Chapter 8:The National Park
The layover of General Howard's command on the shores
of Henry's Lake coincided with a broadening of the army's pursuit of the
nontreaty Nez Perces. After Henry's Lake, matters became increasingly
complex for both the troops and the tribesmen. As Howard pursued, a
military cordon slowly began to encircle the tribesmen on north, south,
and east. This envelopment was composed of commands from the departments
of Dakota and the Platte, overseen, respectively, by Brigadier Generals
Alfred H. Terry and George Crook. On August 13, on Sherman's authority,
Lieutenant General Sheridan directed Terry to cooperate with Howard,
"even to temporarily placing such troops as you may have to spare under
his command." At Camp Brown, Wyoming, Crook was alerted to the
approaching Nez Perces and his men prepared for field duty. When Howard
expressed concern that the Indians might be intending to join Sitting
Bull's Sioux somewhere below the Canadian line, Sheridan responded that
"such junction is preposterous." Yet to forestall efforts by the Nez
Perces to gain a foothold in the Yellowstone country, Terry directed
that troops be sent to watch the area of the Musselshell River and
Judith Basin above the Yellowstone. [1]
In fact, such efforts were already underway. At the
Tongue River Cantonment (soon to be known as Fort Keogh) on the
Yellowstone, Colonel Nelson A. Miles, as early as August 3, had sent
First Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane with Company E, Seventh Cavalry, and
about sixty Crow scouts to the Musselshell River to watch for signs of
the Nez Perces. According to a directive to Doane, the lieutenant was to
"use every effort to either capture or destroy the Nez Perces band of
hostile Indians that have recently been engaging the troops in Idaho,
and who will doubtless, if defeated, endeavor to retreat and take refuge
in the Judith Basin or vicinity." [2] Of
major concern at this juncture was maintaining the allegiance of the
Crows, and Doane was expected to use whatever diplomacy he could muster
to that end. [3] On the twelfth, underscoring
Miles's determination to stop the Nez Perces, he sent Colonel Samuel D.
Sturgis with six companies of the Seventh Cavalry up the Yellowstone to
observe the country about the Judith Basin, some 250 miles northwest of
the Tongue River post. [4] Another directive
to Doane asserted:
Your objective is now the band of Nez Perces, and you
will please use every effort to assist [Brevet] Gen. Sturgis in
capturing or destroying them. If the Crows will take part in it they can
easily surround the Nez Perces, and compel them to lay down their arms;
the warriors, or at least all of the principal men should be marched to
this place, and their arms destroyed. Provided the Crows assist in the
work, the ponies and ammunition may be given to them and the remainder
of the [Nez Perce] band left with the Crow tribe for the present. You
can withhold any ammunition or rations [from the Crows] until this is
accomplished, and then the Crow Camp can return to their agency where
they will find an abundance. [5]
Seven days later, Sturgis deployed his force on the
Musselshell, but shortly removed to the mouth of the Stillwater River on
the Yellowstone "with a view of taking up a central position where we
might guard the various passes by which the Indians might attempt to
debouch from the mountains." [6] Sturgis also
received notice from Howard stating that, based on information from his
scouts, the tribesmen "will probably cross Stinking [Water] River one
hundred miles south east of Crow Agency." [7]
Much against Sturgis's wishes, Lieutenant Doane, acting on orders
received from Colonel Gibbon, moved his scouting force to Fort Ellis
and, on August 29, set out for the upper Yellowstone leading into the
national park. [8]
All the while that Howard's troops and animals had
been resting at Henry's Lake, his Bannock scouts trailed the Nez Perces
east through Targhee Pass, across the valley of the South Fork of the
Madison, and into the national park. There, along the main Madison River
on August 25, they came upon two men, William H. Harmon and Charles
Mann, whose party had been captured the previous day by Nez Perce
warriors. This information, plus news of the general course of the Nez
Perces relayed to Howard on his return from Virginia City, confirmed in
his mind that they were headed for the Crow Agency near the Yellowstone
River and ultimately for the buffalo grounds above that stream. "I
believed that the route of the enemy, conforming to the features of the
country, would be through [the] National Park to Musselshell Valley, by
way of Clarke's [sic] Fork, or possibly leading further south by way of
some point between Crow agency and the Stinkingwater [present north fork
of the Shoshone River], crossing to the valley of the Musselshell." [9] It was in looking to the possibility of
heading off the tribesmen that Howard had sent Captains Harry C. Cushing
and Norwood to Fort Ellis. Those troops had instructions to keep Howard
posted and to communicate with Colonel Sturgis's patrolling command. [10]
