In the
month of May, 1863, the time when the events herein occurred, the town
of Humboldt was the extreme southern town occupied by the United
States forces in this section of the country. The garrison at the
time mentioned consisted of Troop G. Ninth Kansas cavalry, commanded
by Capt. Wiloughby Doudna, numbering 100 men.
The country
to the south was occupied by bands of Indians belonging to the Osage
tribe. These bands were camped over the country in villages, but made
their general headquarters at Osage Mission, where the priests
maintained a position of neutrality, extending hospitality to Union
and Confederate forces alike.
South of
the country ranged over by the Osages, was the nation of the
Cherokees. The majority of these latter Indians were active
sympathizers with the Confederacy, and it was from them, and
particularly the Indian contingent commanded by Standwaite,[01]
who twice raided and once burnt Humboldt, that the border towns had
most to fear. Thus it was that the Osage country was the scouting
ground of both armies.
Scouting
was the main duty devolving upon the garrison at Humboldt, as no
supply trains went south of there, and those coming had their own
escort. One scouting party of fourteen men, commanded by a sergeant,
left Humboldt and were gone ten days, going south of the present site
of Arkansas City into Oklahoma, and sighting Cody’s Bluff, a famous
landmark of those days. Frequently these scouting parties would meet
like parties sent out from the garrison at Fort Scott, and
occasionally a party of the enemy would be encountered, with an
exchange of compliment. In spite of the ceaseless scouting, the
country to the south was, to the little settlements and handful of
troops, an ever present source of danger and dread from out of which,
at any moment, might come their destruction and death.
One
afternoon, just after the troops had had dinner, two Indians rode up
to the camp in the public square, and reported to Captain Doudna that
their band had had to fight with some white men and that the white men
were dead. They would make no further statement, except that it had
been a big fight, and that the chief wanted the captain to come to his
camp.
Captain
Doudna was a man of action and in a few moments was on the move with
half of his troop, en route to the Indian camp.
It must be
borne in mind at this time the identity of the dead men was unknown.
They might be a stray scouting party of our own or the enemy’s, or
they might be an advance party of an approaching hostile force. In
the latter event there was no time to be lost. The horses and men
were seasoned to rough riding and before midnight the command rode up
to the camp of Indians and, picketing their horses, lay down in the
tall grass to sleep.
Sleep, even
to tired troopers hardened by two years’ campaigning on the plains,
was well nigh out of the question. On a rise in the ground near our
bivouac were bodies of two warriors slain in the fight. Painted and
decked for the long journey to the happy hunting ground, they had been
placed in a sitting position with their backs to a tree. In front of
each warrior was a squaw, sitting flat upon the ground, her hair
hanging over her face, and at intervals her low, mournful moans rose
in a tremendous wavering cry which once heard is never forgotten, and
its unutterable sadness cannot be expressed in words. Besides the
mourning cries of an Indian squaw, the distant howl of the coyote is
cheering and the lonely call of the whippoorwill is mirth-inspiring.
Other squaws, scattered through the grass and in the camp,
occasionally added their voices to the cries of the two principle
mourners. Few, if any, of the troop slept that night, but at last the
morning brought welcome relief from that night of horror. Escorted by
about 100 mounted Indians, we rode to the scene of the first
encounter. Here it is best to tell the story as gathered from the
Indians, simply stating that, from what had already been learned from
the Indians, we were fairly certain that the dead men were not our
comrades in arms, but either a party of the enemy or one of those
bands infesting the border who claimed either side, as suited their
convenience, and preyed upon both. The Indians were exceedingly
anxious as to the outcome of the investigations, fearing they had
committed an overt act in attacking the party and would suffer the
displeasure of the government.
