Notes
Chapter 11
1. Gibbon, "Report of the Commanding General," 66.
See also DeMontravel, "Miles," 269-70.
2. For the military operations against the Lakotas
and Northern Cheyennes out of the Tongue River Cantonment, see Greene,
Yellowstone Command.
3. Miles to Howard, February 1, 1877,
correspondence (1877), Howard Collection.
4. The district consisted of "the Posts on the
Tongue and Big Horn Rivers and Fort Peck; [and] such portion of the
garrison of Fort Buford, D.T., as may, under authority received from
Dept. Hdqrs, be called into the field. . . . The Hdqrs of the District
will, until further orders, be at Cantonment on Tongue River, or with
the Commanding Officer in the field." General Orders No. 1,
Headquarters, District of the Yellowstone, Cantonment at Tongue River,
M.T., September 4, 1877, entry 903, part 3, General Orders and
Circulars, Sept. 1877-June 1881, District of the Yellowstone, U.S. Army
Continental Commands. During the Indian campaigns of the post-Civil War
period, Miles was in demand because of his proactive leadership and
direct involvement, impressing not only his superior officers but also
the enlisted men of his command. "General Miles [is] the Best Indian
Fighter there is on the Prairie today since Custer Fell," wrote Private
Oliver P. Howe, Company H, Second Cavalry, soon after the Nez Perce
campaign. Howe to Samuel J. Howe, October 11, 1877, Howe Letters. Miles
later became commanding general of the army before his retirement in
1903. For background on his career, see Wooster, Nelson A. Miles;
Pohanka, Nelson A. Miles; DeMontravel, "Miles"; and Virginia
Johnson, Unregimented General. Autobiographies are in Miles,
Personal Recollections; and Miles, Serving the
Republic.
5. Miles, Personal Recollections, 260-61;
Regimental Returns . . . Fifth Infantry, September 1877, roll 58; and
Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly," 186.
6. Miles to Sturgis, August 19, 1877, Baird
Papers.
7. Major George Gibson to Assistant Adjutant
General, Department of Dakota, October 1, 1877, in Terry, "Report,"
546-47; and Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 114. Originally, Company B,
Seventh Cavalry, under Captain Thomas B. McDougall, was ordered to join
the commission, but McDougall took sick ("drunk," according to Edward S.
Godfrey's account) and Hale's unit started instead. Edward S. Godfrey,
account of the Bear's Paw Campaign, October 31, 1877, Godfrey Papers,
LC.
8. Miles later recalled receiving the dispatch:
"During the afternoon of September 17th I observed a dark object appear
over the high bluff to the west and move down the trail to the bank of
the Yellowstone. He was soon ferried across, and, riding up, dismounted
and saluted. Without waiting for him to report, I asked him if they had
had a fight. He replied, 'No, but we have had a good chance.'" Miles,
Serving the Republic, 172.
9. Terry, "Report," 514; and Colonel Samuel D.
Sturgis report, December 5, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report . . .
1877, 73. The message was accompanied by a report from Sturgis
accounting for his failure to stop the Nez Perces and blaming it on "the
absence of a single guide, who had ever been in the country in which we
were operating, taken in connection with our ignorance of it, and its
exceeding rough and broken character, and my inability to learn anything
of Howard's position, [all of which] enabled them to elude me at the
very moment I felt sure of success. This is extremely mortifying to me."
Sturgis to Miles, September 13, 1877, in Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis
report, December 5, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report, 1877,
73-74. It must be stated that Terry's message was not an order directing
Miles to action, but a request for assistance, since technically Howard
was from another military department to which Miles was not subjected.
According to military protocol, however, should the two meet in the
field, Howard, by virtue of his rank, could assume command of a combined
force; until then, Miles subscribed directly to the orders of Generals
Terry and Sheridan, and Commanding General Sherman. For this discussion,
see William H. C. Bowen to the editor, The Spectator, September
21, 1929, foldercorrespondence of William Bowen, 1908-1931, boxWilliam
Bowen personal papers, Bowen Papers.
