Okla-homey
11/27/2007, 07:04 AM
Note: the anti-cussword software thinks Wash1ta is a cussword. Sorry.
November 27, 1868 Custer massacres peaceful Cheyenne on Wash1ta River
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/6307/cuscusteratcheyennevillage7iu.jpg
139 years ago today, without even bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer ordered an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle near present day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/2023/cus90093xw.jpg
Giant dillweed Custer in his winter fighting duds
Custer badly needed a "win" to restore his tarnished reputation. Convicted of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers at a court martial earlier that year, the government had suspended Custer from rank and command for one year.
See, in late 1867, Custer had decided he needed to visit his wife (booty call) and undertook a cruelly led two hundred mile forced march to do so, absenting himself from his post without authorization and killing dozens of horses and injuring several soldiers permanently on the "booty" march. (Note: It was not at the time officially referred to as a "booty" march.)
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9393/wwwwwwwwwwwwuntitleddf7.png (http://imageshack.us)
Custer's wife Libby.
Ten months into his punishment, in September 1868, Gen. Phil Sheridan reinstated Custer and gave him orders to lead a campaign against Cheyenne who had been making raids in Kansas and Oklahoma the previous summer. Phil Sheridan was Custer's "sponsor" and the man who literally kept Custer from being dismissed from the Army after his "booty march" stunt.
Sheridan was frustrated by the inability of his other commanders to find and engage the enemy, and despite his poor disciplinary record and unpopularity with the men of the 7th Cavalry, Custer was was a bold fighter -- and Custer desperately wanted to prove he still had the "stuff."
http://aycu39.webshots.com/image/34038/2006256466003491069_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006256466003491069)
Philip Sheridan. Called "Little Phil" because of his 5'5" height. Sheridan was a Civil War hero who was among the Union's greatest cavalry leaders. There is a widely told story attributed to Sheridan during his campaign against the Indians. Comanche Chief Tosawi, or Silver Knife, reputedly told Sheridan in 1869, "Me, Tosawi; me good Injun," to which Sheridan replied, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead." The quote was twisted into "The only good Indian is a dead Indian," a slightly more pejorative version that has been used ever since to cast aspersions on his Indian-fighting career. Sheridan denied he said that to Toshawi.
Sheridan determined that a campaign in winter might prove more effective, since the marauding band of Cheyenne might be caught off-guard while in their permanent camps.
On November 26, Custer located a large village of Cheyenne encamped near the Wash1ta River, just outside of present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/4636/cusuntitled6yp.png
Chief Black Kettle of the Southern Cheyenne was one of the most tragic characters of the plains of Colorado and Kansas during the turbulent 1860's. He survived the first attack on his peaceful camp in 1864 by Chivington's "100days-er" Colorado militia only to have the same kind of bad luck on the Wash1ta River in Oklahoma at the hands of George A. Custer four years later.
Black Kettle died along with his wife Medicine Woman (who was wounded several times in the Sand Creek Massacre). In both of these so called military operations Black Kettle flew a large US flag (6 foot by 12 foot) along with a white flag of truce to show his peaceful intentions.
Custer did not attempt to identify which band of Cheyenne was in the village, or to make even a cursory reconnaissance of the situation. Had he done so, Custer would have discovered that they were a peaceful band of Cheyenne and the village was on reservation soil, where the commander of Fort Cobb had guaranteed them safety.
There was even a white flag flying from one of the main dwellings, indicating that the tribe was actively avoiding conflict.
Having surrounded the village the night before, at dawn Custer called for the regimental band to play "Garry Owen," which signaled four columns of troopers to charge into the sleeping village.
Outnumbered and caught unaware, scores of Cheyenne were killed in the first 15 minutes of the "battle," though a small number of the warriors managed to escape to the trees and return fire.
Within a few hours, the village was destroyed--the soldiers had killed 103 innocent Cheyenne, including their leader, the peaceful Black Kettle, and dozens of women and children.
Despite its one-sidedness, and the fact the people Custer attacked were not hostile nor were they "off the rez," the "victory" was hailed as the first substantial Regular Army victory in the Indian wars. The Battle of the Wash1ta helped to restore Custer's reputation.
However, Custer's habit of boldly charging Indian encampments of unknown strength would eventually lead him and hundreds of his innocent troopers to their deaths at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/9278/wassign4ll.jpg
You can visit the battle site now administered by the National Park Service. Its about 150 miles from downtown OKC. From I-40 take exit 20 (Sayre) and travel north on US-283 to Cheyenne. Park Headquarters and The Black Kettle Museum are located near the intersection of US-283 and SH-47. The site is 2 miles west of Cheyenne on SH-47A. Follow the National Historic Site signs to site.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8157/washoverlook7gy.jpg
Panoramic overlook at the battlefield
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/1363/washsite5ji.jpg
There are interpretive markers and rangers at the site, due north of which, is a prominence (right) upon which it is believed Custer sat his horse while his troopers finished destroying the village and killing everyone.
