PREFACE
The Indian wars of the American West were fought across an immense landscape remarkable for its varied geography and climate and for the cultures of the Native peoples who inhabited it. The wars were waged by a surprisingly small military force. During the 25-year period following the Civil War, the U.S. Army typically numbered little more than 25,000 officers and men. Those few soldiers manned the nation’s 150 forts, posts, camps, arsenals, and armories; guarded 6,000 miles of frontier and coastline; escorted wagon trains, stage coaches, and survey parties; shielded the construction of railroads, trails, and bridges; protected settlers and settlements; scouted; and, when called upon, fought Indians. During the full course of the Indian wars, they were called to do that more than a thousand times.
While identical sets of circumstances seldom existed, several frequently recurring conditions served as triggers for many of the wars. These factors varied in intensity from region to region and conflict to conflict. Foremost among them were the westward migration of the nation’s growing population – a journey that took thousands of emigrants across Native regions; the discovery of gold or silver on historically Native or treaty land; and the rapid destruction of the continent’s two great bison herds.
The government’s attempts to address the “Indian problem” by relocating the tribes or moving them to reservations were often resisted by the free-roaming and fiercely independent tribal groups. The Natives who signed treaties and moved to agencies sometimes faced an additional irritant: government functionaries did not always supply the annuities promised in treaty provisions.
Indeed, treaty violations (sometimes in response to incidents perpetrated by the other party) were not unknown on either side. Native actions most often took the form of thefts of livestock and killing raids on homesteads, settlements, outposts, and emigrant travelers.
The conflicts on the Great Plains and in the West and Southwest would present the U.S. Army with a different form of warfare than its officers and men had experienced during the Civil War. They would face difficult opponents – superb horsemen infused with a warrior culture that sprang from incessant warfare with rival tribes.
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The conflict area along and inside the nation’s western frontiers spanned approximately 1,815,640 square miles – more than half the land mass of the lower continental United States. All or parts of 17 present-day states now shape the immense territory.
The landscape inside that area is as varied as any on the planet. Snow-capped mountains rise from flat, grassy plains with horizons so immense that they almost invariably drew comment in pioneer diaries. Fast, sparkling-clear streams rush down those mountains, stark in contrast to the sluggish, muddy creeks that meander back and forth across the prairies. Some of America’s great rivers trace the High Plains, West, and Northwest. In the Southwest single water holes, often quite small, dictated travel routes, influenced the planning of campaigns, and, as adversaries sought access or control, formed sites for ferocious combat.
In the North and Northwest, ample moisture nourished lush stands of timber, offering promise of fuel and shelter. On the “Staked Plains” of Texas and elsewhere in the Southwest, travelers found ground so parched that a single mesquite tree or yucca plant often formed the central feature of a landscape. Seemingly strewn at random, gorges and canyons of monumental size provided hiding places, hindered travel and – then as now – inspired awe.
Like the terrain, climactic conditions across the enormous theater of operations could hardly have been more extreme. Troopers who braved wintertime low temperatures of minus 40 degrees on the High Plains of Montana and Dakota also faced baking, near-suffocating heat on the deserts of the Southwest.
The disparate conditions of climate and terrain had profound effects on military activities. Planning, equipment, clothing, and logistical considerations were all influenced by extremes of weather and landscape.
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Events in this book focus mainly on the three-decade period beginning in 1855. In September of that year, General William S. Harney defeated a large band of Oglala and Brule Sioux near present-day Lewellen, Nebraska. The Battle of the Blue Water, as the fight became known, culminated the government’s first military expedition against the Plains Indians. Harney’s victory was decisive and succeeded in halting raids along the overland trail for much of the next decade.
Conditions began to change beginning in 1862 with the Sioux uprising in Minnesota and then in a more pronounced way following the massacre of Cheyenne tribesmen at Sand Creek, Colorado, in November 1864. Native restlessness coincided with the end of the Civil War, an event which for a time allowed the government to focus greater attention on the burgeoning problem. The two decades following the end of the war in 1865 saw conflict spread across the central Plains, the West, and Pacific Northwest, as well as through West Texas and the American Southwest. Geronimo’s surrender in 1886 with his last remaining band of Apaches is generally regarded as the closing episode in the series of wars fought by the United States Army against organized, free-roaming groups of Native warriors. In contrast, the tragedy at Wounded Knee in 1890 was an isolated encounter resulting from a terribly mishandled confrontation.
