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49 A great loss to us was "Buffalo Bill." He left his "pardner, " Jim White, with us to finish the campaign as scout; and we little thought that those two sworn friends were meeting for the last time on earth when "BUFFALO CHIPS" bade good-bye to "BUFFALO BILL." "CHIPS" remained in his capacity as scout, though he seemed sorely to miss his "pardner."
"It was just two weeks after that we struck the Sioux at Slim Buttes, something of which I told you in a former chapter. You may remember that the Fifth had ridden in haste to the relief of Major Mills, who had surprised the Indians away in our front early Saturday morning, had whipped them in panicky confusion our of their "tepees" into the neighboring rocks, and then ad to fight on the defensive against ugly odds until we rode in to the rescue. As the head of our column jogged in among the lodges, and General Carr directed us to keep on down to face the bluffs to the south, Mills pointed to a ravine opening out into the village, with the warning. "Look our for that gully; there are Indians hidden there, and they've knocked over some of my men."
Everybody was too budy just then to pay much attention to two or three wounded Indians in a hole. We were sure of getting them when wanted. So, placing a couple of sentries where they could warn stragglers away from its front, we formed line along the south and west of the captured village, and got everything ready to resist the attack we knew they would soon make in full force.
General Crook had arrived on the scene, and, while we were waiting for "Lo" to resume the offensive, some few scouts and packers started in to have a little fun "rousting out them Injuns." Half a dozen soldiers got permission to go over and join in while the rest of us were hungrily hunting about for something to eat. The next thing, we heard a volley from the ravine, and saw the scouts and packers scattering for cover. One soldier held his ground--shot dead. Another momet, and it became apparent that not one or two, but a dozen Indians were crouching somewhere in that narrow gorge, and the move to get them out addumed proportion. Lieutenant Clark, of General Crook's staff, sprang into the entrance carbine in hand, and a score of cavalrymen followed, while the scouts and others went cautiously along either bank, peering warily into the cave-like darkness at the head. A squad came tearing over, just as a second volley came from the concealed foe, and three more of our men dropped bleeding, in their tracks. Now our people were fairly arroused , and officers and men by dozens hurried to the scene. The misty air rang with shoty, and the chances looked bad for those redskins. Just at this moment, as I was running over from the western side, I caught sight of "CHIPS" on the opposite crest. All alone, he was cautiosly making his waym on hands and knees, toward the head of the ravine, where he could look down upon the Indians beneath. As yet he was protected from their fire by the bank itself--his lean form distinctly outline against the easter sky. He reached a stunted tree that grew on the very edge of the gorge, and there he halted, brought his rifle close under his shoulder, in readiness to aim, and then raised himself slowly to his feet, lifting his head higher, higher, as he peered over. Suddenly a quick, eager light shone in his face, a sharp movement of his rifle as though he were about to raise it to his shoulder, when, bang!--a puff of white smoke floated from the head of the ravine, "CHIPS" sprang up convulsively in the air, clasping his hands to his breast, and with one startled, agonizing cry, "Oh my God, boys!" plunged heavily forward on his face, down the slop--shot through the heart.
"Two minutes more, what Indians were left alive were prisoners and that costly experiment at an end. That evening, after the repulse of the grand attack of "ROMAN NOSE" and "STABBER'S" warriors, and, 'twas said, hundreds of "CRAZY HORSE'S" band, we buried poor "CHIPS," with our other dead, in a deep ravine. "WILD BILL," "CALIFORNIA JOE," COSGROVE, and "TEXAS JACK" have long since gone to their last account, but, among those who knew them, no scout was more universally mourned than "BUFFALO BILL'S" devoted friend, JIM WHITE.
THE SIOUX AND WILD WEST SHOWS.
Editorial from the New York Sun.
The permission granted by the Interior Department to BUFFALO BILL to engage 100 Sioux Indians for his Wild West Show, is a great victory for BILL. It is more a conspicuous success even than that which he achieved during the recent Pine Ridge Campaign, when as Brigadier General commanding the Nebraska State forces, he received a written acknowledgement of
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his services from GEN. MILES. It has been accomplished, moreover, directly in the face of enormous obstacles which BUFFALO BILL found in his path; and the skill and success with which he surmounted them are proportionately great. First he took some of his performing braces to Washington to show the refining and ennobling influences which European travel had been upon them. Then, when the Sioux troubles broke out, and threatened to wreck his plans, especially as it was charged that the complaints of some of his troupe had aggravated the tribal discontent, he found in that very disaster his opportunity, and hastening to the scene, he took care that none of his recent performers should be conspicuously hostile to the Government. His next step was to procure recommendations from army officers, showing SECRETARY NOBLE the military wisdom of allowing some of the young, restless Sioux braces to be taken away from the reservation, under his charge. The issue was then between BUFFALO BILL and the COMMISSIONER, and the former won.
