The Battle of Tongue River Happened in August of 1865

Over 150 years ago, the Connor Battle, also called the Battle of Tongue River, took place on August 29, 1865, near the present-day town of Ranchester. There is now state park on the site with a monument to General Connor.

The battle came about when, on August 28, the famous frontier scout Jim Bridger saw the smoke of an Indian village. Frank North and two Pawnee scouts were sent out to find the village. The next morning, Connor lead a charge on the Indians, and caught them unprepared for an attack. The Indians turned out to Arapaho, who, at the time, were not considered hostile to the whites.

The Sheridan Daily Enterprise, on Saturday, June 8, 1912 had a report about the dedication of the monument to General Connor, which took place on June 2, 1912. The article gave an account of the battle.

The Story of Battle. Coming now to the memorial battle when General Connor and his command encountered the Indians at this point, a fast and furious fight began at 9 a.m. and ended at about 12:30 p.m., after pursuing the Indians up Wolf Creek. The hostiles, about 700 in number, were Arapahos under Chief Black Bear and Old David. Some 60 odd Indians were killed, including a son of Black Bear. 250 lodges and winter supplies were destroyed and large qualities of buffalo robes and furs, along with lodge poles and coverings were piled and burned. Upon one of these piles the dead were place and burned to keep the Indians from mutilating them. About 1100 ponies were captures.

From Captain Palmer’s report, I can only give the following names of the officers engaged in this fight. We hope to obtain a full list of every officer and man engaged in this battle. There were about 400 soldiers and scouts and eighty Indian scouts engaged. Brig. Gen. Patrick E. Connor, commanding.

He named several of the soldiers involved in the battle. The article continues, Attached to General Connor’s command were the following, Jim Bridger, one of the most famous men of his kind today; and Captain Frank North who was in command of the Pawnee Indian scouts. There was a remarkable array of brave famous men. So, it will be seen on one side a brave, fearless, determined body of men, and on the other, a hostile band of warriors, who take place and record among the bravest.

I will not attempt to dwell upon the details of this battle but suffice to say that it deserves its place among the notable battles fought upon the Indian frontier. We should by all rights pay great honor and tribute to the valor of those engaged in Indian warfare. It also becomes us to recognize the virtues as well of our (sic) adversaries.

Retrospectively, before the advent of civilization upon this continent, the North American Indians were indeed a remarkable race. Historians will live the facts ultimately of the glory and honor of our historical events but I doubt if the historian is yet born, who will give proper place in history to the Indian.

Their lives at that time constituted a socialism of our very imperfect civilization Their moral code would cause modern civilization in many ways to blush. They were a happy, contented race. They, too, loved their women and children, and brutality among them was almost unknown. They constituted the most unique feature of the history of the American continent.

Their entrance we know not of, but their exit is a tragedy being enacted upon the stage of civilization and we are some of the dramatic personae. The tragedy of a dying race! What an epitaph written, what an epitaph to be written, what a requiem to be chanted.

Quoting from a poem recently published, I Quote: ‘Great Spirit, who made for us the broken jug of yesterday has flown. We die. Is this the end to which our wide trail winds. We must pass on. Behold for us the grave is dug.‘

At the dedication of the monument to General Connor at Ranchester last Sunday Senator S. H. Hardln was the speaker of the day. The festivities were held at the O-Four-Bar Park close to Ranchester. The senator in his usual pleasing and versatile manner had the rapt attention of old and young alike in delivering the following address:

“Ladies and Gentlemen and Fellow Countrymen: We are assembled today upon this historic spot for the purpose of paying homage and tribute to our dead soldiers and their living comrades in arms, who participated in a memorable battle upon this ground, August 29, 1865. We are also here to dedicate a monument to Brevet Major General Patrick E. Connor, his officers and men who were engaged in this battle.

“We also take this occasion to formally open, for the pleasure and entertainment of the people generally this beautiful park, which, in point of natural charm, is hard to surpass. Our motives today are to be ranked among the most worthy callings that can fall to our lot to perform, namely, deference, honor and glory for our dead and living soldiers, and to install happiness, pleasure and entertainment for the people.

