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Battle of Washita River | Talk:Battle of Washita River

Background

Black Elk

Sand Creek Massacre

Medicine Lodge Treaty

Sheridan

Sherman

Custer

Indian raids in Kansas, Colorado, Texas (incl. Little Rock info)

U.S. Army decision to mount winter campaign

The battle

Major Elliot

Greatcoats

Accounts of the battle

Reports, books etc.

Contrasting views

Indian casualties at the Washita

Indian casualties at the Washita reported by Custer are a continuing matter of controversy. In his first report of the battle to Gen. Sheridan on November 28, 1868, Custer reported that by "actual and careful examination after the battle," the bodies of 103 warriors were found — a figure echoed by Sheridan when from Camp Supply he relayed news of the Washita fight to Bvt. Maj. Gen. W.A. Nichols the following day. In fact, no battlefield count of the dead was made. According to Lt. Edward S. Godfrey, an estimate of the number of Indian warriors killed was not made until the evening of the day following the battle, after the soldiers made camp during their march back to Camp Supply. "On [the] second night [after the battle]," Godfrey told interview Walter M. Camp in 1917, "Custer interrogated the officers as to what Indians they had seen dead in the village, and it was from these reports that the official report of Indians killed was made up. The dead Indians on the field were not counted by the troops then, but guessed at later, as explained." In an account first published in 1928, Godfrey related, "After supper in the evening, the officers were called together and each one questioned as to the casualties of enemy warriors, locations, etc. Every effort was made to avoid duplications. The total was found to be one hundred and three." Captain Frederick W. Benteen stated, in annotations to his personal copy of W.L. Holloway's Wild Life on the Plains and Horrors of Indian Warfare, that "Custer assembled the officers to inquire of each how many dead Indians each had seen; then what each had seen were added. They had all seen the same dead Indians [emphasis in original].

Indian casualties in the Battle of Washita River according to various sources
Source	Date of estimate	Men	Women	Children	Total
Lt. Col. G.A. Custer, 7th Cavalry	Nov 28, 1868	103	some	few	103+
Women captives, via interpreter Richard Curtis and New York Herald reporter DeB. Randolph Kleim	Dec 1, 1868	13 Cheyenne 2 Sioux 1 Arapaho	n/a	n/a	16
Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, Division of the Missouri	Dec 3, 1868	13 Cheyenne 2 Sioux 1 Arapaho	n/a	n/a	16
Black Eagle (Kiowa), via interpreter Philip McCusker	Dec 3, 1868	11 Cheyenne 3 Arapaho	many	many	14+
Capt. Henry E. Alvord, 10th Cavalry	Dec 12, 1868 [Apr 4, 1874]	80 Cheyenne 1 Comanche 1 Kiowa	n/a	n/a	81 [82]
John Poisal and Jack Fitzpatrick, scouts attached to 7th Cavalry, via J.S. Morrison	Dec 14, 1868	20	40 women and children		60
Lt. Col. G.A. Custer, 7th Cavalry	Dec 22, 1868	140	some	few	140+
Unidentified Cheyennes, via Col. Benjamin H. Grierson, 10th Cavalry	Apr 6, 1869	18	n/a	n/a	18
Red Moon, Minimic, Gray Eyes, Little Robe (Cheyenne) via Vincent Colyer, Special Indian Commissioner	Apr 9, 1869	13	16	9	38
Benjamin H. Clark, chief of scouts attached to 7th Cavalry	1899	75	75 women and children		150
Dennis Lynch, private, 7th Cavalry	1909	106	some	n/a	106+
Med Elk Pipe, Red Shin (?) via George Bent/George Hyde	1913	11	12	6	29
Crow Neck (?), via George Bent/George Bird Grinnell	1914	11 Cheyenne 2 Arapaho 1 Mexican	10 Cheyenne 2 Sioux	5	31
Packer/She Wolf (Cheyenne), via George Bent	1916	10 Cheyenne 2 Arapaho 1 Mexican	n/a	n/a	13
Magpie/Little Beaver (Cheyenne), via Charles Brill	1930	15	n/a	n/a	15
Source: Appendix G table, "Aggregate Totals", Hardorff 2006, p. 403. Source table modified by arranging in chronological order, providing sources for each estimate, and color-coding to differentiate between type of source.
Key: Military estimates Estimates of civilian scouts attached to 7th Indian estimates

