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Title: Red Cloud's War
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URL Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cloud%27s_War
Published: May 14, 2010
Author: wikipedia
Post Date: 2010-05-14 09:15:36 by A K A Stone
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Views: 1218
Comments: 4
Red Cloud's War (also referred to as the Bozeman War or the Powder River War) was an armed conflict between the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho and the United States in the Wyoming and the Montana territories from 1866 to 1868. The war was fought over control of the Powder River Country in north central Wyoming. European Americans had built the Bozeman Trail through it, which was a primary route to the Montana gold fields. The trail was used by an increasing number of miners, emigrant settlers and others, who competed with the Cheyenne and Lakota for resources and encroached on their traditional territory. The United States named the war after Red Cloud, a prominent Oglala Lakota chief who led his band to oppose the U.S. military in the area. He was allied with the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho bands. The Cheyenne were the first tribe in the Powder River Country. They had introduced the horse to the Lakota about 1730, in the early decades of the eighteenth century.[1] From the American Indian point of view, the Cheyenne had been the target of US military campaigns and led the efforts against them.[1] Since 1860, the Cheyenne had been waging war as a unified tribe, whereas the Lakota took part as independently allied bands.[1] With peace achieved under the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868, the Cheyenne and Lakota achieved victory in this war. They gained temporary preservation of their control of the Powder River country.[2] Background The discovery of gold in 1863 in the area of Bannack, Montana, created an incentive for white settlers to find an economical route to reach the gold fields. While some emigrants went to Salt Lake City and then north to Montana, pioneer John Bozeman is credited with discovering the Bozeman Trail from Fort Laramie north through the Powder River country east of the Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone, then westward over what is now Bozeman Pass. The trail passed through the Powder River hunting grounds of the Lakota or Western Sioux. A second trail, the Bridger Trail, passed west of the Bighorns but was longer and therefore less favored. The Powder River country encompasses the numerous rivers (the Bighorn, Rosebud, Tongue and Powder) that flow northeastward from the Bighorn Mountains to the Yellowstone. The Cheyenne had been the first tribe in this area, followed by bands of Lakota. As more of the northern plains became occupied by white settlement, this region became the last unspoiled hunting ground of the Cheyenne and various bands of the Lakota.[1] In 1865, Maj. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge ordered the Powder River Expedition against the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho. Troops commanded by Patrick E. Connor defeated the Arapaho at the Battle of the Tongue River. The battle ended the Arapaho ability to wage war on the Bozeman Trail, but the expedition was unable to bring the Lakota to battle, and served as a forerunner for further conflicts. [edit] Council at Fort Laramie In late spring 1866, the US government called for a council with the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne at Fort Laramie. Officials wanted to council to discuss a treaty to gain a protected right-of-way for emigrant settlers through the Powder River country, and also to establish military posts to protect the road. While the conference was in session, Col. Henry B. Carrington, commanding the 18th Infantry, arrived at Laramie with the two battalions of the regiment (approximately 1,300 men in 16 companies) and construction supplies. He had orders to establish forts in the Powder River country using the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Infantry. The 3rd Battalion was to garrison posts along the old Oregon Trail, now the Platte Road. Carrington chose the 2nd Battalion because it contained 220 veteran soldiers consolidated after the American Civil War. The U.S. peace commission bargained in bad faith with the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne. They offered annuities to alleviate near-starvation, but kept secret the US plans to build forts along the Bozeman Trail. Dull Knife (Morning Star) signed the treaty for the Northern Cheyenne. Red Cloud, who attended the council, was outraged that the army was bringing in troops before the Lakota had agreed to a military road through the