The Grattan Fight: Prelude to a Generation of War | WyoHistory.org

On September 3, 1854, during the Indian Wars in Nebraska, 700 soldiers under American General William S. Harney avenged the Grattan "Massacre" by attacking a Sioux village killing 100 men, women, and children. Had they turned the complaint over to the Indian agent who was legally in chargeat the time, the entire incident could have been avoided. An overzealous lieutenant, a bad translator, and a broken treaty resulted in a war with the Sioux lasting more than twenty years. From the article:

"Attack on the Minniconjou village

On June 17, 1853, two days after the trouble at the ferry, Fleming marched two dozen men into the Minniconjou village to demand the supposed culprit —or several other prisoners as substitutes. Shooting broke out, the warriors retreated to the far side of the village and three were killed, with not a single soldier killed or wounded. Fleming returned across the North Platte River to Fort Laramie with two Minniconjou women captives.

In negotiations in the following days, Garnett said he was willing to forget what had happened and make amends. The Minniconjou saw nothing to be gained in escalating hostilities, although they greatly outnumbered the small Army command. The prisoners were released.

Conquering Bear, a well-regarded Brule Sioux chief who enjoyed good relations with the army garrison, assured Garnett that the rest of Sioux were friendlier than the Minniconjou. Relations between the soldiers and all the nearby Sioux bands began to deteriorate, however.

For his part, Fleming received commendation for his leadership. But nearly all the Minniconjou men had been away hunting; Fleming had led an attack upon a largely undefended village. Unfortunately, both Fleming and the Army believed afterward that even a small force of regulars could defeat the Indians, a belief that clearly influenced Fleming’s future actions at Fort Laramie. He had drawn the wrong lessons from this minor action.

And probably none of the officers understood that the Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed just three years before between the federal government and the tribes of the northern plains, gave no jurisdiction over individual Indians to U.S. civil or military authorities, notes historian Remi Nadeau. The treaty left responsibility for dealing with miscreants in the hands of the tribes; if there was a violation, the tribes were to be held collectively responsible, and officers or Indian agents were expected to negotiate accordingly.

Time and again, however, the Army set out to arrest individuals or take hostages. For their part, the tribes saw capture as a prelude to death—that was how their warfare worked—and so they often resisted arrest or capture at all costs.

Throughout 1853 and 1854, Fort Laramie and the entire U.S. Army on the western frontier were woefully understrength. When Garnett was re-assigned, Fleming became commander of the single Company G of the 6th Infantry still stationed at the fort—and post commander as well.

Grattan arrived in the fall of 1853. Fleming, a year older than his subordinate, a classmate of his during their plebe year together at West Point and his superior in the Army by only a single year, was only slightly more experienced than Grattan.

And Grattan seemed to fit the stereotype of the worst West Pointers. He was brash and arrogant and he despised the Indians that lived around or regularly visited Fort Laramie. He repeatedly bragged that with 10 men he could conquer the entire Indian nation.

He would soon get his chance to prove his boasts.

A sick cow and a confrontation

On Aug. 18, 1854, a sick cow lagged behind a Mormon wagon train as it passed Fort Laramie heading for Utah Territory. Large, separate camps of Minniconjou, Brule and Oglala Sioux Indians were nearby that summer, waiting for distribution of their annuities—their annual government payments in beef and other goods as part of the terms of the treaty signed three years before.

With their promised rations late, their pony herds eating up all the available grass and most of the local game long since exhausted, the people were hungry. The sick cow ended up in in a Brule Sioux camp, where she was killed by a visiting Minniconjou warrior, High Forehead, and ended up as dinner. The emigrant reported his loss to Fleming, perhaps hoping that the Army would issue him a free replacement. He then moved on, vanishing nameless from history.

Fleming did nothing about it for a day, during which Conquering Bear came to the fort and named High Forehead as responsible for the theft. Conquering Bear offered either a horse or mule in restitution for the cow—a pretty good deal for the time, and certainly evidence of his good faith. Fleming said he would wait for the arrival of the Indian agent to negotiate a solution

But Grattan was eager for confrontation. On the 19th, he urged his superior officer to send him to the village. After a long, loud argument Fleming finally agreed, and authorized Grattan to take 22 men. Grattan asked for volunteers.