10. Miles to Terry, September 17, 1877, in Colonel
Samuel D. Sturgis report, December 5, 1877, in Secretary of War,
Report . . . 1877, 73. Miles sent Howard an almost identical
message, explaining his plan for "intersecting the Nez Perces" before
they could reach Sitting Bull's camp. Miles to Howard, September 17,
1877, copy in folder: Nez Perce War, box 3, Sladen Family Papers. The
troops remaining on the Yellowstone included the First Infantry
companies at Bighorn Post, and Companies A, C, D, E, Fifth Infantry, and
Company C, Seventh Cavalry, which garrisoned the Tongue River
Cantonment. Regimental Returns . . . Fifth Infantry, September 1877,
roll 58; and Regimental Returns . . . Seventh Cavalry, September 1877,
roll 72. Miles's adjutant, First Lieutenant George W. Baird, described
Miles's proposed route of march as being "along the hypothenuse of a
triangle, to intercept a rapidly marching force which was following the
perpendicular and had had five days the start." Baird, "General Miles's
Indian Campaigns," 363.
11. Miles to Howard, September 17, 1877, copy in
folder: Nez Perce War, box 3, Sladen Family Papers.
12. An enlisted man remembered: "On September 17,
just after midnight, there was loud knocking at the door of D Company,
Fifth Infantry. We heard the headquarters orderly tell the first
sergeant to turn out the company for a 30 days scout in light marching
order. Fort Keogh [sic] was soon in a buzz of preparation for an Indian
campaign. By daylight the next morning the command . . . was moving
out." Winners of the West, October 30, 1936.
13. Snyder, "Diary," September 17, 1877.
14. Alice Baldwin, Memoirs . . . Baldwin,
191.
15. Miles, Personal Recollections, 262.
16. Fragmentary note dated October 3, 1877, in
Edward S. Godfrey's hand, item 16, container 1, Godfrey Papers, LC;
Gibson to Assistant Adjutant General, Department of Dakota, October 1,
1877, in Terry, "Report," 547; Miles, "Report," 527; Circular, September
17, 1877, entry 903, part 3, General Orders and Circulars, September
1877-June 1881, District of the Yellowstone, U.S. Army Continental
Commands; and Army and Navy Journal, December 8, 1877. Most
previous estimates of the size of Miles's command on the Nez Perce
campaign have been far too low. This approximate figure is reconstructed
based on examination of several sources, notably the following:
Regimental Returns . . . Seventh Cavalry, August and September, 1877,
roll 72; Regimental Returns . . . Second Cavalry, August and September,
1877, roll 19; Regimental Returns . . . Fifth Infantry, August and
September, 1877, roll 58; Surgeon Henry R. Tilton to Surgeon General,
October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; and
Godfrey, Interview.
17. Basic information about these officers is in
Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary as follows: Hale
(1:487), Biddle (1:217), Moylan (1:733), Godfrey (1:461), Eckerson
(1:396), Tyler (1:977), McClernand (1:657), Jerome (1:573), Bennett
(1:211), Woodruff (1:1058), Snyder (1:907), Romeyn (1:844), Carter
(1:287), Baird (1:183), Long (1:640), Maus (1:698), Tilton (1:836), and
Gardner (1:445). In addition, for Hale and Biddle, see Army and Navy
Journal, October 13, 1877; and for Godfrey, whose extensive and
action-filled frontier career commanded special interest, see Carroll
and Price, Roll Call on the Little Big Horn, 61-63; and Chandler,
Of Garry Owen in Glory, 360-62. Godfrey's article about the
Little Bighorn is an oft-reprinted classic (Godfrey, "Custer's Last
Battle").
