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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Maps
Cast of Characters
Epigraphs
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Epilogue
Afterword
Overwhelming Acclaim for the Work of Terry C. Johnston
The Plainsmen Series by Terry C. Johnston
About the Author
Copyright
With my heartfelt respect and admiration
for the warrior that is within him,
with my deepest appreciation
for all that he has taught me,
and with my deepest affection
for him and all that he has helped me see …
I dedicate this novel on the end of
the Great Sioux War
to my spiritual mentor, my Minnicoujou Lakota guide,
to my beloved kola,
Steve Emery—
Mato Tanka
Ashes of Heaven
Cast of Characters
Seamus Donegan
Samantha Donegan
Colin Teig Donegan
Civilians
Nettie Capron
John Collins—
contract trader at Fort Laramie
Luther S. “Yellowstone” Kelly
Johnny Bruguier—
called “Big Leggings” by the Lakota and “White” by the Cheyenne
William Rowland/“Long Knife”
Willis Rowland/“High Forehead”
Robert Jackson
Dr. Van Eman—
civilian contract surgeon, Lame Deer Expedition
Military
General William Tecumseh Sherman—
General of the Army
Lieutenant General Philip H. Sheridan—
Commander, Division of the Missouri
General Alfred H. Terry—
Commander, Department of Dakota
Colonel Nelson A. Miles—
Commanding Officer, Fifth U.S. Infantry
Major Andrew W. Evans—
Third U.S. Cavalry, Post Commander, Fort Laramie
Major Frank Brisbin—
Second U.S. Cavalry
Major Benjamin Card—
Quartermaster, Department of Dakota
Captain Ezra P. Ewers—
E Company, Fifth U.S. Infantry (given command of the newly mustered Crow scouts)
Captain Charles W. Miner—
G Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry
Captain DeWitt C. Poole—
H Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry
Captain Charles J. Dickey—
Company E, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry (given battalion command of the pack-train)
Captain George L. Tyler—
F Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Captain James N. Wheelan—
G Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Captain Edward Ball—
H Company, Second U.S. Cavalry (in command of the mounted battalion)
Captain Randolph Norwood—
L Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Captain Andrew S. Bennett—
Company. B, Fifth U.S. Infantry
Lieutenant Charles A. Woodruff—
Company B, Fifth U.S. Infantry
Lieutenant Charles E. Hargous—
Company H, Fifth U.S. Infantry
Lieutenant Oskaloosa M. Smith—
H Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry
Lieutenant Cornelius Cusick—
F Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry
Lieutenant Benjamin C. Lockwood—
G Company, Twenty-second U.S. Infantry
Lieutenant Oscar F. Long—
Fifth U.S. Infantry, Acting Engineering Officer to Lame Deer Expedition
First Lieutenant Samuel T. Hamilton—
L Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
First Lieutenant George W. Baird—
Adjutant to Colonel Nelson A. Miles, Fifth U.S. Infantry
First Lieutenant Paul R. Brown—
Assistant Surgeon, Lame Deer Expedition
Second Lieutenant Edward W. Casey—
Twenty-second U.S. Infantry (commanding a detachment of mounted infantry and Cheyenne scouts)
Second Lieutenant Charles B. Schofield—
L Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Second Lieutenant Alfred M. Fuller—
F Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Second Lieutenant Lovell H. Jerome—
H Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Second Lieutenant Samuel R. Douglass—
Seventh U.S. Infantry (battalion quartermaster the Second U.S. Cavalry)
Sergeant John F. McBlain—
L Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Charles Shrenger—
Fifth U.S. Infantry, orderly to Colonel Nelson A. Miles
Private William Leonard—
L Troop, Second U.S. Cavalry
Cheyenne
TSE-TSEHESE-STAESTE “THOSE WHO ARE HEARTED ALIKE.”
