The Indians were on the watch for an attack, and had their runners out with instructions to bring them the earliest information of an approaching foe. On the morning of the twenty-second, Captain Samuel N. Hoyt, with forty men of Company K of infantry, two howitzers, and a train of fifteen baggage wagons, left Camp Douglas with secret orders to march leisurely in the direction of the Indian encampment. The Indian spies, under promise of secrecy, were told by some who assumed to know, that this was the army sent to exterminate the Indians. They carried the intelligence to the Indians, where it excited great derision. The little company marched very slowly, making their roads through the snows of the divides, and were careful to afford the Indian scouts full opportunity to learn their strength and armament. The chiefs unconcernedly gave orders to their warriors to prepare for a warm reception of the foe, while they visited the settlements. On the morning of the sixth day’s march, Captain Hoyt and his men reached the vicinity of the present town of Franklin, within a few hours’ march of the Indian stronghold. Bear Hunter, who was there at the time, seeing how few the men were in number, left immediately in high glee, at the prospect of cutting them off the next day.
At midnight that night, after a ride of four nights, one of sixty miles, the others of easier marches, through deep snows and a piercing, bitter wind that nearly disabled a third of the command, Major McGarry, at the head of two hundred cavalry, accompanied by General Connor and his aids, rode into the little camp, and bivouacked with the infantry. The Indians knew nothing of this arrival. So far the plan for their destruction was successful. The troops slept on their arms. Orders were given to the infantry to march an hour after midnight. They were obliged to break their road through the snow, which completely covered the entire region to the depth of one or two feet. The heavy howitzers were dragged through it, over the unequal surface, with great difficulty, and for the purpose of concealment, kept in the rear. Several hours after the infantry started, the cavalry dashed by them and drew up on the south bank of Bear River before the dawn broke over the Indian camp. The savages were prepared for the attack. The ravine rang with their fearful and defiant howling.
GENERAL P. E. CONNOR
Commander at Battle of Bear River
The passage of the river was very difficult. Covered at the bottom to the depth of a foot or more with anchor-ice, its rapid current, too strong for congealment at its surface, was filled with floating masses of ice, whose sharp edges and great weight threatened disaster to every horse which ventured the treacherous passage. But there was no alternative. The troops who had dismounted to load their pistols, now remounted their horses, and led by Majors McGarry and Gallagher, by slow, tedious, and careful effort, succeeded in reaching the northern bank in safety. Before the passage was completed, however, the companies of Captain Price and Lieutenant Chase, which were the first to land, had drawn up in line of battle. Captain McLean and Lieutenant Quinn, with their commands, had barely joined them, when the Indians opened the fight with a shower of balls, wounding one of the men.
General Connor had instructed McGarry to surround the ravine, and was himself at this moment awaiting the arrival of the infantry on the south side of the river. He had not anticipated so early a commencement of the fight, but leaving his orders to be given by his aid, he hastily crossed the river and joined McGarry. That officer finding it impossible with the two companies at his disposal to outflank the Indians, ordered them to advance as skirmishers. Up to this time the Indians had been tantalizing our troops by their appearance upon the benches, over which it was necessary to pass before an attack could be made from the east on their stronghold. At the approach of the skirmishing party they retreated under cover of the precipitous bank, where, entirely protected from our guns, they opened a galling and deadly fire, killing and wounding several of Connor’s men. The General ordered his men to protect themselves as much as possible, and sent McGarry forward with a detachment to scale the mountain which enclosed the ravine on the north, and outflank the Indians on the left, while the companies on the benches attacked them in front.
At this stage of the fight, the most disastrous to our troops, Captain Hoyt arrived with the infantry on the south bank of the river. He had heard the firing at a distance, and hurried forward his men, who in their eagerness for the fray, attempted to ford the river, but found it impossible. Wet and chilled they crossed the river on cavalry horses sent from the north side, and galloped up to the battle, just in time to enable McGarry, with their assistance, to complete his flanking movement. Captain Hoyt now came up with a portion of his men on the west side of the ravine, extending the cordon so as to form about three-fourths of a circle, embracing three sides of the Indian camp. The fight now became very brisk. By the enfilading fire from the east, west, and north sides of the ravine, the Indians were gradually driven to the centre and south. Their stronghold proved a complete cul de sac, and they were entirely at the mercy of the troops. Taken at this great disadvantage, and seeing their chiefs and head men falling around them, they fought with desperate bravery, moving slowly toward the mouth of the ravine on the west side of which General Connor had stationed a detachment of cavalry to cut off their retreat. The great slaughter occasioned by the incessant fire of the troops, at length broke the Indians’ line. Each man sought how best to save himself. Many of them ran in the most disorderly manner to the mouth of the ravine, where they fell in heaps before the deadly fire of the rifles. Some attempted to cross the river, but did not live to effect it. Others crawled into the willow clumps with the hope of escaping notice, but the troops were ordered to scour the bushes, and dislodge them. Many of these latter disclosed their places of concealment by firing from them upon the troops, as if resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible. The last Indian foe waited his opportunity. While Major Gallagher was leading a detachment into a thicket, the savage fired upon him. The ball passed through his left arm into his side. Again the Indian fired, and a cavalryman fell from his horse beside General Connor. The flash of his rifle revealed his hiding-place, and a volley from the detachment ended the bloody contest.
The details I have here given of this battle, while they sufficiently demonstrate the skill and bravery of the officers and men by whom it was fought, would be wanting in justice to them did I fail to mention other incidental facts connected with it, which entitle them to additional claims upon our gratitude and admiration. Few people who have never experienced a winter in the Rocky Mountains know how to appreciate the elemental difficulties attending the march of such an expedition as this one of General Connor’s. The sudden storms, the deep snows, the trackless wastes, the rapid, half-frozen mountain torrents, the lofty divides, the keen blasts, and the pinching nights, coupled with all the unavoidable demands which must encumber the movements of troops and artillery through a country that for most of the distance is entirely desolate, should give this expedition a conspicuous place among the remarkable events of our country’s history. Seventy-four of the number engaged in it had their feet frozen by exposure. The night rides of the cavalry to overtake the infantry would furnish as thrilling a theme for song as any of the rides during our National struggle, which have been thus immortalized. The transportation of munitions, camp equipage, and heavy artillery through eighty miles of snow, which for most of the distance was unmarked by a road, over mountains, through cañons, and across unbridged streams, furnishes a chapter that can find no parallel in our former military experience. I mention them, that my readers may form some idea of the amount of labor and care necessary to carry such an enterprise through with success, and give the proper credit to those who accomplished it.
Through the kindness of General Connor I am enabled to give the names and rank of those who were killed and wounded. All the officers and men fought with great bravery. General Connor himself, during the entire four hours the battle was in progress, was always in the thickest of it, and seldom out of range of the deadly rifles of the Indians. The historian of the battle says:
“General Connor exhibited high qualities of command, and his perfect coolness and bravery are the universal theme of praise. Possibly some might have been better pleased with less exposure of their commander, but I have the best authority for saying it was the call of duty, and not indifference.”