Fort Laramie and the U. S. Army on the High Plains 1849 – 1890

Fort Laramie and the U. S. Army On the High Plains 1849 – 1890 Douglas C. McChristian National Park Service Historic Resources Study Fort Laramie National Historic Site February 2003 Contents Preface Chapter 1: "A Chain of Posts" . 1 Chapter 2: "The First to Make the Ground Bloody". 27 Chapter 3: "The Unfortunate Affair" . 55 Chapter 4: "A Thunder Clap" . 86 Chapter 5: "The Cheyennes Are An Unruly Race". 105 Chapter 6: "A State of Substantial Rebellion". 130 Chapter 7: The Overland Mail . 155 Chapter 8: "We Are Holding This Territory By a Thread". 174 Chapter 9: "This Requires Vigorous War". 212 Chapter 10: "We Are Going to Have a Warm Time Here This Summer". 269 Chapter 11: "They Must Be Hunted Like Wolves" . 317 Chapter 12: "Poor Indian Finds Himself Hemmed In" . 360 Chapter 13: "This Is Their Last Flicker". 408 Chapter 14: "We Want to Eat". 437 Chapter 15: "The Indians Have Great Respect for Authority". 457 Chapter 16: "As Old and Dirty As It Is Ancient". 501 Chapter 17: "The Entire Quiet Has Not Been Broken". 537 Bibliography Preface This report is one of three parts comprising a Historic Resources Study for Fort Laramie National Historic Site. The scope of the study encompasses the fur trade era, the military era, and the years subsequent to army occupation up to the eve of its acquisition by the National Park Service in 1938. A general Introduction has already been prepared for the Study, therefore none is presented herein. It should also be taken into consideration that two historians have written the chronological narratives at different times, the post-military era being the first completed. Consequently the reader may perceive a degree of overlap in transitioning from one era to another. Part Two of the comprehensive study is an examination of Fort Laramie as a United States military post, taking up in 1849 and concluding in the late 1880s when the army recognized the disappearance of a defined western frontier. The military aspect has been treated generally in LeRoy R. Hafen and Frances M. Young, Fort Laramie and the Pageant of the West (1938) and Ramie Nadeau’s Fort Laramie and the Sioux Indians (1967). As their titles imply, neither of those studies was intended to serve as a detailed history of military operations relating to Fort Laramie. Moreover, the interpretation presented in both of those works is dated to some degree because it is has been possible in more recent years to tap a considerably larger body of information. An excellent, though narrowly focused, study of the post’s role during the Great Sioux War is Paul L. Hedren’s, Fort Laramie in 1876: Chonicle of a Frontier Post at War (1988). This section builds upon the story told by Barton H. Barbour in his “Special History Study: The Fur Trade at Fort Laramie National Historic Site” (1999). Barbour defines the importance of the region around the confluence of the North Platte and Laramie Rivers in relation to Plains Indian tribal hunting grounds and as an economic center for the fur and buffalo robe trade. He also demonstrates how the post, coincidentally, sat squarely astride what became the key emigrant route to the Pacific Northwest. Fulfilling the government’s obligation to protect the citizens venturing westward in pursuit of the nation’s “Manifest Destiny,” the United States Army established a series of forts along the Oregon Route. Army officers making a reconnaissance of the area in spring 1849 concluded that the site of Fort John, an American Fur Company post more commonly known as Fort Laramie, was as adequate for military purposes as could be found, and it possessed the added benefit of extant buildings for the immediate shelter of vital supplies. The government purchased the rather derelict old post later that same year. The military occupation of the fort marked the dawn of a new era on the plains that would continue for four decades, until the power of the formerly great tribes was broken and Euro-Americans claimed their lands for agricultural and other economic purposes. Many persons assisted me during the preparation of this study, first and foremost Librarian Sandra Lowry and Park Ranger Steve Fulmer, both on the staff at Fort Laramie National Historic Site. Sandy's intimate knowledge of the library and archival collections, as well as her willingness to copy or lend me much material, saved me a great deal of time and effort during my research at the park. And, both she and Steve always responded graciously to my many telephonic requests for follow-up bits and pieces of information. A special thanks also to Steve for reading the draft manuscript and offering many insightful comments based on his long tenure and thorough familiarity with the Fort Laramie story. I am particularly indebted to Mike Pilgrim and Deanne Blanton at the National