The life and military services of Gen. William Selby Harney

Front matter

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L'C l L

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Preface

IN book-making, as in many other branches of industry, the American people have already demonstrated a spirit of enterprise greater than can be found in the people of older nations. The invention and improvement •of the art of printing, and the diffusion of intelligence in the United States by means of a system of popular education, have unfettered the American mind, and book-making has grown to be a branch of intellectual labor of immense magnitude.

Three generations and more ago, it was a popular method to present intelligence, both in this country and Europe, through the medium of the pamphlet. Then the number of books issued from the press annually was much less, in proportion to the population, than now, and, in many instances, better. The newspapers and magazines have almost driven the pamphlet from the field of public discussion, and the greater number of those who now write, seek to present their views through the medium of a volume, as a more substantial and creditable means of discussion, outside of the newspaper and the magazine.

What changes the future may have in reserve relating to the mode of disseminating intelligence, time alone can tell. Be the changes many or few, it is to be hoped that in the literature of the future, age and experience will bring to our people that maturity and wisdom of thought which increased years alone can supply.

The present volume is not designed merely to swell the number of American books, or to gratify a personal vanity, but rather to present to the public — the American people —

X PREFACE.

a carefully gathered record of the life and military services of one of the most conspicuous of American soldiers.

A people so young as the American people could hardly be expected to present to the world examples of military chieftains and heroes equal to the most noted of those belonging to older and more warlike nations; but the patriotic American will readily challenge comparison between the citizen soldier and the educated soldier of his country, with the most noted and successful warriors of any other age or nation. And if the comparison is ever made by the analytical writer of military history, General Harney will be brought forth to compare with the greatest cavalry officers known to European warfare. His soldierly qualities have made him both a good and distinguished warrior. For more than half a century he has been a noted soldier. His eventful career began with his first commission, dated February 13, 181 8. His first military services were in pursuit of some of the Lafitte band of pirates, in the swamps of Louisiana, soon after he received his commission. With this initial service began his eventful military life, which extended through the two Seminole or Florida wars, the Black Hawk and Mexican wars, on the Plains and Pacific coast. He may justly be called the military Humboldt of this country ; the pioneer soldier, whose wanderings have extended over all our territory, from the everglades of Florida to the " bad lands " of Dakota, and from the city of Mexico to Puget Sound. He has ever been a remarkable man. His life has been peculiar, and his whole career teems with the thrilling deeds of cxie of the most eminent military heroes known to American history.

Like the German Humboldt, he has been the friend and associate of chieftains, explorers, travelers, scholars, statesmen and divines ; the friend and conqueror of savage tribes, and the nation's faithful soldier.

The wilderness and the frontier were the home of General Harney for more than a generation. The lagoons of

PREFACE. XI

Louisiana, the everglades of Florida, the territory lying along the Mississippi, now parcelled into rich and populous States, the plains of the great West, the Black Hills, where adventurous spirits now delve for gold, and the northwestern jewel of our starry circle, distant Oregon, have each been the field of his services and his labors, and in each of those quarters is his name echoed with reverence and pride ; and his labors, like those of Hercules, have been to confront and achieve victories over formidable obstructions to human progress. He has contested with wild beasts and savages the empire of civilized men over nature, and opened the way for the progress of Saxon civilization westward across the continent.

The record of a life so eventful and useful as that presented by General Harney, cannot fail to be rich in lessons of daring and heroic deeds — lessons in the highest degree worthy a place in the biographical annals of our country. It shall therefore be my purpose to present him to his countrymen as a loyal and warm-hearted chieftain, who vindicated the honor of the nation on every battle-field where duty called him, and periled his life to maintain unsullied the honor and valor of the true warrior. Such a soldier is a benefactor, and worthy to be honored by the American people.

But General Harney embodies other qualities than those of a soldier. He combines, in a high degree, the elements of true manhood, of gallantry and chivalry. We may tell that the " vows of knighthood, the ceremonials of installations, the pomp and splendor of knightly feats have gone, but the devotion of the patriot, the ardor of the warrior, the warmth of the lover, the fidelity of the friend, the loyalty and the truth of men of honor, do not sleep in the graves of Charlemagne, Roland and Bayard." These chosen attributes of human nature, indigenous to this Western land, find full and free expression in his character, and are worthy of imitation by the rising manhood of our country.

