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Show W&U$UM Ufiy IPirtiDafraimiM ELMO SCOTT WATSOH a SUMMER day in the year A 1S0G. f$ North of historic Fort Y -!T Laramie a column of -V'-X blue-coated soldiers Is " -pL-Zj!!- marching along the I I Bozeman Trail which JjV winds across windswept upland plains and then through deep mountain gorges into the land known as Absaraka, "the Home of the Crows." This military force of barely 700 men Is the Second Sec-ond Battalion of the Eighteenth United States Infantry, setting forth on an expedition which will make that regiment forever famous In the annals of the American army. The Eighteenth already had an unusual and a brilliant record. Organized Or-ganized June 20, 1S12. it ninde Its first appearance on the rolls of the army during the second war with England. Three years later It was consolidated with the Fifth and Thirty-fifth regiment of Infantry to form the Eighth United States Infantry, thus losing Its Identity and remaining '.'lost" for 40 years. Under the proclamation of Pres-ident Pres-ident Lincoln on May 4. 1S01, the build a chain of military posts to protect travelers over the Bozeman Trail. Accordingly Colonel Carrlng-ton, Carrlng-ton, then stationed with his regiment regi-ment at Fort Kearney In Nebraska, was ordered to establish, organize and take command of the new Mountain Moun-tain District of the Department of the Platte. At that time the district had but one post In it Fort Reno, 100 miles north of Fort Laramie. Carrington was directed to move this post 40 miles westward, garrison It and then with the remainder of his command establish three other posts one on the Bozeman Trail between the Big Horn mountains and the Powder river, one on the Big Horn river and the third on the Yellowstone river. So that Is why we find the Second Battalion of the Eighteenth marching march-ing north from Fort Laramie this hot summer day 70 years ago. From the clear Wyoming sky the hot sun blazes down upon them mercilessly and as they plod along the dusty trail they look longingly upon the cool promise of snow-capped Cloud Peak In the distance. Of the 700, only about 200 are veterans. The sent an entire compnny of the Eighteenth to the relief of the beleaguered be-leaguered train. When It arrived at the fort It brought mall from ! jrrrT" 1 fc&'TWx I'M .. Urivs- 'Wi;, : l 11,(1 "'"" ..-v;.-sw& CAPT. J. W. POWELL the federal commissioners at Fort Laramie assuring the commander that "a satisfactory treaty of peace with all the Indians of the Northwest" North-west" had been signed 1 During the next three months Bull and his nephew, White Bull, who took part In the Fetterman fight, have proved that Red Cloud had no part in this battle. Instead, the ambush was planned and the Indian warriors were led by Crazy Horse of the Oglalas and Black Shield of the Minlconjous. Similarly, Mr. Vestal's researches have resulted In the truth about another famous battle In the record of the Eighteenth. This was the Wagon Box Fight near Fort Phil Kearney on August 2, 1S07, when Cnpt J. W. Powell, Lieut. J. C. Jen-ness Jen-ness and a force of 30 men beat off an attack by an overwhelming number num-ber of Sioux and Cheyennes. Wildly exaggerated stories have been told of this fight how Red Cloud directed the attack of his 3,000 warriors against the little detachment of soldiers, crouched behind the flimsy protection of wagon boxes set In the form of an oval corral on the open plain, and how the hot fire of the soldiers with their new breech-loading rifles and plentiful supply of ammunition am-munition (7,000 rounds, In fact) exacted a fearful toll from their attackers. Powell himself estimated esti-mated the loss of the Indians as ciiuu was reorganized anu uie $., -- ) .' v'' i - f .f.:-:'-. rest are raw recruits from the East scarcely the best soldier material to bo pitted against such redoubtable redoubt-able warriors as the Sioux and Cheyennes. Chey-ennes. Luckily they cannot look Into the future nnd see what Is In store for all of them in this strange land of Absaraka the loneliness, the numbing numb-ing cold of a Wyoming winter, the hunger and the other privations, and for some of them a horrible death under the stabbing lances or smashing smash-ing war-clubs of the Sioux. Perhaps some foreboding of 'their fate has already come to them at that council at Fort Laramie when Red Cloud, springing spring-ing Into the center of the council ring and pointing his finger at Colonel Carrington, exclaimed: "You are the White Eagle who has come to steal the road! The Great White Father sends us presents and wants us to sell him the road, but the white chief comes with soldiers to steal It before be-fore the Indians 6ay yes or no! I will talk with you no more! I will go now, and I will fight youl As long as I live I will