In camp late that night after the wagons had finally rolled in so the men could boil their coffee and prepare supper of what deer, elk, antelope, jackrabbits, and even a few porcupines they had managed to kill along the trail that day, a few soldiers grumbled their bitter recriminations about Crook, sharing their tales of how the general had punished another command and its horses three months earlier.
“Some say Crook figures to find Crazy Horse near Slim Buttes,” Billy Garnett explained.
“Now, that’s hard to believe,” Seamus said. “Surely the general’s smart enough to know those Lakota aren’t still in this country, that they’re gonna move on after all this time. That’s better’n four months now!”
With a shrug Garnett replied, “Can’t figure what Crook’s thinking. Only know what we all know: the general’s been wanting that red son of a bitch for the better part of a year now.
“Sweet Mither of God! Crook ain’t gonna find Crazy Horse anywhere near them Slim Buttes or the Black Hills country.”
“Shit!” Garnett scoffed with a grin. “So, mister know-it-all, why don’t you tell me why in the hell Crook’s gonna take us off in this direction if he doesn’t expect to find Crazy Horse in this here country?”
But for the life of him … Donegan couldn’t come up with a single good answer.
* The Big Horn Mountains.
*
*
Chapter 44
8 December 1876
THE INDIANS
Mackenzie’s Official Report—What Crook Says.
CHICAGO, December 1.—The official report of Colonel Mackenzie was received to-day. It states that about noon on the 24th, while marching in a southwesterly direction towards the South Pass of the Big Horn mountains, five advance scouts met him, reporting the main camp of Cheyennes about fifteen or twenty miles distant. About sunset the command began moving toward the hostiles, reaching the village after daylight, completely surprising the Indians, and compelling them to vacate the village suddenly, taking refuge in a ravine. After a brisk fight, lasting an hour and skirmishing until night, they capitulated. The entire village, having 173 lodges, was destroyed, 500 ponies captured, and 25 Indian bodies found. It is almost certain that a much larger number were killed. Five soldiers and one officer were killed on our side, and twenty-five wounded, besides one Shoshone scout belonging to the United States. Fifteen cavalry horses and four horses of the Indian scouts were killed. The command moved to the camp on Powder River, whence this report was made on the 26th instant. Lieutenant McKinney, of the Fourth cavalry, who was killed, was one of the most gallant officers and honorable of men. General Crook, in transmitting the above report, says: “I cannot commend too highly this brilliant achievement and gallantry of the troops. This will be a terrible blow to the hostiles, as the Cheyennes were not only the bravest warriors but have been the head and front of most of the raids and deviltry committed in this country.”
What or who George Crook was relying upon for his information about where he would find the Crazy Horse people was as much a mystery as anything in the world. Perhaps he was doing no more than grasping at straws in his hope of finding his archnemesis.
But for some reason the general clearly had grown satisfied that the Oglalla warrior bands had now abandoned the country of the Rosebud and Tongue River and were wandering east toward the country of the Little Missouri and the Moreau.
In explaining his intent to prolong the campaign, the general wrote Sheridan:
I shall endeavor to ascertain these points before leaving here, so that in case they leave the Rosebud country, I will not make that march as it would unfit the horses of the command for any further service this winter, and in case Crazy Horse has gone to Slim Buttes, I will go there via the Black Hills.
“You see, Mr. Donegan,” Crook explained in his tent that night of 8 December along the frozen banks of the Belle Fourche, “General Mackenzie and I have decided against pursuing the defeated and impoverished Northern Cheyenne.”
Mackenzie himself cleared his throat, then stated, “Instead we think better of marching the expedition down the Little Powder, where the general desires to establish a temporary base of operations.”
“Right in the heart of the country haunted by the Sioux and Cheyenne hostiles!” Crook exclaimed, slamming a fist down into his left palm. “Squarely in the country where our deadliest enemies clung tenaciously and have likely taken refuge from our two columns.”
“Two columns?” Donegan asked, perplexed.
“Ours to the south, and north of the enemy—General Miles and his Fifth Infantry.”
“But they’re all the way up yonder on the Yellowstone,” the Irishman replied.
“Exactly,” Crook said.