At the time the conflicts were most intense, the Native population in the area from the central Plains to the Pacific Coast probably numbered 225,000 – 250,000. Not all were nomadic or hostile. Those that were, however, made formidable adversaries. Tenacious and aggressive, Native warriors formed what may have been “the finest light cavalry in history.” The war chiefs were familiar with terrain features and water sources across an immense region that often had yet to see a white surveyor or a rudimentary depiction on a map.
To confront the challenge posed by the hostile tribes and carry out the government’s policies, military leaders had access to an Army that even in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War was never large and whose effective strength in the West was further drained by the commitment of sizable numbers of soldiers to Reconstruction duty in the South. It was a daunting task at which some excelled and others failed utterly.
In physical stature and personality, the military leaders who waged war in the West were as varied as the terrain on which they fought. William S. Harney and John I. Gregg towered 6 feet 4 inches in height. Frank North and several others were well over 6 feet. The most diminutive, Philip H. Sheridan, stood barely 5 feet 4 inches tall.
Some, like Nelson Miles, were glib, vocal, and articulate; others, like George Crook, gruff and taciturn. A few, like Ranald Mackenzie, anguished over public speaking and avoided it whenever it was possible to do so.
Miles, Crook, and others such as Wesley Merritt and Eugene A. Carr – who personally ministered to his soldiers during a cholera epidemic – were well-liked by their men. Ranald Mackenzie’s soldiers recognized his brilliance and appreciated the fact that he kept them alive, but sometimes chafed under his harsh discipline and the high standards he set for them. In the words of his major biographer, “they never loved him, none of his soldiers ever would, but they would follow him anywhere.” George Armstrong Custer, while expressing pride in his men, seldom interacted with them, preferring instead the company of a small cadre of 7th Cavalry officers or his Native scouts. A few officers, like Thomas Moonlight, were so inept in the field or careless in their handling of their troopers as to provoke near-mutinies. Many, but by no means all, were West Point graduates. Whatever their source of commission, their abilities ranged from exceptional to abysmal.
There were notable differences in the commanders’ attitudes toward their Indian adversaries as well. Crook and others studied, understood, and respected the Native culture. Indeed, it was Crook who helped orchestrate the proceedings that led to the court case regarding the Ponca Chief Standing Bear. The court’s decision that Native Americans are persons within the meaning of the law and “have the right of habeas corpus” was a seminal event in the history of the United States.
At the polar extreme was John Chivington, an avowed racist who spoke of wading in Indian blood and openly advocated exterminating the Native tribes. Somewhere in between were the views of Philip Sheridan and others who, without expressing a moral judgment, understood the dilemma faced by the tribes and the reasons that compelled them to fight. Sheridan, though, believed that a clash of cultures was inevitable. Wars, in his opinion, were unavoidable and waging them as harshly as possible would hasten their conclusion.
Although the flamboyant George Armstrong Custer continues to fascinate historians and the public more than a century and a quarter after the Little Bighorn, the names and contributions of many of the officers who led forces in the wars of the West are generally less well recalled. Even the accomplishments of Philip H. Sheridan – who guided military operations across much of the region for more than two decades and, as much as any single individual, shaped the outcome of America’s western saga – are eclipsed in the public’s memory by his exploits during the Civil War.
Indeed, nearly all of the commanders who led forces in the American West were veterans of that conflict. Perhaps because the nation had only recently emerged from that cataclysm, to that generation the conflicts against the hostile tribes may have seemed less consequential, and less memorable, in comparison. To those who came later, the wars remained eclipsed by the clash that tore the nation apart and were then subsumed in the larger saga of America’s westward expansion. Then too, the conflicts were fought over an extended time period, against numerous sets of adversaries in a variety of locations. Though major battles sometimes occurred, the majority of encounters were smaller unit actions – though no less bloody as a consequence.