Xll PREFACE.

Trusting that the record herewith presented shall be judged worthy the character and fame of him whom it is designed to present to the public, and that both my hero and my record will be duly appreciated by the American people, I submit this volume in the spirit of devotion to those who have periled their lives and made themselves illustrious in the defense of my country.

L. U. R.

St. Louis, Mo., July ist, 1878.

INTRODUCTORY.

BY HON. C. M. CLAY.

/ORESTS and flowers and fruits, growth, beauty and ma- ^\~\ turity for succession, is the law of the flora. The same law rules animal life. Forms change, but the elements of things are eternal. Whether plants have in the succession of ages increased in size or not, is yet a matter of doubt ; in beauty and utility of fruit they certainly have. It may be that greater heat may have been the cause of a ranker growth ; then again, the finer species may have left no trace behind. The superior size and ages of ancient man may be fabulous. It may be, if otherwise, that better knowledge of the natural laws may compensate for the complexities of civilization, and man be restored to his original types. One thing is certain, there are laws which govern mind and body, and they are equally fixed and operative. The theory of the creation of the world is not essential to our happiness. No doubt that the Great First Cause is a certainty ; but what of Him ? All that is sure in theological enquiry is, that the unknown is to us, so far forth, unknowable. Let us hope that at some time more will be revealed to us, and then rest. All the laws of matter and mind are before us for investigation. Ignorance can never be bliss. We are governed all the same — if the laws are in conflict with our action or subjections, we are the sufferers, not they. It was not a vain aspiration of the poet : " Still let us ponder boldly; it is a base abandonment of reason to resign our right of thought, our last sole refuge — this at least shall still be mine." Let reason, tradixiv INTRODUCTORY.

tion, and theory, and science have equal play, and victory will at last perch upon the standard of truth, and truth is but another word for the eternal laws. When the flora have perished, they are the fertilized beds of new vegetation. So man, and the family, and the nation perish, but are again renewed. We have every reason to believe that we at least progress, that something is ever saved from the wreck to aid in the new voyage. In one sense there is surely nothing new under the sun, that is, there is still mind and body. But who can say that under a better knowledge the infinite variety of capability is not increased for the better ? Every one must speak for himself. For my part, I do not hesitate to say, that there is, has been, and will be progress is proved. Look at the sparse, crude, and suffering population of the savage state ; and then at the vast numbers, the increased comforts and pleasures of the civilized. Cut off the lower strata, where population is ever checked by destitution, disease, and early death, and then take the upper tier of humanity, and what a vast change for the better ! And what of death ? When man shall live according to the law of nature, and nature's God, if it better pleases, death will have no terrors. In years it will be afar off. The parent is absorbed into the child. The aspirations, the accumulations of physical comforts, the every surroundings of the parent are merged into the child. Insensible and without pain, and without consciousness, the one stops, dies, but the other goes on, and succession is forever. The physical and mental attributes of God are the exponents of the ideas of man. At first He is known but in storms and lightning and disease and death. Hideous ! But as science proves that storms cleanse the air, lightning is the element perhaps of vitality, and that disease and death are not unmixed evils — then God begins to be Benevolent. He will at last no doubt become " Altogether Lovely /" Then shall we be so likewise. The struggle between good and evil may never cease, but victory

