GENERAL SHERIDAN has conceived a plan of Indian warfare which will yield substantial results. General SHERMAN's report to the War Department from St. Louis, on the 2d instant, incloses a report from General SHERIDAN of the first stage of his campaign. As SHERMAN says, "it gives General SHERIDAN a good initiation." It seems that at the start SHERIDAN met with old acquaintances. "The bands of BLACK KETTLE, LITTLE RAVEN, and SANTANTA are well known to us," says SHERMAN, "and are the same that have been along the Smoky Hill for the past five years, and ......embrace the very same men who first began this war on the Saline and Solomon rivers.
    General SHERIDAN reports from Canadian River, junction of Beaver Creek, Indian Territory, November 29, 1868:

    "I have the honor to report for the information of the Lieutenant-General, the following operations of General CUSTER's command: On the 23d of November I ordered him to proceed with eleven companies of the Seventh Cavalry in a southerly direction toward the Antelope Hills in search of hostile Indians. On the 26th he struck the trail of a war party of BLACK KETTLE's band returning from the north, near where the eastern line of the pan-handle of Texas crossed the main Canadian. He at once corralled his wagons and followed in pursuit over the head waters of the Washita, thence down that stream; and on the morning of the 27th surprised the camp of BLACK KETTLE, and after a desperate fight, in which BLACK KETTLE was assisted by the Arrapahoes, under LITTLE RAVEN and the Kiowas, under SATANTA, we captured the entire camp, killing the chief, BLACK KETTLE, 102 warriors, whose bodies were left on the field, all their stock, ammunition, arms, lodges, robes, and fifty-three women and their children. Our loss was Major ELLIOTT, Captain HAMILTON, and nineteen enlisted men killed. Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel BAR-

NETZ, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel J. W. CUSTER, Second Lieutenant Z. MARSH, and eleven enlisted men wounded. LITTLE RAVEN's band of Arrapahoes and SATANTA's band of Kiowas were encamped six miles below BLACK KETTLE's camp. About 800 or 900 of the animals captured were shot, the balance being kept for military purposes. The highest credit is due to General CUSTER and his command. They started in a furious snow-storm, and traveled all the while in snow about 12 inches deep. BLACK KETTLE's and LITTLE RAVEN's families are among the prisoners. It was BLACK KETTLE's band that committed the first depredations on the Saline and Solomon rivers, in Kansas.
    "The Kansas regiment has just come in. They missed the trail and had to struggle in the snow-storm. The horses suffered much in flesh, and the men were living on buffalo meat and game for eight days. We will soon have them in good condition. If we can get one or two more good blows there will be no more Indian troubles in my department. We will be pinched in ability to obtain supplies, and nature will present many difficulties in our winter operations, but we have stout hearts and will do our best. Two white children were recaptured. One white woman and a boy ten years old were brutally murdered by the Indian women when the attack commenced."

    Cheyenne village was captured on the morning of November 27th, as stated in the above report. General CUSTER on this occasion won fresh laurels. We regret the loss of HAMILTON, BARNETZ and ELLIOTT; but we rejoice that one of the most hostile of the Indian encampments has been destroyed. SHERIDAN's plan, as we have previously stated, is the destruction of the Indian lodges. This, fully accomplished, will make it impossible for the savages to begin their depredations in the spring. SHERIDAN's harvest is one that could only be garnered in the winter season, and thus far he has proved himself an efficient reaper.

Sources:

Unknown, "The Indian War," Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization, New York, Saturday, 19 December 1868, Vol. XII, No. 625, pp. 801-802.

Sketches:

Unknown, "General Custer's Command Marching to Attack the Cheyenne Village," Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization, New York, 19 December 1868, Vol. XII, No. 625, p. 804.

Slee Brothers, Poughkeepsie, "Captain Louis M. Hamilton," Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization, New York, 19 December 1868, Vol. XII, No. 625, p. 804.

Unknown, "The Seventh U. S. Cavalry Charging Into Black Kettle's Village at Daylight, November 27, 1868," Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization, New York, 19 December 1868, Vol. XII, No. 625, p. 804.