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Authors: Terry C. Johnston

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BOOK: Wolf Mountain Moon
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for all his enthusiastic assistance
helping me write
the past four Plainsmen novels,
the dedication of this novel to
the widely respected National Park Service historian
and published Indian Wars authority
Jerome A. Greene
is long overdue

Cast of Characters

Seamus Donegan                                          Samantha Donegan

Military

Brigadier General George C. Crook—Department of the Platte

Colonel William B. Hazen—commanding Sixth U.S. Infantry, Fort Buford, M.T.

Colonel Nelson A. Miles—commanding Fifth U.S. Infantry, Tongue River Cantonment, M.T.

Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie—commanding Fourth U.S. Cavalry

Lieutenant Colonel Elwell S. Otis—Twenty-second U.S. Infantry

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Whistler—Fifth U.S. Infantry

Major Alfred L. Hough—Seventeenth U.S. Infantry, commanding at Glendive Cantonment

Major Henry R. Tilton—Surgeon, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Major Edwin F. Townsend—Commanding Officer, Fort Laramie, W.T.

Captain Charles J. Dickey—E Company, Twenty-second Infantry

Captain Ezra P. Ewers—E Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain—Randall—Quartermaster, Fifth U.S. Infantry, Tongue River Cantonment, M.T.

Captain Wyllys Lyman—I Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain James S. Casey—A Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain Andrew S. Bennett—B Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain Edmond Butler—C Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain Simon Snyder—F Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Captain Edwin Pollock—Ninth U.S. Infantry, commander of Reno Cantonment

First Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin—Fifth U.S. Infantry

First Lieutenant Cornelius C. Cusick—F Company, Twenty-second Infantry

First Lieutenant Mason Carter—K Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

First Lieutenant George W. Baird—regimental adjutant, Fifth U.S. Infantry

First Lieutenant Robert McDonald—D Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Second Lieutenant Russell H. Day—Sixth U.S. Infantry, commanding garrison at Fort Peck

Second Lieutenant David Q. Rousseau—G Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Second Lieutenant William H. Wheeler—Eleventh U.S. Infantry

Second Lieutenant Frank S. Hinkle—H Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Second Lieutenant Charles E. Hargous—Fifth U.S. Infantry, commanding mounted infantry to Wolf Mountain

Second Lieutenant Hobart K. Bailey—Fifth U.S. Infantry, aide-de-camp to Miles

Second Lieutenant James Worden Pope—E Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry, commanding Rodman gun

Second Lieutenant Edward W. Casey—Twenty-second U.S. Infantry, assisting Pope's artillery detail: in charge of Napoleon gun

Second Lieutenant Oscar F. Long—Fifth U.S. Infantry, acting engineering officer

Second Lieutenant William H. C. Bowen—Fifth U.S. Infantry, in charge of supply wagons

Second Lieutenant James H. Whitten—I Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry, in charge of pack animals

Trumpeter Edwin M. Brown

Private Thomas Kelly—I Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Private Richard Bellows—E Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Private Philip Kennedy—C Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry Private

Patton G. Whited—C Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

Assistant Surgeon Louis S. Tesson

Civilians

Thomas J. Mitchell—agent at Fort Peck

Elizabeth Burt

Martha Luhn

Nettie Capron

Army Scouts

Johnny Bruguier / “Big Leggings”
 
Luther S. (Sage) “Yellowstone” Kelly
 
Robert Jackson
William Jackson
Victor Smith
John Johnston
George Johnson
James Parker
William Cross
Jim Woods
Tom Leforge
Joe Culbertson
Edward Lambert
George Boyd

Left Hand—Yanktonai scout for Baldwin on Fort Peck expedition

Buffalo Horn—Bannock scout for Miles on Wolf Mountain Campaign

Lakota

Sitting Bull
Gall
Three Bears
Little Big Man
Pretty Bear
Foolish Thunder
White Bull
Bull Eagle
Small Bear
Touch-the-Clouds
Roman Nose
Spotted Elk
Red Horse
Tall Bull
Packs the Drum / “Sitting Bull the Good”
 
