INCIDENTS ON THE RIVER (1862–67).
In the summer of 1863 a party of twenty-one men and three women went
down the Missouri in a mackinaw boat from Fort Benton. They reached the
vicinity of the mouth of Apple Creek, near where Bismarck, N. D., now
stands, just as the Sioux Indians, whom General Sibley was driving out
of Minnesota and across the country to the Missouri, arrived on the
banks of that stream. They had just been defeated in three engagements
with General Sibley and were in a very angry temper. They attacked the
boat and fought the little party an entire day, and finally killed
them all and sunk the boat. It was reported that the whites killed
ninety-one Indians in the fight, and that the captain of the boat,
whose name is supposed to have been Baker, “made such a brave defense
that the Indians were struck with admiration for him and wanted to save
him.” The boat had a large amount of golddust on board, and some of
it was recovered by the Mandan and Aricara Indians. An air of mystery
has always hung over this affair, and the details will probably never
be known. For some unexplained reason, certain individuals who were
believed to have had some knowledge of it refused to disclose anything.
[Sidenote: THE STOLEN MACKINAW.]
In 1864, while Captain La Barge was at Fort Benton, a number of miners
applied to him to purchase a mackinaw boat. He refused to sell because
he felt sure that it meant death to them to try to run the gantlet
of the Indians in that way. They replied that they were afraid to go
overland on account of road agents. The Captain told them they had less
to fear from road agents than from Indians. The road agents might take
their gold, but the Indians would spare neither treasure nor life.
They were unconvinced, however, and as the Captain would not sell the
boat, they stole it and set out. While passing a high cut bank, about
thirty miles below Fort Berthold, where the channel ran close to the
shore, they were attacked by a war party of Sioux and all killed.
Pierre Garreau, the well-known interpreter, went down from Berthold and
recovered a part of the golddust. La Barge saw some of it among the
Indians the following year.
In 1865 the steamer _St. Johns_, on her way down the river, was
attacked by the Indians and the mate instantly killed. The boat was
under full headway and out of reach before it was possible to return
fire.
[Sidenote: SOWING THE WIND.]
In the same year the _General Grant_ lost three men. They had been sent
ashore at a wooding place to make fast a line, when they were pounced
upon by the Indians and killed.
On April 23, 1865, a band of Blood Indians near Fort Benton stole
about forty horses belonging to a party of beaver-trappers, of whom
Charley Carson, a nephew of “Kit” Carson, was one. On the night of May
22 these men, having gotten on a drunken spree, attacked a small party
of Blood Indians who happened to be near Fort Benton, but were not
known to be the thieves, killed three, and threw their bodies into the
Missouri. The survivors fled toward the south and met a large band of
warriors near Sun River, on their way north. Exasperated at the outrage
upon their brethren, they were ready for any measure of revenge, and
accident soon threw the desired opportunity in their way.
[Sidenote: REAPING THE WHIRLWIND.]
At the mouth of the Marias River lay the steamboat _Cutter_. A town
site had been laid off at this point and named Ophir, and some timber
had been cut in the valley of the Marias for use in the erection of
buildings. The principal proprietor of the nascent village was a
passenger on the _Cutter_, and the business of that boat seems to have
been connected with the building of the town. On the afternoon of May
25, about half-past two o’clock, eight men left the boat with a wagon
and three yoke of oxen to bring down some of the timber, and an hour
later two men went on horseback to join them, for it was felt that
there might be trouble from the Indians, and that the party should be
as strong as possible. These men were all well armed. Their route lay
up the valley of the Marias along its right bank, which they ascended
about three miles. At this point the valley, which was quite broad
below, narrowed to a width of four hundred yards. There was a growth
of timber quite dense close to the river, but open farther back. Just
above this point the bluffs crowded close upon the river, seamed with
ravines and gullies, like all the river bluffs along the Missouri. The
roadway at the foot of these bluffs was very narrow.
Beyond this defile the valley opened out again, and there was another
belt of timber. In the upper opening the Indians seem to have been
in camp and to have been discovered by the wood-choppers just as the
latter were passing the defile. It was probably the same band which we
have noted as being near Sun River two days before. The wagons were
instantly turned about, although in a most disadvantageous situation.
The Indians saw the whites at about the same time. They were lying in
wait for another party with a mule train, and were intending, after
attacking it, to try to take the steamboat. As soon as they saw the
wood-choppers they at once attacked them and killed every man and
captured all the property. The bodies of the slain were found scattered
along the river, fifty to one hundred yards apart, except one, that of
N. W. Burroughs, which was found half a mile further downstream, where
he was overtaken on his flight to the boat. Of the Indians the head
chief and one other were killed and a third dangerously wounded. The
Indians, to the number of about two hundred, immediately moved toward
the British line.
[Sidenote: ENTIRE PARTY SLAIN.]
The attack occurred about four o’clock and the firing was distinctly
heard on the boat. A party prepared to go out and investigate when a
hunter came riding in from the bluffs, saying that the whites were
being assailed by a large party of Indians. Three scouts set out
immediately, and after proceeding about two miles and a half found the
body of Mr. Burroughs. It being certain that all the rest had been
killed, and not knowing where the Indians were, it was not thought best
to go farther at the time. Next morning a party went out with wagons
and brought in the bodies, all of which were found. They were buried
in one grave, side by side, with a head board giving the names and
date.[49]
[Sidenote: YANKEE JACK AGAIN.]
