Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume II.

Xix. Missouri and Arkansas in 1863.

• Marmaduke attacks Springfield, Mo.
-- is repulsed -- again at Hartsville -- Waring routs him at Batesville, Ark. -- the Sam Gaty captured -- Fayetteville attacked by Cabell -- Marmaduke assails Cape Girardean -- McNeil repels him -- Coffey assails Fort Blunt -- Standwatie repulsed at Cabin creek -- Coffey repulsed by Catherwood, at Pineville, Mo. -- Quantrell's arson and butchery at Lawrence, Kansas -- Gen. Steele moves on little Rock -- fight at Bayou Metea -- Davidson defeats Marmaduke at Bayou Fourche -- Price abandons little Rock to Steele -- Blunt's escort destroyed by Quantrell -- Col. Clayton defeats Marmaduke at Pine Bluff -- Gen. E. B. Brown defeats Cabell and Coffey at Arrow Rock -- McNeil chases them to Clarkville -- Standwatie and Quantrell repulsed by Col. Phillips at Fort Gibson -- Sioux butcheries in Minnesota -- Gen. Sibley routs little Crow at Wood Lake--500 Indians captured and tried for murder -- Gen. Pope in command -- Sibley and Sully pursue and drive the savages -- Gen. Conner in Utah -- defeats Shoshonees on bear river -- enemies vanish.

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Missouri, save when fitfully invaded or disturbed by domestic insurrection, remained under the Union flag from and after the expulsion of Price's army by Fremont near the close of 1861.¹ But the Rebel element of her population, though over-powered, was still bitter, and was stirred into fitful activity by frequent emissaries from compatriots serving with Price, Marmaduke, and other chiefs, who, with their Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, who died in Arkansas,² and his Lieutenant, Thomas C. Reynolds, who thenceforth assumed the role of Confederate Governor, invincibly hoped, and intrigued, and struggled, for a restoration to the homes they had deserted and the power they by treason had forfeited.

Hardly had the year opened, when a Rebel force, led by Marmaduke, estimated at 4,000 strong, mostly mounted, emerged from northern Arkansas, and, evading our main body, under Gen. Blunt, struck at Springfield, known to be filled with Federal munitions and provisions, lightly guarded. But that important [447] post had by this time been rudely fortified with detached earthworks, which were of decided service against raw, undisciplined troops, as Marmaduke's appear to have been. Springfield was held by Brig.-Gen. E. B. Brown, Missouri militia, whose entire strength can not have exceeded 1,200 men, mainly State militia, with 156 of the 118th Iowa, Lt.-Col. Thos. Cook, reinforced, on the instant, by some 300 convalescents from the hospitals, known in army jargon as “the Quinine Brigade,” Col. B. Crabb. With this motley force, Brown fought the Rebels bravely and skillfully from 10 A. M.³ till dark; when they desisted and drew off, having taken one gun and lost some 200 men. Our loss was 14 killed, 145 wounded, and 5 missing; but among our wounded was Gen. Brown, whose valor had animated his men to fight gallantly, and whose able dispositions had probably saved the post.

The Rebels moved eastward; their advance striking,⁴ at daylight, at Wood's fork, the 21st Iowa, Col. Merrill, which, after some fighting, they flanked, moving by a more southerly route, on Hartsville; where Col. Merrill was joined by the 99th Illinois, with portions of the 3d Missouri and 3d Iowa cavalry, supporting Lt. Waldschmidt's battery, and was ready to dispute their progress. A spirited fight ensued, wherein the enemy was repulsed, with a loss of about 300, including Brig.-Gen. Emmett McDonald, Cols. Porter, Thompson, and Hinkley, killed; having 1 gun dismounted and abandoned. Our loss was 78, including 7 killed. Merrill, short of ammunition, fell back, after the fight, on Lebanon; while Marmaduke, moving 13 miles eastward that night, turned abruptly southward and escaped into Arkansas before a sufficient force could be concentrated to intercept him.

Repairing, with a part of his force, to Batesville, Marmaduke was here attacked⁵ by the 4th Missouri cavalry, Col. Geo. E. Waring, who drove him over the river, taking Col. Adams prisoner, with others. In a fight the day before, a Rebel band of guerrillas had been routed in Mingo swamp by Maj. Reeder; their leader, Dan. McGee, being killed, with 7 others, and 20 wounded. Lt.-Col. Stewart, with 130 of the 10th Illinois and 1st Arkansas cavalry, scouting from Fayetteville, Ark., surprised and captured,⁶ at Van Buren, the Arkansas river steamboat Julia Roon; making 300 prisoners.

