Red River Expedition

“ The natives were all clothed in new leathern dresses, and looked much neater, and in better health, than last autumn. Being anxious to reach the Red River, we continued rowing against the wind until after midnight. On reaching that place, the ground proved too wet for us to encamp; we, therefore, proceeded a short distance lower down, and put up under some sandstone cliffs, where there was but just room for the tents. As we were now on the borders of the Esquimaux territory, we devoted the following morning to cleaning the arms; and a gun, dagger, and ammunition, were issued to each person. ”

“ Representations having been made to the Department, on the subject of foreign interference in the trade on this frontier, I have addressed a number of queries on the subject to a clerk [30] engaged in the American trade, who has been many years a resident of Red Lake, and is well acquainted with the geography and resources of the adjacent country. I inquired of him, whether the American traders on that border were strenuously opposed in their trade by the inhabitants of the Red River colony, or by the partners and clerks of the Hudson’s Bay Company. ”

“ He accompanied this expedition, which left the Fort on the 7th of July, as far as Pembina, where he quitted it, on the 9th of August, and with a bois brule and the two Chippewas only, for companions, plunged into the wilderness lying to the south east, and struck “Robber’s” (Thief) river near its confluence with Red Lake River (which he calls “Bloody River,” and insists that it is the true Red River.) ”

“ This did not coincide entirely with our previous ideas of the direction of Red river, and much less of the Faux Ouachitta, or False Washita,66 which [139] being the largest of the upper branches of the Red river from the north, we believed, might be the stream we were descending. From observations taken at several points along the river we had ascertained, that we must travel three or four days' journey to the south, in order to arrive at the parallel of the confluence of the Kiamesha with the Red river,67 and we were constantly expecting a change in the direction of our courses. ”

“ Most portions of the new world have grown from additions from the military, who have for some reason or other come to them. So it was in Red River settlement. In 1846 the 6th Regiment of foot, some three hundred and fifty strong, was sent out by way of Hudson's Bay under Col. Crofton, in connection with the Oregon question, then disturbing the relations of Great Britain and the United States. ”

“ In October I was back on the breaks of Red river. Army officers informed us that the Indians were restless. They had heard of Sitting Bull's annihilation of Custer's Seventh Cavalry, and it was in their hearts to emulate his and Gall's warriors. George Whitelaw with two men, Hank Campbell with two men, and Crawford and I, agreed to camp together for mutual protection. We found some excellent water-holes about three miles north of Red river, [Pg 181] in rough ground. Here we pitched camp and stayed until the last of November, getting all told 1600 hides from here. ”

“ An overseas expedition is one of the most uncertain of military operations, and with the Red fleet on guard in the North Atlantic, with Red's immediate military objective the retention of a base in eastern Canada for future operations against Blue, a joint operation against Halifax must be promptly and perfectly executed to assure any hope of success. ”

“ Cloud. This was indeed the best of good news to me; I saw in it the long-looked-for chance of bridging this great stretch of 400 miles and reaching at last the Red River Settlement. I saw in it still more the prospect of joining at no very distant time the expeditionary force itself, after I had run the gauntlet of M. Riel and his associates, and although many obstacles yet remained to be overcome, and distances vast and wild had to be covered before that hope could be realized, still the prospect of immediate movement overcame every perspective difficulty ”

“ Then the combined force of half-breeds, French Canadians, and Indians, in round numbers amounting to one hundred and twenty men, advanced to Portage la Prairie. They reached this point on or about June 16, and proceeded to make it a stronghold. They arranged bales of {90} pemmican to form a rude fortification and planted two brass swivel-guns for defence. They were preparing for war, for the Nor'westers had now resolved finally to uproot Lord Selkirk's colony from the banks of the Red River. ”

“ The object of the partners is to meet the Plain Rangers on Red River; but is that any reason for bringing a cannon concealed under oilcloth all the way from Lake Superior? Or do men fighting a life-and-death struggle for the thing the world calls success ever acknowledge plain motives within themselves at all? Is it not rather the blind brute instinct of self-protection, forfend what may?
RED RIVER SETTLEMENT, 1816-1820
"Listen, white men! Beware! Beware!" the Cree chief Peguis warns Governor Semple. ”

“ We here met our transports and the portion of the 21st Mo. that went home on veteran furlough, and embarked for Vicksburg. The 13th Corps went south to New Orleans.
Comments on the Seventy Days’ Campaign.
The Red River Campaign was at last, after seventy days, at an end. It was a failure and as barren of results so far as having any visible effects in hastening the close of the war, as it would have been if made to the North Pole. History records it as one of the severest campaigns of the war. The men suffered more from hardships and privations than any other portion of the army. ”

“ On June 25 a troop of Bois Brûlés gathered on horseback, armed to the teeth and led by Alexander Macdonell and a half-breed named Cuthbert Grant. The settlers, though mustering barely one-half the strength of the raiders, resolved to make a stand, and placed themselves under the command of John M'Leod, a trader in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Bois Brûlés bore down upon the settlement in menacing array. The colonists took what shelter they could find and prepared for battle. Fighting coolly, they made their shots tell. ”

“ On the 14th, a band of Shoshones and Crows—Indians unfriendly to the Sioux—joined Crook, and were provided with arms and ammunition.
The aggressive column of the expedition resumed the march forward on the morning of the 16th, leaving the trains parked at the Goose Creek camp. The infantry were mounted on mules borrowed from the pack-train, and each man carried his own supplies consisting of only three days' rations and one blanket. [Pg 24] At night, after marching about 35 miles, the little army encamped between high bluffs at the head waters of Rosebud River. ”

