The Battle of Beecher Island

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

If you’ve followed my writing here on Heroes, Heroines, and History or my novels, you know that I have concentrated a lot of my posts and stories on the Native Americans. And I’m back again today with another conflict between the whites and the Cheyenne and Sioux from 1868—the Battle of Beecher Island.

 

The Background

After the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, which I’ve written extensively about here on the blog and in one of my novels (see the end of my post for more about that), the Cheyenne and Sioux nations teamed up together to fight the Frontier army and the white settlers. Every year, they would raid the white settlements in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and other places. In August of 1868, the Native Americans consistently attacked farms, ranches, way stations, and common travel routes in Colorado and had killed 79 settlers in those attacks. Colorado Governor Frank Hall turned to the military for assistance.

 

George A. Forsythe

The 9^th Cavalry’s Major George Alexander Forsyth was tasked with finding fifty top frontiersmen to go after the Plains tribes who were committing these attacks, and he was given permission to use the Indians’ own tactics, rather than typical military protocols in pursuing and fighting them. Forsyth picked forty-eight men from two Kansas forts as his team, and he outfitted each man with the new Spencer Repeating Rifle, which could hold and fire seven bullets in rapid succession before needing to be reloaded.

 

On The Trail

On September 10, 1868, word came to Fort Wallace that a freighter’s train had been attacked 13 miles away. Forsyth, who’d been made a Brevet Colonel, and his frontiersmen got on the trail and began to follow the Native Americans. For days, Forsyth and his men continued their pursuit, slowly gaining ground. At first, they followed a group of about twenty-five warriors, but as time passed, the group they followed merged with others until the frontiersmen realized they were greatly outnumbered. Within six days, they knew they were close to catching up to the mighty fighting force ahead of them, and on September 16, Forsyth opted to make camp early and rest his men, since he expected to catch the Indians the following day. They camped along the Dry Fork of the Republican River (now known as the Arikaree River) in Yuma County, Colorado. What isn’t clear is whether Forsyth realized he was camped only twelve miles downstream from anywhere between 200 and 1000 (some reports say 200, others 600, and a few say as many as 1000) Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux warriors. He had the wherewithal to post extra guards during the night hours to be ready for whatever may come.

The Battle of Beecher Island by Frederick Remington

 

The Engagement

And come it did. During the night, the Sioux discovered Forsyth’s men and alerted the rest of the warriors upstream, who made plans to attack at dawn. As the first signs of light brightened the pre-dawn sky, the warriors set up to drive off the sleeping camp’s horses and strand the men on foot. But they weren’t prepared for Forsyth’s men to be awake, alert, and readying mules and horses. So when the initial attack came, Forsyth’s men were able to hold the horses, though they lost all the pack mules with their foodstuffs and other provisions. As dawn brightened the little valley, Forsyth’s men realized that the hills surrounding them were crawling with more warriors than they’d seen in one place before.

 

The frontiersmen quickly realized the only cover in sight was on a small sandbar in the middle of the Republican River, which had just one cottonwood tree and some willow bushes. They all made a break for the sandbar with their horses, some men and horses falling immediately to Indian bullets and arrows, but many making it to the safety of that small, sandy island.

 

Immediately, the men began to burrow into the sand. Where many of the horses had fallen victim to the Indian onslaught, they also used the corpses of the animals for cover. When the greater Indian forces attempted to make several runs at the men, Forsyth’s forces unloaded their Spencer Repeating Rifles. The Indians weren’t familiar with these weapons, so were surprised to learn the frontiersmen could fire seven times before having to reload. The weaponry proved to be a great advantage to the small—now wounded—fighting force.

 

After various attempts to overrun the sandbar, many of the Indian warriors fell, including the leader of the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers—Roman Nose. The Indians realized they were losing too many of their fighting men to this small group and pulled back to plan a different strategy. Women from the upstream encampment came to mourn their dead, leaving Forsyth’s men to listen to their haunting wails for a day or more. 

