page_title: American Indian Wars
section_title: Sheridan's campaigns
hierarchical_section_title: American Indian Wars / West of the Mississippi (1811–1924) / Great Plains / Sheridan's campaigns
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: indianhistoryfor00drak (find matches) Title: Indian history for young folks Year: 1919 (1910s) Authors: Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel), 1828-1885 Dowd, Francis Joseph, 1876- Subjects: Indians of North America Indians of North America -- Wars Publisher: New York London&#160;: Harper &amp; Brothers Contributing Library: New York Public Library Digitizing Sponsor: MSN View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: ltant cheers of thewhites could be heard the defiant warwhoop of the warriors, who, from thefirst, fought with a desperation and courage which no race of men couldsurpass. At the first onset a number of the Indians rushed through the liius.Many had sought shelter behind logs and trees, and under the banks of thestream which flowed through the centre of the village, and to dislodgethem it was necessary for the cavalry to fight on foot in the Indian style.Slowly but surely the Indians were driven out of these defences, and wereeither shot down or pushed beyond the scene of action. The women andchildren remained within the lodges and became prisoners. The villagewas burned and eight hundred horses slaughtered. One hundred andthree warriors, including the chief, Black Kettle, were killed, and fifty-three women and children captured. For fifteen miles along the Washita, the lodges of the Arapahoes, underLittle Raven, the Kiowas, under Satanta and Lone Wolf, and numerous to O5 te o ft g•0 Text Appearing After Image: INDIAN WARS (1862-1877). 443 bands of Cheyennes, Coinanelies, and Apaclies extended. At the news ofOusters onslaught they collected and attacked him in turn, but were re-pulsed, and at nightfall Custer withdrew. His loss was twenty-one killed,including Major Elliot and Captain Hamilton, and eleven wounded. This was a hard blow, and, according to General Sheridan, it fell uponthe guiltiest of all the bands, that of Black Kettle. It was this hand,says he, uthat without provocation had massacred the settlers on theSaline and Solomon, and perpetrated cruelties too fiendish for recital.()n the other hand, Indian Agent AVynkoop says: I know that BlackKettle had proceeded to the point at which he was killed, with the under-standing that it was the locality where those Indians that were friendlydisposed should assemble. In regard to the charge that Black Kettle wasengaged in the depredations committed on the Saline and Solomon duringthe summer of ls»;s, I know the same to be utterly false, a Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, the First Nations Wars in Canada and the Indian Wars is the collective name for the various armed conflicts that were fought by European governments and colonists, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settlers, against various American Indian and First Nation tribes. These conflicts occurred in North America from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the early 20th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, including cultural clashes, land disputes, and criminal acts committed. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.
  As settlers spread westward across North America after 1780, armed conflicts increased in size, duration, and intensity between settlers and various Indian and First Nation tribes.
context_section_description: After the Civil War, all of the Indians were assigned to reservations, and the reservations were under the control of the Interior Department. Control of the Great Plains fell under the Army's Department of the Missouri, an administrative area of over 1,000,000 mi² encompassing all land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock had led the department in 1866 but had mishandled his campaign, resulting in Sioux and Cheyenne raids that attacked mail stagecoaches, burned the stations, and killed the employees. They also raped, killed, and kidnapped many settlers on the frontier.
  Philip Sheridan was the military governor of Louisiana and Texas in 1866, but President Johnson removed him from that post, claiming that he was ruling over the area with absolute tyranny and insubordination. Shortly after, Hancock was removed as head of the Department of the Missouri and Sheridan replaced him in August 1867. He was ordered to pacify the plains and take control of the Indians there, and he immediately called General Custer back to command of the 7th Cavalry; Hancock had suspended him.
  The Department of Missouri was in poor shape upon Sheridan's arrival. Commissioners from the government had signed a peace treaty in October 1867 with the Comanche, Kiowa, Kiowa Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho which offered them reservation land to live on along with food and supplies, but Congress failed to pass it. The promised supplies from the government were not reaching the Indians and they were beginning to starve, numbering an estimated 6,000. Sheridan had only 2,600 men at the time to control them and to defend against any raids or attacks, and only 1,200 of his men were mounted. These men were also under-supplied and stationed at forts that were in poor condition. They were also mostly unproven units that replaced retired veterans from the Civil War.
  Sheridan attempted to improve the conditions of the military outpost and the Indians on the plains through a peace-oriented strategy. Toward the beginning of his command, members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho followed him on his travels from Fort Larned to Fort Dodge where he spoke to them. They brought their problems to him and explained how the promised supplies were not being delivered. In response, Sheridan gave them a generous supply of rations. Shortly after, the Saline Valley settlements were attacked, and that was followed by other violent raids and kidnappings in the region. Sheridan wanted to respond in force but was constrained by the government's peace policy and the lack of well-supplied mounted troops. He could not deploy official military units, so he commissioned a group of 47 frontiersmen and sharpshooters called Solomon's Avengers. They investigated the raids near Arickaree Creek and were attacked by Indians on September 17, 1868. The Avengers were under siege for eight days by some 700 Indian warriors, but they were able to keep them at bay until military units arrived to help. The Avengers lost six men and another 15 were wounded. Sherman finally gave Sheridan authority to respond in force to these threats. 
  Sheridan believed that his soldiers would be unable to chase the horses of the Indians during the summer months, so he used them as a defensive force the remainder of September and October. His forces were better fed and clothed than the Indians and they could launch a campaign in the winter months. His winter campaign of 1868 started with the 19th Kansas Volunteers from Custer's 7th Cavalry, along with five battalions of infantry under Major John H. Page setting out from Fort Dodge on November 5. A few days later, a force moved from Fort Bascom to Fort Cobb consisting of units of the 5th Cavalry Regiment and two companies of infantry, where they met up with units from the 3rd Cavalry leaving from Fort Lyon. Sheridan directed the opening month of the campaign from Camp Supply. The Units from the 5th and 3rd Cavalry met at Fort Cobb without any sign of the 19th Kansas, but they had a lead on a band of Indians nearby and Custer led a for
caption: U.S. cavalry attacking an Indian village
exif: {}