Digitized by JRBooksOnline.com, 5 Feb 2022.
Text taken from:
Keim, De B. Randolph,
Sheridan’s Troopers on the Borders: A Winter Campaign on the Plains (Philadelphia:
David McKay, 1885).
Later reprints done in the 1970s state “First published in 1870”. Cf.
De B. Randolph Keim, in "Sheridan's Views on the Indian Question", in
"Washington News and Gossip", Washington, D.C.:
Evening Star,
May 9, 1870, p. 1, col. 4. This establishes that Keim’s book was about to be
published that year, so the 1870 date is apparently correct for the first
publication.
EXCERPTS AS NOTED:
Pp. 33-36:
UNTIL midsummer unusual quiet prevailed in the south. Most of the Indians had
withdrawn from the vicinity of the military posts to more remote and
inaccessible regions. A party of two hundred Cheyennes, four Arrapahoes and
twenty Sioux, for sometime in camp on the Pawnee, north of the Arkansas,
suddenly took the war path, as they asserted, against the Pawnee Indians. The
movements of the savages were watched with suspicion. They had retired west of
the Fort Dodge road, and with great ceremony performed the first step to a great
undertaking, making "medicine." About the twelfth of August, this same party
appeared in the valley of the Saline north of Fort Harker. The
settlers unprepared for such a visit, treated the visitors with great kindness,
hoping to dissuade them from the execution of any evil intentions they might
have in view. But the savages soon threw off their guise of friendship and stood
forth in their real attitude. They inaugurated their depredations by assuming
a dictatorial manner. The next step was to force their way into the cabins. They
now commenced to pillage and murder, and committed every form of outrage upon
men, women, and children.
Two days later the same force visited the settlements on the Solomon, destroyed
the houses, drove off stock, killed thirteen men, and perpetrated other
barbarities. The band now broke up into detachments and scattered over the
country, some moving off towards the north, along the Republican, while the main
party commenced depredations along the line of the Smoky.
Intelligence of the conduct of the Indians on the Saline and Solomon was
conveyed, by the fugitive settlers, to Fort Harker. The garrison was at once put
in condition for active service. As a hasty means of relief to the settlements,
Lieutenant Colonel Benteen, was ordered out with one company of the 7th cavalry.
On August fourteenth, he arrived at Spillman's creek, while the Indians were
attacking. His unexpected appearance so alarmed the savages that they took to
flight, thus sparing the lives of the settlers at that point.
The news of the outbreak was at once communicated to General Sheridan who was at
his head-quarters at Fort Leavenworth. With his customary celerity of action, he
resolved to take the field and inaugurate a series of movements in hopes of
punishing the offenders. Fort Harker on the line of the Kansas Pacific railway,
was selected as the point for head-quarters in the field, removing soon after to
Fort Hays, farther west. Thither the Commanding General repaired by
special train. Reports were constantly coming in of other depredations. An
attack was made on a Mexican train, at Pawnee fork, above the Cimmaron crossing,
and a war-party of savages appeared in the vicinity of the town of Sheridan, at
the terminus of the railroad; the Denver stage coaches were pursued and acts
were committed which could not be misconstrued. Up to this time but two tribes,
the Cheyennes and Arrapahoes, were known to have taken up the hatchet.
The Commanding General at his head-quarters at Fort Harker saw plainly that all
peaceable efforts to secure the return of the refractory bands to order were
fruitless. His only course was a resort to force. On the twenty-fourth of
August, he accordingly issued a general order which served as a declaration
of war. By the middle of September, the Indians in hostile numbers had made
their appearance in all parts of the Department west of Fort Riley, north as far
as the Platte river, to the Arkansas in the south, and westward into Colorado.
The lines of travel demanding protection were the Kansas Pacific railway, for a
distance of over two hundred miles, the stage routes, and lines of travel from
the terminus of the railroad to Denver, nearly two hundred miles, and into New
Mexico, over four hundred miles. Besides these the settlements on the Saline,
the Solomon, the Republican, and the Smoky Hill, needed some means of defence,
while the posts of Forts Riley, Harker, Hays, and Wallace, along the railroad.
