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General Sheridan.
BY TELEGRAPH.Important Letter From General Sheridan.Letter From General Sheridan. St. Louis, Dec. 19.--A letter from Gen. Sheridan, dated Depot on North Canadian river, Dec. 3d, was received at Gen. Sherman's headquarters to-day. It gives information direct from Black Kettle's sister, by Gen. Sheridan, himself, which is as follows: The Indians were encamped; first Black Kettle, and other chiefs of the Cheyennes, and a small party of Sioux; in all, thirty-seven lodges, eight miles down the Washita river. All the Arrapahoes, and seventy additional lodges of Cheyennes, and also the Kiowas, the Apaches and Comanches. While thus encamped, three war parties were sent out; one party, composed of Cheyennes, Kiowas, and Arrapahoes, went north, in the direction of Fort Larned, and was still out; another party, was composed of Cheyennes and Arrapahoes, and returned; the trail of which led Gen. Custer into Black Kettle's village. This party brought back three scalps, one of which was that of the Expressman, killed and horribly mutilated between Fort Dodge and Fort Larned, just before Sheridan moved to the former Fort. The mail he was carrying was found in Black Kettle's camp. The other party was a mixed one, and went in the direction of Fort Lyon, and is still out about the line. With the first of these parties started Black Kettle and one sub chief, from each band. They went to Fort Cobb, and brought back provisions given them at the Fort; and while they were gone, or about the time of their return, the last war party referred to, was sent out. The women are of the opinion that they will all sue for peace at Fort Cobb, as the result of the battle with Custer. They would have gone to Sheridan's camp had not an opening at Fort Cobb been held out to them. Gen. Sheridan then says: I shall start for Fort Scott as soon as the train from Fort Dodge arrives. Had it not been for the Kansas regiment getting lost, and the heavy snow, which rendered their horses unfit for duty, we would have closed up the job before this time. As it is, I think that fight is pretty well knocked out of the Cheyennes. The Government makes a great mistake in giving these Indians any great amount of food, under the supposition of necessity; the whole country is covered with game, and there are more buffaloes than will last the Indians for twenty years, and the turkeys are so numerous that flocks of from 1,000 to 2,000 have been seen, and the country is full of grouse, quails and rabbits; herds of antelopes and deer are seen everywhere, and even ran through Gen. Custer's train while on his march. The reservation laid off for the Cheyennes and Arrapahoes is full of game, and the most luxuriant grass. Black Kettle's sister reports three white women in the lodges below Black Kettles camp. Another letter from Gen. Sheridan says, the mules belonging to Clark's train, also, photographs, and other articles taken from the houses robbed on the Salina and Solomon rivers, in Kansas, last fall, were found in the Indian camp. The Indian women prisoners say that most of the depredations committed along the Arkansas, was by the Cheyennes and Arrapahoes.
Source: Unknown, "Important Letter From General Sheridan," The Daily Kansas State Journal, Lawrence, Kansas, Sunday Morning, 20 December 1868, Vol. IV, No. 133, p. 1, col. 6.p> |
