The Battle of Beecher Island

After the Civil War, in the late 1860s, the land bordering the Republican River in Nebraska and Colorado was a rather busy place. There were still a few mountain men going through on their way to the Rockies, and there was a steady stream of prospectors eager to strike it rich in the gold fields of California, and more recently in the mountains of Colorado. But there was also a smattering of settlers who believed that they could make a living as farmers on these High Plains, that Zebulon Pike, of Pike's Peak fame, had dubbed "The Great American Desert."

By the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867 Plains Indian Tribes of Kiowa, Apache, Comanche, Cheyenne and Arapahoe were forced into a considerably smaller area than had been granted previously, but these lands were ceded to these Native Americans for "as long as the grass shall grow."

Under terms of the Treaty, other than traders, educators, and churchmen, whites were prohibited from entering this region. In turn, the Indians guaranteed the safety of travelers along the existing routes along the Platte River.

This land, between the Arkansas River in Kansas and the Platte River in Nebraska was fine prairie grassland, the home of the largest concentration of buffalo on earth. For these Indian Tribes, the buffalo was vital to their existence. Their entire subsistence, their very way of life, depended upon these buffalo herds.

Almost as soon as the Medicine Lodge Treaty was signed, the treaty was violated, by both whites and Indians. President Grant soon revoked the law, under tremendous pressure from influential "western expansionists." This effectively opened up the land to the buffalo hunters, traders, and settlers. The Indian Wars resumed with great violence on both sides. Indians overran the few frontier settlements, which were virtually defenseless against such attacks. During the spring and summer of 1868 some 79 settlers were killed on farms, ranches and way stations between Nebraska and Utah in attacks by various tribes of Indians.

One major figure in the Indian Wars at this time was General Nelson A. Miles, a veteran of many Indian campaigns. Gen. Miles argued that the Army could not handle their Indian adversaries as long as the Indians had buffalo, their "commissary of the hoof." He advocated cooperation with the buffalo hunters and encouraged the wholesale slaughter of the buffalo.

In August 1868 Gen. Philip Sheridan authorized Major (later General) Forsythe, of the 9th Cavalry, Fort Hays, Kansas, to enlist "50 first class, hardy frontiersmen" for a new type of Cavalry Force -- one that could move with the same rapidity as the Indians they were fighting -- as contrasted with the large military wagon trains that had become such easy targets of the Indian raids. What's more, these Frontiersmen, under the command of Maj. Forsythe and his second in command, 1st. Lt. Beecher, were equipped with the new 7-shot repeater Spencer rifles and 140 cartridges, plus a Colt .45 revolver and 30 rounds of ammunition. The troop carried a store of some 4,000 rounds of ammunition on four pack mules. (Note: Lt. Frederick Henry Beecher was the nephew of the famed New York Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher. He was wounded and decorated for valor at the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War.)

Forsythe's force tracked a band of Indians from the Solomon River in Kansas, to the Beaver Creek, in Nebraska, then to the Republican River Valley, near to the junction where the Arikaree Fork of the Republican joins with the main Republican River in Eastern Colorado, south of Wray in Yuma County, Colorado.

On Sept. 16 1868, Forsythe and his intrepid band made camp along the banks of the Arikaree Fork of the Republican. The camp turned out to be only 12 miles downstream from a sizeable Indian encampment, made up of two Lakota villages, one of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and a few lodges of Arapahoe.

Shortly before dawn on the 17th, Indian Scouts were routed as they attempted to stampede Forsythe's horses. Roman Nose, the Chief of the Cheyenne, had planned a full-fledged attack at dawn, but his element of surprise was lost by the premature attack of his scouts.

Forsythe's men were able to escape the initial attack by retreating to an island in the middle of the Arikaree Fork (really no more than a large sandbar). With the new Spencer repeating rifles they were able to repulse repeated attacks by an Indian force estimated to be as large as 1,000 warriors. Throughout the day the Indians kept up their attack. Because Forsythe's men, with the repeating rifles were able to repulse a straight on attack, the Indian braves soon switched to dividing their force as they approached the island, half going to either side, where they unleashed their fire (some rifle shots, but mostly arrows) at the soldiers, who were hunkered down among low growing bushes, or behind a bulwark of horses and mules that they had killed.

In the evening the Indians withdrew to their camps, where they mourned their dead throughout the night. Heavy fighting was resumed on the two days following. The three day onslaught had taken its toll on Forsythe's troopers and Indians alike. Half of Forsythe's men were killed or wounded on those first three days of the battle, including LT. Beecher who was lost on the first day. Forsythe, himself was shot in the head and leg, and suffered a broken leg.

The Indians, under the command of Chief Roman Nose, lost relatively few braves, but suffered a huge loss, when their great leader, Roman Nose, was killed. Survivors told that Roman Nose had entered the battle with what he thought was an impenetrable invisible shield, which he believed would protect him from the bullets of the soldiers. He led the charge on the soldiers from the beginning, and was finally gunned down. As he lay dying, he said that he had eaten food prepared in a metal pot, which he realized had negated his magical powers.

After Roman Nose's death the Indians generally lost their appetite for battle and were content to keep the soldiers on the island and let them starve to death. The siege went on for a total of nine days. Forsythe's men were forced to eat the meat of the animals they had slain -- raw. Other than a few berries, there was nothing else.

On three successive nights Forsythe sent out teams, consisting of two scouts each, to walk, through the Indian lines, to Fort Wallace, 100 miles away in Kansas, for help. Miraculously, two of the teams made it to Fort Wallace, within hours of one another. Immediately, Buffalo Soldiers, under the command of Gen. Carpenter, were dispatched to save the men at Beecher's Island. On the ninth day of the siege, Forsythe's men were finally rescued.

Following the Beecher Island Battle there was a great deal of praise for the soldiers in the Eastern Press. One of the dignitaries who spoke out was General George Armstrong Custer, who told of the "Wonderful bravery of that "Spartan Band of Scouts." One wonders if his admiration for those few men who held off a force of 1000 Indians did not cloud his thinking some eight years later, when Custer's small band of soldiers engaged that overwhelming force of Indian Warriors in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, or Custer's Last Stand. (Note: Custer had great respect and admiration for Forsythe. The two men were friends and were members of the military contingent that entertained the Grand Duke Alexis at the Great Nebraska Buffalo Hunt in 1872.)

In 1905 a monument was erected at the site of Beecher Island, honoring Lt. Beecher and the other heroes of the battle. This monument was lost in the Republican Flood of 1935. Though the exact location is not known, there is at this time a monument, commemorating the Battle of Beecher Island, the men, both soldiers and Indians, who fought there, at the approximate battle site, located some 10 miles south of the town of Wray, in Yuma County.

Source: The Battle of Beecher Island, Story of CO Plains 1868