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Newspaper accounts.

I believe the article to be unbalanced, discounting the obviously terrible losses suffered by the Indians in the attack, counting only those killed who were so close to the breastworks that the bodies could not be retrieved without those rescuing them also being killed. The number of killed on the field was about sixty, and the total numbers killed were almost certainly higher, among those wounded removed from the field.

The Waynesburg Republican. August 21, 1867

St. Louis, August 13 - Dispatches received at Omaha from Fort Fetterman, state that contractor Porter arrived there on the 12th instant with intelligence that a fight occurred near Fort Phil Kearney between the Indians and whites on August 2d. An extra train of thirty wagons, escorted by fifty citizens and fifty soldiers under command of Major Powell and Lieutenant Jump, five miles from Fort Phil. Kearney, while gathering fuel, was attacked by a large band of Indians, supposed to be two hundred and fifty. Lieut. Jump and five men were killed, and two wounded. The Indians succeeded in stealing the cattle of the train. The whites made a corral of wagon boxes and ox yokes, behind which breastworks they took position and fought the savages for three hours, killing and wounding many. The fight continued three hours and with unabated vigor, until Major Smith came up with two companies of solders and two howitzers, from Fort Phil. Kearney, to their rescue. On the arrival of Major Smith, the Indians retreated, leaving five dead bodies the field, going to the northeast. Major Powell officially reports the total loss of Indians was sixty killed and several wounded. The Indians were the Sioux and the Northern Cheyennes.

Chicago tribune., August 28, 1867

Report of Major Smith, TWenty-Seventh Infantry Fort PHilip Kearney, DT.. August 3, 1967/

Sir: In compliance with verbal orders from the Brevet Major General commanding, I have the honor to make the following report of operations of my command sent to relieve the wood party which was supposed to be in danger from a large part of hostile Indians showing themselves in the vicinity of the post: Yesterday, about guard mounting, hostile Indians made their appearance on all aides of the post at first a few, but gradually increasing to several hundreds. About !! o'clock developments indicated that the wood party and its guard, five miles in the pinery were in imminent danger. Been Major General John E. Smith commanding, directed me to proceed to their relief with Lieutenants Connolly, Paulus and McCarthy of the Twenty-seventh Infantry, and one hundred enlisted men of the same regiment from companies "A" and "F." I also took a mountain howitzer and ten ox wagons, the citizen teamsters being armed. My command started about 11:30 a.m. and proceeded cautiously to the pinery, with skirmishers and flankers thrown out. On reaching to corral of the wood party, and about a mile and a half from it, I discovered that a high hill near the road, and overlooking the party of Indians. In my estimation five or six hundred were in sight; many more probably concealed. The grass was burning in every direction.

The Indians appeared disposed to make a stand I turned off the road to the right, some few hundred years, to occupy the extreme point of the hill, which flaked on that side by a steep precipice. With the intention after securing it, to follow the ride to the corral of the wood party, commanded by Brevet Major Powell Twenty-seventh Infantry. Before turning from the the road, in obedience to instructions, I fired a shot from the howitzer, as a signal to inform Brevet Major Powell's command that assistance was near. The shell fired was in the direction of the Indians, but fell short, as I anticipated but seemed to disconcert them, as a number of mounted Indians, who were riding rapidly toward my command turned and fled. Upon ascending to the crest of the hill all had disappeared from it, and were seen across the creed on an opposite hill about three-quarters of a mile away, leaving all clear to Brevet Major Powell's command. Arriving there I saw evidences of a stubborn and severe fight. The wagon bodies were riddled with bullets and a large number of arrows were found in the corral. Lieutenant Jenness and two soldiers had been killed, and two soldiers wounded. I also saw the dead bodies of three Indians which had been left on the ground. The oxen were all gone.

Major Powell gave me a description of the fight, but as he will make a written report, I will not detail it. I found his forces site the corral in strength about twenty-four. Some citizens, wood choppers and soldiers numbering about fourteen come into the corral after my arrival having abandoned their wagons in the woods. Party had been driven away by the Indians who took possession of the cattle and destroyed the wagons as reported to me. These men were . . . about three miles from the corral, and none were hurt. Another small corral of seven wagons belonging to Mr. ? was about a mile a a half from Major Powell's. No one coming in from it. I sent Lieutenant Connolly with his company to ascertain its fate. He returned, reported the wagons burned, all but two, the men had escaping . . . and no evidence of any one killed or wounded there. It afterwards appeared the these men fled to the mountains. Some returned to the post before my command, and a few are still missing, supposed to have been killed.

