Copyright 1973 by Robert M. Utley All rights reserved First Bison Book printing: September 1984 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Utley, Robert Marshall, 1929— Frontier regulars. Reprint. Originally published: New York: Macmillan, cl973. Bibliography: p. Includes index. I. Indians of North America—Wars—1866—1895. 2. United States. Army— History. 3. West (U.S.)—History—1848—1950. 4. United States. Army— Military life—History—19th century. I. Title. [E83.866.U87 1984] 973.8 84–7484 ISBN-13: 978-0-8032-9551-3 (paper: alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8032-9568-1 (electronic: e-pub) ISBN-13: 978-0-8032-9569-8 (electronic: mobi) Reprinted by arrangement with Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. Introduction Return to the Frontier ONE The Postwar Army: Command, Staff, and Line TWO The Problem of Doctrine THREE The Army, Congress, and the People FOUR Weapons, Uniforms, and Equipment FIVE Army Life on the Border SIX Fort Phil Kearny, 1866 SEVEN Hancock’s War, 1867 EIGHT The Peace Commission of 1867 NINE Operations on the Southern Plains, 1868–69 TEN Beyond the Plains, 1866–70 ELEVEN Grant’s Peace Policy, 1869–74 TWELVE The Red River War, 1874–75 THIRTEEN Sitting Bull, 1870–76 FOURTEEN The Conquest of the Sioux, 1876–81 FIFTEEN Nez Percé Bid for Freedom, 1877 SIXTEEN Bannock, Paiute, Sheepeater, and Ute, 1878–79 SEVENTEEN Mexican Border Conflicts, 1870–81 EIGHTEEN Geronimo, 1881–86 NINETEEN Ghost Dance, 1890–91 TWENTY Bibliography Index The Northern Plains, 1866–68 Bozeman Trail Forts, 1866–68 Hancock’s War, April–July 1867 The Southern Plains War, 1868–69 The Southern Plains and Texas, 1867–69 The Snake War, 1866–68; The Modoc War, 1872–73; Area of Operations Crook’s Tonto Basin Campaign, 1872–73 The Southern Plains, 1869–75 The Red River War, 1874–7 5 The Northern Plains, 1870–90 The Sioux War of 1876; The Battle of the Little Bighorn, June 25–26, 1876 The Nez Percé and Bannock-Paiute Wars, 1877–78 The Ute War, 1879 Border Conflict, 1870–86 ERRATA p. 25, 1. Merrit should be Merritt 28: p. 112, 1. restored should be resorted 31: p. 116, eleven troops should be eight troops 1.6: p. 118, 1. May 2 should be May 3 29: p. 120, 1. August 22–23 should be August 21–22 17: p. 132, 1. Department of Dakota, not the Dakota 23: p. 150, 1. Kansas should be Kansans 9: p. 155, 1. three chiefs should be four 33: p. 181, has should be had 1.2: p. 193, 1. Freedman’s should be Freedmen’s 37: p. 296, 1. Same 19: p. 194, 1. Cohise’s should be Cochise’s 32: p. 205, 1. June 3 should be June 1 23: p. 213, 1. wtih should be with 27: p. 230, Henely should be Heneley 11. 20, 24: p. 241, 1. p. 241, 1. Nabraska should be Nebraska 21: p. 246, 1. Serman should be Sherman 24: pp. 253– John S. Gray, Centennial Campaign, makes a persuasive case for 54: fewer Indians than given here. p. 260, 1. trumpeter orderly should be orderly trumpeter 7: p. 268, 1. Bonnett should be Bonnet 19: p. 303, 1. on should be of 9: p. 315, 1. Wallowa Valley 10: p. 323, 1. subsitute should be substitute 14: p. 326, 1. trial should be trail 10: p. 327, 1. Piautes should be Paiutes 11: p. 335, 1. Chief Douglas should be Chief Johnson 21: p. 351, 1. Zargosa should be Zaragosa 16: p. 362, 1. May 23 should be May 24 14: p. 364, 1. 1,000 should be 350 2: p. 364, should read “trapped Victorio amid three peaks called Tres Castillos.” 11. 13– Dead Indians numbered 62. Who fired fatal bullet not known. 18: p. 377, 1. guage should be gauge 29: p. 380, 1. Benito should be Bonito 4: p. 389, 1. bed should be bend 14: 14: p. 407, 1. At should be as 28: Introduction I volume of this series, I sketched the story of the handful of blue-clad N A PREVIOUS frontiersmen who contended with the Indian tribes of the trans-Mississippi West in the years between the Mexican War and the Civil War.1 I also dealt with the Volunteers who replaced the Regulars during the Civil War years and who on almost every front stepped up the scale and effectiveness of warfare against the Indians. In the present volume my subject is the Regular Army that took up the task after Appomattox and carried the Indian Wars to their tragic and bloody conclusion at Wounded Knee Creek in 1890. The frontier Regulars saw themselves as the advance guard of civilization, sweeping aside the savage to make way for the stockman, the miner, the farmer, and the merchant. This stereotype is evident in the writings of officers such as Nelson A. Miles, George A. Custer, George A. Forsyth, John G. Bourke, George F. Price, T. F. Rodenbough, James Parker, and William H. and Robert G. Carter; of officers’ wives such as Mrs. Custer, Mrs. Biddle, Mrs. Summerhayes, and Mrs. Boyd; and of friendly newsmen such as John F. Finerty. It is to be glimpsed in the art of Frederic Remington and Charles Schreyvogel. Above all, it is to be credited to Captain Charles King, who in dozens of novels reinforced the army’s view of itself. King summed it up years later in an address to Indian War veterans: It is all a memory now, but what a memory, to cherish! … A more thankless task, a more perilous service, a more exacting test of leadership, morale and discipline no army in Christendom has ever been called upon to undertake than that which for eighty years was the lot of the little fighting force of Regulars who cleared the way across the continent for the emigrant and settler.2 Others saw the Regulars in a different light. Eastern humanitarians assailed them as butchers, rampaging around the West gleefully slaughtering peaceable Indians and taking special delight in shooting down women and children. Antislavery leaders such as Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison turned energies liberated by the Emancipation Proclamation to a crusade in behalf of the red men, and the army felt the sting of rhetoric sharpened in the long war against the slavocracy. “I only know the names of three savages upon the