Musselshell City - Part 2

The Futile and Tragic Attempts of Traders, Freights and Woodhawks to Establish a City at the Mouth of the Musselshell River; Death Stalked Daily at the Elbow of Both White Man and Red at This Ill-Fated Spot Fifty Years Ago

Cont. from last week

(By Dan R. Conway)

Originally published in the Hysham Echo May 19, 1927)

In the fall of 1868, these Sioux marauders circled the settlement at the mouth of the Musselshell, swept down en masse, ran off all the horses and cattle and killed two soldiers of the garrison. The troops were, a short time later, withdrawn to Camp Cooke, because of the fact that it proved too difficult a task to get winter supplies to Camp Reeve. All winter the Sioux kept the settlement in a virtual stage of siege, and death hovered close to any whites who were bold enough to venture far from town.

False Hopes

New hope for the inhabitants of Musselshell City arrived with the spring of 1869. General Hancock, commanding the department of Dakota, under which military jurisdiction Montana territory was then located, directed the survey for a military road from Fort Ellis, near Bozeman, to the mouth of the Musselshell river, and a suitable military reservation site was selected near the latter point. This work was performed under the superintendence of Captain Clift of the Thirtieth Infantry. The reservation site which Captain Clift whose was one mile square and bordered the Missouri river embracing both banks of the Musselshell. This action on the part of the military seemed to portend the establishment of a military post; but the war department apparently did not sanction such a proposition. As the result, no protection was afforded the little town.

In the meantime, the hostile Sioux increased their activities against the whites who were endeavoring to protect their little settlement.

Three Woodhawks Killed

In March, 1869, a large war party of the Sioux advanced against the town. Passing up the river, they attacked a group of woodhawks killing three. A fourth, though badly wounded, reached his cabin where another man was convalescing from wounds received in a previous encounter with the natives. The two wounded men were successful in standing off the Indians, and finally reached the settlement after having endured indescribable hardship and suffering.
About the first of May, the Sioux began crowing the post where the settlers had taken refuge. The Indians had apparently been reinforced strongly. At this time the Sioux were beginning to feel the pressure of advancing civilization in Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas; and many of the tribes from those parts were drifting west into Montana territory. This undoubtedly accounts for the rapid rise in numerical strength of the Montana Sioux during the late sixties and the early seventies. As they were forced westward their bitterness against and hated for the whites increased to fever heat and, as the post at the mouth of the Musselshell constituted the principal white settlement in eastern Montana territory, it was at this point that the reds centered their attack.

The Sioux Attack

It happened that in these early May days of 1869, there were about 50 men gathered at the Musselshell post awaiting the arrival of the first steamboat from St. Louis. Part of these were at the trading post and the remainder at woodyards which had been established across on the north bank of the Musselshell. In the camp were two squaws. One morning these started out to gather dry firewood. On approaching the banks of the Musselshell, they were attacked by the Sioux, one of them receiving serious wounds. They escaped to the settlement, and as soon as the news of the attack was received by the traders and woodhawks, every man of the entire party turned out with all the firearms and ammunition available. It was decided to at this time “teach the Sioux a lesson,” and the little army sallied forth bent upon reprisal for the many lives that had been sacrificed to the jealous whim of the natives. The whites proceeded in skirmish formation over the high sagebrush to the crest which bordered the Musselshell. At this point there was a scattering growth of cottonwood trees.

Colonel Clendennin was on the left of the line, toward the Missouri; and, as the steep bank of the Musselshell afforded the Sioux an excellent cover, he proposed to first reconnoiter the position of the enemy by keeping close to the Missouri until he arrived at the mouth of the Musselshell from which point he could get a good view of them up the valley. Acting upon this plan, Clendennin discovered a numerous body of warriors running along the bank of the Musselshell and turning the point in the distance, while about half a dozen were seen to enter a small ravine as if to shelter themselves from the rifle fire he had instantly opened upon them. Returning at once to the main party, Colonel Clendennin at once apprised the whites of his discovery. At once the whole line advanced against the ravine hoping to capture or kill the small warrior band that he been seen to enter it.

