Details
SCHWATKA, FREDERICK, Lieutenant, U.S. Cavalry, Arctic explorer. Autograph letter signed ("Fred") to his father, Camp Sheridan, Nebraska, 5 February 1877. 2 3/4 pages, 8vo, lined stationery, small smudge at lower margin of first page. RARE.
A LETTER FROM A CAVALRY OUTPOST DURING THE GREAT SIOUX UPRISING: "SITTING BULL...IS A MYTH"
A vivid letter from a frontier outpost at the height of the Sioux uprising, seven months after Little Big Horn and only a month before Chief Crazy Horse's surrender. "...The Indian question is not...settled, but I think the Indians will come in... Spotted Tail had a talk here today and I think will start out to bring in Crazy Horse and the hostile Sioux, who are anxious to come in if they will not be imprisoned, and who are willing to give up their ponies and arms if they can be under Spotted Tail and not Red Cloud. The fights you mention were fought by Col[onel Nelson A.] Miles... with Sitting Bull who has about 25 or 30 lodges (about 75 warriors), and who never has had any greater number during the whole war. He is a myth. There are from 75 to 100 Chiefs who rank him. Most of the Indians here know nothing about him and Col[onel] Miles of the 5th Infantry seems to have been the great 'I am' because he has met him once or twice. Col. Miles has had only two men wounded, while we have had from thirty to forty killed and about one hundred wounded (leaving out the Custer Massacre) in fights with Crazy Horse...He has from 2000 to 3500 warriors when together, as they were at Rosebud and the Little Big Horn, and he is the one Spotted Tail will...induce to come in..."
Schwatka (1849-1892), grew up in Oregon, attended West Point, then served with the 3rd Cavalry at various posts in Indian territory. In 1878-1880 he and a partner, the journalist William Gilder, with the sponsorship of the American Geographical Society, mounted an important arctic exploration and found the remains of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition. In later years, Schwatka mapped the Yukon River and carried out other explorations.
A LETTER FROM A CAVALRY OUTPOST DURING THE GREAT SIOUX UPRISING: "SITTING BULL...IS A MYTH"
A vivid letter from a frontier outpost at the height of the Sioux uprising, seven months after Little Big Horn and only a month before Chief Crazy Horse's surrender. "...The Indian question is not...settled, but I think the Indians will come in... Spotted Tail had a talk here today and I think will start out to bring in Crazy Horse and the hostile Sioux, who are anxious to come in if they will not be imprisoned, and who are willing to give up their ponies and arms if they can be under Spotted Tail and not Red Cloud. The fights you mention were fought by Col[onel Nelson A.] Miles... with Sitting Bull who has about 25 or 30 lodges (about 75 warriors), and who never has had any greater number during the whole war. He is a myth. There are from 75 to 100 Chiefs who rank him. Most of the Indians here know nothing about him and Col[onel] Miles of the 5th Infantry seems to have been the great 'I am' because he has met him once or twice. Col. Miles has had only two men wounded, while we have had from thirty to forty killed and about one hundred wounded (leaving out the Custer Massacre) in fights with Crazy Horse...He has from 2000 to 3500 warriors when together, as they were at Rosebud and the Little Big Horn, and he is the one Spotted Tail will...induce to come in..."
Schwatka (1849-1892), grew up in Oregon, attended West Point, then served with the 3rd Cavalry at various posts in Indian territory. In 1878-1880 he and a partner, the journalist William Gilder, with the sponsorship of the American Geographical Society, mounted an important arctic exploration and found the remains of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition. In later years, Schwatka mapped the Yukon River and carried out other explorations.