OCR Text |
Show THE SIOUX WAR. The causes which led in February, 1876, toe military campaign against that portion of the Sious Nation, known as the non-treaty Sioux, or followers of Sitting Bull, were fully detailed in the last annual report of this office,' as also the fact that after the opening of host.ilities they received large accessions to their number from the agency Sioux. This report showed that such desertions were largely due to the uneasiness which the Indians had lone felt on account of the infraction of treatv stip~~latioubsy tllu white i;;\,:ision of the El;ivk Hills, s e r io~~salg.~g r i ~:~r t .:titl the [nost (.ritiraI pt'riotl h j irreg~~l;arr ~ i~~~ddu f i icieis~s~uets of rations, necessitated by inadequateand delayed appropriations. Of this campaign a full ancl detailed account will of course be found in the reports of the honorable Secretary of War. It has, however, seemed to me proper to present herewith a brief outline of its principal events, in order that the recordsof the Indian Department may contain, at least, a summary of the most important Indian war of recent date, and one which has involved every interest of thelargest tribe with which this office has to,deal. The campaign was carried on fur the most part in the region south of the Yellowstone, between the Big Born and Powder Rivers, in Montana and Wyoming. It opened with an attack made upon an Indian camp on the Powder River, March l7th, 1876, by forces under General Crook, who had approached from the north by way of Ports Reno and Phil Eearney. After this attack the troops re-turned to Fort Fetterman, March 26th, and remained there until the last of May, when they again started out, pursuing the same route as before, and on June 17th engaged in au all.clay fight with t.he hostiles near the head of the Rosebud, after which they went into camp, and General Crook sent for reinforcements, which arrived August 4th. About the middle of May a force of about one thousand men under General Terry left Fort Abraham Lincoln and ascended the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Rosebud. There the Seveuth Cavalry, num-bering 600 men, commanded by General Duster, left General Terr.? with orders to proceed up the Rosebud and across to the Little Big Horn. General Terry then proceeded to the mouth of the Big Horn, where he was met by a body of 450 men underGeneral Gibbon, which had marched from Fort Ellis down the Yellowstone. The combined forces ascended the Big Horn to the mouth of the Little Big Horn, which latter stream they also asaended, and arrived June 27th at a point about forty miles above its mouth. Here they found that two days previous the forces under General Custer had had au engagement on this gronnd with the hostiles, which bad resulted in the entire destruction of five companies uuder General Custer's immediate command. and that hy their arrival the remaining seven companies, uuder ~ a j ohre no, had narrowly escaped sharing the same fate: The troops then returued to the mouth of the Big Born, leaving behind 269 dead and carrying with them 53 wouuded. A month later, July 26th, at the recluest of Lieutenant-General Sheri-dan, the Interior Department conceded to the military the supervision of the Lower Brul6, Cheyenne River, and Standing ltock agencies; and military officers were made acting agents at the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies. .\b& tlirsnme time, C:meralTerr,~, whol~adm eanwhile reeeired re. euforcemel~rx.( lrr~*rucletdh e Tellowsto~t~ct~ 11 16 J(osrb1111a, nd ancen~lr<l the J{osel~~3C~; dn~ iles.5% hrrr. l \ ~ l r r ~ i n1t 0th. he ininrtl G ~ I I P('Iro.u~k.~ 'Jl~e , . , " * A still further aeoouut of the =me ia contamed in Senate Ex. Doa. No. 52, let Beas. 44th Congress. . |