Punitive Expeditions

Part of General Sully's army near Fort Berthold, North Dakota, 1864"I hope you will not believe all that is said of 'Sully’s Successful Expedition' against the Sioux. I don’t think he ought to brag of it at all, because it was, what no decent man would have done, he pitched into their camp and just slaughtered them, worse a great deal than what the Indians did in 1862, he killed very few men and took no hostile ones prisoners. . .and now he returns saying that we need fear no more, for he has ‘wiped out all hostile Indians from Dakota.’ If he had killed men instead of women & children, then it would have been a success, and the worse of it, they had no hostile intention whatever, the Nebraska 2nd pitched into them without orders, while the Iowa 6th were shaking hands with them on one side, they even shot their own men."

Samuel Brown, a language interpreter during Sully's expedition, 1863

The Battle of Whitestone Hill

The Sioux War-cavalry charge of Sully's brigade at the Battle of White Stone Hill, Harper's Weekly, 1863On September 3, 1863, the Second Nebraska Cavalry, the Sixth Iowa Cavalry, and one company of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, under the command of Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully, attacked a large Native American encampment in what is now extreme south-central North Dakota. The location is referred to as the Whitestone Hill battlefield, but in tribal memory it is the Whitestone Hill massacre site. The attack resulted in more Native casualties than any other conflict in North Dakota, with losses on a larger scale that those at Wounded Knee in 1890. The oral history of Whitestone Hill tells us that many women and children were killed while the men were out hunting.

The Battle of Killdeer Mountain (also known as the Battle of Tahkahokuty Mountain)

This battle took place during Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully’s expedition against the Dakota in Dakota Territory on June 28, 1864. The location of the battleground is in modern Dunn County, North Dakota. With more than 4,000 soldiers involved, Sully’s expedition was the largest ever carried out by the U.S. army against Indians. The Indians in the encampment consisted mostly of Lakota (Teton) from the Hunkpapa, Sihasapa, Miniconjou, and Sans Arc bands, plus Yanktonais and a few Santees, of which about 40 were killed (though estimates go into the hundreds). Sully lost only about 10 men. The Indians in the encampment were armed mostly with bows and arrows and a few short-range muskets and shotgun. Most of them, especially the Tetons, had never been engaged in hostilities with U.S. forces before this encounter.

The day after the battle Sully detailed 700 men to destroy the abandoned encampment. This included tipis, large supplies of food, and thousands of dogs. A few people who were left behind in the camp, including children, were killed by Sully's men.

Most of the Dakota scattered through the Badlands to the west of Killdeer Mountain, but some remained near Sully. Several waved a white flag and requested talks but they were fired on by soldiers and fled. Though he was short on supplies, Sully decided to continue his pursuit of the Dakota and instigated the Battle of the Badlands.

Theme:

1862

Topics:

Aftermath of War Punitive Expeditions
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Resources for Further Research

Primary

Daniels, Arthur M. A Journal of Sibley's Indian Expedition during the Summer of 1863 and Record of the Troops Employed. Minneapolis: J.D. Thueson, 1980.

Websites

American Indian Conflicts. South Dakota State Historical Society.

Glossary Terms

Punitive Expeditions

Key People

Samuel J. Brown
Samuel J. Brown
Alfred H. Sully
Alfred H. Sully
Samuel J. Brown

Samuel J. Brown

Samuel Brown was the son of Joseph Brown and was an interpreter during treaty negotiations in 1858. He was present during the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 and reminisced on many of the events, including what happened at Camp Release:
"Weeding out the Guilty: While thus engaged and by exercising a justifiable piece of strategy I assisted in causing the arrest and in safety detaining in custody all the Indian men (except 46 who were above suspicion and three or four who had 'smelled a mice' and ran away during the night), and disarmed them and chained them in pairs together...