“In establishing the landmarks that will identify the trails of the earliest explorers, the overland trails and other historic spots that are interwoven in the very earliest history of this territory.

“We also deeply appreciate the presence of the officers and men of our national troop without which this dedication of a monument to a distinguished solider and his gallant command would be sadly Incomplete. Therefore, their presence and these military honors are very much in place and it would be sadly remiss if soldiers were not present on this occasion.

“Turning to a condition of affairs in 1865 that made the battle upon this ground a necessity. In speaking of the so-called Powder River campaign, which left of Fort Laramie for this county under the command of brigadier General Connor on July 30, 1865.

“Coutant, in his history of Wyoming, says: “’No fact in history has been more observed than the operations of General Connor in the Powder River country,’ meaning all of this country as well.‘

“A careful search among the records of the war department makes it clear that there are no official reports on file there pertaining to this expedition, excepting those relating to the right column, which was commanded by Col. Nelson Cole. It has always been supposed that General Connor made his official report, but it now transpires he never did.” (Charles G. Coutant wrote “The History of Wyoming” using the old records and documents, in 1899)

(The article went on to say that Conner, smarting over the injustice done to him, boxed up the papers and sent them Salt Lake City, planning to go over the papers and make his report at a later date. However, the building where the papers were stored was burned and the report was never written.)

“Therefore, we have but an incomplete roster of the officers and men under General Connor’s command engaged in this battle. These names are taken from a diary kept by the late Capt. H. E. Palmer, of General Connor’s command, who gives a very graphic account of this battle, which may be found in Coutant’s history of Wyoming.

“I will endeavor to explain the conditions that led to the vital difference of opinion as to the Indian policy of that time. On one side, far removed from Indian questions, were meddlesome fireside philanthropists, political intriguers, mixed with army commanders in the east. On the other side were practical common-sense commanders in touch with the very core of questions on the frontier. Of such were Generals Pope, Dodge and Connor.

“Instead of having a straightforward policy with the Indians, it was see-sawed into false promises, subterfuges and errors. Treaties were entered into and usually broken by our government. The Indians should have been treated justly and honestly but never as a treaty making power. This latter, in my opinion, was the prime error of our Indian policy.

In The Riverton Review, January 14, 1916, there is this article.

Leslie’s weekly of Dec. 30 a print on the page devoted to “events” of fifty years ago, a drawing which first appeared during the year 1866 showing the fight between Gen P. E. Connor’s soldiers and the Arapahoe Indians headed by Chief Medicine Man, which occurred on Tongue River, near the present site of Ranchester. A short description of the fight accompanies the drawing, the forces of General Connor being placed at 150 soldiers and a few Pawnee scouts. The Arapahoes were encamped on the river and were attacked by the soldiers at sunrise, after a forced march. The battle lasted for two hours, when the Indians fled leaving 60 dead on the field. The fleeing Indians were pursued for some miles and General Connor and every member of his staff were wounded more or less seriously during the engagement.—TheSheridan Post.

The Arapaho, angered by the attack, two days later killed Captain Osmer Cole, commander of the military escort for the Sawyers Expedition. Skirmishes continued along the Bozeman Trail until the treaty of 1868, when the trail and the forts along it were abandoned.

Years after the battle, The Laramie Boomerang, on August 16, 1894, ran this from The Sheridan Post: “Conductor J S Smith and a party of railroad men were in bathing one day last week near the mouth of Goose Creek and after completing their ablutions climbed to the top of the rocky point on the east side between Goose Creek and Tongue River in search of specimens. There, bleaching in the sun, they found the greater portion of a human skeleton, the skull and larger bones; the body being in a state of preservation. The remains are undoubtedly those of an Indian and probably a victim of the battle of 1865 between Connor’s expedition and the Indians, which was fought on the Tongue River a few miles above that point.”

An historic battle on the Tongue River happened over 150 years ago near Ranchester.