area. Red Cloud and his followers left the council in protest, never signing the treaty and promising resistance to any whites who sought to use the trail or to occupy the Powder River country. [edit] War Despite these warnings, Colonel Carrington marched into the Powder River country with 750 men (500 of them untrained recruits) and some 200 cavalry mounts received from the 7th Iowa Cavalry and 13th Nebraska Cavalry. The latter volunteer regiments had released their mounts, as the men were recently mustered out of service following the American Civil War. Carrington restored Fort Reno, leaving two companies there to relieve the two companies of the 5th U.S. Volunteers (nicknamed the "Galvanized Yankees") who had garrisoned the fort over the winter. Proceeding north, Carrington founded Fort Phil Kearny on Piney Creek, in what is now northwest Wyoming. From there two companies of the 18th advanced 91 miles to the northwest, where on August 13, they established a third post, Fort C. F. Smith on the Bighorn River. In the 19th century, the Cheyenne had become quite unified. At least since 1860, they were waging war on a tribal basis, unlike other Plains Indians who operated independently as bands.[1] Allied with them were a coalition of various bands of Lakota and Arapaho under the leadership of Red Cloud. They attacked the troops at both Forts Phil Kearny and C.F. Smith. The Indians effectively closed travel on the Bozeman Trail. They regularly attacked parties gathering wood, mail carriers, emigrants and traders. Although 175 troops were assigned at both forts Reno and C.F. Smith, and 400 at Fort Phil Kearny, they were largely untrained. Carrington had sufficient manpower only to protect his posts and supply trains. He was unable to provide escorts to emigrants on the trail or to engage in aggressive operations. Carrington was an engineer and political appointee, not experienced in combat. He spent manpower resources building fortifications rather than fighting Indians. This was due in part to his arrival in the region in mid-July, as he tried to prepare for winter. Given the severity of the Wyoming winters, this strategy was not unreasonable, but many of his junior officers, anxious for battle, were infuriated. Most were Civil War veterans, but they were unfamiliar with Indian fighting and believed the warriors could be easily defeated. They criticized Carrington's apparent unwillingness to fight Indians. Carrington respected the fighting capacity of his foes, their better knowledge of the terrain, and most importantly, their vastly superior numbers. [edit] Attacks on the wood train In November 1866, Captains William J. Fetterman and James Powell arrived at Fort Phil Kearny from the 18th Infantry's headquarters garrison at Fort Laramie to replace several officers recently relieved of duty. Unlike Carrington, Fetterman had extensive combat experience during the Civil War. He lacked experience fighting American Indians, however. Fetterman disagreed with Carrington's strategy. Reportedly he said it was "passive" and allegedly boasted that given "80 men," he "would ride through the Sioux nation." Carrington later reported Fetterman's boasts while trying to defend his own reputation.[3] On December 6, Second Lieutenant Horace S. Bingham, commanding Company C, 2nd Cavalry, was killed by Indians while driving off a force that had attacked a wood train. He had followed them as they retreated over Lodge Trail Ridge and been overwhelmed. Carrington worried about his officers' tendency to blindly follow such Indian decoy parties. Fetterman was outraged by what he considered the ineffectiveness of Carrington's leadership. He understood the commander of the Department of the Platte, Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, to have ordered the garrison to mount an aggressive winter campaign. On the morning of December 21, 1866, the wood train was attacked again. Carrington ordered a relief party, composed of 49 infantrymen of the 18th Infantry and 27 mounted troopers of the 2nd Cavalry, to relieve the wood train. He ordered Captain James Powell to command the force, an officer who had led a similar effort two days earlier and declined to pursue Indians over the Claiming seniority by being a brevet lieutenant colonel, Fetterman asked for and was given command of the relief party. Powell remained behind. Another officer of the 18th, Lt. George W. Grummond, also a vocal critic of Carrington, led the cavalry. It had been leaderless since Lt. Bingham's death in early December.[4] Colonel Carrington stated he ordered Fetterman not to cross Lodge Trail Ridge, where relief from the fort would be difficult.