American Indian Wars
There is perhaps a tendency to view the record of the military in terms of conflict, that may be why the U.S. Army’s operational experience in the quarter century following the Civil War became known as the Indian wars. Previous struggles with the Indian, dating back to colonial times, had been limited. There was a period where the Indian could withdraw or be pushed into vast reaches of uninhabited and as yet unwanted territory in the west. By 1865 the safety valve was fast disappearing. As the Civil War was closed, white Americans in greater numbers and with greater energy than before resumed the quest for land, gold, commerce, and adventure that had been largely interrupted by the war. The besieged red man, with white civilization pressing in and a main source of livelihood, the buffalo, threatened with extinction, was faced with a fundamental choice: surrender or fight. Many chose to fight, and over the next 25 years the struggle ranged over the plains, mountains, and the deserts of the American West. These guerrilla wars were characterized by skirmishes, pursuits, raids, massacres, expeditions, battles, and campaigns of varying size and intensity.
In May 1868, the army ordered the abandonment of all three forts. In the late summer of the same year, as the soldiers marched out from the posts, the Indians burned them to the ground. He was the first and only Bureau of Indian Affairs went along with and even encouraged the slaughter of the animals. By destroying the buffalo herds, the whites were destroying the Indian’s main source of food and supplies. The only thing the Indians could do was fight to preserve their way of life. 1862, 38 Sioux warriors were brought to a specially built gallows and hanged at the same time. Three of the leaders of the massacre had gotten away. Western Indian Chief to have won a war with the United States. When the army became more involved in the fighting, the Indians started to focus on the white soldiers. Prospectors poured onto Indian land, and under the leadership of Chief Bursting from their reservation, they killed more than 450 settlers in the region before they were defeated by a hastily assembled group of raw recruits led by Colonel Henry Sibley. Later the killing of the white settlers was described as "the most fearful Indian massacre in history. Four weeks after the rampage began, 2,000 Indian men, women and children surrendered, 392 prisoners were quickly tried and
Some topics in this essay:
Minnesota River,
Indian Affairs,
Civil War,
Little Horn,
Crazy Horse,
Red Cloud,
Creek December,
Red Cloud’s,
Fort Laramie,
Henry Sibley,
indian wars,
red cloud,
fort laramie,
white settlers,
white soldiers,
civil war,
crazy horse,
sitting bull,
american indian wars,
wagon trains,
colonel henry,
attacked wagon trains,
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Approximate Word count = 1569
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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