Leader’s Folly

As they approached, however, a heavy fire was opened from the direction of the ravine and continued with such rapidity that the whites were compelled to lie down in the shelter of the sagebrush. In this position, they exchanged shots with the reds who were well concealed behind the rim of the cutbank. In the meantime, Jacob Leader, a German, who was employed by Colonel Clendennin as a Crow interpreter, joined the line and rashly started forward toward the ravine. Stimulated by his apparent fearlessness, the entire party of whites moved forward. They were met by a hot fire, and the Leader fell dead. A bullet had entered his mouth and plowed its way through the back of his head. He dropped back into the arms of the late Colonel G. R. Norris, who was a member of the party and who was directly behind the unfortunate victim. This checked the advance for the time being; the whites again dropped into the sagebrush or behind cottonwood trees.

Reinforcements

About this time a number of Woodhawks from across the Missouri arrived to reinforce the little white army. Thus encouraged by increased numbers, despite the fact that a heavy rainstorm had set in, it was decided to continue the attack and clean up as many of the marauders as was possible. A direct attack upon the ravine was not deemed prudent, as such a course would mean the sacrifice of several of their number.

Finally Jim Wells, Frank Smith, Henry McDonald and Joe Brushaway proceeded to a point somewhat below the ravine and succeeded in crossing the river. These men were armed with Henry rifles. Concealing themselves behind underbrush and cutbanks they had the Indians at their mercy; but, much to their surprise, instead of finding half a dozen Sioux in the ravine, there were more than sixty.

Colonel Chendennin’s Strategy

As soon as the first bullet from across the stream struck among them, the Sioux realized that they had lost the battle. In front of them was the river, and all around them and on the plain above, were their white enemies, whose powerful repeating rifles they could not hope to escape. Several times they made desperate efforts to dig shelter for themselves in the banks. All the while one after another of their number fell before the incessant fire of the men who had crossed the river. The main body of the whites now charged them on the other bank and, routed at all points, they fled to the field, leaving thirteen of their dead and taking with them several wounded, of whom 21 afterward died. The white of the settlement lost Leader and a man by the name of Greenwood was wounded in the shoulder. The fight had begun at 7:30 in the morning and it lasted until noon.

Barbarism

Many of the wounded Indians were killed and scalped by the whites. The following day one of the white traders (Andrews by name) cut off the heads of ten of the dead Sioux, and boiled them till the skull could be cleaned. These were then impaled at the ends of sticks on the stockade, where they grinned forth at the passengers and crew of the steamer Importer, which arrived upstream from St. Louis a day or two later. This boat touched at the woodyard near Round Butte on its upward journey and there it had found the mutilated bodies of seven woodhawks who had been murdered by the Sioux. This had undoubtedly been the work of the party that was routed at Musselshell City.

From that eventful day, the entire Sioux nation swore eternal vengeance against Musselshell City and the entire white race which made possible such settlements. Many war parties from the vicinity of Fort Peck, or from the camp of the famous Sitting Bull then located on the Dry Fork of the Missouri, threatened the town by intermittent raids. By this time it had become quite evident that as a freighting point Musselshell City was destined to be an utter failure; only one or two upward bound steamers discharged freight there that season.

By the approach of the next winter, the few inhabitants who had been so enthusiastic over the future of the new town, began to lose their optimism. Business had not been profitable; trade was poor, and they wearied of the ever present danger.

An Eccentric Frenchman

Early the following spring (1870) there occurred one of the most remarkable incidents ever recorded in the annals of frontier warfare in early day Montana. There arrived at Musselshell City an eccentric and restless Frenchman. He had come from Helena to take passage on one of the downward bound river boats. After waiting at the mouth of the Musselshell for what had seemed to him to be an interminable time, he grew discontented and started out on foot to return to Helena. Before he had gone far, he lost his way in the wilderness and finally, drifting in a circle, landed back, more dead than alive, at Musselshell. After a short period of recuperation, he set out afoot for Fort Benton. Print this post