American West: 1861-76

Lesson 4: Hancock, Custer and the 7th Cavalry, Red Cloud and the Peace Commission

Attack on the Wood Cutters

Very early in the morning on August 2nd, outside of Fort Phil Kearney, some two hundred Indians attempted to stampede the wood cutters’ mule herd. For a while the men herding the mules succeeded in beating their attackers off. While exchanging fire with these unmounted warriors,another sixty, astride their ponies, succeeded in running the mules off. While this was happening some five hundred more Indians attacked the wood train at the other camp.

Being considerably outnumbered, the soldiers and civilians at the wood train retreated. Keeping their attackers at bay by their superior firearms, they made an attempt to join the retreating wood train. Four of their lumber men had already been killed. The Indians tried to intercept them and cut them off but Powell and a part of his forces fled across the Plains and attacked the Indians in the rear.

These Indians turned and attacked their attackers, causing Powell to retreat to the corral. Powell’s troops suffered no losses and the herders eventually made it back to the fort to spread the alarm.

Those in the corral numbered only thirty-two but there were plenty of firearms and ammunition. Each man had at least two to three rifles apiece. An old frontiersman, who had spent his life hunting and trapping in Indian country, had eight rifles at his disposal--and well knew how to use them. In many accounts of this fight, this grizzled veteran of countless Indian fights is said to have been none other than mountain man Jim Bridger.

As these men completed their preparations for the coming attack, the Plains around them began to fill with more than three thousand warriors—led by Red Cloud himself. All the notable tribes of the Sioux were represented, as well as hundreds of Cheyennes. They were so confident of winning that they had brought along their women and children to carry home the plunder and to serve as a cheering squad.

Sioux Woman with a Bull Boat

After a time some five hundred mounted Indians, armed with rifles, came yelling and whooping towards the corral where the white men waited. When the Indians were just out of firing range, or so they thought, the men in the corral opened fire with firearms whose range far surpassed anything previously used.

Powell’s wife, years later relating what her husband had told her, said that the Indians came up so close to the corral that one shot would pass through one Indian and wound the one behind.

The Indians retreated. Around the outside of the corral lay a multitude of dead and dying Indians and their horses. Inside the corral, their number was reduced to twenty-eight.

As warriors fell, others quickly replaced them. For three hours the Indians made charge after charge until, at last, relief from the fort was seen coming across the plain.

One year later, an Indian related that one thousand one hundred and thirty-seven warriors had been killed in this fight.

Mountain Man Jim Bridger was one of the most colorful characters of the old west. Here's a link to an article about him.

Jim Bridger and the Fur Trade By Elizabeth Gibson http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/old_... On March 20, 1822, he saw an interesting article in the paper. Major Andrew Henry, of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, needed 100 good men to go up the Missouri River with him on a trapping expedition. Bridger signed on as a trapper and Indian fighter.

The source for this section is:

Brady, Cyrus Townshend. The Sioux Indian Wars, From the Powder River to the Little Big Horn, Indian Head Books, New York, 1992.

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