The 1865 Ambulance Attack that Inspired My Plot by Zina Abbott

 My third book in the trilogy I wrote for Widows, Brides and Secret Babies, Mail Order Penelope, involves the use of a 1860s-era ambulance. I discovered in my research that, on the prairie, ambulances were not used only for transporting the sick. Often, senior officers, or the families of officers, rode in Army ambulances rather than paying to ride the stagecoaches.

I drew inspiration for using an Army ambulance and the attack against it from a real incident in Kansas frontier history. This incident took place on the Smoky Hill Trail—the same road on which my hero and heroine travel. Dr.

Civil War-era ambulance - front

In my story set in October 1867, Penelope with her fourteen-month-old son is traveling to Pond Creek, the community of contractors working on nearby Fort Wallace. It had its origins in the stagecoach station built there in 1865. Marcus, a post surgeon temporarily assigned to Fort Hays to deal with the cholera epidemic that hit that fort especially strong in July and early August, is ready to return to his usual post, Fort Larned. Before he goes, he is requested to take the ambulance and travel with the same escort patrol that will protect the stagecoach leaving adjacent Hays City. In my book, the Fort Hays remarks that Marcus better not let the Cheyenne destroy his ambulance the same way they did Dr. Whipple’s.

Theodore R. Davis

The incident of Dr. Whipple’s ambulance being attacked took place November of 1865. The story was told by Theodore H. Davis, who was an artist for Harper's New Monthly Magazine, when he came west to make sketches of life on the prairies. Although he made this trip in late 1865, his article did not appear in the magazine until July, 1867.

(Please note: I reproduced this account verbatim using the language of the day which might be offensive to some Native Americans today. I intend no offense.) 

We left Monument early on the morning of the 25th, to continue our journey. An ambulance, containing a surgeon and for men, accompanied us as well as the escort of five cavalrymen. The next station was twenty-two miles distant.

By eleven o’clock the driver pointed out the station. “Thar’s Smoky Hill Springs – purty place, ain't it?” Within half a mile the ambulance left us, taking a shortcut to the road on the other side of the station, which was located for convenience to water at some distance from the direct route. The cavalry galloped on to the station, which they reached, while we were some distance from it.

Stagecoach Under Attack - 1866 by Theodore R. Davis

When within two hundred yards of the adobe we glanced back to see the country over which we had passed, and discovered, within sixty yards of the coach, a band of nearly one hundred mounted Indians, charging directly toward us. This site, frightful as it was, seemed grand. “Here they come!” and the crack of a rifle was responded to by a yell, followed by the singing whiz of arrows and the whistle of revolver bullets. The first shot dropped an Indian. Next a pony stopped, trembled, and fell. The driver crouched as the arrows passed over him, and drove his mules steadily toward the station. The deadly fire poured from the coach windows kept the majority of the Indians behind the coach. Some, however, braver than the rest, rushed past on their ponies, sending a perfect stream of arrows into the coat as they sped along. We were by this time in front of the station. The cavalrymen opened with their revolvers, and the Indians changed their tactics from close fighting to a circle. One, more daring than the rest, was intent on securing the scalp of a stock-herder whom he had wounded. He lost his own in doing so....

Civil War-era ambulances in the field

From the adobe we discovered a site that was not to be looked at quietly. The four mules attached to the doctor's ambulance were flying across the plains at a dead run. Indians enveloped the ambulance like a swarm of angry hornets. The men in the ambulance were fighting bravely, but the Indians outnumbered them ten to one. If rescue was to be attempted there was not an instant to lose. The five cavalrymen were sent off at a gallop. Seeing them, the men in the ambulance jumped out and ran through the Indians toward them, rightly conjecturing that the Indians would secure the ambulance before turning to attack them.

