town. Gambling was openly practiced, by day as well as by night, and the social evil, of the very lowest type, was offensively visible wherever the eye might turn. No respectable maid or matron ventured out unattended after nightfall, while occasional murders and suicides "streaked the pale air with blood."
Notwithstanding these almost inevitable drawbacks, there were then, as there are now, level heads, and loyal hearts, in Cheyenne, and I can never forget the many pleasant evenings I spent there in company with some officers of the Fort Russell garrison, and such distinguished citizens as Editors Swan and Glascke, Col. Luke Murrin, Dr. Whitehead, Sheriff O'Brien, Messrs. French, Harrington, Dyer, MacNamara, Miller, Haas and many other "right good fellows," who will ever live in my grateful remembrance. I believe that all of the gentlemen mentioned, with the exception of Mr. MacNamara, still survive. If I have omitted the names of any of the friends of that period, the omission, I can assure my readers, is entirely unintentional, for a manlier, more generous or hospitable group of men it has rarely been my good fortune to encounter.
On the 12th or 13th of May, it was known that General Crook and his staff had arrived during the night, but were off on the wings of the wind, overland, to Fort Laramie in the morning. Captain Sutorius, with whom I had arranged to mess, sent me word, on the 14th, that the command was under orders, and that I had better take up my residence at Fort Russell during the night. Messrs. Dyer
WAR-PATH AND BIVOUAC
and MacNamara insisted on taking my "traps" to the Fort in a spring wagon, drawn by a spirited horse. I rode on horseback beside them. Just as we neared the entrance of the parade ground, their beast took fright and ran away with great skill and energy. I attempted in vain to keep up with the procession. In front of the quarters of Captain Peele, of the 2d Cavalry, an officer who has since suffered many misfortunes, the wagon was upset. MacNamara, a pretty heavy man, described the arc of a circle in the air, and fell upon the crown of his head. His high hat was crushed down upon his face, and he presented a ludicrous spectacle enough, but, most fortunately, he escaped serious injury, and relieved his feelings by thundering anathemas against the runaway animal, and all concerned in the catastrophe. Dyer was thrown out also, and suffered a gash over the eye-brow, the scar of which still remains. My effects were strewn all over Fort Russell, and half a dozen orderlies were, by the courtesy of Captain Peele and other officers, engaged for some time in picking them up. I have since learned the wisdom and the beauty of moving in light marching order. Both Captains Peele and Sutorius treated us most kindly, and, in view of their subsequent misfortunes, I feel bound to bear witness that on that occasion, as on many others, they showed that their hearts were in the right place, although their heads might be sometimes weak.
Next day I called upon the commandant of the fort, Gen. J. J. Reynolds, colonel of the 3d Cavalry, who received me with that courteous bearing so characteristic of the American regular officer. He spoke pleasantly of the
OR THE CONQUEST OF THE SIOUX
approaching campaign, but regretted that he personally could have no part in it. He did not say why, but I understood perfectly that he and the department commander, General Crook, were not on good terms, owing to a disagreement relative to Reynolds' action during the short Crazy Horse village campaign of the preceding March. Reynolds stormed the village, but was unable to retain it, and, in his retreat, the Indians attacked his rear guard and stampeded the pony herd of 800 horses he had captured. General Crook held that General Reynolds ought to have shot the ponies rather than allow them to fall again into the hands of their savage owners. A court martial grew out of the controversy, but nothing serious came of it, as far as I can remember, and General Reynolds was soon afterward, at his own request, placed upon the retired list of the army.
As I was taking my leave, General Reynolds said: "As you have not been out after Indians previously, allow an old soldier to give you this piece of advice—Never stray far from the main column, and never trust a horse or an Indian."
I promised to follow the General's advice as closely as possible, and made my adieux. Orders had readied the Fort that the troops were to move to Fort Laramie on the morning of the 17th, and all felt grateful that the period of inaction was almost at an end.
Before giving my account of the famous campaign, I must briefly relate the causes that led to the great Indian War of 1876.
CHAPTER II.
THE BLACK HILLS FEVER
There had raged for many years a war between the Sioux Nation, composed of about a dozen different tribes of the same race under various designations, and nearly all the other Indian tribes of the Northwest. The Northern Cheyennes were generally confederated with the Sioux in the field, and the common enemy would seem to have been the Crow, or Absarake, Nation. The Sioux and Cheyennes together were more than a match for all the other tribes combined, and even at this day the former peoples hold their numerical superiority unimpaired. There must be nearly 70,000 Sioux and their kindred tribes in existence, and they still possess, at least, 5,000 able-bodied warriors, more or less well armed. But times have greatly changed since the spring "of 1876. Then nearly all of Dakota, Northern Nebraska, Northern Wyoming, Northern and Eastern Montana lay at the mercy of the savages, who, since the completion of the treaty of 1868, which filled them with ungovernable pride, had been mainly successful in excluding all white men from the immense region, which may be roughly described as bounded on the east by the 104th meridian; on the west by the Big Horn mountains; on the south by the North Platte, and on the north by the Yellowstone river. In fact, the northern boundary, in Montana, extended prac-
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tically to the frontier of the British possessions. About 240,000 square miles were comprised in the lands ceded, or virtually surrendered, by the Government to the Indians — one-half for occupation and the establishment of agencies, farms, schools and other mediums of civilization; while the other half was devoted to hunting grounds, which no white man could enter without the special permission of the Indians themselves. All this magnificent territory was turned over and guaranteed to the savages by solemn treaty with the United States Government. The latter made the treaty with what may be termed undignified haste. The country, at the time, was sick of war. Colonel Fetterman, with his command of nearly one hundred men and three officers, had been overwhelmed and massacred by the Sioux, near Fort Phil Kearney, in December. 1866. Other small detachments of the army had been slaughtered here and there throughout the savage region. The old Montana emigrant road had been paved with the bodies and reddened with the blood of countless victims of Indian hatred, and, indeed, twenty years ago, strange as it may now appear to American readers, nobody, least of all the authorities at Washington, thought that what was then a howling, if handsome, wilderness, would be settled within so short a period by white people. Worse than all else, the Government weakly agreed to dismantle the military forts established along the Montana emigrant trail, running within a few miles of the base of the Big Horn range, namely, Fort Reno, situated on Middle Fork of the Powder river; Fort Phil Kearney, situated on Clear Fork of the same stream, and Fort C. F.
OR THE CONQUEST OF THE SIOUX
Smith, situated on the Big Horn river, all these being on the east side of the celebrated mountain chain. The Sioux had no legitimate claim to the Big Horn region. A part of it belonged originally to the Crows, whom the stronger tribe constantly persecuted, and who, by the treaty of '68, were placed at the mercy of their ruthless enemies. Other friendly tribes, such as the Snakes, or Shoshones, and the Bannocks, bordered on the ancient Crow territory, and were treated as foemen by the greedy Sioux and the haughty Cheyennes. The abolition of the three forts named fairly inflated the Sioux. The finest hunting grounds in the world had fallen into their possession, and the American Government, instead of standing by and strengthening the Crows, their ancient friends and allies, unwisely abandoned the very positions that would have held the more ferocious tribes in check. The Crows had a most unhappy
