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Posted on 07/31/2005 10:23:51 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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Susanna Alderdice and the Cheyennes In May 1869, Tall Bull's Cheyenne Dog Soldiers carried out a series of brutal raids in north-central Kansas, and though the white soldiers later caught up with them, vengeance could not make everything right.  Summit Springs Rescue, 1869, Oil on Canvas, 48 X 66 in., by Charles Shreyvogel,1861-1912 The attack was swift and successful. In less than three hours, all the fighting was over. The Indians -- mostly Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, but also a few Sioux and Arapahos -- had been routed. By 6 p.m., at least 52 warriors, including the powerful and troublesome Tall Bull, lay dead in and around the village, and 17 Indian women and children had been captured. Amazingly enough, the cavalry had suffered just one casualty -- a trooper slightly injured by a glancing arrow wound to the ear. Almost as soon as the shooting stopped, a powerful hail and thunderstorm descended upon the village. Everyone took shelter, but lightning killed one horse while a soldier sat upon it. Twelve other horses had died during the fight, most from sheer exhaustion when the soldiers pursued the fleeing Indians for several miles. There were two other casualties that July day. Tall Bull's village contained two young white women, who had been captured six weeks earlier in central Kansas. At the time of the 5th Cavalry's attack, the women were at opposite ends of the village. As the soldiers rode in at the northern end, most of the Indians tried to escape to the south and east. Several of them first sought to kill the two captives. Maria Weichel, shot through the back with a pistol ball, which hit a rib and lodged in the flesh of her left breast, was painfully and gravely wounded. She would recover. Susanna Alderdice, however, was not so fortunate. The mother of four children, pregnant with her fifth, was shot above the eye, and her skull was crushed by a tomahawk. Falling unconscious upon the hot prairie sand, she breathed her last just as her would-be rescuers discovered her. At 8 o'clock the next morning, under clear skies, Susanna was given a Christian burial. Wrapped in two lodge skins and the best buffalo robe discovered in the village, she was placed in a deep grave. Today, her grave remains unmarked somewhere in the desolate terrain of the Summit Springs battlefield.  Alderdice was born Susanna Zeigler in early 1840 in Green Township, Ohio. The first of Michael and Mary Zeigler's several children, Susanna would grow up in the Buckeye State. On October 28, 1860, she married 20-year-old James Alfred Daily in Missouri's Clay County. The Civil War was raging when they moved to Salina, a new town in central Kansas. James, taking advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862, had staked a claim. Susanna's first child, John Daily, was born there on July 1, 1863. James Daily heeded the call to duty on July 16, 1864, enlisting for 100 days in the 17th Kansas Volunteer Infantry. He was assigned to Company D and sent to Lawrence. On October 5, the month before James was due to return, Susanna gave birth to her second child, Willis Daily. Just two days before his enlistment expired, James Daily entered the general hospital at Fort Leavenworth, suffering from fever. James was placed in quarantine, and 11 days later, on November 25, he succumbed to typhoid fever. Susanna Daily, called Susan by her family and friends, was left to raise the two young children, with the help of her parents, who had moved to the Salina area earlier.  The widow then met Tom Alderdice, originally from Pennsylvania, who was serving as a drummer in the 2nd U.S. Volunteer Infantry and was stationed along the Solomon River near Salina. But Tom had a secret he kept from everyone. He was a "galvanized" Yankee, having earlier served in the Confederate 44th Mississippi Infantry. Captured at Chickamauga in September 1863, he became a prisoner of war at Rock Island, Ill., where he remained for the next 13 months until he took the oath of allegiance and enlisted for a year in Union service on October 17, 1864. He was sent to Kansas, where he was less likely to desert back to Confederate service. On June 28, 1866, Tom married Susanna, and the family settled on a homestead along the Saline River close to Spillman Creek (near present-day Lincoln, Kan.). In 1867 Frank was born, and in early fall 1868, Alice came into the world. Susanna's family now included four children. Central Kansas experienced extreme drought in 1868 and devastating raids by Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, along with some Sioux and Arapaho warriors. Settlements along the Solomon River in Cloud and especially Mitchell counties were the worst hit. In a series of raids on August 12 and 13, many settlers were killed. Sarah White, 17, was captured at her home, and her father murdered.  