INTRODUCTORY. XV

will more and more rest upon the standard of virtue. Let us be ever mindful that we are of earth and spirit, body and mind, and keep up the just equilibrium. It is not at all desirable that any one should be pre-eminent for self-sake, in any mental or physical phase of being. The great brain, the pioneer in thoughts, is more to be pitied than envied. Mankind may profit by such, but they are themselves the victims of science or action. In pursuit of one law they too often violate the rest. The ditch is filled about the fortifications with the fallen ; the walls are scaled ; the banners of the victors are floated on high ; but alas ! for the. useful dead, who respond no more to these triumphs, forever ! Then must there be harmony in man's development, mental and physical, and there rests the secret of happiness. The differences between men and women are as wide as the heavens and the earth, yet one mingles imperceptibly with the other. Of all pitiable things, the most melancholy is the "strong-minded woman." Heaven is the ideal of all possible enjoyment ; hell of all that can be suffered in nature. The sum of all aspiration, or the highest aspiration — the "To Kalon " — the " Summum Bonum " — the flower of the tree of the beautiful, is woman. In this central ideal or real, is accumulated all that is possible, and all that is imaginable. But unsex her, and she is the positive electricity no more, but at once repulsive — the negative pole. Here there must be neither the seclusion, and consequent mental abatement of the far East, nor the dangerous freedom of the far West, but that "juste milieu" which is safest in all nature's work. Let us then develop the self, the family, and the State. Nor let us worship faroff heroes. That which is gone is for us no more, but rather that which is and that which is to come. The men who have lived near us and for us, let them be our gods. W. S. Harney is one of these — such men as the divine Shakespeare has set before us — every way developed in body, in beauty, which is its highest attribute, in strength

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in health, in tenacity and endurance; In mind, in heroic courage, in sagacity, in rapid combination and quick action, in the virtues which belong to the family, the patriotic ardor arid self-sacrifice, which are the dues of the State. No vain aspirations, no idle repinings, no ignoble inertness, no limping achievements, but a live, sound, harmonious being in mind and body, whom men and women love, and are the better for the loving. When I hear of the views of some of our political Generals, who have lost in the cabinet all they won in the field, I am reminded of Burns and his cotemporaries. Burns, the child of nature, true in sentiment, the peasant in place, but god-like in conception, yet lives in the affections, and grows with the increased admiration of the ages ; but they, his scoffers, where are they now? Evanishing ever, and at last forgot. These small fighters affect small speeches. " Napoleon and Cromwell spoke little ! " Indeed ! But that little was much ! Harney's defence of the Union cause and the "old flag" will live in history as the most intellectual and the most eloquent of those times, next to the immortal Lincoln. Rest, then, brave heart, secure in the love and confidence of those who shall reap the fruits of your long and painful sowings. As fierce were the flashes of your trenchant blade in ascending life, so gently lengthening be the shadows of thy decline. You lived for the nation, so let thy living be merged into the life of the people you loved so well, and be immortal with themselves.

C, M. CLAY.

Contents

Page.

Preliminary Statement. ...... 21

Chapter I

general harney's youth.

Place and date of birth — Condition of society — Nashville and the Hermitage— Incidents of early life — Davy Crockett, Jackson, Benton — Sam Houston and his romantic history — General Harney's mother — A woman after the old Roman model — How she moulded bullets to shoot the red skins — Tragic career of General Harney's brother — Harney receives his commission and enters the army. . . . 35

Chapter II. Lieutenant Harney And The Pirate Lafitte

Young Harney joins his regiment — Some account of the Lafittes — How they saved the day at the battle of New Orleans — The bold buccaneers on sea and land — Lieutenant Harney goes on an expedition after the pirates — And captures two of their vessels and a large amount of booty — Bars of iron loaded with quicksilver — Sufferings of the party during the expedition — Harney is ordered to Boston on recruiting service — The first Florida war — How "Old Hickory" disposed of some troublesome customers. ........ • 45

Chapter III. Expedition To The Yellowstone

Young Harney visits St. Louis for the first time — St. Louis and Jefferson barracks in 1824 — Some memories of Carondelet and Bellefontaine — A trip up the Missouri in keel-boats — Major O'Fallon and the Indian— Harney saves the expedition from massacre — A foot race — Almost a merchant. 59

Chapter IV. The Black Hawk War

What caused the war — Harney at Fort Winnebaga — He meets Jeff. Davis — Anecdote of the unruly dog — A race and a ducking — Active movements against Black Hawk and. his warriors — massacre of Major Stillman and his party — The battle of Bad Ax and capture of Black Hawk — Harney's introduction to Abe Lincoln and Zachary Taylor 72

1 8 CONTENTS.

