Fort Robinson breakout
Fort Robinson outbreak | |||||||
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Part of the Northern Cheyenne Exodus | |||||||
"The Pit". Painting by Frederic Remington, 1897 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Northern Cheyenne | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Dull Knife Little Finger Nail † Left Hand † Tangle Hair |
Andrew W. Evans Henry W. Wessells Peter D. Vroom John B. Johnson | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
149, including 46 warriors | ~175 soldiers plus a few armed civilians | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
~60 killed, ~70 captured | 12 Killed, 14 Wounded |
The Fort Robinson breakout or Fort Robinson massacre was the attempted escape of Cheyenne captives from the U.S. army during the winter of 1878-1879 at Fort Robinson in northwestern Nebraska. In 1877, the Cheyenne had been forced to relocate from their homelands on the northern Great Plains south to the Darlington Agency on the Southern Cheyenne Reservation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma). In September 1878, in what is called the Northern Cheyenne Exodus, 353 Northern Cheyenne fled north because of poor conditions on the reservation. In Nebraska, the U.S. Army captured 149 of the Cheyenne, including 46 warriors, and escorted them to Fort Robinson.
In January 1879, after the Cheyenne had refused an earlier order to return to the south, the soldiers began to treat them harshly to try to force them south. They were confined to a barracks without food, water, or wood for heat. Most of the band escaped the barracks on January 9, but the US Army hunted them down. The Cheyenne were poorly armed and outnumbered by 175 soldiers pursuing them. On January 22, the army surrounded and killed most of the last 37 escapees. In total, the army recaptured about 70 of the Cheyenne and killed about 60. A few escaped, including
Background and surrender
In 1877 the
During their flight northward the Cheyenne were successful in several fights with the U.S. Army and civilian volunteers. They raided white settlers for horses and provisions, killing about 40 civilians, and having several of their women, children, and elderly captured and executed by whites. In the
Fort Robinson
On arrival at Fort Robinson, the Cheyenne captives were fed and counted. Dull Knife's band consisted of 46 men, 42 women, and 61 children. Thirty of the men were deemed capable of fighting. Many of the Cheyenne were ill and near-starvation. An army doctor provided them with medical care. The soldiers searched the Cheyenne and found about 10 additional guns they had not turned in when they surrendered. They were housed in a barracks. Initially the Cheyenne were allowed freedom of movement around and near the camp, but were required to return to the barracks by nightfall. Army officers organized dances with the Cheyenne women.[8][9]
Dull Knife had told the soldiers that the Cheyenne wished to remain in the north and join the Sioux in South Dakota during the surrender negotiations and in his initial talks with Major Caleb Carlton, commander of Fort Robinson. Carlton and others had told him that it was undecided whether the Cheyenne could remain or would be required to return to Indian territory. However, little consideration was given by the U.S. government to allowing the Cheyenne to remain. General
On 4 December Captain Henry W. Wessells Jr. took command of Fort Robinson, replacing Carlton. About 175 soldiers were stationed at the fort. Wessells intensified the pressure on the Cheyenne, forcing the women to work outside in bitterly cold weather and increasing the number of guards on the barracks where the Cheyenne were housed. Wessells also telegraphed General Crook requesting food and winter clothing for the Cheyenne. Soldiers said the Cheyenne "were in rags." Wessells protested orders to handcuff the Cheyenne men when they were to be moved.[12][13]
Breakout
On 3 January 1879, Wessells informed the leaders of the Cheyenne that they were ordered to return south to the Southern Cheyenne reservation in Indian Territory. The chiefs refused to leave. The next day, Wessells confined all the Cheyenne to the barracks and cut off food and water to force their compliance. The Cheyenne survived with a little food they had stored and drank the frost they could scrape off the windows and walls. On 9 January Wessells arrested Wild Hog and Old Crow, two Cheyenne leaders, and shackled them in irons. Their families were also taken out of the barracks, leaving about 130 Cheyenne still there. During their arrest, Wild Hog stabbed one of the soldiers and he and his wife attempted suicide by stabbing themselves. The two leaders and their families remained imprisoned during the breakout.[14]
On 9 January, six inches of snow was on the ground. That evening the Cheyenne in the barracks retrieved 16 guns they had hidden and sang their death songs. At about 10 p.m., warriors climbed out through the windows of the barracks and killed two guards. The rest of the Cheyenne fled the barracks and five warriors fought a rear guard action against soldiers pursuing them. All of the five warriors were killed. The Cheyenne fled west, attempting to reach limestone bluffs and Soldier Creek four miles distant. At the creek, they broke the ice for water to drink, Doing the pursuit that night and the following day, about 27 of the Cheyenne were killed, including a daughter of Dull Knife (whose body was mutilated), and 35 were recaptured. On reaching the bluffs, the Cheyenne separated into smaller groups.[15][14]
