Read an Excerpt
Custer and the 1873 Yellowstone Survey
A Documentary History
By M. John Lubetkin UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS
Copyright © 2013 University of Oklahoma Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8061-4543-3
CHAPTER 1
Through June 12
The expedition of 1872 ended not only with Sitting Bull and his men turning back the western Yellowstone surveyors but also the killing of the first cousin of President Grant's wife and two others in ambushes. Thus the army, stung by these setbacks, began preparing for an 1873 campaign. A critical question was if the financially strapped Northern Pacific would continue its surveys and therefore again need protection.
This chapter begins with the initial planning and concludes with the gathering of the survey's participants at Fort Rice on the Missouri River. Reaching Fort Rice was not without incident. The Seventh Cavalry met in Memphis, slowly came up the Mississippi and Missouri by steamer, and in southern Dakota was caught in a horrific April snowstorm. Three of the five Scientific Corps came from Harvard, including Austrian artist Edward Konopicky, a man fascinated by everything he saw in America. Lt. Col. Luther Bradley arrived on a smallpox-infected steamer carrying hundreds of soldiers. One surveyor, Montgomery Meigs, age twenty-five, single-handedly rescued the riverboat Ida Stockdale from destruction. Ex-Confederate general Tom Rosser, who'd barely survived an Indian ambush the previous October, was torn between his wife's fears and his love of adventure. Four newspaper articles describe the arrival of the soldiers, the completion of the railroad to the Missouri, and the wide-open, newly named frontier town of Bismarck.
* * *
The chapter's first letters are from Lt. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to Northern Pacific president George W. Cass. Perhaps the most significant part of the letters is Sheridan's bowing to the Northern Pacific's request to survey the western (northern) side of the Yellowstone, not the seemingly easier-to-build eastern shore.
In late 1870, after a long career constructing bridges, canals, and railroads, W. Milnor Roberts (1810–81) was appointed chief engineer of the Northern Pacific. A pacifist Quaker and gentle man (although ironically he had Union and Confederate generals as brothers-in-law), Roberts was a longtime professional associate and personal friend of Jay Cooke. Roberts was calm, logical, honest, and amazingly energetic. He had a light sense of humor, exhibited common sense, and was able to encourage and get the most from those who worked for him. Although Roberts had been ignored under the previous railway president, Gregory Smith, Cass treated him as a close advisor. Roberts moved easily among military personnel; a daughter, Annie (1849–1914), was married to George W. Yates (1836–76) of the Seventh Cavalry. While these letters do not reflect it, Roberts formed a solid friendship with Custer. His youngest son later became Custer's secretary and narrowly missed being with him at the Little Big Horn.
Monty Meigs (1847–1931) was perhaps the best trained of any of the engineers, his formal education including two years of advanced study in Germany. Meigs is often confused with his father (of the same name), who in 1873 was in his second decade as the army's quartermaster general. The older Meigs (1816–1892), an outstanding architect and civil engineer, is perhaps best known for the basic design of Arlington Cemetery, where his son John is buried. In one of the war's tragic ironies, John Meigs was killed or murdered—the issue was never really settled—by Confederate irregulars who nominally reported to Rosser, thereby causing the type of love-hate feelings that Meigs felt toward Rosser that psychologists thrive on. Meigs's letters to his parents and a sister have never been published.
Thomas L. Rosser (1836–1910), who missed graduating from West Point by weeks when he resigned to join the Confederate army, became a protégé of J. E. B. Stuart and rose to a major general's two-star rank. At West Point, he and Custer lived on the same floor for four years, becoming close friends. In 1864–65 they fought each other in at least a half-dozen pitched battles. When Custer completed Lee's encirclement at Appomattox, Rosser's cavalry was the last to break out—Rosser not letting himself be captured until May.
After the war Rosser struggled to find employment. Not until January 1870 was he hired by the Northern Pacific, rising rapidly in the Surveyor Corps as his leadership skills quickly became apparent. In 1871 Rosser was the obvious choice to lead the railroad's engineering team into the Yellowstone valley. In 1872 he again led the surveyors, but this time he barely survived the Hunkpapa ambush led by Gall that killed Lt. Lewis Dent Adair. Like all other surveyors, he was laid off in late 1872 but was quickly reappointed by Roberts when the Northern Pacific and Cooke scraped together funds for 1873.
Although Rosser was a large (6'3" tall, 230 pounds) and powerful man, the reader will note his frequent illnesses (as do his 1871 and '72 diaries) and can determine for themselves if Rosser was a mild hypochondriac suffering frequent depressions. Although Rosser left the survey after it reached the Yellowstone in July, the Solomon-like role he played in the Stanley-Custer relationship could not have been more important. Rosser's field diary and letters to his wife are included here.
