Medal of Honor - William D. Edwards
Charles W. Hanna
MILDEN H. WILSON, PRIVATE LORENZO BROWN, PRIVATE WILFRED CLARK and
MUSICIAN JOHN McLENNAN
Chief Joseph led his people to a grassy meadow on the banks of Ruby
Creek in the Big Hole Valley. Game was plentiful in the area and there was
forage for the ponies.
General Howard notified Colonel John Gibbon, 7th U.S. Infantry,
commanding the district of Montana of the Nez Perce escape and of their
probable route. Colonel Gibbon at once sent out scouts to search for the
Indians. Colonel Gibbon at once set out from Fort Shaw with all the troops
he could muster, for Missoula, 150 miles away so as to be close to the
expected route of the Nez Perce. When Colonel Gibbon received word from his
scouts about the location of the Nez Perce camp he immediately
marched his command consisting of 146 men 17 officers and a few civilian
volunteers, for the Big Hole Basin. On August 8, 1877 as Gibbon column
approached the Nez Perce camp, he issued each of his men ninety rounds of
ammunition and leaving twenty men to guard the supply wagons he set out for
the Indian camp. By night fall the troopers were just five miles away from
the camp and a halt was called. The troopers rested without fires so as to
not give away their position.
At 11:00 PM the troopers were up and moving towards the Indian camp.
The troopers traveled the last five miles to the Indian camp in silence.
Arriving at about 2:00 A.M. the troopers surrounded the Indian camp on three
sides with the Big Hole River on the forth side and settled down and waited
for day light.
At sunrise a mounted Indian, named Natalekin, set out to check the
pony herd road into the troopers positions. He was immediately shot and
killed. The troopers knowing that the sound of the shots would alert the
camp, raced into the Nez Perce camp yelling and shooting. The Indians were
taken by complete surprise. The Nez Perce camp quickly became a scene of
total chaos as the troopers and the Indians exchanged fire at close range.
Several of the greatest Nez Perce warriors were killed early in the
struggle. Captain William Logan shot and killed chief Rainbow. The chief's
sister picked up a revolver and shot Captain Logan in the head. Captain
Logan subsequently died of his wounds. Wahlitits became enraged when he saw
his wife, who was fighting at his side die from a bullet in the breast, he
charged to his death into the midst of a group of soldiers. Sarpsis Ilppilp
sought to avenge Wahlitits' death but was also killed.
The Nez Perce began to rally. The strong voices of their leaders
called them to stand and fight. White Bird and Looking Glass exhorted them.
"Fight for women and children!.... Now is our time. Fight! It is better
to be killed fighting...." Several of the Nez Perce warriors took cover
behind the stream bank and commenced an organized resistance.
In many parts of the Indian camp the fighting degenerated into hand
to hand combat with the troopers using their rifles as clubs. Within about
twenty minutes the Indians were driven from their camp. The troopers
commenced the work of destroying everything in the camp. They tried to set
fire to the tepees but they were damp and did not burn. The fighting was
not over however as the Nez Perce rallied at the stream bank and in the
willows and opened a galling fire on the troopers in the camp.
Under the intense fire the troopers became disorganized. Colonel
Gibbon was shot in the leg. Sergeant Milden H. Wilson took charge and
organized the troopers and deployed them under a galling fire and a
semblance of order was restored. The wounded Colonel Gibbon ordered his men
to fix bayonets and charge the Indian positions. The Nez Perce warriors
simply gave ground retreating back into the cover of the willows and
underbrush, when the troopers charged and then moved back into their former
positions when the troopers retreated.
The position of the troopers in the Indian camp became untenable.
The position was too exposed to fire from the Nez Perce along the stream
bank and from the willow groves surrounding the camp. Colonel Gibbon
located a small stand of pine trees on a knoll that he felt would make a
much more defensible position and led his men there. When the troopers were
withdrawn for cover from the Indian village to the timber Private John
McLennon, formed a rear guard holding the Nez Perce warriors at bay
while the company retreated to their new position. McLennon was the last
man in the company to leave the village; and then did so only at the order
of Lieutenant Woodbridge.
The troopers conducted an orderly retreat to the knoll taking their
wounded with them. A group of Indians who were using the knoll as a vantage
point to shoot at the troopers were driven out. The troopers fortified the
position the best they could trees were felled and the troopers used their
bayonets to dig foxholes.
