Washita: The U. S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes

[bradandlaurie]

Washita: Th:e U. S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867-1869

Jerome A. Greene

After reading the considerable discussion on this forum around the opening of the National Park Service's Washita Battlefield Park I decided to learn more. There were actually quite a number of books available and I decided to start with Greene's book on the Washita.

In my opinion Greene does a good job of giving a detailed explanation of the events leading up to Custer's attack on the Cheyenne camp on the Washita. He starts with the infamous Sand Creek Massacre and then follows the chain of events resulting from the 1864 event up to the assault at Washita. Greene remains impartial and does a good job of presenting all sides of the story. I consider it the mark of a good historian who can relate the facts of any event and manage to avoid coloring it too much with their own opinions.

He does a good job of showing how various indian raids in Kansas provided the justifiable cause for Sheridan to have the operation staged. He also shows that Black Kettle was attempting to appeal for peace but had little control over the warrior factions. I found it a terrible irony that Black Kettle and his wife were among the first to die during the morning of the assault on Washita.

The book also has a chapter devoted to the repercussions of the Washita and a chapter covering the controversies surrounding the event. There is a considerable amount of information presented around the loss of Elliot and his men during the fighting and the long term effect this had on the 7th Cavalry. Greene also shows how Custer's relative success in 1868 might have influenced his thinking later at the Little Bighorn.
Now this last bit definitely slides into the realm of speculation but Greene tends to remain objective in his history of the battle.

At this point I really do have to recommend the book. I am already looking up anything and everything else he has written on the Frontier Army and the plains indian wars.

Washita: The U.S. Army and the Southern Cheyennes, 1867-1869,Jerome A. Greene, 2004, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-3551-4

[freddy]

Posted by bradandlaurie
"There is a considerable amount of information presented around the loss of Elliot and his men during the fighting and the long term effect this had on the 7th Cavalry."

What do members think about the Elliot Affair at Washita? Was Custer, Elliot, or both at fault? I do not think Custer could have saved Elliot and his squadron. Elliot's chasing Indians away from the main area of the battle is similar to Fetterman's chase of Oglalas in 1866 leading to 80 dead soldiers. Elliot should have know better.

[elisabeth]

It could be that Elliott felt he had something to prove? Sheridan's recall of Custer was effectively a vote of no confidence in Elliott's handling of the 7th. Sully, I believe, had blamed Elliott's inexperience for the failures of the summer campaign. Probably unfairly, and as CYA for his own mistakes; but clearly Sheridan wasn't so impressed with Elliott as to argue. So by this time he may have felt the need to do something spectacular ("a brevet or a coffin") to redeem himself in his superiors' eyes.

As for whether Custer could have saved him: agree, possibly not ... But he could surely have looked for him a bit harder. He had time, after all, to do a full inventory of the Cheyennes' belongings before burning them; time to kill the ponies; and, by his own account, time to go through the merry little interlude of the "marriage" ceremony. It does look rather bad that he couldn't also find time to scour the area seriously for his missing second-in-command and party. If he'd done so -- even if they had been found too late -- he might have avoided a lot of the later ill-feeling over the affair. So, both at fault, I think.

It would be good to see a really detailed account of the 7th's part in that summer's campaign, to get a feel for how competent or otherwise Elliot was ... Does Greene's book provide that, by any chance? Or is there any other that does?

[Melani]

I somehow get the impression--can't remember where I saw it--that they didn't miss Elliot and his men right away, and by the time they did, the Indians from the other villages were starting to gather. Is that anything like reality?

[freddy]

I do remember reading that when they realized that Elliot was missing more Indians had arrived on the surrounding hills making it unwise to stay and make a search for Elliot's command.

[elisabeth]

I think that was the case once they all finally realised he was definitely missing. In Stan Hoig's The Battle of the Washita, he gives the order of events more or less like this:
(1) Elliott charges off;
(2) Godfrey does the same, but has sensible sergeants who warn him not to go too far;
(3) Godfrey hears firing from (as it later turns out) Elliott's direction;
(4) when he returns to the main body, he mentions it to Custer -- but Custer says no, he doesn't think it could be Elliot, because Myers' detachment has been fighting down there all morning and would have noticed;
(5) they all then proceed with the inventorying, property-burning; pony-killing etc., watched by angry Indians gathering on the hills;
(6) eventually people start asking "where is Elliott?" questions;
(7) Custer sends out a scout + small detachment to take a look;
(8) they go 2 miles, find nothing, and come back;
(9) by now it's getting dark and the Indians are becoming a worry, so Custer persuades himself (and others? we don't hear of anyone protesting at the time, I think) that Elliott must have fallen back to the wagon train or even gone back to Camp Supply. They march off.

