Indian Troubles

From The Council Bluff Nonpareil.

Ft. Kearney, Aug. 8th. – 10 o’clock, P.M. – A party of one hundred Indians attacked a train of nine wagons one mile east of Plum Creek station at 7 o’clock this morning, and killed all the men, burned the wagons, and killed and drove off the stock. – Two women and four children with the train were taken prisoners. The same band afterwards attacked another train near the same place, but were driven off three times.

Three men were killed in this engagement. Eight dead bodies were counted lying in the road by the stage passengers coming east this morning.

There were supposed to be more lying in the grass. They burned Fred Smiths 27 mile-point Ranche, killed his hired men and drove off his stock. Col. Sumers, Capt. Murphy and Capt. Talbot, with eighty mounted men, started this morning for the scene of action. Maj. Brien, from Cottonwood, with a company of troops has gone to co-operate with Col Sumners. At one o’clock this afternoon sixteen Indians drove off a lot of horses from Dog Town, eight miles east of Kearney.

Ten men followed them as far as the bluffs when they were met by a large force of Indians, and compelled to retreat, with the loss of three men killed.

Private dispatches from the west this afternoon, later than the news report, represent the Indians in a large force in the neighborhood of Kearney. They are killing, capturing and burning everything on the road. All the troops have been driven into the fort which is now surrounded by Indians. Nearly all the small out-posts have been evacuated, and the savages now hold undisputed possession of all the country above the fort. The present outbreak bids fair to be a much more serious affair than was at first anticipated; the Indians are in large force, are determined on war and it is doubtful whether there is sufficient military force on the Platte to prevent them from coming down to the settlements. The stages and mails are stopped and there is now no communication above Kearney, except telegraph, which is yet unmolested.

– Published in The Union Sentinel, Osceola, Iowa, Saturday, August 20, 1864