Beecher Island Battleground Memorial

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Beecher Island Battleground Memorial

The Beecher Island Battleground Memorial is located 16 miles southeast of Wray , Colorado . It commemorates the battle between Indians and a detachment of civilian scouts under the command of Colonel George A. Forsyth , which took place September 17-26, 1868 on an island in the Arickaree Fork of the Republican River . Beecher Island was named after Forsyth's deputy Lieutenant Fredrick H. Beecher , who was killed in action here on September 17, 1868.

In later years many men have wrongly claimed that they belonged to Forsyth 'Scouts, as they enjoyed legendary fame after the battle. The names of the men who were present at Arickaree Creek, however, are known from Major Inman's recruiting list. They were immortalized on the memorial that was unveiled on September 17, 1905 in the presence of battle veterans at the site of the engagement. Many versions of events were told or written by men who were not present. The reports of the real participants, which were often only recorded decades after the battle, differ in many details.

history

In the 60s of the 19th century there were repeated attacks by Arapaho , Cheyenne and Sioux on settlers and the stagecoach traffic of the Overland Stage Company in the west of what was then Kansas Territory . To put an end to this, General Sheridan commissioned Colonel George A. Forsyth of the 9th US Cavalry Regiment with a punitive expedition against the Indians in August 1868. His deputy was Lieutenant Fredrick H. Beecher, a nephew of Henry Ward Beecher , of the 3rd US Infantry Regiment.

At Fort Harker (near Ellsworth, Kansas) and Fort Hays (near Hays, Kansas), a troop of experienced shooters who were considered brave and trustworthy was formed. Major Henry Inman, Fort Harker's quartermaster, put 57 men on a recruitment list. Six of the men were not due to join Forsyth's scouts until Fort Wallace. However, due to a misunderstanding, they reached Fort Wallace only after Forsyth had left.

On August 30, 1868 a force of 51 men under the command of Colonel Forsyth Fort Hays left for Fort Wallace, which they reached on September 5. There, Dr. JH Mooers (it does not appear to be clear whether Dr. Mooers was a military doctor or a civilian).

On September 10, 1868, Forsyth and his men left Fort Wallace in an easterly direction to Sheridan, where a raid on the railroad had taken place. From there they followed the trail of the Indians, whose number was estimated at around 25, westward to what is now Yuma County (Colorado) on a tributary of the Republican River.

On the evening of September 16, they made their night camp on the banks of the Arikaree Fork of the Republican River. Opposite their campsite, in the middle of the river, which had no water at this time of year, was an approx. 30 m long sandbank. The experienced scouts concluded from various indications that the Indians were very close, and in considerably larger numbers than previously thought.

Around 750 Indians attacked early the next morning. They succeeded in driving away some of the Scouts' horses and mules with most of the provisions. Forsyth and his men retired to a better position on the sandbar. Three of the scouts who lost their horses did not make it to the island. They took up position in a cave on the bank of the river, where they held out until evening. The scouts who had reached the island dug shallow holes in the soft sand and holed up in them. In contrast to most military units of the time, the troops had Spencer repeating rifles with a high rate of fire, with which the attackers could be kept at a distance.

Forsyth was wounded in the leg by rifle shots right at the start of the fight, one of which shattered the bone. Lying in one of the sand holes, he commanded his men. The Indians kept attacking throughout the day. The scouts did not know for sure which tribes the Indians who were involved in this battle belonged. Nor were they aware of the names of the chiefs who led the Indians. When it got dark, the Indians withdrew and took their dead and wounded with them.

The scouts also looked after their dead and wounded. Lieutenant Beecher had fallen. Scouts George Culver and William Wilson were dead and seven others were wounded. The dead were buried in shallow graves on the island. The wounded could not receive medical care because Dr. Mooers was shot in the head and died that same night. All horses and mules were dead. The besieged had plenty of ammunition, but food and water looked bad.

Forsyth hired volunteers Jack Stillwell and Pierre Trudeau to try to sneak through between the besieging Indians and get help from Fort Wallace. They were supposed to deliver a message to Colonel Bankhead in which Forsyth described the situation and asked for reinforcements and a doctor. However, he erroneously stated that they were being besieged at Delaware Creek, which later delayed the rescue.

Stillwell and Trudeau left the island before daybreak on September 18th. They got only three miles before they had to hide under an embankment to wait for darkness. The only food they had taken with them was meat from the killed horses, which would spoil quickly in the heat. As a result, they became ill and could only reach Fort Wallace after four days, on September 22, 1868.

Colonel Bankhead telegraphed the situation to General Sheridan at Hays. This ordered the immediate departure of an auxiliary force. Colonel Bankhead sent a messenger to Lake Station (near Cheyenne Wells) to Colonel Carpenter with instructions that a force should also come to Forsyth's aid. About midnight that day, Bankhead left Fort Wallace with 100 men, a doctor, and Stillwell and Trudeau as guides.

In the meantime, the Indian attacks on the island continued. On the evening of September 18, it was decided to send two more scouts to Fort Wallace, as it was not certain that Stillwell and Trudeau had managed to escape the Indians. Two men named Donovan and Whitney made this second attempt. However, they returned after a few hours and declared it was impossible to get through the Indian lines.

The Indian attacks continued on the third day of the siege. The situation of men on the island had deteriorated dramatically. A watering hole had been dug, but the only food available was rotten horse meat and the wounded urgently needed medical attention. So Donovan and Pliley made one more attempt to get help, and this time they succeeded. They reached Cheyenne Wells and rode from there by stagecoach to Fort Wallace, where they arrived at noon on September 23, 1868.

