Adventures and Tragedies on the Overland Trail by Randall Parrish

Adventures and Tragedies on the Overland Trail

Some Indian Leaders

In those early days of stage-coaching along the Santa Fe Trail the two most noted leaders of Indian raids were Satanta (White Bear), a chief of the Kiowa Nation, and Charles Bent, a half-breed desperado. In later years Kicking Bird, also a Kiowa, became the terror of the Plains. The latter was finally poisoned by a Mexican woman in 1876. Santana had his headquarters in what is now known as the Cheyenne Bottoms, eight miles from the Great Bend of the Arkansas River, and about the same distance from old Fort Zarah. He was as cruel and heartless a savage as ever ambushed a stage-coach or murdered helpless women. For fifteen years he was the terror of the Trail, and his acts atrocity were incessant. Charles Bent had for father the famous Colonel Bent, of Bent’s Fort, but his mother was a Cheyenne woman.

Cheyenne Warriors by Edward S. Curtis

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Well educated in St. Louis, he no sooner returned to the Plains than he developed into a blood-thirsty desperado, organizing a body of young warriors, later known as “dog soldiers," and beginning a series of depredations against the whites. With over a hundred men under him he robbed ranches, and attacked wagon trains, coaches, and army caravans. The history of his bloody deeds will never be told, for dead men tell no tales, and seldom did Bent leave any alive after a raid. From Walnut Creek to the mountains no traveler was safe from attack by the “dog soldiers"; and oftentimes a caravan started forth having the disguised Bent as guide, for his plans usually involved treachery. The Government offered five thousand dollars for his capture, dead or alive, but death finally came to him in the form of malarial fever.

Robbers, White and Red

Indian peril on the northern Overland route, while never wholly absent, grew most serious during the period of the Civil War, when the Plains tribes became largely hostile. Road agents also became very much in evidence, and the robbery of stages was not uncommon. In July, 1865, a stage carrying seven passengers, and containing a considerable amount of gold bullion was the object of such an attack. The passengers were all old frontiersmen, and, anticipating a possible attempt at robbery, were prepared for a desperate defense. But treachery worked their ruin. Beside the driver, named Frank Williams, sat one of the robbers, thoroughly disguised. At a lonely spot this man suddenly shouted an alarm that the robbers were upon them. A shot was fired from beside the trail, and the men inside the coach instantly discharged their guns toward the supposed ambush. Immediately a regular volley was poured in from the opposite side; four of the passengers fell dead, another was severely wounded. Two men saved their lives; one feigning death in the bottom of the coach, the other escaping into the brush. The robbers secured over $70,000, and it was later discovered that the driver, Williams, was an accomplice, and received his share. He was tracked to Denver, and hanged with very little ceremony.

In 1862 the Indian raids on the coaches and stations between Fort Laramie and South Pass, Wyoming were almost continuous. In April of that year occurred a terrible fight between the mail-stage and savages, on the Sweetwater. There were two coaches loaded with mail, and nine men, the leaders being Lem Flowers, a division agent, and the conductor named Brown.

The Indians attacked at dawn, as was their custom, and the whites were compelled to run their coaches alongside each other, pile mail-sacks between the wheels, and throw sand over them for breastworks. Here they fought their assailants all day, six of the men being wounded, and all their stock driven off. A number of Indians were killed, and at night they withdrew, leaving the defenders to harness themselves to the running-gear, and thus draw their wounded comrades to safety. Another memorable raid was made all along the two hundred miles between Julesburg and Liberty Farm, at the head of the Little Blue River, in August, 1864. Mail coaches, freight caravans, ranches, and parties putting up hay were attacked simultaneously. More than forty whites were killed, and the destruction of property was very large.

Buffalo Bill as a Stage-Driver

The route lying along the North Platte became so dangerous that it was almost impossible to secure drivers even at the highest wages. W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) was at this time a driver between Split Rock and Three Crossings, one of the most perilous sections. He had his full share of narrow escapes. Once he was set upon by a band of several hundred Sioux. A Division Agent named Flowers was on the box with him, and inside were half a dozen well-armed passengers. As soon as Cody got glimpse of the Indians, he handed the reins to Flowers, and began applying the whip. There followed a hot running fight, the passengers firing from the coach windows, and the Indian arrows flying thickly, wounding the horses, badly injuring Flowers, and killing two of the passengers. The others escaped after a hard run. In the Spring of 1865 the Plains tribes again became very troublesome, and raided the stage line almost from end to end. Soldiers were used to guard the coaches, yet attacks were frequent, and the loss in property and lives was large. Passengers took their lives in their hands, and only the most daring and reckless men volunteered for the desperate service of driver or messenger.

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