Gen. Curtis was relieved⁷ as commander of the Department of Missouri; Gen. Schofield being ultimately appointed⁸ to succeed him.

The Missouri steamboat Sam Gaty, Capt. McCloy, was, stopped⁹ at Sibley's landing, near Independence, by a gang of guerrillas, headed by George Todd, who frightened the pilot into running her ashore, robbed boat and passengers of money and valuables, and then proceeded to murder a number of unarmed White passengers, with 20 out of 80 negroes who were known to be on board, and who were the ostensible object of the raid. The other 60 made their escape; but all who were taken were drawn up in line by the side of the boat and shot, one by one, through the head. Barely one of them survived. They were probably escaping [448] from slavery to Missouri Rebels; and this was their masters' mode of punishing that offense.

Fayetteville was our chief outpost on the Arkansas frontier; and here Col. M. L. Harrison, with the 1st Arkansas (Union) infantry and 1st Arkansas cavalry, was charged¹⁰ by Gen. W. L. Cabell, who, with 2,000 mounted men and 2 guns, had rapidly crossed the Boston mountains from Ozark, intending to attack at daylight, but not arriving till after sunrise. After due shelling, a spirited cavalry charge on our right wing was led by Col. Munroe, but repulsed; and by noon the enemy were on their way back to Ozark. Harrison, having very few horses, was unable to pursue. His loss was but 4 killed, 26 wounded, 16 prisoners, and 35 “missing,” whom he Bluntly reports as “mostly stampeded to Cassville during the engagement.” lie took 55 prisoners, 50 horses, and 100 shot-guns. He says all of his force who did any fighting numbered less than 500.

Marmaduke, after his failure in south-western Missouri and his mishap at Batesville, repaired to Little Rock; where a new campaign was planned, in conjunction with the choice spirits there assembled. South-western Missouri was preponderantly Union; while south-eastern, at least below the Iron mountain, was considered otherwise. It is an unprepossessing, swampy, thinly peopled region, and had been scouted over by each party in turn, and not firmly held by either. Leaving Little Rock about the middle of April, with Price's “1st corps of the trans-Mississippi department,” reported (doubtless, with exaggeration) as 10,000 strong, he moved north-eastward into Missouri;¹¹ marching up the St. Francis to Frederickton,¹² thence striking south-eastward at Cape Girardeau, a large depot of Union army stores, on the Mississippi, whither Gen. John McNeil had repaired from Bloomfield, with 1,200 men and 6 guns; reaching it, by hard marching, two days before Marmaduke's arrival.¹³ McNeil found here 500 men, mainly of the 1st Nebraska, Lt.-Col. Baumer, with 4 more guns, behind four very rude and simple earthworks. As a measure of prudence, he sent away most of the stores on steamboats, and was then ready for the fight with which Marmaduke, with four brigades, soon accommodated him: the place being first formally summoned “by order of Maj.-Gen. Sterling Price” (who was not within 100 miles)--30 minutes being allowed for an answer; but only one was taken. The enemy next shelled a while; while another summons was sent; but McNeil refused to stop firing or to make any answer. And now gunboats were seen coming up with reenforcements to the besieged, and Marmaduke drew off,¹⁴ having lost considerably, and commenced his retreat toward Arkansas; which he was enabled, by burning bridges, to prosecute with little loss — McNeil having been ranked by Gen. Vandever, who arrived with the reenforcements, and whose ideas of pursuit were of the slow-and-easy pattern. Two or three ineffective skirmishes occurred between our advance and the Rebel rear: McNeil, in the last, having his horse shot: but Marmaduke got over the St. Francis unharmed, and was [449] thenceforth safe; retreating into Arkansas with as many prisoners as we had taken from him; but his losses in killed and wounded were far the heavier.

The next blow in this department was struck¹⁵ by the Rebels, perhaps 3,000 strong, under Col. Coffey, at Fort Blunt,¹⁶ in the Cherokee Nation, which was held by Col. Wm. A. Phillips, with some 800 mounted men and a regiment of Creek Indians. Phillips's Indian scouts proved untrustworthy, letting the enemy approach him unannounced; still, lie had works which they did not care to attack, but, crossing the Arkansas, pounced upon his cattle, that were grazing on his left, and took the whole; only a part being recovered by a charge of his mounted men. “The Creek regiment refused to charge, or they would all have been saved,” the Colonel dolefully reports.

