October 28, 1869: While scouting the country surrounding the Brazos River in Texas, Forty-First Infantry Lieutenant George E. Albee and two enlisted men encountered a group of eleven hostile Indians, according to army records. During the subsequent fighting, Albees group drove the Indians from the area. Albee won the Medal of Honor for his actions. Army records also indicated that members of the Fourth and Ninth Cavalry, Twenty-Fourth Infantry, and some Indian scouts fought with a band of Indians near the headwaters of the Brazos River in Texas. Fifty Indians were killed and seven were captured. Either soldiers were wounded. The fighting lasted through the next day. This was one of many fights between the Cavalry and the Indians. It was the U.S. Armys War on all Indians who had not moved west. This particular fight was upon the Comanche under Chief Black Kettle. I will show you two accounts: The first about the War on Indians from the U.S. Military website. The second is an account from Wikipedia. The U.S. Cavalry Versus The Indians 1832 through 1898 After the Civil War, the United States concentrated on the reconstruction of its war-torn southern cities; its Army however, would continue to engage in battle with Indian tribes, many of whom remain hostile. These fierce warriors, determined to keep their lands free of encroaching settlers, swept down in hordes, showing little compassion. An Indian attack was swift and merciless. Without notice, any unsuspecting settlement or ranch might be ravaged. After a savage raid, the Indians often tortured their captives with slow fire, scalping and mutilating the dead, then stripped the corpses, using the carnage for target practice. In many instances, the withdrawing attackers took women and children captive, often a fate worse than death. The Army attempted to quell these attacks, but Infantry was no match for what was probably the greatest Light Cavalry in the world. Forts were scattered sparsely throughout the Territory in a terrain unfamiliar to the troops, causing additional hardships for the Army. These circumstances caused the U.S. Cavalry to assume its prominent role in the course of American history. The U.S. Cavalry was formed in 1833 with the merger of the Rangers and the 1st Regiment of Dragoons. Their exploits took them into battle with the Comanches and Pawnees in 1834, against the Seminoles, Pueblos, Apaches and others, up to outbreak of the Civil War. In fact, the Civil War exacerbated the problem, as Army troops were rushed from Indian Territory to fight in the East during the Civil War, giving the Indians open season on the settlers, with death and destruction ensuing. During 1858, a contingent of Cavalry commanded by Colonel Steptoe exemplified the courage and valor of the Horse Soldiers. These 150 men were surrounded by a hostile force of over 1,200 warriors. They yielded not an inch nor showed any fear. Their ammunition dwindled to three rounds per man but they stood firm prepared to empty their guns and give their lives for the Colors. The Indians suddenly and inexplicably withdrew, sparing the Cavalry certain disaster. The Cavalry avenged this attack by devastating the Indians at the Battle of Four Lakes, in the vicinity of Fort Walla Walla, Washington Territory, inflicting over 500 casualties on the enemy, yet suffering none themselves. Apaches, known for their ruthless tactics, massacred fourteen miners who foolhardily attempted to cross Apache Pass in 1861. Simultaneously, an advance Cavalry unit under a Captain Roberts approached the pass from the opposite direction. The Cavalry although am-bushed, shocked the Apaches with artillery fire. These shooting wagons as the Indians described them, prevented a catastrophe, allowing the besieged troopers to hold out until reinforcements arrived. The Cavalry, once reinforced, crossed Apache Pass; counting over 60 dead warriors, while suffering only 4 casualties themselves. Apache Chief Mangus Coloradas had been gravely wounded at this battle by the fortuitous luck of Trooper John Teal, who after having had his horse shot out from under him while attempting to get reinforcements, fired from behind his horse, wounding the Chief and saving the day. The Stars and Stripes waves briskly over the newly constructed Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming, in 1866. Logging parties attempting to supply lumber to the Fort were under continuous attack. On one such mission, two men were captured and tortured. One week later, their skulls and skeletons. were retrieved. Some Cavalry Officers remained unconvinced of the tenacity of the Indians. One such Officer, a Captain Fetterman, boasted GIVE ME EIGHTY MEN AND ILL RIDE THROUGH THE ENTIRE SIOUX NATION During December, 1866, Fetterman was ordered to assist a wagon train near Fort Kearny. He blatantly disobeyed his orders, advancing his column towards certain death. In a battle which lasted under half an hour, twenty-five percent of the troops from