An article I wrote for the local newspaper to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of “The Battle of Beecher Island”
September 17th was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Beecher Island. 1868 was the pinnacle of the Plains-Indian Wars and Beecher Island was one of the most dramatic battles of the period, George Armstrong Custer’s article in the San Francisco Chronicle dramatized it with headlines like:
A Thrilling Story of American Heroism
Nine Hundred Savages Whipped By Fifty White Men
A Wonderful Display of Bravery and Endurance
The US Government and military were in a state of chaos and dire financial straits, at the end of the civil war and though working diligently to come up with a plan to deal with the Indian problem on the Great Plains, were coming up short. In fact in many places in the territories, the Indians were actually pushing settlers back out. With several major battles and hundreds of attacks on farms, ranches, stage stops and wagon trains, the Governor of the Colorado Territories begged the US Army for help. To quell the restless natives, as there had already been 79 recorded deaths for the year due to the Indians.
The Plains Indians feared the European Emigrant more than the military. They identified with the calvary as pony warriors much like themselves, but they knew without a doubt that the emigrants would mean the end of their lifestyle on the plains. Many of the chiefs recognized that it was already over. The flow of emigrants would not slow down but only increase. Black Kettle and others worked hard to forge a lasting peace. But after the Sand Creek Massacre, the warrior societies of the united plains tribes vowed to stay on the war path until the Emigrant migration was stopped and all their settlements destroyed. Making settling on the Eastern Colorado plains all but impossible.
Roman Nose, perhaps more than any other individual was responsible for the trail of blood left on the Great Plains. He was often mistaken for a great chief of the Cheyenne tribe and though he had been asked to be a chief, he declined saying that he had no experience in dealing with civil matters. That all his time had been spent on the battlefield and that is what he understood best. He was indeed an incredible warrior, the perfect image of the Roman God of War. Well over 6 feet tall, heavily muscled, big white teeth, chiseled features and large dark fearless eyes. He must have been quite a sight, naked but for a loincloth, pistols strapped across his large chest, carbine in one hand, bow in the other and the long flowing magical headdress. Made for him by the Medicine Man, White Buffalo. Enough to make any emigrant in his right mind think twice about settling down in the Smoky Hill Region.
After the civil war, George A. Forsyth came west with General Philip H. Sheridan and was assigned as Inspector General of the Department of Missouri. Forsyth wanted a field command, but with the end of the civil war, there were many senior officers out ranking him, for a command. He brought up the subject to Sheridan and was offered the opportunity to put together a command of 50 scouts from frontiersman on the Kansas border. Forsyth did not have any problem gathering scouts. Hundreds of civil war veterans and frontiersman had flocked to the edge of the territories after the war. Forsyth gathered 30 men in 2 days at Fort Harker and the other 20 from Fort Hayes a few days later.
Five days after he had received orders, they were ready to take to the field. Sheridan’s idea was a small, fast, guerrilla command, similar to the Indian war parties. It was no ordinary group. There is little doubt that each trooper had a history worth hearing. These were grizzled frontier veterans. Most of them only too glad to have an opportunity to settle an old score against the savages. Each man had a horse, blanket, saddle, bridle, lariat, picket-pin, canteen, haversack, knife, plate and cup. For weaponry a Spencer rifle, Colt revolver and a 170 rounds of ammo. Each man carried 7 days worth of food in his haversack.
On August 29, 1868 Forsyth and his Scouts left Fort Hays, crossed the headwaters of the Solomon and arrived at Ft. Wallace on September 5th without seeing any sign of Indians. Shortly after arriving at Wallace, the Scouts were sent to Sheridan, about 13 miles to the east. The western terminus of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, at the time. There they picked up the trail of a war party, estimated to be 20-25 strong, where they had killed a couple of teamsters. They followed the sign for several days until it disappeared. They continued north toward the Republican River, picking the trail back up, where it became a large worn path of a large party of Indians. They camped the night of September 16th in the wide open river bottom of the Arickaree just across the stream from a little sand bar. It had not been flooded in a good while and on it grew willows, rushes and even a good size cottonwood tree. They were nearly out of supplies, except for salt and coffee and close to a large party of Indians.
Without realizing it, Forsyth’s scouts camped on the Arikaree, 12 miles upstream from two large Sioux villages under Pawnee Killer and a large camp of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers with a few Northern Arapahoe. They had followed a small band of Sioux returning from Sheridan. The returning Sioux made all of the villages aware of a fighting force of white men coming, but they did not know for sure where they were actually at. All of the Indian Chiefs got together that night to work out a plan on making war with the scouts.
During the evening while eating at the Sioux camp, Roman Nose ate some fry bread that had been removed from the hot oil with an iron fork. He was made aware of it when another Cheyenne told him and he knew that his medicine for the headdress had been broken and that if he went into battle in the morning that he would certainly die. The main plan was to make sure none of the young braves left early to try and accomplish some amazing feat which might gain the applause of his fellows. Failure to organize, in war and life has always been a weakness of Indians, so in the middle of the night two Cheyenne and six Sioux braves set out in search of the enemy. One of the Sioux was from the returning war party and knew the general direction of Forsyth’s Scouts. They searched through the night without seeing anything until at daybreak they saw far off, the light of fires burning.
