War With the Indians.
War With the Indians.

WAR WITH THE INDIANS.

Correspondence of the New-York Times.
                                     FORT KEARNY, Monday, May 20.

    From an interview I have had with Gen. AUGUR, I hasten to jot down what information I have gleaned concerning his intended expedition to the Indian country. He has probably some 5,000 troops in the Department of the Platte, which he commands. He had intended to take a force of some 2,000 men toward the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, for the purpose of avenging the massacre of Fort Phil. Kearny and the reported one of Fort John Buford. Had the plan, which doubtless originated in the fertile brain of a General who shall be nameless, and which was intended to be a signal act of revenge unbecoming a great nation, been put in force, peradventure by this you would have heard of the red man's total annihilation--the Indian would have troubled neither the War Department nor the Indian Department any more. The plan was that Gen. HANCOCK was to go south of the Platte, along the Arkansas River as far as Fort Dodge, divide the hostile tribes from the peaceable, drive the hostile tribes up to that belt of country between the Platte and the Arkansas, and send his cavalry to cut them up in detail. Then Gen. AUGUR was to sweep along the headwaters of the Republican, up the Platte to the confluence of its two forks, the North and the South. Any Indians south between HANCOCK's and AUGUR's troops were to be utterly annihilated. Truly a magnificent idea, but like many other sublime ideas it fell to the ground, that another equally as sublime, equally as futile, might take its place.
    When those 329 Indians met Gen. HANCOCK between Fort Larned and this village, they narrowly escaped the fate of their red brothers of Sand Creek notoriety. Thoughts of what SUMNER and CHIVINGTON formerly had achieved, passed through the General's mind, and more than three-fourths of his officers prayed for an opportunity--an occasion to fall on them. But for the honor of the military be it said, the flag-of-truce, which "PAWNEE KILLER" so conspicuously displayed to view, was honored. His hasty burning of the Cheyenne and Sioux villages, as I was an eye-witness, was part and parcel of the summary manner in which the General wished to deal with them. Major-Gen. A. J. SMITH, now commanding the Department of the Arkansas, and Inspector-Gen. DAVIDSON, of Major-Gen. HANCOCK's Staff, remonstrated with the Commanding General--nay, almost begged that he would not burn the camp. They urged him when about to order the torch to be applied, that the Indians had been frightened off by the presence of the troops. As "TALL BULL" and "WHITE HORSE" had said, the Indian ponies were found to be in such a condition that it became a merciful deed to slaughter them when captured. The agent of the Sioux and Cheyennes, Major E. W. WYNKOOP, entreated Gen. HANCOCK verbally and in his official character, again and again to delay the burning till proofs could be produced that they intended to commence hostilities. You will perceive by the letter he sent to N. G. TAYLOR, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, how futile his entreaties were. Again the burning of the Cheyenne village, broke up in a great measure the order of the campaign. Gen. HANCOCK was left minus his most effective force, on which he mostly relied, to wander over the prairies and to return in haste, his mission unfulfilled. The hard-driven tribes, Sioux and Cheyennes, hotly pursued, broke out at last, and attacked and burnt their stations. They also scattered themselves along the great lines of travel West, the Smoky Hill and the Platte, and commenced their depredations. These events have prevented Gen. AUGUR's expedition from starting. His whole force is in requisition to protect the railroad (Union Pacific;) he now has his hands full; dispatch after dispatch arrives daily at his headquarters informing him of the insecurity of travel.
    This morning news came of the capture of one hundred head of stock in the neighborhood of Julesburgh, and the killing of three herders. This I had officially, so you may depend upon it.
    He is hurrying troops by the Union Pacific to all posts where any danger is anticipated. The Fourth Regiment Infantry, has been forwarded to Fort Sedgwick, Nebraska, another regiment has been sent to Laramie, which is about 575 miles from here. How infantry can be made available against the plumed riders of the Plains, except by acting on the defensive, is a question I leave to your intelligent readers. In the whole Department there is only one regiment of cavalry.
    The main body of the Sioux and Cheyennes are camped on Turkey Creek, near Beaver Creek, about 250 miles from this city. In two weeks at least, their horses will be in a condition to enable them to commence their work of terrible retaliation.


Source:

Unknown, "War With the Indians," New York Times, Saturday, 25 May 1867, p. 1.

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