Fort Hays

“ There was a scarcity of troops at Fort Hays at that time, so General Forsyth recruited a company of frontiersmen who could move rapidly, as they were to carry no luggage, and were to travel without the ordinary transportation. Thirty of these frontiersmen came from Fort Harker, and twenty from Fort Hays. It was certainly a small body of men, but nearly every one of them was an experienced hunter, guide, scout and Indian-fighter, and they could fight the red-skins in their own way. ”

“ The excursionists reached Fort Hays, distant fifteen miles, on the morning of October 2d, where we pitched our tents for the last time, and named the camp in honor of Mr. Hecksher. That same afternoon General Sheridan and his guests took the train for the East, after bidding Major Browa, Lieutenant Hayes and myself a hearty good-bye, and expressing themselves as greatly pleased with their hunt, and the manner in which they had been escorted and guided. ”

“ Something over a year before the era of our expedition a train of government wagons left Fort Hays destined for Fort Harker, and the Indians being troublesome, some twenty soldiers were sent in the wagons, as a guard. A few hours later there passed through Hays City a man from the mountains riding a powerful black stallion, while his family, consisting of a young wife and her brother, occupied a covered wagon which followed close behind. The stranger determined to take advantage of the protection afforded by the government train, and the little party pushed out after it over the plains. ”

“ In four days they were prepared to take the field, and on the morning of the 29th of August, 1868, they rode out of Fort Hays to meet the Indians. Lieutenant F.H. Beecher, of the Third Infantry, nephew of Henry Ward Beecher, was second in command; Brevet Major-General W.H.H. McCall, who had been in the volunteer army, acted as first sergeant; Dr. John Mowers, of Hays City, who had been a volunteer army surgeon, was the surgeon of the expedition; and Sharpe Grover was the chief guide. ”

“ Aye, the buffalo had not turned southward, but [169] already were Fort Hays and the other white stations of the southwest hearing from the guns and pistols issued at Fort Larned. From the Smoky Hill stage route and that of the Santa Fé, from the Republican, the Saline, the Arkansas and the Cimarron, at last along the telegraph line passed report after report, brought in by settler and scout and courier, telling of onslaught by Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche. ”

“ Considerable fear was entertained at the fort, owing to the great number of hostile Indians who practically invested it, and it was determined by Captain Parker as of the utmost importance to send dispatches to General Sheridan, informing him of the situation. Fort Hays was sixty-five miles distant from Fort Larned, and, as the country was fairly swarming with the worst kind of “bad” Indians, Captain Parker tried in vain to find some one who would carry the dispatches, until the request was made to Buffalo Bill. ”

“ All four tribes together could put on the war-path a formidable force of about 6,000 warriors. The subjugation of this number of savages would be no easy task, so to give the matter my undivided attention I transferred my headquarters from Leavenworth to Fort Hays, a military post near which the prosperous town of Hays City now stands. ”

“ On one occasion the traders combined against him to prevent the issuance of a presidential order curtailing the amount of whiskey brought to Fort Wayne.
Hays also urged the appointment of a sub-agent to assist him in controlling the situation, and the reestablishment of a military force at Fort Wayne. “It is neither [at] Chicago, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Falls of St. Anthony, Rock River, or any part of the Mississippi or even Michilimakanac ... that in my opinion a Military force would be more necessary.” [18] he wrote to John Calhoun. ”

“ Through the din of battle, the heat of summer and the difficulty of winter the gunner and his wife followed the fortunes of the American army. But it was not until the retreat of our forces at Fort Clinton that Molly's first deed of daring became a by-word in tent and camp. Finding that it was necessary to leave the enemy in Pennsylvania, Hays started to fire his gun as a parting salute to the British, but in the rush and confusion of the moment he dropped his lighted match. ”