 

Forsyth’s men were in a bad way. Of their fifty-man force, Forsyth himself had a bullet glance off his skull and one shatter his shin before lodging against his femoral artery. His second in command, Lt. Fredrick Beecher, was killed along with three others. (After the battle was over, the men named the small sandbar island Beecher Island in Lt. Beecher’s honor). And yet fifteen more were wounded to varying degrees. 

 

The remaining Indians realized all they needed to do to take out these white men was to starve them out. Since their mules with all their provisions were gone, it wouldn’t take them long before they succumbed to hunger. So the Indians drew back a safe distance to wait. The frontiersmen knew they had river water and horse meat they could make do with for a short time, but if something didn’t change, they’d die on that sandbar.

Depiction of the Battle of Beecher Island, Harper's Weekly, June 1895.

 

A Daring Attempt

Forsyth concocted a daring plan. He asked for two courageous men to attempt to break through the surrounding Indian forces and go for help at Fort Wallace, some 70 miles away. At first, the head of the scouts said that the Indians were too thick around them, and they wouldn’t be able to get through. However, Simpson “Jack” Stilwell thought otherwise. He chose Pierre Trudeau as his partner in the attempt, and the two men set off during the deepest of night hours. They crawled on hands and knees for miles before taking cover as daylight broke. Unfortunately, the men hadn’t gotten away clean. Some of the Indian forces discovered their trail and pursued the men, causing them to have to evade their enemy for the next four days.

 

The pair had taken some horse meat with them, but it soon spoiled and made Stilwell and Trudeau sick. Yet they pushed through, evading their captors as they made progress toward Fort Wallace, where they were to deliver a note from Forsyth’s hand to the fort commander. After four days, they arrived, Trudeau so weak he couldn’t stand without help, and passed on word of the besieged group.

 

Three separate rescue parties were sent, each taking different paths in the general direction of Forsyth’s men. On September 25, Lt. Col. Louis H. Carpenter and two troops of Buffalo Soldiers reached the frontiersmen. And as the military ambulance wagon and troops of black freedmen soldiers came over the rise, the Indians realized they would not win the battle with the newly arrived troops, so they fled to safety.

The Rescue (Harper's, June 1895)

 

The rotting corpses of more than fifty horses and several men filled the air with the stench of death. Swarms of flies buzzed around the scene, feasting on the rancid meat. At some point in the intervening days, Forsyth had used his own razor to cut out the bullet from his leg, and lay in one of the sandy foxholes, in bad shape. Other men also lay wounded, weak, and in need of medical attention. The newly-arrived soldiers secured the area and carried the wounded to a better place upwind of the sandbar, then set about burying the dead—man and horse alike. For several days, they treated the wounded and fed them to get their strength up, then finally brought them back to Fort Wallace on September 30.

 

All told, Forsyth and his fifty scouts held off at least four times (and possibly many more) their number for more than a week and lost only seven men total—five during the battle itself, and two who succumbed to their wounds later. Of the Cheyenne and Sioux forces, the official military count of the dead was as low as nine, though Forsyth’s scouts claimed to have killed hundreds. The truth probably lies in the middle somewhere.

Award-winning, best-selling novelist Jennifer Uhlarik has loved the western genre since she read her first Louis L’Amour novel. She penned her first western while earning a writing degree from University of Tampa. Jennifer lives near Tampa with her husband, son, and furbabies. www.jenniferuhlarik.com

 

Sand Creek Serenade

 

2020 Selah Awards Fiction Book of the Year

"Uhlarik's research is sound and her characters are intriguing [in]...this well-constructed story..." ~ Publishers Weekly

One woman with a deep desire to serve and help. One brave who will stop at nothing to save his people. Each willing to die for their beliefs and love for one another. Will their sacrifice be enough?

As a female medical doctor in 1864, Sadie Hoppner is no stranger to tragedy and loss. While she grapples with the difficulties of practicing medicine at a Colorado outpost, she learns that finding acceptance and respect proves especially difficult at Fort Lyon.

