118
: A fine content group of thirteen letters, five of which are fully transcribed, written from fro...
Currency:USD
Category:Everything Else / Other
Start Price:NA
Estimated At:3,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2003 Mar 29 @ 13:00UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT
: A fine content group of thirteen letters, five of which are fully transcribed, written from frontier forts by Private Joseph Pulford of Company F, First U.S. Infantry. Pulford left his small town in New York to go West and seek his fortune as well as to escape what appears to have been an unwanted marriage due to an unforeseen pregnancy. These candid letters, written from various forts in the Dakota Territory, chronicle the rapid increase in hostilities between the soldiers and the Sioux Indians after Custer's expedition to the Black Hills in 1874 reported finding gold there. Sacred to the Sioux, these mountains had been specifically set aside for them in the Treaty of 1868. Thousands of miners encroached on Indian Territory, and the ensuing skirmishes escalated to all-out war, culminating in the death of Custer at Little Big Horn. Private Pulford, alias Charles Papner or Charles Tapner, wrote all of his letters using phonetic spelling, which has been corrected by us. In his first letter home Pulford informs his friends and relatives of the circumstances of his enlistment, in part:"...New Fort Brakes, Kentucky, June 24, [1874]...I did not have any money for the man I was to work for had cheated me out of a month's pay...I did not know what to do and they were enlisting men for the army...so I enlisted for a blacksmith. I have got to serve five years in the Army. The first of next month I will be sent out to Nebraskey Territory...I suppose that Lucy [his estranged wife] made a fuss when I left. I don't want you to let her know where I am, or anybody else, for when I enlisted I told them that all the family I had was in Cleveland and that I had no parents living. I gave them my name as Charles Papner...So remember that...Joseph D. Pulford...". Next, writting from Fort Sully, Dakota Territory, Pulford describes increasing tensions between the Sioux and the thousands of gold prospectors bearing down on their land, in part: "Dec. 11, 1874...Last week they was five men took out of each company and they were mounted on horses and they were sent up the river to Little Bend....They were joined with a lot of other soldiers and there they struck out across the country for the Black Hills...A lot of Citizens made up a wagon train and went to the hills to dig gold and the land belongs to the Indians...They look to the government for protection from the settlers..." On the following morning, Pulford writes: "...They say now that we will have to go out to the Black Hills in a few days to escort some wagons with rations for the boys that have gone out...There will be a good deal of trouble, both with the Indians and the settlers too...We would not be surprised to go out and fight Indians at any moment. They are getting hostile all over, and when we go out of the fort we have to look out for them...". Subsequent letters read: "...[Fort Sully, D.T., March 4, 1875]...Mother, I don't think that we shall ever meet again in this world...Again we are in danger of the Indians. They killed some men up the Grand River. They were out cutting some wood and they killed four of the men. It is getting so near spring that they are getting hostile...[Fort Sulley, Ap. 6th, 1875]...This is a wild country. The Indians...are getting hostile...most every day we hear of someone getting killed by them. They shot at one of our boys on the beef herd but he got away from them...[April 8, 1875]...Now there is a good deal of excitement about the Black Hills....We will have to go there this Spring, by the first of May...There is a company getting up in charge of 1000 men, and they are going to start for the Black Hills in April from Yankton [Pulford is referring to an expedition composed entirely of Custer's Seventh Cavalry, which left Yankton for the Black Hills on May 26th]...The Indians made a effort to take Grand River Agency. They killed...nine and wounded eight men on account of...not giving them their rations. They [the Sioux] are going to the Black Hills now and they say they will not let the miners go there. They will fight till they leave...and the government will have to help them, because where the gold mines are...is a reservation given to them by the Government, and if they let them go they will break their treaty...[April 1]0...Today the commanding officer got a dispatch from headquarters to send two companies accrost [sic] the river on the first boat to head off the miners from going to the Black Hills until the Government makes a new bargain with the Indians...". At this point the U.S. had tried to buy the Black Hills for six Million Dollars, but Red Cloud, the Sioux Chief, refused to accept the offer. As negotiations continued, the government continued to supply food rations to the Indians, and also made some efforts to keep the miners out of the Black Hills. Tensioned briefly lessened, as evidenced in Pulford's subsequent letter, written while several Sioux warriors were watching over his shoulder! In part:"...Crow Creek Agency, June 30, 1875...I am out on detached service down the river from Sully 30 miles above old Fort Thompson...Every day there is a man goes down the river to the fort, and today I took a horse and went down in one of the men's places...It begun to rain and I stop[ed] at the mission house...The pastor is a...young man about 30 years old...He preaches the Indian tongue...While I am writing this letter there is five Indians in the room, three old bucks and two young bucks, and they look rough. One of them is looking over my shoulder now as I am writing. Times are very lively now...on account of the Black Hills. There are three parties of men out along the river now to keep out the miners...The Indians are very good now but we do not know how long it will last...". The fragile peace lasted less than a year, leading to war with the Sioux, the elimination of Custer and his command at Little Big Horn, and the subsequent total defeat of the Sioux by a vengeful American government, which compelled them to withdraw from the Black Hills. In the next letter, written long after hostilities have ended, Pulford describes conversing with miners who are now prospecting on the former Sioux land, in part:"...Fort Sulley, D.T., March 30, 1879...It is nice Spring weather here now...All of the settlers have gone from here now to the Black Hills. I have seen some men that have been there and they say that there is lots of gold there and in passing quantities...". Apparently the lure of easy riches was too much for Pulford to bear, for in his final letter, he informs his mother of his intentions to leave the army and take up gold mining in Mexico, in part:"...Fort Davis, Jan.24, 1882...I shall not come home now for six months or a year...I have got a job to go to Mexico with some miners prospecting for gold...I do not know how long I shall be gone to Mexico...What is Lucy doing? I hope she will get a divorce before I get back...I do not want you to worry about me for I will come out all right...". Correspondences from western soldiers, particularly with content about Indians, are extremely rare. These letters, five of which are completely transcribed, are in very good condition. $3,000-4,000
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