Where Men Died - The Battle of Arikaree Fork
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Where Men Died - The Battle of Arikaree Fork
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture & Enhancement
Description
The Battle of Beecher Island, also known as the Battle of Arikaree Fork, was an armed conflict between elements of the United States Army and several of the Plains Native American tribes in September 1868. Beecher Island, on the Arikaree River, then part of the North Fork of the Republican River, is near present-day Wray, Colorado. It was named posthumously for Lieutenant Fredrick H. Beecher, an army officer killed during the battle.
In the summer and fall of 1868, continuing their annual seasonal raiding activities between the Arkansas and Platte Rivers in what was also the region of their best buffalo hunting, bands of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians conducted raids against whites throughout the western Great Plains in Kansas. In addition, they found incentive in the warfare that had been waged specifically against their clans by the military in 1867 and by memories of such atrocities as the Sand Creek massacre. Finally, the westward movement of the transcontinental railroad had stretched all the way across Kansas, bringing with it with many permanent white settlements
During the 1867-1868, the Cheyenne were divided, with those advocating peace and retreating south out of Kansas, while the younger, intractable warrior societies continuing to raid. The latter during the summer of 1867 had successfully avoided a large expedition commanded by Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, and in the process had garnered sympathy from Americans in the East who supported peaceful negotiations after Hancock attempted to bully the Cheyenne to submit, and burned their abandoned villages when they did not.
As the Indians fought dispersed battles composed of small bands of warriors all over the frontier, U.S. Army troops and units were at a premium. General Sheridan decided to try an unusual tactic. He ordered his aide, Major George Alexander Forsyth of the 9th Cavalry, a Civil War veteran, to raise a company of "fifty first-class hardy frontiersmen, to be used as scouts against the hostile Indians." They were to seek out and engage the marauders using their tactics, rather than those of the traditional Army.
Forsyth hand-picked 48 men at Forts Harker and Hays and armed them with Spencer repeating rifles. Forsyth's executive officer was Lieutenant Fredrick H. Beecher of the 3rd Infantry, a decorated veteran of the Battle of Gettysburg. His company rode northwest nearly to Nebraska, then turned southwest and reached Fort Wallace the night of 5 September without finding any trace of Indians.
During the morning of 10 September, the troops at Fort Wallace received information that Indians had attacked a freighter's train 13 miles east of Ft. Wallace, near the railhead of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, which was the since-abandoned town of Sheridan in Logan County, Kansas. Brevet Colonel Forsyth and his group of scouts departed Fort Wallace with orders to counter the raid. Col. Forsyth took his command to investigate. They learned that a force of about 25 Indians had taken part in the attack. They followed their trail into what is now Yuma County, Colorado.
The scouts trailed the Indian raiding party from Sheridan into Colorado; signs indicated that the opposing force considerably outnumbered the scouts, but the unit nonetheless pressed on. Around dusk on the 16th, Forsyth and his men arrived in the vicinity of the "Dry Fork of the Republican River," now called the Arikaree River, and made camp on the south bank. They camped only 12 miles downstream from a large encampment of two Lakota villages, one of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and a few lodges of Arapaho.
At dawn on the 17th, Forsyth sensed trouble and spotted the silhouette of a feathered head against the skyline. He fired his weapon, instantly killing the Indian warrior. Simultaneously, other Indians attempted to stampede the Army horses, but the scouts immediately responded to the sound of Forsyth's gunshot and only the pack mules were lost.
Roman Nose, war leader of the Cheyenne, had planned a dawn raid to overrun the camp of 50 U.S. scouts, but the element of surprise was lost when a few eager warriors rushed the camp before the order to attack was given.
Forsyth gave orders to saddle the horses. Seeing that no escape route was open, he directed his men to take cover on a sand bar in the middle of the Arikaree. The numbers of attacking Indians varies widely, with estimates from 200 to 1,000 braves.
The initial assault by the Indians was cut down by the accurate, quick-firing Spencer rifles. The combined force of Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne Indians were surprised and changed their tactics.
During the early morning of the first day of battle, small parties of Indians dashed up to the sand bar on horseback several times, but they did little damage to the scouts. The scouts killed their horses for breastworks and dug pits into the soft sand behind them. When the scouts opened fire, the Indians attacked the island on both sides. Later they crawled through the grass and shot through the grass. Several scouts who were killed or wounded were hit by the Indian snipers hidden in the grass. The Indians surrounded the island and repeatedly attacked the Scouts. Three scouts hidden in hole on the riverbank shot several Indians from the shore.
Chief Roman Nose was shot on the riverbank at the west end of the sand bar. He jumped back into the grass where other warriors retrieved him but later died that night.
Many other warriors fell, while four of the scouts including Beecher, Acting Surgeon J.H. Mooers, George W. Culver, and William Wilson were killed. Another 15 scouts were wounded, including Colonel Forsyth. Forsyth received a mild head wound and his leg was fractured by a gunshot wound.
Image copyright 2018 Jon Burch Photography
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May 31st, 2018
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