INDIAN WAR. 



381 



the use of the Indians, and shall make the same re- 

 ports and returns to these headquarters as are pre- 

 scribed by army regulations for the Subsistence 

 Department. When these officers are named, the 

 Lieutenant-General will cause to be placed to their 

 credit, at some convenient public depository, the 

 proportion of the appropriation allotted to their 

 agency ; and in no event or under no circumstances 

 will any purchases, contracts, or engagements be 

 made in excess of the actual money thus subject to 

 their credit. All checks and vouchers must have the 

 signature of the disbursing officer, countersigned by 

 his principal. 



8. Purchases will consist chiefly of beef cattle, 

 meat, grain, and bread, sugar and coffee only in ex- 

 ceptional cases ; clothing for the old and young, of 

 materials suited to their condition : and of seed, and 

 agricultural tools for cultivation. The chief quarter- 

 masters and commissaries at Chicago, St. Louis, 

 Omaha, and Leavenworth will purchase, : on the re- 

 quisition of the officer charged with these issues, on 

 being supplied with the necessary funds or credits. 

 As far as possible, consistent with due economy, pur- 

 chases by the disbursing officer will be made at the 

 place of consumption, and commanding officers of 

 departments may allow the officers charged with 

 these duties to purchase of their depot and jpost 

 commissaries and quartermasters any article of ood 

 and corn, clothing, harness, condemned wagons, 

 horses, mules, and oxen, that may be on hand in 

 excess, or which may have been condemned by a 

 board of survey, or an inspector, at the cost to Gov- 

 ernment at the place of delivery, or at a valuation 

 fixed by the board of survey or by the inspector. 



9. Issues to Indians will be made, when practicable, 

 only to those actually present or certified as present 

 at the camp, but always must be witnessed by some 

 army officer of rank not below captain, according to 

 section two, act of Congress approved July 27, 1868 ; 

 and all -issues will conform as near as possible with 

 the terms of the treaties made by the Indian Peace 

 Commission, whether confirmed or not, copies of 

 which will be furnished. 



10. When points arise not covered by these orders, 

 all officers wul be governed by the army regulations, 

 and these orders will expire with the existing appro- 

 priation bill, viz., June 30, 1869, when, if not other- 

 wise ordered, all accounts will be closed, and the 

 officers herein named will resume their proper army 

 duties and stations. 



By order of Lieutenant-Gen' 1 W. T. SHERMAN. 

 W. A. NICHOLS, Assistant Adjutant-General. 



Notwithstanding these movements for the 

 establishment of peaceful relations with the 

 Indian tribes, numerous outrages were com- 

 mitted from time to time all through the 

 spring and summer. Those in the early part 

 of the year consisted chiefly of an occasional 

 attack on a stray party of travellers or a lonely 

 outpost, and resulted in the scalping of one or 

 two persons and the driving off of all the cattle 

 and horses which could he found. The Indians 

 were sullen and discontented, hardly ever satis- 

 fied with the stipulations which they had made 

 with the agents of the Government, and con- 

 tinually exasperated by delays in receiving 

 stores and supplies which were promised 

 them; and, while the savages were in this 

 mood, white settlers continued to push the 

 limits of their settlements into their hunting- 

 grounds, to search for gold in regions beyond 

 the protection of civilized authorities, and to 

 lay out lines of travel and communication 

 through the wilderness, giving constant op- 

 portunity for attacks which the Indians were 



but too ready to make. Attacks upon travel- 

 lers and settlements became more frequent in 

 the month of August, and outrages of the 

 most horrible 'description were perpetrated. 

 It is not easy to trace the immediate cause of 

 any single hostile outbreak. To use the lan- 

 guage of General Sherman : " It has always 

 been difficult to discover the exact truth con- 

 cerning the cause of a rupture with any In- 

 dians. They never give notice beforehand of 

 a warlike intention, and the first notice comes 

 after their rifles and lances have done much 

 bloody work. All intercourse then necessarily 

 ceases, and the original cause soon becomes 

 buried in after-events." 



During the months of August and Septem- 

 ber, Indian outrages in Kansas and Colorado 

 were of almost daily occurrence. Houses were 

 attacked and burned, men slaughtered, women 

 ruthlessly outraged and murdered, children 

 slain or taken captive, and flocks and herds 

 driven away. On the 27th of August, acting- 

 Governor Hall of Colorado telegraphed to the 

 military headquarters in these words: "The 

 Arrapahoes are killing settlers and destroying 

 ranches in all directions. For God's sake give 

 me authority to take soldiers from Fort Rey- 

 nolds! The people are arming, and will not 

 be restrained." On the Tth of September, the 

 Hon. Schuyler Colfax telegraphed from Denver: 

 "Hostile Indians have been striking simul- 

 taneously at isolated settlements of Colorado 

 for a circuit of over 200 miles. Men, women, 

 and children have been killed and scalped 

 daily, and hundreds of thousands of dollars' 

 worth of property stolen. These atrocities 

 have been mainly near the three great lines of 

 travel from this focal point." 



These occurrences were chiefly in the Mili- 

 tary Department of the Missouri, within the 

 command of General Sherdian, and the out- 

 rages had been, for the most part, committed by 

 the Cheyennes, Arrapahoes, Camanches, and 

 Kiowas. Along the line of the Union Pacific 

 Railroad, and the Denver stage route, the posts 

 of Fort Harker, Hays, and Wallace, and the 

 outpost of Cedar Point, were established in 

 1867, as well as Forts Lamed, Dodge, Lyon, 

 and Reynolds, on the line of the Arkansas to 

 New Mexico. At these various posts General 

 Sheridan had a force of 1,200 cavalry and 1,400 

 infantry. After distributing the troops abso- 

 lutely necessary for the protection of important 

 interests at various points, he had only 800 

 men available for any active operations against 

 the Indians, who were able at any time to put 

 into the field about 6,000 warriors well mount- 

 ed and equipped. With this inadequate force 

 General Sheridan determined to commence a 

 vigorous campagn for the castigation of the 

 tribes which had been guilty of the terrible 

 outrages of the summer. 



Troops were kept on the alert along the line 

 of travel across the State of Kansas into Colo- 

 rado territory, and a company of scouts under 

 Colonel G. A. Forsyth were sent out to watch 



