Powder River Odyssey

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Dave Wagner's first nonfiction book, "Powder River Odyssey," has been accepted for publication by Arthur H. Clark Co., an imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press. Due out in Spring 2009, the book tells of the story of Colonel Nelson Cole's Eastern Division of the Powder River Indian Expedition of 1865, one of the earliest post-Civil War campaigns in the Indian Wars of the American West.

Dave's second book—its working title is "Patrick Connor's War"—is tied closely with the first, and is presently under consideration with the same publisher.

In 2006, Dave spoke before the Black Hills Westerners and also the Eastern Montana Library Association regarding the theme of both books, and in 2007 he told the story of this expedition at the Carter County Museum Founders' Day celebration in Ekalaka, Montana.

A Wyoming native—born in Powell—Dave Wagner grew up in Seattle, Washington. He spent thirty-eight years in the corporate world with Pitney Bowes, Inc., relocating nine times for various management opportunities. Retiring in 1999, Wagner moved to Hulett, Wyoming. One of the main reasons for this move was that the Wyoming Black Hills are within several hours of most of the important sites of the Indian wars on the northern plains. A serious student of the military history of the West for almost forty years, Dave began researching the 1865 Powder River Expedition in 2003.

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Excerpt of writing reprinted from:
www.bearlodgewriters.com/davewagner.html

On the morning of September 8, 1865, Colonel Nelson D. Cole’s command marched up river from their camp, about five miles south of today’s Powderville. Designated as the Eastern Division of the Powder River Indian Expedition, Cole’s force consisted of 1400 mounted men from the Second Missouri Light Artillery (equipped as cavalry), and the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry, over 100 wagons, and two cannons. Traveling with Cole, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Walker commanded an additional 600 men of the Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry, and two mountain howitzers. Walker’s regiment led the way south on the west side of Powder River.

The Powder River Indian Expedition’s purpose was to chastise Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho warriors, who had been disrupting communications and commerce on the Oregon Trail to the south. Cole’s command marched out of Omaha, Nebraska Territory on July 1, with orders to move northwest through today’s Nebraska and South Dakota on the east side of the Black Hills, then into eastern Montana to Powder River, and on to an eventual rendezvous with two other columns of the expedition. Walker’s command left Fort Laramie, in southern Wyoming (Dakota Territory in 1865) on August 5, marched north on the west side of the Black Hills, and had a chance meeting with Cole’s force in northeast Wyoming. The two commands traveled in fairly close proximity from then on.

A third column of the expedition left Fort Laramie on July 30, under the control of Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor; also overall commander of the entire campaign. Connor’s force traveled northwest along the eastern foothills of the Big Horn Mountains to the Tongue River, following that watercourse northeast toward a scheduled meeting with the other two columns. Connor planned to re-supply the other two commands, as they carried only sufficient rations to reach the designated meeting place near Tongue River.

Eastern Montana was a semi-mapped wilderness in 1865, with drought conditions and buffalo herds leaving little grass for the cavalry horses and mules. By the time Cole’s command reached Powder River, north of today’s Powderville, on August 30, their stock—in extremely run-down condition—began dying from exhaustion and starvation. Men were put on half rations, and several soldiers died from scurvy. The rendezvous to re-supply failed to materialize, as General Connor’s column ran behind schedule.

~Excerpt from: 1865 Powder River Indian Expedition
2006 Historical Happenings
Powder River Historical Museum and Society