Civil War-era ambulance - rear

 It was a plucky thing to do, but the doctor determined that it was their only chance. The Indians caught the mules, then turned to look for scalps, which they suppose were to be had for the taking. The doctor and his men were giving them a lively fight when we came up. The value of a well-sited and balanced rifle was soon evident. With every crack a pony or an Indian came to the earth. This fire was evidently unendurable, and the circle quickly increased in diameter, when, with the rescued men mounted behind, we slowly moved toward the station, before reaching which two more dashes were repulsed.

The strain on the nervous system of the rescued men must have been intense. As we reached the station one of them broke down completely and sobbed like a child. The doctor was one of the gamest of little men. “Ah,’ quoth he, as he gazed through the glass at the crowd of Indians about the ambulance, “I put the contents of the tartar emetic can into the flour before I left the ambulance, and if that does not disorder their stomachs I won't say anything – I wish that it had been strychnine!”

A redskin had mounted each of the mules, and as many Indians as the vehicle could contain had located themselves in the ambulance for a ride. The cover had been torn off, as it probably impeded their view. Becoming tired of this, they detach the mules, unloaded the ambulance, and drew it to a point which afforded as the best view of their performance; when greatly to the indignation of the doctor, they crowned their disrespect for him and his carriage by setting fire to what he declared to be the best ambulance on the plains.

Starting in 1865 and continuing through 1868, between the stagecoach line, the coming railroad, and the increase of white settlers, the Cheyenne along with their Arapaho and Sioux allies, made frequent attacks in an effort to drive what they considered invaders from their prime bison-hunting grounds. This incident was just one of many examples of the confrontations between the white Americans and the Native Americans. It was a volatile time on the Kansas frontier. I certainly have enjoyed learning more about it and incorporating this history in my writing.

 

In Mail Order Penelope, Penelope plans to travel to Pond Creek Station near Fort Wallace. Her stagecoach is joined by an Army ambulance carrying Dr. Marcus Garrett who is heading west to treat soldiers injured in a Cheyenne attack. Both vehicles come under attack before they reach Fort Monument, the jumping-off station before the attack described above. An incident at another station, where she runs into some cavalry soldiers stationed at Fort Wallace, changes her mind. You may find the book description and purchase link by CLICKING HERE.

 

In my most recently published book, Hannah’s Highest Regard, the story also takes place in Kansas. As a matter of interest to me, during part of this trip that Mr. Davis has published in the Harper’s Monthly, he tells of an incident where Charley Bent, son of William Bent and his Cheyenne wife, who rode with the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and was part of the attack on the stagecoach lines. Charley asked the whites at the station if the treaty had been signed. He probably referred to the Treaty of the Little Arkansas signed a few weeks before this trip. My prologue in Hannah’s Highest Regard touches on that treaty. You may find the book description and purchase link for that book by CLICKING HERE.

 

The first book about Hannah Atwell, the one that introduces us to Jake Burdock, is titled Hannah's Handkerchief. You may find the book description and purchase link by CLICKING HERE. 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Lee, Wayne C. and Howard C. Raynesford, Trails of the Smoky Hill Trail; taken from Theodore H. Davis, "A stage Ride to Colorado," Harper's New Monthly Magazine 35:206 ( July 1867) , pp. 137 - 150.

 

LITTLE WOLF, THE GREAT CHEYENNE CHIEF

Chief Little Wolf

As a Southeasterner, I haven’t had an opportunity to become acquainted with the descendants of the western tribes of Native Americans. The Cherokee and Lumbee Indians where I live have become widely incorporated into our blended society. Although there is a Cherokee reservation in the mountains of North Carolina, most of the Cherokee were forced to leave their native land here by President Andrew Jackson on the now infamous Trail of Tears exodus.