[4] Fetterman was joined by Captain Frederick Brown, until recently the post quartermaster and another of Carrington's critics. Carrington stated he told Grummond to remind Fetterman of his order not to cross over Lodge Trail Ridge. (The cavalry had to retrieve its mounts before it could follow and catch up with the infantrymen.)[4] The relief party numbered 79 officers and men. Two civilians, James Wheatley and Isaac Fisher, joined Fetterman, bringing the total force up to 81 men. Instead of marching down the wood road to the relief of the wood train, Fetterman quickly turned north and crossed the Sullivant Hills toward Lodge Trail Ridge.[4] Fetterman Massacre (Battle of the Hundred Slain) Fetterman Monument on Massacre Hill Within a few minutes of their departure, a Lakota decoy party including Oglala warrior Crazy Horse appeared on Lodge Trail Ridge. Fetterman took the bait, especially since several of the warriors stood on their ponies and insultingly waggled their bare buttocks at the troopers. Fetterman and his company were joined by Grummond at the crossing of the creek, deployed in skirmish line and marched over the Ridge in pursuit. They raced down into the Peno Valley, where an estimated 1,000-3,000 Indians were concealed. They had fought the soldiers there on December 6.[4] At approximately noon, men at the fort heard gunfire, beginning with a few shots followed immediately by sustained firing. The ambush was not observed, but evidence indicated the cavalry probably had charged the Indians. The cavalry's most advanced group was nearly a mile down the ridge beyond the infantry. When the Cheyenne and Oglala sprang their trap, the soldiers had no escape. None of them survived. Reports from the burial party sent to collect the remains said the soldiers had died in three groups. The most advanced and probably most effective were the two civilians, armed with 16-shot Henry repeating rifles, and a small number of cavalrymen who had dismounted and taken cover in the rocks. Up the slope behind them were the bodies of most of the retreating cavalrymen, armed with new 7-shot Spencer carbines, but encumbered by their horses and without cover. Further up the slope were Fetterman, Brown and the infantrymen, armed with nearly obsolete Civil War muzzle-loading rifled-muskets. These foot soldiers fought from cover for a short while, until their ammunition ran out and they were overrun.[4] Massacre Hill looking northeast from Fetterman Monument Carrington heard the gunfire and immediately sent out a 40-man support force on foot under Captain Tenedor Ten Eyck. Shortly after, the 30 remaining cavalrymen of Company C were sent dismounted to reinforce Ten Eyck, followed by two wagons, the first loaded with hastily loaded ammunition and escorted by another 40 men. Carrington called for an immediate muster of troops to defend the post. Including the wood train detail, the detachments had left only 119 troops remaining inside the fort. Ten Eyck took a roundabout route and reached the ridgetop just as the firing ceased about 12:45 p.m. He sent back a message reporting that he could not see Fetterman's force, but the valley was filled with groups of Indians taunting him to come down. Ten Eyck suffered severe criticism for not marching straight to the sound of the battle, though doing so would have resulted only in the destruction of his force, too. Ten Eyck reached and recovered the bodies of Fetterman's men. Because of continuing Indian threat, they could not recover those of the cavalry for two days.[4] Carrington's official report claimed that Fetterman and Brown shot each other to avoid capture, though Army autopsies recorded Fetterman's death wound as a knife slash. It remains a subject of debate. The warriors mutilated most of the bodies of the soldiers; facts widely publicized by the newspapers. The only body left untouched was that of a young bugler, Adolph Metzler. He was believed to have fought several Indians with just his bugle. His body was left untouched and covered in a buffalo robe by the Indians. The reason for this remains unknown, although it may have been a tribute to his bravery. The battle was called the "Battle of the Hundred Slain" by the Indians and the "Fetterman Massacre" by the soldiers. It was the Army's worst defeat on the Great Plains until the disaster on the Little Big Horn ten years later.[4] Fort Phil Kearny prepared for a last stand that never came. General Cooke held Carrington solely responsible for the defeat and relieved him of command on December 26, 1866. (While Cooke had planned the relief with the conversion of the 2nd Battalion to the 27th Infantry, he ordered it immediately to make the point of rebuke to Carrington.) General Ulysses S. Grant, commanding the U.S. Army, was not inclined to blame only Carrington. He relieved Cooke on January 9, 1867.