Forts Lyon and Bascom in the west. Forts Dodge, Lamed, and Zarah on the
Arkansas, with an outpost at the mouth of the Little Arkansas, and
Forts Arbuckle and Gibson, in the Indian Territory, required suitable garrisons.
To meet these demands upon the military force of the Department, the Commanding
General had, as his whole available strength, nine companies of the seventh
cavalry, eight companies of the tenth cavalry, eleven companies of the third and
parts of the fifth and thirty-eighth regiments of infantry, a total of about
twelve hundred cavalry and fourteen hundred infantry. After the distribution of
this force in guarding the railroad, garrisoning the different posts, and
protecting the settlements, the only force for duty in the field, consisted
of eleven companies of cavalry, seven of the seventh and four of the tenth,
making eight hundred men. Early in the preceding spring, Grierson had been sent
with four companies of the tenth cavalry to Fort Gibson. The garrison at Fort
Arbuckle was also strengthened by an increase of two companies of infantry.
With this insignificant force, available for field duty, that is eight hundred
cavalry, active hostilities were commenced. The country over which the savages
roamed up to this time, covered an area of at least two hundred miles from north
to south, or from the Republican to the Arkansas, and almost five hundred miles
from east to west, or from Fort Riley to the Rocky mountains. The country was
entirely in a state of nature, and supplies were only to be conveyed, by the
tedious process of wagon transportation, at immense distances. The Indians
familiar with these vast stretches of plain, and moving from place to place on
his hardy pony, was not easy to find and when found was even more difficult to
overtake or bring to an engagement, except with great odds in his favor.
The troops were hastened into the field, and scouting parties were sent in all
directions. Colonel Forsyth (Sandy), with fifty scouts moved to the Republican
on the north; Sully, towards the Cimmaron, and North Fork of the Canadian on the
south; Graham conducted an expedition in the direction of Denver; Penrose
pursued a party from Fort Lyon. Owing to the increasing magnitude of the war, a
regiment of volunteers from the State of Kansas, was recruited by Governor
Crawford, upon the authority of General Sheridan. By the latter part of
September, the savages had killed eighty persons. The frontiers were now
entirely abandoned by the settlers. A reinforcement of seven companies of the
fifth cavalry was brought from the east, a corps of scouts was organized, and
preparations were made to accumulate a large store of supplies at the
principal forts.
In order to make an effort to keep the other wild tribes in peaceable relations,
the Commanding General met some of the leading warriors of the Arrapahoes, and
about ten days later, also, met a few of the chiefs of the Kiowas, Comanches
and Apaches. The savages withdrew promising to return. They kept their promises
of peace by inaugurating a general attack along the line of the Arkansas. This
attack was led by the Cheyennes and Arrapahoes, assisted by war-parties from
the bands which had then but recently expressed in the most solemn form, their
pledge of friendship. It was evident now to the satisfaction of all that the
Indians were bent upon a war, and there was no alternative but to fight them.
Pp. 119-120:
…The victory was complete. One band of the most powerful and relentless of the
hostile tribes had been destroyed. The captures were immense. Two white children
were released from a fearful bondage. A white woman and a boy, ten years of age,
held captive, were killed by the savages when the fight commenced. In the midst
of the conflict, the bullets falling around in a perfect shower, a squaw, with
demoniac fury, knife in hand, as if looking for an object upon which to revenge
the loss of the day, fell upon an innocent captive child, and, with one terrible
gash, completely disemboweled it—the warm, smoking entrails falling upon the
snow.
Three days had now elapsed since leaving the train. The display of strength made
by the Indians, caused a natural anxiety in regard to the safety of the supplies
and the inadequate force left to protect them. These considerations fixed the
resolution of Custer to hasten back to his wagons.