John Poisal and Jack Fitzpatrick, mixed-blood scouts attached to the Seventh Cavalry, gave a different report of the number of Indian casualties at Washita to scout J.S. Morrison when they arrived with the Cheyenne prisoners at Fort Dodge. In a letter to Indian Agent Col. Edward Wynkoop on December 14, 1868, Morrison wrote, "John Smith, John Poysell [Poisal], and Jack Fitzpatrick have got in today. John S. was not in the [Washita] fight, but John P. and Jack were. They all agree in stating that the official reports of the fight were very much exaggerated; that there were not over twenty bucks killed; the rest, about forty, were women and children." The Cheyenne prisoners themselves, interviewed by Gen. Sheridan at Camp Supply, reported thirteen Cheyenne men, two Sioux, and one Arapaho killed at the Washita, a figure which Sheridan subsequently reported to Bvt. Maj. Gen. Nichols. The journalist DeB. Randolph Keim also interviewed the women prisoners with the help of interpreter Richard Curtis, obtaining actual names of the killed and arriving at the same figure of thirteen Cheyenne, two Sioux, and one Arapaho killed. Later information from various Cheyenne sources, most of them independent of each other, tended to confirm the figures given by the Cheyenne women prisoners. Few of the military reports discussed casualties among the women and children; however, Custer acknowledged in his report that "In the excitement of the fight, as well as in self-defence, it so happened that some of the squaws and a few of the children were killed and wounded...."

After the December visit to the battlefield by Custer and Sheridan, Custer revised his initial estimate of 103 warriors killed upward, writing from Fort Cobb that "The Indians admit a loss of 140 killed, besides a heavy loss of wounded. This, with the Indian prisoners we have in our possession, makes the entire loss of the Indian in killed, wounded, and missing not far from 300." Hoig points out that if this were true, it would mean that virtually everyone in the village was killed or captured Greene states, "Custer's figures were inflated, and the specific sources of his information remain unknown. Hardorff greets Custer's revised total with skepticism. "This new number was based on information obtained from two imprisoned Kiowa chiefs at Fort Cobb who faced death by hanging," says Hardorff. "In view of their predicament, it seems likely that these men would have said anything to avoid the gallows. But such skepticism is not warranted in the case of the Washita prisoners. The Cheyenne women were allowed to mingle freely with the officers and knew many of them on an intimate basis. They were assured good treatment and had no apparent reason to distort their statements about dead kinsmen."

Greene appears to find Indian estimates most reliable, stating that "As might be expected, the best estimates must come from the people who suffered the losses" though noting that "even these do not agree." Utley, however, writes, "Indian calculations — a dozen warriors and twice as many women and children killed – are as improbably low as Custer's are high." Hoig writes, "Even though the number 103 was not arrived at by a precise battlefield count, it is a definite figure which has already been placed on historical markers of the battlefield. Since it will likely never be proved absolutely incorrect, the figure will undoubtedly remain accepted as the number of Indians killed by Custer at the Washita. History should make it clear, however, that the dead were by no means all warriors who were met in open battle and defeated."

Several of the Cheyenne accounts provide actual names of men killed at the Washita. In his book, Jerome Greene provides an appendix of "Known Village Fatalities at the Washita," which compiles from these sources a list of all unique names, for a total of 40 men, 12 women (of whom 11 are unidentified), and six unidentified children. Greene notes that some individuals might have more than one name, so entires might be duplicative. Using the same sources, Richard G. Hardorff has compiled a "Composite List of Names," which partially reconciles multiple names (or multiple translations of the same name) in the different sources — for example, the Mexican Pilan with his Indian names White Bear and Tall White Men, or Bitter Man/Cranky Man also known as Bad Man. Writes Hardorff, "Some of the dead may have been identified by their birth name by one informant and by their nickname by anotehr. Variations in the translation of personal names add to the confusion in the identification...."

