DOCUMENTS.

prising the remainder of the troops of the ex-
pedition, commanded by Colonel John Dough-
erty, will follow. The entire force will debark
at the lowest point on the Missouri shore, where
a landing can be effected in security from the
The point of debarkation will
rebel batteries.
be designated by Captain Walke, commanding

naval forces. By order of

Brigadier-General U. S. GRANT.

JOHN A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Promptly at the hour designated, we proceeded down the river to a point just out of the range of the rebel batteries at Columbus, and debarked on the Missouri shore. From here the troops were marched, with skirmishers well in advance, by flank, about one mile toward Belmont, and there formed in line of battle. One battalion had been left as a reserve near the transports. Two companies from each regiment were thrown forward as skirmishers, to ascertain the position of the enemy, and about nine o'clock met and engaged him. The balance of my force, with the exception of the reserve,was promptly thrown forward, and drove the enemy foot by foot, and from tree to tree, back to his encampment on the river bank, a distance of over two miles. Here he had strengthened his position by felling the timber for several hundred yards around his camp, making a sort of abattis. Our men charged through this, driving the enemy under cover of the bank, and many of them into their transports in quick time, leaving us in possession of everything not exceedingly portable.

out further molestation. While waiting for the
arrival of this regiment, and to get some of our
wounded from a field hospital near-by, the ene-
my, having crossed fresh troops from Columbus,
again made his appearance on the river bank,
and commenced firing upon our transports. The
the steamers, and also from the gunboats, with
fire was returned by our men from the decks of
terrible effect, compelling him to retire in the
direction of Belmont. In the meantime, Colonel
Buford, although he had received orders to re-
turn with the main force, took the Charleston
road from Belmont and came in on the road lead-
ing to Bird's Point, where he had formed a line
of battle in the morning. At this point, to avoid
the effects of the shells from the gunboats that
were beginning to fall among his men, he took
a blind path direct to the river, aud followed a
wood road up its bank, and thereby avoided
On his appearance on the river
meeting the enemy, who were retiring by the
main road.
bark, a steamer was dropped down and took
his command on board, without his having par-
ticipated or lost a man in the enemy's attempt
Notwithstanding the crowded state of our
to cut us off from our transports.
transports, the only loss we sustained from the
enemy's fire upon them was three men wounded,
Our loss in killed on the field was eighty-five,
one of whom belonged to one of the boats.
three hundred and one wounded (many of them,
Nearly all the
however, slightly), and ninety-nine missing. Of
the wounded, one hundred and twenty-five fell
into the hands of the enemy.
missing were from the Seventh Iowa regiment,
All the troops behaved with great gallantry,
which suffered more severely than any other.
which was in a great degree attributable to the
coolness and presence of mind of their officers,
General McClernand was in the midst of dan-
particularly the Colonels commanding.
His horse was
ger throughout the engagement, and displayed
both coolness and judgment.
three times shot under him.

Belmont is situated on low ground, and every foot is commanded by the guns on the opposite shore, and of course could not be held for a single hour after the enemy became aware of the withdrawal of his troops. Having no wagons with me, I could move but little of the captured Colonel Dougherty, Twenty-second Illinois property, consequently gave orders for the destruction of everything that could not be moved, and an immediate return to our transports. volunteers, commanding the second brigade, by Tents, blankets, &c., were set on fire and de- his coolness and bravery, entitles himself to be stroyed, and our return march commenced, named among the most competent of officers for taking his artillery and a large number of cap-command of troops in battle. In our second engagement he was three times wounded, and fell prisoner into the hands of the enemy. tured horses with us.

Three pieces of artillery being drawn by hand, and one by an inefficient a team, were spiked and left on the road; two were brought to this place.

We had but fairly got under way, when the enemy, having received reinforcements rallied under cover of the river bank, and the woods on the point of land in the bend of the river above us, and made his appearance between us and our transports, evidently with a design of cutting off our return to them.

Our troops were not in the least discouraged, but charged the enemy and again defeated him. We then, with the exception of the Twentyseventh Illinois, Colonel N. B. Buford commanding, reached our transports and embarked with

Among the killed was Lieutenant-Colonel A. Wentz, Seventh Iowa volunteers, and among the wounded were Colonel J. G. Lauman, and Major E. W. Rice, of the Seventh Iowa.

The reports of sub-commanders will detail more fully particulars of the engagement, and the conduct of both officers and men.

To my staff, Captain John A. Rawlins, Assistant Adjutant-General; Lieutenants C. B. Lagow and William S. Hillyer, Aides-de-Camp; and Captain R. B. Hatch, Assistant Quartermaster, I am much indebted for the promptitude with which they discharged their several duties.

