212 CALENDAR HISTORY OF THE KIOWA [eth.ann.17 



Yiele, Tenth cavalry. Ou November 28 Captain Charles A. Hartwell, 

 Eighth cavalry, again encountered and defeated the Cheyenne on Mus- 

 ter creek, Texas. Several other skirmishes occurred during the month, 

 in each of which the Indians — chiefly Cheyenne — were the losers, and 

 on the 2Sth of December Captain A. B. Keyes, of the Tenth cavalry, 

 succeeded in capturing, ou the North Canadian, an entire band of that 

 tribe, with all their ponies, after having followed them SO miles. INIost 

 of the operations dui'ing October and November were by troops from 

 Fort Sill under command of Lieutenant-Colonel John W. Davidson, 

 Tenth cavalry, commanding ofdcer of the post {Record, 7). 



SrRRESDER OF THE CHETEKXE 



The campaign was vigorously prosecuted during the winter and into 

 the spri g of 1875. The forces engaged consisted of eight troops of the 

 Sixth cavalry under Majors Charles E. Comptou aud James Biddle, 

 four troops of the Eighth cavalry under Major Price, and four compa- 

 nies of the Fifth infantry, the whole under the immediate command of 

 Colonel (now Major-Geueral) Nelson A. Miles. During this period the 

 troops were constantly engaged in scouting over the territory involved, 

 keeping the Indians so constantly on the move that they were unable 

 to lay in any stock of provisions. This active work was continued by 

 the tiooi)S upon the exposed and barren plains of that region during 

 a winter of unprecedented severity, and as the season advanced, the 

 difficulty of sn])plying the necessary forage and subsistence increased 

 so that no little hardship and privation resulted, but the troops bore 

 everything with fortitude and without complaint. By extraordinary 

 effort enough supplies reached the troops to enable them to remain 

 in the field until their work was done, and at length, early in March, 

 1875, the southern Cheyennes, completely broken down, gave up the 

 contest, aud under their principal chief. Stone-calf, the whole body of 

 that tribe, with a trifling exception, surrendered themselves as prison- 

 ers of war. At the same time they restored the two elder captive Ger- 

 maine girls. They gave up also their horses, bows and arrows, with 

 some guns, but secretly hid most of their valuable firearms {Becord, 8). 



The main body of the Cheyenne surrendered to Lieutenant-Colonel 

 Thomas H. Neil, Sixth cavalry, near the agency (Darlington), on March 

 6, 1875, and were at once disarmed and placed under guard, their 

 ponies being confiscated and sold. Their agent says: 



A more wretcheil aud poverty-stricken community than these ]>eople presented 

 after they were placed In the prison camp it would be difficult to imagine. Bereft 

 of lodges and the most ordinary cooking apparatus; with no ponies nor other means 

 of transportation for food or water; half starved and with scarcely anything that 

 could be called clotbing, they were truly objects of pity; and for the first time the 

 Cheyenne seemed to realize the jiower of the government and their own inability to 

 cope successfully therewith (Bepori, 4S). 



On the 27th of April they were formally transferred from the charge 

 of the military to that of the agent and declared to be again at peace 



