The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-27
MADE TO RELIEVE PINE RIDGE
AGENCY.
Gallant Commander Who Recently
Passed Away Will Be Long Re-
membered By Those Who Knew
of His Services As a Fighter On
the Frontier Among Redskins.
fNeM York SUM-

ing that instruction. notably the Ia
nous march made by him and a de-
tachment of the Ninth cavalry to the
relief of the agency Immediately follow
ing the bloody conflict between hostile
Sioux and the Seventh cavalry at
Wounded Knee creek on Dec. %, 1890.
In the afternoon of Dec. "a General
(then Major Henry received orders to
move out at once from Pine Ridge
agency and head off Big Foot, a Sioux
chief. and his followers, who had been
taken prisoners some time before by a
detachment of troops north of the
White river, but had made their escape,
and were supposed 10 be heading to-
ward the Bad Lands to join the hos
tiles there.
The "generar'-the service call mean
ing to strike tents and pack mules and
wagons-was sounded about in the
afternoon, and shortly afterward
boots and saddles rang out. The
light troopers of the Ninth had
become weary of camp, and welcomed
the prospect of activity in the field.
Major Henry. with three troops and
two Hotchkiss guns-called by the In
dams the guns that ''shoot today and
kill tomorrow because of the explosive
shell-of the First artillery, under
Lieutenant Hayden, commenced the
fiftymile march, leaving one troop be-
hind to escort the wagon train.
The ride that frosty Christmas eve
tried the endurance of the troopers to
its utmost. The cold was so intense
that water froze solid in the canteens,
Notwithstanding the constant shaking.
AT 4 o'clock on the morning of Christ
mas day the battalion reached Cotton
wood Springs, at the base of the posi-
ton of the Indians in the Bad Lands.
The troops then rode to Harvey
Springs, and from that point secuted
the surrounding country for several
days to find Big Foot's trail, but il was
afterward found that the willy chief had
passed to the eastward.
g OF g
Meanwhile, farther south on the Pine
Ridge reservation exciting incidents
were happening. A battalion of the
Seventh cavalry. commanded by Major
S. NJ. Whiteside, left Pine Ridge agency
on Dec. 26 for the region east of the
agency to head off Big Fooe in the
event that he evaded the troops on
White river and went in that direction
The Seventh went into camp on
Wounded Knee creek soon after dark
on that day, and scouting parties were
Immediately sent out in various direc-
tons in search of the enemy.
These failed to discover any trace of
the fleeing Sioux until Sunday. Dec. rs,
when the camp of Big Foot was uneX-
pectedly discovered. q The hostiles sur
rendered without resistance. That day
orders were sent for the remainder of
the Seventh cavalry. under Brigadier
General James w. Forsyth. to proceed
to Wounded Knee and join the rest of
the regiment. On Monday morning.
Dec. %, while disarrning Big Foot and
his followers, fight was precipitated
by the exhortation of an Indian .'medi-
cine man." resulting in one of the
bloodiest battles in border warfare
News of the battle soon reached the.
thousands of heretofore friendly" In
dams encamped in the vicinity of Pine
Ridge agency, sixteen miles away. Mis-
chief makers made them believe that
the white troops had disarmed Big Foot
and his people. compelled them to stand
in a row, had then deliberately shot
them down, and that the friendly In
dams at the agency would receive the
same treatment when the troops re-
turned. The Indians were excited by
these exaggerations. at once -donned
war paint and gathered in threaten
ing manner on the hills surrounding
the agency. Spies reported that they
intended to avenge the so-called
slaughter of Big Foot and his follow
ers by burning the agency and killing
all the whites.
AT this time the only troops at the
agency were about $50 infantrymen.
The Indian police force was well organ
lied. but consisted OF only about sew
enty-five men. Toward evening the
stampeding Indians. numbering in the
neighborhood of 1,S00 warriors alone,
commenced firing on the agency, and
kept this up for some time, but made
no attempt to enter. Their fire was
returned by the Indian police and few
of the soldiers, who defended the points
of attack
Matters had now become so serious
that a courier was sent with orders for
the Ninth cavalry to return as speedily
as possible from White River. 1t was
generally feared that the Indians would
attack and enter the agency under
cover of darkness. In obeying this or
der to return the Ninth performed
feat of long distance riding which has
rarely been surpassed by so large a
body of troops In less than forty min
utes after the courier had ridden into
camp with news of the exciting events
happening further south. the squadron
had commenced the journey through
country filled with hostile Indians to
Pine Ridge agency, nearly fifty miles
away.
1T was now 10 O'Clock at night"
wrote their commander, in describing
the ride. The wind was cold. and as
it hcwled out of the canyons and swept
over the valley it carried with it the
crystals that had fallen the day before.
There was no moon: the night was inky
dark: even the patches of snow which
lay here and there on the ground gave
no relief to the eye. Mufiied in their
shaggy buffalo coats and hooded by
the grotesque fur caps used by our
western troops. the negro troopers
looked like meaningless bundles that
had been tied in some way to the backs
Of Their horses. Through canyons
whose black walls seemed TO be COM
pressing all the darkness of the night.
over buttes whose crests were crowned
with snow and across the rickety
bridges which span Wounded Knee and
creeks, the command sped at
a pace which would have killed horses
that had not been hardened by prac-
tice as ours had been.
Nothing could be beard but the clat-
ter of the iioofs and the clanking of the
carbines as they chafed the metallic
been ordered. and the usual laugh and
melodious songs of the darlxey troopers
we're not to beguile the march. Now
and then came the reverberation of the
mule cker's whip as he threw his
energy and muscle into a desperate
effort to keep the wagon train near US;
figures could be seen fitting across the
road and on the bluffs. and we knew
not at what moment we might be fired
upon. Accordingly the effort was made
TO reach the agency before daybreak. in
The hope that darkness and the Indians
would protect us from at
lack in the meantime.
8 @ o
The newspaper correspondents and