Indian Fighters in the Old West

Indian Fighters - Page 2

A ruthless soldier and called an absolute tyrant by President Andrew Johnson, General Philip Sheridan is most remembered for making the following statement:

"The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

Philip Sheridan

General Philip Sheridan

General Philip Sheridan (1831-1888) - The third of six children by John and Mary Meenagh Sheridan, Philip was born on March 6, 1831 in Albany New York, before his family moved to Ohio.

He attended West Point, graduating near the bottom of his class in 1853 and became a career military man. He was assigned to various post in the West before the Civil War began.

During the war, he fought in a number of battles, primarily in the Western Theater and was quickly promoted to a Major General. In 1865, his cavalry pursued General Robert E. Lee and was instrumental in forcing his surrender at Appomattox.

During the reconstruction period following the Civil War, Sheridan ruled Texas and Louisiana with an iron hand. Southerners hated him, and President Andrew Johnson called him an "absolute tyrant" and relieved him of command, sending the Union's greatest cavalry hero west to fight the Indians. He soon launched an unexpected winter campaign, which resulted in temporary peace with the Comanche, Cheyenne, and Kiowa. In 1869 he was given command of the Division of Missouri, which included the entire Plains region. He directed large-scale campaigns against the Southern Plains tribes and the Sioux.

Following the tactics he had employed during the Civil War, Sheridan sought to strike directly at the material basis of the Plains Indian nations. He believed -- correctly, as it turned out -- that attacking the Indians' in their encampments during the winter would give him the element of surprise and take advantage of the scarce forage available for Indian mounts. He was unconcerned about the likelihood of high casualties among noncombatants, once remarking that "If a village is attacked and women and children killed, the responsibility is not with the soldiers but with the people whose crimes necessitated the attack."

In 1883, he was made commander-in-chief of the army. Like General Sherman, he believed that military control of the reservations was essential, and that Indians should be punished for misdeeds. He is remembered for saying, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

In 1883, he was made commander-in-chief of the army. He died on August 5, 1888 of heart disease.

General Alfred Terry (1827-1890) - Born in 1827 in Hartford, Connecticut to a prosperous family, they soon moved to New Haven, where Terry grew up. Having a good education he became a lawyer and was appointed as the clerk of the Superior Court of New Haven County in the 1850s.

General Alfred Terry At the outbreak of the Civil War, Terry raised a regiment of Connecticut volunteers and led them into battle at First Bull Run, as well as other engagements in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. His success on the battlefield earned him a promotion to brigadier general during the war.

In 1866, Terry became military commander of the Department of Dakota and would play an important role in the army's long and often ruthless campaign against the Indians to gain control of the northern plains. In 1867, he served as a member of the peace commission that finally ended Red Cloud's attacks by negotiating the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Terry's legal training and judicial experience would lead to his selection for many similar commissions throughout his career.

The next year, Terry left the Dakotas for a post in Georgia, where he was a commander in the reconstruction activities and strong opponent of the emerging Ku Klux Klan. By 1872, however, he returned to command of the forces in Dakota Territory, providing military protection for the Hayden survey of the Yellowstone region and a survey of the Canadian border.

Terry became George Armstrong Custer's commanding officer in 1873, when the Seventh Cavalry was posted to the Dakotas, and the following year he found himself caught up in controversy when Custer's well-publicized expedition into the Black Hills triggered a gold rush onto land that had been set aside for the Lakota under the Fort Laramie Treaty, Terry himself had helped negotiate. Terry now became a member of the Allison Committee, which attempted to purchase the Black Hills from the Lakota in 1875, and following the committee's failure, he directed the 1876 campaign to force the Lakota and their allies onto reservations.

Despite his unhappiness over Custer's adventure in the Black Hills, Terry interceded on Custer's behalf when his complaints about Indian Bureau activities in the Dakotas provoked a political controversy that nearly cost him the command of the Seventh Cavalry.

After the massacre at the Little Bighorn, Terry accepted unmerited criticism rather than tarnish Custer's reputation. He ordered the court-marshal of Major Marcus Reno, Custer's second-in-command. Terry never fought again, serving on numerous army Indian commissions and commanding the Department of the Missouri.

In 1886, Terry was promoted to major general and appointed commander of the Army's Great Plains forces. However, when he became seriously ill in 188, he retired from the army and died two years later.

Continued Next Page

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