Chapter 11: Yellowstone Command (continued)
By that season, summer's verdure had given way to
dry, drab desolation, an appearance heightened by the frequently leaden
autumn skies. Probably influenced partly by defensive considerations,
the Nez Perces selected a site on the grassy bottom generally bordered
on the north, south, and east by an intersected network of gentle and
brush-filled swales, coulees, and wavelike ridges that might afford
limited protection in the case of an assault by a determined foe.
Chiefly, however, the site offered comfortable refuge from the seemingly
ceaseless cold winds and breezes that swept the open prairie, while
simultaneously providing a water source, shrub fuel and buffalo chips
for cooking, and a place for concealment. At the south, in particular, a
high, abruptly sloping bluff with an adjoining cut bank rose forty feet
from the bottom near the creek to meet the surrounding treeless plain,
undulating southeastwardly in ascending to the mountains six miles away.
Near the west base of this bluff, the channel of Snake Creek angled
sharply northwest for several hundred yards before turning south toward
the mountains. West of the village, the bottom stretched back from the
mostly dry and willow-fringed channel, gently rising through the
adjacent hills to an open plateau ideal for grazing ponies. Along the
right (east) side of the creek on a slightly intermediate and roughly
crescent-shaped flat "covering about six acres of ground," remembered
one officer, the Nee-Me-Poo set up their camps, each band or interband
group occupying a specific site within a linear space measuring
approximately one-quarter mile south to north and two hundred yards east
to west. Full-fledged lodges of hide or canvas were scarce among the
people as most had been abandoned at the Clearwater and the Big Hole and
they had had little time to cut new poles. Presumably, many found
shelter under pieces of canvas brought along, purchased, or captured on
the way from Idaho. Southernmost lay the camp of Joseph's Wallowas,
along with Husis Kute's Palouses, roughly two hundred yards from the
high south bluff and containing at least fourteen families. To the
northeast and across a swale stood the shelters of Looking Glass's
Alpowais, at least nine in number, while adjoining these on the north
were eleven more dwellings, principally Lamtamas under White Bird.
Finally, fifty yards farther northwest stood the Pikunan camp of
Toohoolhoolzote, which included as many as fifteen family dwellings and
wickiups. This band unit occupied a generally triangular-shaped tract,
each side about eighty yards long, which rose between the forks of a
rivulet entering Snake Creek from a coulee directly east. [58] Just above the southern extremity of the
camp, the course of Snake Creek angled southwest, and a tributary
entered through a coulee from the east and southeast.
Early on the morning of September 30, even before the
Nee-Me-Poo started their daily routine preparatory to continuing their
trek north into Canada, the troops under Miles were in motion. Already
Miles's scouts had dispersed. Lieutenant Maus, Kelly, and the several
civilian guides had camped in the foothills, apparently off to the
southwest, while the main body of Cheyenne and Lakota scouts searched
northwest for the village. [59] Scout Louis
Shambo, riding with ten of them, notified the colonel when he reached
the trail discovered the previous day. Three or four miles farther,
Shambo's party saw a dozen or so people in the distance running buffalo.
"I soon noticed that they were Nez Perces as they had striped blankets
and the other tribes had solid colors," he recalled. "I sent another
Indian back to say that we had found the Nez Perces and that the command
had better hurry up." Shambo and the Cheyenne scouts then followed the
Indians at a safe distance as they returned to their village. From afar,
because the camp was situated in the depression, they saw only the pony
herd on the tract north of the stream. [60]
Shambo's description of this event correlates well with that given by
the Cheyenne, Young Two Moon. He claimed that two of his fellows,
Starving Elk and Hump, using field glasses had spotted smoke rising far
off in front and rode ahead to reconnoiter. An officer kept the two in
sight; if they found the camp they were to signal back to him by
separating, then riding back and crossing each other's path. When this
occurred, news of the discovery was sent back to Miles. Meanwhile, the
other scouts advanced to meet Starving Elk and Hump, wishing to view the
Nez Perce village. Young Two Moon peered over a hill and could see the
pony herd, but that was all. The scouts then started back to join
Miles's command. [61]
The troops were up and about at 2:00 a.m., the cooks
preparing breakfast over frozen and hard-to-light buffalo chips. "The
moon and stars shine in a clear sky, the air is chilly," wrote Tilton.