Had Fleming turned the entire affair over to the local Indian agent, had he agreed to compensation from High Forehead through Conquering Bear by accepting the horse or mule—or even led the party himself—the entire mess could have been avoided. But good judgment was scarce at Fort Laramie on the hot afternoon of Aug. 19.

Further, Fleming may have had little control over Grattan, as both were nearly the same age, had attended the same West Point class their first year, and with Fleming carrying only a single year’s seniority. No other officers were available. Grattan was dispatched, perhaps with some guidance and direction from Fleming.

Grattan's troops rolled two 12-pounder howitzers, one a mountain howitzer like this one, into the Brule village and aimed them at the lodge of Conquering Bear. Mike Kendra, CivilWarWiki.
Lt. Grattan took two sergeants and 27 enlisted men with him to arrest High Forehead, along with a 12-pounder mountain howitzer and a 12-pounder Napoleon howitzer.

Making things worse, Lt. Grattan was accompanied by Lucian Auguste, an interpreter who appears to have made himself unpopular in the area with Indians and whites alike. He had been humiliated a few weeks before when some Cheyenne had stolen some of his cows. With a posse of French-speaking traders he chased them, but when the warriors offered a fight, the posse halted out of rifle range and the Cheyenne went on their way. Grattan later ridiculed Auguste and his friends, loudly, for their apparent cowardice.

On the afternoon of the 19th, Auguste was reluctant to go, took a long time to get ready, acquired some whiskey and began drinking before he left.

Attack on the Brule village

The little detachment left the fort about 3 p.m. and headed downriver toward the villages. The infantrymen rode in a wagon and on the limbers of the two howitzers— the two-wheeled carts that support the tail of the gun. According to at least one account they, too, were passing a bottle as they rode.

After about an hour, the troops arrived at the American Fur Company houses where all the annuity goods were stored. Here the Oglala village stretched along the river for three-quarters of a mile. Beyond it, in a shallow loop of the North Platte, lay the huge Brule village of around 700 lodges —about 4,200 people, including perhaps 1,000 warriors.

Grattan ordered his soldiers to load their muskets and fix bayonets, and led his soldiers past the Oglala village to the trading houses of James Bordeaux at the Brule village. Auguste, now drunk, began shouting threats and insults in all directions.

At Grattan’s urging, Bordeaux sent for Conquering Bear. Grattan demanded the chief deliver High Forehead, so that he could be taken back to the fort and held until the Indian agent arrived. Conquering Bear stalled and procrastinated, went back to his lodge for the general’s uniform presented him at the treaty negotiations three years earlier and returned—at which point a messenger arrived saying High Forehead would resist even if it meant death.

More demands, more stalling and refusals followed; Grattan ordered his men to load the howitzers and advanced toward the center of the Brule village—Auguste continuing his rants in Sioux the whole time. Out of sight of the soldiers, hundreds of warriors were already stripped for battle.

Grattan marshaled the troops in a line facing Conquering Bear’s lodge, the two howitzers in the center, and repeated his demand. Again, the chief offered a mule in restitution. Grattan pulled out a pocket watch and snarled, “It is getting late and I can’t wait any longer.” Conquering Bear said it was out of his hands; if Grattan wanted High Forehead, the troops would have to use force.

Bordeaux later reported he saw one man on the right-hand end of the line fire his musket into a group of Indians at the lodge; one fell. There was a long pause. Someone, perhaps Conquering Bear, shouted that that was enough; perhaps the soldiers would be ready to leave now. Then, soldiers on the left side of the line fired. Then the two howitzers fired, but high; the grapeshot hitting only the tops of the lodgepoles.

Surrounded as the soldiers were, the fight didn’t last long. Grattan’s body would later be found with 24 arrows in it, including one through his head. His body had to be identified by his pocket watch. His two sergeants attempted a fighting withdrawal, but within about 10 minutes Grattan, the interpreter and his entire detachment had been wiped out. One wounded man escaped and started back for the fort, later returned to the trading houses and finally died at the fort a few days later.

In the fray, Conquering Bear, exposed and vulnerable at the head of his village, was shot three times and mortally wounded; he would die several days later. Angry warriors raided the Fort Laramie vicinity, plundered the local traders of their stores, and trapped Lt. Fleming and the remaining soldiers inside the fort for a couple of days, running off the fort’s entire animal herd."