The enemy posted themselves in a strong position five miles from his fort; and there Col. Phillips attacked them with spirit — he driving them (or they escaping with their booty) over the Arkansas, with a loss of 50 or 60 on each side. Phillips seems to have conducted his part of the affair with judgment and energy.

A train of 300 wagons, conveying supplies from Kansas to Fort Blunt, and guarded by ten companies of Western cavalry, with the 1st Kansas colored, 800 strong, Col. J. M. Williams, and 500 Indians, Maj. Form an, had a fight¹⁷ at the crossing of Cabin creek, Indian Territory, with a force of Texans and Indians under Standwatie, the Cherokee Rebel chief. The Texans fought well; but they were only 700; while the Rebel Indians proved of no account. Standwatie was driven off, with a total loss of 23 on our side, including Maj. Forman, wounded. The Rebels left 40 dead on the field and 9 prisoners.

Gen. Blunt, learning that Fort Blunt, his advanced post, was in peril, rode thither from Fort Scott--175 miles--in five days, arriving just in time.¹⁸ Learning that the Rebel Gen. Cooper was at Honey Springs, on Elk creek, 25 miles south, waiting, with 6,000 men, for a reenforcement of three regiments from Texas, which he expected on the 17th, and purposed then to advance and fight, Blunt could not perceive the wisdom of waiting, but resolved to bring the matter to issue forthwith. So, setting out at midnight,¹⁹ with 250 cavalry and 4 guns, and, moving 13 miles up the Arkansas, he crossed and came down the other side, driving back the Rebel outpost and beginning forthwith to cross in boats his entire force--3,000 men, with 12 light guns. Advancing five miles, he caine upon the enemy, posted behind Elk creek: their numbers and position concealed by a growth of bushes. At 10 A. M.,²⁰ Blunt advanced in two columns, under Cols. Judson and Phillips; deploying rapidly to right and left when within 400 yards of the enemy's line, with cavalry dismounted on either flank, armed with carbines and fighting as infantry. In two hours, the Rebels were driven, and, in two or three more, hunted through two or tree miles of timber to the open prairie, when they fled in disorder, leaving behind them 150 dead and 77 prisoners, with one dismounted gun and 200 small arms. Blunt estimates [450] their wounded at 400. Our loss was 17 killed and 60 wounded.

Hardly had Cooper fled, when Cabell, at 4 P. M., arrived with the expected Texans, estimated by Blunt at 3,000; but they did not see fit to attack; while our men were exhausted with marching and fighting, and were running sort of ammunition. So Blunt halted and waited till next morning; when he ascertained that the enemy had decamped during the night, retreating across the Canadian.

But, though beaten at the front, the Rebels soon began to exhibit a fresh vitality by means of guerrilla raids in the rear of our forces. The 6th Missouri cavalry, Col. Catherwood, holding Pineville, in the south-west corner of Missouri, was next attacked²¹ by Coffey, raiding up from Arkansas; who was beaten off; with the loss of his wagons, munitions, and cattle, with some 200 killed, wounded, and prisoners.

The next raid was more savage and more successful. It was made by a bandit termed Quantrell — though that was not his real name — who, collecting a force of 300 Rebel guerrillas on the Black water, in western Missouri, 50 miles from the State line, far within the Union lines, and while no Rebel flag openly floated within 100 miles, rode stealthily across the border and at early dawn²² into the young city of Lawrence, Kansas, where no preparation for defense existed, for no danger of attack was ever dreamed of. The people were surprised in their beds, the roads picketed, and every one who emerged from a house with a weapon was shot down, of course. But very few thought of resistance, which was manifestly idle. The Eldridge House, the chief hotel, contained no arms of any kind, and was formally surrendered by Capt. Banks, who, frankly avowing himself a Union officer, insisted on seeing Quantrell, who assured him that none who surrendered should receive personal harm. The banks, stores, and safes, were all broken open and robbed, as were tile private dwellings. All the horses were taken, of course; otherwise tile booty could not have been carried off. Every negro and every German who were caught were killed at once. Tile Court-house and many of the best dwellings were fired and burnt. Eighteen unarmed recruits were found at tile rendezvous near tile city, and killed; as were quite a number of private citizens; several of them after they had surrendered and given up their money under a promise that they should be spared; but those taken in the Eldridge House were protected by Quantrell and saved. Few, if any, who were shot, survived. U. S. Senator J. H. Lane escaped; as did Col. Deitzler and some others; Gen. Collamore, who hid ill a well, was suffocated, as were two men who successively went down to help him out. At 10 A. M., the work of devastation and murder was complete--140 men having been butchered and 185 buildings burned, including lost of the stores and one-fourth of the dwellings — and the bandits left, being fired at by some soldiers across the Kansas, as they fled, and three of them killed.

