On the Border with Crook

by John Gregory Bourke

A large number of the enlisted men belonging to the companies at Fort D. A. Russell (near Cheyenne, Wyoming) deserted, alleging as a reason that they did not care to serve under officers who would abandon their dead and dying to the foe. Every available man of the mounted service in the Department of the Platte was called into requisition for this campaign; the posts which had been garrisoned by them were occupied by infantry companies sent from Omaha, Salt Lake, and elsewhere. The point of concentration was Fort Fetterman, and the date set as early as practicable after the first day of May. Two other strong columns were also to take the field—one under General John Gibbon, consisting of the troops from the Montana camps; the other, under General Alfred H. Terry, to start from Fort Lincoln, and to comprise every man available from the posts in the eastern portion of the Department of Dakota. While the different detachments were marching to the point of rendezvous, Crook hurried to Fort Laramie, and thence eastward to the Red Cloud Agency to hold a conference with the chiefs.

It was during trips like this—while rolling over the endless plains of Wyoming, now rivalling the emerald in their vernal splendors—that General Crook was at his best: a clear-headed thinker, a fluent conversationalist, and a most pleasant companion. He expressed himself freely in regard to the coming campaign, but said that while the Sioux and Cheyennes were a brave and bold people, from the very nature of the case they would never stand punishment as the Apaches had done. The tribes of the plains had accumulated much property in ponies and other things, and the loss of that would be felt most deeply. Crook hoped to sound the chiefs at the Red Cloud Agency, and learn about where each stood on the question of peace or hostility; he also hoped to be able to enlist a small contingent of scouts for service with the troops. General Crook was unable to find the agent who was absent, but in his place he explained to the agency clerk what he wanted. The latter did all he could to prevent any of the chiefs from coming to see General Crook; nevertheless, “Sitting Bull of the South,” “Rocky Bear,” and “Three Bears,” prominent in the tribe, came over to the office of the military commander, Major Jordan, of the Ninth Infantry, and there met Crook, who had with him Colonel Stanton, Colonel Jordan, Frank Gruard, and myself. These men spoke in most favorable terms of the propositions laid down by General Crook, and old “Sitting Bull” (who, although bearing the same name, was as good as the “Sitting Bull” was bad) assured General Crook that even if no other chief in the tribe assisted, he would gather together thirty-five or forty of his young men and go with the soldiers to help drive the hostiles back to their reservations.

Although frustrated by the machinations of underlings of the Indian Bureau at that particular time, all these men kept the word then given, and appeared in the campaign undertaken later on in the fall. “Sitting Bull” was too feeble to go out in person, but sent some of his best young men; and “Three Bears” and “Rocky Bear” went as they promised they would, and were among the bravest and most active of all the command, red or white. When Agent Hastings returned there seemed to be a great change in the feelings of the Indians, and it was evident that he had done his best to set them against the idea of helping in the campaign. He expressed himself to the effect that while he would not forbid any Indian from going, he would not recommend any such movement. General Crook said that at the council where General Grant had decided that the northern Sioux should go upon their reservations or be whipped, there were present, Secretary Chandler, Assistant Secretary Cowan, Commissioner Smith, and Secretary Belknap. The chiefs were, “Red Cloud,” “Old Man afraid of his Horses,” “Blue Horse,” “American Horse,” “Little Wound,” “Sitting Bull of the South,” and “Rocky Bear.” With Agent Hastings were, Inspector Vandever, and one of the contractors for Indian supplies, and Mr. R. E. Strahorn. The contractor to whom reference is here made was afterwards—in the month of November, 1878—convicted by a Wyoming court, for frauds at this time, at this Red Cloud Agency, and sent to the penitentiary for two years. Nothing came of this part of the conference; the Indians, acting under bad advice, as we learned afterwards, declined to entertain any proposition of enlisting their people as scouts, and were then told by General Crook that if they were not willing to do their part in maintaining order among their own people and in their own country, he would telegraph for the Crows, and Bannocks, and Shoshones to send down the bands they had asked permission to send.

The Sioux appeared very much better off than any of the tribes I had seen until that time. All of the men wore loose trousers of dark blue cloth; moccasins of buck or buffalo skin covered with bead work; and were wrapped in Mackinaw blankets, dark blue or black in color, closely enveloping the frame; some of these blankets were variegated by a transverse band of bright red cloth worked over with beads, while underneath appeared dark woollen shirts. Strings of beads, shells, and brass rings encircled each neck. The hair was worn long but plain, the median line painted with vermilion or red ochre. Their faces were not marked with paint of any kind, an unusual thing with Indians in those days.

Smoking was done with beautiful pipes of the reddish ochreous stone called “Catlinite,” brought from the quarries on the Missouri. The bowls were prolonged to allow the nicotine to flow downwards, and were decorated with inlaid silver, speaking highly of the industrial capabilities of our aborigines. The stem was a long reed or handle of ash, perforated and beautifully ornamented with feathers and porcupine quills. Each smoker would take three or four whiffs, and then pass the pipe to the neighbor on his left.