Old Wool Woman (Sweet Taste Woman)
Antelope Woman
Twin Woman Crane Woman Red Hood (Red Hat)
Crooked Nose Woman
Fingers Woman
Black Horse
OLD MAN CHIEFS:
Morning Star
Little Wolf Black Moccasin (Limber Lance)
Old Bear
COUNCIL CHIEFS:
Crazy Mule
Old Wolf
White Bull (Ice)
Last Bull
Wrapped Hair
Two Moon
Wild Hog
Left Handed Shooter
Bear Who Walks on a Ridge (Ridge Bear)
Medicine Bear
Wooden Leg
Tall White Man
White Hawk
Old Man Coyote
Little Creek
Buffalo Calf
Snow Bird (White Bird)
Strong Left Hand (Strong Left Arm)
Crazy Mule
Young Little Wolf
Iron Shirt
Standing Elk
Crazy Head—Council Chief
Old Wolf—Council Chief
White Elk
Bobtail Horse
White Thunder
Black Bear
Sleeping Rabbit
Brave Wolf
Roan Bear
Little Wolf—Sweet Medicine Chief
Morning Star
Old Bear
Coal Bear—Sacred Hat Priest
Sacred Hat Woman
Black Wolf
American Horse
Black Eagle
Turkey Leg
White Clay
Broken Jaw
Wolf Medicine
Plenty Bears
Beaver Claws
Red Owl
Tangle Hair
Magpie Eagle
Sits Beside His Medicine
Weasel Bear
White Wolf
Howling Wolf
Fast Whirlwind
Sits in the Night
Walks on Crutches
Spotted Wolf
Elk River
Crow Split Nose
Goes After Other Buffalo
Spotted Elk
Big Horse
Lame Dog
Lakota
Crazy Horse (Tsunke Witko)
Sitting Bull
He Dog
Four Horns
Lame Deer—Mnikowoju chief
No Neck
Little Big Man
Hump (High Backbone)
Horse Road—Hump’s brother
Iron Star (Big Ankle?)—Lame
Deer’s nephew
Touch the Clouds
Red Bear
Roman Nose
High Bear
Casualties
KILLED IN ACTION:
Private Charles Shrenger—
H Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Frank Glackowsky—
F Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Charles A. Martindale—
R Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Peter Louys—
H Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Lame Deer
Iron Star
Heart Ghost
Shorty
WOUNDED IN ACTION:
Trumpeter William C. Osmer—
F Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Samuel Freyer—
F Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Andrew Jeffers—
G Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Patrick Ryan—
G Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Thomas B. Gilmore—
H Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private David L. Brainard—
L Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private William Leonard—
L Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private Frederick Wilks—
L Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
ARMY-NAVY JOURNAL quoted H.Q., Second U.S. Cavalry, in listing two more wounded:
Private John O’Flynn—
F Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Private John W. Jones—
F Company, Second U.S. Cavalry
Lieutenant Alfred M. Fuller—
Second Cavalry
Sergeant——Sharp—
Second Cavalry
In fact, the Great Sioux War was the only conventional war the army ever fought against the trans-Mississippi Indians. It was the type of conflict these Civil War veterans were supposedly used to, where large massed bodies of troops maneuvered for control of battlefields. Reynolds, Crook, and Custer were simply outmaneuvered and defeated in quite conventional battles. It was only when the military could return to the harassing tactics employed so successfully in the Red River War that the Indians were defeated by starvation and exhaustion.
—Paul Andrew Hutton
Phil Sheridan and His Army
Hon. George W. McCrary, Secretary of War,
… I now regard the Sioux Indian problem, as a war question, as solved by the operations of General Miles last winter, and by the establishment of the two new posts on the Yellowstone, now assured this summer. Boats come and go now, where a year ago none would venture except with strong guards. Wood-yards are being established to facilitate navigation, and the great mass of the hostiles have been forced to go to the agencies for food and protection, or have fled across the border into British Territory.
—William Tecumseh Sherman
General of the Army
July 17, 1877
[Lame Deer’s] band commenced to surrender, in small squads from two to twenty, immediately thereafter, until at length, on the 10th of September, the last of the band, numbering 224, constantly followed and pressed by troops from the command of Colonel Miles, surrendered at Camp Sheridan. The Sioux war was now over.
