While I have lived in Texas for nearly 50 years, I was born and grew to an adult in Kansas. When I tell someone of my origins, they almost always respond in one of two ways: “I have been there but I don’t remember much about it” or “that 400 mile drive across the state on Interstate 70 is really boring.” There is more to the state than that. The wheat grown there feeds the world, and the people are nice, but I will focus on the sometimes lawless history of the state.
Kansas achieved statehood in 1861, but it was far from civilized. From 1850 until 1900 the region was a frontier, and at the center of important events in US history: there was the westward movement of pioneers from Europe and the eastern US and the subsequent conflicts with Native Americans; the Santa Fe Trail crossed the state and the Pony Express and the Oregon Trail passed through a corner; there was a border war because Kansas was a free state and a center of the abolitionist movement, whereas neighboring Missouri was a slave state; and finally the several new railroads were extending westward into hostile territory and furthermore some of the railheads were the destinations of cattle drives from Texas. Each trackable in this series of metal travel bugs is named for towns with interesting histories (at least to me), some of which have connections to my youth.
On June 1, 1867, Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer left Fort Hays, with about 1,100 men of the Seventh Cavalry to quell Indian uprisings which were threatening the area. After patrolling north to Fort McPherson on the Platte River near present-day North Platte, Nebraska, he and his men headed south to the forks of the Republican River near Benkleman, Nebraska. During their patrol, the troops saw smoke signals during the day and flaming arrows at night, but did not engage in hostilities.
In the meantime, General William T. Sherman, who was then commanding the forces at Fort Sedgwick near Julesburg, Colorado, wished to send messages to Custer and soon dispatched 25 year-old Lieutenant Lyman S. Kidder of Company M, 2nd Cavalry, to find Custer and give him the messages.
Headed to where Custer and his men were believed to be encamped on the forks of the Republican River, some 90 miles southeast of Fort Sedgwick, Kidder, along with a ten-man patrol and a Sioux Indian Guide named Red Bead, left the fort on June 29th.
Kidder reached Custer's campsite on the evening of July 1st, but found it abandoned. Unknown to Fort Sedgwick, Custer had left the area, scouting further south, then northwest. In the moonlight, Kidder mistook a trail of a wagon train headed elsewhere for Custer's own trail. He and his men then followed the wrong path.
About noon the next day, a group of Lakota Indians discovered Kidder's party north of Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Republican River. The Lakota then alerted several nearby Cheyenne Indians and the warriors approached the soldiers. Seeing the Indians, Kidder and his troops veered off to the southeast, making for the valley of Beaver Creek, about 12 miles north of present-day Edson, Kansas. Some of the soldiers were shot on the way, but most made it to a defensive position in a small gully about 50 yards north of the creek. However, the Lakota dismounted and crept up on foot while the Cheyenne circled around the gully. The soldiers were hopelessly outnumbered. Kidder, all his men, and the Lakota scout were all killed, some having been tortured prior to their deaths, and their bodies mutilated and burned. Two of the Lakota were also killed in the foray, including Chief Yellow Horse.
In the meantime, Custer, having received no word from General William T. Sherman, as expected, began to move his troops toward Fort Sedgwick. Upon his arrival at Riverside Station some 40 miles to the west, he telegraphed the fort for new orders. It was then he learned that he had missed the Kidder patrol and concerned for their safety, he left immediately and headed back south. On July 12th, they came upon the decomposed bodies of Kidder and his party in the ravine. All had been scalped except the Indian guide.
I have often wondered what Custer thought when he came upon the scene. I also wonder if he flashed back when he was about to die in similar circumstances some nine years later.