Those considerations have muted the nation’s recollections of the events of that period and of the people who participated in them. More so than with almost all of our nation’s conflicts, the military leaders who fought the wars of the American West have remained in the shadows of history. This book is an attempt to bring them into the light so their stories may surprise, instruct, or inspire the present generation and those that will follow.
While identical sets of circumstances seldom existed, several frequently recurring conditions served as triggers for many of the wars. These factors varied in intensity from region to region and conflict to conflict. Foremost among them were the westward migration of the nation’s growing population – a journey that took thousands of emigrants across Native regions; the discovery of gold or silver on historically Native or treaty land; and the rapid destruction of the continent’s two great bison herds.
The government’s attempts to address the “Indian problem” by relocating the tribes or moving them to reservations were often resisted by the free-roaming and fiercely independent tribal groups. The Natives who signed treaties and moved to agencies sometimes faced an additional irritant: government functionaries did not always supply the annuities promised in treaty provisions.
Indeed, treaty violations (sometimes in response to incidents perpetrated by the other party) were not unknown on either side. Native actions most often took the form of thefts of livestock and killing raids on homesteads, settlements, outposts, and emigrant travelers.
The conflicts on the Great Plains and in the West and Southwest would present the U.S. Army with a different form of warfare than its officers and men had experienced during the Civil War. They would face difficult opponents – superb horsemen infused with a warrior culture that sprang from incessant warfare with rival tribes.
-----
The conflict area along and inside the nation’s western frontiers spanned approximately 1,815,640 square miles – more than half the land mass of the lower continental United States. All or parts of 17 present-day states now shape the immense territory.
The landscape inside that area is as varied as any on the planet. Snow-capped mountains rise from flat, grassy plains with horizons so immense that they almost invariably drew comment in pioneer diaries. Fast, sparkling-clear streams rush down those mountains, stark in contrast to the sluggish, muddy creeks that meander back and forth across the prairies. Some of America’s great rivers trace the High Plains, West, and Northwest. In the Southwest single water holes, often quite small, dictated travel routes, influenced the planning of campaigns, and, as adversaries sought access or control, formed sites for ferocious combat.
In the North and Northwest, ample moisture nourished lush stands of timber, offering promise of fuel and shelter. On the “Staked Plains” of Texas and elsewhere in the Southwest, travelers found ground so parched that a single mesquite tree or yucca plant often formed the central feature of a landscape. Seemingly strewn at random, gorges and canyons of monumental size provided hiding places, hindered travel and – then as now – inspired awe.
Like the terrain, climactic conditions across the enormous theater of operations could hardly have been more extreme. Troopers who braved wintertime low temperatures of minus 40 degrees on the High Plains of Montana and Dakota also faced baking, near-suffocating heat on the deserts of the Southwest.
The disparate conditions of climate and terrain had profound effects on military activities. Planning, equipment, clothing, and logistical considerations were all influenced by extremes of weather and landscape.
-----
Events in this book focus mainly on the three-decade period beginning in 1855. In September of that year, General William S. Harney defeated a large band of Oglala and Brule Sioux near present-day Lewellen, Nebraska. The Battle of the Blue Water, as the fight became known, culminated the government’s first military expedition against the Plains Indians. Harney’s victory was decisive and succeeded in halting raids along the overland trail for much of the next decade.
Conditions began to change beginning in 1862 with the Sioux uprising in Minnesota and then in a more pronounced way following the massacre of Cheyenne tribesmen at Sand Creek, Colorado, in November 1864. Native restlessness coincided with the end of the Civil War, an event which for a time allowed the government to focus greater attention on the burgeoning problem. The two decades following the end of the war in 1865 saw conflict spread across the central Plains, the West, and Pacific Northwest, as well as through West Texas and the American Southwest. Geronimo’s surrender in 1886 with his last remaining band of Apaches is generally regarded as the closing episode in the series of wars fought by the United States Army against organized, free-roaming groups of Native warriors. In contrast, the tragedy at Wounded Knee in 1890 was an isolated encounter resulting from a terribly mishandled confrontation.