Cheyenne brave Five Kills wants peace between his people and the American Army. But a chance encounter with their female doctor ignites memories from his upbringing among the whites … along with a growing fondness for the one person who seems to understand him and his people. As two cultures collide with differing beliefs of right and wrong, of what constitutes justice and savagery, blood spills on the Great Plains. When the inevitable war reaches Fort Lyon, the young couple's fledgling love is put to the test.

 

 

 

Dr. Charles Eastman

By Nancy J. Farrier

 

Charles Eastman was born in 1858, in Minnesota. He was named Hakadah (the pitiful last) when his mother died a few days after his birth. He had three brothers and one sister. As a youth, he received the name, Ohiyesa (the winner).

 

Eastman in Sioux dress
Public Domain

Suring the “Sioux uprising of 1862” Ohiyesa was separated from his father and siblings. For the next ten years he was raised by his grandmother and uncle and lived a nomadic life. He believed those ten years were very formative and helped him the rest of his life

In his teen years, Ohiyesa wanted to avenge his father’s death. He was surprised when his father showed up in his camp. He had become a Christian and lived in the white man’s world and came to take his youngest son home. Ohiyesa was not happy but went with his father and eventually adjusted to that lifestyle. 

 

He had a thirst for learning and wasn’t satisfied with the small school close to them. His father encouraged his education. Ohiyesa walked 150 miles to a better school and at the encouragement of a missionary educator was accepted at Beloit College in Wisconsin. His father adopted the English name of his wife’s father, Eastman, and Ohiyesa became Charles Alexander Eastman.

 

Eastman went to several different schools, colleges and universities, before graduating from Dartmouth College in 1887 and going to Boston University to study medicine. He graduated with his medical degree in 1890, much faster than most students. 

 

Elaine Goodale, Public Domain
Wikimedia Commons

He became the Government Physician to the Sioux. Dr. Eastman was the first on the scene at Wounded Knee to treat the wounded Indians. After seeing the horrors inflicted on the tribes he became an advocate to help the Sioux. 

 

Charles married, Elaine Goodale, a white woman, a poet and Indian welfare activist, in 1891. They would have six children. He had to quit his job after a disagreement with a corrupt Indian agent. He and his wife moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where he began an medical practice. Within a short time he was offered a position as field secretary for the International Committee of the YMCA. 

 

He was also instrumental in promoting and working with Boy Scouts of America and Camp Fire Girls. He helped organize and establish many of the camps and even ran a camp on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. In 1915, his whole family settled in to run a camp at Granite Lake, New Hampshire.

 

Charles Eastman's Book

Dr. Eastman went to Washington D.C. to lobby for Sioux rights in 1897. He served again as Government physician to the Sioux tribe and then became an employee of the Indian bureau in 1903. He was charged with giving English names to all the
Sioux and recording names and family lineage. While doing this he met almost every living Sioux and interviewed them.

 

At his wife’s encouragement, Charles became an author, publishing his first book, Indian Boyhood, in 1902. The book was an immediate success. People were fascinated with his detail about life growing up among the Sioux. He published fifteen books, many used in schools, and also translated to French, German, Danish and Czech. He also wrote articles and was a public speaker.

 

Dr. Charles Eastman, Public Domain
Wikimedia Commons

By 1910, Dr. Eastman became involved in attempting to improve the circumstances of Indian tribes. He became President of the Society of American Indians. He set up a summer camp for young girls to teach them the Indian way of life.

 

In 1921, Charles and Elaine separated. They did not give the reason for this. Charles bought a plot of land on the north shore of Lake Huron. When he wasn’t traveling and speaking, he lived a primitive life in his small cabin. In later years, he would spend the bitter part of the winter with his son in Detroit. He died in 1939.

 

Dr. Eastman was the foremost advocate for Indian rights of his time. At the 1933 World’s Fair he was presented with a special medal honoring his achievements. His contribution to understanding Indian philosophy and religion were very significant. 

Have you heard about Dr. Eastman? I was fascinated at the extent of his education and the work he did for the cause of the different tribes. What did you find the most fascinating? I'd love to hear from you.

Nancy J Farrier is an award-winning, best-selling author who lives in Southern Arizona in the Sonoran Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats and dog, and spend time with her family. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.

