An Old Campaigner of 2nd and 4th US Cavalry

To the editor Winners of the West

Being in my 84th year and a veteran of the Indian Wars of 1869 to 1879, I am writing with the assistance of a comrade of mine, some of the events and services I rendered my country during those stirring times.  I first enlisted in 1866 in the 4th US infantry and served three years.  Then in 1869 I enlisted in Troop K 2nd US Cavalry under Captain James Egan at Omaha, Nebraska.  My first experience in Indian warfare was shortly after my enlistment in Troop K.  It seems that a large war party of Sioux Indians had attacked the Pawnee Indian Agency on the Loop River in Nebraska, and my troop was ordered out to capture the Sioux and defend the Pawnees.  It was an intensively hot day and after riding rapidly for more than twenty miles, many of our horses were overheated and died.   We did not catch any of the Sioux but we protected the Pawnees.  From Pawnee Agency we went to Fort Laramie, Wyoming territory in 1872 where our chief duties were escorting a wagon train out to Laramie Peak, after timber for government use at the post, a distance of forty-five miles.

We generally had an escort of thirty-five men under the command of a commissioned officer.  On one of these trips Lieutenant Robinson and Corporal Coleman took a short cut from the Wood Camp to the Post and were ambushed by a large war party of Sioux Indians and both killed.  The wagon train and escort under the charge of Sgt. Dahlgreen saw many an Indian but were not attacked by them.  We camped at Cottonwood Springs that night, about twenty-five miles from Fort Laramie thinking the Indians would attack us in morning. I volunteered to ride to the fort for reinforcements and left the camp at nine O'clock at night on a good horse and had not gone far when I ran into the Indian camp, but by making a detour I managed to escape the Indians and reached the post.  I returned to Cottonwood Springs that same night with reinforcements and we went out to find the bodies of Lieutenant Robinson and Corporal Coleman.  There were fourteen arrows in the Lieutenant's body, but neither of them were badly mutilated.

During the summer of 1874 gold was discovered in the Black Hills, in the Sioux Indian Reservation which was held by the Indians as sacred ground.  Consequently the Indians made strong resistance against any invasion on their ground and many prospectors and others were killed.  The government took the matter up and made a treaty with the Indians for relinquishment of the Black Hills, and my Troop K and Troop I of the 2nd US Cavalry were detailed as escort for this commission.

A peace conference was held with the Indians on the White River, about ten miles below the Red Cloud Agency, where about fifteen hundred Sioux Indians were in attendance, all mounting and muscling on with repeating rifle's.  The young warriors were violently opposed to relinquishing any of their land and only for the great influence of Chief Spotted Tail and other Chiefs, the commission and the troops would all have been massacred.  The outcome of this treaty was that many of the sub chiefs and their tribes left the Reservation and went on the war path against the whites, which ended in the Custer massacre on the banks of the Little Big Horn River in June 1876.

During the winter of 1875 and 76 my troop and troop I of the 2nd US Cavalry joined the 3rd US Cavalry under General Reynolds at Fort Fetterman the first of December, and scouted the upper Powder River around old Fort Phil Kearney, and in March we found a village of Chief Crazy Horse at the mouth of Powder River.  My troop and Troop I were ordered to charge the village at daylight.  The Indians were taken completely by surprise.  Captain James Egan led the charge with Troop K, and Troop I, was to capture the Indian ponies.  Troop K numbering about sixty men, charged down through the Indian village about a half-mile long through a dense growth of Cottonwood trees, and rallied at a point just below the village.  We formed and all of the number fours remained mounted.  The Indians thinking their was only a file of soldiers came out of their tepees like mad hornets, most of them armed with repeating rifles, their first volley killed or wounded all of our number fours and one trumpeter.   Many of the Cottonwood trees had fallen down which made an excellent protection to the men on foot, otherwise they would all have been wiped out.

Captain Egan and troop K got high price for the brave manner for which they charged the village and stood off the Indians until reinforcements came up.  The 3rd Cavalry that was to bring up the line had difficulty in crossing a deep ravine.  The Indians, numbering over a thousand were completely routed.  The location of the Indian village was in the bend of the river running against a high bluff that was covered densely by pine trees, which made an excellent hideout for the redskins.  The troop burned up all of the tepees, dried meats, buffalo robes and took about fifteen thousand Indian ponies, leaving the Indians without food,  shelter, or means of transportation.  On our return to Fort Fetterman the buck Indians followed the troops for four days and succeeded in recapturing many of their ponies and would have gotten them all only that the General ordered them shot.

We arrived at Fort Laramie about May 1st and did scout duty from fort Laramie to Deadwood City in the Black Hills during the summer of 1876 where we saw many pilgrims that had been killed by the Indians.

In November of 1876, my troop was detailed under a body guard of General Crook, who was commanding an expedition against the hostiles who was under the leadership of Chief Dull Knife, on the headwaters of Tongue River near where Fort McHenry now stands. This expedition was made up of the 4th US Cavalry under command of Colonel MacKenzie.  The Indians were located and captured the latter part of January 1877, when the expedition returned to Fort Fetterman and disbanded.

These two campaigns against hostile Indians were waged in the midst of much cold weather and under the endurance of much hunger.  Hard tack and bacon was the only ration and much of the time but little of that.  Many of the men had their fingers and toes frozen and it was no unusual thing for horses to be frozen stiff while tied to the picket line.  During the summer of 1877 I served with my troop at Omaha in the midst of the railroad riot that was causing so much destruction of property at that time.  From the scene of these riots, our whole regiment of the 2nd Cavalry under command of General Bracket, was ordered to take charge of Fort Custer Montana located on the banks of the Big Horn River just east of the city of Hardin, Montana.  Was discharged from the army in the fall of 1879.  Taking up my residence and civil life at Coulson, Montana on the Yellow Stone River, near where the city of Billings now stands.

It was here that I met and was married to Miss Virginia Fischer.  We moved to Yogo mining camp in 1880, and from there we went to Maiden, Montana, then a flourishing mining camp, where I followed mining and ranching for many years.  I have a family of six children three boys and three girls all living.  The girls are all married but the three boys are living with me and their mother.  George, the youngest boy, is almost a helpless cripple.  The government gives me a pension of fifty dollars a month, and only for the assistance of my two sons I would be up against it, as I have had two paralytic strokes and I am wholly unable to do any kind of work.

Yours and comrade
James N. Connely