The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-11-02
HORRORS OF INDIAN WAR
FARE.
A GraPhie Description of the Massacre
Of the Garrison at Fort Csspar-The
Firsf Stand Made by the Sioux I'm DE
tense of the big Horn Country.

The massacre at Fort Caspar, BY the
combined tribes of the Sioux, Northern
Cheyennes and Arapahoes, has never
been published before. Yet it was
equally tragic; almost asSblbody, and
resembled in many features the recent
butcbery of Custer and his. Eve COM
panies of the Seventh Cavalry, on the
Little Big Horn d Tie Same Indians
who have struck Crook and who have
washed their hands in the precious,
crimson life blood of the ncdel cavalry
man of America, tore off the scalps of
the brave boys. who followed Caspar
Collins in his second charge in vain
endeayor to rescue party of q Kansas
boys who were being slowly moved
down in plain view of the fort by over
whelming h9rdes of sayages. 1t is a
true ..f f. q ?.
PREFECTURE OF INDIAN WARFARE,
described by an eyewitness, and is the
more interesting because the scenes
then enacted were the counterpart of
those being enacted now in the same
region of country, II years ago. rrac j.
1t was in the month of September,
1865, Gen. P. E. Conner had just
crossed the North Platte River, at the
point where Fort Fetterman has since
been located. He had started into the
Big Horn and Powder River country,
and had established three forts in the
region where Crook and Terry are now
struggling, and where the gallant Custer
and his brave boys died Sitting Bul,
and Crazy-Horse were not then the
great chiefs of the great Sioux nation.
The tribe had not at that time confed-
Grated itself into compact body of
fighting men. = 'Ha ..s"r.4 rH-t
LONE HORN AND RED CLOUD, 'H-'
The grand chief of the North was
Lone Horn, vicious, uncompromising
savage. Next to him ranked Red Cloud,
who was considered incorrigibly hostile
These two chiefs, with the Arapahoes,
Little Bear and some smaller CHEYENNE
chiefs, commanded at least three thou
sand warriors. Up to this time (1B65) the
Indians had never made an attempt to
consolidate their forces. They had ha-
raised for four years the 18th Ohio Cav
airy, volunteer force, half refugee
mountaineers and the other half s'Buck-
eye boys" and had cut them up in de-
tail. But in 1865 the Sioux made grand
concentration near Medicine Bow (now
on the Union Pacific, and struck for
Gen. COnnor's base of supply, on the
North Platte.
Lone Hnrn was the commander of
this new organized Indian army. Red
Cloud and his Ogalalias formed a sepa-
rate diVision.' Red Wolf and his Chey-
ennes formed another. Spotted Tail
and his Brules another, and Little Bear
and his Arapahoes the last of the great
confederation.
THE CONCENTRATION. OF. INDIANS.
As before stated, Gen. Conner had
crossed the North Platte, where Fort
Fetterman was afterwards built, and
had penetrated the Big Horn and yell
lowstone country, and Was engaged in
building forts Reno, Conner CATER
wards Phil Kearney), and C. F. Smith,
when he was notified of the concentra-
ton of a formidable body of Indians in
his rear, and the destruction of the
Overland Telegraph. The writer, with
a detachment of the 18th Ohio Cavalry,
was sent back to the telegraph line with
these official instructions:
You will keep that overland telegraph
open at all hazards. '.s p. z. COEYOR,
-Gen'l Commanding.
Within three days after reaching the
North Platte the detachment sent back
was in the face of the entire Sioux army.
They withdrew to the shelter Of the
Sweetwater Mountains, where, after
loading up the train with long tele-
graph poles, they moved eastward
through the DEVILS Gate " on the
old California trail to Red Buttes,
nine miles above Fort Caspar, or as it
was then called "Platte Bridge" The
telegraph line having been destroyed
for several miles above and below Red
Buttes, the force Went into sc corral :"
and dug rifle pits, and during each
night went out and hung up the wires
the Indians had torn down in the day
time. 1t was perilous work driving
nails into the stumps of posts burned
Off during the day, and hanging the
telegraph wire up so that New York
could talk to San Francisco. This lit
tie band of brave beys-all tried and
true Buckeyes did notrealize their
true position. They Anew from the
many signal fires seen burning every
day around them that there was trouble
in the air, and the redskins were gath
ering close by. They could see small
bands of Indians tearing down in the
morning the telegraph. wires they had
put up in the night; that was all. d..
THE SIEGE OE FORT CAsPAR.
On the second day after going into
camp, the little band of telegraph re-
pairers found themselves surrounded
by immense swarms of Indians. The
''corral'' was broken up and a retreat
made down to a horseshoe bend in the
Platte, where a position was obtained
surrounded by. water on three sides,
with breastwork of telegraph poles
on wagons all around: The Indians,
finding their, position impregnable, dis
appeared. A few days afterwards, a
soldieFbelonging to the Sixth Michigan
Cavalry came into camp bleeding from
several flesh wounds; the sole survivor
of a party of six who had passed the
camp in the morning going towards
he fort. He reported the fort, which
was nine miles distant, but hidden
from view only by bend in the river
and high sand ridge, surrounded by
+bo1eaode &c TnJ;aos ord tho fbuudpT