Two days
before the messengers arrived in Humboldt, a small party of Indians,
numbering eight or ten men, had started from the Big Hill village to
the Mission. When not far from their camp they discovered the traces
of a recently abandoned camp and at once took up the trail, soon
overtaking a mounted force of white men. This party numbered twenty
or twenty-two men and had no wagons. Riding up to this party the
Indians inquired who they were, and received the reply that the party
was a detachment of Union troops, and were a part of the command
stationed at Humboldt. To this the Indians replied that they knew the
troops then at Humboldt and failed to recognize any familiar faces in
the party. The Indians stated that the government held them
responsible for what occurred in their country, and asked the party to
accompany them to Humboldt, to be identified by the commander of the
post, when they would be allowed to go anywhere they pleased. To this
the white men would not consent, and started to continue their march.
The Indians, growing more suspicious and insistent, sought to restrain
them, and in the altercation which followed one of the whites shot and
killed an Indian.
The Osages,
being outnumbered, drooped over on their ponies and were soon out of
range. Racing for their village, they aroused the camp, with the news
of the killing of one of their number by the war party of strange
white men.
This
village could muster over 200 fighting men, and the entire force of
the village turned out in pursuit.
They struck
the party of white men about five miles from a loop in the Verdigris
river. Over that entire five miles there was a running fight. The
little party of whites, hemmed in on all sides by the circle of death,
was striving to beat off the Indians and reach the timber they could
see in the distance. In this running fight the Confederates, for so
the whites proved to be, lost two men, whose bodies were abandoned
where they fell. Being well armed and in the open, they were able to
keep the Osages at some distance and killed at least one. The timber
they fought so valiantly to gain proved their undoing. Not being
acquainted with the country, they entered it where it ran back into a
loop in the river. Back from the edge of the timber they were forced
by the ever overlapping Indians. Step by step they retreated,
contesting every foot of ground. The odds were too great, and they
found themselves forced to the bank of the river and out onto a sand
bar at the water's edge, under a terrible fusillade from the Osages,
now concealed and protected by the timber.
At their
backs ran the river, at this point wide and deep; one the opposite
shore a high and precipitous bank: in their front an enemy in whose
game of war the white flag was unknown.
Wrong
though these men were, and on a mission which almost bars them from
our sympathies, yet we cannot but feel proud that they faced their
doom with that of unflinching bravery which the men of the nation have
ever displayed. To the last cartridge they held their enemy at bay,
and when they had been fired, the survivors stood in a little group,
their dead around them, and met the rush of the Indians with clubbed
carbines and revolvers, and fell, one upon the other. It was brave
blood that reddened the little sand bar in the Verdigris that day.
Captain
Doudna and his detachment went over the scene of the running fight and
into the timber, which showed the marks of the heavy firing. Down on
a sand bar, in a space some four rods square, were found the almost
nude bodies of the Confederates, badly decomposed, and horribly
mutilated. The heads, besides being scalped, had been, according to
the Osage custom, severed from the bodies. Long gashes had been cut
the entire length of their bodies. The night was a terrible one, even
to men accustomed to Indian butcheries. We had come prepared to bury
the dead, and digging a trench, we cut hooked sticks from the bushes
and dragged the bodies into the trench. The men engaged in the work
had sponges containing asafoetida[02]
tied over their faces, but in spite of that the stench was so terrible
and the sight so loathsome that many were made sick and all had to be
frequently relived.
The heads
were all collected, some being found at a considerable distance and
placed in the trench with the bodies.
One of the
dead men, who, from what we could learn, had been in command of the
party, was entirely bald, but had a very long and heavy full beard.
This beard had not been scalped but the beard had been removed, and
was hanging on a pole with the scalps in front of a tepee in the
village. The bodies of the two men killed in the running fight were
buried on the prairie where we found them. Of one body only the
skeleton remained; the other had not been touched by the wolves.
After the
burial the troops returned to the Big Hill camp, and were entertained
with a war-dance in honor of the victory. Prior to the dance the
mounted warriors were drawn up in line, and on the fact that their
front exceeded the front of two troops of cavalry is based the
estimate of their fighting force.
The
captain, in the meantime, was endeavoring to ascertain the identity of
the dead men. Numerous articles of Confederate clothing and equipment
in the possession of the Indians plainly showed to which army they had
belonged. The predominance in the plunder of officers’ uniform and
equipment led to the belief that it was no ordinary scouting party.