While all that was left of Black Kettle's village was being destroyed, seven
hundred ponies, belonging to the late chief and his warriors, were shot. Two
hundred were taken for the captive squaws and children, or brought in as
trophies of the victory.
On the return march, no Indians were seen. They were, evidently, in great alarm
at the just and terrible punishment meted out to the Cheyennes. Night and
morning the captives set up their mourning songs, but received no response
from lurking warriors.
At the first camp on the return, according to custom, the Osages hung their
scalps outside their tents and fired several volleys over them. All the savages
have a superstition that such demonstrations of hostility drive away the spirits
of those from whom the scalps were taken, and that, in the event of the neglect
of so important a precaution, these spirits would come and rob them of the
hard-earned and ghastly evidences of their prowess.
So decisive an achievement as the battle of the Washita, was not without its
sacrifices. Like all other deeds in the records of war, victory and defeat alike
close up with a melancholy list of dead and suffering. Of the killed, were
Elliott and Hamilton, and nineteen enlisted men. Of the wounded, were Barnitz, seriously
but not mortally, and thirteen enlisted men.
The loss sustained by the savages, was one hundred and three warriors left on
the ground. In property, eight hundred and seventy-five horses, ponies, and
mules; two hundred and forty-one saddles, some of very fine and costly
workmanship; five hundred and seventy-three buffalo robes; three hundred
and ninety buffalo skins for lodges; one hundred and sixty untanned robes;
thirty-five revolvers; forty-seven rifles; thirty-five pounds of powder; one
thousand and fifty pounds of lead; four thousand arrows and arrow-heads;
seventy-five spears; three hundred pounds of bullets; four hundred and
seventy blankets; seven hundred pounds of tobacco; besides axes, bullet-moulds,
lariats, saddle-bags, &c.
Having no means of transportation, the bulk of these captures were destroyed in
the village before leaving. Among the warriors killed, were sixteen chiefs,
including Black Kettle and Little Rock, two of the most influential warriors
among the Cheyennes. Three squaws and three children, one boy and two girls,
were wounded.
The banks of the Washita were silent. The charred remains of the village, and
the stark corpses of the warriors, were the only vestiges of Black Kettle's
band. The wolf, prowling in the midst of the blackened ruins of the Indian
lodge, now alone disturbed the solitary haunts of the once proud and
fierce warrior.
Pp. 147-8:
…After the troops, under Custer, had withdrawn, the savages must have returned
to wreak their vengeance upon the dead bodies of the brave little band. The
horrible work was too effectively done to have been accomplished in a short
time. The savages admitted that they lost many braves before they "killed the
white men."
It is considered “good medicine" for each warrior, who participates in a fight,
to put a bullet or an arrow into the body of his enemy or to commit some other
atrocity, even more hellish. In this instance, there was no exception. In order
to furnish an idea of the nature and extent of these mutilations, I will give an
extract from the official report of Dr. Henry Lippincott, Assistant Surgeon
United States Army, with the seventh.
Major Joel H. Elliott, one bullet hole in left cheek, two bullets in head,
throat cut, right foot cut off, left foot almost cut off, calves of legs very
much cut, groin ripped open and otherwise mutilated.
Walter Kennedy, sergeant-major, bullet hole in right temple, head partly cut
off, seventeen bullet holes in back, and two in legs.
Harry Mercer, corporal company E, bullet hole in right axilla, one in region of
heart, three in back, eight arrow wounds in back, right ear cut off, head
scalped, and skull fractured, deep gashes in both legs, and throat cut.
Thomas Christie, company E, bullet hole in head, right foot cut off, bullet hole
in abdomen, and throat cut.
William Carrick, corporal company H, bullet hole in right parietal bone, both
feet cut off, throat cut, left arm broken, and otherwise mutilated.
Eugene Clover, company H, head cut off, arrow wound in right side, both legs
terribly mutilated.