A series of fatalities had prevented the receipt of any warning of this [451] raid. One man was riding in advance of the raiders, to warn Lawrence, when his horse fell under him and was killed; while the rider was so injured that he died next day. The banditti had been seen, the night before, passing five miles south of Aubrey, near the State line, where Capt. Pike, with two cavalry companies, was stationed; but Pike, instead of pursuing them, sent word to Capt. Coleman, at Little Santa Fe; who, with 100 more horsemen, marched to Aubrey, and, with Pike, commenced a pursuit; but the trail was now cold; arid the pursuers were six miles from Lawrence, on horses thoroughly blown, when the bandits, with fresh (stolen) horses, were leaving the scene of their murders. They were overtaken near Palmyra by Senator Lane and a weak party from Lawrence; but these could not attack, and were unable to keep them in sight; and, in short, Quantrell, dodging many times his force, who were after him, rested a while that night 5 miles north-east of Paoli, and escaped next day into the timber of the middle fork of Grand river, Missouri; where his band scattered, seeking and finding concealment with congenial spirits throughout the surrounding region. Perhaps 100 of them were overtaken and killed in the pursuit; but the greater number escaped, and were soon indistinguishable.

Col. Woodson, with 600 Missourians, starting²³ from Pilot Knob, Mo., dashed into Pocahontas,²⁴ Ark., where he captured Gen M. Jeff. Thompson and some 50 others; returning unmolested.

The surrender of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, with the retreat of Jo. Johnston from Jackson, having left Gen. Grant's army at leisure, Maj.-Gen. F. Steele was sent to Helena,²⁵ to fit out and lead an expedition for the capture of little Rock. The force assigned him for this task numbered 6,000 men of all arms, including 500 cavalry, with 22 guns; but Gen. Davidson, with nearly 6,000 more men, mainly mounted, and 18 guns, soon joined him from Missouri; swelling his aggregate to 12,000 men and 40 guns. Steele soon moved out,²⁶ Davidson's cavalry in advance; crossing White river²⁷ at Clarendon, and sending forward²⁸ Davidson to reconnoiter the enemy's position at Brownsville, while he shipped his extra supplies and his sick — by this time numbering 1,000--down to Duvall's bluff, which was accounted the healthiest spot in that unhealthy region.

Davidson advanced, skirmishing, to Brownsville,²⁹ which Marmaduke evacuated; retreating to his intrenchments at Bayou Metea; whence he was, after some fighting, dislodged³⁰ and driven over the bayou; burning the bridge behind him, and so checking pursuit.

Gen. True's brigade, from Memphis, reaching Clarendon on the 29th, was ferried over the White next day, and a general advance resumed; Steele concentrating at Brownsville, and, after attempting to pass Bayou Metea on the north and being baffled by miry swamps, decided to move by the left to the Arkansas, which he struck³¹ near Ashley's mills; where Davidson's cavalry, reconnoitering in the advance, had another sharp skirmish with the enemy; Steele, [452] finding himself embarrassed with 700 more sick; whom, along with his train, he was obliged to leave True's brigade and Ritter's cavalry to guard, while he pushed up the Arkansas and fought his way into Little Rock; Davidson, supported by two divisions and two batteries, crossing directly, and approaching that city on the south side of the river.

Davidson, having completed his reconnoissances and fixed on his point of crossing, threw over his pontoons during the night,³² and was all over by 11 A. M. the fire of his batteries having speedily silenced the enemy's opposition. Advancing directly on Little Rock, he was more stubbornly resisted at Bayou Fourche, five miles out, by Marmaduke's cavalry and Tappan's brigade of infantry, supporting two batteries, strongly posted; but Steele, advancing simultaneously on the north bank of the river, his batteries fired across at the enemy obstructing Davidson; which enabled the latter slowly to gain ground, until at length, ordering a charge by Ritter's brigade and Strange's howitzers, supported by part of the 1st Iowa cavalry, his men went into the city, saber in hand, on the heels of the flying enemy; and st 7 P. M., the capital of Arkausas was formally surrendered by its civil authorities: the United States arsenal being uninjured, and whatever Rebel stores were there falling into our hands; but six steamboats were completely burned by Price, who had Leen in chief command here, with several railroad cars; while their three pontoon-bridges and two locomotives, though also fired by them, were partially saved.

