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THE BATES BATTLE
A legendary battle took place in 1874
between the Shoshones and the Northern Arapahos. As many of the stories
go, the Shoshones and their allies, the troops of Camp Brown/Fort Washakie,
stormed a "maraud
Background to the Battle During the summer of 1873, white settlers in the area of present-day Lander, Camp Brown, and the Shoshones on the Wind River Reservation often fell prey to sporadic attacks by a Bad Face Oglala Lakota band led by the son of the famous Oglala war leader, Red Cloud. Most of these raids centered on theft of livestock and horses, although several lives had been lost. The raids stopped with the onset of winter and the deep snows that blocked most of the passes that led to the Wind River Basin. In the spring of 1874, however, Shoshone scouts issued several reports that "hostile" Indians were in the area. The "hostiles" in this case were the Northern Arapahos under the general leadership Chief Black Coal. It is not clear that they were responsible for any of the raids of the previous summer and into the spring, but it is possible that smaller groups of Arapahos had attempted to steal horses and livestock in the Wind River vicinity. In late June the scouts were even more convinced that an enemy camp--the Arapahos-- was within warring distance of the reservation and Camp Brown. Fortuitously, the visit of Lieutenant General Philip Henry Sheridan and Brigadier General Edward Otho Cresap Ord at the same time led to a full-scale expedition from Camp Brown to the Big Horn Mountains to wage war.
What follows is the eyewitness account written by Surgeon Maghee. Spelling and punctuation has been corrected in places to enhance clarity. Otherwise, this is an exact copy of the the typed transcript made by Evelyn Bell. Editor's comments are added in brackets.
July 1874
1st Dawned upon a scene of unusual activity at the Post. Indeed, commencing as it did, with the presence of Leut. General Sheridan, Brig. Gen. E.O.C. Ord, Commander of the Department, and their respective staff officers and the welcome tidings that there was a village of hostile Indians within striking distance: It may be considered one of Camp Brown’s great days. By the special verbal order of General Sheridan, thirty Shoshones were enlisted as Indian scouts for 90 days, and placed under command of Lt. Young 4th Inf. As the shades of night closed in, Capt. A. E. Bates, Lt. F. W. Robinson, with Co. “B” 2nd Cav[alry] sixty strong, the Post Surgeon, Lt Young and scouts, six citizens viz. Woodruff, McCabe, Yarnell, Cosgrove, Burritt, Anderson and Fuather, Washakie with one hundred and sixty six Indians, filed out on the War Trail. [John D. Woodruff was an early settler in the Wind River Basin. He became an influential merchant and sheep rancher and negotiated two unsuccessful land cession agreements with the Shoshones and Arapahos in the 1890s. William McCabe served as the head freighter/wagonmaster of the Wind River Reservation from the early 1870s into the 1880s and also headed up the first Indian police force on the Reservation. Nelson Yarnell (or Yarnall) was the blacksmith for the Indian agency. Thomas Cosgrove was a former sergeant in the Confederate Army, but served the post at Camp Brown as a scout. He was an occasional employee of the Indian agency. Burritt probably refers to Fincelius Gray Burnett, the official farmer at the Indian agency. Burnett is the great-grandfather of U.S. Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming. Anderson and Fuather are unidentified. Lt. Young and McCabe are pictured in the Chief Washakie exhibit of the Wind River History Center.] The packs would not ride and from the “Hot Springs” [this the hot springs within a few miles of Camp Brown, not the famous Hot Springs in present-day Thermopolis] was sent back the spare ammunition. The mouth of Little Wind River was reached and crossed, and under the bluffs 3 miles below that point, the command was cached at daylight. The discovery of the village is due to the exertions of 2 young Shoshones who took the trail where we left it at Muddy. 16th Followed to the camp of the enemy, where they stole 2 horses, and returned to pilot us to the site. Ascending the tableland: when darkness again enshrouded the earth; at a flying gait the distance between the command and unsuspicious foe was lessened ere day dawned by 45 miles and upon the headwaters of Badwater Cr, in tall Sage and Cottonwood, the saddle blankets were spread out and the tired troopers and their horses securely guarded by their Indian allies, took the rest so necessary. At this point a buffalo was killed, and found to have been previously wounded, and from here Washakie sent his son Bishop and two other Indians ahead to ascertain the exact cite of the village in order to guide us to it in the night. The day soon passed away and with its decline the march was continued at a hurried pace over a terribly rough country. Ever and anow some of the Indians in advance gave a peculiar sonorous call, in order to acquaint the 3 who were spying out the country, with our whereabouts, 60 miles had passed beneath our tired feet. When the scouts met us, saying the village had been removed, exhibiting relics picked up as its late site. Taking the trail as dawn paled the eastern sky, a few were sent ahead to discover if possible the exact site of the village, and in the mean time a most picturesque council took place between Wash-a-kie, his chiefs and the officers. Two ponies were