A Cold Day in Hell: The Dull Knife Battle, 1876

Epilogue Big Freezing Moon 1876

THE INDIANS

Spotted Tail and His Band.

ST. JOSEPH, December 2.—Spotted Tail, now chief of the Sioux nation, and the ninety-six Sioux braves sent to examine the Indian territory, with a view to the removal of the Sioux nation there, passed through the city this afternoon homeward bound in charge of Col. A. G. Boone and Dr. J. W. Daniels, of the Sioux commission, and disbursing agent Major Howard. They have been five weeks from home. The St. Joe Herald’s interview say the delegation took wagons at Wichita, 424 miles through the territory, to Muskogee, on the M.K.&T. road, driving twenty-five days. At Ockmulgee two chiefs of the Creek nation made speeches, and Spotted Tail replied. The Indians say nothing, being under bonds to those at home to say nothing until their return. The commissioners say they see the Indians are pleased with the country, and think, if the right men are sent to treat with them, the whole of the Spotted Tail and Red Cloud agencies, 2,000 in number, will move to the territory without trouble in the spring. The Indians liked their trip.

After meeting up with Wooden Leg’s group of hunters, the People crossed the Tongue River* and continued down the low ocher benches along the east bank to the mouth of Otter Creek, where they made their cold camp that night.

As the sun came up the following day, Morning Star had the scouts lead the people north by east along Otter Creek into the rising hill country. Sleep and walk. Sleep and walk again. Day after terribly cold day.

Upon reaching the forks of Otter Creek the scouts took the weary, hungry people over the low divide to Box Elder Creek.† It was on this day that the weather turned milder than it had been in a long, long time. For many days now Wolf Tooth had been wearing his frozen coat. Ever since the time when the People had emerged from the mountains and the young hunters had killed the first buffalo, Wolf Tooth had been wearing what he had cut from the soft underbelly of the cow’s hide. Slashing a hole for his head, he had draped the green hide over his naked body to stay warm. But long ago the cold air froze the skin solid, so stiff Wolf Tooth could not get himself out of the hide. Not until today—when at last the temperature rose enough that, with the help of two friends, the old warrior could struggle out of his heavy, icy prison.

At long last, eleven suns after the fight with the pony soldiers and their Indians, the advance scouts came galloping back, yipping in excitement, to the head of the march where Morning Star, Little Wolf, and the other chiefs came to a stop, new snow nearly reaching their knees.

“What is it?” Morning Star demanded of the three excited young men who came skidding to a halt nearby.

“Have you seen more soldiers?” Little Wolf asked. “No!” one of the young scouts answered joyfully. “There! Beyond that hill! We have seen the Crazy Horse people!”

As word shot back through the cold stragglers, the old men began to sing once more the strong-heart songs, and the women trilled their tongues in joy. Once more Ma-heo-o had delivered His People from the hand of disaster.

Hurrying to the crest of that low hill where he could smell woodsmoke, Morning Star peered down, his limbs stiff and wooden with cold. Below, along a bend on the east side of Beaver

Creek, among the leafless cottonwoods where they would be sheltered from much of the winter’s cruel wind, sat the lodges—smoke rising from their crowns of poles. Already there were a handful of young Oglalla warriors and sentries headed their way through the deep snow, and dark, antlike forms of the Lakota people emerged from their lodges below, coming out to see what had caused all the excitement among the camp guards.

“Come, Morning Star,” Little Wolf said quietly as he came alongside, tugging on his old friend’s elbow. “Let us go tell Crazy Horse that the ve-ho-e soldiers have attacked us again.”

For the longest time that afternoon the Tse-Tsehese leaders sat with Crazy Horse and the other Hunkpatila headmen, discussing Three Stars’s attack on their Red Fork village—talking over the why, and considering just what the Oglalla could do for their close cousins, the Ohmeseheso. Just as the two bands had done last winter in the cold moons before deciding to go in search of Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa.

But this time there was a different sound in the throat of Crazy Horse. This time he did not speak with the same voice as he had when the pony soldiers had attacked Old Bear’s village beside the Powder last winter.

This time there was a hardness on the face of Crazy Horse. Nothing soft in the eyes of the Oglalla war chief.

“We have little,” the Lakota leader explained icily to his people as well as the Tse-Tsehese. “After the soldiers chased us from camp to camp to camp since summer—forcing us to keep moving all the time—we do not have many hides to give you to replace your lodges. And we do not have enough meat to feed your people.”

For a long time Morning Star was stunned into silence. Then he finally asked, “What can you give us?”

Wagging his head coldly, Crazy Horse said, “I do not have enough to feed my own people and you as well.”

“What would you have us do?” Little Wolf asked angrily.

Drawing himself up, Crazy Horse said to his old comrades in war, “I will give you what my people can spare … for three days. But no more.”

“Where will we find Sitting Bull?” Morning Star inquired.

“Yes,” Little Wolf said, his face showing his cheer. “Sitting Bull will help us again. Tell us where we can find him!”

As the Oglalla leader’s eyes crimped into resolute slits, he replied, “Sitting Bull is no longer in this country.”

Morning Star asked, “Where can we find him?”

“You will not,” the Lakota mystic answered. “For he is long gone from here.”

“Where?” Little Wolf demanded sharply.

“North of the Elk River—and he is running away from the soldiers too … racing for the land of the Grandmother.”

THE INDIANS

General Crook’s Splendid Campaign.

