Chapter 11: Yellowstone Command
The Tongue River Cantonment was but a year old in
September 1877, when troops from the post began to play an integral part
in the widening Nez Perce War. Constructed on the left bank of the
Tongue River at that stream's confluence with the Yellowstone, the
cantonmentlittle more than a ramshackle collection of mud-chinked
cottonwood log huts with earthen roofsalready boasted a record of
accomplishment in the army's prolonged campaign against the Sioux and
Northern Cheyennes in the wake of the Little Bighorn battle. By
September, operations out of the cantonment against those tribes had
significantly subsided following Colonel Miles's aggressive campaigning
through the autumn and winter of 1876 and the spring and early summer of
1877. Miles's campaign had resulted in the surrender of many of the
people at the cantonment and at the agencies in Dakota Territory and
Nebraska. Sitting Bull, the Hunkpapa visionary at the heart of the
Sioux-Cheyenne coalition, had gone into Canada in the spring of 1877 and
posed but a lingering, if not altogether remote, objective for Miles and
his Yellowstone Command. In the interest of maintaining accord with
Great Britain, however, General Sherman temporarily precluded further
operations by Miles north of the Missouri River. [1] Meanwhile, signs of the permanent military
occupation of the Yellowstone hinterland came with the start of work
that spring on a substantial new post slightly upstream, to be
christened Fort Keogh, after one of Custer's dead officers, next to the
hovels constituting the cantonment. Construction of a sister fort,
Bighorn Post (later called Fort Custer), was underway at the junction of
the Little Bighorn and Bighorn rivers about one hundred miles southwest
of the cantonment. Anchored squarely at the epicenter of the area
recently occupied by the Sioux and Cheyennes, the twin stations were to
insure that those tribes never again achieved hegemony in the region.
[2]
In his conduct of operations from the Tongue River
Cantonment with troops of the Fifth and Twenty-second infantry
regiments, supplemented with a battalion of the Second Cavalry from Fort
Ellis, Miles had molded his command into an efficient fighting force
reflecting his own aggressive leadership. Like many of his contemporary
career officers, Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925) lacked the professional
credentials of a West Point education, rising instead through the
echelons of rank afforded by service in the Civil War. Born in
Massachusetts, Miles worked in a crockery shop before the war erupted.
An interest in military precepts prompted him to raise a company of
volunteers in 1861, and he joined the Massachusetts volunteer infantry
as a first lieutenant, quickly distinguishing himself to his superiors
for his bravery and judgment in battle. By the conclusion of the Civil
War, Miles was a senior officer, a veteran of many hard-fought contests,
including Fair Oaks, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville (for
which service he received a Medal of Honor in 1892), and Petersburg.
Wounded four times in combat, he received many brevets, and in May,
1864, he won promotion to brigadier general of volunteers. Miles
commanded the First Division, II Corps, Army of the Potomac, during the
fighting leading to Appomattox, for which duty, at age twenty-six, he
was appointed major general of volunteers in 1865.
After the war, Miles served as custodian for the
deposed Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, drawing much negative and
unwarranted notice from Southerners for his treatment of the
ex-president. Reverting to his regular army rank of colonel upon the
reduction of the postwar army in 1868, he married the niece of General
William T. Sherman, opening a relationship that the ambitious Miles
exploited for personal gain in subsequent years. When the army was
reorganized in 1869, Miles received appointment to the Fifth Infantry,
and it was with this unit that he first gained notice for his success as
an Indian campaigner. His work in 1874-75 in the Red River War on the
southern plains marked him in his superiors' eyes as a dedicated,
resourceful leader, and in 1876, in the wake of the Little Bighorn, the
army leadership turned to Miles to subdue the Sioux and Northern
Cheyennes.