Because I’m a western author, I am fascinated by western tribes and their battle to maintain their culture and land. One of these famous American Indian leaders was Cheyenne Chief, Little Wolf or Ohcumgache which literally translated means Little Coyote. Little Wolf was born in Montana in the mid-1820’s. As he grew into adulthood, he became greatly respected and honored by his people. Little Wolf was chosen as one of the "Old Man" chiefs among the Council of Forty-four, a high honor in traditional Cheyenne culture. He was also chosen as Sweet Medicine Chief, bearer of the spiritual incarnation of Sweet Medicine, a primary culture hero and spiritual ancestor of the Cheyenne. Because of this honorary title, he was expected to be above anger, as well as concerned only for his people and not for himself.

Little Wolf is known as a great military tactician and led a group of warriors known as the "Elk Horn Scrapers" during the Northern Plains War. He also fought in Red Cloud's War and the war for the Bozeman Trail, which lasted from 1866 to 1868. He was the chief of the Bowstring Soldiers, an elite Cheyenne military society. Even in his youth, Little Wolf demonstrated exceptional bravery and brilliant understanding of battle tactics. First in conflicts with other Indians like the Kiowa and then in disputes with the U.S. Army, Little Wolf led or assisted in dozens of important Cheyenne victories.

Historians believe Little Wolf was most likely involved in the disastrous, Fetterman Massacre of 1866, in which the Cheyenne cleverly lured a force of 80 American soldiers out of their Wyoming fort and wiped them out. After Cheyenne attacks finally forced the U.S. military to abandon Fort Phil Kearney along the Bozeman Trail, Little Wolf is believed to have led the torching of the fort. He was also a leading participant in the greatest of the Plains Indian victories, the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Although he did not fight in the Little Bighorn battle, he did play a significant role before and after the battle. Some scouts from Little Wolf’s camp found food left behind by Custer’s attack troops and were observed by U.S. military scouts. When it was reported to Custer, he thought he had been discovered by the main camp of the Sioux and Cheyenne on the Little Bighorn and decided it was crucial for him to move forward with his attack in order to prevent the escape of the Indians. When the battle ended, Little Wolf arrived and was almost killed by the angry Sioux who believed he had scouted for the whites. Little Wolf was able to convince the Sioux by his adamant denials and from the support of his fellow Northern Cheyenne present during the battle and, therefore, was saved him from harm.

Little Wolf at Fort Laramie

But, what Little Wolf is most famous for is his great escape from captivity.

After the defeat of Morning Star (Dull Knife) by Col. Ronald S. Mackenzie in November 1876, Little Wolf was forced onto a reservation in Oklahoma's Indian Territory. Two years later, he and Dull Knife led almost 300 Cheyenne from their reservation near Fort Reno, Oklahoma, through Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakota Territory into the Montana Territory, their ancestral home.

All the while, they miraculously eluded the U.S. cavalry units which repeatedly tried to capture them. Though Little Wolf and Dull Knife announced that their intentions were peaceful, settlers in the territory they passed through feared attack. The government dispatched cavalry forces that assaulted the Indians, but Little Wolf’s skillful defensive maneuvers kept Cheyenne casualties low. When the band neared Fort Robinson, Nebraska, Dull Knife and some of his followers stopped there. Little Wolf and the rest of the Cheyenne continued to march north to Montana.

While continuing to travel north, in the spring of 1879, Little Wolf and his followers were overtaken by a cavalry force under the leadership of Captain W.P. Clark, an old friend of Little Wolf’s. The confrontation could have turned violent, but with his force of warriors diminished and his people tired, Little Wolf was reluctant to fight the more powerful American army. Clark’s civilized and gracious treatment of Little Wolf helped convince the chief that further resistance was pointless, and he agreed to surrender.