Lt. Col. Luther P. Bradley (1822–1910), from New Haven, a handsome and fashionable dresser, was the oldest and third-ranking officer (behind Stanley and Custer) on the 1873 survey. While he had not attended West Point, Bradley, a bookkeeper by profession, had been active in the Connecticut and Illinois state militias. He consistently saw combat during the Civil War, served with Stanley in the Army of the Cumberland, and was seriously wounded twice, emerging as a brevetted brigadier general. Bradley's 1873 diaries and letters to his wife have never been published. While most of that summer's letters to his wife survive, the two sent when the survey was camped on the Yellowstone and Stanley was drinking heavily are missing. A coincidence?
Edward M. Konopicky (1841–1904), from Austria, a naturalist painter, jumped at the opportunity to join the Scientific Corps as its artist. His detailed letters, sent to his parents in Vienna and previously unpublished, are written with his European perspective and offer a candid if often unintentionally humorous account of the survey. A classic "tenderfoot," Konopicky was barely able to ride, tired easily, and was the subject of numerous practical jokes. Sadly, none of Konopicky's 1873 drawings survive, his sketch books having been destroyed during the 1945–46 Russian occupation of Vienna.
* * *
The reader should note that all references to mail sent or received, repetitious comments in diaries and letters, and discussions about subjects and individuals not germane to the context of this book have been omitted.
Philip H. Sheridan to George W. Cass
Headquarters Military Division of the Missouri
Chicago
January 27, 1873
George M. Cass, Esq.
President, Northern Pacific RR
Sir,
I respectfully request of you as the President of the Northern Pacific Railroad information as to the intentions of the Company in reference to the progress of the road west of the Missouri River during the year 1873.
I do this that we may be able to meet the wants of the Company by the concentration of the necessary number of troops to give adequate protection and in order to be able to get authority from Congress and the construction of one or more military posts between the crossing of the Missouri and the mouth of Powder River on the line of the railroad.
We now have under consideration the changes in troops and the expenses which our duties for the coming spring and summer will bring upon us; and an early reply to this letter is especially requested.
Source: Northern Pacific Records, Secretary's Unregistered Letters, at the Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.
Feb. 24, 1873
Dear Sir:
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of Feb. 5th 1873. I was in Washington when it reached my headquarters but the substance of it having been sent me by telegraph I immediately asked the Secretary of War to increase the appropriation for barracks and quarters to the extent of $250,000 for the necessary shelter of troops engaged upon your line of railroad west of the Missouri River.
I had previously, in contemplation of your road being pushed west of the Missouri River, succeeded in getting the 7th Cavalry transferred to the Department of Dakota. I also intend to transfer an additional regiment of infantry up the Missouri River.
This force, with troops which may be made available on the line of the river, will furnish an escort of at least 2,000 men for the protection of your surveying and working parties during the coming summer. Of these 2,000 men, 1,000 will be mounted and [include] one of the best regiments in the service.
This I think will be sufficient for your operations between the Missouri and the mouth of Powder River.
I wish to state that in conversation with Genl. Rosser he thought it would be best to push the surveys from this [western] side & connect with the surveys made from Fort Ellis [Montana] down the Yellowstone River and up the Musselshell. This would be exceedingly advantageous to us and there would be no trouble except in crossing the Yellowstone. To overcome this difficulty I wish to state that we have [unclear] five ferry boats at Fort Buford [northern Dakota] which can be sent up the Yellowstone at least a distance of 70 miles to the foot of the rapids and by a slight deflection of the command to that point it could be crossed and the surveys continued on the west side until they met with those already made.
I also wish to say that plans and specifications of boats which can be constructed on the Yellowstone near Fort Ellis have been sent to these headquarters by Lieutenant Doane and that it is more than probable that I shall order [unclear] of these boats constructed and bring them down to the upper end of the same rapids so that the crossing can be made either above or below.
The great trouble and expense of transferring additional troops to Fort Ellis in Montana makes me exceedingly anxious that there should be only the surveying parties from this side. I have also made arrangements to load a boat for Buford as soon as the ice goes out of the river which is to be the very first boat up of the season, and at Buford will put a strong guard on her and send her up the Yellowstone as far as the rapids and if it is possible for her to pass the rapids she will ascend as far as Powder River.
I submit this information for your consideration and I deem it very necessary that you should keep me posted. All of your letters will be considered strictly confidential should you so choose, but we want early information of your movements. It is my intention to build a large post where the railroad crosses the Yellowstone and another, but smaller one, where it crosses the Little Missouri, but no work on these posts can be commenced until the points of crossing by the railroad are absolutely fixed.
Source: Montana Historical Society, Helena, folder SC-1889.