Prisoners

"The prisoners have go in today; they consist of fifty-three women and children. One boy is an Arapaho; the rest are all Cheyennes. Mrs. Crocker is among them; she is badly wounded; she says her child is killed."

Mrs. Crocker identified in note: "Mrs. Crocker was a full-blood Cheyenne named Ne-sou-hoe. She was the wife of a Lieutenant Crocker, who served with the Second Colorado Volunteers. Ne-sou-hoe and her young daughter, Jennie Lund Crocker, were visiting relatives in Black Kettle's Washita village when Custer was killed during the fighting. Charles J. Kappler, Indian Treaties, 1778-1993 (New York: Interland, 1972), 889."

Battle or massacre?

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_of_Washita_River&oldid=36651218

Richard White book

The question of white captives

Clara Blinn

According to Ben Clark, who was Custer's chief of scouts in the winter campaign of 1878-1879, "We found Mrs. Blinn's and her child's body where an Arapaho village had been camped at the time of the attack on Black Kettle's camp. The Arapaho village stood on the east side of the river, 4 or 5 miles below the Black Kettle village. It was afterward said that in the excitement of the Indians hurrying to get their families out of danger, one of the Indian women killed her."

"Clara Blinn and her son, Willie, were killed in Yellow Bear's Arapaho camp on the morning of Custer's attack. During the rush to take down Yellow Bear's lodge, the little boy was in the way of the women and was killed along with his mother, who refused to leave her son's remains behind. Undated Star clipping, Blinn collection."

See also notes Hardorff 2006, p. 236 about the disposition of the Blinn remains and about Richard Blinn.

References (add)