Fort Kearny were wiped out. The naked, scalped bodies of the eighty-one Troopers were recovered by a search party. This unnecessary disaster would be remembered always as Fettermans Folly This defeat convinced the Army that these defenders needed the new 50 calibre Springfield breech-loaded rifles which were forwarded to Fort Kearny the following spring. It did not take long for the rifles to prove their worth. A contingent of 40 men under the command of Captain Powell were attacked by a massive Sioux war party, exceeding 1,500 Braves, in the vicinity of Fort Kearny. Powell, with an enormous amount of calm cockiness, states: MEN, FIND A PLACE IN THE WAGON BOXES, YOULL HAVE TO FIGHT FOR YOUR LIVES TODAY~ These defiant, outnumbered defenders fired at will, stopping waves of war-painted, Indians from overwhelming their small makeshift Fortress of overturned wagons. The Indians finally withdrew. Sgt. Sam Gibson, elated after the Wagonbox Fight, remarked: THANKS TO GOD AND LT. GEN. SHERMAN, WE WERE ARMED WITH THE NEW WEAPON: The Horse Soldiers continued their search and destroy missions, defeating the northern Cheyennes led by Chief Tall Bull, at the Battle of Summit Springs in Colorado during January, 1869. The Cavalry also devastated the Modocs at the Lava Beds, in California, with overpowering artillery, blasting the Indians into submission. The Modoc War ended with the public hanging of Chief Captain Jack on the parade field of Fort Klamath, on October 3rd, 1873. General Mackenzies Cavalry pursued the Kiowa and Comanches relentlessly during 1874. The Indians finally surrendered during the winter. The Sioux and Cheyenne under Sitting Bull finally secured a major victory against the Cavalry on June 25th, 1876, at the Little Big Horn. The famed 7th Cavalry under Custer, split in two, approached the ponderous Sioux-Cheyenne encampment. Custers men, after being completely surrounded by the hostiles, fought to the last man. Legend has it that Custer was the only man to escape scalping, although there is no documenting the fact. The other half of the 7th Cavalry was surrounded on the 26th. They held out against overwhelming odds, for two days, until a relief column under General Terry arrived to save them. The Indians chose not to fight the larger force and withdrew savoring their tremendous victory over Custers 7th Cavalry. Custers demise was mourned by the entire nation, but the Cavalry rose to the occasion, armed with vengeance in their hearts, retaliating furiously, never forgetting the 197 mutilated, naked bodies of the gallant 7th. Buffalo Bill Cody became a national hero for his courageous actions at the Battle of War Bonnet Creek, in the vicinity of Fort Robinson, Nebraska, in July, 1876. The 7th Cavalry crushed the Nez Perce Tribe under Chief Joseph, in retaliation for the Indian victory over the Cavalry at White Bird Canyon. Chief Joseph surrendered on October 5, 1876, ending the war. The northern Cheyenne attempted to leave their Oklahoma reservation, to return to Montana, but the Cavalry pursued without mercy, badgering them into submission. The Apaches continued their hit-and-run skirmishes, but in July, 1882, the Cavalry vanquished the Apaches at the Battle of Big Dry Wash, the last major battle on Arizona soil. One of the most tenacious and evasive of all the Chiefs was Geronimo, who destroyed at will, while always avoiding capture. On the two occasions when the Cavalry managed to subdue him, he escaped. In an attempt to end Geronimos terror-raids, the Cavalry marched 48 hours without rest to surprise the sleeping Apaches, on January 8, 1886. The Cavalry captured all the Indian supplies, but not Geronimo, who reached Mexico safely, where he continued to raid settlements until he surrendered for the third and final time, in Mexico, during September of 1886. The final half of the 1880s signaled the end of the Indians as a powerful foe. The Cavalry and its artillery were simply too much for the once indefatigable Indians. The great Chiefs grew scarce, the buffalo were nearly extinct. The Indians attempted to dance back the buffalo and spirits of their departed, in anticipation of the appearance of the Indian god, however, their situation only worsened. An Indian policeman shot Chief Sitting Bull on December 15th, 1890, while attempting to place him under arrest and the Cavalry captured the Sioux under Chief Big Foot, subsequently moving them to Wounded Knee Creek. As the Cavalry attempt to disarm the captive Sioux, a warrior fired a shot in the direction of the troops, most of whom were members of the 7th Cavalry. The 7th respond immediately, asking no explanation or question. Their deadly first volley killed approximately half the Sioux. Shots continued until many more Indians men, women and children were killed or wounded. The battle was a one-sided victory for the 7th, but they lost 25 men killed and 37 wounded to these defiant, proud warriors, who flung the final arrows against the Horse