[4] Both an Army court of inquiry and the Secretary of the Interior conducted investigations of the massacre. The Army's reached no official conclusion, and the Interior's exonerated Carrington. After a severe hip injury, Carrington resigned his commission in 1870. He spent the rest of his life defending his actions and condemning Fetterman's alleged disobedience. The shock of the Fetterman defeat resulted in public calls to reassess the government's Indian policy. Carrington's views came to be the most widely accepted. He placed culpability on reckless actions by Fetterman. On the other hand, some critics[who?] have said that Carrington could have recalled Fetterman before the ambush took place. He could observe from the fort that the attack on the wood train broke off around 11:30. Also in mitigation, Fetterman may have believed that he had to support Grummond, even if the cavalry led the advance in violation of Carrington's orders. Given Grummond's record during the Civil War, he may have been far out in front.[original research?] Historians do not believe Red Cloud took part in the Fetterman battle. He was possibly present on August 2, 1867, for the Wagon Box Fight near Fort Phil Kearny.[citation needed] That day a small army detachment successfully used new breech-loading rifles to hold off more than 1,000 Lakota and Cheyenne for five hours.[4] The Army had similar success in the Hayfield Fight the previous day. Treaty of Fort Laramie While the Army had ordered Carrington to campaign against the Sioux and Cheyenne, his successor at Fort Kearny, General Wessels, never launched a major offensive against them. By late summer 1867, despite successes against the Sioux in the Hayfield Fight and the Wagon Box Fight, the government changed its policy. The administration decided that having emigrants use the transcontinental railroad, then pushing through southwestern Wyoming toward Salt Lake City, and the Bridger Trail, were better alternatives. They did not want to try to maintain an expensive and unproductive military presence in the Powder River country. Peace commissioners were sent to Fort Laramie in the spring of 1868. Red Cloud refused to meet with them until the Army abandoned the Powder River strongholds, Forts Phil Kearny and C. F. Smith. In August 1868, Federal soldiers abandoned the forts and proceeded to Fort Laramie. Red Cloud did not arrive at Fort Laramie until November. He signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, which created the Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills. The reservation covered what is now all of western South Dakota. Northern Cheyenne representatives also signed the treaty. They gained in the declaration of the Powder River country as unceded territory, to be used as a reserve for Cheyenne and Lakota who chose not to live on the new reservation, and as a hunting reserve for all the Lakota and Cheyenne.[1] Aftermath Red Cloud became the only Indian leader to win a major war against the United States. He was more than a great war leader, however. His famous statement about treaties sums up his attitude towards the reliability of US negotiators: "I have listened patiently to the promises of the Great Father, but his memory is short. I am now done with him. This is all I have to say."[citation needed] He was always vigilant when dealing with US representatives. After 1868, Red Cloud lived on the reservation. Seeing that the numbers of new emigrants and technology of the United States would overwhelm the Sioux, Red Cloud adapted to fighting the US Indian Bureau for fair treatment for his people. He was an important leader of the Lakota through the years of transition from their plains culture to the relative confinement of the reservation system. He outlived all the major Lakota leaders of the Indian wars. He lived until 1909, when he died on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Red Cloud was buried there. Fetterman, Brown and the remaining US soldiers killed in the 1866 battles were reinterred at the U.S. National Cemetery at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, near Crow Agency, Montana.
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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
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There is a US military installation in Korea named Camp Red Cloud.
Stench boy, why have you not stuck your head up a horse's butt and died yet?
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.61;52;Samuel Adams Officers like Fetterman aren't uncommon in any era.
We are lucky enough to have an honorable host.
#2. To: A K A Stone (#0)
Red Cloud became the only Indian leader to win a major war against the United States. He was more than a great war leader, however.
#3. To: Fred Mertz (#2)
#4. To: A K A Stone (#1)
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