Pine Ridge 01

Waupaca County Republican

January 9, 1891

MORE BLOOD SPILLED

ANOTHER TERRIBLE FIGHT WITH THE INDIANS

The Redskins Attack a Catholic Mission School Near Pine Ridge and

The Cavalry Hastens to Put Them to Flight,

But Is Overcome and Forced Back to the Agency

[Pine Ridge (S.D.) dispatch]

The day opened with an attack on the wagon train of the Ninth Cavalry, within a mile and a half of the agency. Col. Henry and four companies of the Ninth arrived at daybreak. An hour after, the Indians fired into the wagons. In a few moments both the Seventh and the Ninth were out and in line of battle on the bluffs north of the agency. The one hour the skirmish was over and the soldiers started for breakfast, but were destined to go without.

A courier arrived with word that the Catholic Mission was on fire, and the teachers and pupils being massacred. In twenty minutes the weary, hungry and exhausted cavalrymen were once more in motion. They found that the fire, the black smoke of which could be plainly seen, was the day school, one mile this side of the mission.

The Indians were found to number 1,800 and over. The Seventh formed a line and began the fighting, which was carried on by only 300 or 400 Indians at a time, while the great mass kept concealed. Col. Forsythe suspected an ambush and did not let them draw him on into dangerous ground. Col. Henry started one hour later than Forsythe and owing to the exhaustion of his horses had to travel slowly. The Seventh became surrounded by Indians, but just as the circle was ready to charge the Ninth broke in upon the rear and they fell back. The weary soldiers slowly retreated, reaching the agency at dark.

The infantry had been ordered out, but was stopped by the sight of the head of the column of cavalry. The soldiers, brave and heroic as they are, were over-powered.

There are not enough troops at this point to clean out these Indians, who are still camped within seven miles of the agency. If the infantry had gone out, the chances are that the agency would have been burned to the ground by the 2,500 so-called friendlies, who are still camped near here.

Every one is exhausted. No sleeping have exhausted every one.

Owing to the firing being at long range, the damage done the troops was small.

Lieut. Mann, of Company K, Seventh Cavalry, was wounded. He was shot through the side. The First Sergeant of Company K is also wounded.

The fights of yesterday and today leave Company K without a single officer, either commissioned or non-commissioned.

Clauson, a private in Troop C; Kirkpatrick, of Troop B; R.J. Nolan, of Troop K, and W. Kern, of Troop D, Seventh Cavalry, were wounded.

The only man killed was a private of Troop E; Ninth Cavalry, but his name has not been ascertained.

A special to the Omaha Bee from Pine Ridge Agency says:

“The Seventh and Ninth Cavalry arrived here late this evening and found the wildest excitement prevailing. Immediately after their arrival a courier brought word that the Catholic mission, occupied by children, sisters, and priests, had been attacked and the small buildings and haystacks surrounding the church burned. The Indians were under the command of Little Wound and Two Strike. The cavalrymen immediately remounted on receipt of the news and hastened to the scene of the trouble. A courier just in says that a collision occurred between the troops and the Indians, and that six soldiers were killed. The fight was still in progress when he left.”

The Omaha Bee’s special from Rushville says:

Advices from the seat of war give the news of another encounter between the troops and Indians at a point within four miles of the agency. The Seventh and Ninth Cavalry were just coming in from yesterday’s battlefield, followed at some distance by their provision train. On reaching the point named, a large band of Indians, headed by Chief Two Strike, dashed suddenly upon the train, captured it, and were making off toward the Bad Lands, when the cavalry wheeled and gave pursuit. In the battle which followed over thirty Indians were wounded, but no soldiers were killed.

According to the latest reports Two Strike’s Indians had yesterday been considered peaceable and subdued, but their sudden change of mind causes the gravest fears here that perhaps none of the so-called friendlies can be relied on. However, word form Gen. Brooke to the settlers today is somewhat reassuring, it being to the effect that a great body of the savages have remained loyal all the while, and that nearly all the rebels are dead. He further says the settlers here are not now in danger.