Soldiers. They would fight no more. The great Chiefs, Mangus Coloradas, Cochise, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Joseph, Geronimo and many others, had done their best, but settlers could now move throughout the West, untroubled by fear of hostile attacks. The role of the U.S. Cavalry would soon end forever, as machines replaced the horse, but these proud men who had followed the orders of Washington rode to glory and immortality. Their boots and saddles embossed and carved a legend of valor and courage in the hearts and minds of all Americans. This nation owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Cavalry, for without their determination and sacrifice, the West could never have been secured. It should be duly noted that many friendly Indians fought side by side with the Cavalry over the duration. Their help, as interpreters, scouts and fighters, was an admirable and invaluable contribution to the winning of the West. Now for Wikipedias account: There were several reasons the Comanches and Kiowas had been angry in 1852. The first was they had recently been devastated by epidemics of smallpox and cholera. Their first experience with smallpox had been an epidemic (1780–81) so severe that it caused the disappearance of some Comanche divisions. The Comanche were hit again by smallpox during the winter of 1816-17. The wave of immigration from the California gold rush first brought smallpox (1848) and then cholera (1849) to the Great Plains. These were devastating to every plains tribe, but especially to the Comanches and Kiowa. The government census estimated a drop in the Comanches 1849 population of 20,000 to 12,000 by 1851, and the Comanches never recovered from this loss. Smallpox struck again from New Mexico during 1862 and is believed to have been equally devastating. Cholera returned in 1867. By 1870, the Comanches numbered less than 8,000, and their numbers were still dropping rapidly. The Comanches kept their promise for safe passage on the Santa Fé Trail, but remained angry about events in Texas. White settlement was steadily taking more and more of Comancheria, and the Texas Rangers were still attacking them. As the frontier advanced, the American army had built a new line of forts, followed by a third line. At first these had been manned by infantry, and the Comanche simply by-passed them. Within a few years, the infantry was replaced by new light-cavalry regiments. In all, it took three lines of forts and most of the armys pre-Civil War strength to keep the Comanches out of Texas. Even more aggravating from the Comanches point of view were posts like Fort Stockton at Comanche Springs, which were intended to block the Great Comanche War Trail leading to northern Mexico. The Americans were required by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago to prevent raids into Mexico. Between 1848 and 1853, Mexico filed 366 separate claims for Comanche and Apache raids originating from north of the border. Not all efforts to deal with the Texas Comanches were limited to military force. In 1854 the Texas legislature provided 23,000 acres (93 km²) for the United States to established three reservations on the upper Brazos River for the Texas tribes. Besides Caddo, Delaware, Wichita, and Tonkawa, the United States Indian agent, Robert Neighbors, convinced some Penateka Comanche to move to these locations. Camp Cooper (commanded in 1856 by LTC Robert E. Lee) was built nearby. Almost immediately, local settlers began to accuse the reservation tribes of stealing horses and other depredations. Many of these accusations were either exaggerations, lies, or referred to raids by Comanches from the Staked Plains. The situation became dangerous in 1858 after the army abandoned Camp Cooper. During the spring of 1859, a mob of 250 settlers attacked the reservation, but were repulsed. As the United States Indian Agent, Robert Neighbors was hated by local Texans. Rather than fight them, he arranged to close the reservations and move the residents to Indian Territory. The peaceful Penateka were forced to leave Texas, along with tribes that had never fought Texans, including the Tonkawa, Caddo, and Delaware, who had served loyally as scouts for the Texas Rangers. After leaving his charges at the new Wichita agency at Anadarko, Neighbors started back to his home in Texas. He never made it. Near Belknap, Texas he was ambushed and shot in the back. After its victory against the Brazos reservation, Texas urged the army to make greater efforts against Comanches beyond its borders. Texas Rangers had discovered that Kiowa and Comanches were using the Indian Territory as a sanctuary from which to raid in Texas and then elude pursuit. Between 1858 and 1860, the armys new light-cavalry regiments were used for an offensive against Comanches in Oklahoma. In May, 1858 Colonel John Fords Texas Rangers, ignoring the state-line, attacked a Comanche village on Little Robe Creek. Three months later his