Old Fort Snelling Part 5

There was need for sermons on intemperance. During the early years whiskey was issued as a part of the soldier's ration, and this only served to stimulate the desire for more. The cla.s.s of men in the army was not always of the highest, and there were enough civilians who were willing to pander to their appet.i.tes. The following extract from Taliaferro's diary for March 22, 1831, is undoubtedly characteristic of many a forgotten episode: "Nothing of importance transpired this day.

Two drunken Soldiers in crossing the SPeters broke through the Ice & were near being drowned. They were exceeding alarmed & made a hedious Noise & yelling for a.s.sistance--the men from the Fort relieved them although late at night." Not always was a.s.sistance on hand in such circ.u.mstances. A report was made in March, 1840, of a certain officer who "disappeared on the evening of the 5th of March, supposed to have been drowned by falling through the ice."[235]

Drunkenness and absence from roll-call were among the infractions of rules for which punishment was most often inflicted. The character and severity of the punishment depended upon the mood of the commanding officer. Colonel Snelling, who was usually a very gentle man, was particularly severe in his treatment of offenders. "He would take them to his room", wrote one who spent several years in the Snelling household, "and compel them to strip, when he would flog them unmercifully. I have heard them beg him to spare them, 'for G.o.d's sake.'"[236] This punishment by flogging was often performed with a "cat"--an instrument made of nine thongs about eighteen inches long, knotted in every inch, and attached to a small stick. When the culprit was stripped to the waist and tied to the flagstaff, the drummers took turns in applying the "cat" to the bare back.[237]

Other officers used less painful methods. Thus, Major Loomis was known as "Old Ring", since his favorite punishment was to place a log of wood upon the prisoner's shoulder and compel him to walk around and around in a circle under the vigilant eye of a sentinel. To Major John Bliss, who was in command at Fort Snelling from 1833 to 1836, the name "Black Starvation" might well have been applied. The negro servant, Hannibal, who clandestinely sold spruce beer to the soldiers was confined in the Black Hole for forty-eight hours; and Private Kelly, who refused to do his part in the fatigue party spent more than seventy-two hours in the Black Hole before the pangs of starvation persuaded him to promise Major Bliss to be good in the future.[238] On one occasion, which may be taken as typical of usual conditions, out of a total garrison of three hundred and twenty-nine, twenty-six were confined in prison. But at another time the commanding officer could report: "No Convicts at this Post".[239]

The severity of the military rules and the monotony of the life led to two undesirable consequences--mutinies and desertions. Of the former there is apparently no description, and the brief entry in Taliaferro's diary for February 3, 1831, leaves much to the imagination: "Mutiny of Most of the Troops of the 1st Infantry, Stationed at Fort Snelling this Morning".[240] What grievances led to the uprising on that wintry day, and by what diplomacy or by what punishments it was put down, are unrecorded.

Concerning the extent of desertions there is specific information regarding three years. Desertion was prevalent in the army at this time, and in order to provide methods of combating it the Secretary of War presented to Congress a great deal of information covering the years from 1823 to 1825.[241] During these three years there were stationed at Fort Snelling an aggregate of two hundred and fifty-one soldiers in 1823; three hundred and thirty-five in 1824; and two hundred and forty-six in 1825.[242] Of these, six deserted in 1823, eight in 1824, and twenty-nine in 1825. In this total of forty-three desertions, fifteen left in their first year of service, seventeen in the second, eighteen in the third, one in the fourth, and two in the fifth.

Interesting facts regarding the kind of men who lived at the old frontier post can be gleaned from the data presented. Most of them were between the ages of twenty-one and thirty. In occupation there were laborers, farmers, painters, shoemakers, papermakers, wheelwrights, jewellers, and brewers. Among these forty-three, twenty-six were born in the United States, five in Ireland, two in Scotland, one in France, one in Holland, and one in Canada.

The soldier who sought freedom by stealthily climbing over the stone wall of Fort Snelling and appropriating some canoe drawn up on the river bank, left monotony and discipline behind him; but in doing so he faced many dangers. There was no settlement nearer than Prairie du Chien--a military establishment. Indians were not afraid to injure those whom they knew to be deserters. A certain man by the name of Dixon who deserted was captured by Indians who brought him back to Fort Snelling and received a reward of twenty dollars. Dixon was court-martialed and sentenced to receive fifty lashes from the "cat" and then to be drummed out of the Fort.[243] Four soldiers who escaped were killed by the Indians of Red Wing's band, and their bodies were left on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Pepin, where they were later found half-eaten by the birds.[244]