Archives, Washington, D. C. for all the help they rendered in accessing materials during my visit there. Jean Brainerd, reference historian at the Wyoming State Archives in Cheyenne, bent every effort to accommodate my research, but I have found that for Jean, providing thorough, cordial assistance is the norm. Equally responsive in facilitating my work was Venice Beskey at the Wyoming State Library. She always seems to be able to come up with just the right document. Brent Wagner, librarian in the Western History Department, Denver Public Library, was most helpful with accessing the Collins, Ward, Ellison, and other papers held there. Staff at other repositories also contributed to this effort by either hosting my work or filling long-distance requests via telephone or e-mail. Among these are: Historian John Doerner at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument; Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Carl Hallberg at the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming; Lilly Library, the University of Indiana, Russ Taylor and Helen Hoopes, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University; Lisa F. Leibfacher of the Ohio Historical Society; and the staff at the Kansas State Historical Society. I am most grateful to all for their assistance and dedication. 1 Chapter 1 "A Chain of Posts" When United States soldiers first raised the national colors over a somewhat dilapidated old Fort John, on June 26, 1849, they could hardly have imagined that the event marked the beginning of four decades of army occupation. Four years earlier, Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny, after making his epic trek to South Pass, concluded that seasonal patrols over the emigrant route to Oregon would suffice to control the Indians. Kearny argued that permanent posts would be expensive, and largely unnecessary for most of the year. His opinion stemmed not only from his own experience, but relied as well on Colonel Henry Dodge’s earlier expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1835, and another led by Major Clifton Wharton afterward to visit the Pawnee villages on the 2 Platte. Kearny and his troops took every opportunity on their march up the Platte to awe the Indians with the might of the federal government by showing off two gleaming mountain howitzers, as well as their sabers, and carbines. Arriving at Fort Laramie in mid-June, Kearny met with Sioux leaders during an unseasonable snow storm in an effort to induce them to avoid the evils of liquor offered by the traders and, more importantly, to offer no opposition to the white man’s road through their country. The troops camped along the Laramie approximately two and one-half miles above the post on a grassy bottomland that was to serve as a bivouac from time to time throughout much of the active life of the post. As important as the abundant grazing found there was the distance placed between the soldiers and “the questionable allures of raw alcohol and Indian belles” at the fort.1 Convinced of the practicality of regular patrols of the trail, Kearny boasted to his superiors that mounted expeditions “would serve to keep the Indians perfectly quiet, reminding them of (as this one proved) the facility and rapidity with which our dragoons can march through any part of their country, and that there is no place where they can go but the dragoons can follow and, as we are better mounted than they are, overtake them.”2 1 Otis E. Young, The West of Philip St. George Cooke, (Glendale: 1955), p. 160. 2 S. W. Kearny, “Report of a summer campaign to the Rocky mountains, &c, in 1845,” Senate Executive Document No. 2 (Serial 480), p. 212; Kearny’s column, composed of 16 officers and 265 enlisted men, 3 Yet, Kearny’s views contradicted those expressed some years earlier by Secretary of War Joel R. Poinsett, and his successor, John C. Spencer, both of whom advocated the establishment of a chain of permanent posts along the Oregon Route for the protection of emigrants. Poinsett suggested three posts, one of which should be “on the north fork of the river Platte, near the confluence of the Laramie’s fork. This station would seem to be highly important."3 No less a figure than Thomas Fitzpatrick, widely recognized as a preeminent mountaineer and familiar among the Indians as "Broken Hand," also weighed in on the strategic significance of the place when he correctly assessed the changing tribal dynamics in the region. “A post at or in the vicinity of Laramie is much needed,” Fitzpatrick opined in an uncannily accurate prophecy. “It would be in the vicinity of the buffalo range, where all the most formidable Indian tribes are fast approaching, and near along with a small wagon train and two howitzers, departed from Fort Leavenworth on May 18, 1845.

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