• Brill, Charles J. (2002). Conquest of the Southern Plains; Uncensored Narrative of the Battle of the Washita and Custer's Southern Campaign. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 080613416X. Originally published in 1938 (Oklahoma City, OK: Golden Saga Publishers). searchable at Amazon.com
• Blinn, Richard. (1868). Richard Blinn Diary: Transcript. MMS 1646 mf. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University, Center for Archival Collections.
• Cozzens, Peter, ed. (2003). Eyewitnesses to the Indian Wars, Volume Three: Conquering the Southern Plains. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-0019-4. searchable at Amazon.com
• Custer, George Armstrong. (1874). My Life on the Plains: Or Personal Experiences With the Indians. New York: Sheldon and Company. Also available online from Kansas Collection Books.
• Frost, Lawrence A. (1990). The Custer Album: A Pictorial Biography of General George A. Custer. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 080612282X. Originally published 1964. searchable at Amazon.com
• Garlington, E. A. (1896). "The Seventh Regiment of Cavalry." In Theophilus F. Rodenboguh and William L. Haskin, eds. The Army of the United States: Historical Sketches of Staff and Line with Portraits of Generals-in-Chief. New York: Maynard, Merrill, & Co., pp. 251-257. Online version dated 2002-10-30 through the U.S. Army Center of Military History, retrieved on 2007-06-29.
• Godfrey, Edward S. (1928). "Extract of Narrative Account — 1928." Richard G. Hardorff, ed. Washita Memories: Eyewitness Views of Custer's Attack on Black Kettle's Village (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), 132–146. Originally published in The Cavalry Journal, October 1928.
• Greene, Jerome A. (2004). Washita, The Southern Cheyenne and the U.S. Army. Campaigns and Commanders Series, vol. 3. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806135514. searchable at Amazon.com
• Grinnell, George Bird. (1972). "The Battle of the Washita, 1868." Pp. 37-49 in Richard Ellis, ed., The Western American Indian: Case Studies in Tribal History. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803208049. E93.E46
• Grinnell, George Bird. (1983). The Fighting Cheyennes. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. First published 1914. ISBN 1582183902. searchable at Amazon.com
• Hardorff, Richard G., compiler & editor (2006). Washita Memories: Eyewitness Views of Custer's Attack on Black Kettle's Village. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806137592. searchable at Amazon.com
• Hatch, Thom. (2004). Black Kettle: The Cheyenne Chief Who Sought Peace but Found War. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0471445924. 973.81092 HATCH searchable online at Amazon.com
• Hazen, W.B. (1874). "Some Corrections of 'Life on the Plains.'" St. Paul, MN: Ramaley & Cunningham. Reprinted with editorial introduction in Chronicles of Oklahoma 3(4): 295-318 (December 1925).
• Hoig, Stan. (1980). The Battle of the Washita: The Sheridan-Custer Indian Campaign of 1867-69. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803272049. Previously published in 1976 (Garden City, NY: Doubleday). ISBN 0385112742. E83.869.H64
• Hyde, George E. (1968). Life of George Bent Written from His Letters. Ed. by Savoie Lottinville. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1577-7.
• Lewis, Jon E., ed. (2004). The Mammoth Book of Native Americans: The Story of America's Original Inhabitants in All Its Beauty, Magic, Truth, and Tragedy. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0786712902. searchable at Amazon.com
• Michno, Gregory F. (2003). Encyclopedia of Indian Wars: Western Battles and Skirmishes 1850-1890. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0878424687.
• Michno, Gregory F. (2005-12). "Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle." Wild West (magazine). Retrieved through Historynet.com on 2007-06-28.
• Moore, Horace L. (1897-01-19). "The Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry in the Washita Campaign." Address before the 21st annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical Society. Kansas Historical Collections, vol. VI. Reprinted in Chronicles of Oklahoma 2(4): 350-365 (December 1924).
• National Park Service. (1999-11). "The Story of the Battle of the Washita", Washita Battlefield National Historic Site, National Park Service.
• National Park Service. (2006-08-10). "Frequently Asked Questions", Washita Battlefield National Historic Site, National Park Service.
• Moore, Horace L. (1897-01-19). "The Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry in the Washita Campaign." Address before the 21st annual meeting of the Kansas State Historical Society. Kansas Historical Collections, vol. VI. Reprinted in Chronicles of Oklahoma 2(4): 350-365 (December 1924).
• New York Times, 27 November – 8 December 1868.
• Roenigk, Adolph. (1933). Pioneer History of Kansas. (Lincoln, KS:) A. Roenigk. Through Kansas Collection Books.
• Stewart, Richard W., editor. (2005). "Winning the West: The Army in the Indian Wars 1865-1890." Chapter 14 in American Military History, Volume 1: The United States Army and the Forging of a Nation, 1775-1917, pp. 321-340. Washington, DC: United States Army, Center of Military History. CMH Pub 30–21. pp. 328-331 includes a brief account of the Army's campaigns in the southern plains, including the Battle of Washita River.
• U.S. Army Center of Military History. (2003-10-03). "Named Campaigns — Indian Wars." Washington, DC: United States Army, Center of Military History. Retrieved on 2007-07-06.
• U.S. House of Representatives. (1870). Difficulties with Indian Tribes. 41st Congress, 2nd session, House Executive Document 240.
• U.S. Senate. (1869). Documents Related to the Indian Battle on the Washita River in November of 1868. 40th Congress, 3rd Session, 1869, Senate Executive Document 18.
• Utley, Robert M. (2001). Cavalier in Buckskin: George Armstrong Custer and the Western Military Frontier, rev. ed. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-3387-2. searchable at Amazon.com
• White, Richard. (1991). "It's Your Misfortune and None of My Own": A New History of the American West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806125675. searchable at Amazon.com
• Wilson, Hill P. (1904). "Black Kettle’s Last Raid." Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 8: 110-117. Characterized by the Kansas State Historical Society as a "Biased account of one aspect of Plain's conflict leading up to Washita campaign of 1868 by Fort Hays post trader."