Sickness and death reduced the number on duty at the post. From the doctor the sick received professional aid. In 1826 when the force at Fort Snelling amounted to three hundred and twenty-nine men there were in the hospital one subaltern, one non-commissioned officer, one musician, and fifteen privates. That Fort Snelling was at a healthful location is indicated by the fact that during the same period at Fort Atkinson, with a force of only one hundred more, there was a total of one hundred and twenty-five sick persons.[245]

The number of deaths was proportionately small. In the year ending on September 30, 1823, there was only one death; the next year the toll was the same; and in 1825 it amounted to five.[246] On the occasion of a funeral six men, detailed from those of the same rank as the deceased, carried the coffin to the little cemetery outside the fort. A salute was fired over the grave and the band played solemn music, the drums being covered with black crepe. The mounds in the cemetery, unmarked by any stones, were soon obliterated; but if the departed soldier had been a cheerful companion his barrack-songs were missed by his comrades, and many friends, half-way across a continent, would mourn for one who was lying in an unknown grave, "somewhere in the West".[247]

On account of monotonous drills and tedious routine, any pretext to go into the Indian country was hailed with delight. The bustle, excitement, and troubles connected with the departure of these expeditions are best described by Mrs. Seth Eastman, who as the wife of the commanding officer had often waved farewell to the departing company.[248]

"Now for excitement, the charm of garrison life. Officers are of course always ready to 'go where glory waits' them, but who ever heard of one being ready to go when the order came?

"Alas! for the young officer who has a wife to leave; it will be weeks before he meets again her gentle smile!

"Still more--alas for him who has no wife at all! for he has not a s.h.i.+rt with b.u.t.tons on it, and most of what he has are in the wash. He will have to borrow of Selden; but here's the difficulty, Selden is going too, and is worse off than himself. But no matter! What with pins and twine and trusting to chance, they will get along.

"Then the married men are inquiring for tin reflectors, for hard bread, though healthy, is never tempting. India rubber cloaks are in requisition too.

"Those who are going, claim the doctor in case of accidents. Those who stay, their wives at least, want him for fear of measles; while the disciple of Esculapius, though he knows there will be better cooking if he remain at home, is certain there will be food for fun if he go. It is soon decided--the doctor goes.

"Then the privates share in the pleasure of the day. How should a soldier be employed but in active service? besides, what a capital chance to desert! One, who is tired of calling 'All's well' through the long night, with only the rocks and trees to hear him, hopes that it will be his happy fate to find out there is danger near, and to give the alarm. Another vows, that if trouble wont come, why he will bring it by quarrelling with the first rascally Indian he meets. All is ready.

Rations are put up for the men;--hams, buffalo tongues, pies and cake for the officers. The batallion marches out to the sound of the drum and fife;--they are soon down the hill--they enter their boats; handkerchiefs are waved from the fort, caps are raised and flourished over the water--they are almost out of sight--they are gone."

Apart from these trips abroad and the stated drills and terms of guard duty the tasks which occupied the time of the soldiers depended upon the season of the year. A general order of September 11, 1818, had commanded the making of gardens at all the military posts.[249] In the fall of 1819 when the temporary cabins at New Hope Cantonment had been built, the soldiers began ploughing for the crop of the next summer.[250] Major Long, in 1823, found two hundred and ten acres under cultivation--one hundred of wheat, sixty of maize, fifteen of oats, fourteen of potatoes, and twenty acres in gardens.[251] All through the history of Old Fort Snelling the soldiers were employed as farmers. A visitor in 1852 observed that "its garrison is rather deficient in active employment, and we noticed a number of the rank and file taking exercise in a large corn and vegetable field attached to the Fort. It was certainly not exactly soldierly employment, but it was more manly, to our mind, than shooting and stabbing at $8 a month, and no question asked."[252]

For the horses and cattle kept at the fort a great deal of hay was necessary for the winter months. This was obtained from the broad prairies of the military reservation. A group of men called the "Hay Party" were employed during the summer in cutting and stacking the long gra.s.s. But one officer was of the opinion that this task caused discontent--the enlisted man was no more than a common laborer and hence he lost the pride of a soldier.

