The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-03-30

paid TO the Beecher Island Memorial as
ISOLATION of Yuma county, California
$500 which was appropriated by the Kan
sas legislature Lass winter, for a monu-
ment TO be erected by the association te
land that Forsyth had his battle with Ro-
man Nose and his warriors. Colorado mas
also gwen $2,5c0. General Forsyth's men
We're, with few exceptions, farmers from
Kansas.
That little paragraph or news pub
lished and all but forgotten weeks ago,
means that something has at last been
l done to commemorate one of the BRAY
est fights ever recorded In the history
of this or any people. Beecher died on
Beecher's island. thirty-seven years ago.
The island is in the Arickaree river in
Colorado near the Kansas western line.
Fifty Kansas farmers fought a hous-
and Indian warriors there for eight
days and nights. For six days the
Kansans We're starving. They lacked
food of any kind. Their supply of wa
ter was poor. Their surgeon had been
killed fighting with them. and their
wounded suffered great agony for van
of surgical attention. Their dead
comrades lay beside them in their prim-
itive rifle pits, unshriven and unburied.
AT the end of the second day there
were not thirty effective fighting men
amongst them. Their leader. Colonel
Forsyth, a young union soldier, had Il
oeep scalp wound, one leg. was broken
below the knee, and a bullet was i'm
bedded in one thigh. He asked two of
his men to cut the bullet out. but they
We're afraid he would bleed to death.
Forsyth, with his own razor, tract
the bullet himself.
On the second night. two men volun-
teered to creep through the Indian
lines and so to the nearest tort for
help. They e and forty-eight farm
ers We're left to hold the island against
a thousand. 1t is a great thing that
they fought, but a greater that they
won. Men spoke OF 1T afterwards as
the battle of Arickaree. but the name
means nothing now. Thousands of
Americans have never heard of it. And
yet the thing those Kansas farmers did
was one of almost incredible yalor and
endurance. The records of the fight
are SO neager. the men We're SO OBJ
scure. that lame prose can only pre-
sent a vague. historical birdseye view
of those heroic pioneers. Some day u
poet will mold the story in the lasting
brass" of song.
On a Hun. for Trouble.
These fifty Kansas farmers. led By
Colonel Forsyth and Lieutenant Beech
Ell of the regular army come proml-
nently into history for the first time
Colorado on the middle fork of the re
publican river. Forsyth is still living, a
retired general. Fred Beecher was a
nephew of Henry Ward Beecher. He
had fought at Gettysburg. S. f. Still
Well, one of the farmers, was orn on
the Missouri side, where Kansas City
now stands. They made their camp on
September 16, 1868. They had beer
marching for days. following
an evasive trail that swung them
through three states. The Indians had
been out for q year. ~ravaging, burning
and Staying. The governors had pro-
tested to Sherman at st. Louis: Sher-
man had protested to Washington;
Washington had advised moderation.
The eastern people through the west
ern settlers prone to brevity with the
noble red men. And the noble red man
had gone on Staying until the debt of
murdered settlers and ravished women
became a burden. Then Sheridan. at
LeaYenworth. suggested to Sherman. at
st. Louis, that the noble red man had
a to stop him.
That was why Forsyth halted on the
banks OF the Arickaree river with
weary riders. Their surgeon
was ]. II. Morris. who had served in
the civil war with a New York regi-
:nent of volunteers. Sharp Grover was
guide. Their information made them
positive that they would not have to
fight more than 300 Indians. They had
a settled conviction that they would
SuIkllSc d!il GLLGdCh Tie l1lulalS. III |
never occurred to them that the Indians
would be the aggressors.
I'VE should get to them in the morn
said Grover.
He imagined the Indians to be still
He never dreamed even of
was Growers mistake. 1t turned
a punitive expedition into q heroic fight
for life. Forsyth stood with Beecher
and estimated his position.
"A little valley two miles long and
he called it afterwards, with a
dry rivers bed, some sixty feet from
either bank He thought it pretty
with the shallow river ripping past
and the blue landscape climbing up
very weary. The evening air was cool
md sweet. in the morning they would
to the Indians and teach them some
aw. But the Indians am to them
the first ray light of dawn.
Forsyth was standing near a sentry
cut across the skyline. He was
listening to the drumming of shocless
hoofs. Grover and Beecher were walk
ing the men. each of whom held the
Ialiat of his own horse. The drum
ming grew louder and then over the
crest of the hill swept 200 mounted
head dress Haunting in the
Wind. Fifty rifles cracked OUT at that
and the riders checket! and swept
in echelon. The yells OF red
hunger split the air.
. Renegade Whi.s with the Indians.
And then" says Forsyth. " a re-
%narkabie thing happened. We heard,
lear above the yelling of the Indians.
he silvery notes of an artillery bugle.
white renegade was with them
There was an angry pause TO. better
and the rifles cracked again.
The III am up and lit the valley.
Good God, general, look at the In
Grover stood with one hand on For
syta's shoulder and poiiited. Along the
sandy riverbed. tianEing the opposite
oa.k, GROWING the hills, where the
were massing for another
charge. the redmen stood in hundreds.
A thousand, Grover estimated them to
DC. The indians later admitted thai
his was right. And Forsyth had for
men.
Listen to .hal damned h'ackguard's
pugling." said Grover.
They heard his voice, too, c~ursing in
English later. when the island was