Author: Katherine Hempstead

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-11-05

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 019009415X

"Lieutenant Frederick Henry Beecher was planning to make a visit home to see his family that Spring in 1868, when he received an order to embark on a new mission. Civil War General Phil Sheridan asked him to assist Major George "Sandy" Forsyth in recruiting and leading a unit of fifty elite civilian scouts, to search for Cheyenne and Sioux warriors and engage them in combat. Beecher was stationed at Fort Wallace in Kansas and had previously engaged with the Cheyenne during an attack on the Fort in the summer of 1867. He was known to be a good shot, and Major Forsyth thought highly of his skills, describing him as "...brave and modest, with a love of hunting and a natural taste for plainscraft; he was a splendid specimen of a thoroughbred American, and a most valuable man in any position requiring coolness, courage and tact." Ongoing conflict between nomadic Native peoples and civilians placed pressure on the under-resourced U.S. Army, leading to the use of civilian scouts. Beecher helped assemble a group known for their tracking skills, and they set off from Fort Hayes, Kansas, heading west for Fort Wallace. They arrived in September and soon learned of an attack on a freight train about thirteen miles east. The next morning, under Forsyth's command, they set out in pursuit of the raiders, following their trail into Yuma County Colorado. The scouts soon lost the trail, yet their travels did not go unnoticed. As they made camp on the south bank of the Arikakee River, a large party of Cheyenne and Sioux gathered nearby for a massive surprise attack"--