General Philip Sheridan A call to arms went out, and General Philip Sheridan authorized 50 civilian scouts to serve under Major Sandy Forsyth. At least 23 men were from the Saline River valley, several of whom signed up at the Schermerhorn ranch in Lincoln County in late August. The youngest of the Forsyth Scouts was Susanna's 16-year-old brother, Eli Zeigler. Susanna's husband, Tom, also served four months in the scouts, who called themselves the Solomon Avengers. That September, the Forsyth Scouts found themselves trying to fight off the Cheyenne leader Roman Nose and as many as 700 Dog Soldiers, including Tall Bull, along the Arikaree River, a tributary of the Republican River, just past the Kansas border in Colorado Territory. The scouts made a desperate stand on a small island in the mostly dry creek bed, remaining there for nine days. The beleaguered force survived mostly by eating the horses killed at the beginning of the fight. At least 25 men were seriously wounded, but four of the scouts managed to steal away and obtain military help. Five of the Forsyth Scouts, including 1st Lt. Frederick H. Beecher, died in what became known as the Battle of Beecher Island. The Indians may have lost as many as 50 men, including the mighty Roman Nose, who was killed while leading a charge. In 1898 the site was rediscovered by some of the surviving scouts. A large obelisk erected there nearly 100 years ago bears the names of each of the Forsyth Scouts. Tom Alderdice is the first name listed, and Eli Zeigler is the last. Both men had survived the famous encounter.  Battle of Beecher's Island Beecher Island, however, did little to stop or even slow down the Indian raids. Within a month, settlements on the Solomon and Saline rivers were hit again and more settlers murdered. Newlywed James Morgan managed to escape despite a serious hip wound, but his wife, Anna, was captured and soon joined Sarah White in Cheyenne Chief Stone Forehead's village
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Awww. That is so cute! Good morning feather.
Good morning radu.
Arrgh Matey, that be a fine F-O-G there .
BTW check your advantex mail far an uptodate F-O-G tonite
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
I see a tank!
Thanks Neil.
Good morning Aeronaut.
Good morning.
That's the truth!
Pretty Painting.
How are your duckies doing?? They must be adult by now.
Their what we call "junior". Like teenagers their wings aren't quite long enough to fly yet and leave mom.
I thought the indians were always civilized and the good guys.
Who Knew!
Something I read in a Louis L'Amour noval many many years ago "There's not an indian brave worth his salt that wouldn't ride 200 miles to fight fight someone."
This mornings read really pulls at the heart strings. It just occurred to me that we could either watch the series "Into The West" and come away with a head full of Hollywood mush. Or we could read today's thread and perhaps watch "Gen. Custer, The Untold Story" on The History Channel, and come away with a balanced view of this period of history. I'm going with the latter. ;^)
376th Heavy Bomb Group!
What do I win?
Imagine if folks only learned their knowledge from tv. Yikes.
I agree with your choice. The shades of gray are just what make this picture great.
Give your self an "ATTAGIRL"
If you get 999 more of them you can be a leader of men, and work overtime with a smile.
Of course one "aw s***" wipes the slate clean and you have to start all over...again :-)
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Morning All.
Gonna be a busy day for me today, lots of back to back appointments and "things to do" :-(
I just perused my on-line FReeper dictionary and found out what the acronym GMTA means. Geez! What a moroon I am.
Please, I fully take back the "bunny with a pancake on its head" and promise in the future to be sharper . . . no dumb jock here! No sir! Any time I can be in the same group as EE's I want on that ride.
Thanks for the compliment . . . I will do my best to live up to it. ;^)
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