the south were the great highways between east and west, while the Republican valley, being shunned by white men, was a refuge for the Indians when they were too closely pressed by the troops. This battle ground of the people who preceded us in its occupancy is strewn with the implements of peace and war. After every rain, arrowheads may be found in the cultivated fields, and the winds uncover articles once used by members of a race that is gone. What stories these relics might tell if they but had the faculty of speech!

BATTLE OF AUGUST 6, 1860

For several years prior to the beginning of the civil war, bands of Kiowa and Comanche Indians had been ranging over the plains, slaughtering cattle, stealing horses, burning ranches and killing men. In the summer of 1860 the government, determined to put an end to these atrocities, sent a detachment of troops, under the command of Captain Sturgis, in pursuit of the savages. The campaign, which necessitated a march from south to north across the state of Kansas, terminated on the 6th day of August, 1860, in an engagement at a place that has not yet been, if indeed, it can ever be, more definitely located than "near the Republican fork," north of Beaver creek.

Six companies of troops participated, and a number of Indian scouts accompanied the soldiers. The command started from the Arkansas river July 28th, and all but overtook the Indians on the morning of August 3d, on the banks of the Solomon river, in Kansas. Here they found large quantities of buffalo meat and hides and a number of lodge poles, which had been abandoned by the Indians in their hurried flight. The troops, wearied with a march of fifty miles in the preceding twenty-four hours, camped for the day and started north again about dark. Several times during the next two days they came upon small bands of Indians, with whom they skirmished; but they did not

encounter the main body of the savages until the morning of the 6th. Soon after the troops left the camp on Beaver creek, a party of thirty or forty Indians appeared about a mile ahead of them. Lieutenant Fish was detailed with twenty men, on picked horses, to overtake the Indians if possible, and Lieutenant Ingraham followed with the advanced guard, with orders to keep in sight of Fish and go to his support if necessary.

The pursuit was conducted with great energy, but after having been continued for eight miles, over a country intersected by ravines, no gain had been made upon the savages. About eleven o'clock in the morning the troops found it necessary to cross a small stream which they had been following; and, owing to the density of the timber along this stream and the belief that a large body of Indians was nearby, every precaution was taken, in crossing the wagons, to guard against surprise. Lieutenant Ingraham was ordered to reconnoiter the timber in the vicinity of the crossing, Lieutenant Stockton deployed his company to the front, as skirmishers, and the troopers stood ready to mount at the word of command. During the crossing of the creek, the Indian scouts with the troops became entangled with the hostile Indians, and Lieutenant Stockton went to their assistance.

The number of Indians rapidly increased. A level plain, crossed by ravines, lay in front of the troops, and behind them was the timbered stream. Beyond the plain a range of low hills stretched parallel with the valley. From every draw and pocket the Indians, from six hundred to eight hundred in number, swarmed into the plain, apparently in a flank movement, while Captain Carr intended to attack in front. The entire command galloped forward, but before it reached the Indians they began to give way. Though the soldiers put their jaded horses to their topmost speed, the fresh ponies of the Indians were

able to gain on their pursuers, though followed for fifteen miles. The long-range arms of the soldiers were, however, effective. The Indians crossed the Republican river and scattered among the hills on the north side, and further pursuit was impracticable. Twenty-nine of them were killed, and an unknown number were wounded in the encounter. No fatalities were reported by their antagonists.3

THE INDIAN WAR OF 1865

During the war of the rebellion, the Indians, taking advantage of the diversion of the small garrisons of the plains to the South, and incited to hostility by Confederate sympathizers, were very troublesome on the plains of Nebraska. To protect the frontier and the "pilgrims," as the emigrants were called, detachments of soldiers were stationed at a number of places along the overland trails. Forts were established in the Platte valley, at intervals of a few miles, and squads of soldiers patrolled the most frequented routes of travel. Notwithstanding these precautions, however, the Indians committed many depredations on outlying ranches and the smaller parties of travelers.

On the 29th day of November, 1864, occurred what has been termed the Chivington massacre, at Sand Creek, Colorado, in which the troops won a signal victory over the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. It was believed that

3 A full account of this expedition by its commander, Captain S. D. Sturgis, of the First cavalry, dated Fort Kearny, August 12, 1860, is published in the report of the secretary of war for 1860-Senate Documents 2d Session 36th Congress, v. 2, p. 19. It appears that the boggy stream the command crossed on the day of the battle was a branch of Whelan's (Beaver) Creek. The fatalities of the attacking force were two friendly Indians killed, three officers wounded, and one missing. Companies A, B, C, D, E, and I composed the command. The fact that the Indians were pursued fifteen miles is some indication that the battle-field is in the southwesterly part of Red Willow county, since the Beaver and the Republican approach each other too closely east of that vicinity to fit the description.-ED.