W. Milnor Roberts to Cass
Engineers Office
23 Fifth Ave, NYC
Feb. 5, 1873
Sir:
Referring to further surveys, etc. west of the Missouri river:
The distance in round numbers, from Fort Abraham Lincoln at the proposed railroad crossing of the Missouri [Bismarck] to the mouth of Powder River is 270 miles; thence to Fort Ellis, [another] 350 miles by any practicable wagon route.
Between Fort A. Lincoln and the mouth of Powder River troops and wagons can travel at all times without delay on account of streams; the Little Missouri being the only considerable stream which it is necessary to cross; whereas with a wagon train between Fort Ellis and the mouth of Powder river it is necessary to cross the Yellowstone a number of times, and perhaps also the Big Horn, Powder river and other streams.
The Yellowstone is sometimes not fordable till late in the summer, and throughout the season it is difficult along considerable stretches to find practicable fords, so that without the aid of boats and appliances for crossing a large body of troops, it would be difficult to furnish effective escort for a party surveying the railroad line in the immediate valley of the Yellowstone in the face of any considerable number of hostile Indians....
Fort Abraham Lincoln is therefore much the more advantageous point as a base of supplies for a Fort at the mouth of Powder River. [Roberts's emphasis]
If the Powder River should be considered too far from the Missouri for the first Fort west of Fort A. Lincoln, then the Little Missouri offers the most convenient intermediate point, about 160 miles west of Fort A. Lincoln, for the protection of engineers and workmen on the line between the Missouri and the mouth of Powder River....
West of the Powder River we have about 150 miles of unsurveyed ground. Should it be desired to determine the route between the Powder River and the country in Montana west of the Belt Range, this year it would be necessary to have a party protected by a very strong escort to make the requisite examination—to ascertain how far up the Yellowstone it may be advisable or necessary to continue in the Yellowstone Valley; whether all the way up the Yellowstone, or leaving it to pass into the valley of the Musselshell.
If there should be a Fort established at the Little Missouri, or at Powder river or at Tongue river, some sixty miles farther up the Yellowstone, any of these points would be a better base or starting place for that particular survey than Fort Ellis would be.
Source: Northern Pacific Records, Secretary's Unregistered Letters, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul.
Roberts to Thomas L. Rosser and Cass
Bismarck, D.T.
June 2, 1873
Gen. Thomas L. Rosser, [Chief] Engineer, Dakota Division
Your previous surveys west of the Missouri River as far as the Yellowstone have established the general features of the region; it is now proposed [for you] to survey and locate another line by a more direct route passing north of the former lines, as suggested by yourself, based on the topographical knowledge you have acquired. You will of course apply your best judgment in the exploration and location of this northerly line.
The primary object of the season's campaign is however to survey the Valley of the Yellowstone from the point or points to which your former surveys reached to the eastern termination of our surveys down the Yellowstone by Mr. J. A. Haydon, Assistant Engineer. This will give us a continuous surveyed route between Lake Superior and Puget Sound.
Mr. Haydon's instructions were to survey down as far as the mouth of the Powder River; but untoward circumstances changed his program, and the surveys stopped about a hundred and fifty miles (more or less) short of Powder River. He was also instructed to survey a line from some common point on the Yellowstone passing over the dividing range to the valley of the Musselshell, and hence westward up that valley. Owing to the trouble with the Indians the survey down the Yellowstone was abruptly ended. Mr. Haydon then passed with his engineering party, escorted by Col. Baker, across the dividing ground into the valley of the Musselshell, but without surveying the route across.
The second object of the present beyond the western point of your surveys of 1871 and 1872, and also as a continuation of the line you will run this summer from the Missouri to the Yellowstone, is to ascertain the most practicable and most advantageous route for passing from the Valley of the Yellowstone to the Valley of the Musselshell....
In my interviews with Lt. General Sheridan on this subject in both New York and Chicago, he expressed an opinion in favor of carrying the surveys on the south side of the Yellowstone first on account of the greater value of the land on that side, and secondly on account of the importance of making such a thorough survey of the region that there would be no necessity for another costly expedition like the present one.
I stated to General Sheridan that I had contemplated moving the line of survey along the north side of the Valley of the Yellowstone, mainly on account of the presumed trouble of crossing Powder, Tongue, Rosebud and the Big Horn, all of which enter on the south side; and because our survey, after making a junction with Mr. Haydon's line of 1872, is to pass out of the Yellowstone Valley on its north side and over to the Musselshell....
General Sheridan remarked that the expedition would of course go wherever we designed our surveys to be made; that is to say, on either side of the Yellowstone; and that the troops could cross it, as necessary, above Powder River; but that he would have a steamer with supplies, at some convenient point below Powder River, which steamer would also serve to cross the troops and our engineering party to the north side of the Yellowstone; and that when the expedition should return it would also serve to cross them to the south side....
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Custer and the 1873 Yellowstone Survey by M. John Lubetkin. Copyright © 2013 University of Oklahoma Press. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
