Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

Chapter 17: Indian Country Chaos

CHAPTER 17 INDIAN COUNTRY CHAOS WHILE WASHINGTON STRUGGLED to secure the Union in the aftermath of the Civil War, another arena of violent conflict was heating up in the West-the climax of the age-old struggle between the native American's survival and white society's expansion . William T. Sherman was the leading military man involved in trying to find a solution to the seemingly unsolvable problem. He faced it as he faced much else in his life: by trying to bring order to what he saw as an anarchic situation. The war for survival against and mastery of the native Americans had begun when the first European had set foot on this continent. The European colonists inexorably pushed the Indians back from the Atlantic coastline and quickly pursued them. Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren in the 1830s colonized the eastern tribes across the Mississippi River in land they told them was theirs forever. Leaving their ancestral homelands by way of the tragic Trail of Tears to become "civilized" in "the Great American Desert" was a horrible experience for these Indians. But at least their destination was to be their permanent home, a place where they would be free from further white pressure and forceful eviction.I American guarantees did not hold; the thirst for land was too great. White encroachment on Indian treaty lands began soon after the Indians arrived in their new homes. It continued through the Civil War and escalated after it as huge numbers of former soldiers, eager to start anew, moved West. Under the 377 SHERMAN --------------------------*-------------------------auspices of the Homestead Act of 1862, which promised 160 acres in return for five years of labor on the land, whites established farms and sheep and cattle ranches. Others searched for precious metals. Though in smaller numbers, newly freed blacks joined the westward movement. The railroad began to spiderweb the region, completing the long-held dream of a transcontinental route. Communities were founded and began to thrive. Alongside the influx of civilians came the military. More and more army forts dotted the countryside. The buffalo, the chief food and clothing supply for the Plains Indians, grew scarce as whites hunted it for profit and sport. The open West that had been promised to the Indians as a permanent home was rapidly being occupied by increasing numbers of white settlers. As more whites began to settle the West in the post-Civil War years, it became clear that the U.S. government could not tolerate a free Indian presence in the area, yet there was no new frontier to push them to. The treaties, negotiated as permanent, were now ignored or altered, and the Indians pushed onto reservations within specific boundaries. When whites encroached on these reservations, the government shifted the borders to meet their needs. The Indians, feeling betrayed, tried to preserve what little they had. In response, the government turned to the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior and to the U.S. Army to persuade the Indians or coerce them to acquiesce. It is not surprising that an enterprise so fraught with issues of legality, morality, and loyalty should engender conflict between the agents and the soldiers assigned to accomplish this task. In July 1865, when Sherman was placed in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi (in 1866 the name was changed to the Military Division of the Missouri), he had jurisdiction over an area that encompassed a huge chunk of what was Indian country--everything from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, except for Texas. He was pleased to be in the "Great West, where my heart has always been." Although he had to move to Washington, D.C., in 1869 when he became commanding general of the entire army, his interest remained on the frontier. No matter what else he was doing during these years, he hurried back to the trans-Mississippi as often as he could. Here was where a soldier should be--fighting an enemy, not engaged in bureaucratic political battles like those over Reconstruction.2 378 INDIAN COUNTRY CHAOS --------------------------*-------------------------The end of the Civil War resulted in a shift of focus for the army and a change in its perception by the public. The Confederacy was gone, so there was no longer need for a million-man force. But troops were still needed now to enforce Reconstruction and to...