From all the information I have been able to obtain since the engagement, the enemy's loss in killed and wounded was much greater than ours. We captured one hundred and seventyfive prisoners, all his artillery and transporta-operations. tion, and destroyed his entire camp and garrison equipage. Independent of the injuries inflicted upon him, and the prevention of his reinforcing Price, or sending a force to cut off the expedition against Jeff. Thompson, the confidence inspired in our troops in the engagement will be of incalculable benefit to us in the future.

DOCUMENTS.

British possessions on the north, succeeded in combining their various and scattered tribes for a final effort against the whites, and by the opening of spring had slowly concentrated their whole force on and near the Upper Missouri, to resist the navigation of the Missouri river, prevent the passage of emigrants across the great plains, and to deliver, with their combined forces, a final battle against the United States troops under General Sully.

This Indian force was then estimated by competent authorities, and so reported by me to the War Department early in the spring, at about six thousand warriors, and this estimate was subsequently confirmed by General Sully, after his battles with them near the Little Missouri.

It was also reported at the time, and has been confirmed since by undoubted testimony, that ammunition and other necessary supplies were brought to the Indian camps during the winter by half-breeds and traders from the British settlements on the Red River of the North. It is hardly necessary for me to repeat what I have so often reported, that Indian hostilities in this department have been fomented and encouraged and the Indians supplied with the means to continue the war by the halfbreeds, and other British subjects of the Selkirk settlements.

to command the Indian trails toward the fron-
tier settlements, so as to detect the passage
even of the smallest parties attempting to make
raids upon the settlers, and to follow them up;
and, so far as military necessities would allow,
to protect an emigrant route from the Upper
Mississippi river to the territories of Idaho
immediate preparations
and Montana. The details of this plan of ope-
February last, and
rations were submitted to you and approved in

General Sully collected the forces under his made to carry them into execution. command from the various posts and stations in his district early in the spring, and commenced to move up the Missouri river, leaving cover the frontier from small Indians raids only such detachments as were necessary to during his absence. He was reinforced by about one thousand five hundred mounted men from Minnesota, leaving General Sibley with about seven hundred effective men to protect The mouth of Burdache creek, on the frontier settlements of Minnesota during the summer. the Upper Missouri, was selected as the point where the Minnesota troops should join the forces of General Sully moving up the Missouri, and the junction of these forces was made on the thirtieth of June. The spring rise in the late in the season, and Sully only reached the Missouri river did not come down until very As I was satisfied that this combination of mouth of Canon Ball river, at which point he the whole of the numerous and widely-dispersed was to establish a strong post, which was to tribes of the Sioux (or Dakota) nation, who oc- be his depot of supplies, on the seventh of cupy the vast region north of the Platte, and July. He established Fort Rice at that point, the northern boundaries of Iowa, from the distant from Sioux City four hundred and fifty Rocky mountains to the vicinity of the Great miles, and garrisoned it with five companies Lakes, would be the final effort of the great of the Thirtieth Wisconsin volunteers. near the Missouri river, about fifty miles Indian nation to continue hostilities against the Indians, who had been concentrated on and whites, and as I felt sure that if once their entire force of warriors could be met and defeated above this post, had meantime crossed to the this Indian war in the North-west on any con- south-west side of the river and occupied a siderable scale would be closed, preparations strong position in a very difficult country near for an active campaign during the summer of the Little Missouri river, due west, and about On the twenty-sixth of July, General Sully 1864 were made during the close of last winter. two hundred miles from Fort Rice. The plan of operations consisted in putting into the field under the command of Brigadier-marched upon these Indians with the following General A. Sully, an active column of about two thousand five hundred men, entirely cavalry, to advance against the Indians wherever they could be found and deliver battle with them, and at the same time to follow up the movement of this force with detachments of infantry large enough to establish strong posts in the Indian country.

These posts were so located as to cover the frontier of Iowa and Minnesota and the frontier settlements of Dakota territory, at a long distance; to interpose between the different tribes so as to prevent concerted action; to cominand the hunting grounds of the Indians so that they would be constantly under the supervision and in the power of the military forces, which by concerted action could easily and promptly march a heavy force of cavalry upon any portion of the region in which the Indians are obliged to hunt for subsistence;

The

forces: Eighth Minnesota volunteers (mounted)
and six companies of Second Minnesota caval-
ry, with four light guns, under command of
Colonel M. T. Thomas, Eighth Minnesota volun-
teers; eleven companies Sixth Iowa cavalry,
three companies Seventh Iowa cavalry, two
Brackett's battalion cavalry, one small company
companies Dakota cavalry, four companies
numbering in all two
A small emigrant
of scouts, and four mountain howitzers, all under
command of
thousand two hundred men.
train for Idaho, which had accompanied the Min-
nesota troops from that State, followed the
movement of Sully's force. At the bead of
Heart river he corralled his trains, and leaving
a sufficient guard with them, he marched rapid-
ly to the north-west, to the point where the
combined forces of the Indians were assembled.
On the morning of July twenty-eighth, he came
upon them-between five and six thousand war-

REBELLION RECORD, 1862-65.

riors strongly posted in a wooded country,
very much cut up with high, rugged hills and
deep, impassable ravines. He had an hour's
talk with some of the Indian chiefs, who were
very defiant and impudent, after which he
moved rapidly forward against their strong po-

sition.