The diverse tasks at which a soldier might be called to labor are indicated by a summary of the employment of the troops in 1827. Seven soldiers were acting as teamsters, five were performing carpenters'

duties, two were quarrying stone, two men and a sergeant composed the party guarding the mills at the Falls of St. Anthony, and eight others were "Procuring forage by order of Col. Snelling".[253]

Summer brought its own pleasures as well as duties. At Lake Calhoun, Lake Harriet, Lake of the Isles, and Minnehaha Falls, many were the picnics held when visitors came to the garrison.[254] Swan, geese, and ducks were numerous about the lakes and swamps, and with the famous hunter H. H. Sibley as a guide, the game bags were soon filled. During a period of three years, Mr. Sibley, alone, shot 1798 ducks--a fact which indicates what success a soldier-sportsman could have in his few hours of recreation.[255]

But it was when the prairies were impa.s.sable because of drifts of snow from six to fifteen feet high,[256] and when the course of the river could be traced only by a streak of white between the gray of its wooded banks that there appeared those features which are peculiar to the life of a remote garrison. The isolation was almost complete. There was no traffic upon the frozen river, and the traders were wintering in the Indian villages. Only through the mail was communication with the outside world possible. It was planned to have a monthly mail service, soldiers being sent to Prairie du Chien with the letters. Here they delivered about two-thirds of the mail to the persons to whom it was addressed and the rest was deposited in the post office.[257]

In summer the mail was carried by the soldiers in canoes, but in winter the journey had to be made on foot. In summer the labor was lightened when a pa.s.sing steamer overtook the rowing soldiers and picked up the canoe with its crew. In winter no such aid was possible. A hard day's tramp was followed by a night among the drifts, unless the tepee of some friendly Indian gave a temporary respite for a few hours.[258]

Nor was this task free from perils. A system was arranged whereby a courier from Fort Snelling and one from Prairie du Chien set out at about the same time, meeting at Wabasha's village where the packs were exchanged and each returned to his own post. On one occasion a spring thaw overtook the carrier from Prairie du Chien, who had proceeded beyond the meeting place because the messenger from the north was late. Suddenly the ice groaned and cracked, and the postman with difficulty found safety on a small island where, to his great surprise, he found the postman from Fort Snelling who had been caught in the same manner. Their provisions soon gave out; for a while they had only rose-apples to eat. It was not until almost two weeks later that the two half-starved messengers were picked up by the canoes of some friendly Sioux.[259]

Such accidents rendered the mail service uncertain, and it was with impatience that the watchers at the fort looked down the river for the coming of the news-carriers. On April 2, 1831, Taliaferro wrote: "The Express departed--4 men in a Skiff--to convey the Mail to the Post Office at Prairie du Chiens--our return Express daily expected." But they hoped too early and on April 5th it was recorded that "Our Express--1st which left for Prairie du Chiens on the 2d of March--has now been Absent more than a Month & progressing in the Seccond. We have not had inteligence from Was.h.i.+ngton City--since the 6th of December last". Not until April 10th did the mail arrive. But even when the messengers were safe in the fort it was not certain that they brought what was so eagerly looked for, as the entry on February 27th clearly shows: "Lieut Williams & Mr Bailly returned this eveng from Prairie du Chiens but brought no Mail there having been no arrival since December."[260] It was during this winter that even Prairie du Chien was shut off from the outside, the amount of snow between Peoria and Prairie du Chien stopping the mail service for two months. Again and again during the winter months the commanding officer complained to headquarters that "no Orders have been received within the Month".[261]

The duties of the soldiers during the winter were few. From the time it was built up to 1833 the quarters at Fort Snelling were heated by fireplaces. At that time, however, stoves were subst.i.tuted.[262] Wood was used for fuel--to obtain which was a never-ending task in winter.

When Captain Seth Eastman was in command at various periods from 1844 to 1848 the garrison had to go from eight to ten miles for wood. The banks of the Minnesota River were bordered by a forest varying from one hundred to three hundred yards wide; but by 1858 all of this for a distance of twelve miles had been cleared off.[263]

Colonel John H. Bliss, who was a boy at Fort Snelling when his father was in command during the thirties, wrote that the winters "were undeniably tedious, but had their uses; we had a good library, and I read a great deal, which has stood by me well; then there was of course much sociability among the officers, and a great deal of playing of cards, dominoes, checkers, and chess. The soldiers, too, would get up theatrical performances every fortnight or so, those taking female parts borrowing dresses from the soldiers' wives, and making a generous sacrifice to art of their cherished whiskers and mustaches."[264]

During October, 1836, Inspector General George Croghan visited Fort Snelling, and on the evening of the seventh of the month the Thespian Players presented _Monsieur Tonson_ in his honor. And here, far from city streets and French barbers, on a rude stage, Jack Ardourly fell in love with the beautiful Adolphine de Courcy--who probably only a few hours before had been hurrying to finish a task of cleaning guns so that she could call on the generous women of the garrison and beg from them capes and bonnets and hoops skirts![265]