Miles's adept prosecution of these tribesmen through
the balance of 1876 and into the spring and early summer of 1877
virtually ended the Great Sioux War. The colonel hoped that the reward
for his work would be his upgrade to brigadier general and achievement
of an independent command. In pursuit of the former objective, and in
what must have seemed awkward to both men in light of later events,
Miles in February 1877 solicited the favor of none other than General
Howard:
Since the war it has fallen to my lot to successfully
engage larger bodies of Indians than any other officer, and to have
gained a more extensive knowledge of this remote frontier than any
living man. I feel that I have earned it [promotion] and should prize
your endorsement very highly. If you please you can communicate with
Genl. Sherman on the subject. [3]
Although a brigadier's star was not immediately
forthcoming, in the creation of the District of the Yellowstone in
September 1877 with himself as commander, Miles attained his goal of an
independent command. [4]
As indicated, Miles anticipated a role for his
soldiers in the Nez Perce conflict and signaled his involvement as early
as August 3 and 12, even before receiving instructions from department
and division headquarters, when he sent Lieutenant Doane and then
Colonel Sturgis west from Tongue River to the Judith Basin to seek out,
intercept, and destroy the Nez Perces after they emerged from the
national park. Early in September, he had dispatched Second Lieutenant
Hobart K. Bailey, Fifth Infantry, with a small detachment to Carroll
City, on the Missouri, to guard ammunition at that place. Miles's
motivation for this activity lay in his anxiety that the Nez Perces were
passing through country only recently occupied by Sitting Bull's Sioux,
and that in Canada (or near the line), the two tribes might collaborate
in new warfare on the frontier settlements. [5] Thus, for Miles the Nez Perce threat was
important as it could potentially affect his longstanding fixation on
Sitting Bull. As he wrote Sturgis: "If they [Nez Perces] could be
destroyed it would have an excellent effect on all the Indian tribes,
and relieve all the troops in northern Montana." [6] That the self-exiled Hunkpapa leader was
still considered a potent concern to United States officials was
manifested in the creation of the so-called Sitting Bull Commission,
headed by General Terry, which was in late September slated to cross the
border north of Fort Benton, meet with the chief, and induce him to
surrender. On September 14, in accordance with directions from
department headquarters, Company K of the Seventh Cavalry, under Captain
Owen Hale, crossed the Yellowstone en route up the Missouri to serve as
escort to Terry's party. Two days later, Miles received orders to send
the battalion of three companies of the Second Cavalry under Captain
George L. Tyler instead of Hale's unit, and these troops ferried the
Yellowstone and headed out accordingly. [7]
Miles's personal involvement in the army campaign
against the Nez Perces began on the evening of September 17, when a
courier reached the cantonment at 6:00 p.m., bearing the Howard/Sturgis
dispatch of the twelfth from Clark's Fork, more than 150 miles west of
the post. [8] In his letter, Howard
described the movements preceding the fight at Canyon Creek and appealed
for Miles's help:
COLONEL: While Colonel Sturgis was scouting toward
Stinking Water, the Indians and my force in close pursuit, passed his
right, and they, after a short detour, turned to Clark's Fork, and by
forced marches avoided Sturgis completely.
I have sent Sturgis with Major Sanford, First
Cavalry, and Lieutenant Otis, Fourth Artillery, with howitzer battery in
fastest pursuit, and am myself following as rapidly as possible with the
remainder of my own immediate command. The Indians are reported going
down Clark's Fork and straight toward the Musselshell. They will in all
probability cross the Yellowstone near the mouth of Clark's Fork, and
make all haste to join a band of hostile Sioux. They will use every
exertion to reach the Musselshell country and form this junction, and as
they make exceedingly long marches it will require unusual activity to
intercept or overtake them.
But it was Howard's final remarkin effect, a
plaintive cry for helpthat impelled Miles to action: "I earnestly
request you to make every effort in your power to prevent the escape of
this hostile band, and at least to hold them in check until I can
overtake them." [9]
Miles immediately fired off a dispatch to General
Terry, enclosing a copy of the Howard-Sturgis missive. "I will leave
nine (9) companies of infantry and one (1) of cavalry at this point and
on the Yellowstone. With the remainder I will strike across by head of
Big Dry, Musselshell, Crooked Creek, and Carroll, with the hope of
intercepting the Nez Perces in their movement north." He requested that
"an abundance of rations and grain" along with quantities of clothing be
sent up the Missouri by steamer from Fort Buford for his own men and for
the destitute commands of Howard and Sturgis. [10] Miles also sent a cautionary note to
Howard: "I fear your information reaches me too late for me to intercept
them, but I will do the best I can." He asked that "the movement of my
command be kept as secret as possible, so that it may not become known
to the Crows or other friends of the enemy." [11] As the couriers departed, Miles made
preparations through the night of the seventeenth for assuming the
chase. He directed that supplies, thirty-six wagons, two ambulances,
artillery (one breech-loading 1.67-inch caliber Hotchkiss gun, one
bronze twelve-pounder Napoleon cannon) plus its requisite ammunition,
small arms ammunition (two hundred rounds per man, with fifty rounds on
the person and the balance carried in the wagons), mule teams, pack
mules, horses, baggage, and troops be ferried to the north bank of the
Yellowstone preparatory to leaving in the morning. [12] "All was commotion from the time the order
was rec'd and no sleep for anyone," noted Captain Simon Snyder. [13] By sunrise, all was in readiness for
departure. General Sherman's young niece, Elizabeth, visiting at the
garrison since July, stood under an American flag at Miles's quarters
waving two small flags as the troops departed. [14] "My command," remembered Miles, "slowly
wound its way up the trail from the Yellowstone to the high mesa on the
north side of that river. Then commenced a most laborious and tedious
forced march." [15]
When Miles dispatched Sturgis into the field in
August, that officer had taken the strongest companies of the Seventh
Cavalry with him, leaving the most underofficered and understrengthed
units of the regiment at the cantonment. Therefore, Miles's command on
leaving the Yellowstone on September 18 consisted of Companies A
(Captain Myles Moylan), approximately 30 men; and D (Captain Edward S.
