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The FReeper Foxhole Remembers Susanna Alderdice and Summit Springs (7/11/1869) - Aug. 1st, 2005
Wild West Magazine | October 2003 | Jeff Broome

Posted on 07/31/2005 10:23:51 PM PDT by SAMWolf



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


.................................................................. .................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

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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Death at Summit Springs:
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.

On the afternoon of July 11, 1869, it was hot and windy in northeastern Colorado Territory -- typical summer weather for that part of the country. But it was not otherwise a typical day. As the hour approached 3 o'clock, the order was given by trumpet to charge the Indian village at Summit Springs (near present-day Sterling, Colorado). At the sound of "Charge," 244 officers and men of the 5th U.S. Cavalry, along with 50 Pawnee Indians serving as scouts, quickly descended upon the village of 84 lodges. Cheyenne Dog Soldier Chief Tall Bull and his people could not have been more surprised.


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



TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: cheyenne; colorado; custer; dogsoldiers; freeperfoxhole; sheridan; summitsprings; tallbull; veterans
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To: SAMWolf
Gonna be a busy day for me today, lots of back to back appointments and "things to do"

No excuse sir . . . we have the technology.


41 posted on 08/01/2005 9:23:16 AM PDT by w_over_w (I'm thankful there's no "I" in work but there's a "me" in meatloaf.)
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To: alfa6

Gee, thanks.


42 posted on 08/01/2005 9:25:00 AM PDT by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
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To: bentfeather
Please, I need to see someone at the top about Mondays.

He he he. Yesterday I noticed Bittygirl is now tall enough to peer into some drawers.

43 posted on 08/01/2005 10:23:20 AM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)
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To: alfa6

Roger wilco


44 posted on 08/01/2005 10:24:03 AM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)
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To: snippy_about_it

Howdy ma'am


45 posted on 08/01/2005 10:24:32 AM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)
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To: w_over_w

ROFLOL

I had been hanging around here FOUR YEARS before I learned GMTA was not Good Morning To All.

Oops


46 posted on 08/01/2005 10:27:09 AM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)
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To: SAMWolf

Hiya Sam


47 posted on 08/01/2005 10:27:50 AM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; alfa6; Peanut Gallery; Valin; Iris7
The Wings Over Wednesday squadron is ready to rock!


48 posted on 08/01/2005 10:33:00 AM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)
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To: SAMWolf
Did a little work on Summit Springs, near Sterling, Colorado. Also on Beecher's island, about ENE sixty miles, as I recall. Did no map work, drove and walked the ground.

Those in pursuit were making very long and very fast marches. The usual walk the horse for an hour, ride for two, repeat. When the horses got too tired, ride them less. Horses die easier than men, men are much more mean than horses. No sleep except in the saddle, except maybe an hour about 1 AM.

Bill Cody is known as a showman. He was. To me, much more important is William Cody, American Fighting Man.
49 posted on 08/01/2005 11:12:12 AM PDT by Iris7 ("A pig's gotta fly." - Porco Rosso)
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To: Professional Engineer

Oh dear, she will be cleaning out drawers any day now.


50 posted on 08/01/2005 12:06:38 PM PDT by Soaring Feather
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To: SAMWolf

Roman Nose went into the Battle of Beecher's Island believing he would die. Prior to the battle, he had unknowingly violated a taboo that made him [he believed] invulnerable to bullets[He ate food served with an iron utensil by a squaw]. He went off to the fight wiothout underging the requisite purification ceremonies. Reult, he was killed.

Roman nose, whose Cheyenne name meant "Bat", was one of several Indian leaders known for their large size, e.g Mangas Coloradus of the Warm Springs Apaches.


51 posted on 08/01/2005 1:19:17 PM PDT by PzLdr ("The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am" - Darth Vader)
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To: Valin

Read, "The Last Scalp Dance". It shows you what a bunch of sadistic savages a lot of them really were.


52 posted on 08/01/2005 4:49:42 PM PDT by U S Army EOD (Pray For the EOD Folks Working in the Middle East)
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To: SAMWolf

Today's classic warship, USS B.H.B. Hubbard (SP-416)

Displacement 400 t.
Length 155'
Beam 22'
Draft 8'6"
Speed 13 kts.
Complement 38
Armament one 3"

USS B.H.B. Hubbard, a 400-ton patrol vessel and minesweeper, was built at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1911 as the steam fishing trawler of the same name. She was purchased by the Navy in June 1917 and placed in commission in mid-August. Under the terms of General Order #314, issued in late July 1917, her name was officially shortened to Hubbard, but the longer original name also continued in use. She went to western French waters, by way of the Azores, in October 1917 and for the rest of the First World War was employed escorting coastal convoys and in minesweeping tasks. The latter function continued after the 11 November 1918 Armistice, since mines were unable to recognize that fighting had ceased. B.H.B. Hubbard attempted to return to the U.S. in April 1919, but the effort was thwarted by bad weather and she returned to France. After further service carrying cargo, in October 1919 she was decommissioned at Brest, France, and sold back to the Norfolk, Virginia, fishing company that had owned her prior to her time in the Navy. Fate Unknown.