After carefully placing the dead and wounded of Major Powell's command in the wagons and loading all the most valuable articles we were able to carry, I abandoned everything else and, in accordance with my instructions, I returned to the post and without further even, seeing no Indians. I will have it as my opinion that if Major Powell's men had been armed with muzzle loaders instead of breech loaders, his party would have been massacred before my arrival.

Chicago tribune. [volume], August 22, 1867

The Fight at Fort Phil. Kearney. Mr. Porter, who has just reached here from Fort Phil Kearney, brings further details of the fight of the 2d of August near that post. He is a man unaccustomed to exaggerate, and thoroughly familiar with Indians, and his statement puts even a better face on the matter than was given by telegraph.

Mr. Porter's train, employed at the fort in hauling wood, had gone out, early in the morning, to cut and bring in wood, under escort of some thirty or forty soldiers, under Major Power, of the Twenty-seventh Infantry, and, having beside some fifty citizens, teamsters, wood choppers, &c., all well armed, and most of them old maintain men. For several days previous, Indians in small bands had been hovering around the post, and committing some small depredations. After reaching the forest the wagon bodies were taken from the wagons to use the latter for hauling logs) and piled up in a sort of circular corral, a species of defense well known to the frontiersmen. The men had hardly scattered to their wood when they found themselves surrounded and attacked by an immense body of Indians, whose numbers could only be guessed at, but may be imagined when it is known that the coolest and most experience of the men who saw them estimates them from fifteen hundred to two thousand, and say that for three hours and a half, while the fight lasted, the woods swarmed with them on all sides. The whole party, wood choppers, teamsters and escort, retreated rapidly to their wagon body corral, but the corral being too small to hold them all, some had to fight from the outside. The Indians boldly charged upon them, but were received with such a withering fire that they retreated to re-form and renew the attack with more caution. The little band were not to be the easy prey they had counted on. The Indians now dismounted, and stripping to the breech clout, made another most determined and persistent charge on the corral. Again they got such a hot reception from the breech loading rifles of the troops, and the Spencers and Henrys the citizens, that they retreated in confusion, some of them having been left dead within thirty or forty feet of the corral. Taught by this severe experience, they now began to attack in a different way. Entirely surrounding the corral, and advancing as close as they dared, taking shelter behind trees, and advantages of the ground, they poured in a heavy and unremitting fire from rifles, shot guns and bows, until it seemed that nothing could live under its concentrated fierceness. But the devoted little band now was just over the first nervous tremor and excitement of the attack, and well and skillfully handled by Major Powell, were equal to their almost superhuman task. With a coolness equal to that of the Indians, and a skill in the use of their arms fare superior to theirs, they lay behind the shelter of the wagon bodies and ox yokes, making their breech-loaders tell fearfully on every Indian who showed himself, and wasting no ammunition in wild shots where they could count. Indian after Indian fell under their accurate fire, only to be replaced by other from the numbers swarming around, and thus for three hours and a half the fight continued desperately and against overwhelming odds, until Colonel Smith with two more companies and a howitzer arrived and gave welcome relief to the brave men who had so well fought in this unequal contest. Upon Colonel Smith's arrival the Indians retreated, carrying with them all their dead and wounded, except five or six, who had fallen so close to the corral that they couldn't get their bodies.

....

Mr. Porter believes that the Indian loss killed was from fifty to sixty, and in wounded not less than two or three hundred, many of whom were probably mortally wounded. This opinion is probably a correct one, as all around the corral, on the ground occupied by the Indians, bloody moccasins and leggins, and bits of bandages were found, while the ground was covered every few feet by pools of blood where some red man had fallen and been carried off by comrades. It is to be remembered, too, that our men fought from behind a breastwork of wagon bodies and ox yokes which greatly protected them, while the Indians had to advance on comparatively open ground. One old hunter who was in the corral said that he had fired more than fifty shots and not one at over seventy-five yards, and he knew that at that distance he could hit a silver dollar every time. When the number and persistence of the Indians are considered, and the fact that our men fought with the very best of breech-loaders and at a range at no time exceeding a hundred years, it must be conceded that the loss of the Indians must have been fearful.[ ...] The whites lost in killed, one officer Lieutenant Jenness of the Twenty-seventh Infantry, and six men, whose names I could not procure, besides two men wounded. Lieutenant Jenness was a young officer recently appointed from the volunteers of the war, and is spoken of in the highest terms by every one who knew anything of him.

