by 1864-1898 Indian War Veterans: Memories of Army Life;Campaigns in the West
The Indians were troublesome. They stopped all ox trains and the mail coaches had to be constantly escorted by soldiers and the traveling all done at night. This was hard duty for us, as there was no wood to cook with and we were compelled to hunt buffalo chips from under the snow to provide fuel to cook with. In February, 1867, Colonel Kit Carson arrived in Bent County with his family consisting of his wife and six children, whose names were Terresina, William, Charley, Josefeta, Stefineta, and Kit. He settled on a claim on the Purgatory (Picket Wire) River about four miles up from its mouth where it empties into the Arkansas River, which is about two miles east of Las Animas. He had come from his home at Rayada, New Mexico.
Soon after his arrival in Colorado the Indians stampeded and ran off all of his mules and horses and a portion of my company and of Troop C, Seventh Cavalry, were sent to capture them. Four of our men were killed and some of the Indians also, and they outnumbered the troops forty to one. The Indians became worse and worse, tying up all wagon trains and stopping travel east from Fort Lyon to Fort Dodge, Kansas. President Andrew Johnson and General [Ulysses S.] Grant sent for Colonel Kit Carson to appear before them in Washington to consult as to the best means of subduing the Cheyennes, Comanches, and Arapahos. After Colonel Carson’s return, he reported to Captain William H. Penrose at Fort Lyon that he advised the president and General Grant that the only way to subdue the Indians was by the same means he had used to defeat the Navajos in 1863, which was to make a winter campaign against them and kill their horses. Soon after the return of Colonel Carson from Washington, his wife was taken ill and died on April 15, 1868, in childbirth. Soon afterwards, Colonel Carson was taken ill and Dr. [Henry R.] Tilton, the post doctor, had him removed from the ranch of Thomas C. Boggs to Fort Lyon. He became worse, and died May 23, 1868. At his deathbed were Dr. Tilton, the hospital steward of Fort Lyon, and this writer. I was holding his hand when he breathed his last. Colonel Carson was the most wonderful man in all the West. Faithful, true, and honest. He was buried with military honors at Boggsville, Colorado. On January 1, 1888, Hon. Thomas O. Boggs and John S. Hough, county judge, had the remains of Colonel Carson and his beloved wife removed to Taos, New Mexico.
The Indians became so bad that the government was obliged to declare war against the Comanches, Cheyennes, and Arapahos, and General Philip H. Sheridan and Lieut. Col. George A. Custer took command to form an army. Troops assembled at Fort Leavenworth, Fort Hays, Fort Sam Houston, and Fort Lyon, Colorado, and in the month of November, 1868, the troops commenced to march on the Indians. Captain Penrose left Fort Lyon with the Tenth U. S. Cavalry. His chief of scouts was Wild Bill. Major Carr with the Fifth U. S. Cavalry and a detachment of the Third and Fifth U. S. Infantry became a part of his command. During the very first night on Butte Creek there arose one of those terrible Colorado blizzards. Nothing but the tops of the tents could be seen of the camp. The wagons were buried in snow, and the ground became so soft [that] the wagons would sink to the hubs in mud during the day. At night the cold would register more than 25 below zero. Thirty-six mules and horses were found dead, and four men froze to death. Scores had to be returned to Fort Lyon for treatment, too badly frozen to be able for duty. We had 300 to 400 head of cattle, many of which perished and all the rest drifted off into the deep gulches and never were found. This left us entirely without meat. William F. Cody (“Buffalo Bill”) was chief of scouts for the Carr command. Finally with forced night marches all the commands met, surrounded the Indians, killed all of their ponies, and thus the great idea of Colonel Kit Carson as outlined to the president and General Grant at Washington as to how to subdue and conquer the Indians was carried out to the letter.
[William F. Cody’s letter to Luke Cahill, March 8, 1913:]
My Dear Comrade:
Your letter of February 28th was a happy surprise, and your memory is perfect. You have mentioned many things in your letter that brought back to me the hardships and the endurance that we had to pass through that terrible winter of 1868 and 1869. From what I have read of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow in the winter, that expedition of ours was nearly as bad. I remember you very well as a plucky young sergeant of the United States army, butchering the buffalo with your men after I had killed them, and although it was freezing cold to butcher buffalo out in the snowdrifts and not a complaint from you or your men, and had it not been for what we were doing to supply meat for our command, when we were nearly out of rations, there would have been much more suffering among the troops than there was. I would like to meet you and talk over the experiences we had during that terrible winter….