18. First Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin to Tyler,
September 18, 1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army
Continental Commands. See also Tyler to Baldwin, September 19, 1877,
ibid., which contains details of Tyler's and Hale's marches. Hale had
been notified of the change on September 17 and had been directed to
return his company to the cantonment. News of the Nez Perce situation,
however, changed that directive, and instead of turning back, Hale
awaited the arrival of Tyler's battalion. Biddle, Diary, September 17,
18, 1877.
19. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1697.
20. Miles, Personal Recollections, 263.
Lieutenant Henry Romeyn, writing long after the fact, maintained that
these scouts had located "flankers" of the Nez Perce column. If so, the
sightings went unacknowledged in the official reports. See Romeyn,
"Capture of Chief Joseph," 285.
21. Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 117. Miles's
directive prohibiting shooting is in Circular, September 21, 1877, entry
903, part 3, General Orders and Circulars, September 1877-June 1881,
District of the Yellowstone, U.S. Army Continental Commands.
22. Tilton, "After the Nez Perces," 403. A
condensation of this piece appears in Army and Navy Journal,
February 9, 1878.
23. Howard to Miles, September 20, 1877, folder:
Nez Perce War, box 3, Sladen Family Papers. Biddle's own account of the
stopping of the Fontenelle is in Biddle to Mother, n.d.
[September 24, 1877], box 2, Biddle Collection. Biddle's mother wrote on
the top of this letter, "The last letter my darling ever wrote."
24. Johnson was a highly regarded scout who had
served Miles valuably during the Sioux campaigns, and his death was
keenly felt. He mistook the swift-running Missouri for the Musselshell
and tried to swim his horse across. See Miles, Personal
Recollections, 263; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877,
entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; and, particularly,
Barker, "Campaign and Capture," (December 1922): 7, 30.
25. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1698. In his
books, Miles, Personal Recollections (263) and Miles, Serving
the Republic (173), Miles fondly boasted that his men marched
fifty-two miles within twenty-four hours to reach the Missouri on
September 23. In fact, in two days' marching on the twenty-second and
twenty-third, the men made 57.45 miles35.83 miles the first day and
21.57 miles the secondaccording to Long, "Journal of the Marches,"
1697-98. This description of Miles's march to the Missouri is drawn from
material in Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1696-98; Miles, "Report,"
527; Snyder, "Diary," September 18-23, 1877; Tilton to Surgeon General,
October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General;
Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 117-18; Romeyn, "Capture of Chief
Joseph," 284-85; Army and Navy Journal, February 9, 1878; Baird,
"Capture of Chief Joseph," 209-11; Baird, "General Miles's Indian
Campaigns," 363; Miles, Personal Recollections, 261-64; and
Miles, Serving the Republic, 173-74.
26. Biddle to Mother, n.d. [September 24, 1877],
box 2, Biddle Collection.
27. Baldwin to Tyler, September 24, 1877, entry
107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands. See also
Miles, Personal Recollections, 264.
28. Miles to Terry, September 24, 1877, Department
of Dakota, Letters Sent, item 4043, entry 1167, U.S. Army Continental
Commands.
29. Snyder, "Diary," September 24, 1877; Zimmer,
Frontier Soldier, 118; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26,
1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Godfrey,
Interview; and Circular, September 24, 1877, entry 903, part 3, General
Orders and Circulars, September 1877-June 1881, District of the
Yellowstone, U.S. Army Continental Commands.
30. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1698.
31. Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877,
entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Kelly, "Yellowstone
Kelly," 186; and Kelly, "Capture of Nez Perces."
32. Bailey to Baldwin, 9:15 a.m., September 25,
1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental
Commands.
33. Clendenin to Bailey, September 24, 1877, ibid.
See also Barker, "Campaign and Capture," (December 1922): 30.
34. Miles, "Report," 528. See also Miles, "Report
of Col. Nelson A. Miles," October 6, 1877, in Secretary of War,
Report . . . 1877, 74.
35. The fuses on the projectiles were shortened to
insure their bursting high in the air. Baldwin, Interview. See Miles,
Personal Recollections, 265; Miles, Serving the Republic,
174-75; and Steinbach, Long March, 129-30. Godfrey stated that
the Napoleon gun was used to signal the craft. Godfrey, Interview.
36. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1698; Miles,
"Report," 527; Snyder, "Diary," September 25, 1877; Zimmer, Frontier
Soldier, 118; Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry
624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General; Godfrey, Interview; and
Kelly, "Capture of Nez Perces." Private Luther Barker remembered that
the crossing necessitated unloading the supplies from the wagons and
carrying them aboard the steamer. Then "the wagons had to be taken apart
and carried a piece at a time on board the steamer." Barker, "Campaign
and Capture," (January 1923): 7. For background on Kelly (1849-1928),
Miles's most trusted civilian scout during his campaigns on the northern
plains, see his autobiography, Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly"; and
Keenan, "Yellowstone Kelly."
37. Miles to Mary Miles, September 26, 1877,
quoted in Virginia Johnson, Unregimented General, 197.
38. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1699.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid.
41. Tilton to Surgeon General, October 26, 1877,
entry 624, box 1, Office of the Adjutant General.
42. Tilton, "After the Nez Perces," 403.
43. Snyder stated that this camp was on "Dry Fork
of Milk River," but it might, in fact, have been on an affluent of the
South Fork of Beaver Creek, an often dry tributary of Milk River.
Snyder, "Diary," September 27, 1877. For activities of September 26 and
27, see appropriate entries in Snyder, "Diary"; Zimmer, Frontier
Soldier, 120; Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1699; Tilton to
Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the
Adjutant General; Howe to Howe, November 11, 1877, Howe Letters; and
Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 285-86.
44. There is some evidence that a few of the
Cheyenne scouts contacted the Nez Perces during this period, probably as
the families moved north toward Snake Creek from Cow Creek Canyon. The
Cheyennes reportedly lied, telling the Nez Perces they were not scouts,
whereupon the tribesmen took them into their village and gave them food.
By the time the Cheyennes returned to Miles with intelligence of the Nez
Perces, the colonel already knew of the location of the village. See
Stands In Timber and Liberty, Cheyenne Memories, 227; and Brown
and Felton, Frontier Years, 107, 244 (citing Rufus Wallowing to
the authors, April 1951).
45. Miles, Personal Recollections, 266.
46. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1699.
47. Long described the route on September 28 thus:
"Our trail still clings closely to the northern side of the Little
Rockies, and at 4.10 p.m. we cross People's Creek; it has a gravelly
bed, running spring-water, but no wood in sight. Passing over several
small branches of this creek which wind among the foot-hills of the
mountains at 6 p.m., after a march of 28.36 miles, we finally encamp on
one of them near the gap or pass of the Little Rockies that tower above
us. The pass is the only one through these mountains, and not a little
difficulty is experienced in following its intricate windings." Ibid.,
1699-700.
48. Ilges to Miles, September 27, 1877, entry 107,
box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands; Helena Weekly
Independent, October 11, 1877; and Ilges's letter in Army and
Navy Register, September 1, 1883.
49. Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1700.
50. Godfrey, Interview.
51. Kelly, "Yellowstone Kelly,"
188.
52. Miles, Personal Recollections, 267. The
message from Howard to Miles, September 26, 1877, and Miles's response,
September 29, 1877, are in folder: Nez Perce War, box 3, Sladen Family
Papers. Miles might also have received two other dispatches at this
time. (Private Ami Frank Mulford, Seventh Cavalry, claimed to have
ridden from Sturgis to Miles before the Bear's Paw engagement opened.