William Milligan, company H, bullet hole in left side of head, deep gashes in
right leg, left arm deeply gashed, head scalped, throat cut, and otherwise
mutilated.
James F. Williams, corporal company I, bullet hole in back[,] head and arms cut
off, many and deep cuts in back, and otherwise mutilated.
Thomas Downey, company I, arrow hole in region of stomach, throat cut open, head
cut off, and right shoulder cut by a tomahawk.
Thomas Fitzpatrick, farrier, company M, scalped, two arrow and several bullet
holes in back, and throat cut.
Ferdinand Linebach, company M, bullet hole in right parietal bone, head scalped,
one arm broken, throat cut, and otherwise mutilated.
John Myers, company M, several bullet holes in head, scalped, scull extensively
fractured, several arrow and bullet holes in back, deep gashes in face, and
throat cut.
Carson D. J. Myers, company M, several bullet holes in head, scalped, nineteen
bullet holes in body, throat cut, and otherwise mutilated.
Cal. Sharp, company M, two bullet holes in left side, throat cut, one bullet
hole in left side of head, one arrow hole in left side, left arm broken, and
otherwise mutilated.
Unknown, head cut off, body partly devoured by wolves.
Unknown, head and right hand cut off, three bullet and nine arrow holes in back,
and otherwise mutilated.
Unknown, scalped, skull fractured, six bullet and thirteen arrow holes in back,
and three bullet holes in chest…
P. 150:
During the journey to the battle-field, a detachment, moving close along the
banks of the river, found, near the remains of the Kiowa camp, the bodies of a
white woman and child. The bodies were brought into camp and examined. Two
bullet holes, penetrating the brain, were found, also the back of the skull was
fearfully crushed, as if by a hatchet. There were no marks on the child except a
bruise on the cheek. This fact led to the conclusion that the child had been
seized by the feet and dashed against a tree. When brought in, the body of
the woman was recognized as Mrs. Blynn. This woman was captured by Satanta,
chief of the Kiowas, near Fort Lyon, while on her way to her home in the
"States." At the time of her capture she was in a wagon, in the centre of a
civilian train. The men with the train, it appears, fled, and left Mrs. Blynn and
her child to fall into savage hands. Satanta kept her as his captive until the
time of the fight of the Kiowas, when she was ruthlessly murdered. The body was
dressed in the ordinary garments of a white woman; on the feet were a pair
of leather gaiters, comparatively new. Upon the breast was found a piece of
corn-cake, and the position of the hands indicated that the woman was eating
when she, unexpectedly, received the fatal blow. The body presented the
appearance of a woman of more than ordinary beauty, small in figure, and not
more than twenty-two years of age. These bodies, and that of Major Elliott, were
brought in on horseback by our party, to be conveyed to Fort Arbuckle for
interment.
Pp. 218-220:
FOLLOWING the war-party upon a hostile expedition, we find each warrior not only
frequently casting a quick, uneasy glance along the horizon, but also
closely observing almost every foot of the ground over which he treads. The
track of a pony—the foot-print of a moccasin—occasions a halt and a minute
examination.
In moving forward, preserving the same vigilance, the appearance of the enemy is
followed by wild whoops and terrific gesticulations at each other. A desultory
firing begins; the warriors, on both sides, dash about, and perform many
remarkable feats of horsemanship. In the excitement of the contest, a charge is
sometimes made by a few warriors engaging, probably, in single combat. The
contest is usually brief. In a majority of cases, one or the other gives way
before much harm is done. Occasionally the prestige of one party will be
too much for the moral courage of the other, in which case the weaker breaks and
runs at first sight.
