The Indian Fighting Army

The Legacy of the Civil WarPositive results• Technology

– Understanding of the railroad and steamboat, i.e. mobility.– Breach loading weapons.

• Dreyse cartridge; and bolt action rifle (Prussian, 1848)• Boxer cartridge: center fire v. rim fire (brass v.

copper)

– Repeating weapons• box magazines• bolt-action weapons adopted in Europe in the 1880's

The Legacy of the Civil WarPositive Results• Understanding of large-scale maneuver.• Professional focus.• Increasing professional interest:

– Prepares American officers to appreciate developments in Europe

– Branch associations and professional journals– Professional reading (required by the 1880's)

– Formation of the National Rifle Association• The National Match

• Concern for the efficiency of the Militia and the mobilization process.

The Legacy of the Civil War

Negative results• Personnel stagnation• Isolation and intellectual stagnation• Development of cliques.• Disdain for the militia and volunteer force, and civilians.• Fundamental belief that only the Regular Army was

competent to determine and manage US military policy.• Fundamental assumption that a truly professional Army

ought to function like the armies of Europe.

The Legacy of the Civil War

Universal Military Service

• The growth of the Prussian army and the development of the General Staff.

• The Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871.

Fact:The vast majority of the Army was deployed in the West.

Which West?

Trans-Mississippi West . . .

• The “Great American Desert”• “Wild” Indians• Cowboys and cattle• Mining, agribusiness, recreation

[ Our vision, then and now ]

Trans-Mississippi West . . . the Indians• Pueblo Indians in permanent settlements.• Most other tribes in semi-permanent

settlements.

• Spanish settlement • in the Rio Grande valley in the 17th century.• in California in the late 18th century.

1680: The horse transforms Indian civilization on the Great Plains . . .

U.S. Indian policy . . .• Transportation to the Trans-Mississippi “Indian

Territory.”• Concentration -- reservations.• Assimilation.

• Dawes-Severalty Act, 1887

aka, “General Allotment Act”

• Wheeler-Howard Indian Reorganization Act, 1934.

1887 - 138 million acres

1934 - 48 million acres

Sioux and N. Cheyenne

S. CheyenneComanche and KiowaNavaho

Apache

Nez Perce

Modoc

Indian Wars: Twelve Separate Campaigns,943 separate engagements

• Navaho Wars, 1846-1864• The Great Sioux War, 1862-1877• Modoc War, 1872-73• Red River War, 1874-1875• Nez Pierce War, 1877• Apaches (Geronimo), 1885-1886• Ghost Dance, 1890-1891

The Great Sioux War

• Major Sioux revolt in 1863.• Fetterman Massacre, 21 December 1866.• Sioux force withdrawal from Bozeman Trail in

1868. • Gold strike in Black Hills brings influx of

miners onto Indian land.• Battle of the Little Big Horn, 25 June 1876.

• Custer killed with 250 of his men.

Anti-Indian Tactics and Operations:(How to Fight Indians)

• Multiple columns focused toward a general area (led by Indian scouts).

• Winter the most effective campaigning season.• Locate the village.• Surround the village before first light.• Attack.

– Charge through the village– Engage by fire at ranges of up to 600 yards

• Objective: kill or capture the horse heard and destroy as much material as possible.

Army attitudes with regard to the Indians:

• Understanding but no respect.

• Darwinian vision: Indians were a form of proto-human.– (Army medical department collected heads.)

• Disdain for the "Peace Party" and the civilian Indian administration in general.

• Geronimo surrenders in 1886.

• Ghost Dance “uprising” in 1890-91.

An overwhelming feeling that what they were doing was not what "real"

soldiers ought to be doing.

QUESTION:

What is the function of a national military force??

Time for new policies . . .

What should our military policy be ?

What should our security policy be ?