page_title: John Wallace Crawford
section_title: Crook's Horsemeat March
hierarchical_section_title: John Wallace Crawford / Crook's Horsemeat March
caption_attribution_description: English: Soldiers cutting up abandoned horse during Crook's Horsemeat March.
context_page_description: John Wallace" Crawford, known as "The Poet Scout", was an American adventurer, educator, and author. "Captain Jack" was a master storyteller about the Wild West and is known in American history as one of the most popular performers in the late nineteenth century. His daring ride of 350 miles in six days to carry dispatches to Fort Laramie for the New York Herald, to tell the news of the great victory by Gen. George Crook against the village of Chief American Horse at the Battle of Slim Buttes during the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877, made him a national celebrity.
context_section_description: Crook's "Horsemeat March" marked the beginning of one of the most grueling marches in American military history.  Crook's command consisted of about 2,200 men: 1,500 cavalry, 450 infantry, 240 Indian scouts, and a contingent of civilian employees, including 44 white scouts and packers.  Crook's civilian scouts included Frank Grouard, Baptiste "Big Bat" Pourier,  Baptiste "Little Bat" Garnier, Captain Jack Crawford and Charles "Buffalo Chips" White.  "Although Captain Jack's "yarns and rhymes" would help to relieve the monotony of camp life, Buffalo Bill grew bored by the inactivity and left the expedition to continue his theatrical career in the East.  According to one newspaper account, it was on Cody's recommendation that Col. Wesley Merritt subsequently appointed Crawford to succeed Cody as chief of scouts of the 5th Cavalry Regiment." News of the defeat of General Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25 and 26, 1876, arrived in the East as the U.S. was observing its centennial. The American public was in dismay and calls to punish the Sioux and awaited the government's response.  War correspondents with national newspapers fought alongside General Crook and reported the campaign by telegraph. Correspondents embedded with Crook were Robert E. Strahorn for the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and the Rocky Mountain News; John F. Finerty for the Chicago Times; Reuben Briggs Davenport for New York Herald and Joe Wasson for the New York Tribune and Alta California (San Francisco). 
   On August 26, 1876, with his men rationed for fifteen days, a determined General Crook departed from the Powder River and headed east toward the Little Missouri pursuing the Indians. Crook feared that Indians would scatter to seek game rather than meet the soldiers in combat after the fight with Custer. All other commanders had withdrawn from pursuit, but Crook resolved to teach the Indians a lesson.  He meant to show that neither distance, bad weather, the loss of horses not the absence of rations could deter the U.S. Army from following up its wild enemies to the bitter end.
  Strahorn reported that "all the infantrymen who could ride and who so wished were mounted on mules from the pack train.  No circus ever furnished a better show in its mule-riding department than we enjoyed when those two hundred infantrymen essayed their first mount.  Many of them had never been astride a horse and many of the mules had never been ridden.  Tom Moore, Chief of Pack Trains, and his battalion of assistance, had the time of their lives trying to mount and hold the men in their saddles for the first hours of the performance.  Not a few of the soldiers, after being pitched into the sagebrush and cactus a few times, contended they would sooner walk.  However, galled but gallant, nearly two hundred stuck to the mules."
  An accident befell Strahorn during the advance. During a rainstorm Strahorn became entangled in his gear and his horse bucked dragging him face first through prickly pear and cactus.  With the help of surgeons, it took weeks to painfully extract the barbs.  He remarked, "I was in good mood for an Indian fight or any other distracting adventure."
  The days soon arrived when, on forced marches after the enemy, all discharges of firearms except at the enemy were strictly prohibited under severe penalty.  Being out on the right flank one day, just out of sight of the troops, I came upon a beautiful covey of grouse.  They were so tame I could almost knock them over with rocks, but while the contact thus established made me increasingly anxious for grouse for dinner that night, I could not hit them.  So finally, in spite of those orders and with growing appetite, I shot two of them and quickly secreted the evidence of my disobedience by rolling them up in the rain coat I carried on my saddle.  The right wing of the command was wildly excited by the shots.  The skirmishers thrown out on that side soon discovered my lonely presence and hustled me to Colonel Chambers with the news that no Indians were visible.  He very sternly asked. "Mr. Stra
caption: Soldiers cutting up abandoned horse on Crook's "Horsemeat March"
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