Captain Doudna stated to the chief and head men that he had no desire
to take the horses and arms they had captured, that they could keep
them as spoils of war, but he wanted all papers that had been
captured. The Indians replied that they did not have any papers; they
had taken a few but they were so bloody that they had thrown them into
the river. This proved to be false, and the captain, suspecting as
much, was insistent, and finally, after some time, numerous papers
were produced. It came out afterwards that the demand for the papers
was unexpected, and the Indians being fearful of anything written, and
not yet certain that they would be held blameless in this matter, had
been gaining time for Big Joe, a mission-educated Indian, to read the
papers. Big Joe having satisfied himself that there was nothing
harmful to the Indians, they were turned over.
Captain
Doudna made careful examination of the papers, assisted by members of
the troop, and the investigation brought to light the astounding fact
the party had been composed entirely of commissioned officers, one
ranking as colonel and the others being captains and lieutenants.
Only the name of one officer, Captain Harrison, is now recalled.
Papers signed by Gen. Kirby Smith, then commanding at Little Rock,
were found. From these and other papers it was learned that the
massacred party constituted a commission to treat with the tribes of
the West and Southwest and incite them to war. The officers composing
the party were to divide up among the tribes and endeavor to secure
co-operation, and to receive supplies and to assist the Indians in
every way in the war of extermination which was to be waged more
particularly by the wild tribes on one side and the no less savage foe
on the other; it would have been a wonder if Kansas had not been wiped
out. So the Osages as they swarmed through the timber in the bend of
the Verdigris, were, though they knew it not, striking a blow for the
security of more than one frontier home and settlement and making a
mark on the pages of Kansas history.
It is a
matter of regret that this incident, like so many others of war-time
history, so little is now known. The name of only one man of the
party, Captain Harrison, remains. A diligent inquiry by one who is
well acquainted in the tribe and possessing the confidence of the
Indians has resulted in the finding of only one Indian who admits
being present at the fight. Indians know nothing about the statutes
of limitation and while they will talk freely concerning intertribal
wars, they are silent when it comes to discussing dead whites.
A
love-letter taken from one of the bodies by a member of the burial
party remained in his possession for a number of years. It was
written from Cross Hollows, Miss[issippi], and the name of writer was
signed in full, the surname being Vivian. This letter was shown to a
lady visiting in Iola, who recognized the name of the writer as that
of a former schoolmate in southwest Missouri, before the war. At the
outbreak of the war, Miss Vivian had accompanied her parents to
Mississippi and the other lady had come to Kansas and lost trace of
her former schoolmate. The letter has passed into the keeping of that
lady.
It will be
remembered that in giving the strength of the Confederates it was put
at twenty or twenty-two men. The bodies of two were found on the
prairie and eighteen or so on the sand bar. Leading from these bodies
were the boot tracks of two men walking side by side and close
together, as if one might have been supporting the other. There were
no tracks leading back to the bodies. Careful search up and down both
sides of the stream failed to disclose any tracks coming out of the
water. It is probable that these two men were shot while in the
water, in attempting to swim across the stream. It is possible they
made good their escape.[03]
This fact
and the incident of the letter are related here, and the name Captain
Harrison is given, in the hope that they may meet the attention of
someone who can give additional information concerning this event.
The
subsequent general uprising of the Indians that very year, which has
often been attributed to the machinations of the Confederates, gave us
a taste of what we might have experienced if they had acted in unison,
and been led and directed by the men whose career came to an abrupt
end in the loop of the Verdigris. Kansas has much charged against the
Indians on her books, and it is but due to the Osages that this little
item of credit should not be overlooked.
Editor’s
Note—The Osages now believe that this band of men had deserted and
were trying to get to Mexico or so far away from the war that they
would no longer be mixed up in it. They regret very much the killing
of this entire party but it must be remembered that one of their tribe
was killed first.
They found
lots of gold and silver in the pockets of the dead, which indicates
that they had been marauding, probably in Southern Missouri.