At the time the conflicts were most intense, the Native population in the area from the central Plains to the Pacific Coast probably numbered 225,000 – 250,000. Not all were nomadic or hostile. Those that were, however, made formidable adversaries. Tenacious and aggressive, Native warriors formed what may have been “the finest light cavalry in history.” The war chiefs were familiar with terrain features and water sources across an immense region that often had yet to see a white surveyor or a rudimentary depiction on a map.
To confront the challenge posed by the hostile tribes and carry out the government’s policies, military leaders had access to an Army that even in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War was never large and whose effective strength in the West was further drained by the commitment of sizable numbers of soldiers to Reconstruction duty in the South. It was a daunting task at which some excelled and others failed utterly.
In physical stature and personality, the military leaders who waged war in the West were as varied as the terrain on which they fought. William S. Harney and John I. Gregg towered 6 feet 4 inches in height. Frank North and several others were well over 6 feet. The most diminutive, Philip H. Sheridan, stood barely 5 feet 4 inches tall.
Some, like Nelson Miles, were glib, vocal, and articulate; others, like George Crook, gruff and taciturn. A few, like Ranald Mackenzie, anguished over public speaking and avoided it whenever it was possible to do so.
Miles, Crook, and others such as Wesley Merritt and Eugene A. Carr – who personally ministered to his soldiers during a cholera epidemic – were well-liked by their men. Ranald Mackenzie’s soldiers recognized his brilliance and appreciated the fact that he kept them alive, but sometimes chafed under his harsh discipline and the high standards he set for them. In the words of his major biographer, “they never loved him, none of his soldiers ever would, but they would follow him anywhere.” George Armstrong Custer, while expressing pride in his men, seldom interacted with them, preferring instead the company of a small cadre of 7th Cavalry officers or his Native scouts. A few officers, like Thomas Moonlight, were so inept in the field or careless in their handling of their troopers as to provoke near-mutinies. Many, but by no means all, were West Point graduates. Whatever their source of commission, their abilities ranged from exceptional to abysmal.
There were notable differences in the commanders’ attitudes toward their Indian adversaries as well. Crook and others studied, understood, and respected the Native culture. Indeed, it was Crook who helped orchestrate the proceedings that led to the court case regarding the Ponca Chief Standing Bear. The court’s decision that Native Americans are persons within the meaning of the law and “have the right of habeas corpus” was a seminal event in the history of the United States.
At the polar extreme was John Chivington, an avowed racist who spoke of wading in Indian blood and openly advocated exterminating the Native tribes. Somewhere in between were the views of Philip Sheridan and others who, without expressing a moral judgment, understood the dilemma faced by the tribes and the reasons that compelled them to fight. Sheridan, though, believed that a clash of cultures was inevitable. Wars, in his opinion, were unavoidable and waging them as harshly as possible would hasten their conclusion.
Although the flamboyant George Armstrong Custer continues to fascinate historians and the public more than a century and a quarter after the Little Bighorn, the names and contributions of many of the officers who led forces in the wars of the West are generally less well recalled. Even the accomplishments of Philip H. Sheridan – who guided military operations across much of the region for more than two decades and, as much as any single individual, shaped the outcome of America’s western saga – are eclipsed in the public’s memory by his exploits during the Civil War.
Indeed, nearly all of the commanders who led forces in the American West were veterans of that conflict. Perhaps because the nation had only recently emerged from that cataclysm, to that generation the conflicts against the hostile tribes may have seemed less consequential, and less memorable, in comparison. To those who came later, the wars remained eclipsed by the clash that tore the nation apart and were then subsumed in the larger saga of America’s westward expansion. Then too, the conflicts were fought over an extended time period, against numerous sets of adversaries in a variety of locations. Though major battles sometimes occurred, the majority of encounters were smaller unit actions – though no less bloody as a consequence.
Those considerations have muted the nation’s recollections of the events of that period and of the people who participated in them. More so than with almost all of our nation’s conflicts, the military leaders who fought the wars of the American West have remained in the shadows of history. This book is an attempt to bring them into the light so their stories may surprise, instruct, or inspire the present generation and those that will follow.