Godfrey, First Lieutenant Edwin P. Eckerson), approximately 40 men,
Seventh Cavalry. En route, Miles would overtake and absorb Company K of
the Seventh (Captain Owen Hale, Second Lieutenant Jonathan W. Biddle),
with approximately 44 men, plus Captain George Tyler's battalion of
Second Cavalry, consisting of Companies F (Tyler), about 54 men; G
(Second Lieutenant Edward J. McClernand), about 50 men; and H (Second
Lieutenant Lovell H. Jerome), about 60 men. Departing the cantonment
with Miles were units of his own Fifth Infantry regiment riding captured
Sioux ponies and consisting of Companies B (Captain Andrew S. Bennett,
Second Lieutenant Thomas M. Woodruff), about 26 men; F (Captain Simon
Snyder, commanding mounted battalion), about 28 men; G (First Lieutenant
Henry Romeyn), about 23 men; and I (First Lieutenant Mason Carter),
about 28 men; plus a complement on foot consisting of Company K (Captain
David H. Brotherton, Second Lieutenant George P. Borden), about 29 men,
with 21 men attached from Company D, to act as escort to the wagon train
and to serve the artillery pieces (the latter in the charge of Sergeant
John McHugh). First Lieutenant George W. Baird (on temporary duty at
Fort Peck) served as Miles's command adjutant, First Lieutenant Frank D.
Baldwin his aide-de-camp, Second Lieutenant Oscar F. Long his acting
engineer officer, and Second Lieutenant Marion P. Maus his commander of
several white and 30 Indian scouts. Surgeon (Major) Henry R. Tilton and
Assistant Surgeon (First Lieutenant) Edwin F. Gardner accompanied as
medical officers. There were 20 packers, a detachment of around 12 men
to service the artillery, plus teamsters. Altogether, Miles's troop
complement after incorporation of the units of the Seventh and Second
cavalry regiments totaled approximately 520 officers, men, scouts, and
civilian employees. [16] It was the largest
command Miles had fielded since arriving on the northern plains in
August 1876.
Miles's commissioned officer corps mostly reflected
experience and commitment in past frontier service. While all played
significant roles in the days and weeks ahead, several deserve special
mention. Captain Owen Hale (1843-1877), commander of the Seventh Cavalry
battalion and of Company K, had served with the New York volunteer
cavalry during the Civil War. He was commissioned first lieutenant in
the Seventh Cavalry in 1866 and captain in 1869. His twenty-two-year-old
second lieutenant, Jonathan W. Biddle (1855-1877) from Pennsylvania, had
been appointed scarcely a year earlier, August 31, 1876. Captain Myles
Moylan (1838-1909), a Civil War veteran, had risen from the enlisted
ranks and had been with the Seventh Cavalry since its formation in 1866.
He had reached the grade of captain in 1872 and had commanded Company A
at the Little Bighorn. Captain Edward S. Godfrey (1843-1932), who
commanded Company D, had been with the regiment since his graduation
from West Point ten years previous and had served in most of its
campaigns and engagements with Indians, including the Washita, Indian
Territory, in 1868; the Yellowstone and Black Hills expeditions of 1873
and 1874, respectively; and the Sioux Campaign and its resultant Little
Bighorn battle in 1876. Godfrey's lieutenant, Edwin P. Eckerson
(1850-1885), appointed from civilian status in 1872 and dismissed from
the Fifth Cavalry in 1875, had rejoined the army into the Seventh
Cavalry in May 1876, but was on detached service at the time of the
Little Bighorn.
|