captured here, and Washakie was certain that the sought for were in close proximity, and with his finger uplifted and eyes fixed in rapt attention, the flowing hair and swarthy countenance, mingled with the eager faces, and courtly uniforms of the officers, presented a scene worthy of the pencil of the artist. Soon the return of the scouts announced that the village was below us, in the gorge. Now all was activity, the Shoshones donning their war dresses and mounting war ponies. Galloping to the immediate vicinity the Cavalry dismounted, numbers four holding the horses. The tumult was now getting beyond all bounds, and in order not to lose the advantage, a charge on the run was ordered. In the fated village all was silent as death, the inhabitants quietly sleeping and the ponies lying larieted at the doors of the teepes. The Shoshones now raised their yells, thus alarming the enemy, ere the charging column were fairly in range. Many rushing from their teepees with their arms rushed up the face of the bluff wonderfully calculated for defence, and a position which the Shoshones were directed to take possession of, but failed; many of the Arapahoes took to the gorge in which the fight was sharp and effective, the foe falling in every direction in large numbers. The village of 112 lodges was ours so completely, that the surgeon established his field hospital at a teepee and proceded to dress the wounds of one or two of the men, while doing which he received a bullet wound on right forehead. Seventeen Arapahoes lay dead within the gorge besides two squaws, five at various places in the village, three on the hill in plain sight, while an unknown but large number lay on other parts of the field. Two hundred (200) ponies were ours. But now the Indians in possession of the Rocky ledge being entirely protected from our fire began to rain lead upon our heads with fearful execution. In one minutes time Pvt. Ja[mes]. M Walker and Pvt. Peter F. Engell were killed; Walker shot through head and Engall through lungs and heart. French, Gable, and Puram wounded. Two Shoshones were killed and 3 wounded. These disasterous results of a fire from an enemy inaccessible, rendered necessary a hurried withdrawl from what had become a slaughter pen. Ordering the Surgeon to immediately remove to a safer locality, Captain Bates withdrew to the hill leaving the bodies of the dead in the village. It was found that Lt. Young had been severely wounded, while bravely, but vainly endeavoring to take the heights by the flank, and being unable to leave the field he was only prevented from falling into the hands of the enemy by the bravery of Tom Cosgrove, old Washakie, Tibec [Tighee?] and Edmore Le Clair and a few other braves. Captain Bates immediately headed the column in that direction and succeeded in bringing him off. Here too, the escort under Corp Nelan and Carter, came up reporting the roll of bedding containing all the medical supplies and surgical instruments had been needlessly abandoned a mile back from the scene of action. One of the men was immediately sent back to secure the medicines, instruments, and bandages, but when in sight of the roll was driven off by 6 hostile Indians who took possession of the same. Signal smokes were now made by the enemy, summoning aid from the distance, and knowing there were 200 mounted warriers still unharmed and also that the ammunition was running low, and learning that the Shoshones, who had persistantly kept aloof during the fight, by Narcocks advice had now determined to leave us [Norkok was a Shoshone band leader and interpreter for the Indian Agency] Captain Bates has compelled to reluctantly withdraw. Having been deprived of everything but a pocket case and linen handkerchief, the Surgeon brought the wounded on horse back, sixty miles to the mouth of Little Wind River were Captain Torrey [Captain Robert A. Torrey, co-founder of the famous Embar Ranch and a member of Theodore Roosevelt's "Rough Riders"] with Thirty men ambulances, and medicinal stores, met the command. Aquina (the Eagle) one of the Indians was shot in the wrist the ball passing out through the palm of the hand cutting the middle finger at the 2nd phalange. The wound was treated in the hospital, and at the end of 20 days was well. 13th Smokes on the hills called the command out again and by the old mode of night marching, a point on the head of Sandy Creek was reached where a trail leading due south was found, and followed, through Bitter Basin to the Sweetwater 60 miles, when the command was divided. All but 15 men with Captain Bates and the Surgeon and 23 scouts left for [Camp] Stambaugh. Captain Bates followed the trail for 30 miles farther, and when 60 miles East of Pacific Springs Butte an Apparently regular rendevoux for raiding parties was discovered, which had lately been visited by a large party. While our Indians were looking up the trail a party of 8 scouts were discovered 15 miles away, and the scouts started to intercept them, which after a 12 mile race they succeeded in doing, capturing 7 ponies, 1 mule, and a scalp. One of our scouts was wounded in the thigh. He was transported under the Surgeon’s care to [Camp] Stambaugh, on horseback, where an ambulance was procured to transport him to Camp Brown. The last engagement was on the 19th of July. The command marched to Camp Brown July 24th. The whole county was overrun with grasshoppers. 28th Paymaster Lt. Olmstad arrived and paid off next day.
Sanitation at Fort Washakie Ft. Washakie Tales Medical History |
