The Wars after the War: Close Cal The second in a series on Union officers who served in the Indian Wars
By Gould Hagler Nearly every American has heard of George Armstrong Custer, even if most know little about him except his so-called “Last Stand.” People knowledgeable about the Civil War know something of his record in that conflict as well, but I woul imagine that few could summarize the events of his life betwe 1865 and 1876. While Winfield Scott Hancock does not share a place with Custer in American folklore, his Civil War record is well known to students of the
not. The United States waged war against numerous Indian tribes before, during, and after the Civ War. The nature of these wars was profoundly different from the war against the conventional armies of the Confederacy. After the Union victory, Hancock and Custer both went west and played dubious roles in the 1867 war against the tribes of the Souther Plains. Finishing last in the West Poin class of 1861, Custer fought from Manassas to Appomattox and rose to the rank of major general of volunteers. Famous for his reckless courage, eccent
dress, and long blond unorthodox, glory-see leader was a national Following the war he reverted to his perma captain had his frien not procured for him colonelcy in the new Cavalry. Hancock, senior to fourteen years, had a record at the militar than the impetuous Cu thereafter enjoyed a a steady and reliable al. He began the Civi brigadier general and to division and corps
hair, th ing youn hero. ould hav ent rank Sherida lieuten eventh
uster by more sol academy ter and eputatio professi War as moved up command.
He played a key role on all three days at Gettysburg, where he was severely wounded. With the rank of major general in the regular army, he commanded a military district during the early da of Reconstruction before going west to head the Department of the Missouri. This department included western Kansas, where expanding railroads, increasing numbers of settlers, and immigrants trekking further west all encroached on the hunting grounds of the plains Indians. Clashes were inevitable, especially as the tribes had neve been granted the land promised by an earlier treaty, a large tra intended to keep the Indians apar
Hancock’s mission was to stop the Indian raids with a show of force; however, his ignorance of Indians and his imperious and impatient manner provoked an escalation. When the leaders of various tribes did not promptly comply with Hancock’s demands about the time and place of a parley, what should have been a peaceful negotiation turned into tense standoff. Near the Pawnee Fork villages, some 1,400 U.S. troops faced hundreds of warriors as the Indian women and children fled. It was at this standoff tha Hancock unknowingly came within seconds of a sudden death at the hand of Roman Nose, a renowned Cheyenne warrior. As the general and the Indian chiefs conferred, the ever-aggressive Roman Nose reached out and gently brushed Hancock with his coup stick. An instant later Roman Nose would have slain the general, but a fast thi ing Chief Bull Bear grabbed the warrior’s horse by the reins and quickly led the hot-heated brave away. It seems that Hancock, unacquainted with Indian ways, did not understand the gesture with the coup stick and did not know how close he came to having his skull crushed by Roman Nose’s war club. Hancock, livid that the Indian had evacuated the village, ordered Custer to lead the Seventh Cavalry in pursuit. Custer soon reported that the fleeing Pawnee Fork braves had raided a stage station and killed three whites. By the time Custer retracted his erroneous report, it was too late Hancock had already ordered the villages burned. This destructive
act infuriated the Southern Cheyenne and their Southern Oglala Sioux allies. War began in earnes
and raged through the spring and summer, as the Indians attacked
coaches, stage stations, and rail road work parties. At least a hundred settlers lost their lives Custer and Hancock soon learned
how woefully unprepared the cavalry was to fight the fast-mov ing Indian horsemen, who could strike where they wished and elude the cavalry with ease.
Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock. (Library of Congress)
Custer’s close call was of a d ferent character than Hancock’s; it was not Custer’s life, but his military career, that nearly ende in 1867. The Seventh Cavalry was plagued with factionalism among the officers, a shortage of supplies, disease, desertion, and lo morale made lower by Custer’s habit of meting out harsh punishments for minor infractions. What was worse, Custer put his desire to unite with his wife above his mission. At one point, Custer detached a squadron to Fort Wallace, where he supposed his wife to be, in order to escor her to be with him at Fort Hays. At another point, he disobeyed orders to re-supply at Fort Wallace and, instead, drove his command mercilessly to reach Fort Harker, from whence he could travel by rail to be with his wif at Fort Riley. Along the way, he callously refused to send a detachment to rescue missing soldiers. Upon reaching Harker, he boarded a train for Riley. When Colonel Andrew Smith, the commandant of Fort Harker, discovered what had taken place, he preferred charges against Custer. Custer was charged with leaving Fort Wallace without authority and with marching his men “on private business” when he was supposed to be chasing Indians. More seriously, he was accused of refusing to search for the mis ing men, ordering that deserters be shot without trial, and denyin
medical treatment to a wounded deserter. After a three-week trial, Cust
was found guilty on all charges, though with regard to the most
serious charges, it was determined that the deserters had fire first on their pursuers and the o wounded man was treated by the
doctor after a brief delay. The sentence was a mere one-year suspension, in effect an unpaid vacation with his wife. If you wonder at the light penalty for these charges you are not alone; so did Sherman, who wrote that, “the levity of the sentence, considering the nature the offenses… is to be remarked on.” Despite the ineffectiv soldiering on the part of the U.S. forces, the war petered out in the fall when most warriors moved north to take part in an important ritual, the renewal of the Sacred Medicine Arrows. The government bought peace with gifts of food and promises of annuities and land. As always,
Fighting resumed within months. Hancock moved to higher commands in the both the west and the east and later entered politics. H won the Democratic nomination for president in 1880 and ran unsuccessfully against James Garfield. He died in 1886. Custer returned to duty in September 1868 and continued to lead the Seventh Cavalry until 1876, when…well, we all know what happened then.
Sources: • Jeffry D. Wert, The Controvers Life of George Armstrong Custe 1996. • Peter Cozzens, The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West, 2016. • Patricia L. Faust, Editor, His cal Times Illustrated Encyclop dia of the Civil War, 1991.
nps.gov/fols/learn/historycult hancocks-war.htm; Armstrong Custer Court-Martial
com/law/law-magazines/ george-armstrong-custer-courtmartial-1867. • “Winfield Scott cock,” https:// w a r. o rg / l e a r n / b i winfield-scott-hancock.
Gould Hagler is the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation (Mercer University Press, 2014). His new book on Alabama’s Confederate monuments is to be published by Indiana University Press.
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