Little Wolf And His Wife, Morning Star

Later on, Little Wolf would become a scout for the U.S. Army under Gen. Nelson A. Miles. It is unfortunate that Little Wolf became involved in a dispute which resulted in the death of Starving Elk. Drunk, Little Wolf shot and killed Starving Elk at the trading post of Eugene Lamphere on December 12, 1880. Little Wolf went into voluntary exile as a result of this disgrace. His status as a chief was revoked. Though formerly a celebrated Cheyenne warrior, the disgraced Little Wolf lived out the rest of his life in self-imposed exile on the Northern Cheyenne Indian reservation but had no official influence among his own people. He died in 1904 and is interred in the Lame Deer cemetery, alongside the gravesite of Morning Star. George Bird Grinnell, a close friend and ethnographer who documented Little Wolf's life, called him, "the greatest Indian I have ever known."

             Author, Sarah J. McNeal

Sarah McNeal is a multi-published author of several genres including time travel, paranormal, western and historical fiction. She is a retired ER nurse who lives in North Carolina with her four-legged children, Lily, the Golden Retriever and Liberty, the cat. Besides her devotion to writing, she also has a great love of music and plays several instruments including violin, bagpipes, guitar and harmonica. Her books and short stories may be found at Publishing by Rebecca Vickery, Victory Tales Press, Prairie Rose Publications and Painted Pony Books, and Fire Star Press, imprints of Prairie Rose Publications. She welcomes you to her website and social media:

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The Wildings

You can find all her western stories about the Wilding family saga by clicking onto The Wildings link.

NATIVE AMERICAN RESEARCH BY RUTH ZAVITSANOS

Guest author Ruth Zavitsanos shares some of her research on Native Americans for her latest release, FLIGHT OF LITTLE DOVE.
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Available now from WhiskeyCreek Press

When the concept of my historical romance, FLIGHT OF LITTLE DOVE, came to mind I knew I wanted the story’s setting to be America’s frontier just a few years after the Civil War. I also knew I needed to have some Indian upheaval to make the opening paragraphs work.

A run for the prey. A hunt for the kill.
This was no game of tag. Deer Shadow’s coal black eyes were filled with hunger.

Little Dove drew a deep shuddering breath. She turned to run again. Deer Shadow’s swift muscular legs would easily catch her shorter ones. She mustered up her courage to stop in her tracks just as he was about to tackle her.
A few pages later, Little Dove escapes the night before her tribal ceremony to marry Deer Shadow, the chief’s son, she considers a brother. It was important for Deer Shadow to be from a friendly tribe. However, later Little Dove comes across a stagecoach being attacked by a tribe on the warpath.

Cheyenne family
near tipi

After research, I found the Cheyenne to be the friendlier tribe and the Comanches were the more volatile group of Native Americans living on America’s frontier.




THE WAY IT WAS IN THE USA: THE WEST, By Clarence P. Hornung, became a major book of reference for this story. The book is easy to follow with some terrific sketches from the time periods the author details.

Cheyenne Mother
with baby

A chapter later, when the handsome trail guide comes across the aftermath of the stagecoach attack, he immediately notes the arrows and shape of the footprints.

In comparing the Cheyenne with the Comanche I found several vast differences, including their physical stature (The Comanches were three to four inches shorter than the Cheyenne) "judging from his tall muscular build, Seb figured he was probably Cheyenne.
　

Quanah Parker,
Kwahadi Comanche

There are other details about these two Native American tribes I sprinkle throughout the story, adding a true sense of the people who did not need to claim the frontier but rather belonged to it.

FLIGHT OF LITTLE DOVE is a MUST READ on the Night Owl Review earning 5 stars. It continues to receive a variety of highly favorable reviews and is a June book club selection at a local book shop (outside of Philadelphia) awarded BEST OF THE MAIN LINE.
　