Service with the Eighteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry in 1867 (By Henderson Lafayette Burgess, formerly of Company D, Eighteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. From Winners of the West, August 30, 1929)
At the close of the Civil War a large amount of territory embracing what is now central western Kansas, eastern Colorado, and the Indian Territory was inhabited by numerous tribes of hostile Indians. The general government at Washington had turned its attention to the development of the West, the opening up of a public thoroughfare across the continent to the Pacific Coast. To this end, aid was being granted by the government in the construction of a line of railroad across the plains, and the eastern division of the Union [Kansas] Pacific Railroad, in the spring of 1867, had been completed to Fort Harker, Kansas, and was in course of construction from that point west. The hostile Indians, and especially the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Arapaho, and Comanche tribes, were upon the warpath and determined to prevent the building of the railroad and travel and transportation across the plains by the method then in use, to wit, ox and mule teams with long wagon trains. The United States mails were interrupted. Men, women, and children were being massacred, stock stampeded, wagon trains captured and contents burned and destroyed by these hostile tribes to such an extent that the United States Government troops then on the frontier were inadequate to afford protection. Therefore, by order of the War Department at Washington, the first battalion of the Eighteenth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry was organized and enlisted between the 5th and 15th days of July in 1867, and on the 15th day of July was mustered into the United States service at Fort Harker, Kansas. It was armed, uniformed, and equipped by the United States Government, and within three days after it was mustered into service under command of the late Horace L. Moore, of Lawrence, Kansas, entered upon an active campaign of four months’ duration against these hostile Indians.
On the day the regiment was mustered in, the command was attacked by Asiatic cholera and a number of deaths occurred at Fort Harker on the 15th, 16th, and 18th days of July, 1867. Major Moore, who had recently been mustered out of the United States service as colonel of the Fourth Arkansas Cavalry, being a man of excellent judgment and having at heart the interests of the troops under his command, took the best method of preventing a greater loss by disease by putting the command immediately into active service and moving it from Fort Harker across the country by way of Pawnee Rock to Fort Larned. While en route to Fort Larned under the command of Second Lieutenant Henry J. Hegwer of Company D, a detachment of twenty-two men was sent in pursuit of a band of hostile Indians that had stampeded a train and run off some stock belonging to freighters. Three fine horses were recaptured and later returned to the owners by the government. At Fort Larned, we lost the regimental surgeon and one commissioned officer, First Lieutenant Samuel L. Hybarger of Company B, and a number of enlisted men from cholera. However, the troops fit for duty were immediately sent forward from Fort Larned to Fort Hays to cooperate with the Seventh and Tenth United States cavalry regiments in an expedition against the Indians in the north and northwest part of the state.
At our camp on Walnut Creek, while en route to Fort Hays, more deaths occurred from cholera. I remember at this point a boy belonging to Company C was sick with the cholera. When the four companies broke camp early in the morning, this young soldier was breathing his last, and as Company D passed by where he lay on a stretcher, he expired. A detail
was made to dig a grave. He was taken from the stretcher, wrapped in his blanket and buried on the banks of Walnut Creek, and the four companies continued the march to Fort Hays, where we sustained no further loss from cholera.
About the middle of August, Companies B and C, under the command of Captain Edgar A. Barker and Captain George B. Jenness, with Company F of the Tenth United States Cavalry, the entire command being under Major George A. Armes of the regular army, were ordered on a scouting expedition to the northeast in pursuit of Indians who were making raids from the northwest, killing and scalping those engaged in surveying and building the Union [Kansas] Pacific Railroad. A number of men had been killed near what is now Bunker Hill Station, west of Ellsworth, and along the line of the road, and a large force was necessary to drive these Indians out of the country.
Major Moore, with Companies A and D under command of Henry C. Lindsey and Captain David L. Payne, was sent upon this expedition, his command to move to the northwest from Fort Hays. The troops carried three days’ rations and the two commands under Major Armes and Major Moore were to cooperate in the campaign against the hostiles. The rations proved to be entirely insufficient for the raid, which lasted for eight days. The buffalo had been driven out of the country by the Indians and a large part of the prairie burned over to prevent our obtaining forage for our horses and mules. The herds of buffalo that usually ranged through this district would have afforded an abundance of fresh meat. Both men and animals suffered greatly for want of food and water, it being exceedingly hot and dry during the entire summer.