General Crook was grievously disappointed at the turn affairs had taken, but he said nothing and kept his own counsel. Had he obtained three or four hundred warriors from Red Cloud and Spotted Tail the hostile element would have been reduced to that extent, and the danger to the feeble and poorly protected settlements along the Union Pacific lessened in the same ratio, leaving out of consideration any possible value these young men might be as scouts and trailers, familiar with all the haunts and devices of the hostiles. Be it remembered that while these efforts were going on, the hay scales at the Red Cloud Agency had been burned, and the government herds run off from both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Agencies.

We left the Red Cloud Agency at four o’clock in the morning, and began the ascent of the Valley of the “White Earth” creek. After going several miles, on looking back we saw a great cloud of signal smoke puff up from the bluffs back of the Indian villages, but just what sort of a signal it was no one in our party knew. As it happened, we had a strong force, and instead of the usual escort of ten men or less, with which General Crook travelled from one post or agency to another, we had no less than sixty-five men all told, made up of Crook’s own escort, the escort of Paymaster Stanton, returning from the pay trip. Colonel Ludington, Inspector General of the Department of the Platte, was also present with his escort, returning from a tour of inspection of the troops and camps along the northern border. A dozen or more of the ranchers and others living in the country had improved the opportunity to get to the railroad with perfect safety, and thus we were a formidable body. At the head of the White Earth we halted alongside of a pretty spring to eat some lunch, and there were passed by the mail-rider, a man named Clark, who exchanged the compliments of the day, and then drove on toward the post which he was never to reach. He was ambuscaded and killed by the band of Sioux who had planned to assassinate Crook but were deterred by our unexpectedly large force, and, rather than go without killing something, slaughtered the poor mail-rider, and drove off his horses. That was the meaning of the smoke puff at Red Cloud; it was, as we learned long afterwards, the signal to the conspirators that Crook and his party were leaving the post.

We passed through Laramie and on to Fetterman as fast as horses and mules could draw us. Not all the troops had yet reached Fetterman, the condition of the road from Medicine Bow being fearfully bad. Crook, after some difficulty, had a cable ferry established, in working order. The first day sixty thousand pounds of stores were carried across the river; the second, one hundred thousand pounds, besides soldiers by solid companies. Every wagon and nearly every mule and horse had to be carried over in the same manner, because the animals would not approach the swift current of the swollen Platte; here they showed more sense than the men in charge of them, and seemed to know instinctively that the current of the river was too strong to be breasted by man or horse. One of the teamsters, Dill, fell into the river, and was swept down before the eyes of scores of terrified spectators and drowned. The current had the velocity of a mill-race, and the depth was found to vary from ten to twelve feet close to the shore. Frank Gruard was sent across the North Platte with a small party of scouts and soldiers to examine into the condition of the road, and while out on this duty came very near being cut off by a reconnoitring band of the enemy.

General Crook assumed command in General Orders, No. 1, May 28, 1876. Colonel William B. Royall, Third Cavalry, was assigned to the command of the fifteen companies of cavalry forming part of the expedition, having under him Colonel Alexander W. Evans, commanding the ten companies of the Third Cavalry, and Major H. E. Noyes, commanding the five of the Second Cavalry.

Five companies of the Ninth and Fourth Infantry were placed under the command of Colonel Alexander Chambers, of the Fourth Infantry; Captain Nickerson and Lieutenant Bourke were announced as Aides-de-Camp; Captain George M. Randall, Twenty-third Infantry, as Chief of Scouts; Captain William Stanton as Chief Engineer Officer; Captain John V. Furey as Chief Quartermaster; First Lieutenant John W. Bubb as Commissary of Subsistence; Assistant Surgeon Albert Hartsuff as Medical Director. The companies starting out on this expedition and the officers connected with them were as follows: Company “A,” Third Cavalry, Lieutenant Charles Morton; Company “B,” Third Cavalry, Captain Meinhold, Lieutenant Simpson; Company “C,” Third Cavalry, Captain Van Vliet, Lieutenant Von Leuttewitz; Company “D,” Third Cavalry, Captain Guy V. Henry, Lieutenant W. W. Robinson; Company “E,” Third Cavalry, Captain Sutorius; Company “F,” Third Cavalry, Lieutenant B. Reynolds; Company “G,” Third Cavalry, Lieutenant Emmet Crawford; Company “I,” Third Cavalry, Captain Andrews, Lieutenants A. D. King and Foster; Company “L,” Third Cavalry, Captain P. D. Vroom, Lieutenant Chase; Company “M,” Third Cavalry, Captain Anson Mills and Lieutenants A. C. Paul and Schwatka; Company “A,” Second Cavalry, Captain Dewees, Lieutenant Peirson; Company “B,” Second Cavalry, Lieutenant Rawolle; Company “E,” Second Cavalry, Captain Wells, Lieutenant Sibley; Company “I,” Second Cavalry, Captain H. E. Noyes; Company “G,” Second Cavalry, Lieutenants Swigert and Huntington; Company “C,” Ninth Infantry, Captain Sam Munson, Lieutenant T. H. Capron; Company “H,” Ninth Infantry, Captain A. S. Burt, Lieutenant E. B. Robertson; Company “G,” Ninth Infantry, Captain T. B. Burroughs, Lieutenant W. L. Carpenter; Company “D,” Fourth Infantry, Captain A. B. Cain, Lieutenant H. Seton; Company “F,” Fourth Infantry, Captain Gerard Luhn.