Currently, Ruth is working on the follow-up to FLIGHT. The story takes place outside of Denver at the SISTERS INN (Tentative book title). She is a member of PennWriters, Valley Forge Romance Writers of America, Society of Children’s Writer and Illustrators and has two children’s chapter books published, THE VILLA DOG and THE OLD FORTRESS DOG. For more information, visit her website at www.ruthzonline.com

Massacre at Sand Creek and The Battle of Fort Washita

“Kill and scalp all, little and big…nits make lice.”—Colonel John M. Chivington Before the Battle of Fort Washita came the Battle of Sand Creek—also known as The Sand Springs Massacre. (Colorado)

Chief Black Kettle’s Cheyenne camp, and that of another Cheyenne chief, White Antelope, were attacked and destroyed on a cold November dawn, 1864. Although the camps flew an American flag alongside a white flag of truce, Colonel John Chivington, determined to further himself in the political arena of the day, ordered the Cheyennes annihilated. “Take no prisoners,” he ordered, adding his own personal slogan, “…nits make lice.”

The encampment at Sand Creek consisted of about six hundred Indians—most of them, women and children. As the first shots were fired by Chivington’s men, only about one hundred Cheyenne warriors ran out, up the creek bed from the ravine where they were camped, to defend the women and children.

Still, these warriors were able to hold Chivington’s troops at bay for over eight hours, allowing nearly five hundred Indians to escape—including Black Kettle.

Chivington boasted of killing six hundred; eye-witness testimony estimated the umber at less than two hundred. Two-thirds of the dead were women and children. White Antelope was one of the first killed, as he left his lodge, arms extended to show peace.

Black Kettle’s wife was shot. As troopers neared, they shot her eight more times. Black Kettle threw her over his shoulder and ran. He later removed all nine bullets, and his wife lived.

A three-year-old toddler was not so lucky. As he walked out to the dry creek bed, three troopers some seventy yards away took turns shooting at him. The third one finally hit him, dropping the child where he stood.

Chivington received a hero’s welcome in Denver. He and his men exhibited the corpses of the dead Cheyennes they had sexually mutilated and scalped to the cheering citizens of Denver. It is believed that there has never been another battle in North America where more Indians have been slain.

Three years later, a Congressional inquest labeled Chivington’s “battle” a massacre.

In 1867, Black Kettle was one of the signers of the Treaty of Medicine Lodge (Kansas) in which the Cheyenne gave up their holdings along the Arkansas River for land on a reservation in what is now Oklahoma.

By the fall of 1868, Black Kettle and two thousand warriors settled near the Washita River in the southeastern part of Indian Territory. Though the Treaty of Medicine Lodge promised specific supplies, the provisions never came. Many of the Cheyenne joined a young warrior, Roman Nose, who had been leading a series of raids on farms and homesteads of white settlers.

Under General Philip Sheridan, three columns of troops launched a winter campaign against Cheyenne encampments. The Seventh Cavalry, commanded by George Armstrong Custer, was selected to take the lead.

For four days, in a foot of fresh snowfall, Custer and his 800 men followed the tracks of a small raiding party through the continuing snowstorm. The tracks led to the encampment on the Washita River. Custer ordered the attack at dawn.

On November 27, 1868, nearly four years to the day after the Sand Creek Massacre, Custer’s troops charged. Chief Black Kettle and his wife, Maiyuna, were shot dead on the banks of the Washita River, (Indian Territory), their bodies riddled with bullets.

“Both the chief and his wife fell at the riverbank, riddled with bullets,” one witness reported. “The soldiers rode right over Black Kettle and his wife and their horse as they lay dead on the ground, and their bodies were all splashed with mud by the charging soldiers.”

Custer ordered the slaughter of the Indian pony and mule herd—over 800 animals. The lodges of the encampment were burned along with the winter food supply. At the threat of reinforcements from other Indian camps only a few miles away, Custer quickly retreated to Camp Supply with his hostages.

In the Battle of the Washita, though Custer claimed 100 Cheyenne fatalities, Indian accounts claim 11 warriors, and 19 women and children were killed. More than 50 Cheyennes were captured—mainly women and children.

After this battle, most of the Cheyenne were convinced to accept reservation life. On the Washita River, Chief Black Kettle’s vision of peace was crushed, along with the Cheyenne way of life.