BUFFALO SPRINGS, WYOMING, December 3.—General Crook’s whole force left Fort Reno this forenoon, his intention being to move down the Little Powder to its junction with the Powder, and there, forming a supply camp, operate against the hostiles as circumstances dictate. This point will be convenient for operations to Tongue River, Little Missouri or Bell Fourche. The latest information is that Sitting Bull has about 400 lodges and Crazy Horse about seventy, equivalent to a fighting force of 1,500 to 2,000. The command is rationed to about January 1st. Grouard, chief scout, is of the opinion that unless surprised the hostiles will not make a stand. The wounded of McKenzie’s fight leave here to-morrow for Fetterman. General Crook’s plan is to feed the Indians on powder.

Valley of the Belle Fourche

Wyoming Terr.

My Dearest Heart—

He got that much written on a small sheet of paper with the lead pencil he had borrowed from Bourke, then sat there in the darkness of that early morning. A Sunday. The tenth of December.

Outside the lieutenant’s tent a few men stirred, mess cooks mostly, those already building up the fires to boil coffee and beginning to wrassle up breakfast for the various companies. But for the most part the troopers and their horses were quiet in the cold of this last hour before sunrise.

It looks to be we’ll be here awhile. Crook’s waiting for supplies to come up from Fetterman. We were supposed to have them before now, but someone else ended up with them. So here the army sits. At least until the supplies come and Crook and Mackenzie can go off on the march again.

He sipped at the coffee going cold in the tin cup at his elbow, then flung the lukewarm dregs at the foot of the canvas tent flap where it would soon turn to ice.

How was he going to keep from telling her, without lying to her?

But there wasn’t a damn bit of good sense in telling her what he would soon be about, where he was going, and what he would be facing. No good sense at all. But, he reminded himself, how to keep from saying anything without it being less than the truth?

It promised to fair off this day. To warm above zero. And the wind had yet to come up. Perhaps it was a good omen, this day starting off so fair. They were about due, he thought. What with all those cold days in hell they’d suffered already.

Don’t fear that I’ll grow bored here, Sam. Crook and Mackenzie will see to that. They’ve got scouts going out in this direction or the other all the time. Coming and going. And they plan on having me out too. While we are waiting here for rations and grain for the horses, the generals want to know what the Indians are doing. Where Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull are camped, or moving. So the Indian scouts are being sent north toward the Yellowstone, into the Powder River country. It’s there the Indian scouts say Crazy Horse and his warriors have gone.

In a matter of moments he would be mounting up with the Indian scouts and they would be pointing their noses a little west of north. As soon as he had wolfed down his breakfast, washing it all down with some more of that scalding coffee.

He could hear the sound of horses being brought close. It could be Three Bears and some of his men—the ones who would accompany him half the way to the Yellowstone. At least to the mouth of the Little Powder.

So at least I have something to do from day to day. Able to saddle up and ride out rather than hang about camp here with the soldiers, playing cards with no money, fighting, sleeping, and otherwise getting on one another’s backs. I’d rather be out on the back of a good, strong horse that doesn’t talk back. Where it’s quiet enough to hear my own thoughts.

Where I can think about you. And our boy.

I promised you I’d return soon, back to your arms. And once I’m back at your side, I promised I would be ready to name our first born. In the weeks since we parted, I have given thought to this matter, weighing my choices from your family and mine. And while I haven’t yet decided, I am near to making a decision.

Just as I promised you—our son will have a name by the time I return to you both.

Shall we have him christened at that time? There with the chaplain at the Laramie post? I am certain that is what we should do as soon as we have given him his Christian name. To stand at your side, holding him in my arms as he is blessed, and we are blessed with him.

The cook just stuck his head in and told me my breakfast was out of the kettle and on the plate. It will freeze soon if I don’t eat it right away. And I’m ready for another cup of his dreadful coffee. It will be light soon and time to go to work for the army. For Crook and Mackenzie and the Powder River Expedition. To mount up and ride out.

It gives my mind a lot of time to think, and my heart a lot of time to ache, Sam. Missing you both more than I ever dreamed I could miss anything or anyone. But we both know I have a job to do while I’m here. There aren’t many things I have the talent to do. I am a simple man with big, clumsy hands and a half-slow brain, but I can do army work. If this is how God wills me to put the food on my family’s table, to put the clothes on your backs and a roof over your heads, then so be it.

I will always do what God sets before me, to the best of my ability—for there are those who are counting on me to see my way through all trouble and travail thrown down in my path, for there are those who are counting on me to make my way back home to them. Soon.

Know that I will do all that is within my power to be back beside you by Christmas, our son’s first. If for some reason the army keeps me here in this far north country longer than that—I vow to do all I can to be home shortly after the coming of the new year.

Keep me in your prayers, Sam. Hold our son close morning and night for me too. Oh, that I could wrap you both in my arms right now, it is so cold here. So very, very cold here. For the love of God, please pray for me—pray that God will hold me in his hand and deliver me to you soon.

And remember what I’ve always told you. That God watches over drunks, and fools, and poor army wretches like me. I’m coming home soon, Sam. Watch the skyline to the north. One day I’ll be there, big as life, come home to hold you both again.

Until then, hug yourselves for me. And tell my son that his father loves him more than breath itself. Know that I love and cherish you more, much, much more than I do my own life.

Seamus

* Just above the site of present-day Ashland, Montana, on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.

† Present-day Beaver Creek.