.^Si. 



it^M 





^h'-i 



mm 



Figure 6. — Fort Harker, Kansas; east side. {USXM jS^iSy; Stnithsoniati fihoto ^aSgj.) 



Following the Custer massacre on June 25, 1876, all 

 posts in the Department of the Missouri were virtually 

 stripped of troops, ainong them the 5th Infantry, and 

 dispatched to the Departinent of Dakota in an all-out 

 attempt to i)rins; the rampaging Sioux under control. 

 But Stieffel saw no action in the campaigns that 

 followed. He was sick -" and was left iiehind on July 

 1 2 when Company K left Leavenworth for the north- 

 west for five years of almost continuous campaigning 

 including numerous actions with the Sioux and the 

 campaign against the gifted Indian tactician. Chief 

 Joseph, and his Nez Perce. We could wish that 

 Stieffel had been present during the Nez Perce 

 campaign, for he might have pictured for us Nelson 

 Miles and the 5th Infantry taking the surrender of 

 Joseph in the Bear Paw Mountains at the end of his 



2" Muster Roll, Co. K, oft. cil. (footnote 7), .August 31, 18"6. 



epochal 1,600-mile running fight.-' 



Stieffel remained at Fort Leavenworth until 1877 

 when he rejoined his regiment at Cantonment Tongue 

 River, Montana Territory, renamed Fort Keogh in 

 1879. At Keogh he was again placed on hospital 

 extra-duty and so remained until he was discharged 

 June 23, 1882," on a surgeon's certificate of disa- 

 bility. .'Kfter his discharge he retired to the Soldier's 

 Home in Washington where he died on December 14, 

 1886, at the age of 60. He was buried in the National 



-' Frederick Remington has pictured this surrender for us, 

 but he was not an eye witness. 



-- Muster Roll, Co. K, op. cil. (footnote 7), August 31, 1878, 

 to June 30, 1882; Certificate of Disability for Discharge, 

 Private Hermann Stieffel, .April 8, 1882, Adjutant General's 

 Records, National .Archives. The date of June 23, given on the 

 Muster Roll, was apparently that on which the discharge 

 received final approval in Washington. 



PAPER 1 2 : HERMANN STIEFFEL, SOLDIER ARTIST OF THE WEST 



