Drexel Mission Fight

Location of the fighting on the Pine Ridge Reservation

The Drexel Mission Fight was a skirmish between Lakota warriors and the US Army that took place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota on December 30, 1890, the day after the Wounded Knee massacre . The battle was fought on White Clay Creek about 15 miles north of Pine Ridge . It has been suggested that the Lakota burned down a Catholic mission station. Therefore, troops from Wounded Knee were ordered to investigate the matter. The troop units consisted of 8 companies of the 7th US Cavalry Regiment and a platoon of artillery under the leadership of Colonel James William Forsyth . These units were involved in the Wounded Knee massacre.

During the Enlightenment, they encountered an armed group of Brulé - Sioux -Indianern from the eastern Rosebud Sioux Reservation , under the leadership of Chief Two Strike . The group was suspected of having ambushed the supply column of the 9th U.S. Cavalry Regiment from Fort Robinson that morning . One soldier died in the ensuing battle. One officer and six soldiers were injured, with the officer, First Lieutenant James D. Mann, dying of his wounds two weeks later. The Indian victims were not registered.

At White Clay Creek, the Lakota succeeded in surrounding the troops of the 7th US Cavalry Regiment that had holed up in the brook bottom. Forsyth had to call for reinforcements. Two battalions of the US 9th Cavalry Regiment led by Major Guy V. Henry rushed to the aid of the US 7th Cavalry Regiment. The 9th US Cavalry Regiment was one of the two cavalry regiments of the US Army, which consisted of blacks, often former slaves. The black soldiers were called ' Buffalo Soldiers '.

The 9th US Cavalry Regiment managed to displace the Indians from the hills above the bottom of the brook and to save the 7th US Cavalry Regiment without losing a single man. The members of the 9th US Cavalry Regiment were hailed as heroes by the press. "Black soldiers save Custer's regiment" were the headlines and speculated that they had even prevented a second Little Bighorn . After the skirmish, Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles , the commanding officer for operations in South Dakota, ordered an investigation. He accused Forsyth of having recklessly put his soldiers in a dangerous situation. The investigative commission dropped the charges against Forsyth, as well as the charges against him for the Wounded Knee massacre. The Drexel Mission Fight is considered the final battle between Sioux Indians and the US Army.

literature

Robert Lee: Fort Meade and the Black Hills, University of Nebraska Press 1991.

Web links

Ninth Cavalry and the Ghost Dance Movement 1890-1891 Pine Ridge Agency, South Dakota The Drexel Mission Fight December 30, 1890 (English)

Individual evidence

^ Robert M. Utley: The Last Days of the Sioux Nation. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT (1963), pages 231-250, ISBN 0-300-10316-6 .
↑ Jeffrey Ostler: The Plains Sioux and US colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee pgs. 357-358, Cambridge University Press (2004) ISBN 0-521-60590-3
↑ www.buffalosoldiers-washington.com The Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Colonel James W. Forsyth, was besieged in a canyon on White Clay Creek, with the Sioux commanding the heights on either side and threatening to cut off the retreat of the 7th Cavalry. The 7th Cavalry hunkered down and awaited rescue. Major Henry and the 9th, halted at the mouth of the canyon, unlimbered a Hotchkiss gun, divided his dismounted troopers into two battalions, and ordered them to sweep both sides of the canyon. With the Hotchkiss firing away, the Buffalo Soldiers surged forward, shooting with deadly effect and emitting screams of elation at getting into battle. Confounded by the wave of black soldiers surging towards them, the Sioux took to their heels. Without losing a man, the Buffalo Soldiers had recorded one of their most celebrated triumphs. Newspapers across the nation proclaimed that Henry's troops had saved Forsyth from the same fate as Custer's fourteen years earlier. "

[Utley-1] Robert M. Utley: The Last Days of the Sioux Nation. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT (1963), pages 231-250, ISBN 0-300-10316-6 .

[2] Jeffrey Ostler: The Plains Sioux and US colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee pgs. 357-358, Cambridge University Press (2004) ISBN 0-521-60590-3

[3] www.buffalosoldiers-washington.com The Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Colonel James W. Forsyth, was besieged in a canyon on White Clay Creek, with the Sioux commanding the heights on either side and threatening to cut off the retreat of the 7th Cavalry. The 7th Cavalry hunkered down and awaited rescue. Major Henry and the 9th, halted at the mouth of the canyon, unlimbered a Hotchkiss gun, divided his dismounted troopers into two battalions, and ordered them to sweep both sides of the canyon. With the Hotchkiss firing away, the Buffalo Soldiers surged forward, shooting with deadly effect and emitting screams of elation at getting into battle. Confounded by the wave of black soldiers surging towards them, the Sioux took to their heels. Without losing a man, the Buffalo Soldiers had recorded one of their most celebrated triumphs. Newspapers across the nation proclaimed that Henry's troops had saved Forsyth from the same fate as Custer's fourteen years earlier. "