“ The two men reported killed were left to be buried by the troops on duty at the station. Frequent halts and brief rests were made along our line of march; occasionally we would halt long enough to indulge in a few hour’s sleep. About three o’clock on the morning of the 18th we reached Fort Hays, having marched about one hundred and fifty miles in fifty-five hours, including all halts. Some may regard this as a rapid rate of marching; in fact, a few officers of the army who themselves have made many and long marches (principally in ambulances and railroad cars) are of the same opinion. ”

“ Other Indians running up soon dispatched Hays, and not until then was his bayonet extracted from the body of his adversary.
After the battle the wounded chief was carried to his village on the Calumet, where he survived for several days. Finding his end approaching, he called together his young men, and enjoined them, in the most solemn manner, to regard the safety of their prisoners after his death, and out of respect to his memory to take the lives of none of them; for he himself fully deserved his fate at the hands of the man whose kindness he had so ill requited. ”

“ These Indians objected to traveling to Detroit to receive their annuity rather than coming to Fort Wayne, which was almost a hundred miles closer to their village, near the present site of South Bend, Indiana. Hays, therefore, agreed that the next payments should be made at Fort Wayne, but Cass ignored the agreement and ordered the Indians to come to Detroit. After they arrived, Cass reproached them for crossing into Canada to receive British gifts. Metea bitingly replied that they would gladly give up the practice, if the Americans gave out the annuities at Fort Wayne. ”

“ Captain Bull and Lieutenant Hays were militia officers, the latter of Northampton County, where was an Irish settlement between Bethlehem and Fort Allen, known as “Hays’s.” Captain John Bull commanded at Fort Allen in the summer of 1758. They both volunteered to undertake this hazardous mission of a visit to the Ohio Indians. For the instructions given them, see Pennsylvania Archives, iii, p. ”

“ Accidents had befallen the canoes which carried the food, and the country through which they passed was almost devoid of game. During the last three days they had little or nothing to eat. When, therefore, at night they came suddenly upon the shores of Hudson's Bay, and Fort Hayes lay silent before them, they were ready for desperate enterprises. The high stockade walls with stout bastions and small cannon looked formidable, yet there was no man of them but was better pleased that the odds were against him than with him. ”

“ When the Army of the Potomac was reorganized, Hays was placed in command of the second brigade of Birney's 3d division of the 2d corps. In this capacity he fought, and gallantly met his death during the terrible struggle toward the junction of the Plank and Brock roads, which was the feature of the first day's fighting in the Wilderness. Gen. Hays was frank and brave, quick and full of energy, and was a great favorite with his men. ”

“ Two hundred yards away was the Kusaiean village of Utwe, a collection of about twenty handsomely built houses, and all day long the pale olive-faced Kusaiean men and women would sit gazing in wondering fear at the fierce Pleasant Island women, who, clothed in short girdles of grass called "aireere," sang a savage chant as they husked the nuts. In front of Hayes's house was hung the Leonora's bell, and at noon and at six in the evening, when it was struck, the whole of the people who toiled at the oil-making and boat-building would hurry away with loud clamour for their meals. ”

“ I know him to be a powerful man.’ Within that time General Hayes was killed, and his body brought to the rear. The work was at close range. No room in that jungle for manœuvering; no possibility of a bayonet charge; no help from artillery; no help from cavalry; nothing but close, square, severe, face-to-face volleys of fatal musketry. The wounded stagger out, and fresh troops pour in. Stretchers pass out with ghastly burdens, and go back reeking with blood for more. Word is brought that the ammunition is failing. Sixty rounds fired in one steady stand-up fight, and that fight not fought out. ”

“ There were, however, two strong fortresses on the Hudson which Congress was anxious to retain at any cost, a few miles above New York,--Fort Washington, on Manhattan Island, and Fort Lee, on the New Jersey side of the river. These forts Howe resolved to capture. The commander-in-chief was in favor of evacuating them, but Greene, who commanded at Fort Washington, thought he was strong enough to defend it. He made a noble defence, but was overwhelmed by vastly superior forces and was compelled to surrender it, with more than two thousand men. ”