"Justifiable Strategy: This successful and justifiable strategy took place at the Government warehouse, built by my father when he was agent a few years before--a large, two-story building, 50 feet long, which the hostiles had burned and destroyed when they passed up on the 20th of August, but the walls of which were still standing--and was accomplished in the following manner: About a hundred yard from this building the soldiers had pitched their tents, while the Indians camped under the hill along Yellow Medicine Creek, a half or three-quarters of a mile distant. I was ordered one day to proceed to the camp and inform the Indians that the annuity roll was to be prepared the next morning and that they must all come at an early hour and present themselves to the agent at the warehouse and be 'counted.' They were delighted to learn that they were at last to get their money. The annuity payment for that year had not yet been made, and this ruse worked like a charm.

"How is was done: About 8 o'clock the next morning the Indians flocked to the warehouse anxious to be 'counted.' Major Galbraith, Captain Whitney, and two or three 'clerks' were found seated at a table behind one end of the building with pens, ink, paper, etc., hard at work on the 'rolls,' while on of the officers and myself were stationed in a doorway at the opposite and further end. As each family would step up to the table, one of the 'clerks' would rise and count or number them with his finger, one, two, three, etc., and after announcing the result with a flourish and motioning for them to pass on, a soldier would step up and escort the Indians to the other end of the building where I was stationed. As they reached the farther end and turned the corner and came in front of the doorway, I would tell the men to step inside and allow the women and children to pass on to the camp, telling them, as I was instructed to do, that the men, as heads of families, must be counted separately, as it was thought the Government would pay them extra. I would take their guns, tomahawks, scalping knives, etc., and throw them into barrels, telling them they would be returned shortly. In this way we succeeded in arresting and safely detaining in custody 234 of Little Crow's fiercest warriors. And since the Indian men outnumbered the soldiers two to one, and were fully well armed, I think that in this case, the end justified the means.'"

View full article: Samuel J. Brown

Alfred H. Sully

Alfred H. Sully

"I believe I can safely say I gave them one of the most severe punishments that the Indians have ever received."

General Sully speaking about Whitestone Hill

Alfred H. Sully was born in 1821 in Pennsylvania. He graduated from West Point in 1841. During and after the American Civil War, Sully served in the Plains States and was widely regarded as an Indian fighter. Sully, like his father, was a watercolorist and oil painter. Between 1849 to 1853, he became chief quartermaster of the U.S. troops at Monterey, California, after California came under American jurisdiction.

During the Civil War, Sully commanded brigades at such battles as the Seven Days, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, and eventually rose to the rank of brevet major general of volunteers. Being known as a successful "Indian fighter," Sully was transferred west to aid in the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War, and was commissioned colonel of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry on February 3, 1862. He served in that rank until promoted to brigadier general on September 26, 1862.

Serving under General Pope, Sully's job was to command cavalry troops in the "Indian Wars." From 1863 to 1866 he commanded the "North Western Indian Expeditions" directed against the Arapaho, Sioux, and Cheyenne. Notable battles were White Stone Hills and Tahkahhakuty (or Killdeer Mountain). On September 3, 1863, at Whitestone Hill, Dakota Territory, as reprisal for the Dakota Conflict of 1862, his troops destroyed a village of some 500 tipis that lodged Yankton, Dakota, Hunkpapa Lakota, and Blackfeet. Men, women, and children were killed or captured. The troopers' casualties were small. One of Sully's interpreters, Samuel J. Brown, a mixed-blood Sioux, said "it was a perfect massacre" and "lamentable to hear how those women and children was massacred."

Due to the poor condition of his horses and mules and his lack of supplies, Sully was unable to keep pursue the Dakota He left Whitestone Hill on September 6 and marched his men to Fort Pierre in present day South Dakota. He built Fort Sully, and after spending the winter at the fort, renewed operation in 1864 against the Dakota and instigated the Battle of Killdeer Mountain.

Sully died in 1879.

View full article: Alfred H. Sully

Related Images

Expeditions
Expeditions
Expeditions

Expeditions

Map of Expeditions in Dakota Territory, 1863-64

By Alan Ominsky. From Kenneth Carley, The Dakota War of 1862, 1976.