New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1908-08-12
Chief Red Clouds Threat and
the Massacre Which Followed.
Interesting Rehearsal Of Terrible Event Which Brother
Of the Bmghams Of this City Lost His Life

" denounced the whites as liars, and
made the threat quoted at the begin
ming of this article.
All efforts to dissuade Red Cloud
and his followers from withdrawing
from the council were unavailing.
The troops which intended travelling
into the disputed territory had two
days start of him, but in the mean
time he sent the alarm out among his
people, and the war between the blue
coats of Uncle Sam ana the warlike
and desperate Sioux Indians was on.
The chiefs of many of the Sioux
tribes signed the treaty and remained
peaceable. Notwithstanding this Red
Cloud had a considerable following,
and to this was added the Northern
Cheyennes and Arapahoes, these con-
stituting the hostiles in the vast en-
.pire lying between the North Platte
and the Big Horn mountains, includ-
ing the Black Hills region.
The first pitched battle between the
regular troops and the Indians under
Red Cloud took place on July 81, 1866,
at Crazy Woman's creek, fork of
the Powder river. It was light which
lasted all day, and for it's severity
and the numbers engaged has scarcely
ever been equalled in Indian warfare.
The troops consisted of but twenty
men, under Lieut.. A. II. Wands, who
were acting as escort to detail of
officers just appointed to the regular
army and enroute to join the Eigh-
teenth at Fort Phil Kearney, the Eigh-
tenth having arrived at that post but
day or two before.
During the fight Lieut.. N. 81.
Daniels was killed, as was Sergeant
Collery and one citizen teamster.
Practically every other man in the
command was wounded, and but for
the opportune arrival of a relief party
that had made forced march, the
entire command would have been an
initiated. So desperate was the con-
dition of the beleagured command
that they decided to first kill the two
women with the command, one the
wife of Lieut.. Wands, and the other
a Mrs. Fessenden, and then take their
own lives before submitting to what
seemed almost inevitable capture.
The two brave women, who were
angels of mercy during the entire all
day fight, caring for the wounded,
agreed to the proposition of their own
deaths. The Indians engaged were
under the personal direction of Red
Cloud, and while not numbering more
than one hundred at the beginning of
the fight at O'Clock that morning,
had received reinforcements to the
number of nearly 1000 by shutdown,
when the battle ended.
The troops had retreated to small
knoll about a quarter of mile from
where the attack began in the morning,
and fortified it by digging riae.pits in
the sand, thus holding their own
until rescued about shutdown by a
force of about three hundred men,
under command of Gen. Burroughs,
who was en- route back from Fort Phil
Kearney to Fort Reno for supplies.
Skirmishes and battles,'' said S.
S. Peters, one of the survivors of the
Fort Phil Kearney massacre, sfol-
lowed almost daily with the Indians,
both at Fort Reno and Fort Phil
Kearney. In the meanwhile new
post, Fort G. F. Smith, had been es-
tablished in the Grow country, ninety
miles west of Fort Phil Kearney, and
was garrisoned by two companies of
the Twenty-seventh infantry. All of
these posts were stockaded posts, and
neither had more than three hundred
men to garrison them at the beginning
of the fall of 1866.
Fort Phil Kearney was in the very
heart of the hostile Indian country,
and encounters with the Indians were
of daily occurrence. Twenty-Five or
thirty men were killed during the
early fall and winter, including Lieut..
Il. f. Bingham, of the Second cavalry,
gallant and noble fellow. Several
men were killed while on guard duty
on the stockades, and pickets were
constantly ambushed and killed.
The climax OF the tragedy of those
terrible years of war was reached on
Dec. q, 1866, when a detachment of
eighty-three men, under Lieut.. Col. W.
j. Fettermann, Capt. Fred II. Brown
and Lieut.. George W. Grummond,
with two citizens, Jim Wheatley and
jim Fischer, were massacred by the
Indians under Red Cloud, while out
to relieve the wood train, which had
been attacked by the Indians.
The entire command was annihi-
Ilatad within fhroo horns of+c,,