Chapter V. Second Florida War

Description of Florida — The Spanish conquest — Indian troubles — Harney is promoted and takes a prominent part in the war — Scouting and fighting — Official reports of battles — Discreditable conduct of Mr. Poinsett, Secretary of War. 92

Chapter VI. The Florida War Continued

Treachery of Osceola— A decisive battle — Defeat of the Indians — Death of Osceola — A description of his character and appearance — Colonel Harney's perilous campaign in the swamps and everglades — An ambush from which the Colonel makes a narrow escape — Capture of Chaikika's band — Harney uses a rope to good purpose — Treaty with the Indians and close of the war 119

Chapter VII. The Mexican War

Review of the Texas question — Sam Houston and the battle of San Jacinto— Trouble with the United States — Taylor and his brilliant victories — Colonel Harney is promoted and assigned to important duties . . 149

Chapter VIII. Scott And Harney

The Commander-in-Chief becomes jealous of the dashing Colonel of dragoons— The origin of the trouble — Cutting letters between Taylor and Scott — Harney relieved of his command — Refuses to obey and is tried by court-martial — The Secretary of War rebukes Scott and commends Harney — A lively chapter, full of revelations. . . . 162

Chapter IX. The Mexican War Continued

Colonel Harney restored to his command and ordered to serve under Scott — A dangerous adventure in the Gulf of Mexico — Capture of Vera Cruz — Harney disobeys orders again and wins a brilliant victory at Madellin — General Scott highly commends the gallant Colonel. . . 181

Chapter X. The Mexican War Continued

Colonel Harney and his dragoons find work to do in reconnoitering the enemy's position — Brilliant charge at Cerro Gordo — Graphic description of this great event — A gallant Mexican officer — Colonel Harney is promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. ..... 194

CONTENTS. 19

Chapter XI. The Mexican War Continued

Marching into the enemy's country — Friendly meeting between Scott and Harney — Battles around the City of Mexico — General Harney's brilliant charge at Contreras — An unpleasant duty performed — Perilous adventure of an American officer — Capture of the City of Mexico — Harney's summary disposal of some rascals — Peace declared, and Harney ordered to Washington with dispatches — Popular demonstrations of admiration on the route. . 225

Chapter XII. The Sioux Expedition

General Harney visits his family in Paris — But receives orders to return and take command of an expedition against the Sioux Indians — Causes of the Indian war — Harney advances into the Indian country and wins the battle of Ash Hollow — Graphic report of the fight — Council and treaty with the savages — More service in Florida . . . 246

Chapter XIII. The Kansas Troubles

The slavery question — Serious difficulties in Kansas — General Harney ordered to take command of the troops and preserve the peace — His vigorous measures soon restore quiet — Takes command of the expedition against the Mormons — He proposes to hang Brigham Young and his apostles and permanently settle the Mormon question — These measures considered too vigorous, and he is succeeded by General Johnston and ordered to Oregon 268

Chapter XIV. Service In Oregon

Father DeSmet selected to negotiate with the Indians — Happy results of his benevolent influence — Description of the Oregon Indians — Insubordination of Lieutenant Sill — General Scott's unauthorized interference— A lively correspondence between the two Generals. - - 280

Chapter XV. The San Juan Troubles Explained

Description of the Island of San Juan — Trouble with the English — Threats of war — General Harney takes possession of the Island — Full account of this important affair m our national history, with official correspondence, etc. .......... 315

20 CONTENTS.

Chapter XVI. The Civil War

Election of Lincoln and commencement of the strife — General Harney placed in command at St. Louis — Is captured at Harper's Ferry while on his way to Washington, and conveyed to Richmond as a prisoner of war — Is released and returns to his command — The Camp Jackson affair— The Price-Harney agreement — Intrigues for the removal of General Harney — The Blair family — Interesting correspondence — A characteristic letter from President Lincoln — Harney is placed upon the retired list, and Lyon assume command of the department — An able letter from General Harney vindicating his loyalty and patriotism . . 347

Chapter XVII. The American Indian

Description of the religious and social customs of the Indian, with an account of General Harney's campaigns against them. . . . 394

Chapter XVIII. Recollections, Incidents And Anecdotes. ...... 45o

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT.

