Big Hole National Battlefield Administrative History

Chapter One:
The Battle of the Big Hole

Contrary to the Nez Perce leaders' hopes, the American officers had no intention of letting the renegade bands of Nez Perce alone. While General Howard marched his command over the Bitterroot Range, Colonel Gibbon took up the pursuit with a force of 17 officers and 146 enlisted men from various posts across Montana. Trailing the Nez Perce up the Bitterroot Valley, Gibbon's force was augmented by volunteers from the Bitterroot settlements. The volunteers were added to a small detachment of cavalry under Lt. James H. Bradley. It was this cavalry detachment that Gibbon sent ahead to scout for the Nez Perce, and which discovered the camp on the North Fork of the Big Hole River. [15]

Gibbon's plan was to surprise the Nez Perce, flush them onto the open ground east of the river bottom, and separate them from their horses. During the night of August 8, he moved his force into position at the foot of the mountain, above and to the west of the camp. Shortly before the first light of morning, about 3:30 a.m., the men began to deploy along the foot of the mountain at the edge of the willow flats flanking the encampment. Before they were fully deployed, however, a Nez Perce herder unwittingly approached the enemy line. There was a volley of shots, the man went down, and the soldiers rushed the village. [16]

Nez Perce men, women, and children scrambled out of the lodges. Many of them, realizing that the high ground to the east of the village would afford no cover, ran for the willows or jumped into the river even though these were in the direction of their attackers. Others hid in the sloughs and concavities between the camp and the bench located immediately to the east of the tepees. In the dark amidst this pandemonium the warriors had to find their weapons – or to strip them from the enemy. Yellow Wolf recalled how he saw a "soldier crawling like a drunken man" and struck him with his war club, seizing his rifle and cartridge belt. [17]

The southern end of the village was quickly overrun, but the soldiers' advance on the northern end of the village stalled with the death of Lt. Bradley. Apparently unaware that the victory was incomplete, Gibbon ordered the men on his right flank to burn the tepees, while the men on his left flank had not yet dislodged their opponents. The tepee covers were damp and did not ignite easily, and this curious distraction in the heat of the battle gave the Indians just the chance they needed to rally. [18]

Two Nez Perce chiefs, Looking Glass and White Bird, exhorted the warriors to stand and fight. As the tide of battle turned, the soldiers found themselves caught in a deadly crossfire. Some of the Nez Perce were hidden amongst the willows; others had taken cover southwest of the village along the sweep of the riverbank or in the trees on the slope overlooking the village. Gradually Gibbon and his force fell back. After about an hour and a half or two hours of fighting, the colonel ordered his men to move back to the timber from which they had originally deployed. [19]

The soldiers retreated to a low promontory at the edge of the timber. Gibbon had noted the defensive advantages of this Point of Timber (the Siege Area) while moving his men into position. It was hardly an ideal defensive position, but it afforded some cover and modest high ground on three sides. The men used the limited supply of rocks and downfall to form breastworks and they dug rifle pits with their trowel bayonets. The Nez Perce warriors slowly encircled them, one warrior getting behind a log within fifty yards of their position. Meanwhile, some distance away, Gibbon's single 12-pounder mountain howitzer and gun crew were attacked on their way to support the assault on the village and the gun was captured. With no help in sight, Gibbon ordered his men to conserve their ammunition and prepare for a siege.

With Gibbon's force pinned down across the river, the Nez Perce gathered their dead from the village and the surrounding area. "As the people mourned," writes Merrill D. Beal, "they wept with such feeling that the battle-toughened men in the trenches listened and trembled." Some thirty Nez Perce – men, women, and children – were slain in the village and many more, perhaps as many as sixty, died while trying to escape or counterattack. Nearly every family lost someone. Joseph and Ollokot both lost wives. The Nez Perce buried the dead as well as they could, wrapping them in buffalo robes and placing them under cutbanks. [20]

At the end of the long day, Gibbon sent three runners out under cover of darkness in the hope of obtaining help from General Howard and medical supplies from the town of Deer Lodge. Some 20 or 30 Nez Perce warriors maintained the siege of Gibbon's position through the night and into the next day, while the rest of the bands made haste to get away before the arrival of General Howard's troops. Finally, about 11 a.m. on the second day, the warriors lifted their siege and melted away.[21]