Yellow Eagle
Foolish Bear
Important Man
Long Dog
Black Moon
Little Knife
Crow
Spotted Blackbird
Iron Dog
Yellow Liver
Four Horns
Red Horn
Drag
Hollow Horns
White Horse
Red Horses
Fat Hide / Fat on the Beef
The Yearling
Lame Red Skirt / Red Cloth
Lone Horn
Bad Leg
No Neck
Long Feather
Rising Sun
Jumping Bull
Black Shawl
Crazy Horse
Runs-the-Bear
He Dog
Hump
Long Hair
 

Cheyenne
“Tse-tsehese-staeste”
“Those Who Are Hearted Alike”

White Bull
Wooden Leg
Black Moccasin (Limber Lance)
Yellow Weasel
Black Hawk
Yellow Hair
Big Crow
Crow Split Nose
Sits in the Night
Morning Star
Little Wolf
Old Bear
Young Two Moon
Beaver Claws
Left-Handed Wolf
Beaver Dam
Big Horse
Crow Necklace
Gypsum
Brave Wolf
High Wolf
Box Elder
Coal Bear
Long Jaw
Medicine Bear
 

Cheyenne Party Captured by Miles's Scouts

Old Wool Woman / Sweet Taste Woman
 
Crooked Nose Woman
Fingers Woman
Twin Woman
Crane Woman
Red Hood
Black Horse

Crow

Half Yellow Face
Old Bear

Assiniboine

White Dog

Casualties:

*
Private William H. Batty—C Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

*
Corporal Augustus Rothman—A Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

*
/
†
Private Bernard McCann—F Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry

†
Sergeant Hiram Spangenberg—F Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry

†
Corporal Thomas Roehm—F Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

†
Private Henry Rodenburgh—A Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

†
Private George Danha—H Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

†
Private William H. Daily—D Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

†
Private —— McHugh—H Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

†
Private —— Simond—D Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry

*
—killed in action

†
partial listing of wounded in action

During the Indian Wars, the [Regular Army] soldier, isolated from his own people and faced by a skilled enemy, lived under conditions that would have broken the spirit of most groups. Badly armed and clothed, underfed and plopped into holes on the prairie, the soldier made do and “re-upped,” left the army after a single hitch, or deserted. It is most remarkable that they did not all desert.

—Neil Baird Thompson
   
Crazy Horse Called Them
   Walk-a-Heaps

The Sioux campaigns of 1876 were marked with few engagements, but those that did take place were conspicuous for the desperateness with which they were fought and the severe losses sustained. Nearly four hundred and fifty officers and men of the army were killed and wounded during the year…. The enemy's loss is now known to have been severe at the Rosebud, Little Big Horn, Slim Buttes and Bates Creek. But the far-reaching results of the campaigns extended beyond the consideration of how many were killed and wounded. They led to the disintegration of many of the hostile bands of savages, who gladly sought safety upon the reservations and who have not since attempted any warlike demonstrations.

—George F. Price
   
Across the Continent with
   the Fifth Cavalry

Desperate, hungry, and weary of fighting, the rapidly weakening Indian coalition rallied one last time at Wolf Mountains, when the soldiers threatened the sanctity of their homes. But for the Sioux and Cheyennes, offensive warfare was over. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse never again united. Instead, the disintegration of the massive Indian resistance was finally at hand. As Miles averred, “We … had taught the destroyers of Custer that there was one small command that could whip them as long as they dared face it.”

—Jerome Greene
   
Yellowstone Command

It is the opinion of some who had had years of experience in Indian fighting, that there has rarely, if ever, been a fight before in which the Sioux and Cheyennes showed such determination and persistency, where they were finally defeated.

—Captain Edmond Butler
   “Army and Navy Journal”
   March 31, 1877

If a Crazy Horse camp could be struck, where would the people be safe?

—Man Sandoz
   
Crazy Horse—Strange Man of
   the Oglala

Foreword

BOOK: Wolf Mountain Moon
4.34Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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