Many of the officers were graduates of West Point, and their wives were from the best families of the East and South. On January 20, 1831, the ladies and gentlemen of the garrison had a party at the fort. "The room was tastefully decorated--- and the evening pa.s.sed pleasantly". On February 22nd of the same year the quarters of the commanding officer were the scene of another party in commemoration of Was.h.i.+ngton's birthday.[266]

Efforts were made to provide for the education of the children of the fort. Mrs. Snelling at first taught her own children; but it is evident that there was soon a tutor, as the correspondence of Colonel Snelling shows that John Marsh received his board and seventy-five dollars for acting as tutor during the winter of 1823-1824. This schoolmaster also carried the mail to Prairie du Chien in return for forty dollars.[267] Soon after the appointment of a regular chaplain in 1838 the post school was more thoroughly organized.[268]

Occasionally there was some excitement at the fort. During the month of February in 1831 there was an epidemic of fires. First, the officers row of buildings caught on fire in the room of Lieutenant Greenough on February 10th. On the next day a second fire broke out; and on February 24th the agency house took fire both from the inside and the outside in such a manner that it was evident that an incendiary had been at work.[269]

But such events were of unusual occurrence. A letter written at Fort Snelling on February 11, 1842, pictures the usual winter life. "We of the garrison are as usual at this season rather dull, stale & unprofitable--small parties for Tea are a good deal the fas.h.i.+on, & tattle is used as formerly. Indian Ball plays are coming in season. One comes off today in which stacks of property are to be invested. The Sioux have been hunting about Rum River this winter and have killed great numbers of Dear--Our winter has been mild, one day only 30 below zero, and the rest comfortable.... Tonight Mumford gives a Soiree to the good folks of the garrison and this is the most exciting event of the week. What is the use of writing to you as I cannot find enough wherewith to fill two pages."[270]

Such close confinement was tolerable when the garrison was composed of congenial spirits, but occasionally it brought about dissensions and quarrels. Taliaferro on one occasion wrote that the "Society here is not in the most pleasant State from a System of tatling which has been reduced to a Science--not to be envied."[271]

Occasionally open encounters took place. One soldier stabbed another with a butcher's knife, and the victim died.[272] In February, 1826, two officers of the garrison engaged in a duel.[273] Even those in authority were not free from partic.i.p.ation in these "affairs of honor". A certain young officer challenged Colonel Snelling, and upon his refusing, his son, William Joseph Snelling, accepted and was slightly wounded. When the officer was court-martialed he accused one of the witnesses of being an infidel. Whereupon the latter challenged the officer in his turn, and a second duel was fought--which was bloodless.[274]

With such conditions prevailing during the winter months it is no wonder that from day to day spring was eagerly looked for. Undoubtedly it was a happy occasion when the agent could record on the evening of Sunday, March 27, 1831, that the weather was "more pleasant--Wild geese seen this day--gentlemen generally [illegible] out and Walking--The Ladies also".[275] It meant a speedy return of summer pleasures and summer visitors. For when, even at a remote military post did these fail as three sure signs of spring--pleasant weather, flocks of geese, and ladies and gentlemen out walking together?

They were very human, those men and women of Old Fort Snelling.

VII

THE FORT AND INDIAN LIFE

It was a humane but visionary plan which Reverend Jedidiah Morse in 1822 presented to the Secretary of War as the correct method of procedure in the task of civilizing the Indians. At various centers in the Indian country were to be established "Education Families"--groups of honest, industrious whites who were to have houses and farms, where the natives could observe their activities. And without any forcing it was expected that the red men, seeing the superior advantages of civilization, would be themselves gradually transformed.[276]

To the north and east of Fort Snelling was the home of the Chippewa or Ojibway Indians--extending from the Mississippi to the Great Lakes. To the west, on the great prairies, the Dakota, or Sioux Indians lived and hunted. The veteran missionary, S. W. Pond, estimated that the five bands of Sioux, which most often came into direct touch with the government at Fort Snelling, numbered in 1834, seven thousand, and wandered over southern Minnesota and South Dakota, near the lakes of Big Stone and Traverse.[277] Major Taliaferro reported in 1834 that the number of Indians in his agency was 6721, and that they extended as far as the Sheyenne fork of the Red River.[278] To one man, the agent, was given the task of civilizing these thousands of Sioux. While it was for this tribe that the agency at Fort Snelling was established, yet the Chippewas often frequented its headquarters. One hundred and seventy warriors of these northern Indians arrived at the agent's house on the evening of August 4, 1830.[279] The presence of these red men more than doubled the work of the agent, because there was now the difficulty of keeping peace between two warring tribes.