Link to Wash1ta Battlefield National Historic Site:
http://www.nps.gov/waba/
It's open everyday, dawn to dusk, except Christmas and New Years Day
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1715/insane7zo4nh.jpg
November 27, 1868 Custer massacres peaceful Cheyenne on Wash1ta River
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/6307/cuscusteratcheyennevillage7iu.jpg
139 years ago today, without even bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer ordered an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle near present day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/2023/cus90093xw.jpg
Giant dillweed Custer in his winter fighting duds
Custer badly needed a "win" to restore his tarnished reputation. Convicted of desertion and mistreatment of soldiers at a court martial earlier that year, the government had suspended Custer from rank and command for one year.
See, in late 1867, Custer had decided he needed to visit his wife (booty call) and undertook a cruelly led two hundred mile forced march to do so, absenting himself from his post without authorization and killing dozens of horses and injuring several soldiers permanently on the "booty" march. (Note: It was not at the time officially referred to as a "booty" march.)
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9393/wwwwwwwwwwwwuntitleddf7.png (http://imageshack.us)
Custer's wife Libby.
Ten months into his punishment, in September 1868, Gen. Phil Sheridan reinstated Custer and gave him orders to lead a campaign against Cheyenne who had been making raids in Kansas and Oklahoma the previous summer. Phil Sheridan was Custer's "sponsor" and the man who literally kept Custer from being dismissed from the Army after his "booty march" stunt.
Sheridan was frustrated by the inability of his other commanders to find and engage the enemy, and despite his poor disciplinary record and unpopularity with the men of the 7th Cavalry, Custer was was a bold fighter -- and Custer desperately wanted to prove he still had the "stuff."
http://aycu39.webshots.com/image/34038/2006256466003491069_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2006256466003491069)
Philip Sheridan. Called "Little Phil" because of his 5'5" height. Sheridan was a Civil War hero who was among the Union's greatest cavalry leaders. There is a widely told story attributed to Sheridan during his campaign against the Indians. Comanche Chief Tosawi, or Silver Knife, reputedly told Sheridan in 1869, "Me, Tosawi; me good Injun," to which Sheridan replied, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead." The quote was twisted into "The only good Indian is a dead Indian," a slightly more pejorative version that has been used ever since to cast aspersions on his Indian-fighting career. Sheridan denied he said that to Toshawi.
Sheridan determined that a campaign in winter might prove more effective, since the marauding band of Cheyenne might be caught off-guard while in their permanent camps.
On November 26, Custer located a large village of Cheyenne encamped near the Wash1ta River, just outside of present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma.
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/4636/cusuntitled6yp.png
Chief Black Kettle of the Southern Cheyenne was one of the most tragic characters of the plains of Colorado and Kansas during the turbulent 1860's. He survived the first attack on his peaceful camp in 1864 by Chivington's "100days-er" Colorado militia only to have the same kind of bad luck on the Wash1ta River in Oklahoma at the hands of George A. Custer four years later.
Black Kettle died along with his wife Medicine Woman (who was wounded several times in the Sand Creek Massacre). In both of these so called military operations Black Kettle flew a large US flag (6 foot by 12 foot) along with a white flag of truce to show his peaceful intentions.
Custer did not attempt to identify which band of Cheyenne was in the village, or to make even a cursory reconnaissance of the situation. Had he done so, Custer would have discovered that they were a peaceful band of Cheyenne and the village was on reservation soil, where the commander of Fort Cobb had guaranteed them safety.
There was even a white flag flying from one of the main dwellings, indicating that the tribe was actively avoiding conflict.
Having surrounded the village the night before, at dawn Custer called for the regimental band to play "Garry Owen," which signaled four columns of troopers to charge into the sleeping village.
Outnumbered and caught unaware, scores of Cheyenne were killed in the first 15 minutes of the "battle," though a small number of the warriors managed to escape to the trees and return fire.
Within a few hours, the village was destroyed--the soldiers had killed 103 innocent Cheyenne, including their leader, the peaceful Black Kettle, and dozens of women and children.
Despite its one-sidedness, and the fact the people Custer attacked were not hostile nor were they "off the rez," the "victory" was hailed as the first substantial Regular Army victory in the Indian wars. The Battle of the Wash1ta helped to restore Custer's reputation.
However, Custer's habit of boldly charging Indian encampments of unknown strength would eventually lead him and hundreds of his innocent troopers to their deaths at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/9278/wassign4ll.jpg
You can visit the battle site now administered by the National Park Service. Its about 150 miles from downtown OKC. From I-40 take exit 20 (Sayre) and travel north on US-283 to Cheyenne. Park Headquarters and The Black Kettle Museum are located near the intersection of US-283 and SH-47. The site is 2 miles west of Cheyenne on SH-47A. Follow the National Historic Site signs to site.
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8157/washoverlook7gy.jpg
Panoramic overlook at the battlefield
http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/1363/washsite5ji.jpg
There are interpretive markers and rangers at the site, due north of which, is a prominence (right) upon which it is believed Custer sat his horse while his troopers finished destroying the village and killing everyone.
Link to Wash1ta Battlefield National Historic Site:
http://www.nps.gov/waba/
It's open everyday, dawn to dusk, except Christmas and New Years Day
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1715/insane7zo4nh.jpg