See Mulford, Fighting Indians!, 117). One, sent via Fort Ellis
from Terry at Fort Shaw, offered plausible vindication for his future
movements, stating: "I revoke any order forbidding movement to the North
prior to the return of the Commission. I leave the whole subject to your
discretion and best judgement." Terry to Miles, September 26, 1877,
entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army Continental Commands. The
other, a penciled personal note from Howard at the Musselshell,
referenced Miles's dispatch of September 17 and bemoaned his continued
criticism by the press. Howard to Miles, September 20, 1877, Miles
Family Papers, LC. Beyond the material quoted above, this description of
the events of September 28 and 29 is based on accounts in Miles,
Personal Recollections, 266-67; Miles, "Report," 528; Miles,
"Report of Col. Nelson A. Miles," October 6, 1877, in Secretary of War,
Report . . . 1877, 74; Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1699-700;
Snyder, "Diary," September 28, 29, 1877; Howe to Howe, November 11,
1877, Howe Letters; Zimmer, Frontier Soldier, 121; Tilton to
Surgeon General, October 26, 1877, entry 624, box 1, Office of the
Adjutant General; Godfrey, Interview; Gaybower, Interview; Baird,
"General Miles's Indian Campaigns," 363; Kelly, "Yellowstone
Kelly," 188-90; and Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 286.
53. William F. Schmalsle is mentioned in Bailey to
Baldwin, September 25, 1877, entry 107, box 3, part 3, 1877, U.S. Army
Continental Commands. In a 1914 letter, the retired Marion Maus wrote
that "I had 32 Cheyennes besides the whites, Trippe [sic], Smalze [sic]
and Yellowstone Kelly." Maus to Walter M. Camp, February 2, 1914, folder
1, box 2, Camp Papers, BYU. Maus's engagement with the Indians on
September 29 is described in "Memoranda of Active Service . . . Maus."
It is referenced in a letter, Miles to Adjutant General, March 26, 1894,
Medal of Honor, Special File. In another letter, Maus wrote: "We had a
fight with the Indians on the 29th wounding or killing two and capturing
a herd of horses. This about 25 miles from the scene of fight &
surrender at Bear Paw." Maus to Camp, February 2, 1914, folder 1, box 2,
Camp Papers, BYU. "Yellowstone" Kelly described what was probably this
encounter, but mistakenly had it occurring on the thirtieth. Kelly,
"Yellowstone Kelly," 191-92. See also Kelly, "Capture of Nez
Perces."
54. "Map of Milk River Indian Country." See
Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 33-35, for general commentary on
tribal interrelationships, but for a comprehensive discussion, see
McGinnis, Counting Coup and Cutting Horses, passim.
55. Weed and Pirsson, "The Bearpaw Mountains,"
283-87. On the origin of the range's name, the article states: "The name
of the mountain group is itself derived from the Indian designation for
Black Butte near Fort Assinniboine [1896], called by them the Bear's
Paw. The mountains of course became known as the Mountains of the Bear's
Paw." Weed and Pirsson, "The Bearpaw Mountains," 284. According to
legend, however, the origin of the mountains, and hence their name,
"Bear's Paw," came from area Indians (which tribe or tribes is not
stated). Centennial Mountain, in the extreme part of the range, in shape
resembles a dead or prostrate bear. The legend states that, because of
the presence of many bears, the tribesmen never hunted there. One
winter, however, a brave Indian hunter ventured to camp on Big Sandy
Creek, killed a deer, and was leaving the mountains with the deer when
the Master Bear appeared and held the warrior to the ground with his
paw. The Indian, who needed the game for his starving people, appealed
to a supreme deity, who ordered the bear to release him. When the bear
refused, the deity let loose bolts of lightning that severed the
animal's paw, freeing the Indian, and killing all the bears in the
mountains. Appropriately, at the point of severance of the bear's paw
near Centennial Mountain exists a geological fault that adds credence to
the legend, while adjacent Box Elder Butte represents the paw. This
account, attributed by geologist William Pecora to Montana state senator
William Cowan, is in Pecora, Letter. See also Chinook Opinion,
August 25, 1955. Through the years, the nomenclature has included Bear's
Paw, Bearpaw (USGS, 1987), Bears Paw (USGS, 1987), and Bear Paw, in
reference to this range; historically, however, the term, "Bear's Paw"
predominated over all others, and for that reason it has been retained
in the present narrative. The Nez Perces called them the Wolf's Paw
Mountains. Yellow Bull, Interview, LBNM; and Camp to Romeyn, March 27,
1918, Ellison Collection. The U.S. Geological Survey has designated the
range the Bearpaw Mountains, and the National Park Service, as of
October 1994, determined that the name of the unit of Nez Perce National
Historical Park would be Bear Paw Battlefield.