Evening star. August 20, 1867,

The Omaha Herald of August 15 contains the following particulars of the last battle with the Indians" Intelligence was received yesterday, at military headquarters in this city, from Fort Phil Kearney of an attack upon a train engaged in the transpiration of army supplies, by a very large force of Indians, on the 3d day of the present month near that fort. It was an ex train of thirty wagons, owned by our well-known friend, J. R. Porterc of Plattsmouth, and was protected by and esort commanded by Brevet Major Rowell, or the 27th infantry, and Lieutenant Jenness. The attack was made about five miles from Fort Phil. Kearney by a large force of Indians, estimated at from two thousand to five thousand in number. Major Powell, behaving with conspicuous coolness and gallantry in the emergency instantly corralled the wagons, making breastworks of wagon-beds and ox-yokes from behind which he found a desperate battle, which lasted full three hounds, and until Major Smith, with two companies of troops and a howitzer, came to his rescue. The Indians were at last driven from the field, taking all their dead but five. The Indians drove off all the stock. Major Powell reports sixty Indians killed, and his own loss five men, besides Lieutenant Jenness, killed. The remarkable feature of this affair is the large force of Indians and the gallant defense. Major Powell . . . _________________________________ The evening telegraph. [volume], August 28, 1867

(From the Oklahoma Daily Herald, Aug. 23.

We have recently published the news of the attack on Porter's train near PHil Kearney, and the great battle wich occurred there on the 2d of July. The arrival of Mr. Porter himself enables us to give full particulars of that bloody affair as from his own lips.

Mr. Porter's trains as engaged in hauling wood for Phil Kearney from two pineries, located within four and a half miles of that post. On the outskirts of the border of the more northern portion of the border of the timber the great bulk of Porter's oxen were detached from the wagons, grazing under the care of eighteen teamsters. On the south, a half mile distant from a pint midway between the two pineries was another party in charge of other wagons. Between the two was an open table-land of rolling prairie. At this point was the corral, which had been modeled into a fort for defense in case of attack some days before. This occupied by the gallant Powell, the ill fated Jenness, twenty-three soldiers and eighteen citizens. This corral was understood to be the base upon which the men were to retreat from the timber in case of attack.

The first attack was made at half-past 10 o'clock A. M. by from forty to fifty Indians with the object of driving off the herd. The mend drove back this party, but they were soon followed by increasing numbers, when they ran into the adjacent mountains, hotly pursued by the Indians until the pursuers had shot away their arrows, fighting as they retreated, and killing large numbers of the redskins. Simultaneously with their attack, another was made upon the men and the herd in the small pinery, and upon the corral or central fort for defense, commanded by Powell. By this time the Indians were seen from Kearney pouring over in the direction from the adjacent hills towards the devoted band within it. On they came, first upon horseback, charging and yelling, in all their gorgeous war attire. They made three distinct and determined charges upon horseback, and were repulsed with great slaughter by the breech=loaders in the hands of the mend fighting for their lives. They finally retreated to the hills, and stripping themselves entirely naked, and tying their horses to the timber, back they came afoot, not less than three thousand of the red devils surrounding the corral. For two hours and a half did the battle rage with incessant fury. To show the reckless bravery of the Indians, and the determined resistance of Powell and his beleaguered little force, it is a fact that scores of Indians were killed within ten paces of the corral-so near that it is impossible for the Indians to removes them to their hospital, which was in their rear near the timber. This locality is said to be red with the blood of their slain. Long had the battle waged with doubtful issue, when the timely arrival of Smith with reinforcement and a gun caused the Indians to slowly and suddenly retreat. The Indians loss is estimated by Powell and Porter to be at least three hundred. Our loss was the brave Jenness who, by reckless bravery in refusing to lie down, was shot through the heart and instantly killed, and five soldiers. The loss of property is about $35,000, aside from the damages, which are at least $20,000 more - a fearful loss indeed.

The article is not accurate, and deceitful in its descriptions of Indian losses. You can look through all contemporaneous accounts, and understand that the attack was a disaster for the Indians. It is deceitful in that the authors obviously knew that the Indians did not leave their dead on the battlefield if they couple possibly avoid it, and it does not report or even mention the pools of blood which indicated severe injuries. Hypercallipygian (talk) 04:14, 12 April 2020 (UTC)