“ This he recommended them to do, and most of them set out: we then sunk our canoes by means of stones to the bottom of the river, a situation which better than any other secured them against the effects of the high waters, and the frequent fires of the plains; the Indians having promised not to disturb them during our absence, a promise we believe the more readily, as they are almost too lazy to take the trouble of raising them for fire-wood. We were desirous of purchasing some more horses, but they declined selling any until we reached their camp in the mountains. ”

“ Twice, since the arrival of the Volunteers at Salt Lake, expeditions have been sent into the northern settlements of this Territory—the first for the recovery of a white boy retained by the Indians, and the second for the recovery of immigrant property. From reliable information recently furnished Col. Connor of the locality of the Indians who had been engaged in this murderous work for the last eight years, was the expedition undertaken, the more recent attacks and murders only adding to the incentive to “make clean work of the savages.” ”

“ The object of the expedition will be gained by effecting a landing on the main land between Cape Fear River and the Atlantic, north of the north entrance to the river. Should such landing be effected while the enemy still holds Fort Fisher and the batteries guarding the entrance to the river, then the troops should intrench themselves, and, by co-operating with the navy, effect the reduction and capture of those places. ”

“ The enemy were busily at work on the lower part of the river, throwing up earthworks; and in a short time all communication was cut off, and several transports captured, one of which contained a large mail sent from Alexandria upon the arrival of the army at that place.
But there were men in the Nineteenth Corps to whom obstacles only brought increased energy; and the bold project of damming the Red River, and thereby raising the water to a sufficient height to float the iron-clads over the rapids, was undertaken by Lieut.-Col. Bailey of the Fourth Wisconsin Cavalry. Gen. ”

“ One morning, two men were found speared in one of the out-huts of the camp, and everything in it carried off. Though we didn’t know much of the men, who they were or where they’d come from, they were whites, and that made the diggers very exasperated with the murderers. An expedition was at once organised to follow and punish the Red-men. We had no lack of leaders. Two or three men who had spent all their lives on the prairies or in the backwoods, and were well accustomed to cope with Indians, and knew all their tricks and cunning ways, offered their services. ”

“ For this purpose they called together a large number of the natives, who were waiting for a favorable opportunity to make an attack on our men, and when they saw that the strangers wanted to cross, they helped make the rafts with all zeal and diligence, so as to catch them in this way on the water and drown them or else so divide them that they could not help one another. While the rafts were being made, a soldier who had been out around the camp saw a large number of armed men go across to a mountain, where they were waiting till the soldiers should cross the river. ”

“ As soon as they perceived that they were discovered, they began to shout, and advanced with greater speed. The officer immediately repaired to the boats with his people, and the Indians, in the mean time, having crossed the river, took possession of the water-casks, with great appearance of exultation and joy. The canoes now pulled along the shore, towards the place, with the utmost expedition, all the people on land keeping pace with them, except a multitude of women and children, who seated themselves upon a hill which overlooked the bay and the beach. ”

“ Among the works of good Governments the making of roads and securing of easy means of intercommunication among the people subject to them must ever be of paramount importance. The people of Red River ask for the opening of the Lake Superior route to British Columbia, and to have a telegraphic line established, to both of which objects they [327] will contribute to the best of their ability. The point of British territory nearest to the Red River settlement by water is on the northern shore of Lake Superior, 400 miles distant ”

“ Nothing ahead could be worse than what lay behind; so they embarked, following the south branch where the river forked. The stream was swift as a cascade. Half the crew walked to lighten the canoe and prevent grazing on the rocky bottoms.
Once, at dusk, when walkers and paddlers happened to have camped on opposite shores, the marchers came dashing across stream, wading neck-high, with news that they had heard the firearms of Indian raiders. Fires were put out, muskets loaded, and each man took his station at the foot of a tree, where all passed a sleepless night. No hostiles appeared. ”

“ Once more they went over the dreary road to Fort Daer. Then followed the most cruel winter that the settlers had yet endured. The {60} snow fell thickly and lay in heavy drifts, and the buffalo with animal foresight had wandered to other fields. The Nor'westers sold the colonists a few provisions, but were egging on their allies, the Bois Brûlés, who occupied a small post in the vicinity of the Pembina, to annoy them whenever possible. It required courage of the highest order on the part of the colonists to battle through the winter. ”

“ Idle rumours prevail that the Sioux Indians will attack the Settlement; which unhappily unsettle the minds, and interrupt the industry of the colonists. But none of these things move me, in carrying on my plans, and making arrangements to erect a substantial building, sixty feet by twenty. The Red River appears to me, a most desirable spot for a Missionary establishment, and the formation of schools; from whence Christianity may arise, and be propagated among the numerous tribes of the north. ”

“ The regions traversed were wilder, the Indians more hostile, the scenery more varied. The Caledonia [306] brigade set out from Fort Vancouver by boat. Sixty or seventy voyageurs manned the large canoes that stemmed the floodtide of the Columbia, the pilot’s canoe flying an H. B. C. flag from its prow, the steersman of each boat striking up the tune of a voyageurs’ song, the crew joining in full-throated chorus, keeping time with the rap of their paddles, and perhaps some Highlander droning his bagpipes as the canoes wound up the rocky cañons of the great river. ”

“ We were making wide circuits with the whale-boats to avoid the tide-holes, when signals of distress from men scrambling on the ice announced to us that the Red Eric had disappeared. This unfortunate little craft contained all the dearly-earned documents of the expedition. There was not a man who did not feel that the reputation of the party rested in a great degree upon their preservation. It had cost us many a pang to give up our collections of natural history, to which every one had contributed his quota of labour and interest ”