V_/HE discovery, exploration and settlement of America opened a new field for human progress and civilization to the world, a theater for development more ample and fruitful than had ever been opened to the human race. Civilization, originating in the East, had reached only a certain point, where it stopped, and where it has stood for thousands of ages. It stands now in China and Hindostan where it stood in the age of Confucius and Buddha, and where it will ever stand among the Mongolian races. The Caucasians, who colonized Greece and Italy, and subsequently Spain, Gaul and Britain, and have alone in Europe shown an aptitude for the higher and more exalted civilization which was the result of the conquests of their arts and their arms, have developed in the New World a nation at once the pride and wonder of mankind.

The agencies which, in the hands of Him who prescribes the destinies of nations, have wrought their wonders on this continent in the last four centuries, are deserving of serious consideration. They furnish for the contemplative student of history a study worthy of his earnest attention. The struggle in Europe between the barbarians and the effete and effeminate Roman emperors threatened to destroy the learning, arts and civilization of the world, when Christianity came to their aid and offered a safe asylum among the religious custodians of her monasteries, where, in the dark ages, learning was not only preserved but progressed, and virtue, becoming her constant associate, conquered in her turn the rude warriors who would have destroyed her, by converting them to the mild and just tenets of divine teaching, and to the arts and pursuits of peace. From these sacred retreats, where learning and civilization found a safe sanctuary from the Goth, the Vandal, the Hun and the Saracen, came forth science and art, which improved navigation by the invention of the mariner's compass ; and with religion and science there came forth and was developed the restless, aggressive but peaceful genius of commerce. Under the aegis of commerce, aided by the appliances of art, frail ships ventured into the broad ocean, and found paths in the trackless and unknown tide. The Genoese navigator pushed boldly forth and sailed due westward to find a new route to the Indies, which lay twelve thousand miles to the east. On his way he found a new and unknown land. Vasco di Gama found a new path likewise to the east, by way of the Cape of Good Hope. These bold discoverers were soon followed by bold and restless adventurers. The sails of their argosies and galleons whitened the waters of unknown seas and startled the simple natives of hitherto unknown continents.

With the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, the star of civilization moved westward, and to progress was opened a new field, where, with young and fresh life, on a virgin and unexplored continent, was to be developed a new phase of enlightenment, a new asylum for learning and science, and, more than all, a constellation of States where human liberty, civil and religious, has been destined to exist, trammelled by no restrictions short of the borders of license and intolerance. Slow and painful were the first conquests of the hardy emigrants who settled on the shores of North America. Inhospitable climates were to be confronted, forests were to be leveled, and the hardy and wild savage to be overcome. The Swedes of New York, the Puritans of New England, the Swiss and Huguenots of the Carolinas, the Quakers of Pennsylvania and the Colonists of Lord Baltimore and Oglethorpe in Maryland and Georgia, with the early cavaliers of Virginia, struggled for over a hundred and fifty years before civilization began to pass the Appalachian chain, and fixed a home out of sight of the Atlantic. The hardy Jesuit and Franciscan missionary, or the lone and solitary hunter, almost as much a nomad as the Indian natives, had barely traversed the trackless forests and made a few discoveries with which to enrich the meager geography of the time. The Father of Waters, discovered by Father Marquette in 1673, had been for nearly two centuries unknown and unseen of Europeans, except to the hardy followers of De Soto, who crossed it in 1541, seeking the gold fields of the Western Sierras.

