Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-11-07

| command do not remember)- A portion
| of the identical an was met a few davs
after by Major Elliott, of the Seventh
Regular Cava.ry, and driven towards the
head of the Republican. On the 5th of Sep
tember, General Alfred Sully, a famous
Indian fighter, with nine companies of Gus
ter's celebrated regiment, was ordered by
General Sheridan TO make raid on the
families and stock of the Cheyennes and
Arapahoes. in order to draw back
to : their reservations the warriors
of these tribes who were north
marauding. The camps of the women
and children Were supposed to be
south, on the Beaver, Wolf or Canadian.
On the 21st Sully met a war party and
killed seventeen; he was few days after
wards confronted by an overwhelming
number. and, carefully skirmishing with
them, was compelled to retreat to near the
mouth of the Mulberry, some twelve miles
east of Fort Dodge, south of the Arkansas;
there he me de stand, on the exact spot
Where Fords City, in Ford County, is
located But his ammunition was soon
| exhausted and the now classic spot would
have been a veritable '1ast ditch'' had not
the gallant Colonel Keogh ran the gauntlet
of the ever-watchful savages with a small
detachment of his troop under cover of
the darkness, and. safely reaching Fort
Dodge, returned next morning with an
oOOAUoht supply, upon tlS arrival anu
distribution of which among the almost
worn out command the Indians were
routed. Lastly, the fight of General George
A. Forsyth, just over the Nebraska line, on
the Arrickaree fork of the Republican, the
most terri bic Indian battle that ever took
place on the continent. It commenced on
the 18th of September and lasted eight
days. The little command, comprising
only fifty civilian scouts. was suddenly
Dad hx-o
the famous Chief Roman Nose, whose
terrific charges upon the handful of de-
termined men with his phalanxes of we'll
drilled savages and their repeated repulse
by the unerring aim and GOODNESS of the
former have never been excelled in all the
history of Indian warfare. 1t was during
this awful1y unequal conflict that Lieut.
enant Beecher, OF the Third Infantry, q
nephew of the celebrated Brooklyn
preacher, was killed.
Early in November General Sheridan
again moved his headquarters to Fort
Hays, which point the railroad had just
reached, thus shortening the distance that
supplies and forage would have to be
transported by wagons more than seventy
miles, and there the troops and munitions
of war for the impending conflict were
concentrated. But long before that date
from Fort Harker-which had been the
great distributing depot for all the military
posts, including the whole territory as far
west as large portion of Arizona
millions of pounds of corn,
oats and commissary stores had
been deposited at Fort Dodge
on the Arkansas, it having been desig-
mated by General Sheridan in his plans as
one of the bases of supplies. All the army
mule trains that could be spared from the
various posts in the great district and all
the overland freighters' outfits tn at could
be gathered were hired for this service
aggregating thousands of animals and
wagons.
General Sheridan at once saw, at the
very beginning of hostilities, that with
the limited number of available troops of
the regular army at his command he could
not successfully wage a defensive much
less an offensive, war in the immense
.sre gion it would necessarily include, and
ne was authorized, at his suggestion, by
General Sherman to call on the Governor
of Kansas for a regiment of cavalry, to
be mustered into the service of the United
States for six months; and, accordingly,
Governor S. j. Crawford's proclamation
calling for this regiment was issued Octo-
Der TO, 1S6S. and was answered promptly
by the very flower of the States young
men. It was designated as the Nineteenth
Kansas, and was mustered into the service
I at Topeka on the Doth, only ten days after
the call SO promptly did the people re-
spond to the demand OF the alarmed and
suffering settlers on the frontier.
The famous Dave l. Payne who was
sometim known 1.-The Scout of the
Cimarron" and afterwards of Oklaho-
ma notoriety, was Captain of company
II in this Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry.
Governor Crawford resigned his office of
chief magistrate to take command, and on
the 9th of November left Topeka for the
Indian country, marching by the most di-
rect route to the point of junction of the
Beaver and Wolf rivers, called Camp
Supply, and the principal base of opera
tions in the Indian Territory selected by
General Sheridan for that purpose. The
command crossed the Arkansas on the
14th where it flows through what is now
Harvey County, and when the vicinity of
Medicine Lodge was reached after
leaving thar stream, il encountered one of
those awful so-called 'sblizzards" which
came sweeping down from the north in all
its suddenness and characteristic blood
curdling fury. The regiment became
nearly demoralzed by the terrible cold
and binding snow. They lost a large
number of their horses, camp equipage
and supplies in the fearful storm, but at
last arrived safely, though many were on
foot and suffering. at the cantonment on
the Wolf river, about the end of
and his whole force had estab-
lished their quarters some days before.
But / have anticipated the order of
events as they occurred. General Sheri-
dan, after moving his headquarters from
Fort Harker to Hays, remained there some
weeks until every thing was ready for the
great move south
General Custer had arrived and taken
command of his regiment, the forage and
commissary supplies had all been aggre-
gated at the several depots, and the troops
concentrated at Fort Dodge, waiting fer
the order to move forward into the Indian
country.
1t was now the middle of bleak Novem-
Der, and one bitter cold morning the bu-
giles sounded and we were off for the for
tunes of war. General Sully commanded,
with Custer next in rank, and that even
ing after some delay in crossing the swift
and icy Arkansas, camped with his forces
at the mouth of the Mulberry, twelve miles
from Fort Dodge.
The immense supply train, accompany
ing the expedition at its start, of six.
mule army wagons, was four miles long
when strung out in single column, but
for its easier protection moved in quad
ruple, reducing its length to one mile
There were with the command two hun.