on>ARMY LIFE
ON THE PLAINS
BY
FRANCES C. CARRINGTON
MY ARMY LIFE
MY ARMY LIFE
AND THE
FORT PHIL. KEARNEY MASSACRE
WITH
AN ACCOUNT OF THE CELEBRATION
of "WYOMING OPENED"
BY
FRANCES C. CARRINGTON
With Maps and Illustrations
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1910
COPYRIGHT, 1910
BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
Published June, 1910
Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U.S.A.
In Memory
OF THE
EIGHTEENTH REGIMENT UNITED STATES INFANTRY
ITS CIVIL WAR SERVICE
FROM 1861 TO 1865
AND
ITS FRONTIER INDIAN SERVICE
FROM 1865 TO 1867
PREFACE
AFTER the passing of many years, at the sugges- tion of interested friends, the setting down for per- manent record of the narrative of my life on the Plains in 1866 was assumed and completed, though not published, but laid away for a "more convenient season."
There it has remained for two years.
Eighteen months ago, on revisiting the scenes of forty- two years past, the later experiences so supple- mented the former that both are joined to complete the whole.
My visit recalled, intensified, the life in 1866. Bridging the years I seem to see again the plodding of weary but hopeful travellers journeying over a broad, desert waste, the isolation of a small defense- less caravan, and the green spots here and there like angel dwelling places.
The arrival at our destination after the dangers and risks of our journey, the completion of the strong stockade, our temporary home, the raising of the flag at its completion, the rehabilitation of the kaleidoscopic scenes of that long ago with the forms that were companions in that tragic experience, are even now more like the fantasies of a fearful dream than matters of personal experience.
That transient dwelling place, so strong and apparently impregnable if sufficiently defended, was deliberately abandoned by our Government through
7
PREFACE
lack of soldiers sufficient for its defense, and burned by the victorious tribes.
Strangest of all is the fact that at present scarcely twenty-three miles distant from that very spot is the County Seat of Sheridan County, most intensely the reverse of every condition of life that marked the experience of the earlier narratives, and teeming with life, peace, and prosperity.
And yet all is epitomized in a simple monument, which stands on Massacre Hill, to mark the battle- field of December 21, 1866, with an explanatory tablet in memory of those who gave their lives to uphold the authority of the Government.
F. C. C.
CONTENTS
PART I.
OUTWARD BOUND.
PART II.
OUR FRONTIER HOME.
PART III.
HOMEWARD BOUND.
PART IV.
AFTER MANY DAYS.
PART I
OUTWARD BOUND
FROM GOVERNOR'S ISLAND TO FORT PHIL. KEARNEY, DAKOTA
CHAPTER I.
GOVERNOR'S ISLAND TO VICKSBURG AND LEAVEN-
WORTH—THE FATHER OF WATERS
IN MIDSUMMER.
AT the close of the Civil War all volunteer regi- ments that had been employed on the Plains against Indian aggression, including the Minnesota Terri- tory, which had been a theatre of active war, were ordered to be mustered out, and pending the reor- ganization of the regular army the frontier was but feebly guarded.
The Eighteenth Infantry, having three battalions but depleted by active service, was ordered from the Army of the Cumberland to be recruited to its maxi- mum and sent beyond the Missouri River.
Upon reaching Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the First Battalion was detached for service on the lower line westward. Headquarters were estab- lished at Fort Kearney, Nebraska, its commander having jurisdiction along the Platte and Republican Rivers. In the month of December, 1865, the com- mand reached Fort Kearney in a great snow-storm.
The winter was spent in frequent minor opera- tions against the Indians of that section while having the cordial support of Pe-ta-la-sha-ra (Chowee Band), a noted chief of the Pawnee Tribe, which at that time occupied the reservation near the growing town of Columbus, in Nebraska, then a territory. Four companies from his tribe were organized and
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MY ARMY LIFE
mustered into service as scouts, then known as "Pawnee Scouts," and placed under command of Major North.
Major North, after the muster out of his bat- talion, became universally known as the drill-master of many of his old command who afterward formed a part of the great travelling show under the general charge of William Cody, who at that time was in army service as a guide and scout at the moderate pay of $5.00 per day.
With the approaching spring of 1866 plans had matured for building the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha westward, and General Carrington was