After reaching the Saline River, Major Armes with his three companies of cavalry proceeded to follow the river until he formed a junction with Major Moore with Companies A and D of the Eighteenth. Major Moore with his command proceeded to the northwest, while Major Armes with his three companies took a northeasterly course, each of the two commands intending to cut off the possible escape of the Indians, and to form a junction on the Solomon River. By this movement the Indians were driven farther to the northeast, where a part of Major Armes’s command engaged them, and the Battle of Beaver Creek ensued. This battle was a most bloody fight. The small detachment of troops separated from the command were placed at every disadvantage and exposed to the greatest danger from their relentless and savage foes. Captain Jenness was severely wounded in the thigh. The chief scout, Captain Allison J. Pliley, was twice wounded by the Indians, and a number of the troops were wounded, some dying from their wounds, while several were killed. The soldiers fought bravely, and when finally joined by Major Armes and the rest of the command, succeeded in forcing the Indians to retire with a severe loss in killed and wounded. The exact number, of course, could never be ascertained, as Indians carry their dead and wounded with them when it is by any means possible to do so. On the other hand, they rarely fail to torture and kill their enemies when they fall into their hands.
This account of incidents of the service of the Eighteenth Kansas Cavalry is prepared from memory. It is impossible now to recollect the names of all those killed and wounded. In fact, I never knew the names of all the brave men who fell during the campaign, but I remember, in addition to Captain Jenness and Chief Scout Pliley, the names of Thomas G. Masterson of Company C, who was killed in the fight on Beaver or Prairie Dog Creek, and of James H. Towell of the same company, who was wounded several times and afterwards died of his wounds in the latter part of August at Fort Hays; also the name of Thomas Anderson of Company B. Of those who died of cholera at Fort Harker, I remember the names of Bailey McVeigh and William P. Maxwell, of Company D. Maxwell was a fine young man and had been promised promotion; he was in perfect health, a man of splendid physical development. He was taken sick in the evening and was dead and buried the next morning. I helped to care for Comrade Maxwell during his very short illness. His body is buried at Fort Harker on the Smoky Hill River, as is also the body of Bailey McVeigh and many others belonging to the battalion who died of the cholera. Others are buried at Fort Larned on Pawnee Creek, on Walnut Creek, at Fort Hays, and on the Beaver. Some were killed in action; others died of wounds received in action in various places between the Republican River on the north and the Arkansas River on the south. The Eighteenth was constantly engaged in drilling, marching by day and by night, fighting Indians, guarding government trains, making its basic operations at Fort Hays, Fort Larned, and Fort Dodge, from which government posts it received its rations, ammunition, and supplies. It marched over two thousand miles in four months and engaged the Indians on several occasions, affording protection to government property and the United States mails, as well as to private citizens. It greatly aided in making safe the then unoccupied plains for settlement by the sturdy and industrious farmers who have for the last sixty years planted and reaped golden grain over the graves of these brave men who gave their lives in the protection of the frontier. They suffered all the hardships endured by the soldiers of any war. The last service rendered, in October and early part of November, 1867, was in guarding a train of provisions, arms, and ammunition, together with four hundred head of native cattle, sent by the government to the peace council at Medicine Lodge for the use of the Indians. Here most of the Indians agreed to the unmolested occupation by white men of this great agricultural territory. But this agreement was wholly disregarded and violated the very next year by these same hostile tribes.
The Eighteenth Kansas Cavalry served with the Seventh and Tenth United States regiments during the summer of 1867. These were brave soldiers and entitled to a large decree of credit. At one time the entire command was with the Seventh Cavalry in the northwest part of the state, and under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Custer pursued the Indians and drove them out of the country….
On the Kansas Plains during Hancock’s Campaign, 1867 (By James P. Russell, formerly of Troop H, Seventh U. S. Cavalry. From Winners of the West,March, 1925)
I was a member of H Troop, Seventh U. S. Cavalry. [I] joined H Troop at its organization in the fall of 1866, stayed at Fort Riley, Kansas, until the 26th of March in 1867, when we were sent to Fort Larned Kansas, with a peace commission to make a treaty with the Cheyenne Indians. However, the Indians did not like the terms and vamoosed in the nighttime leaving their tepees standing. So we took their trail the next morning, going north across the Smoky [Hill] River until we came to Lookout Station on the overland stage route, where we found they had killed and burned five men by tying them to the wheels and boot of a stage coach. We turned them, and kept the trail to the next station. It was Stormy Hollow, and was burned, but the men got away to the next station, which was Downer Station.