—Philip H. Sheridan
Lieutenant General
October 25, 1877
The Lame Deer fight was the last battle. For better or worse, the only remaining free-roaming band was now as destitute as the rest and would have no other choice but to go into the agencies and surrender.
The Great Sioux War was over.
—Charles M. Robinson, III
A Good Year to Die
Prologue
Tioheyunka Wi
1877
“Crazy Horse!”
The first time he heard his name drift up from below, he thought it was nothing more than the cold, harsh whisper of the winter wind taunting him where he sat on an outcrop of rimrock overlooking the valley of the Buffalo Tongue River. The wind always howled and snarled in this country near the foot of the White Mountains.*
Here at last, near the mouth of Prairie Dog Creek, the camp’s hunters had stumbled across a few poor buffalo.
“Tsunke Witko!” repeated the faint, distant voice, reverberating a little within the rocks this time.
He knew it was not the wind.
This strange man of the Oglalla looked down, tugging some of his long, brown, wavy hair from his eyes. He had never worn it in braids, never adorned it with anything more than a feather, two feathers at the most. Below him among the rocks and the dirty snow and scrub cedar he spotted movement. The figure of a man took form. He stopped, heaving for breath from the climb, then called out again.
“Crazy Horse! Are you here?”
Slowly, reluctantly, the strange one held up his outstretched arm and waved it side to side. In that hand he gripped the small personal pipe he had come here to smoke among these sacred rocks of the earth, alone. During the Moon of Frost in the Lodge, he often walked away from camp to visit these high places where the wind blew cold, where he could smoke and think. Here he could pray.
But few answers came.
Below him now he made out He Dog’s face.
“I am here,” Crazy Horse said, hollow with despair that he had been found, and with a sour resignation that his old friend had come looking for him.
Why didn’t these people just let him be? Why did this band of Hunkpatila Oglalla still depend upon him? No longer was he a Shirt-Wearer. After he had run off with Black Buffalo Woman, No Water came searching for them and Crazy Horse had been stripped of his shirt. Yet the chiefs chose no one to wear the shirt after Crazy Horse lost his honor for taking another man’s woman. Only He Dog continued in the old way of the Shirt-Wearers.
A life that was dying.
“I followed your tracks,” He Dog gasped breathlessly when he was close enough to speak without shouting.
For a moment Crazy Horse watched his old friend scrambling among the rocks in his wet, buffalo-hide winter moccasins.
“I did not hide my coming here.”
He Dog dusted the icy snow from his hands, tightened the blanket he had belted around his shoulders, then settled back against the rock an arm’s length from Crazy Horse. He looked around and sighed, “You come to be among the stones and high places more than you are among your people these days.”
“Those people do not need me,” he answered with a bitter sadness, staring at the snowy heights of the White Mountains. “They no longer need warriors.”
“Your people sti
ll look to you.”
His eyes locked on He Dog’s. “If I choose to lead them in to the White River Agency,* will they follow me?”
He Dog nodded. “They will follow.”
The Horse gazed at his old friend a moment, then looked away again. “And if I choose to stay away from the white man’s agency … who then will they follow?”
“These people will follow you, no matter the path you take.”
Sadly, Crazy Horse remembered, “Last winter you started south with your family, He Dog—”
“It was a mistake.”
Crazy Horse studied the man’s eyes a moment, realizing how his friend must have felt: reluctantly leading his relations south for the agency with some of Old Bear’s Shahiyela* when the soldiers attacked them on the Shifting Sands River,† starting a long and terrible year of fighting.
The Horse went back to gazing at the distant bulk of the mountains. “You must realize I leave the camps to get away from the dark, hollow-eyed hunger that has sunken into the faces of the women who suffer in silence,” he whispered against the rising whine of the cold wind. “I walk into these hills so that I do not have to listen to the little ones whimpering at the pain in their empty bellies.”