56. Yellow Bull, Interview, BYU.
57. This account is from "Yellow Bull's Story."
See also McWhorter, Hear Me, 478; McWhorter, Yellow Wolf,
204; and the recollections of Suhmkeen (later known as Samuel Tilden),
in Alcorn and Alcorn, "Old Nez Perce Recalls," 70. The Nez Perce James
Stewart told Camp that the people had a somewhat different reason for
stopping: "[They] knew they had a big start on Howard and the women and
children wanted to rest. Some of the warriors were for going on and all
intended to do so the next day [September 30]. They knew they were near
the Canadian border. Dissensions and jealousies had also arisen and some
of those who had taken a leading part all along in conducting affairs
became disgusted and the morale of the whole band had fallen into a
rather bad way. These men knew the trails through the mountains and
through the buffalo country." Unclassified envelope 91, Camp Manuscript
Field Notes, Camp Papers, BYU. Most Nez Perce accounts are specific in
stating that the people realized that they had not already crossed into
Canada. Joseph claimed such in Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An
Indian's Views," 429, soon after the warfare ended. Indian
Superintendent James McLaughlin stated that he conversed with Joseph in
1900 about the 1877 war and that Joseph told him: "I had made a mistake
by not crossing into the country of the Red Coats, also in not keeping
the country scouted in my rear." McLaughlin, My Friend the
Indian, 363 (see also 361).
58. This description of the location of the
Nee-Me-Poo encampment is based upon information derived from James
Magera, various communications with author, Havre, Mont., 1994 and 1995;
author's field notes, June 9, 1994; New York Herald, October 11,
1877; C. Raymond Noyes, plat, "Battle of the Bear's Paw," NA; Romeyn,
"Capture of Chief Joseph," 287; Alva Noyes, In the Land of the
Chinook, 71-73; Francis Haines, "Chief Joseph," 7; Francis Haines,
Nez Perces, 273; and Josephy, Nez Perce Indians, 615-16.
The camping sites of the different bands were identified by two aged
warriors, Many Wounds and White Hawk, who had fought at Bear's Paw and
who accompanied Lucullus V. McWhorter to the field in 1928 and 1935.
Within specific camp circles, they identified the following individuals
(presumably with families) as among the occupants: [Joseph's camp] Poker
Joe, Young Buffalo Bull, Many Coyotes, Lone Bird, Red Spy, Kowtolikts,
Black Trail, Lahpeealoot (Geese Three Times Alighting on Water), Joseph,
Eagle Necklace Sr., John Dog, Howithowit, Ollokot, Red Wolf, and
Koosouyeen (Going Alone); [Looking Glass's camp] Husis Kute,
Kolkolhkequtolekt, Looking Glass, Sahpunmas (Vomiting), Toonahon, Peopeo
Tholekt, White Bull, and No Hunt (Looking Glass's brother); [White
Bird's camp] White Bird, Weyahsimlikt, Yellow Bull, Koolkool Snehee (Red
Owl), Yellow Grizzly Bear, Wayatanatoo Latpah (Sun Tied), Peopeo
Yahnaptah, Koolkool Stahlihken, Two Moons, Blacktail Eagle, and Shot in
Head; and [Toohoolhoolzote's camp] Toohoolhoolzote, White Eagle, Struck
by Lightning, Rainbow Sr., Five Times, Wenottahkahcikoon, No Fingers,
Wottolen (Hair Combed Over Eyes), Ipnoutoosahkown, Shot in Breast, Tom
Hill, Buffalo Horn, Eagle Necklace Sr. (also listed as being in Joseph's
camp), Charging Hawk, and Nicyotscoohume. McWhorter, "Stake Tabulation,
Chief Joseph's Camp" (this appears to be the first draft); and
McWhorter, "Stake Tabulation of the Bear's Paw Mountain Battlefield."