To the crowned heads of Europe and other eminent patrons of the Wild West Show this great victory will be very welcome. And now, the best thing for COMMISSIONER MORGAN and the REV, CR. DORCHESTER to do is to accept the first chance to see the show. They will probably enjoy the spectacle, and be proud of the professional progress of their wards.
CHICAGO, DEC. 13.--R.P. Haslam, better known on the frontier as "Pony Bob," being one of the hard riders who carried the overland mail before a railway was pushed through to the Pacific coast, is in the city. He accompanied COLONEL CODY on his recent trip from Standing Rock agency for the capture of Sitting Bull. Bob is in receipt of a letter from COLONEL CODY expressing astonishment at the story that in his chase after Sitting Bill he wore a dress suit. Lieutenant G.W. Chadwick, who has been quoted as making such statements has also telegraphed a denial, stating that the other interviews with himself were garbled and miconstrued. He says in his telegram that Colonel Cody did his duty conscientiously, bravely, and well according to the accounts which he has recieved of the trip. He says he was not detailed to accompany Colonel Cody, as stated in the interview, and that he never saw him till several days after CODY'S return from the trip--Chicago Herald.
AS "BUFFALO BILL" SEES IT.-- HE THINKS IT LOOKS LIKE PEACE IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY.
"Buffalo Bill" telegraphs to the "New York Herald" from Pine Ridge Agency:
"IN THE FIELD, Via Courier to Telegraph, PINE RIDGE AGENCY, DAKOTA.
"NEW YORK HERALD:
"Your request for my opinion of the Indian situation is by reason of the complications and the changeable nature of the red man's mind and action a puzzler. Every hhour brings out a new opinion. Indian history furnishes no similar situation.
"You must imagine about 5,000 Indians, and unusual proportion warriors, better armed than ever known before, hemmed in a cordon about sixteen miles in diameter, composed of over 3,000 troops, acting like a slowly closing drag net. This mass of Indians is now influenced by a percentage as despairingly desperate and fanatical as the late Big Foot party, under Short Bull and Kicking Bear. It contains also restrained neutrals, frightened and disaffected Ogallallas, hampered by the powerful Brules, backed by renegades and desperadoes from all other agencies. There are about twenty-five hundred acting and beliebed to be friendly Indians in and around the Agency.
"Such is the situation General Miles and the military confront. Any one of this undisciplined mass is able to precipitate a terrible conflict from the most unexpected quarter. Each of the component quantities is to be watched, to be measure, to be just to. In fact, it is a war with a most wily and savage people, yet the whites are restrained by a humane and peaceful desire to prevent bloodshed, and save a people from themselves. It is like cooling and calming a volcano. Ordinary warfare shows no parallel. General Miles seems to hold a firm grip on the situation. The Indians know him, express confidence in his honor, truth, and justice to them, and they fear his power and valor as well.
"As the matter now stands, he and they should be allowed, untrammeled even by a suggestion, to settle the affair, as no one not on the spot can appreciate the fearfully delicate position. The chaff must be sifted from the wheat, and in this instance the chaff must be threshed.
"At the moment, so far as words go, I would say it will be peace, but the smoldering spark is visible that may precipitate a terrible conflict any time in the next few days. However it ends,
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more and prompt attention should be paid in the future to the Sioux Indian; his rights, his complaints, and even his necessities. Respect and consideration should also be shown for the galant little army, for it is the Indian and soldier who pay the most costly price in the end. I think it looks like peace, and if so, the greater the victory.
"W.F. Cody, 'Buffalo Bill'."
THE SITUATION IN THE INDIAN COUNTRY A MARVEL OF MILITARY STRATEGY.
Col., W.F. Cody ("BUFFALO BILL") who is at the Pine Ridge, telegraphs the following for the "New York Sun," which expresses his views of the present critical situation:
"The situation today, so far as military strategy goes, is one of the best marked triumphs known in the history of Indian campaigns. It speaks for itself, for usual incidents to an Indian warfare, such as raids on settlers and wide spread devastation, have been wholly prevented. Only one white man has been killed outside the military circle. The presiding genius and his able aids have acted with all the cautious prowess of the hunter in surrounding and placing in a trap his dangerous game, at the same time recognizing the value of keeping the game imprisoned for future reasons, I speak, of course, of the campaign as originally intended to overawe and pacify and disaffected portion of the Ogallallas, Wassohas, and Brules, the Big Foot affair at Wounded Knee Creek being an unlooked-for accident.