The officer on duty sent Donovan and four other men to guide Colonel Bankhead on the Republican River. There he met Carpenter, who had lost half a day looking for Forsyth's scouts because the location in Forsyth's message to Colonel Bankhead was incorrect. Carpenter split up his force. He himself hurried under the guidance of Donovan with 30 of his fastest riders and the doctor, Dr. Fitzgerald, in a forced march to the Arikaree River, where he arrived late morning on September 25, 1868. The rest of the troop with the heavy wagons should follow as quickly as possible.

Carpenter found Forsyth's scouts in their sand holes, where they were protected from the bullets of the Indians. Around their position lay the carcasses of dead horses and mules. Lieutenant Beecher, Dr. Mooers and the Scouts Culver and Wilson had been buried. Colonel Forsyth and 17 scouts were severely wounded and had been without medical care for more than a week.

Carpenter had a tent camp set up several hundred meters from the battlefield where the wounded could be cared for.

On September 25th, the scout Lewis Farley died of his injuries and was buried on the island. 26 hours after Colonel Carpenter, Colonel Bankhead arrived with his soldiers and shortly afterwards two companies of the 2nd Cavalry under Colonel Brisbin.

On September 27th, they all made their way back to Fort Wallace, where they arrived on September 30th.

The scout Thomas O'Donnell died on November 18, 1868 in Fort Wallace from the consequences of the injuries sustained in the battle of the Arikaree River.

A detachment of soldiers later returned to the battlefield on the Arikaree River to retrieve the remains of the Scouts who were buried there in September. Farley and Culver's bodies were recovered. They were later reburied in Fort Wallace's cemetery. The graves of Lieutenant Beecher, Dr. However, Mooers and Wilson had been pillaged, probably by Indians.

According to the inscription on the memorial, 75 Indians were killed, other sources report only 30 Indians killed. An unknown number were wounded. The chiefs Medicine Man and Roman Nose were killed in this battle.

The monument

In 1905, at the site of the Battle of the Island in Arickaree Creek, an obelisk-shaped monument was erected for the men who fought there. When the memorial was destroyed by a flood in 1935, the lists with the names of the fallen and wounded, which were posted in the upper part of the memorial, were lost.

The dead from Beecher Island

Lieutenant Fredrick H. Beecher, † September 17, 1868

Dr. JH Mooers, † September 17, 1868

George W. Culver, † September 17, 1868

William Wilson, † September 17, 1868

Lewis Farley, † September 25, 1868

The wounded from Beecher Island

Bvt. Col. GA Forsyth, W. Armstrong, GBClark, J. Curry, H. Davenport, TK Davis, B. Day, H. Farley, R. Gantt, J. Harley, F. Harrington, JH Ketterer, WHH McCall, H. Morton, T. O'Donnell, HH Tucker, F. Vilott

The panels attached to the base of the monument could be saved and were integrated into a new monument that was erected around 180 m north of the old location.

Blackboard on the west side

TO EVER KEEP GREEN IN MEMORY THOSE WHO FOUGHT HERE THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY THE STATES OF COLORADO AND KANSAS AD 1905.

Plate on the south side

BATTLE OF BEECHER'S ISLAND FOUGHT SEPT. 17th, 18th AND 19th AD 1868 BETWEEN COL. GEO. A. FORSYTH 'COMPANY OF CITIZEN SCOUTS, NUMBERING 51 MEN, AND A LARGE PARTY OF INDIANS COMPRISING NORTHERN CHEYENNES, OGALLALAH AND BRULE SIOUX AND DOG SOLDIERS COMMANDED BY THE NOTED WAR CHIEF ROMAN NOSE. THE SCOUTS WERE SURROUNDED AND HELD ON THIS ISLAND FOR NINE DAYS, SUBSISTING ON HORSE AND MULE MEAT. INDIANS KILLED, 75; WOUNDED UNKNOWN. HERE ROMAN NOSE AND MEDICINE MAN FOUGHT THEIR LAST BATTLE.

Plaque on the north side

THE FIRST NIGHT STILLWELL AND TRUDEAU, CRAWLING ON HANDS AND KNEES, STARTED FOR RELIEF; AND HIDING DAYS AND TRAVELING NIGHTS, REACHED FT. WALLACE. THE THIRD NIGHT, DONOVAN AND PLILEY STARTED, ARRIVING AT THE FORT. DONOVAN WITH FOUR OTHERS IMMEDIATELY STARTED BACK; AND COMMING UPON COL. CARPENTER'S COMMAND, ON THE SOUTH FORK OF THE REPUBLICAN, GUIDED THEM IN A TWENTY MILE DASH. REACHING THE ISLAND AT 10 ON THE NINTH DAY. 26 HOURS IN ADVANCE OF COL. BANKHEAD, WITH SCOUTS STILLWELL AND TRUDEAU. THE RETURNING TO FT. WALLACE WAS BEGUN SEPT. 27TH. THE WOUNDED BEING CARRIED IN GOVERNMENT WAGONS.

Plaque on the east side

UNINJURED

T. ALDERDIS J. LYDEN CC PIATT W. STEWARD
M. BURKE MR LANE AG PLILEY I. THAYER
J. DONOVAN J. LANE W. REILLY P. TRUDEAU
AJ EUTSLER MR MAPES T. RANAHAN CP WHITNEY
A. DUPONT T. MURPHY C. SMITH W. WILSON
J. HURST HT McGRATH JS STILLWELL E. ZIGLER
AT GROVER CB NICHOLS S. SCHLESINGER
G. GREEN G. OAKES E. SIMPSON

There is an error in this list. William Wilson died on Beecher's Island. The survivor was John Wilson.

swell

Web links

Commons : Battle of Beecher Island Battlefield  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 39 ° 53 ′ 4.7 "  N , 102 ° 10 ′ 59.3"  W.