Caddo, Delaware, and Tonkawa scouts were expelled from Texas as undesirables. In October, 1858 Captain Earl Van Dorn attacked a Comanche village at Rush Springs killing 83. The following May, Van Dorn struck the Comanches at Crooked Creek in Kansas. The result of this offensive by the army and Rangers was to cause trouble elsewhere. Attacked from Texas, Comanches and Kiowa separated into small bands and moved north near the Santa Fé Trail. In response to increased Indian attacks on the trail during the summer of 1860, three columns of cavalry were sent into the area on a punitive expedition. In July, the command of Captain Samuel Sturgis made a major contact. After an eight-day chase, he fought a battle with Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and, presumably, some Comanches. When federal soldiers withdrew east at the beginning of the Civil War, Confederates replaced them. Albert Pike, the Confederate Indian agent, signed two treaties with Comanches in August, 1861; one with the Penateka, and a second with the Nokoni, Yamparika, Tenawa, and Kotsoteka. Besides the usual promises of peace and friendship, the Comanches were promised a large amount of goods and services. Because the Confederacy needed every cent it had to fight the war, the Comanches never received what was promised. When Texas sent its men east to fight for the Confederacy, most of the old federal army posts were abandoned. With the frontier defenseless and the Confederate treaty promises unfulfilled, Comanches began raids intended to drive settlement back. The Texas frontier retreated over 100 miles (160 km) during the Civil War, and northern Mexico was hit by a new wave of Comanche raids. The war also provided the Comanches with an opportunity to seek revenge against the Tonkawa. and not just for their service as scouts with the Texas Rangers; the Texas Comanches had a special hatred for the Tonkawa ever since they had killed and eaten the brother of one of their chiefs. The Comanches were not a gentle people, but they found cannibalism repulsive. After Texas Indian agents had taken over administration of the Wichita Agency in Oklahoma, Comanches participated in an attack on the agency (October, 1862) by pro-Union Delaware and Shawnee from Kansas. When it was over, 300 Tonkawa had been massacred. The survivors crossed the Red River and settled near Fort Griffin. In the years following, they would exact their revenge by serving as army scouts against the Comanches. After 1861 Comanches, Kiowa, Cheyenne and Arapaho almost succeeded in closing the Santa Fé Trail. When federal officials at Fort Wise learned the Comanches had signed treaties with the Confederacy, they were certain that they had become hostile. While the rest of the nation was bleeding itself to death on eastern battlefields, the ranks of the Union army on the frontier were filled with men who were unemployed, did not wish to fight in the war, and hated Indians. By the fall of 1863, the performance of these soldiers had provoked a general alliance between the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanches, and Kiowa-Apache. In the autumn of 1864, Colonel Kit Carson was sent at the head of a column from Fort Bascom, New Mexico into the Staked Plains to chastise the Comanches and Kiowa. His Jicarilla and Ute scouts located their camps on November 24. Carson had found more Comanches and Kiowa than he could chastise, and the First Battle of Adobe Walls came very close to being Carsons Last Stand. Only the skillful use of artillery kept the Yamparika and Kiowa from massing and overrunning his position. Afterwards, Carson returned to New Mexico and left the chastising of Comanches to others. In the final days of the Civil War, the Confederacy made a final attempt to exploit the hostility of the plains tribes that had been provoked by the federal volunteers. In May, 1865 a council was held on the Washita River in western Oklahoma. It was well attended by the Comanches and other tribes, but Robert E. Lee had surrendered in Virginia two-weeks previously, and the Confederacy was finished. That summer, while the Union celebrated its victory, the plains were in turmoil. The Santa Fé and Overland trails were closed, and virtually every plains tribe was at war with the United States. As federal troops began to re-occupy their posts in Texas, the Great Plains and Indian Territory, government commissioners met with the plains tribes in October on the Little Arkansas River near Wichita to arrange a peace. The Little Arkansas Treaty gave the Comanches and Kiowa western Oklahoma, the entire Texas Panhandle, and promised annuities of $15 per person for forty years. Of the Comanche divisions, only the Yamparika, Nokoni, Penateka, and Tenewa had taken part in the agreement; the Kwahada and Kotsoteka had not. The Kiowa-Apache did not sign the Comanche-Kiowa version but asked to be included under the Cheyenne-Arapaho treaty. This served as an indication of how unstable the situation