“ It was evident the fortifications could not be carried without very determined fighting. A small force, after making a stout struggle, dropped back repulsed. Crook ordered Colonel Hayes' brigade to cross Cloyd's meadow, charge up the hill, and take the batteries. Hayes formed in the edge of the woods, and marched out with as perfect a line as ever was formed on parade. He moved on, and was soon under fire. The enemy opened heavily, bringing down men along the whole line. ”

“ Not at once did Jimmy Hayes attain full brotherhood with his comrades. They loved him for his simplicity and drollness, but there hung above him a great sword of suspended judgment. To make merry in camp is not all of a ranger's life. There are horse-thieves to trail, desperate criminals to run down, bravos to battle with, bandits to rout out of the chaparral, peace and order to be compelled at the muzzle of a six-shooter. ”

“ The Indians occasionally assumed a hostile attitude it is true, especially when they were stirred up by Allan’s emissaries from Machias, but they were rather overawed by the proximity of the fort and were for the most part peacefully disposed. The privateers continued their depredations on the coast, but kept clear of Fort Howe. The condition of the settlers on the river had gradually improved and they were now able to live within themselves. Money too began to circulate more freely, owing to the development of the masting industry. ”

“ The ease with which the walls can now be got over without any assistance renders the place more of a trap, in which the garrison may be shot down from the parapet, than a means of defense. To persons looking on it appears strange, not to say ridiculous, that the only garrisoned fort in the harbor should be so much banked in with sand, that the walls in some places are not one foot above the tops of the banks. ”

“ He was convinced that he had succeeded in creating an amicable feeling among the savages, and that the safely of all was assured. The officers of the garrison, finding that Captain Heald failed to call a council with them and that he had expressed an intention of abandoning the fort and proceeding to Fort Wayne with an Indian escort, drew up and presented a remonstrance to him in which it was recited that it was highly improbable that the command would be permitted to pass through the country in safety to Fort Wayne. ”

“ Washington, in command of the main body, was ordered to go on in advance, and cut a military road through the wilderness, in the direction of the new fort at the Forks of the Ohio, by way of the Monongahela; while Col. Fry was to remain behind with the rest of the troops, to bring up the cannon and heavy stores when the road should be opened. When the pioneers had cut their way about twenty [Pg 138] miles beyond the frontier town of Winchester, there came a rumor, that the men who had been sent to build the fort at the Forks of the Ohio had all been surprised and captured by the French. ”

“ You take my pack and gun and go back to the lake. Get a duck for supper, a good big fat fellow. I'll be there as soon as I can, and tell you what I can learn at the Fort. We've run across something to-day, Pete, more than we expected."
CHAPTER II "COME AND TAKE IT" Fort Howe occupied an important position at the mouth of the St. John River when the present Province of New Brunswick was a part of Nova Scotia. It was well situated, and from the summit of a high hill commanded the harbour, a large stretch of the river, and the entire surrounding country for miles in extent. ”

“ This regiment was in rear of the column when we left Jackson to gain the path in the woods, and before it filed out of the road his thin line was so pressed that Jackson ordered Hays to stop the enemy's rush. This was done, for the 7th would have stopped a herd of elephants, but at a fearful cost. Colonel Hays was severely wounded, among many others, and the number of killed was large. Upon my promotion to Major-General, Hays succeeded to the command of the brigade, served through the war, returned to the practice of the law, and [Pg 77] died in New Orleans. ”

“ Each time that the muzzle of his rifle would appear over the rim of the crater the warriors would dodge backwards, knowing that to face his unerring aim was sure death.
The Indians grew bolder and made a charge. Hays fired his rifle, killing a redskin at the discharge,—then shot his five-shooter at the yelping braves. Each bullet found a victim, so the redskins withdrew, which gave the gallant Captain a chance to reload. ”