Over the following days, the soldiers and a few civilians continued to pursue the fleeing Cheyenne. A few were captured, others were killed or died of exposure. The Cheyenne's only food was dead cavalry horses, but the soldiers burned dead horses to deprive them of food. On 22 January the soldiers found the largest group of surviving Cheyenne, 37 persons, 60 km (37 mi) northwest of Fort Robinson on Antelope Creek in the northwestern corner of Nebraska. This group of Cheyenne were attempting to reach the Sioux in South Dakota. Wessells pleaded with the Cheyenne to surrender. They responded with gunfire, killing three soldiers. Wessells mounted a charge on the Cheyenne, who were in a buffalo wallow surrounded by an improvised breastwork. The soldiers made it to the breastwork and fired down into the buffalo wallow. When firing ceased, 28 Cheyenne were dead or dying. Nine survived, all women and children. Wessells was himself wounded in the operation. The dead were buried in a mass grave called "The Pit."[5][16]
Estimates differ regarding Cheyenne killed and recaptured during the breakout. Sixty killed and 70 recaptured (including 18 who were imprisoned and unable to escape at the time of the breakout) is a credible estimate with about 20 unaccounted for who escaped or died from the cold. Dull Knife and some of his family were among those who escaped. He fled eastward instead of west as did the others, found refuge with a white friend in South Dakota, and was hidden by the Sioux on their reservation. Eleven soldiers and one Indian scout were killed by the Cheyenne during the breakout.[14][5]
Cheyenne killed (incomplete)
- Left Hand (January 9)
- White Antelope (January 9)
- Sitting Man (January 9)
- Black Bear (January 22)
- Little Finger Nail (January 22)
Cheyenne wounded
- Tangle Hair (Wounded and Captured, January 9)
U.S. killed
- Private Frank Schmidt, Company A, 3rd Cavalry (January 9)
- Private Peter Hulse, Company A, 3rd Cavalry (January 9)
- Private W. H. Good, Company L, 3rd Cavalry (January)
- Private W. W. Everett, Company H, 3rd Cavalry (January)
- Corporal Henry P. Orr, Company A, 3rd Cavalry (January)
- Private Bernard Kelly, Company E, 3rd Cavalry (January)
- Private Amos J. Barbour, Company, 3rd Cavalry (January)
- Farrier George Brown, Company A, 3rd Cavalry (January 22)
- Sergeant James Taggart, Company A, 3rd Cavalry (January 22)
- Private George Nelson, Company A, 3rd Cavalry (January 22)
- Private Henry A. DuBlois, Company H, 3rd Cavalry (January 22)
- Woman's Clothes, Indian Scout, mortally wounded (January 22)
U.S. wounded
- Captain Henry W. Wessells, Jr., Company H, 3rd Cavalry (January 22)
- First Sergeant Ambrose, Company E, 3rd Cavalry (January 22)
- Sergeant Read, Company H, 3rd Cavalry (January 22)
Aftermath
General
Seven of the surviving warriors were charged and tried for murders committed in Kansas during their exodus north. They were acquitted. In 1901 the U.S. Supreme Court denied any U.S. liability but called the “shocking story” “one of the most melancholy of Indian tragedies” and found that “up to the time these Cheyennes were fired upon in the Indian Territory by the pursuing troops, they had committed no atrocity and were in amity with the United States and desired to remain so.”[17]
In 1994 the Northern Cheyenne reclaimed the remains of those killed and buried in Nebraska. They were reinterred on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, on a hill overlooking Busby, Montana.
US officers involved
- Fort Laramie
- Captain Henry W. Wessells, Jr., Company H, 3rd Cavalry (Wounded)
- Captain John B. Johnson, Company B, 3rd Cavalry
- Captain Joseph Lawson, Company E, 3rd Cavalry
- Captain Peter Dumont Vroom, Company L, 3rd Cavalry
- Captain John M. Hamilton, 5th Cavalry, Investigating Board of Officers
- First Lieutenant Walter S. Schuyler, Company B, 5th Cavalry, Investigating, Aide-de-campto General Crook
- Assistant Surgeon (First Lieutenant) Edward R. Mosely, Medical Detachment, Department of the Platte
- Acting Assistant Surgeon Charles V. Petteys, Medical Detachment, Department of the Platte
- Second LieutenantJoseph F. Cummings, Company C, 3rd Cavalry
- Second LieutenantThompson, Company D, 3rd Cavalry
- Second LieutenantJohn Baxter, 9th Infantry (Company F, 3rd Cavalry)
- Second LieutenantF. H. Hardee, Company F, 3rd Cavalry
- Second LieutenantGeorge Francis Chase, Company L, 3rd Cavalry
Order of battle
Native Americans, Chief Dull Knife 149 people, including 46 men.
Native Americans | Tribe | Leaders |
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Northern Cheyenne
|
|
United States Army, Fort Robinson, Nebraska, January 9–22, 1879, Captain Henry W. Wessells Jr., commanding until January 19. Major Andrew W. Evans, commanding from January 19–22, 1879.
Fort Robinson garrison | Regiment | Companies and Others |
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|
3rd United States Cavalry Regiment
|
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Scouts, Guides, Unattached Soldiers, and Civilians
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| |
Popular culture
The incident is portrayed in a sympathetic light to the Cheyenne in the John Ford movie Cheyenne Autumn, with some differences from the actual events. Karl Malden portrays Captain Wessells.
Further reading
- Sandoz, Mari (1992). Cheyenne Autumn. University of Nebraska Press.
References
- ISBN 0-8050-1730-5
- ^ Chapter 29, "Little Wolf and Dull Knife, 1876-79", pages 398 to 413 and Chapter 30, "The Fort Robinson Outbreak", pp. 414 to 427, The Fighting Cheyennes, George Bird Grinnell, University of Oklahoma Press (1956, Scribner's Sons 1915),
- ISBN 978-0972221719
- ISBN 0-8032-1294-1.
- ^ a b c "The Cheyenne Homecoming". Wyoming History. Wyoming State Historical Society. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
- ISBN 0739401742.
- ^ Boye 1999, pp. 251–255.
- ^ Boye 1999, p. 264–265.
- ISBN 9780806142210.
- ^ Boye 1999, pp. 264–270.
- ^ Leiker & Powers 2011, pp. 72–73.
- ^ Boye 1999, pp. 268–272.
- ISBN 9780806136455.
- ^ a b c Leiker & Powers 2011, pp. 72–75.
- ^ Boye 1999, pp. 272–295.
- ^ McDermott 1998, pp. 164–165.
- ^ Conners v. United States, 180 U.S. 271, 21 S. Ct. 362, 45 L. Ed. 525 (1901) (Justice Henry Billings Brown for the Court).