53 posted on 08/01/2005 5:33:15 PM PDT by aomagrat ("If I am the Scourge of God, you must be truly wicked." - Genghis Khan)
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To: SAMWolf

Evening all


54 posted on 08/01/2005 7:38:00 PM PDT by USMCBOMBGUY (You build it, I'll defeat it!)
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To: USMCBOMBGUY

Why yes it is. I've noticed that it seems to happen ever day. I suspect at plot.


55 posted on 08/01/2005 8:06:58 PM PDT by Valin (The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.)
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To: PzLdr

Learn something new every day.


56 posted on 08/01/2005 8:28:02 PM PDT by Valin (The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.)
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To: Valin
You know.....until you just pointed it out, I never really noticed that. I wonder how long thats been going on.

I think you may be on to something with the plot idea, You think the terrorist may have sent some insurgents to the moon?
57 posted on 08/01/2005 8:50:41 PM PDT by USMCBOMBGUY (You build it, I'll defeat it!)
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To: USMCBOMBGUY

You may of missed this

MASSIVE GOVERNMENT COVER-UP!
MOON DOOMED!
It will explode within 6 months! 'Thousands of lunar fragments will smash into Earth'

http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/features/politics/61696

By DICK SIEGEL

AUSTIN BRIGGS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Ever since the world learned that extraterrestrials are using the moon as a garbage dump (Weekly World News, June 27), scientists and the military have been on top-secret high alert.

"We've been monitoring the lunar body for signs of instability, toxins and increased geologic activity," said General Eddie Burroughs, USAF, in charge of lunar surveillance. "Unfortunately, Project Extreme Watchfulness has found all three. Early last week we saw a garbage scow -- apparently of Martian origin -- make one final deposit in Clavius Crater and then speed away. Our Photon Emissions Watchers detected a corrosive, highly fissionable deposit on the moon -- one that will trigger a complete lunar meltdown in six months!

"For those readers who aren't scientists, this is a whole lot worse than a lunar eclipse," General Burroughs said helpfully. NASA physicist Dr. Tark Stasis agreed. "Unless we act on the PEW landfill findings, the moon is doomed," he said. "The alien waste is a deadly amalgam of U-238, plutonium and a super heavy new element we've called black monolithium. This compound has been dissolving its way to the lunar core, like hydrofluoric acid eating through a goose. Not that I've ever tried that, ya know," he added quickly. "The truth the government doesn't want people to know is this: Unless the process is halted, the moon's solid core will melt, gas will build up and the moon will pop in about six months." What does that mean for life on Earth?

"Well," Dr. Stasis said, "apart from messing up the tides big-time and ending moonlight make-out sessions, thousands of lunar fragments the size of sanitation trucks will smash into Earth. Think of what just one giant meteor did to the dinosaurs, striking the Earth and kicking up enough dust to block the sun for years. This will kill every living thing on the planet. In fact, it will re-kill everything that's already dead, that's how devastating it will be."

"We've attempted to contact the aliens without success," Burroughs told us. "Maybe they've turned off the listening devices -- payback for all the soap operas, game shows and
Miami Vice broadcasts that have gone into space over the years." General Burroughs turned a whiter shade of pale. "We've tried signaling them with lasers, giant white flags, even big rubber hands with extended 'We're Number One' fingers. No response. Hell, right now I'd settle for a cow with good pair of hind legs to jump over the moon and get their attention."

However, Dr. Stasis said that all is not lost. NASA scientists are working with the famed Miskatonic Institute of Technology on a possible solution.

"We can't stop the acid but we may be able to contain the explosive lunar core," MIT's Dr. Roger Debris explained. "In analyzing the cathartic frequencies emanating from the moon, we've determined that by using a space-based prism to reverse the polarity of ordinary photons we can transmute the light of the silvery moon into common lead. That will create a shield inside the acid tunnel -- like Pepto-Bismol coating your upset stomach. With luck, the lead lining will keep the moon from bursting.

"Of course, because of that tunnel the moon may simply fall apart like the halves of an orange," Dr. Debris admitted. "But it's better to have two smaller moons than no moon and an Earth that looks like Swiss cheese."

"I have confidence in our scientists to lick this problem," General Burroughs remarked. "But we'll have to face our own hazardous waste issue someday. While NASA is busy saving our skins, I hope they're also looking for some alien moon where we can leave our own nuclear junk."

And now to bed.


58 posted on 08/01/2005 8:58:32 PM PDT by Valin (The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.)
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To: Valin; SAMWolf; Iris7; PhilDragoo; snippy_about_it

The sign reads"Ms. Fonda, we're holding your regular seat in Tikrit"

59 posted on 08/01/2005 9:00:33 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Dining room, we don't need no stinkin dining room! Classroom space, on the other hand, is valuable.)
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To: Valin

LOL, That was great, I needed that laugh.


60 posted on 08/01/2005 9:29:09 PM PDT by USMCBOMBGUY (You build it, I'll defeat it!)
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