So from that, it'd seem that the question had been raised earlier, when there'd have been plenty of time to look; a search was made eventually, but not a very exhaustive one; once things started to look scary, perhaps everyone, not just Custer, was happy to rationalise it away ...


Correction:
I should say that (9) is just my interpretation, not Hoig's statement. Custer's post-battle report, 2 days later, said Elliott and party were dead, and in My Life he also says that was his assumption at the time. But Sheridan, in his memoirs, gives a different interpretation of events. Eric has wisely warned against believing more than one word in ten of Sheridan's utterances ... Still, it's interesting to see what he says on the matter. He's talking about the 7th's triumphal return to Camp Supply:
"The disappearance of Major Elliott and his party was the only damper upon our pleasure, and the only drawback to the very successful expedition. There was no definite information as to the detachment, --and Custer was able to report nothing more than that he had not seen Elliott since just before the fight began. His theory was, however, that Elliott and his men had strayed off on account of having no guide, and would ultimately come in all right to Camp Supply or make their way back to Fort Dodge; a very unsatisfactory view of the matter, but as no one knew the direction Elliott had taken, it was useless to speculate on other suppositions, and altogether too late to make any search for him."

[biggordie]

Ben Clark told George Bird Grinnell [The Fighting Cheyennes] that Custer had actually ordered Elliott to take some men and disperse some warriors who were moving up from lower camps. If true, this order led to the "brevet or coffin" exhortation [if such was made].

In Walter Camp's notes of a supposed interview with Clark [1910], this is not mentioned, but Clark does state that Benteen was after him a couple of days later to try and get him to give any information detrimental to Custer about the matter. Clark said that about two hours after Elliott went off, Custer asked Clark if he knew where he had gone, and Clark replied off to the east.

Clark also puts the appearance of additional warriors - 1200 to 1500 - on the surrounding hills prior to the slaughter of the pony herd, and that this latter action created a big stir among those warriors - screams of rage and a huge moaning sound. Also that it caused a few to make futile sorties against the troops, apparently to try to stop the killing.

Clark also stated that Custer, when he led the command toward the other camps, passed by Elliott's death site, but on the opposite side of the river.

Although I have not studied this fight very much, I would guess that Elliott and his detachment were all dead within a very short time after leaving the main command, probably less than an hour. Clark said that the warriors who dispatched the troopers was commanded by an Arapaho chief Left Hand .

Gordie

[freddy]

I have read Custer's My Life on the Plains years ago so that is likely where I heard the account. Or perhaps it was from Utley'sCavalier in Buckskin?

[clw]

If you have any interest in this fight, Greene covers it beautifully. He is a fine historian. The battle is examined from both sides, and his depth of research into the Cheyenne accounts is amazing.

Elliot's group of 16 volunteers attacked downstream after some fleeing Indians before the villages in that direction were discovered. His command was overwhelmed by warriors just waiting for such an opportunity. The Cheyenne accounts describe their demise in great detail. Greene presents the research and leaves us to draw our own conclusions. Mine is that there weren't many opportunites to scour the area for Elliot, even though it was tried (Myers). Greene also says that "during the advance [the feint toward the downstream villages], flankers went out along the side of the Washita to guard against surprise attacks from the woods and to keep watch for Elliot's men. The soldiers passed by Elliot's dead obliviously, for their bodies lay beyond view in the growing dusk on the south side of the river."

[elisabeth]

Thanks for the recommendation -- I'll clearly have to get the book. Will order it right away.

One slightly puzzling thing: there was snow on the ground, was there not? Obviously it would have been pretty trampled in the immediate village area ... but once away from there, the tracks of shod horses should have been plain enough for the search party to spot, even in fading light.

It's also slightly weird that Elliott gets to take such a strange assortment of men from so many different companies on different parts of the field, to say nothing of the regimental sergeant major. To me, that does seem to support the Clark/Grinnell story that Custer had ordered the sortie, rather than Elliott stealing men at random. On the other hand, even Benteen later says that Elliott was "pirating on his own hook", and one can't think he'd have missed an opportunity to pin total responsibility on Custer if he could. So who knows.

It's an odd episode altogether. Wish we had more reminiscences from those present. Benteen can't have been the only one to be critical, surely; you can't have a one-man schism. Wonder what the other officers, and indeed the enlisted men, thought of the affair ...

[clw]

Funny you mention that E, because it's not the first time I've wondered about why tracks weren't read more clearly. For instance, on the way down the Rosebud, all those side trails should have told a story, yet we're told no one knew if they were converging or diverging. Even I know which way a horse is moving and if he's wearing shoes or not when I look at a track. Odd.

In this case, after reading the Cheyenne accounts, I do think the ground was pretty torn up. Elliot's was a long and complicated fight and there were people fleeing every which way. But it does make one wonder.