Three Years on the Plains: Observations of Indians, 1867-1870Tuttle, Edmund B. (Edmund Bostwick)
History
Three Years on the Plains: Observations of Indians, 1867-1870
Tuttle, Edmund B. (Edmund Bostwick)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America; Indians of North America -- Great Plains
In July of the same year as the massacre at Phil. Kearney, that is to
say on the 20th July, while Chaplain White was traveling on Powder
River with Captain Templeton, Lieutenant Daniels, Lieutenant Wanns, and
J. H. Bradley, in company with five white women and two colored also,
going to join their command, and while quietly traveling along, about
fifty to sixty wild Indians came suddenly upon them just as they
approached "Crazy Woman's Fork River." At once there was a panic, and
one of the officers suddenly put on a woman's bonnet and rode off. One
woman had a babe. The chaplain, seeing all was confusion, and each one
for himself, exclaimed, "For God's sake, don't leave these women to be
murdered!" This seemed to call them to their senses, and they began to
rally, though, all told, there were but thirteen armed men. One
soldier, a German, got terribly frightened, and said, "_Isn't there
some one to pray?_" The chaplain seized him by the collar and bid him
hold his gun, saying, "_There is a time to pray and a time to fight!_"
By nightfall they had all disappeared. Lieutenant Bradley was very
courageous; for when the Indians shot their arrows, he would stoop down
and pick them up in derision.
Chaplains may be sometimes of little account, but if their record could
be written up, a large number would be found to have done noble service
during the war of the rebellion.
Chaplain John McNamara, of the 1st Wisconsin Regiment, was one of them.
I learned the following anecdote from a soldier who died in Camp
Douglas:
Private Auchmuty said, "We had marched for a whole year, and had never
a battle. Like all soldiers, we grumbled a good deal, and found fault
with our rations. Our chaplain preached a sermon about our being
discontented, saying we 'had done nothing at all for the government,
only to soldier a little, and eat our rations.' This made us a little
angry, and so we took it out in calling as he passed, '_There goes
the chaplain that eats his rations_!'
"But by-and-by we had a sharp and bloody fight at Stone River. Colonel
B. J. Sweet was badly wounded in his right arm, and our captain was
killed. This made us waver and fall back. But the chaplain rushed
forward to lead us, exclaiming, 'Boys, come on! The enemy is wavering;
we are sure of a victory!' On we rushed after him, and drove the foe
off the field. After that we called him the 'Bully chaplain.' He lost
his wig, but he gained the victory."
LEGEND OF "CRAZY WOMAN'S FORK."
The Absarakas, or Crow nation, have the reputation of being good
friends to the whites, and it is also said they have never warred with
them.
Iron Bull, a renowned chief of the Crows, relates the following legend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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