 

 

 

 

How One Cow Started A War

© Andreas Krappweis

Hey everyone! Jennifer Uhlarik here. As I was researching recently, I stumbled across a rather interesting tidbit of information that I didn’t know. Were you aware that a single cow was one of the catalysts that sparked the First Sioux War?

One lonely cow!

It happened in August, 1854, near Fort Laramie, Nebraska Territory (present day Goshen County, Wyoming). A group of Mormon emigrants was traveling over the Oregon Trail when one of their cows wandered away. The bovine ended up in a large encampment of Lakota Sioux with roughly 4800 men, women, and children. There, a visiting Miniconjou warrior named High Forehead shot and killed the cow.

Mormon wagon train leaving
Council Bluffs, IA

The owner of the cow tracked it down but became fearful when he saw the encampment full of Sioux, so he went to Fort Laramie instead. He explained the situation to Lt. Hugh Fleming. Fleming, in turn, approached the Sioux chief, Conquering Bear, to discuss the situation. Conquering Bear attempted to negotiate, offering a horse from his own herd or a cow from the tribe’s herd, but the Mormon man demanded $25 cash. When they couldn’t come to terms, Fleming demanded the arrest of High Forehead, but Conquering Bear again wouldn’t agree since he had no authority over the Miniconjou tribe. They ended their negotiations in stalemate.



Second Lieutenant John Grattan, a fresh graduate of West Point, took matters into his own hands. He had little respect for the Sioux as warriors and went in search of a fight, so he took an armed detachment of thirty soldiers and one interpreter and marched into the Sioux encampment to arrest High Forehead. The interpreter, who was drunk at the time, began to taunt the Sioux warriors, calling them women and promising they would be killed by the soldiers. Grattan went to High Forehead’s tent and demanded that he surrender, to which High Forehead refused. Then, Grattan went to Conquering Bear to again negotiate. The chief once more offered a horse in exchange for the dead cow, but Grattan rejected the offer. He demanded the arrest of High Forehead. Again, the negotiations ended in stalemate. It was as Grattan walked back to his horse that the shooting began.

Red Cloud

The Sioux warriors had gradually flanked the soldiers during the negotiations, and one man became so nervous he fired his gun. The bullet struck the Sioux chief, mortally wounding him. With bows and arrows, the Sioux killed Grattan and eleven of his soldiers. The remaining men retreated to a rocky outcropping nearby, but a group of Sioux led by the rising war chief Red Cloud pursued and killed them all.

For days after the battle, the Sioux wreaked havoc on the nearby settlers, trading posts, and Fort Laramie. After three days, the Indians abandoned the large encampment and returned to their respective hunting grounds, going against the provisions of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. When a burial party went into the encampment, they found the bodies of the thirty soldiers had been mutilated almost beyond recognition.

© Phil Konstantin

When news of the battle that became known as the Grattan Massacre reached the War Department, a plan for retaliation was formed. They sent Colonel William S. Harney to Fort Kearny with the intent to garner revenge. The Indian agent in the area forewarned the Sioux of the coming battle, and half the Sioux forces went to Fort Laramie and presented themselves as friendly. The other half under Chief Little Thunder’s leadership, remained at large, although they desired also to live peacefully.

On the morning of September 3, 1855, a 700-soldier force of descended on an encampment of 250 Brulé Sioux. Harney and his men killed more than one hundred men, women, and children that day, and also took roughly seventy prisoners. The Battle of Ash Creek, as it became known, began a long history of attacks and retaliations that would continue for many years on the Western frontier. In fact, The Battle of Ash Creek can be directly linked to one of the most famous cases of retaliation in all of Indian war history. One of the young boys who witnessed the massacre of family and friends at Ash Creek grew to be known as the great Sioux warrior, Crazy Horse, who twenty-one years later, rode into battle against Custer on the banks of the Little Big Horn.

It's your turn. How do you think the situation with the runaway cow should have been handled? Could war have been prevented?

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won five writing competitions and made the top 10 and top 3 in two other competitions. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, teenaged son, and five fur children.