CREDITABLE TO GEN. MILES' REPUTATION.
"The situation to-day, with a desperate band corraled and the possibility of any individual fanatic running amuck is most critical, but the wise measure of holding them in a military wall, allowing them time to quiet down and listen to the assurances of such men as Young Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses, Rocky Bear, No Neck, and other progressive Indians, relieves the situation, so that, unless some accident happens, the military end of the active warfare seems a complete, final, and brilliant success, as creditable to Gen. Miles' reputation as it is to the humane and just side of his character.
"Neither should praise be withheld from Gens. Brooke, Carr, Wheaton, Henry, Forsyth, and the other officers, and men of the gallant little army, who stood much privation. In every instance when I have heard them speak they have expressed great sympathy for their unhappy foe, and regrets for his impoverished and desperate condition. They and the thoughtful people here are now thinking about the future. In fact, the Government and nation are confronted by the problem of great importance as regards remedying the existing evils.
"The larger portion of the Ogallalla Sioux have acted nobly in this affair, especially up to the time of the stampede. The Wassaohas and Brules have laid waste the reservation of the Ogallallas, killed their cattle, shot their horses, pillaged their houses, burned their ranches; in fact, poor as the Ogallallas were before, the Brules have left them nothing but the bare ground, a white sheet instead of a blanket, with winter at hand and the little accumulations of thirteen years swept away. This much, as well as race and tribal dissensions and personal enmity, have they incurred for standing by the Government. These people need as much sympathy and immediate assistance as any section of country when great calamities arouse the sympathy of the philanthropist and the Government. This is now the part of the situation that to me seems the most remarkable. Intelligent and quick legislation can now do more than the bullet.--COL. WILLIAM F. CODY ('BUFFALO BILL')"
MILITARY REPRESENTATIVES.
The Messrs. Cody and Salsbury, in collecting various groups for their Congress of Rough Riders of the World, have arranged for recognized representative soldiers of the various nations of Europe, and to this end have to-day assembled in the arena a detachment of the First Garde Uhlan Regiment of His Majesty William II., German Emperor. They are popularly known throughout Europe as the "Postdamer Reds." England's army will be represented by a group of 12th Lancers ("Prince of Wales Own,") and France presents a detachment of Chasseurs a Cheval. These detachments are commanded respectively by Lieutenant von Richter, Sergent Major Mayfield, and Lieutenant Alexandre Bayard. They will be present the various evolutions and exercises of their armies, and in due course will introduce on horseback tent-pegging, lemon-cutting, Turks-Head and sabre and lance exercises.
The interest in this friendly meeting of representative cavalrymen will be added to by the presence of a detachment of our own National Soldiers (from the celebrated 6th U.S. Cavalry), who will act in consonance with the Director's idea to present an amicable study of the various military schools. These Veterans of the Plains will enable our public to more fitly comprehend the training and ability of the little American Army--that is the nucleus of the cohorts that would assemble in time of danger to the Republic--practically an army in which three-fourths of the privates would be able to do honor to shoulder straps in an emergency. The Arabs are the genuine Bedouin Soldiers of the Desert, that song, story and history have for ages celebrated, and their skill the writer will leave to the judgement of the auditor, as space prevents justice to this feature of our exhibition.
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State of Nebraska
Executive Department
General W.F. Cody. Lincoln January 6th 1891.
Rushville. Nebraska.
My Dear General.
As you are a member of my Staff, I have detailed you for special service; the particular nature of which, was made known during our conversation.
You will proceed to the scene of the Indian troubles, and communicate with General Miles.
You will in addition to the special services referred to, please visit the different towns, if time permit, along the line of the Elkhorn Rail-Road, and use your influence to quiet excitement and remove apprehensions upon the part of the people.
Please call upon General Colby, and give him your views as to the probability of the Indians breaking through the cordon of regular troops; your superior knowlodge of Indian character and mode of warfare, may enable you to make suggestions of importance.
All Officers and members of the State Troops, and all others, will, please extend to you every courtesy.
In testimony whereof.
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HEADQUARTERS DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.
In the Field, Pine Ridge, S.D., January 11, 1891
Brig. General W. F. Cody,
Nebraska National Guard, Present.
Sir:- I am glad to inform you that the entire body of Indians are now camped near here (within a mile and a half). They show every disposition to comply with the orders of the authorities. Nothing but an accident can prevent peace being re-established, and it will be our ambition to make it a permanent character. I feel that the State troops can now be withdrawn with safety, and desire through you to express to them my thanks for the confidence they have given your people in their isolated homes.
Like information has this day been given General Colby.
Very-respectfully yours,
Major General Commanding