As Howard pondered the Nez Perces' objective points,
unknown to him General Sherman, following up on his previous
communication with Howard, and possibly in response to continually
mounting criticism of his brigadier, had set in motion plans to gently
remove him from command. On August 29, from Helena, Sherman wired
Sheridan:
I find Genl [Lieutenant Colonel Charles C.] Gilbert
here & will send him up the Yellowstone to the park to overtake
Howard with all news & to advise him to have his command follow the
Nez Perces till killed or captured, when the men can return to their
posts on the Pacific, meantime advising Howard to give his command to
Gilbert & in person to overtake me & go with me to his
department. It is not an order but only advice. [11]
Two days later, Colonel Gilbert departed Fort Ellis
with Company L, Second Cavalry, now under command of Second Lieutenant
Charles B. Schofield, to find Howard and take over the general's column
in accordance with Sherman's wishes. [12]
The missive Gilbert carried to Howard outlined the
troop dispositions underway in Sheridan's division and noted that his
column, as the "pursuing force," had "not much chance of a fight." In
it, Sherman continued:
Really I see not much reason for your commanding a
Detachment, after having driven the hostile Indians out of your
Department across Montana, and into Genl. Sheridan's command. I find . .
. Lt. Col. C.C. Gilbert here [at Helena], who has served long in this
Territory, and is familiar with the Indians, and the country in which
they have taken refuge. I don't want to order you back to Oregon, but I
do say that you can with perfect propriety return to your command,
leaving the troops to continue till the Nez-Perces have been destroyed
or captured, and I authorize you to transfer to him, Lt. Col. Gilbert,
your command in the field and to overtake me en-route or in your
Department. [13]
The effort by Sherman to remove Howard reflected not
only the commanding general's deep-seated frustration toward the overall
progress of the campaign, but also his extreme anger at the Nez Perces
themselves. His harsh views toward the Nez Perces were evident in a
telegram to Sheridan sent from Deer Lodge on August 31:
If the Nez-Perces be captured or surrender it should
be without terms. Their horses, arms and property should be taken away.
Many of their leaders [should be] executed preferably by sentence of a
civil court for their murders in Idaho and Montana and what are left
should be treated like the Modocs, sent to some other country; there
should be extreme severity, else other tribes alike situated may imitate
their example. These are my conclusions, but after capture or surrender
you had better consult the Washington authorities. All here think they
will fight hard, skillfully, to the death. [14]
Oblivious to all this, Howard, on Tuesday morning,
August 28, pulled out of camp at Henry's Lake. There the Montana
volunteers departed, as did most of the wagons hired in Missoula. The
command marched through Targhee Pass to the Madison River, on the very
course the tribesmen had taken six days before. As the troops coursed up
the Madison, they encountered "a most wretched figure, worn and ragged."
He was Henry Meyers, another escapee from among the same group of
tourists accosted by the Nez Perces four days before at Lower Geyser
Basin. Later, yet another man, Albert Oldham, appeared, having been shot
in the face by the warriors and in a "famished condition." [15] Howard camped that night on the Madison
River, leading into the park.
The national park, informally called "Wonderland"
because of its variety of natural features ranging from vast and nearly
impenetrable forests intertwined with lakes and streams to unique
geologic formations and abundant thermal phenomena, had been established
by Congress in 1872 "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." The
park then encompassed nearly 3,313 square miles, principally in
northwestern Wyoming Territory (the west and north boundaries were in
Idaho and Montana territories, respectively), running approximately
sixty-two miles north-to-south by fifty-four miles east-to-west. Besides
the Madison and its contributory streams, the Gibbon and the
Fireholeencountered by the Nez Perces as well as by Howard's
command as they proceeded into the parktwo major rivers draining
the area were the Yellowstone, flowing northward through the park to
form high-altitude Yellowstone Lake, and the East Fork of the
Yellowstone (later named the Lamar River), which converged with the
primary stream in the north-central part of the park as it angled
northwest and beyond the boundary. Numerous affluents joined these
streams everywhere as they coursed across the mountainous park
topography. In 1877, there were no major roads and few trails leading
through the Yellowstone wilderness, although wagons traveling up the
Madison and Firehole rivers could reach the area of the Lower Geyser
Basin. Across the Yellowstone River, above its confluence with the East
Fork (Lamar), a wooden bridge had been erected by Collins J.