Steele, moving parallel with Davidson, was opposite the city, when it was evacuated and given up, and entered it late that evening: the enemy making for Arkadelphia too rapidly to be overtaken by our jaded horses, to say nothing of our men.

Steele says his entire loss to or by the enemy during this campaign did not exceed 100; yet he had but 7,000 of his 12,000 when he started that morning to enter Little Rock. True, he had left many guarding hospitals and trains; but he had been reenforced by two brigades: so that his losses by disease must have been fearful. He had taken 1,000 prisoners.

Ere this, Gen. Blunt, pursuing the motley Rebel horde under Standwatie and Cabell, had very nearly brought them to a stand at Perryville,³³ Choctaw Nation; but they were too nimble to receive much damage, and he chased them by Fort Smith, whereof he took³⁴ bloodless possession. Col. J. M. Johnson, 1st [Union] Arkansas, was made post commander. Cabell, it was said, fell back to participate in the defense of Little Rock; but he failed to arrive in season; joining Price's fugitive force somewhere on its retreat to the Washita. Price ultimately fell back to Red river.

Gen. Blunt, leaving been on business to Kansas, was returning with a small cavalry escort to Fort Smith, when he was struck,³⁵ near Baxter's. springs, Cherokee Nation, by Quantrell, with 600 guerrillas, and most of his small escort killed or disabled: among the 80 killed--nearly all after they had been captured — were Maj. H. Z. Curtis, son of Maj.-Gen. S. R. [453] Curtis, and several civilians. Gen. Blunt, rallying some 15 of his guard, escaped capture and death by great coolness and courage: their persistency in boldly fighting creating a belief that they were the van of a heavy force. A considerable train that accompanied them was sacked and burned. The attack was made very near the little post known as Fort Blair, which was next assailed; but its defenders, though few, were brave and well led by Lt. Pond, 3d Wisconsin cavalry, who beat tile enemy off, inflicting a loss of 11 killed and many more wounded. Gen. Blunt and his remnant of escort kept the prairie till night, then made their way to the post. They had not ventured thither before, apprehending that it had been taken.

Pine Bluff, on the south bank of the Arkansas, 50 miles below Little Rock, was occupied, early in October, by Col. Powell Clayton, 5th Kansas cavalry, with 350 men and 4 guns. Marmaduke, at Princeton, 45 miles south, resolved to retake it. By the time he advanced to do so,³⁶ Clayton had been reenforced by the 1st Indiana cavalry: so that he had now 600 men and 9 light guns.

Marmaduke, with 12 guns and a force estimated at 2,500, advanced in three columns, and poured in shell and canister for five hours, setting fire to the place; but Powell had organized 200 negroes to barricade the streets with cotton-bales, by whose services the fire was stopped without subtracting from his slender fighting force. The Rebel shells burned the court-house and several dwellings, battering most of the residue; but they could not take the town; and, at 2 P. M., drew off, having lost 150 killed and wounded, beside 33 prisoners. Our loss was but 17 killed and 40 wounded--5 of the former and 12 of the latter among the negro volunteers.

Part of Cabell's command, which (as we have seen) had been worsted, in the Indian Territory, by Blunt and Phillips, undertook, under Shelby, a Fall raid into Missouri--probably in quest of subsistence. Emerging from the Choctaw region of the Indian Territory, tile raiders passed rapidly through the north-west corner of Arkansas, crossing the river eastward of Fort Smith, and evading any collision with our forces near that post as well as with those holding Little Rock, and entering south-western Missouri; being joined³⁷ at Crooked Prairie by a similar force under Coffey, whereby their number was said to be swelled to 2,500. These advanced rapidly through Western Missouri to the river at Booneville, but forthwith commenced a retreat — disappointed, probably, in their hopes of reenforcement from the now passive Rebels of that disloyal section. They were pursued by a hastily gathered body of Missouri militia, under Gen. E. B. Brown, who struck³⁸ them near Arrow Rock at nightfall; fighting them till dark; renewing the attack at 8 next morning, and putting them to flight, with a loss of some 300 killed, wounded, and prisoners.³⁹ [454]

