EXPLANATORY NOTES ON Official Gorrespondence of Leavenworth Expedition By DOANE ROBINSON "The American Fur Trade of the Far West," by Capt. Hiram Martin Chittenden, U. S. A., three volumes; New York, Francis P. Harper, $10. "Fort Atkinson, frequently called Council Bluffs, was located on the west bank of the Missouri, upon the site of the present town of Calhoun, Nebraska, sixteen miles north of Omaha. It was here that Lewis and Clarke held the council with the Omahas, which gave the name to the bluffs and to the region. William Henry Ashley was born in 1778 in Powhatan county, Virginia, and located in St. Louis in 1802. He engaged in various business enterprises, including mining, powder-making and banking. He was active in organizing the militia and held several places of command. When the state was organized in 1820 he was elected lieutenant governor. He was a member of congress from 1831 to 1837 and was considered, next to Senator Benton, Missouri's most influential citizen. He became a partner in the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1822, and, though his early enterprises were disastrous, he ultimately met with great success and amassed wealth. He died March 26th, 1838. 'The Auricara, Arickara, Rickara, Riccara, Riccarree, or Ree Indians belong to the Caddoan family and are allied to the Pawnees, Wichitas, etc. They originally occupied the Missouri Valley from the mouth of the White River north to the Mandan country. About 1792 they were driven by the Teton Sioux away from their homes and farms in the vicinity of Pierre and took up their last independent stand six miles north of the mouth of the Grand River, on the west bank of the Missouri. At that period they numbered about 350 families and approximately 2,500 souls. Their conduct toward the whites had, from the beginning, been exceedingly erratic. Lewis and Clarke found them affable and purchased from them a large quantity of corn, beans and melons; but in 1807, when Sergeant Pryor, of the Lewis and Clarke company, attempted to pass their villages to return Big White, the Mandan chief, to his tribe, they treacherously attacked him and killed several of his party. Pryor was accompanied by Pierre Chouteau and a company of trappers. The fight was a savage one; Chouteau lost three men killed and seven wounded. Three of Pryor's men were wounded, and they were compelled to return to Saint Louis without accomplishing the object of their trip. When the Astorians came up, in 1811, the Rees were very friendly and traded with them on the best of terms, but the trappers regarded them with suspicion at all times, and they justly won the bad distinction of being the most treacherous band on the Missouri. They lived in permanent homes, built of poles and earth, and cultivated the soil, growing considerable quantities of corn and pulse. (See Dr. D. W. Robinson's note upon this tribe in this volume.) They called themselves Sanish or Tanish, meaning "The People." They at present number about 500 people, and are incorporated with the Mandans of Fort Berthold. General Henry Leavenworth was born in Connecticut, December 10, 1783, and was a lawyer. When the second war with England came on he entered the military service in April, 1812, as captain of the Twentyfifth United States infantry; was breveted lieutenant colonel for distinguished services at the battle of Chippewa, and colonel for meritorious service at the battle of Niagara, and in 1824 was made brigadier general for ten years' faithful service. He died while upon duty, in Indian Territory, July 21, 1834. Much of his distinguished service was in the west. At least as early as 1818 he was sent to the Mississippi, and in that year was stationed at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and in the autumn of 1819 was ordered up the river to the mouth of the St. Peter, whither he went and laid the foundations of Fort Snelling. In the winter of 1820-21 he was relieved by Colonel Snelling, at Fort Snelling, and ordered to St. Louis, where he was placed in command of the forces upon the Missouri, and the next year went to Fort Atkinson. He was again in South Dakota in 1825 accompanying the Atkinson-O'Fallon commission on its treaty making expedition of 1825, and at Fort Pierre on July 4th of that year had charge of the patriotic exercises. Leavenworth is described as "a man of courage, good judgment and great humanity." He possessed a strong will, which carried him forward where other men hesitated or turned back. Catlin, who was with him but a few days before his death at his camp on the False Wichita, where he was suffering from a fever which was epidemic among the soldiers and from which several were dying each day, writes of his conduct: "At the time I am writing the general lies pallid and emaciated before me on the couch with a dragoon fanning him, whilst he breathes forty or fifty times a minute and writhes under a burning fever, although he is yet unwilling even to admit that he is sick." In that condition Leavenworth, with characteristic persistence, moved forward fifty or sixty miles before he gave up and died. The object of the expedition in which he was engaged at the time of his death was to cultivate the acquaintance and secure the friendship of the Pawnees and Comanches, and thus protect the growing commerce of the Santa Fe trail. General Henry Atkinson was a native of North Carolina and entered the miltary service in 1808, as captain in the Third Infantry. Served with distinction in the war of 1812 and spent the remainder of his life in command upon the frontier. Four military posts were named for him. He visited the Dakota country in 1825, as commissioner to effect treaties of peace with the various tribes, and celebrated the 4th of July of that year at Fort Pierre. He died June 14, 1842. "This letter must have been written somewhere near the mouth of the Moreau. "The Missouri Fur Company-See note upon this company by Mr. Charles E. Deland, this volume. "The following letter, presented to this society by Mr. William L. Gardner, of Louisville, Ky., a grand-nephew of the John S. Gardner who was killed in this massacre, is all that I have been able to learn of the victims, except, of course, Hugh Glass, who was among the wounded. This letter was written to the father of John S. Gardner, who then resided in Virginia: Dr Sir: My painfull duty it is to tell you of the deth of yr son wh befell at the hands of the indians 2d June in the early morning. He lived a little while after he was shot and asked me to inform you of his sad fate. We brought him to the ship when he soon died. Mr. Smith a young man of our company made a powerful prayr wh moved us all greatly and I am persuaded John died in peace. His body we buried with others near this camp and marked the grave with a log. His things we will send to you. The savages are greatly treacherous. We traded with them as friends but after a great storm of rain and thunder they came at us before light and many were hurt. I myself was shot in the leg. Master Ashley is bound to stay in these parts till the traitors are rightly punished. Yr Obt Svt -Hugh Glass. Hugh Glass himself was one of the most renowned of the hunters of the Missouri, and was the hero of more adventures than any other. It is not probable that he wrote this letter personally, for, from all accounts, he was illiterate. It is probable that he was an acquaintance of the Gardners and that he employed some clerk in the expedition to write for him. Captain Chittenden has gathered several stories of the exploits of Glass in South Dakota, from which it appears that immediately after the battle at the Ree villages he started, as a hunter in the party headed by Major Henry for the mountains, traveling up the valley of Grand River. Upon the fifth day, Glass being in advance of the party, he was attacked and horribly mangled by a grizzly bear, but, retaining his nerve, he succeeded in shooting the animal just as the remainder of the party came to his rescue. He seemed to be injured beyond all hope of recovery, and, as Major Henry's business was urgent, he left him in charge of two men, said to have been Fitzgerald and Bridger, both famous frontiersmen. They remained with him for several days, but as he neither recovered nor died, they abandoned him, and, overtaking Henry, reported that they had buried him after his death. Glass was so exasperated by the treachery of these men that he resolved to live for the sake of revenge, and after many days, during which he lived upon wild cherries and buffalo berries, he felt well enough to start to Fort Kiowa, which was located near Chamberlain. He was at the point of starvation, but provi |