Slow was the progress of the settlements in America, up to the time of the revolt of the thirteen English colonies against the mother country. Their hardships and labors had educated them to self-reliance, energy and courage, and to a love of liberty and independence which has been the deep and well laid foundation of that national greatness which has crowned their autonomy in later years. During this period the necessity for making bread and repelling the attacks of hostile Indians was greater than the claims of science or the curiosity for discovery. Nevertheless, Franklin had demonstrated by his experiments in electricity, that the winged lightening of the heavens could be tamed and controlled, from which has since been invented the electric telegraph and the telephone. The first is now indispensable to the most ordinary transactions of life, and has been brought into vogue only within the last generation. The energy, self-reliance and independence of the American race, not only developed into the statesmanship which brought about a revolution, and a final separation from, and independence of the mother country, but it prepared a people, who for a century and a half had governed themselves without aid from the mother country, for a further self-government, which for more than a century has enabled them to accomplish the American Republic.

In 1776, the population of the thirteen colonies did not exceed three millions. They were all east of the Alleghanies and on the Atlantic seaboard. A few skirmishes and battles, notable among them Braddock's defeat, had occurred on the neutral ground and against the French and Indians near Fort Du Quesne. But before the Revolution, few English settlements had extended west of the Alleghanies. Daniel Boone, a North Carolinian, of whom Lord Byron said:

Of all men, saving Sylla the manslayer,

Who passes for in life and death most lucky ;

Of the great names which in our faces stare,

The General Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky,

Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere : For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he

Enjoy'd the lonely, vigorous, harmless days

Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.

Crime came not near him — she is not the child Of solitude; Health shrank not from him — for

Her home is in the rarely trodden wild,

Where if men seek her not, and death be more

Their choice than life, forgive them, as beguiled By habit to what their own hearts abhor —

In cities caged. The present case in point I

Cite is, that Boone lived hunting up to ninety;

And, what's still stranger, left behind a name

For which men vainly decimate the throng, Not only famous, but of that good fame

Without which glory's but a tavern song — Simple, serene, the antipodes of shame,

Which hate nor envy e'er could tinge with wrong: An active hermit, even in age the child Of nature, or the Man of Ross run wild.

'Tis true he shrank from men, even of his nation :

When they built up unto his darling trees, He moved some hundred miles off, for a station

Where there were fewer houses and more ease. The inconvenience of civilization

Is, that you neither can be pleased nor please ; But where he met the individual man, He show'd himself as kind as mortal can.

He was not all alone ; around him grew

A sylvan tribe of children of the chase, Whose young, unwaken'd world was ever new :

Nor sword nor sorrow yet had left a trace On her unwrinkled brow, nor could you view

A frown on nature's or on human face ; The free-born forest found and kept them free, And fresh as is a torrent or a tree.

And tall, and strong, and swift of foot were they,

Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions, Because their thoughts had never been the prey

Of care or gain: the green woods were their portions. No sinking spirits told them they grew grey;

No fashion made them apes of her distortions : Simple they were, not savage; and their rifles, Though very true, were not yet used for trifles.

Motion was in their days, rest in their slumbers, And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toil;

Nor yet too many nor too few their numbers ; Corruption could not make their hearts her soil ;

The lust which stings, the splendor which encumbers, With the free foresters divide no spoil :

Serene, not sullen, were the solitudes

Of this unsighing people of the woods,

Had in his wild and solitary rambles, penetrated into Kentucky, and had found it abundant in game and of rich soil. The State of Tennessee at that time was a domain, belonging to a private monopoly. For these territories were unknown land ; except a few hunters and occasional forted settlements with few families, there were no settlements in these now flourishing States. Outside of these, the French had a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi River, first made at Isle aux Vaisseaux, or Ship Island, and then made at New Orleans for the sake of health, and beyond these till the Spanish settlements in Florida, Mexico and Texas were reached; the French out-post at Fort Chartres and St. Louis, a few settlements around it at Vide Poche and St. Ferdinand, and others then belonging to France, and the Post of Arkansas, there were none of the present United States west of the Appalachian chain. This chain of American settlements, confined substantially to the narrow slope of the Atlantic seaboard, was the germ of the great nation now called the United States. But the hardihood and privations of nearly two centuries had trained and educated the people of this slope to a fitness for the autonomy which was to devolve on them and their descendants. Nothing was known of the vast region beyond and to the Pacific shore, except such rumors or reports as came from the nomadic hunters and traders who had strayed off into the interminable forests and plains of the Great West.