fight for the last hunting grounds of my people!" So be stalked out of the council and prepared for war, as did Man Afraid of Ills Horses, hereditary chief of the Oglalas, Crazy Horse and American Horse of the same iurringion sum repeated requests to his department commander for reinforcements but It was In vuln. Not until November did any arrive and then It was only one troop of the Second cavalry, GO strong. In December about 00 recruits Joined the battalion In the Mountain District Dis-trict and these had to be divided between Fort Reno, Fort Phil Kearney Kear-ney and Fort C. F. Smith, which had been established on the banks of the Big Horn In Montana. Requisitions for ammunition were not answered and the allowances of the three garrisons gar-risons were reduced to a point which made rifle practice for the recruits Impossible. In fact, the stupidity of the higher officials In handling the situation which faced Carrington and his command is almost unbelievable. unbe-lievable. "At Fort Laramie, when all was peace, there were twelve companies of regular troops, while at Fort Phil Kearney, where all was war, only four companies were allowed." Thus reported General Sanborn after a tragedy had shocked the whole country Into In-to realizing how ironical was President Andrew Johnson's congratulatory con-gratulatory message to congress on December 8 that "treaties have been made at Fort Laramie and all Is peace In the Northwest"! Less than two weeks later, on December 21, the Indians attacked CAPT. W. J. FETTERMAN at least 60 killed and an unknown number wounded. But Imaginative historians have boosted that figure fig-ure to 1,500 killed and wounded! The truth is that Red Cloud, although al-though present nt the fight, took nc active part In It. The 1,(.mm) Indian who made the 'attack were led by Crazy Horse of the Oglalas, Flying By and High Hump of the Minlconjous, Minlcon-jous, Thunder Hawk of the Sans Arcs and Ice of the Cheyennes. Sij Indians were killed and six wound ed. The soldiers nlso suffered e loss of six killed, but the wonder Is that not all of them were slaughtered, slaugh-tered, outnumbered as they were more than oO to 1. During the next three years ol the Eighteenth's service on tht plains It took part In many othei skirmishes with the Indians. From 1S70 to 1S70 It was stationed Ir, difTerent places in the South. Then followed another period of service In the Northwest until the outbreak of the Spanish-American war when It was one of the first regiments trt ronrh tnn!l-i In flio TMi M i rii il nne GEN. H. B. CARRINGTON Eighteenth again came into existence. exist-ence. During the Civil war the regiment regi-ment served with the Arndes of the West under Grant and Rosecrans and Sherman and Thomas. Written on its hattlellags were the names of Vicksluirg, Stone River, Murfrees-boro, Murfrees-boro, Chlcknniaugit, Kenesaw Mountain, Moun-tain, Joneshoro and Atlanta. At Chlekaniauga the Eighteenth was brigaded with the Sixteenth and Nineteenth regiments and. as a part of Thomas' famous Fourteenth corps. Its gallant stand In that battle bat-tle helped him win the nickname "The Rock of Chlcknmauga." When the Eighteenth was organized organ-ized In 101 the man appointed to its command as colonel was Henry B. Carrington, ndjutant-general of the Ohio militia for several years before be-fore the outbreak of the Civil war. Although he rose to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers during dur-ing that conflict, at Its close he reverted re-verted to bis rank of colonel In the regulars and with his regiment was ordered west for service in the Indian In-dian country. In the meantime gold, had been : ' J , , lis Sit-"" J & ;.V V-f V- -Y V ON THE FIRING LINE AGAINST THE SIOUX discovered In Montana jnd the rush of gold-seekers to the new camps followed. Their route took them through the choicest hunting grounds of the Sioux and Northern Cheyennes, lands which the government, gov-ernment, under th? terms of the Harney-Sanborn treaty of ISO'), had solemnly guaranteed should be undisturbed un-disturbed by white Invaders. But emigrants to fie Northwest, as well as the Montana Argonauts, showed It played a prominent part during the entire Philippine Insurrection and did not return to the United States until 1H01. Twice later It returned re-turned to the Islands In the Pacific In fact, seven of the eleven years between 1S'.8 and 1000 were spent In service outside the continental United States. During the World war the Eighteenth Eight-eenth was the first unit of the A. E. F. to plant Its colors on the French front; It was the first to capture a German prisoner, the first to Inflict a casualty on the enemy nnd the first to suffer casualties at the hands of the enemy. The records I 4 ' "( 111' irMil -rm,"-- n-,lfi " ' ; - ' - Vv'' fly r'lt; . l