A favorite mode of tactics is to draw the enemy into an ambuscade. A small party
in advance will engage and fall back, apparently discomfited. The pursuing
party, intent upon overtaking the fugitives, dash unconsciously onward, until
they find themselves confronted by a strong force. Almost instantly a cloud of
whooping and yelling savages rise on all sides. The contest now becomes
desperate, and the invested party must fight its way out, or expect to meet the
almost inevitable fate of disaster. In all cases, it may fairly be said, as tho
exceptions are so rare, prisoners find no quarter. Every mode of torture, if
taken alive, is applied to them. To be burnt to death, or punctured liberally
with spears and arrows—a part usually enacted by the squaws—is the most ordinary
mode. If pressed, the sufferings of the victims are mitigated by instant death
with the tomahawk or bullet. The scalp is the trophy, always necessary to
victory. Without scalps, the wonderful stories told by the savage warrior to his
admiring squaw and affrighted papooses, upon his return to the village, are
regarded with incredulity. The scalp is, therefore, absolutely a necessary
feature of a successful war-party, by way of a voucher for the bravery of its
proprietor. The scalp is carefully preserved, and retained for a certain time,
when it is deposited in the "medicine lodge."
The mutilation of dead bodies, after a fight, is a common practice, and to put
an arrow or a bullet into the lifeless form of the victim, is considered “good
medicine."
Having triumphed over their enemies, the war-party returns to the village. Their
approach is generally announced by a courier sent in advance. The old men,
women, and children, gather to witness the arrival. As the warriors get near,
they begin to sing and recount their deeds, and discharge volleys from their
fire-arms. Reaching the village, they break up and go to their lodges. The
scalps are immediately suspended on poles, and at night the usual practice of
firing vollies of bullets or arrows is complied with.
The return of the war-party is followed by the scalp-dance, in all its fiendish
finery and discordant noise. The families of warriors killed, nightly chant a
requiem for the dead. The most marvelous stories, supported by a scalp or two,
are now listened to with interest by all the members of the village. Each tries
to out do his comrade, in an effective narration of remarkable performances,
until even the credulous squaw is slow to believe. Boasting is a characteristic
eminently belonging to the red-man. Even a defeated war-party, returning,
has its own story, and the lucky possession of a selection from the pate of an
enemy is sufficient ground upon which to make a great victory. If Indian stories
were to be believed, a defeat would never be heard of. Even the warriors lost in
a disastrous conflict would be accounted for, and immortalized in legend.
The natural intellectual force of the Indian has evinced itself on so many
occasions during the several centuries of contact with the whites, that the
question can hardly be considered worthy of controversy. The speeches uttered by
the more brilliant minds of the race, are master-pieces of feeling and
oratorical effect. The American Indian is by nature an orator. The wild
independence of his spirit is conducive to that lively flight of mental vision,
which resolves itself into ideas and images, burning with the warmth of
eloquence.
On all ceremonies of a public or private nature, great state and formal
proceedings is observed. The chief, presiding in the council, the head men and
braves of the tribe, each speak in turn until all, having a desire, have
expressed their views. This form of procedure is eminently adapted to the
development of the power of expression and persuasion, for in every case the
action of the tribe is influenced more or less by the effect of the speeches of
the warriors.
The Indian, away from his family and his native hunting-grounds, appears as a
dignified, repulsive being, constantly contemplating some horrible scheme of
massacre. There are times when the expression of his face and his rigidity of
manner are inflexible. There are moments, also, when he relaxes. With the
warriors of the village he often tells his stories, jokes, laughs, and smokes,
with as light a heart as a country wag.
Pp. 282-4:
BEFORE bringing this narrative to a close, I desire to incorporate a few facts
and reflections concerning the past and the future of the American Indian. It
was natural that the presence, and particularly the aggressive spirit of the
early settlers, should inspire in the breasts of the primitive dwellers upon the
American continent a feeling of suspicion, uneasiness, and hostility.