"We march as early as we can see to move." [62] At about 4:40 a.m., the column slowly
wended southwestwardly from the bivouac site toward and into the
foothills, looking to intersect the trail reported by Maus the previous
day. Morning evolved bright and cloudless, the mist hanging on the
mountains slowly evaporating in the sun. The order of march placed the
troops of the Fifth Infantry mounted battalion in front, followed by the
battalions of the Second and Seventh regiments, respectively, by the
foot soldiers of the Fifth Infantry, and lastly by the pack train. [63] En route, the troops forded several
iced-over tributaries and headed ever more directly south with word that
some Indians had been sighted in that direction. At 5:30 a.m.,
Lieutenant Long, at Miles's behest, rode ahead to verify the existence
of the trail found by the scouts and pronounced by them to be two days
old. At 6:30, the column halted briefly to rest their horses on what
Long reported was Peoples Creek, but perhaps more logically was Suction
Creek, described as "10 feet in width, with clear running water and
gravelly bed." Proceeding on, the troops encountered the trail of the
Nez Perces leading from the mountains. Godfrey stated that this occurred
at 8:20 a.m. [64] Almost simultaneously,
the Cheyenne, Brave Wolf, appeared with the news that smoke from the
village had been sighted about six miles ahead. At this, Miles prepared
his mounted force for battle. He sent an officer rearward to hurry the
lagging ammunition packs, then placed all extra dunnage with the
remaining mules, the Fifth Infantry foot soldiers to follow in reserve
with the train. Most of the men wore caped greatcoats. Each cavalryman
carried a pistol and Springfield carbine, each mounted infantryman a
"long Tom" Springfield rifle; each man took one hundred rounds of
ammunition. Miles's own appearance was described in considerable detail
by two civilian guides:
He looked the leader that he wasrough, tough
and ready. Weighing nearly two hundred pounds, he sat on his charger
like a centaur, his brown mustache and side whiskers, slightly mixed
with gray, adorned features that are heavy but pleasing, and were
overshadowed by a broad-brimmed, slouched drab hat. A wide blue ribbon
encircled its crown, with blue streamers behind. He wore a red blanket
frontier shirt and a black necktie, its ends floating over his
shoulders; outside the shirt, a buckskin coat, short at the hips and
carelessly buttoned; the light blue trousers of a private soldier, with
black stripes down the seams, and coarse boots completed his attire. [65]
As the preparations continued, a messenger started
back over the trail to find the wagon train with orders that the
Napoleon gun and its ammunition be brought up quickly. In suddenly
reversing direction to the north, Miles's column reformed with the
Seventh Cavalry battalion in front, followed by the Second Cavalry and
the mounted Fifth Infantry soldiers. At approximately this time, off to
the left on a slope of the Bear's Paws, a few Nez Perce scouts suddenly
appeared. Some of Miles's Cheyennes went after them, and a bit of
long-range intertribal maneuvering occurred that the officers and men
watched with interest from the distance. [66] Perhaps it was at this juncture that
several officers of the Seventh Cavalry, anticipating the coming action,
conversed among themselves, as recalled by Captain Godfrey:
Capts Hale, Moylan and self were together, when after
a silence [Hale] said with a rather cynical smile: "My God! Have I got
to be killed this beautiful morning?" Then his smile pursed, his
countenance became serious and his eyes to the ground. Not a word was
spoken for several minutes; then the Adjutant, Lt. Baird, rode up with
orders to mount. [67]
As the troops started northwest, they passed "through
a gap near the northern end of the range" (perhaps the area south of
McCann or Miles buttes, which would have brought them to Peoples Creek
about seven and one-half miles southeast of the village) and ascended a
rise between Peoples and Snake creeks (west of the presently designated
Sand Rocks?) from which Miles could see the Nez Perces' herd on the
bench west of the village, but not the village itself. [68] At one point in the advance, the mounted
troops encountered a ravine so deep and potentially hazardous that they
were compelled to cross it in single file. The Seventh completed the
crossing and formed on the adjoining plain, but the other units
experienced difficulty.