Gen. McNeil was at St. Louis when first apprised⁴⁰ of this raid, and at once set out for his post, Lebanon: whence, gathering up what force lie could, he advanced on Bolivar, moving by Humansville and Stockton on Lamar, where he hoped to intercept their flight. But Shelby had already passed through Humansville, hotly pursued, losing there his last gun, when McNeil reached that point; so the latter joined the hunt through Greenfield and Sarcoxie into Arkansas, and on through Huntsville over Buffalo mountain, taking prisoners by the way; continuing the chase to Clarksville, unable to come fairly up with the nimble fugitives, who had now crossed the Arkansas and vanished among the wilds beyond. McNeil here gave over the pursuit, moving deliberately up the river to Fort Smith. During this chase, he had been designated⁴¹ to command of the Army of the Frontier, vice Gen. Blunt, relieved.

Standwatie and Quantrell made another attack⁴² on Col. Phillips's outposts near Fort Gibson, Indian Territory; but, after a fight of four or five hours, the assailants were routed and driven across the Arkansas. This terminated the fighting in this quarter for the year 1863.

A general Indian war on our Western frontier had been gravely apprehended in 1862; and that apprehension was partially realized. Under the administrations of Pierce and Buchanan, the Indian agents and other Government employes among the aboriginal tribes of the great plains were of course Democrats; many of them Southrons, and all intensely pro-Slavery. These were generally supurseded, under Mr. Lincoln, in the course of 1861; and were suspected of having been stimulated, by wrath at finding themselves displaced and by political and sectional sympathies, to use their necessarily great influence among the several tries to attach them to the fortunes and involve them in the struggles of the Confederacy. Of some of them, this is probably true; but it is not known to be proved, save with those formerly accredited to the tribes residing, within the boundaries of the Indian Territory. But, however caused, the general feeling of the western Indians toward us became more and more hostile during 1861-2; until at length certain bands of the Sioux of Minnesota, with some other tribes, pl<*>ed into open war. Little Crow's band bore a conspicuous part in these butcheries; striking in rapid succession the north-western frontier settlements at Yellow Medicine,⁴³ New Ulm,⁴⁴ Cedar City,⁴⁵ Minn., and a few other feeble outposts; besieging for nine days Fort Ridgeley;⁴⁶ beleaguering and twice assaulting Fort Abercrombie, whence they were driven with heavy loss; and butchering in all some 500 persons, mainly defenseless women and children. Militia were promptly called out and sent against them, under Gen. H. H. Sibley; and the main savage band was finally struck⁴⁷ at Wood lake; where Little Crow was utterly routed, fleeing thence into Dakota. Some 500 of the savages were captured; of whom 498 were tried by court-martial, and about 300 convicted and [455] sentenced to be hanged; but President Lincoln deferred their execution, and most of them were ultimately set at liberty.

Next summer--Gen. Pope being in command of this department — the irregular frontier line of settlements in the north-west was picketed by about 2,000 men; while Gen. Sibley moved westward from Fort Snelling in June, with some 2,500 infantry; Gen. Sully, with a body of cavalry being sent up the Missouri on boats to cooperate. The two commands did not unite; but Sibley found and fought⁴⁸ some of the hostile savages at Missouri Couteau, Big mound, Dead Buffalo lake, and Stony lake; killing or wounding some 130) of them; while Sully encountered⁴⁹ a band at Whitestone hill, routing then with heavy loss, and taking 156 prisoners. The remnant fled across the Missouri and evaded pursuit. This was the virtual close of the Sioux war. Our men on these expeditions suffered terribly for water — a great drouth then prevailing on the plains.

Far West, Brig.-Gen. P. E. Connor, 1st California volunteers, commanding in Utah, on hearing⁵⁰ of Indian depredations by the Shoshonees on Bear river, western Idaho, marched thither (140 miles) through deep Winter snows, wherein 75 of his men were disabled by frozen feet, and, with the residue, attacked⁵¹ 300 savages in their stronghold, killing 224; his own loss being 12 killed and 49 wounded. Four months later, Gen. Connor, with most of his force, traversed the region westward of the Rocky mountains so far north as old Fort Hall on Snake river, but found no enemy to combat.

These Indian hostilities, though inglorious and most unprofitable, subtracted considerably from our military strength, and added largely to our exhausting outlays during the trying year 1863.