Occurrences so visibly opposed to their interests and safety, were calculated to
effect the results which followed, involving upon the one hand a conflict for
the perpetuation of race, and the preservation of tribal hunting-grounds, upon
the other territorial acquisitions, to make way for the building up of a new and
modern civilization, in the wilds of a new world. Over three centuries have
elapsed. This has been a period of bloody, and desperate wars, and horrible
atrocities. Whether the savage is to blame for his natural aversion to civilized
habits, and the sanguinary part he has acted, or whether the superior white race
is open to censure for the means too often resorted to for the acquisition of
the vast territory to-day under its control, is a question now too late for
consideration. What remains of this aboriginal people within the limits of the
United States, is left to the alternative of civilization or rapid extinction.
The spread of population, art and science, will not wait for the slow
process which characterized the efforts of a century or less ago. The two
conditions of the savage, and the enlightened of the species cannot live
peaceably, and with equal prosperity, together. While this is a deplorable
element of human intercourse, the weaker must give way to the stronger.
A retrospect of the history of this continent as regards the two races,
demonstrates very satisfactorily, the causes of the depletion of the Indian
population, and the same processes are still at work. In the contests between
the rival nations of the old world, for territorial aggrandizement, taking
advantage of the simplicity and passions of the aborigines by means of
promises and presents, this unsuspecting people were induced to participate in
the endless wars which ensued. These hostilities led to feuds and rivalries
among the savages themselves, and where the thirst for blood was so fully
gratified, the radical change of nature required by civilization, occupied the
least portion of their attention or desires. The natural result was a melancholy
and rapid decline of numbers, and the few still in existence perpetuating the
tribal names, and very few of the nobler qualities of their progenitors, point
to an inevitable fate.
The civilization of to-day is selfish and aggressive. The multiplicity of new
avenues of development realized in the application of steam and electricity, are
not to be trammeled by such abstract considerations as philanthropy. Humanity
may arouse feelings of magnanimity on the part of the strong, but philanthropy
is an ideal sought after, and too often results in a misinterpretation of the
condition, and capacity of the weak. It is easier to imagine philanthropy
without understanding it, than to elevate and ameliorate an abject, or a savage
race, by the mere process of bestowing charity for the accommodation or
convenience of physical necessities. An inherent spirit of progress must
certainly exist before any advance in the scale of improvement can be
anticipated. If a savage prefers his native wilds, to the anxieties,
perplexities, and higher condition of intellect incident to civilization, no
flowery sentimentality nor sympathetic expressions of the heart will avail a
particle of good. A natural energy of mind and body, stimulated by an ambition
to rise in the scale of human life, will more speedily accomplish results, than
all the external influence that could be brought into existence. The spread of
civilization must either be retarded to allow those whom we wish to benefit, to
catch up or go forward, and engulf those who are unable to ride upon its rolling
wave.
The Black Hawk war of 1831-'32, the Seminole war lasting seven years, the Creek
war, the Sioux war of 1852, the Cheyenne and Sioux outbreak of 1864, and the
Cheyenne war of 1867, together with repeated less-important troubles, have
resulted with large expenditures of money and a considerable loss of life, on
both sides, in opening to settlement and profitable use a vast extent of domain,
reaching nearly two thousand miles west of the Atlantic coast. For the past
twenty years the same scenes have transpired to dispossess the savages of their
profitless occupation of the valuable territory on the Pacific slope, and to
clear the way for that career of affluence and empire which first found its way
upon those remote shores through the golden gate.
The total Indian population, now living within the limits of the United States,
is less than three hundred thousand. Of these about seventy-six thousand are
found within the limits of civilization, while very nearly three times that
number, or over two hundred and nineteen thousand, inhabit the plains and Rocky
mountains. Both these regions, less inviting to the husbandman, or undeveloped,
respecting their mineral wealth, have become the last point of refuge for the
race.
The Indians, in their new resorts, have found facilities for pursuing their wild
habits, and trusting to the natural defences thrown around them, experience, at
least, that temporary respite from harrassing and depleting wars, inspired in
defence of their hunting-grounds, and retaliated by the whites from
necessity and protection against the horrible outrages which belong to savage
warfare…
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