was. When the annuities arrived, there was widespread disappointment. The Comanches had expected guns, ammunition, and quality goods; what they got were rotten civil war rations and cheap blankets that fell apart in the rain. The peace was soon violated by both sides, and war resumed for another two years. It was a bitter struggle, and General William Sherman finally ordered the army not to pay ransom for white captives held by Indians to avoid giving them incentive for further kidnappings. While the army was making its own plans to deal with the hostiles by force, the federal government decided to make one final effort to resolve the conflict through treaty. The result was a milestone peace conference held at Medicine Lodge Creek in southern Kansas (October, 1867). In exchange for a wagon train of gifts brought by the commissioners and the payment of annual annuities, the Comanches and Kiowa signed the Medicine Lodge Treaty exchanging Comancheria for a 3 million acre (12,000 km²) reservation in southwestern Oklahoma. The arrangement did not work as intended. Because of an outbreak of cholera in their camps, the Kwahada neither attended the conference nor signed the treaty. Afterwards, they did not consider themselves bound by the Medicine Lodge Treaty, and chose to stay on the Staked Plains. Most of the other Comanches moved to the vicinity of Fort Cobb and remained on the reservation for the winter, but since the treaty was not yet ratified, there was no money to pay for rations. After a hungry winter, most of the Comanches and Kiowa left Fort Cobb, and returned to the plains during the summer of 1868. Once again raids were made into Texas and Kansas, and the new reservation was used as a sanctuary to prevent pursuit by the army. Even Fort Dodge, Kansas was attacked, and its horses stolen. The frustrated Indian agent at Fort Cobb resigned and went east, leaving the mess in the hands of his assistant. The treaty was ratified in July, and funds were made available, but the responsibility for the administration of annuities was placed with the army. After all tribes were ordered to report to Fort Cobb or be considered hostile, General Phillip Sheridan set plans in motion for the winter campaign of 1868-69 against the hostiles in western Oklahoma and the Staked Plains. LTC George Custer and the 7th Cavalry attacked a southern Cheyenne village on the Washita River in November, and Major Andrew Evans struck a Comanche village at Soldiers Spring on Christmas Day. Afterwards, most of the Comanches and other tribes still on the plains returned to the agencies. In March, 1869 the Comanche-Kiowa agency was relocated to Fort Sill and the Cheyenne-Arapaho agency to Darlington. Only the Kwahada were still on the Staked Plains. The Kiowa and other Comanches were on the reservation, but by the fall of 1869 small war parties were occasionally leaving to raid in Texas. During one of these raids near Jacksboro (May, 1871), the Kiowa almost killed William Sherman, commanding general of the American army. Great Warrior Sherman was conducting an inspection tour of western posts, when a Kiowa war party noticed his lone ambulance and small escort. They chose instead to attack a nearby supply train. When Sherman learned of his narrow escape, he was furious and proceeded directly to Fort Sill. When he discovered the Kiowa chiefs were openly bragging about the latest raid, he ordered their arrest and sent them to Texas for trial. After a Texas court sentenced them to life imprisonment, the Comanches and Kiowa launched a series of retaliatory raids that killed more than 20 Texans in 1872. At the same time, Texas civilians stole 1,900 horses from the tribes at Fort Sill. Meanwhile, the army in Texas was trying to deal with the raids from the reservation and massive thefts of Texas cattle by the Kwahada for sale to New Mexico Comancheros. In October, 1871 a raid led by Quanah Parker stole seventy horses from the army at Rock Station. The commanding officer, Colonel Ranald Mackenzie, did not take this lightly. For the next two years, Mackenzie and his black cavalry troopers ranged the Staked Plains chasing the Kwahada. The campaign ended with an attack on a Comanche village at McClellan Creek (September, 1872). Mackenzie captured 130 women and children and held them hostage at Fort Concho. This slowed the raiding while the Comanches negotiated for their release. In April, 1873 they were released and sent under escort to Fort Sill. A detour had to be made around Jacksboro to prevent a riot. At the request of the Secretary of the Interior, Texas Governor E.J. Davis paroled the Kiowa chiefs in October after they had served only two years on the condition that the raiding stop. The Kiowa were grateful, but an occasional war party still slipped off the reservation, crossed the Red River, and headed south into Texas.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 16:39:43 +0000
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