Indian life was not so worthless as sometimes pictured. It is true that one could see laziness and poverty during the months of January and February, if he came upon an Indian village pitched near a wooded slope and above a frozen stream. There could be seen the smoke curling from the dingy tepee, the women dragging home wood for the ever-diminis.h.i.+ng pile outside the door, and a few of the hardier men fis.h.i.+ng through holes in the ice. About the tepee the snow was banked, and within the air was warm and heavy from the open fire and the long pipes of the reclining braves, who gambled with their neighbors at the game of "the shot and the mitten".

Thus through the two stormy months the Indians frittered away the time, eating their corn and wild rice seasoned with tallow. But when the first thaws of spring caused the sap in the maple trees to run, and when some of the more venturesome came back from a winter visit to the trading house with the word that the trader was waiting for skins in return for the blankets and ammunition he had given them the preceding fall, the village divided--part going to the sugar bush, and part going to the prairie lakes and swamps for muskrats. In May they returned on the swollen streams with heavily freighted canoes to their villages of bark houses. During the summer there were many tasks--blue berries to be gathered in the woods, canoes to be built, tepees to be repaired, turnips to be dug, and pipestone to be brought from the far distant quarry. All through the hot months the women toiled in the corn fields; and when the corn was in the milk, all the village children screamed and waved their arms to frighten away the blackbirds. When the harvest had been carefully placed in bark barrels and buried, part of the village had already left to hunt the fox or gather wild rice along the lakes and cranberries in the marshes.

And now came October and the deer hunt. There were only the extremely old people and the invalids to wave good-bye as the procession set out over the prairie--old men who could scarcely walk, bands of shouting children, hunters already on the alert, women with their bundles, and horses and dogs dragging on two poles the provisions and the skins of the tepees. For more than two months the program was the same: the march through the drifts and across the icy rivers, the morning council about a blazing fire before scattering over the prairie, and the triumphal return of the successful hunter at evening with the carca.s.s of a bear, deer, or elk, across his shoulders and his name shouted through the camp by the children gathered to welcome him. By January they were all back again at their villages.[280]

It was this scheme of life which was to be gradually transformed. There were, of course, variations when war parties crept against the Chippewas, when drunken debaucheries resulted from a keg of whiskey that had escaped the vigilant eyes of the soldiers, and when migrations to the Canadian posts were prompted by the hope that there they could obtain enough supplies to support them without work and that there they could enjoy some ceremony to break the monotony of life. But these migrations were few on the part of the Sioux: they could enjoy councils just as good near home.

On the occasion of a visit to Old Fort Snelling and the agency near by, the authorities were careful to see that there was a due amount of ceremony. Probably a whole band of Indians would come down from the headwaters of the Minnesota River. Their chiefs and braves gathered in the log Council Hall, and there took place the scene so picturesquely described by the eccentric traveller, J. C. Beltrami.

"The council-hall is, as it ought to be, a great room built of trunks of trees. The flag of the United States waves in the centre, surrounded by English colours, and medals hung to the walls. They are presented by the Indians to their _Father_, the agent, as a proof that they abjure all cabal or alliance with the English. Pipes, or calumets and other little Indian presents, offered by the various tribes as pledges of their friends.h.i.+p, decorate the walls and give a remarkable and characteristic air to the room." The dignitaries of the post are seated about a table and the braves recline upon the ground during the council.

"The _seance_ opens with a speech of the chief, who rises and addresses the agent. He generally begins with the Great Spirit, or the sun, or the moon 'whose purity is equalled by that of his own heart,' &c. &c. always finis.h.i.+ng with a pet.i.tion for presents;--_whiskey_ is sure to find honourable mention: these are what English lawyers call the _common counts_."[281]

After the reply of the agent the peace pipe was solemnly pa.s.sed from one to another, and the council ended with the distribution of presents.

These presents were of tobacco, gunpowder, vermilion, pipes, kettles, blankets, snuff-boxes, armbands, looking-gla.s.ses, horse bells, jews'-harps, ivory combs, and shawls.[282] Not the least popular of these were the jews'-harps, which had their uses--in spite of the sarcastic invective delivered against them by Senator Benton in 1822 when the abolition of the Factory System was being considered. "They were innocent", observed the Senator, "and on that account precisely adapted to the purposes of the superintendent, in reclaiming the savage from the hunter state. The first state after that, in the road to refined life, is the pastoral, and without music the tawny-colored Corydons and the red-skinned Amaryllises, '_recubans sub tegmine f.a.gi_,'