Both of these lists place the Palouse leader Husis Kute in Looking
Glass's camp. Information on tabulation is correlated on C. Raymond
Noyes, plat, "Battle of the Bear's Paw," NA. See also McWhorter,
Yellow Wolf, 323-38 (index); and McWhorter, Hear Me,
633-40 (index), for confirmation of individuals' names.
59. Maus's party seemingly did not return to the
column until the battle at Snake Creek was well underway. See Kelly,
"Yellowstone Kelly," 192. \
60. Shambo, "Reminiscences." Shambo's account is
reprinted in Alva Noyes, In the Land of the Chinook, 73-77.
61. The Northern Cheyenne scouts with Miles
included the following: Brave Wolf, Old Wolf, Magpie Eagle, Crazy Mule,
Young Two Moon (John Two Moon), High Wolf, Starving Elk, Tall White Elk
(or Tall White Antelope?), White Wolf, Little Sun, Spotted Blackbird
(later known as Medicine Top), Little Yellow Man, Stands Different,
Timber, Sa-huts, Yellow Weasel, Little Old Man, Medicine Flying, Ridge
Bear, White Bear, White Bird, Big Head, War Bonnet, Bear Rope, Elk Shows
His Horns, and Hail. Lakota scouts present included Hump, Roman Nosed
Sioux, Iron Shield (or Iron Shirt?), and No Scalplock. A number of the
listed Cheyennes were, in fact, not scouts but volunteers who hoped to
acquire Nez Perce horses by participating in the venture. Two of the
Cheyennes, White Bear and White Bird, apparently scouted so far away
from the command that they did not participate in the action at Bear's
Paw. This information has been compiled from Young Two Moon, Account. A
slightly variant version is "Capture of the Nez Perces, Young Two Moon's
Account." In a second-generation statement, John Stands-in-Timber
contended in 1954 that Young Two Moon and High Wolf had discovered the
Nez Perce village on September 29. Dusenberry, "Northern Cheyenne,"
27.
62. Tilton, "After the Nez Perces," 403.
63. Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 286. For
the formation of the column, see also Moylan to Ernest Garlington,
August 16, 1878, copy in Godfrey Papers, LC. (This document is reprinted
in Chandler, Of Garry Owen in Glory, 74-76.)
64. Long to Miles, August 16, 1890, Long Papers;
and Godfrey, Interview.
65. Description based on an interview with Charles
K. Bucknam and G. H. Snow, New York Herald, October 11, 1877.
(This account is abbreviated in Frank Leslie's Illustrated
Newspaper, October 27, 1877.) Bucknam was one of the Fort Benton
volunteers dispatched by Ilges to Miles after the Cow Island/Cow Creek
Canyon affairs. Army and Navy Register, September 1, 1883.
66. Godfrey, Interview. Former Private Fremont
Kipp, Company D, Seventh Cavalry, told Walter M. Camp: "When we got
within 5 or 6 miles of the camp that morning we got within 1000 yds of a
Nez Perce outpost of 3 Inds [sic] who were sitting by a fire. When they
saw us they rode off bare back, leaving their saddles. We were coming
from the S.E. & had not struck the main trail yet. They evidently
thought we were going direct to the village & so instead of trying
to mislead us struck out for the village themselves & our scouts
followed them." Kipp, Interview.
67. Undated fragmentary note penciled in Godfrey's
hand, part of which is in container 1, folios 14-15, Godfrey Papers, LC,
while a continuation page is in the Godfrey Papers, MHI. A contemporary
account by Lieutenant Jerome of the Second Cavalry partly dispelled
Hale's purported statement: "The story about Hale's saying, 'My God! am
I going to be killed so early in the morning?' is probably a fiction.
