402 



INDIAN WAR. 



off with the loss of twelve men. This occurred 

 on the 26th of June, and General Custar was 

 soon after recalled from that region by General 

 Hancock. The latter officer continued his ex- 

 pedition, and held important conferences with 

 several chieftains, but with no definite results, 

 though the Indians professed to be desirous of 

 peace, if it could be obtained on equitable 

 terms. General Hancock returned in August 

 to Fort Leavenworth, where he was afterward 

 relieved by General Sheridan, and assigned to 

 the command of the Fifth Military District, 

 headquarters at New Orleans. 



The burning of the village on the Pawnee 

 Fork had greatly exasperated the Indians. Dep- 

 redations were continued during the summer 

 without cessation, and operations on the Union 

 Pacific Eailroad were very seriously retarded. 

 Engineers, while engaged in surveyng the route, 

 and workmen employed on the part already 

 laid out, were frequently waylaid and mur- 

 dered ; and stock and building-materials de- 

 stroyed and carried away. Overland immigra- 

 tion and traffic were interrupted and constantly 

 attended with danger. At intervals of a few 

 days intelligence was received of the burning 

 of stations, sudden attacks upon settlements, 

 and the robbing of stages and express trains, but 

 it was difficult to meet the warriors in a regu- 

 lar engagement. 



Early in August a freight-train from Omaha, 

 in Nebraska, was thrown off the track near 

 Plum Creek station by impediments placed 

 across the rails by Indians, and all the employe's 

 upon the train, save one, were murdered, and 

 the cars and merchandise set on fire. General 

 Augur, in whose department this occurred, 

 promptly sent a small detachment of troops to 

 the scene of the disaster. On the 16th of 

 August they succeeded in meeting some 500 

 Sioux Indians in an open fight, and a severe 

 battle followed, in which sixty of the warriors 

 were killed. The Federal troops were aided 

 by a band of friendly Pawnees. 



The greater part of General Augur's forces, 

 to the number of 2,000, had been sent under 

 General Gibbon to the region about the sources 

 of the Powder and Yellowstone Rivers, where 

 the northern tribes were engaged in active 

 hostilities. The most important engagement in 

 that region took place on the 2d of August, near 

 Fort Phil Kearney. A band of wood-cutters, 

 attended by an escort of forty soldiers and 

 about fifty citizens, was set upon by a large 

 number of Indians, the wild estimates of the 

 time say 1,500 or 2,000, and a terrible fight en- 

 sued, lasting for three hours, until relief came 

 in the form of two companies of Federal troops 

 with a howitzer, when the Indians were at 

 length driven off with a loss of fifty or sixty 

 killed, and a much larger number wounded. 

 Other less important skirmishes occurred in. 

 the same quarter, but no decisive battle could 

 be had with the Indians. 

 1 Military operations against these tribes were 

 entirely ineffectual in suppressing hostilities; 



and according to the testimony of General Sher- 

 man, 50 Indians could " checkmate " 3,000 sol- 

 diers. The same officer recommended peaceful 

 negotiations as the only means of putting an 

 end to the ravages on the plains. 



An act of Congress was passed on the 29th 

 of March in which there was a provision for 

 repealing "all laws allowing the President, the 

 Secretary of the Interior, or the Commissioner 

 of Indian Affairs to enter into treaties with any 

 Indian tribe ; " but this part of the act was re- 

 pealed in June following, and on the 20th of 

 July an act was passed " to establish peace with 

 certain hostile Indian tribes,'' which provided 

 for the appointment of commissioners, with a 

 view to the following objects : 



1. To remove, if possible, the causes of war. 



2. To secure, as far as practicable, our fron- 

 tier settlements, and the safe building of the 

 railroads looking to the Pacific. 



3. To suggest or inaugurate some plan for 

 the civilization of those Indians. The commis- 

 sioners selected were as follows: N. G. Tay- 

 lor, president ; J. B. Henderson ; W. T. Sher- 

 man, lieutenant-general ; W. S. Harney, brevet 

 major-general; John B. Sanderson ; Alfred H. 

 Terry, brevet major-general; S. F. Tappan; C. 

 C. Augur, brevet major-general. 



These commissioners organized at St. Louis 

 on the 6th of August, and set about obtaining 

 interviews with the chiefs of the hostile tribes. 

 Runners were employed to signify the pacific 

 purposes of these commissioners to the Indians, 

 and to endeavor to arrange a general council. 

 In the mean time they visited various parts of 

 the Military Division of the Missouri, taking 

 evidence of the officers with regard to the con- 

 duct of the Indians and the causes of the war ; 

 they also issued orders through the military de- 

 partments to the various superintendents and 

 agents of Indian affairs, that appointments be 

 made for a great council of the northern hos- 

 tile tribes at Fort Laramie on the 13th of Sep- 

 tember, and of the southern tribes at Fort 

 Larned on the 13th of October. 



Before the day appointed for the first general 

 council, " talks " were held with various bands 

 of Dakota and Sioux Indians, the most impor- 

 tant of which was at North Platte, on the 

 Pacific Railroad, early in September. It was 

 found very difficult to deal with the discontent- 

 ed warriors, but through the friendly exertions 

 of Swift Bear, a chief of the Brule Sioux, several 

 powerful tribes were here represented, and 

 something like a pacific disposition was in- 

 spired. It was found necessary as a prelimi- 

 nary to any negotiation, which should have a 

 tolerable prospect of success, to promise them 

 arms and ammunition, which was accordingly 

 done by the commissioners. After the first 

 clamors of dissatisfaction were appeased by 

 friendly promises, a fair understanding was 

 arrived at, and mutual pledges given. 



It was found impossible to get the northern 

 Cheyennes and Sioux, who still kept up a desul- 

 tory warfare on the Powder River route, to 