When there we met part of a company of colored troops. The Indians went north, crossed the Saline and Solomon rivers, and we came up with them on the Republican River. We got a few of them before they took to the hills, and as it was late in the afternoon we lost them near the Nebraska line. As our rations were run out, we had to go back to Camp Fletcher or old Fort Hays, where we were in camp a couple of weeks.
We again took the trail for the Republican River, and again we had a running fight with them and followed them to Fort McPherson, Nebraska. Here they signed a treaty. We left Fort McPherson on Monday morning and on Wednesday eve we were again on the Republican River. On Thursday morning we were attacked by the same Indians who had just signed the treaty. Their object was to stampede our horses, but they failed and we again chased them a couple of days up the Frenchmen Fork of the Republican. We returned to our camp on the Republican and Colonel Custer, who was in command, sent our wagons south to Fort Wallace for supplies.
The guard of two troops with the train had to fight both to the fort and back. We then took up the march up the Frenchmen Fork of the Republican and went to the Platte River west of Fort Sedgwick, Colorado. Then back to our old camp. We learned here that dispatches had been sent to General Custer by Second Lieutenant Lyman S. Kidder of the Second Cavalry. We found him and his escort of ten men and guides had been killed, and their bodies shot full of arrows
. As it was now pretty late in the fall of 1867, we went to Fort Wallace, and in a short time the regiment was sent to winter quarters. Our troop was sent to Fort Harker, where we made our headquarters, and patrolled the Saline and Solomon rivers, where settlers were beginning to come in, and it was H Troop…that had the scrap on the Saline in’ 68.
A Skirmish with Kiowas in Colorado Territory, 1868 (By Edward Mayers, formerly of Troop L, Seventh U. S. Cavalry. From Winners of the West, September, 1924)
I was so glad to hear from one of our old-timers, especially one who served in the same column at the same place, Fort Lyon, Colorado, but find we [he?] had forgotten about Company L, Seventh U. S. Cavalry.
We camped at the fort the evening of August 31, [1868,] and the next day we started down the river to join the regiment. When about ten miles out we were overtaken by a courier with orders to return to the fort and remain there. Captain William H. Penrose was in command of the post, our troop was commanded by First Lieutenant Henry H. Abell and Second Lieutenant Jacob H. Shellabarger. We camped near the post bakery and spent the first few days getting the stables in condition to shelter our horses and fixing up our company street.
On the morning of the 8th the guard was in line on the parade ground when all at once the cry of “Indians” rang out and we four of the cavalry guard ran to the stables to find that the boys were galloping down to the crossing of the river. We did not take time to change our parade uniform, but were soon racing down the river also to the crossing. The troop formed as we rode, Captain Penrose taking the lead. We never thought of the Boggs family until we ascended the bluff and saw about 200 Indians riding out of the timber directly from the Boggs ranch and making straight across our trail to the tableland, about 500 yards distant. Then began a long chase of some forty miles, the distance between the two little armies remaining about 500 yards. All at once the Indians split, the larger bunch with the horses going off to the right, but we continued after the smaller bunch, and forming to prevent another split. Then something began to happen. Our company baker’s horse took a sudden notion to plunge ahead at full speed and Little Phil in trying to check him broke one rein of the bridle at the bit, and “Barney” then began to fly around almost in a circle, as Phil pulled for dear life, but Barney came very near running into the Indians. But Phil finally got Barney turned the other way. A few shots were fired by the Indians but without effect. Then Sam Rickie cried out, “I am going to get that fellow with a flag.” It was the medicine pole of Chief One Eye Bull, and Kicking Bird, the medicine man, making themselves conspicuous in the bunch. From that time on the Indians began to lose some of their horses, lancing them as they gave out. Ahead of us was a broken country with that peculiar formation of rocks, and the Indians made a break for them, disappearing suddenly in their natural shelter. We quickly dismounted to prevent them from splitting again. But the Indians were now well fortified in a cave-like formation which time had hollowed out in funnel shape. The first man killed was Little Phil, and…next Sam Rickie went down. While in the act of firing my carbine a bullet shattered the wood under the barrel, breaking the ring and wounding my left hand. But the fight was soon over and when we went to look for our horses we found them where we had left them standing, but five of them had dropped dead. So we wrapped our dead comrades in blankets, strapped them to their horses and started back. We called the place Bloody Spring because the blood of the Indians had run into the water so we could not use it, neither could we water our horses because the sides of the hole were sandy and would give way when trod upon.