Lieutenant Francis Woodbridge was ordered by General Gibbon to form
Company A, in order to deploy it in another direction. Lieutenant
Woodbrigde was obliged to do this in the open ground, where the company was
subjected to a galling fire from the bluffs. Sergeant Rogan was one of the
first to obey the Lieutenant's orders and verified and reported the company
to Lieutenant Woodbridge as coolly as he might have done on parade.
Additionally, Rogan carried Lieutenant Charles A. Coolidge to a place of
safety after the lieutenant had been shot through both thighs.
The Nez Perce surrounded the troopers in the stand of pine trees.
They tried to drive the troopers out of their stronghold but they would not
be moved. They set fire to the grass and the flames moved quickly up the
hill. A last moment change in the direction of the wind saved the troopers
from this menace. The Nez Perce warriors contented themselves for the rest
of the day by keeping a galling fire upon the troopers. Lieutenant English
was killed and Captain Williams was wounded a second time.
Some of the less severely wounded refused to leave the firing line,
until wounded again and yet again. Private Lorenzo Brown set an
inspirational example for his comrades. After being severely wounded in the
shoulder, he refused to leave the firing line and continued to do his duty
in a most courageous manner.
In the meantime a detachment six troopers who had been left with the
supply wagons hearing the battle going on came forward with a howitzer to
aid their comrades. The howitzer was placed on a hill overlooking the
battlefield. Because it held such a commanding position the Indians mounted
an attack up the hill to silence the gun. Two of the six man gun crew
panicked and bolted for safety. The remaining four troopers fought with
rife, pistol, knife and hands, but the odds were too great. Corporal
Robert E. Sale was killed. Sergeants Fredericks and Daly were severely
wounded. Private Bennett was pinned under one of the wounded horses and
escaped death by playing dead. The Indians overran the gun and threw it
from its trunnion.
As soon as they regained their camp, the Nez Perce women began to
take down the teepees and move the camp. They accomplished this task under
a heavy fire from the troopers which killed several Indian women including a
daughter of chief Looking Glass and two of Joseph's wives. The Indians rode
out of their camp leaving behind a large quantity of clothing, buffalo robes
and dried meat all of which would be sorely missed later.
About thirty Nez Perce warriors maintained the siege of Gibbons
command while the remainder of the tribe moved out of the valley. These
warriors were mounted and kept a constant fire upon the troopers. Sergeant
Patrick Rogan moved among the men directing their defense while under a
galling fire.
Private Wilfred Clark was especially courageous and his skills as a
sharpshooter were particularly valuable to the company in keeping the Nez
Perce at a distance.
Sergeant William D. Edwards volunteered to make an attempt to go for
help. He cautiously crawled through the Indian lines on his belly, and then
walked more than forty miles to a mining town called French Gulch where he
borrowed a horse and road another forty miles to Dear Lodge, Montana.
Until his urgent message was delivered, Sergeant Edwards did not stop even
once to rest.
When it was feared that Sergeant Edwards had been killed in his
attempt to break through the Indian lines, Sergeant Milden H. Wilson also
volunteered for the hazardous duty of going for help. Sergeant Wilson also
managed to get through the Indian lines and ended up in Dear Lodge.
On the 10th of August Captain Browning with Lieutenant Woodbridge
and twenty-five enlisted men brought up to our camp the herd and train,
which had been left six or seven miles back the night previous to the fight.
Private John McLennon again demonstrated his courage when he volunteered
for this duty and also volunteered as one of the four advance skirmishers,
who preceded the detachment by about 400 yards, both coming and going. As
it was known that small parties of Indians were skulking in the woods, which
detail was obliged to pass through, Private McLennon's position in the
advance guard was one of danger.
On the morning of the 10th the remaining Nez Perce warriors fired
two volleys into the troopers makeshift fort and road away to join the rest
of the tribe. The battle was over. Eighty-nine Nez Perce were killed in
the battle. Another one hundred-nineteen would die of their wounds in the
next few days and would be buried along the trail. Gibbon's command lost
thirty-one killed and forty wounded.
Sergeants William D. Edwards, Patrick Rogan, and Milden H. Wilson,
along with Privates Lorenzo Brown and Wilfred Clark and Musician John
McLennan were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor at the Battle of
the Big Hole.
Charles W. Hanna