Battle of Ash Hollow

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict= Battle of Ash Hollow


caption="Battle of Ash Hollow", 1855
partof=the Indian Wars
date=September 3, 1855
place=Ash Hollow, Nebraska
result=U.S. victory
combatant1=Brulé Sioux
combatant2=United States Army
commander1=Little Thunder
commander2=William S. Harney
strength1=250
strength2=600
casualties1=85 dead
unknown wounded
casualties2=unknown

The Battle of Ash Hollow (also known as the Battle of Bluewater Creek) was an engagement between U.S. soldiers under Brigadier General William S. Harney and the Brulé Sioux on September 2 and September 3, 1855 along the Platte River in present-day Garden County, Nebraska. This battle followed the "Grattan massacre", which occurred in August 1854.

Overview

The battle was the defining engagement of a short war between the U.S. and the Sioux over disputes concerning violations of an Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851). In this battle, 600 U.S. soldiers fell upon 250 Sioux, killing 86 people. By October, commanding General William Harney negotiated a peace treaty to stop further bloodshed with the Sioux.

While the battle was hailed by many newspapers as a heroic victory over bloodthirsty Indians, others criticized what they called outright butchery. Some others claimed that the battle was fought only to justify the growth in the U.S. Army, spearheaded by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis.

Grattan incident

The war started when an immigrant farmer lost a cow off the Oregon Trail which wandered into a Brulé Lakota camp a few miles off the trail. The Sioux killed and ate the cow, but the farmer reported it as stolen to Army officers at Fort Laramie.

Unfortunately, the fort's commander sent an inexperienced officer who was very contemptuous of the Indians to negotiate reparations, Lieutenant John Grattan. Grattan vowed to teach the "savages" a lesson and took along 30 men. The result was that he insulted the Sioux and ended up firing into their ranks, killing chief Conquering Bear.

Before he could reload, the Sioux charged and killed Grattan and 29 of his men. One soldier survived the battle, but died later in the Fort Laramie hospital.

Punishment expedition

President Franklin Pierce vowed the "massacre" revenged. Pierce gave command to Harney with instructions to "whip the Indians." The war was hotly debated and Grattan was given much of the blame for the fracas in which he was killed.

The expedition finally set out in August 1855. On September 1, 1855, the expedition caught up with a Sioux encampment along the Platte River in a place known as Blue Waters. Harney sent a regiment in a long night flanking maneuver in an attempt to set up a blocking position against which he would drive the Sioux. The flanking maneuver was led by Lieutenant Colonel Philip St. George Cooke and Captain Henry Heth (later a division commander under Robert E. Lee).

Harney moved up in the morning to drive the Sioux against Cooke and Heth. He first attempted parlaying with the Sioux chief, Little Thunder, but his demands to hand over the men responsible for the Grattan attack were rebuffed. The Sioux felt justified in killing Grattan as it was a fair fight. During this parlay, several Sioux braves discovered Cooke's men.

The attack

Upon discovery of Cooke's men, Harney opened the fight by attacking directly into the Sioux camp. Some of the Sioux took refuge in caves along the river and Harney had his men fire blindly into the caves, with the result that many women and children were killed. A large group of mounted warriors made for an escape route away from Cooke’s and Harney’s forces, but Heth observed this maneuver and led his forces to block this escape route.

The warriors managed to break through Heth's men, but were then pursued on horseback by cavalry with Heth in the lead. There was a running fight for about five miles lasting several hours. At some point, Heth got so far ahead of his men, that he was presumed killed in action. His death was reported in newspapers around the country as a result, and he later took satisfaction in the nice obituaries his friends had written.

Among other participants of the battle was later Union General Gouverneur K. Warren, who noted in his diary horror of killing women and children.

Afterwards the Army made a wide sweep of the surrounding Sioux country but encountered no further resistance. For his handling of the battle at Ash Hollow, Harney was known afterwards among the Sioux as "The Butcher."

For military officials and the increasing numbers of settlers traveling the Oregon Trail, the battle bought them 10 more years of relative peace.

References

*An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present By David Eggenberger:*"Last in Their Class, Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point" by James S. Robbins, published by Encounter Books, New York, 2006, pp. 146-158.:* [http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/markers/texts/battle_of_blue_water.htm The Battle of Blue Water]