Reliable news is also at hand that Col. Henry is now approaching the agency with 700 Indians captured in the Bad Lands. This is believed to include all the remnants of the rebels on the reservation, and hopes are entertained of a speedy settlement. It has cost the lives of about 250 Indians and twenty-five or thirty soldiers killed and wounded to effect this result, if indeed it may be said that peace is yet established.

The bodies of gallant Capt. Wallace and the other dead soldiers arrived here at noon from the agency, and will be shipped to Fort Robinson, the nearest military post. Rushville is crowded with settlers. The churches and all public rooms are thrown open, and no effort is being spared to make the refugees comfortable. They are here, as previously reported, on the advice of Gen. Brooke. They are not only ready to defend their homes, but many are anxious to enlist with the regulars if further fighting should occur.

NOT AN INDIAN WAS LEFT

How the Reds Went Down Before the Fire of the Soldiers

The Omaha Bee’s correspondent at the camp on Wounded Knee telegraphs as follows concerning the battle there:

In the morning, as soon as the ordinary military work of the early day was done, Maj. Whitesides determined upon disarming the Indians at once, and at 6 o’clock the camp of Big Foot was surrounded by the Seventh and Taylor’s scouts. The Indians were sitting in a half circle. Four Hotchkiss guns were placed upon a hill about 200 yards distant. Every preparation was made, not especially to fight but to show the Indians the futility of resistance. They seemed to recognize this fact, and when Maj. Whitsides ordered them to come up twenty at a time and give up their arms, they came, but not with their guns in sight. Of the first twenty but two or three displayed arms. These they gave up sullenly, and observing the futility of that method of procedure, Maj. Whitsides ordered a detachment of K and A troops on foot to enter the tepees and search them. This work had hardly been entered upon when the 120 desperate Indians turned upon the soldiers, who were gathered closely about the tepees, and immediately a storm of firing was poured upon the military. It was as though the order to search had been a signal. The soldiers, not anticipating any such action, had been gathered in closely and the first firing was terribly disastrous to them. The reply was immediate, however, and in an instant it seemed that the draw in which the Indian camp was set was a sunken Vesuvius. The soldiers, maddened at the sight of their falling comrades, hardly awaited the command and in a moment the whole front was a sheet of fire, above which the smoke rolled, obscuring the central scene from view. Through this horrible curtain single Indians could be seen at times flying before the fire, but after the first discharge form the carbines of the troopers there were few of them left. They fell on all sides like grain in the course of a scythe.

Indians and soldiers lay together and the wounded fought on the ground.

Off through the draw toward the bluffs the few remaining warriors fled, turning occasionally to fire but now evidently caring more for escape than to fight. Only the wounded Indians seemed possessed of the courage of devils. From the ground where they had fallen they continued to fire until their ammunition was gone or until killed by the soldiers. Both sides forgot everything excepting only the loading and discharging of guns. It was only in the early part of the affray that hand-to-hand fighting was seen. The carbines were clubbed, sabers gleamed, and war clubs circled in the air and came down like thunder. The Indians could not stand that storm from the soldiers. They had not hoped to. It was only a stroke of life before death. The remnant fled and the battle became a hunt.

It was now that the artillery was called into requisition. Before the fighting was so close that the guns could not be trained without danger of death to the soldiers. Now, with the Indians flying where they might, it was easier to reach them. The Gattling and Hotchkiss guns were trained, and then began a heavy firing, which lasted half an hour, with frequent volleys of musketry and cannon. It was a war of extermination now with the troopers. It was difficult to restrain the troops. Tactics were almost abandoned. The only tactics was to kill while it could be done. Wherever an Indian could be seen, down to the creek and upon the bare hills, they were followed by artillery and musketry fire, and for several minutes the engagement went on until not a live Indian was in sight.