("Yellowstone Jack") Baronett, enabling travel between Mammoth Hot
Springs, where a log cabin hotel stood for the benefit of tourists, and
the route east to the mining region around Cooke City. [16] All of the activity related to the Nez
Perces and Howard's army in that year took place in the northern half of
the national park.
Oddly enough, as the course of events unfolded, the
pinnacle of army leadership had left the national park just days before
the Nez Perces entered it. Commanding General William T. Sherman, on a
tour of western posts during the summer of 1877, had left Fort Ellis on
August 4 with an entourage of two officers besides himself, his son, a
packer-guide, three drivers, and only four soldiers, a total of twelve
persons. "I do not suppose I run much risk," he wrote Secretary of War
McCrary, "for we are all armed, and the hostile Indians rarely resort to
the park, a poor region for game, and to their superstitious minds
associated with hell by reason of its geysers and hot springs." [17]
From August 6 to 17, Sherman's group ranged through
the north and west parts of the park, visiting Mammoth Hot Springs,
Mount Washburn, the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone and the geyser
basins, and Old Faithful, impressed by its beauty and geologic features.
At Mud Volcano, the general's people peered inside the boiling, churning
enigma, deciding it was not of volcanic origin but of "muddy water, and
. . . thick mud, puffing up just like a vast pot of 'mush.'" [18] On August 16, they were overtaken by a
courier bearing news of Gibbon's battle at the Big Hole, and the next
day, en route back to Fort Ellis, Sherman's party received dispatches,
telegrams, and newspapers describing the event. Back at the post on
August 19, the commanding general wrote McCrary that "we saw no signs of
Indians, and felt at no moment more sense of danger than we do here."
[19]
Sherman had no knowledge of his proximity to the Nez
Perce cavalcade that entered the park only six days after the general's
party had vacated it. On Tuesday, August 21, the tribesmen camped at
Henry's Lake, their livestock fairly blanketing a three-square-mile
tract as it grazed. On the following day, the people filed into Madison
Basin along the road from Virginia City to the Lower Geyser Basin, their
presence creating a brief scare along the Madison Valley as panicky
residents fled toward Virginia City. That night a party from the Nez
Perce camp raided a small band of miners twenty miles away along the
West Fork of the Madison and got away with most of their horses. [20] The arrival of the Nez Perces in the
national park on August 23 opened to them a myriad of possibilities
regarding their course throughout it and egress from it. One of the
army's principal authorities on the park was Colonel John Gibbon, who
had explored the region on a visit in 1872, subsequently lecturing and
authoring articles describing its wonders for the public. [21] On Sherman's direction, he offered Howard
his views of the route the tribesmen might take:
The Nez Perces having entered the Geyser Basin have
two ways open to them. They may turn up the Fire Hole Basin and reach
Wind River by the trail to the south, passing west of Yellowstone Lake,
or entering the lower Geyser Basin move eastward to the Yellowstone
River either near the falls or near where it emerges from the Lake. Here
they may cross the River by fording and turning south follow Capt.
[William A.] Jones trail east of the Yellowstone Lake to Wind River, or
they may continue down the River to the bridge at the forks, go up the
East fork and so over into Clarks fork or one of several passes leading
towards the Yellowstone or Bighorn. East of the Yellowstone River and
Lake, elk and deer are plentiful and both are filled with quantities of
large trout. Your best and surest plan is to cling to the trail to the
last, as you may rest assured other troops will sooner or later get in
front of these Indians hampered as they are with their wounded and large
herds. By sending for it you can get any quantity of beef on the hoof
down the Madison in the Gallatin Valley, and on the Yellowstone below
the mouth of Gardners River. [22]
Gibbon proved correct in predicting at least part of
the Nez Perces' route. It is apparent that the people themselves, for a
major portion of their trek through the park, remained uncertain of
their course. Few Nee-Me-Poo accounts addressed the matter of their
route, and whatever clues to the mystery of where they went have been
derived from non-Nez Perce sources, principally from the account of
Howard's leading scout, Fisher, who with the Bannocks trailed them for
much of the way, and that of John Shively, a prospector who was captured
and held by the Nez Perces during their passage (and then escaped). It
is the latter stage of the people's course through the park that is open
to question and has been the focus of considerable debate. [23]
|