The 8 Indians rode quietly towards the camp until they saw all the horses and mules scattered about camp and then they charged in raising a ruckus, trying to stampede the livestock, but they were picketed well and the Indians only managed to get away with 7 of them. This may have been the defining moment, that saved the Scouts from complete annihilation by the main force of Indian Warriors, who left the three villages before daybreak and headed slowly up the Arickaree, expecting an attack from the soldiers at any time.
Forsyth gave the command to get ready to move out, but by the time they broke camp and got the horses ready, the main group of Indians were charging up the broad valley of the Arickaree, the scout’s had little choice but to take up a defensive position and the sandy little island, with it’s lone cottonwood was the only choice. The men moved everything quickly to the island and piled all the packs up forming a breastworks as protection against the charging Indians. In the initial charge of the Indians, Colonel Forsyth was the first to get hit. Forsyth and Beecher were both hit twice. Ten men were hit, some fatally. After the initial charge the scouts used whatever implements they had to dig out entrenchments in the sand and only two more men were hurt the rest of that first day of fighting. A couple of men, including Stilwell were sent to hold the tail end of the island, but on the way there, they decided to dig a rifle pit on the mainland side of the narrow channel. The Indians did not realize they were there until late in the day and this position was responsible for a significant number of downed horses and Indians.
Runners went to the village and told Roman Nose there was fighting and a good many Indians were being killed, so he got on his horse and rode to the battlefield. He sat on a hill and watched the battle for awhile and told a couple of other warriors about eating food from an implement made of iron and if he went into battle he would surely be killed. White Contrary, another Cheyenne came and cajoled Roman Nose for not leading his men in battle. Knowing full well he would surely die, Roman Nose applied war paint, donned his magic headdress and led a mighty charge of Indians towards Beecher Island.
He rode right over the rifle pit where Stilwell was hidden and as he did, they shot him in the back just above the hip. He fell off his horse but was able to crawl out of the river bed, where some young men came down and carried him off. He lived for awhile and died around sunset. That night Forsyth sent scouts Stilwell and Trudeau to Fort Wallace for help. The plan was to work south to the Denver Road, (Butterfield Overland Despatch) somewhere between Cheyenne Wells and Wallace. Four scouts were dead, including the surgeon, Mooers and Lt. Beecher, 10 were severely wounded including Colonel Forsyth and 2 others slightly wounded. That left about 28 sound men of the original 51.
The next day the Indians attacked the scouts, but it was more of a mission to collect 3 of their dead from the battlefield. They set snipers around on the hills, to hold the scouts down. On September 19th the Indians attacked again in the morning but it was a half hearted attack, really just testing the strength of the scouts. It rained steady all that night and made the scouts cold and uncomfortable. The Indians did not attack the scouts again, but a small contingent held the scouts on the island from sniper nests on the hilltops around the island. The battle turned into a siege, the indians figuring the safest way to deal with the frontiersmen was to starve them out. The scouts survived on horse and mule flesh for awhile but it began rotting and became putrid. They tried pouring gun powder, salt and pepper on the rotting, maggot infested meat and making soup, but it was inedible. Scouts Donovan and Pliley were sent to Fort Wallace on the third night of the battle as a backup to Stilwell and Trudeau.
After 9 days of being trapped on the little sand bar in the middle of the Arickaree River, forced into crawling amongst the rotten, stinking, maggot infested horse flesh, that not only made up the defensive breastwork but served as the only form of sustenance, the men were feeling totally miserable. One of the quotes from a scouts journal, “My God, have you deserted us?” On the following day, the scouts seen movement on the horizon and recognized it as U.S. Army and they had an ambulance.
The men danced, hugged, cried and laughed, they were never so happy to see someone in their entire lives. Both pairs of scouts got word to Fort Wallace and word was dispatched to three different units to proceed to Beecher Island and assist Forsyth and his scouts. Colonel L.H. Carpenter and his Buffalo Soldiers, Company H were in the vicinity of Cheyenne Wells when the courier found them and they headed north immediately. They arrived first, getting there 26 hours before any of the other units arrived. They set up tents and got all of the men cared for and fed.
In 3 days, everyone was in pretty good shape and they headed to Fort Wallace. After the battle the two Sioux villages moved up the Republican River and the Northern Arapahoes left too. Carpenter and three troops of the Tenth Calvary would have a run in with the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers that remained, nearby on Beaver Creek in a couple weeks and after that they left the area as well. The Smoky Hill Region for the first time in half a decade was starting to look hospitable. Forsyth’s Scouts through the killing of Roman Nose and his myth, had broken the spirit of the Dog Soldiers and they drifted away from the Smoky Hill in the same manner as they drifted away from the Battle of Beecher Island.