Even before the companies of the Second and Fifth
cleared the ravine and separated from the pack animals, the battalion of
the Seventh Cavalry had crested a rise ahead and moved beyond view. By
now, Shambo and the remaining scouts had returned with definite
knowledge of location of the camp, the Cheyennes and Lakotas announcing
that the fight had already started, referencing either their sighting of
the camp or their encounter with Nez Perce scouts on the mountain
slopes. They underwent "an almost instant transformation . . . [with]
hats, coats, leggins, shirts, blankets, saddles and bridles . . .
quickly thrown into one great heap in a ravine," said Miles, as they
stripped themselves for the coming battle, applying paint to their
bodies, donning breechclouts, moccasins, feather headdresses, and other
adornments, and mounting special war ponies brought along for the
occasion. [69] Thus readied according to
their custom, the scouts dashed off to take the lead on either side of
the troops in front. [70]
Armed with knowledge of a village of imprecise size
somewhere ahead on the trail, and at least aware of the likelihood that
the Nez Perces had been alerted to his presence and probably were
beginning to get away, Miles planned to execute the traditional army
tactical strike that became classic throughout the post-Civil War Indian
campaignsone that would physically shock and demoralize all the
camp occupantsmen, women, and children, both young and
oldbefore they could respond effectively to counter the blow.
Considered conscientiously immoral by modern standards, especially in
its targeting of noncombatant populations, the tacticwhile never
formalized in the military precepts of the daytheoretically took
root in the "total war" concept engendered by Union commanders during
the Civil War, although it had been used previous to that struggle
against Indian villages. Time-tested on numerous fields of the northern
and southern plains during the postwar period, the reality-based tactic,
most effectively implemented at daybreak, was embraced by field
commanders hard-pressed for results against the highly mobile and
particularly elusive tribesmen of the plains. Miles had used the tactic
the preceding May in assaulting the village of the Minneconjou Lakota,
Lame Deer, and it had resulted in the capture of the Indians' pony herd,
the destruction of their camp, the killing and scattering of the people,
and the psychological and emotional devastation and ultimate surrender
of most of the refugees. A major difference, however, lay in the fact
that the attack on Lame Deer had occurred at dawn, when most of the
village occupants were asleep, while the Nez Perces who camped along
Snake Creek were not only fully awake and into their daily activities,
butbased on rapidly unfolding events regarding their
scoutsthey would anticipate, and gear up defensively to meet, such
an attack. [71]
Soon after daybreak, the Nez Perces prepared to start
north again, still confident that the great distance from Howard's army
assured their security. In the village were approximately 700 people, of
whom perhaps 250 were warriors, the rest women, children, and the
elderly. [72] Some of the men rode off to
hunt, while some women left the camp to skin, butcher, and pack the meat
from buffaloes killed the preceding day. Other tribesmen, including
Joseph and his twelve-year-old daughter, Kapkap Ponmi (Noise of Running
Water), were out catching horses from among the herd located west of
Snake Creek, while still others packed selected animals for continuing
the movement into Canada, now but forty miles distant. Children played
with sticks and mud balls. Some people were still eating breakfast when
two scouts who had been visiting an Assiniboine camp raced in from the
north, yelling that soldiers must be approaching and that the troops had
stampeded some buffalo the two had seen during their return to the camp.
[73] According to Yellow Wolf, Looking
Glass downplayed the warning, saying that the people had plenty of time
to move. (Looking Glass also discounted a dream the warrior, Wottolen,
had had about an imminent attack.) "About one hour later," Yellow Wolf
recounted, "a scout was seen coming from the same direction. He was
running his horse to its best. On the highest bluff he circled about,
and waved the blanket signal: 'Enemies right on us! Soon the attack!'"
[74] At this immediate alarm, the warriors
sprang to action, arming themselves, with some racing out to secure the
horses. Women and children, some leading previously packed animals,
started north out of the village. More warriors tore through the camp,
running along the flat and through gullies toward the high cutbank and
bluff overlooking the creek bottom on the southern perimeter, the
direction of the greatest threat. "Soon, from the south came a noise,"
recalled Yellow Wolf, "a rumble like stampeding buffaloes." [75]
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