What did occur was this. When the command halted . . . , Hale, who was
spoiling for a fight, but who was evidently nervous and troubled, took
out a charm given to him by a lady, which he wore around his neck and
said:'Jerome, if I should get killed this morning I want you to see that
this gets back'mentioning the lady's name. I bantered him a moment about
it. Then he took it in his hand and threw it with a gesture against his
heart, laughed in his peculiar manner and exclaimed:'There, nothing is
going to harm me now.'" New York Herald, October 30, 1877. Still
another story of Hale's portent had him saying, on the eve of his
departure from the cantonment: "Pray for me, for I am never coming
back!" Alice Baldwin, Memoirs of . . . Baldwin, 192. See also
Carriker and Carriker, An Army Wife, 106-7.
68. Titus, "Last Stand," 148. This article, while
containing inaccurate and undocumented information, is to some degree
useful because Titus was able to have then-Colonel Edward S. Godfrey, a
participant, review and correct the manuscript. Godfrey evidently
concurred with the statement regarding the viewing of the herd from the
ridge "between Peoples Creek and Snake Creek." Nelson Titus to Godfrey,
June 11, 1905, Godfrey Papers, LC.
69. Romeyn, "Capture of Chief Joseph," 286; Miles,
Personal Recollections, 267. It is doubtful that Miles or any of
his command, save perhaps the white scouts, ever knew the full extent of
the pre-action involving the Northern Cheyennes at the Nez Perce camp;
only their own accounts, given to selected whites years later, described
the introductory skirmishing in any detail.
70. This description of the advance has been
reconstructed from the sources quoted or cited in explanatory footnotes,
besides the following: Miles, "Report," 528; Miles, "Report of Col.
Nelson A. Miles," October 6, 1877, in Secretary of War, Report . . .
1877, 74; Long, "Journal of the Marches," 1700; Zimmer, Frontier
Soldier, 121-22; Snyder, "Diary," September 30, 1877; Howe to Howe,
November 11, 1877, Howe Letters; Moylan to Garlington, August 16, 1878,
copy in Godfrey Papers, LC; and Baird, "General Miles's Indian
Campaigns," 363.
71. For details of the Lame Deer fight, see
Greene, Yellowstone Command, 205-13. For descriptions and
assessments of the army's tactical recourses during the so-called Indian
wars of the 1870s, see ibid., 10-12; and Wooster, The Military and
United States Indian Policy, 135-42. For an overview of the
procedures and pitfalls of the system, including the surprise tactic,
during this period, see Cook, "Art of Fighting Indians."
72. This estimate of the village population is
derived from knowledge of the estimates given by Shively and Irwin in
the national park, as well as the surrender figures given by McWhorter's
Nez Perce sources in McWhorter, Hear Me, 499; and estimates by
Black Eagle regarding the number of people who escaped to Canada,
presented in McWhorter, Hear Me, 499. Also considered was the
tabulation of surrendered Nez Perces given in "Report of Indians . . .
District of the Yellowstone."
73. Pre-battle activities in the Nez Perce camp
are described in McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 205; McWhorter, Hear
Me, 478-81; Joseph [Heinmot Tooyalakekt], "An Indian's Views," 428;
and Garcia, Tough Trip through Paradise, 293.
74. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 205.
Ten-year-old Suhmkeen recalled that the man "yelled, then he fired his
rifle in the air, at the same time he waved a blanket giving us the
signal . . . 'Soldiers comingsoldiers coming.'" Alcorn and Alcorn, "Old
Nez Perce Recalls," 71.
75. McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 205. For the
alarm in the camp, see McWhorter, Yellow Wolf, 205; McWhorter,
Hear Me, 479, 481; Yellow Bull, Interview, LBNM; MacDonald, "Nez
Perces," 269; and Francis Haines, Nez Perces, 274-75.
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