♦ This shocking tragedy of the great Indian war which was precipitated in 1864 occurred about one hundred and seventy-five miles southeast of

this punishment would put a stop to further hostilities by these two tribes; but on the 7th of January, 1865, the Indians, to the number of more than one thousand, appeared suddenly before Fort Julesburg. In the battle that ensued, which continued for several hours, fourteen of the soldiers were killed, while the Indians are known to have lost at least fifty-six. After this engagement, the Indians disappeared from the vicinity of Fort Julesburg, and as it was reported they had gone down into the Republican valley

Denver. It was denounced in severest language by officers of the department of the interior. N. G. Taylor, member of a special commission appointed to investigate the Indian troubles, called it, in his report, "the horrible Sand Creek massacre," and a "cold-blooded butchery of women and children, disarmed warriors and old men"; and General John B. Sanborn, member of a commission appointed by the president of the United States February 18, 1867, to investigate the causes of the incessant Indian hostilities, denounced the Sand Creek butchery still more severely. He said that the commanding officer of the post [Fort Lyon] guaranteed them protection, designated a place for them to encamp on Sand Creek while the chiefs and young men were absent to bring in the hostiles and procure food for their people, and gave them a United States flag to indicate their friendship and insure their protection. While they were thus encamped and at a moment of their feeling of greatest security, United States troops were seen approaching, presumed by them to be on a friendly mission. White Antelope, who had made himself a servant of the whites on the plains, stepped out apparently to greet and welcome the troops, but was shot down like a dog and the massacre of women and children commenced. "Some twelve old men and about one hundred and fifty women and children were put to death by the troops. Helpless infancy and decrepit age shared the same fate. Women were scalped, disemboweled, and unseemly parts cut from their places and borne off on the pommels and saddles or bridles of horses." (These denunciations were copied from my "History of the Indian War on the Plains from 1864 to Final Peace," pages 20 and 54, and footnote 2, ms. Nebraska State Historical Society.)

The troops engaged in the massacre comprised three companies of the First regiment Colorado cavalry and a detachment of the Third regiment Colorado cavalry, commanded by John M. Chivington, colonel of the First Colorado. (History of Nebraska, v. 2, p. 188, note.)-ED.

5 Though often called Fort Julesburg, this post was named Fort Sedgwick by order of the war department, September 27th, 1864, immediately after its construction. See footnote 1 of Adventures On The Plains 1865-67, this volume.-ED.

in southwestern Nebraska, those in authority determined to pursue them.

Accordingly an expedition was fitted out, under the command of General Mitchell, which started from Fort Cottonwood down what was termed the "Trader's Trail" on the 16th day of January, 1865. They went in a southwesterly direction until they reached the Kansas-Nebraska boundary, not far from the southwestern corner of the state, from which point part of the detachment continued for fifty miles down into Kansas. Returning to the Republican river, they followed that stream as far east as the mouth of the Medicine, when they turned north, reaching Fort Cottonwood on the 26th day of January.

The sufferings of the men in this winter campaign of twelve days were almost unendurable. The weather was extremely cold, at one time the mercury registering twenty degrees below zero. The men had no shelter but their tents, and many nights they were compelled to sit by their camp fires to keep from freezing. We, who know the country as it is do-day, can scarcely realize what suffering such an adventure entailed. From morning till night the troopers rode over the plain in search of an elusive foe, whose presence they could feel but could not see, not knowing at what instant a savage and relentless horde might swoop down upon them. The prairies at this season are overpowering in their desolation. The stream, from bank to bank, is a sheet of ice. Through the leafless branches of the trees that fringe the river the winter winds wail dismally, after dark, to the accompaniment of that dolefulest of sounds— the coyote's cry.

The hills that bound the valley are

6 According to Eugene Ware's story of the expedition in "The Indian War of 1864," pp. 454 and 458, it went from Fort Cottonwood to Jack Morrow's ranch, ten miles west, on the evening of the 15th and started from Morrow's, southwesterly, up Trader's Trail, on the 16th as the author says.-ED.