory of Montana, though very large, and surrounded on all
sides by Indians liable to become hostile on the slightest provocation,
has for ten years been a district forming a part of the Department of
Dakota, and has usually been garrisoned by a regiment of infantry and
a battalion of cavalry--four companies. The danger usually lay to the
east, toward the Sioux, and therefore the posts were Fort Benton, at
the head of navigation of the Missouri; Fort Shaw, on Sun river; Camp
Baker, at the head of the Musselshell, and Fort Ellis, at the head of
the Gallatin.
“The infantry regiment should be 1,000 men, but the policy of reduction
has gradually reduced it to 300, and early this spring the four
companies of the Second Cavalry, by order of the department commander,
were dispatched to Tongue river to assist General Miles in his active
campaign against the Sioux, and when I passed up the Yellowstone in
July three of these companies had been sent by General Miles to the
east of Tongue river, and one company (L, Captain Norwood) was held to
escort me to this, their proper post.
“On reaching Fort Ellis I found that General Gibbon, colonel of the
Seventh Infantry, commanding this district, had, at the request of
General Howard, hurriedly called for every man that could be spared,
and marched to Missoula to head off the Nez Perces Indians that had
been defeated by him (Howard) in Idaho. Gibbon was absolutely without
cavalry, and his small infantry companies marched with extraordinary
speed, making twenty-six miles a day. * * * General Gibbon got on the
trail, followed it with great earnestness, and overhauled the Indians
at a place known as Big Hole. He got into their camp and fought them
bravely and well a whole day, inflicting heavy loss and sustaining a
corresponding loss himself. Of this you have full reports.
“If General Gibbon could have had 100 more men, there would now be few
hostile Nez Perces left. But his force was inadequate, and he did all
that a man possibly could do.
“The next day Howard got ahead of his command, and he now has taken up
the pursuit, and I hope to hear that he has finished up what General
Gibbon so well began.
“I believe these Indians are afraid to return to Idaho, and think
they will try to escape to the great plains to the east of the Rocky
mountains, by way of the head of Wind river, in which case they will
fall to the charge of General Crook or General Miles, either of whom is
capable of running them down.
“The moment I reached Ellis I caused General Gibbon to be informed that
I had reached the territory, and that I did not wish to interfere with
his legitimate command, but on the contrary I gave him the company of
cavalry which had escorted me up from the Big Horn, and that company is
now with General Howard’s command in pursuit of the Nez Perces.
“Our little army is overworked, and I do not believe the officers and
soldiers of any army on earth, in peace or war, work as hard or take as
many risks of life as this little army of ours. In what we call peace I
am proud of them, and I hope you are also, or soon will be.
“Meantime I suppose you want to hear something of the National Park.”
Having been in the National Park for fifteen days, and giving a
graphic description of its spouting geysers and their performances,
its majestic mountains, lakes and canyons, the extremely beautiful
formation of which neither pen, words nor painting can equal, and that
“Wonderland” must be seen to be appreciated and felt, the general in
closing his sketch, says:
“This is Sunday, a real day of rest, and I have endeavored to give this
wide and rapid sketch in hopes to account for the fifteen days’ absence
from duty at this period of military activity, but I have faith that
there are plenty of good officers on duty at their posts to do all that
is demanded of the army. I now propose to go to work to study closer
the present condition and future prospects of Montana as bearing on the
great military problems, all of which will be duly reported.
“With great respect, etc.,
“WILLIAM T. SHERMAN, General.”
THE NEZ PERCES WAR.
It was in Idaho, in the summer of 1877, that Chief Joseph, of the
Nez Perces tribe, declared war by butchering his defenseless white
neighbors. It may be that the death of Custer and the fame of Sitting
Bull awoke the evil spirit in him by birth. The only excuse he tried
to give was that the government wanted to move some of his people
off a certain tract of land. All of this could have been settled
satisfactorily if he had waited but a few weeks, and to this end
he agreed. But before the time was up he commenced his murderous
deeds. The following is from the Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash., in
reference to Chief Joseph:
“By nature he was proud, defiant and warlike. His summer home was in
the Wallowa valley of eastern Oregon, but when not engaged there at
hunting and fishing he roamed at will from the California line to the
Canadian boundary, and from the Blue mountains to the summits of the
Rocky mountains.
“The invasion of this broad realm by miners and settlers forced upon
the government its policy of framing a new treaty with the Indians
for the purpose of confining them to two or three reservations. At a
conference held at Lapwai in 1873, between the various Indian chiefs
and representatives of the government, Joseph refused to go upon either
the Nez Perces reservation in Idaho or the Umatilla reservation in
Oregon. This being reported to the secretary of the interior, an order
was issued that Joseph’s band should be permitted to remain in the
Wallowa valley during the summer and autumn, and later the President
set aside the Wallowa and Imnaha valleys for Joseph and his non-treaty
Indians.
“Thus matters drifted until 1875, when, under pressure from the
settlers, the President rescinded his order, and another commission
was appointed to negotiate with Joseph and his band. Joseph haughtily
replied that he had not come to talk about land; the maker of the
earth had not partitioned it off, and man should not; the earth was
his mother, sacred to his affections, and too precious to be sold. He
did not wish to learn farming, but to live upon such fruits as the
earth produced for him without effort. (From these principles Joseph
has never departed. To this day (1898) he and his little band on the
Colville reservation refuse to take up the arts of peace. They hunt and
fish, and dwell in tepees.)
“The government replied that unless in a reasonable time Joseph
consented to be removed he should be forcibly taken with his people
and given lands on the reservation. He answered this by taking to the
warpath. Joseph, Whitebird and Looking Glass gathered their forces on
Cottonwood creek, sixty-five miles from Lewiston, ostensibly to comply
with the government’s command, but really in preparation for the fierce
war that followed.
“Their first victims were four white men, killed on White Bird creek.
On June 14, 1877, while playing cards, they were surprised by a band of
hostiles.”
Joseph’s fighting force was about five hundred. General O. O. Howard
took the field with seven hundred men and officers. Several skirmishes
were fought, in which Joseph was badly beaten, although about fifty of
Howard’s men were killed. Finally, with his men, followed by many women
and children, he crossed into Montana with Howard in pursuit. General
Gibbon, then located at Fort Shaw, Montana, was notified of Joseph’s
movements, and at once, with about 150 men, crossed the main range
of the Rockies, by going over the “Cadott Pass,” making the march in
two days. His force was infantry and a few were mounted. About thirty
citizens joined him from the Bitter Root valley.