Captain La Barge arrived at the mouth of the Marias on the _Effie
Deans_ soon after this affair and saw the fresh graves. He remembered
the circumstance particularly, because, among the guard, which had been
stationed there after the massacre, was the identical “Yankee Jack” who
had whipped the two Irishmen on the _Robert Campbell_ in 1863.
About September, 1865, eight men left Fort Benton in a skiff for the
States. They were attacked by some forty Indians near the mouth of Milk
River and five of their number were killed. The fight lasted over five
hours. One of the men who was killed, T. A. Kent by name, is said to
have actually killed thirteen Indians before he himself fell.
In the year 1866 there were several noted open-boat voyages down the
river. One of these was made by a party of ten miners, who purchased
a mackinaw at Fort Benton in which to transport themselves and their
golddust. When in camp on an island about sixty miles above Fort
Randall, one of the men, of the name of Thompson, got up in the night,
took an ax, killed one companion and wounded another. He was apparently
bent on the destruction of the entire party. The rest of the men,
suddenly awakened by the cries of their comrades, and believing that
they were attacked by Indians, rushed to the boat with the wounded man
and made off, leaving the murderer and his victim alone on the island.
Whether robbery was the motive of the deed, or whether it was caused by
insanity, was never known.
More fortunate was another mackinaw party that went down the same
season. It consisted of seventeen men, and made the trip from Fort
Benton to Sioux City in twenty-two days. They brought down over two
hundred thousand dollars in golddust.
The third party of this season consisted of one man in a yawl and about
twenty others in a mackinaw. They made the entire trip without loss,
although they were attacked, some 225 miles below Benton, by about five
hundred Blackfeet. The river was in flood stage, and thanks to its
great width and swift current the boats were able to keep out of range
of the Indians and to pass quickly beyond their reach.
[Sidenote: HUBBELL’S MACKINAW.]
The most important mackinaw trip ever made down the river was in 1866
under the leadership of J. B. Hubbell of the firm of Hawley & Hubbell.
Hubbell had advertised that his steamboat would leave Fort Benton on
her second trip about September 15, promising, if she did not get to
Fort Benton, to take the passengers down in a mackinaw until they met
her. As late as October 20 she had not appeared, and accordingly about
thirty passengers started down in a mackinaw. The boat was a very
elaborate one, built for this particular trip. It was eighty feet long,
twelve feet beam, housed in on both sides by bulletproof walls for a
distance of fifty feet, with sleeping bunks along the sides, and open
spaces at bow and stern for managing the boat. Two masts rigged with
square sails were provided.
[Sidenote: A SUCCESSFUL VOYAGE.]
The boat was run until after dark every night and was started before
daylight in the morning. Wherever possible she was tied to a snag out
in the stream for the night so as to make it impossible for the Indians
to attack by surprise. When the party arrived at Fort Union they
learned that the steamer had been up, but had gone back. After some
deliberation it was decided to undertake the rest of the journey and
trust to luck not to be caught by the ice. Everyone took a hand at the
oars and rapid progress was made. Game was plentiful and the boat was
full of golddust, and in spite of the fear of ice and Indians the party
were in the best of spirits. They arrived at Sioux City November 22,
with the river running full of ice. Two days later and they would have
been frozen in. Mr. Hubbell received $175 per passenger.[50]
[Sidenote: THE LOST NEGRO BOYS.]
[Sidenote: INCREDIBLE ENDURANCE.]
A singular incident happened in the summer of 1867, growing out of
the wreck of one of the river boats. In July of that year the steamer
_Trover_ was wrecked at a point 240 miles below Fort Benton. The
_Ida Stockdale_ happened along about the time, took her freight and
passengers to Benton, and on the way back took off her machinery
and carried it to St. Louis. When she left the wreck there were two
colored boys asleep in the hold, and the boat went off without knowing
they were there. On waking up and finding themselves alone, without a
thing to eat or any means of defense, and surrounded by a wilderness
wholly unknown to them, they were completely paralyzed with fright;
but recovering their presence of mind they saw that they must find
some relief immediately or they would die of starvation. They left the
wreck and started down the river. In crossing a small tributary of
the Missouri one of the boys was drowned. The other kept on night and
day, most of the time back from the river, to avoid the bends and the
swamps and underbrush. He had nothing to eat except a little bark and
some flower blossoms and did not stop a moment for sleep. His keeping
back from the river caused him to miss the boats and trading posts.
Finally, almost famished and exhausted, he beat his way through a
dense willow growth to the bank of the river in the hope that some boat
would come along before he should die. Shortly afterward a steamer hove
in sight--the _Sunset_--on her way up the river. She was a veritable
sun_rise_ to the poor boy, who began waving an old white hat, almost
the only article of clothing he had left. The people on the boat saw
the signal and sent the yawl out and brought the boy in. His face
was almost raw from mosquito bites, and he was so weak that he could
scarcely stand. He was found at a point twenty-five miles below Fort
Rice, or 642 miles, by river channel, below where the _Trover_ was
wrecked. He traveled this distance in nine days. With all the cut-offs
duly allowed for, he must have averaged seventy miles a day during
this time, and all the while without food. Were it not that the facts
seem well established, such an example of physical endurance would be
incredible.[51] The name of this little hero was Frederick Good and his
home was in St. Louis.