Bearlodge Writers

Dave Wagner

 

 

Quote

"Researching history is a study of what happened—not what should have happened."

Dave Wagner Bio

Dave Wagner worked for thirty-eight years in the corporate world with Pitney Bowes Inc. Retiring in 1999, he moved to Hulett, Wyoming, where his time has been devoted to researching and writing. Dave has been a serious student of the Indian wars in the West for over thirty-five years, and is currently working on a two volume history of the Powder River Indian Expedition of 1865. The first book—Powder River Odyssey—is scheduled for publication in the spring of 2009 by the Arthur H. Clark Company, an imprint of the University of Oklahoma Press.

Publication Credits

Genoa Indian School Foundation, Quarterly Newsletter article, 2005
Powder River Historical Museum & Society’s Historical Happenings, 2006
In the Shadow of the Bear Lodge, Many Kites Press, 2006

Excerpt of Writing

On the morning of September 8, 1865, Colonel Nelson D. Cole’s command marched up river from their camp, about five miles south of today’s Powderville. Designated as the Eastern Division of the Powder River Indian Expedition, Cole’s force consisted of 1400 mounted men from the Second Missouri Light Artillery (equipped as cavalry), and the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry, over 100 wagons, and two cannons. Traveling with Cole, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Walker commanded an additional 600 men of the Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry, and two mountain howitzers. Walker’s regiment led the way south on the west side of Powder River.

The Powder River Indian Expedition’s purpose was to chastise Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho warriors, who had been disrupting communications and commerce on the Oregon Trail to the south. Cole’s command marched out of Omaha, Nebraska Territory on July 1, with orders to move northwest through today’s Nebraska and South Dakota on the east side of the Black Hills, then into eastern Montana to Powder River, and on to an eventual rendezvous with two other columns of the expedition. Walker’s command left Fort Laramie, in southern Wyoming (Dakota Territory in 1865) on August 5, marched north on the west side of the Black Hills, and had a chance meeting with Cole’s force in northeast Wyoming. The two commands traveled in fairly close proximity from then on.

A third column of the expedition left Fort Laramie on July 30, under the control of Brigadier General Patrick E. Connor; also overall commander of the entire campaign. Connor’s force traveled northwest along the eastern foothills of the Big Horn Mountains to the Tongue River, following that watercourse northeast toward a scheduled meeting with the other two columns. Connor planned to re-supply the other two commands, as they carried only sufficient rations to reach the designated meeting place near Tongue River.

Eastern Montana was a semi-mapped wilderness in 1865, with drought conditions and buffalo herds leaving little grass for the cavalry horses and mules. By the time Cole’s command reached Powder River, north of today’s Powderville, on August 30, their stock—in extremely run-down condition—began dying from exhaustion and starvation. Men were put on half rations, and several soldiers died from scurvy. The rendezvous to re-supply failed to materialize, as General Connor’s column ran behind schedule.

        ~Excerpt from: 1865 Powder River Indian Expedition
           2006 Historical Happenings
           Powder River Historical Museum and Society