In

the distance at sunset, it looked exactly like the ruins of an ancient city. I regret very much that some gentleman well acquainted with geology and mineralogy did not accompany the expedition, for we marched through a most wonderful and interesting country. It was covered The action for a time was sharp and severe, of some of the hills we found petrified stumps with pieces of petrified wood, and on the tops but the artillery and long-range small-arms of of trees, the remains of a great forest. the troops were very destructive, and the In- some cases these trees were sixteen to eighteen dians began to give way on all sides. They feet in diameter, Large quantities of iron ore, were so closely pressed by Sully's forces that lava, and impressions of leaves in the rocks, they abandoned their extensive camps, leaving of a size and shape not known to any of us." all their robes, lodges, colts and utensils of every description, and and all the winter supply of a portion of the Indians whom Sully had deIn this difficult and almost impassable region, provisions which they had been so long col-feated on the twenty-eighth of July attempted lecting. The action resulted in a running fight of nine miles, the Indians finally scattering completely, and escaping with nothing but their wounded, which, according to Indian custom, they carried off, as also as many of their killed as they could. dead warriors were left on the field. I have One hundred and twenty-five transmitted heretofore the reports of General Sully and of the various commanders of his force, as also a statement of the immense quantity of Indian goods and supplies destroyed by General Sully in the captured camp of the Indians.

Finding the country nearly impracticable, having only a small supply of provisions or means to carry them, and ascertaining that the retreat of the mass of the Indians was toward the south-west, Sully returned to his train at the head of Heart river, and resumed his march westward, through an unknown and unexplored region, toward the Yellowstone, which he expected to reach near Fort Alexander, at which point it had been proposed to establish a military post.

to offer resistance, but were badly defeated, leaving over one hundred dead on the field.

Sully reports that they exhibited none of the After this hopeless effort, in which General spirit and audacity which characterized the ed, and broke up their combination entirely. fight on the 28th of July, the Indians scatterThe Tetons, separated into small fragments, fled toward the south-west; the Yancktonnais, with other confederated tribes from the north and east sides of the Missouri, crossed the Missouri river, and retreated rapidly into the Briteral Sully followed them nearly to the British ish possessions by way of Mouse river. Genline.

direction of the Yellowstone, impracticable for Finding the country west of Fort Rice, in the wagon roads, Sully decided not to establish a post so high up on that river, but placed a garrison at mouth of Yellowstone and another at the trading post of Fort Berthold, lower down on the Missouri river. These posts, in connection with Fort Rice, will keep open the Missouri separate the Indian tribes so that another conriver, render travel along the valley secure, and centration will be impracticable even should the

On the fifth of August he came in sight of the Bad Lands, which border the Little Missouri on both sides. The country was exceedingly rug-Indians seek it. ged and difficult, and so cut up with deep, perpendicular ravines, that it was with the utmost labor and loss of time that a narrow, winding way between the ravines, in places barely ten feet wide, was found for his wagons. I cannot convey a better idea of the country than is contained in the following extract from Sully's report, which will be full of interest to the scientific world:

"I have not sufficient power of language to describe the country in front of us. grand, dismal, and majestic. You can imagine It was a basin, six hundred feet deep and twenty-five miles in width, filled with a number of cones and oven-shaped knolls of all sizes, from twenty-five to several hundred feet high, sometimes by themselves, sometimes piled up into large heaps on top of each other, in all conceivable shapes and confusion. Most of these hills were of a gray clay, but many of a light brick color of burnt clay-little or no vegetation. Some of the sides of the hills, however, were covered with a few scrub cedars. Viewed in

river valley to Fort Rice. After leaving that Sully returned slowly by way of the Missouri post well garrisoned and in good condition, and sending the Thirtieth Wisconsin volunteers to the Mississippi, to go south to Sherman's army, Sully came slowly down to Sioux City, where his last despatches are dated.

To Fort Randall, and also to Fort Pierre, had defeated, came in and asked for peace, acchiefs of the combined Sioux tribes which he whites, that they had lost everything, robes, knowledging that they could not fight against the lodges, provisions, &c., and would be in a starving condition. They were informed by the commanding officers of those posts that the only conditions of peace required from them were that they would behave themselves and not molest the whites. The Indians were both surprised and gratified that peace on such easy terms was to be had, and immediately returned to their tribes to bring in the principal chieís to meet General Sully at Fort Randall. It is expected that peace with all the tribes west of the