Articles
by Bvt. Captain James W. Dixon, U.S.A.,
JOURNAL OF THE MILITARY SERVICE INSTITUTE, US7 (1886)
Those who had committed the outrages of the most aggravated nature were Sioux and Cheyennes. They had attacked the stations of the overland mail route, killed many of the employees, burned the stations, and run off the horses. They had also killed a considerable number of the settlers of the frontier of Kansas. The agents, although aware of the identity of many of the offenders, took no notice of their misdeeds. Threats were boldly made that, "as soon as the grass was up," a general war would be inaugurated along the entire frontier, especially against the main routes of travel.
General Hancock took six companies of the Thirty-seventh Infantry, and Light Battery B Fourth U.S. Artillery, together with eleven troops of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel and Brevet Major-General George A. Custer, and proceeded to march from Fort Riley, Kansas, into the heart of the Indian country.
Accompanying the expedition were fifteen Delaware Indian scouts, under the celebrated chief Fall Leaf; the distinguished artist, Mr. Theodore R. Davis, as representative of Harper's Weekly, and the since famous Henry M. Stanley, the great African explorer. From Fort Riley the command marched to Fort Harker, a distance of ninety miles. Halting only long enough to replenish the supplies, the column was headed towards Fort Hays. From Fort Hays to Fort Larned was but the march of a few days, and was accomplished between the 3d and the 7th of April. The agent of the Comanches and Kiowas accompanied the command to this point, and the agent of the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Apaches here joined it.
On the 9th of April a terrible snowstorm occurred. The cold was intense. Runners had been sent out to the chiefs of the various specified tribes, by the agents, inviting them to a council, and they had agreed to assemble on the 10th of the month. Of course the council had to be postponed.
The Sioux and Cheyennes were located on Pawnee Fork, some thirty miles above Fort Larned. They wished to avoid coming in, and also, by all the arts of Indian diplomacy, to prevent the nearer approach of the command to their "village."
On the 12th, two chiefs of the Dog Soldiers, the most bloodthirsty band of Indians of the Plains, came in and intimated that they, with their followers, desired a conference. The General gratified their desire. A large fire was built, and the officers of the command assembled around it. The Indians approached the council fire in silence, and seating themselves around it, proceeded to smoke the inevitable pipe, passing it from one to another in solemn silence, only broken by an occasional grunt. General Hancock opened the conference with a speech, which was interpreted to the Indians by "Guerrier," the half-breed interpreter. He told them why he had come among them; what he expected of them in the future; that he was not there to enforce war, but to administer justice; that he regretted that more of the chiefs had not come to the council, and that he would proceed to the immediate vicinity of their village on the following day. Tall Bull, a large, fine-looking Indian, replied, but his speech contained nothing pertinent to the occasion, and referred principally to the growing scarcity of the buffalo. Accordingly, on the following morning, the command was marched up Pawnee Fork towards the Indian village. Indians were seen all day in the distance, watching the movements of the troops. They set fire to the grass, and burned it for miles between themselves and the command. On the 14th, we were met by a number of chiefs and warriors belonging to the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes; among them was the famous chief, Pawnee Killer, of the Sioux, and White Horse, of the Cheyennes.
These chiefs remained with the command during the night. Pawnee Killer left us in the morning with the promise that he would bring the active chiefs, but he did not return. A little later Bull Bear, a chief of the Cheyennes, came in and reported that the chiefs were on the way in for a council, but that they could not arrive for some time, being engaged in a buffalo hunt. General Hancock, who was in no degree deceived by the "diplomacy" of the Indians, informed Bull Bear that he would move his troops up the stream to meet them. The march was resumed at 11 A.M., and soon thereafter a scene was witnessed never to be forgotten by any member of that command. Suddenly there appeared upon the crest of a divide an Indian line of battle of the most imposing nature, according to the Indian art of war. It was drawn up directly across our line of march and seemed to imply, "thus far but no farther." Nearly all were mounted upon war ponies. All were in war-paint and bedecked with feathers of the brightest colors. Upon their heads they wore war-bonnets of bright crimson, and their lances bore flaming pennants. Their bows were strung and their quivers bristled with long, steel-pointed, barbed arrows. Besides these each had a breechloading rifle and one or more large-sized Colt's revolvers. To this armament were added a tomahawk, a scalping knife, and various other warlike weapons. About fourteen hundred Indians composed this line of battle, while as far as the eye could reach Indians could be seen watching the opposing forces. The chiefs rode madly along the line as if exhorting their braves to deeds of valor.
A finer battle-ground could not have been selected throughout the broad State of Kansas.
General Hancock, riding at the head of the column, as was his invariable custom, came suddenly upon this most imposing display. The infantry was in the advance, followed by the battery, the cavalry marching on the right flank. The General ordered the command to form line of battle, and the command was executed in less time than is required to write it, the cavalry coming into line at a gallop and drawing sabres at the word without waiting to align the ranks.
General Hancock was forbidden, by superior authority at Washington, to strike the first blow. Innocent settlers had been murdered in vast numbers. Arms and ammunition had been sold by agents and traders to Indians in direct violation of orders, but United States soldiers must wait until first fired upon before retaliating.
General Hancock, accompanied by the members of his staff, rode forward, and through the interpreter invited the head chiefs to meet him midway between the lines.
The celebrated chief Roman Nose, bearing a white flag (the significance of which Indians totally ignore), accompanied by Bull Bear, White Horse, Gray Beard, and Medicine Wolf, of the Cheyennes, and Pawnee Killer, Tall Bear, Bad Wound, Tall Bear-that-Walks-Under-the-Ground, Left Hand, Little Bear, and Little Bull, of the Sioux, rode forward. The General inquired the meaning of the warlike display, saying that if war was their desire he was ready then and there to gratify it. Their answer was that they did not want to fight but were peacefully disposed. Upon this the General informed them that he would continue his march towards their village and encamp near it. The interview ended, the line of battle vanished almost as suddenly as it had appeared, and the troops continued the march in the direction of the village. A few miles farther on the tepees appeared in sight. Upwards of four hundred of them were erected upon the banks of the forked stream, and no more beautiful spot could have been selected in that generally barren and treeless country.
Our camp was situated some half a mile distant. At about half-past nine that night "Guerrier," the half-breed interpreter, reported that the Indians were "lighting out." General Hancock sent an aide with orders to General Custer to pursue them with the cavalry. All haste was made, but the trail spread out like a gigantic fan and the Indians escaped.
Guards were posted around the village to prevent its destruction by the soldiers. A tepee of marvelous workmanship was packed and sent to Washington. Some days later news arrived from General Custer that the Indians were murdering all the whites who came in their way, and General Hancock ordered the destruction of the village with all its contents by fire.
Had he been free to act, how many valuable lives would have been spared that were sacrificed in subsequent Indian wars, and what vast sums would have been saved to the Government!
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