The Last Days of George Armstrong Custer by Thom Hatch Page A

they called a fine example of a peace-loving Indian. Indian agent Edward W. Wynkoop resigned his post in protest over the killing of the Cheyenne chief. Peace commission member Major General W. S. Harney and member Samuel F. Tappan, along with Superintendent of Indian Affairs Thomas Murphy, attested to the fact that Black Kettle was truly friendly and his death was an outrage.
    Division commander General William T. Sherman summed up the army’s sentiments in a letter to General Sheridan dated December 3, 1868: “This you know is a free country, and people have the lawful right to misrepresent as much as they please—and to print them—but the great mass of our people cannot be humbugged into the belief that Black Kettle’s camp was friendly with its captive women and children, its herds of stolen horses and its stolen mail, arms, powder, etc.—trophies of war.”
    Sheridan went on the offensive to refute the assertion that Black Kettle was on a reservation at the time of the attack, and blamed the wanton raiding of the Indians for the army’s retaliation. He listed as evidence items found in the village, such as mail—including a military dispatch carried by one of Sheridan’s couriers who had been killed—daguerreotypes, bedding, and other domestic goods taken from settlers’ cabins.
    The contention that Black Kettle was a proponent of peace was true. He made a mistake, however, by harboring members of his band who had participated in recent raiding parties. The peace chief paid for it with his life.
    The Battle of the Washita was without question a one-sided affair but does not by any means fit the definition of a massacre. Black Kettle had been warned prior to the attack by Hazen that his safety could not be guaranteed unless he surrendered to Sheridan, which he failed to do. The village contained captives and items taken by resident armed warriors who had recently skirmished with the soldiers and had been on raiding parties against white settlers, which was evidenced by the fact that Custer’s Osage scouts tracked them to Black Kettle’s doorstep.
    Furthermore, Custer did not order a slaughter, rather issued specific orders to spare noncombatants. In fact, Custer followed his orders from Sheridan to the letter: “To proceed south, in the direction of the Antelope hills, thence towards the Washita river, the supposed winter seat of the hostile tribes; to destroy their villages and ponies; to kill all warriors, and bring back all women and children.” Custer was a soldier following the orders of his superiors.
    Incidentally, although the battle at Summit Springs was similar in most respects to Custer’s victory at Washita, there was no public outcry condemning the destruction of this Cheyenne village or employing the term “massacre” to describe the battle.
    The inability of the army to catch the Indians on the open plains and the failure of the government to clearly state specific hunting grounds in the provisions of the peace treaty at Medicine Lodge made necessary the implementation of “Total War,” and the Battle of the Washita was the tragic result.
    George Armstrong Custer may have borne the brunt of criticism from minority voices, but he understood that war was an unpleasant business and there were bound to be detractors in any conflict. However, he could take pride in the knowledge that the campaign had established him as the premier Indian fighter in the land.

 
    Five
    Battling Sioux in Yellowstone Country
    Armstrong and Libbie settled in for the summer of 1869 at the Seventh Cavalry regimental campsite at Big Bend, two miles east of Fort Hays, Kansas. Much of the time was whiled away enjoyably entertaining a succession of guests—including P. T. Barnum, who wanted to meet Custer and accompany him on a buffalo hunt. Detachments of the Seventh Cavalry were stationed at various posts along the Kansas Pacific Railway. Custer