t -v;: r- ; 1 i r h tribe, and Black Shield of the Minlconjous. Minl-conjous. Of course, some of the officers are scornful of their foes. A few months later one of them will be saying boastfully "Give me eighty men and I will ride through the Sioux nation!" na-tion!" Within a week he will go out from a fort with SI men and not one will return alive! But the terror ter-ror of that day Is still six months away. Now the only concern of their commander 1s to reach Ids objective ob-jective and begin the work he has been commissioned to do. On June 28 the expedition reached Fort Reno. Carrington decided that It was not practicable to move the fort as he had been Instructed to do. Instead he ordered the stockade stock-ade repaired, left 200 men to garrison gar-rison the post and pushed on toward to-ward the north. On July 13 he established es-tablished his camp on the banks of the Big Plney creek, nnd two days later began building the Ill-fated Ill-fated post to which was given the name of Fort Phil Kearney. Witbln a week Red Cloud struck his first blow against the Invaders stampeding a herd of horses grazing graz-ing near the fort and killing two soldiers and wounding three others In the party sent In pursuit of the raiders. From that time on until Its abandonment In 1808, Fort Phil Kearney was virtually In a state of siege. Scarcely a month passed without an average of 15 to 20 separate and distinct attacks upon parties of woodchoppers, herders or scouting details and in most of these one or two men were killed and a greater great-er number wounded. Not a wagon train could pass along the Bozeman Trail without being attacked. One day a messenger dashed info the fort with the news that one such train, en route from Fort Laramie, Lar-amie, was corralled by the Sioux and In Imminent danger of being wipod out Carrington Immediately the wood train engaged In logging operations on Plney Island, a few miles from the fort and Carrlng-on Carrlng-on detailed Capt. J. W. Powell with a force of SO men to go to Its relief. Two days before Powell had been called upon for a similar duty and had performed It efliciently. But Just as the detachment wa3 about to start out, Capt. W. J. Fetterman begged for the command of the expedition, ex-pedition, pleading his senior captaincy cap-taincy as jiisllfleailon for the request re-quest It was Fetterman who had made the boast about riding through the whole Sioux nation with SO men. Carrington, knowing his tendency tend-ency to rashness, gave him specific orders to "relieve the wood train, drive back the Indians, but on no account to pursue the Indians beyond be-yond Loige Trail Ridge" nnd repeated re-peated those orders from the walls of the stockade as Fettermau's party par-ty marched out The result Is familiar history. Fetterman disobeyed his orders ond was lured Into an ambush. Today a tall monument of cobblestones stands on an eminence known ns "Massacre Hill" on the road between be-tween Buffalo and Sheridan. Wyo It bears a bronze shield with this Inscription: "On this field on the 21st day of December, 1SC0, three commissioned officers and seventy-six privates of the Eighteenth United States Infantry In-fantry and of the Second United States Cavalry, under the command of Capt. Brevet, Lleut-Col. Win, J. Fetterman, were killed by an overwhelming over-whelming force of Sioux under column colu-mn nd of Red Cloud. There were uo survivors." This tablet makes do mention of two Chilians who accompanied the expedition, bringing the casualty list of the so-called "Fetterman Massacre" up to 81. It also errs In crediting Red Cloud with being commander of the Indians. Investigations Inves-tigations anions the Sioux by Stanley Stan-ley Vestal, biographer of Sitting ' - . CHIEF MAN-AFRAI D-OF-HIS HORSES the white ma n'8 usual disregard for the sanctity of treaties with the red man. They slaughtered game waste-fully waste-fully and the Indians, angry over the violation of the treaty and the . destruction of their principal food supply, retaliated with attacks on emigrant trains, parties of miners cr any other travelers through the forbidden country. Early In 1SC0 commissioners were sent to Fort Laramie to make another an-other treuty with the Sioux and Cheyennes but without waiting to t see the outcome of these negotiations, negotia-tions, the government decided to : . - r r - - 1'linlo hT V. b Hurry CHIEF RED CLOUD jf the War department show that lie Eighteenth suffered the greatest great-est loss In killed and wounded of my regiment In the American army ilurlng Its service overseas. But, llstlngulshed as Is this more recent re-cent service, In the regular army his regiment Is known best for Its raglc history 70 years ago when It 'ought the Sloux and Cheyennes In bsanika, the "Home of the Crows." Western Ni-w-nmper tlnlou |