Battle at Summit Springs, Colorado Territory. July 11, 1869

The Battle of Summit Springs, a key battle in the Plains Indian Wars of the 1860's, was fought in Colorado Territory July 11, 1869 but the reason for that battle began with a string of attacks by Cheyenne Dog Soldiers on Kansas settlements on May 30, 1869. This article details the reason for the battle, details of the battle, eyewitness accounts, sources, and photographs and drawings of the site.




Attacks in Kansas

During the 1860's immigrant settlements had grown along the Saline River, Spillman Creek, and Lost Creek. Simple structures of cabins and dugouts congregated near the newly constructed Union Pacific Railroad that crossed the Kansas plains.

In the early evening hours on May 30, 1869, Cheyenne Dog Soldiers, inspired by their leader Tall Bull, kidnapped two women, Maria Weichel and Susanna Alderdice, during a bloody raid on their homes. Weichel, a 20-year-old who spoke only German, was captured near current day Denmark, Kansas, just east of Lincoln, Kansas during a raid that resulted in the murder of her husband George Weichel and Fred Meigherhoff. This was one of several murderous attacks on settlers that day. At the same time, just a few miles southeast of the Weichel kidnapping, across the tracks of the Union Pacific near the Saline River, Tall Bull's Dog Soldiers captured pregnant Susanna Alderdice and her four-month-old daughter and killed two of her sons and seriously injured another. The two boys were about five and seven. Another boy survived after having several arrows removed from his back. The attack on the boys was witnessed by a surviving frontier woman, Bridget Kine. Seeing this savage attack was so traumatic she spent three different periods of time in the Kansas Insane Asylum in Topeka during and after 1896.

The previous September, Cheyenne Dog Soldiers along with Sioux and Arapahoe warriors attacked a group of U.S. soldiers and citizen scouts along the Arikaree River in Colorado Territory, an attack the resulted in the death and injury of about 20 scouts and soldiers. The battle, one of the Plains Indian Wars of 1864-1869, became known as the Battle of Beecher Island. One of the Beecher Island heroes and survivors was a scout, Thomas Alderdice. In a cruel twist of fate, Alderdice returned to his home just southwest of Lincoln, Kansas but his misfortune would multiply into an unimaginable horror. It was Alderdice's wife Susanna who was kidnapped and his stepchildren that were attacked. The infant that Susanna took with her was his daughter.

For six weeks the two women were walked to the area of Summit Springs, Colorado Territory, a distance of approximately 200 miles as they were mistreated and acted as slaves to the Cheyenne camp. Three days into the trip Susanna's daughter was strangled by the Cheyenne. The misery of the two women can only be imagined; they couldn't even speak to each other because Mary only knew German.

Race to Rescue

The U.S. Army assembled a team to pursue the missing women under the command of General Carr. General Carr's 5th Cavalry finally caught up to the Cheyenne at a picturesque area on the plains where springs flow; this was an ideal camping area for the Cheyenne. Carr's scout was the famous William F. Cody, Buffalo Bill, who had taken on additional scouting help in the form of Pawnee Indians. Cody and his Pawnee scouts found the Cheyenne camp at noon on July 11, 1869. The 5^th Cavalry consisted of 244 soldiers and 50 scouts. The camp was estimated to have 450 members.

Cody wrote in his autobiography that he was ordered to pick out five or six of the best Pawnees and move ten to twelve miles ahead of the soldiers in hopes of finding the village and then reporting back details before the attack.

As heinous and cruel as Tall Bull's warriors were to the two Kansas women and Susanna's child, there were acts of courage on the part of the Cheyenne settlement. A 12-year-old Cheyenne boy was the first to see Carr's rescue party and instead of racing to safety, he returned to the Indian camp to warn his people. His name was Little Hawk and he was noted for his courage by the Pawnee. He was killed in the battle. At least one of the Dog Soldiers was true to his name of a Dog Soldier: Good Head of Yellow Hair tied himself to a stake and fought to the death. Dog Soldiers were known to tie themselves to stakes when there was little hope of winning a battle and making a stand without giving ground.

When Tall Bull and his Dog Soldiers realized they were being attacked, they tried to kill the two women. It has been conjectured that this act of savagery was in hopes the women would not be able to tell how horribly they had been treated. Susanna Alderdice was tomahawked several times in the face, injuries that killed her. The perpetrator was probably a Dog Soldier but there are several versions of who killed her with most versions making it Tall Bull, a Dog Soldier, or Tall Bull's squaw.

During the 5th Cavalry's attack, it is believed that Tall Bull shot Maria, but fortunately the bullet deflected off a bone. She lived, and through a German interpreter and her heartbreaking tears, described the torture, abuse, stench, and torment she and Susanna had endured.

Maria was taken to Fort Sedgwick, was released on August 4, 1869, and it is thought, married her hospital attendant. Little more is known about her.

The body of Susanna Alderdice, the 28-year-old mother of four, was found in Tall Bull's lodge. Susanna's emaciated body, bruised, her face bearing marks of a hatchet, and her stomach showing pregnancy was a sight that stunned even the hardiest of soldiers. Dr. Tesson, the military surgeon, bathed the body, closed the wounds, brushed her hair for burial.

An honor guard was established to guard the body for burial the next day. The first guard detail was posted during the height of the storm, to stand a two-hour watch. When the first relief guard detail arrived, those on post refused to leave. This reoccurred as each relief detail arrived. Each honor guard stayed throughout the night until a full traditional military funeral was staged in Susanna's honor, three volleys of rifle fire were followed by taps. [Sparks, pp. 51-52]

On July 12 a torch was put to the Indian property, their clothing, provisions, and lodges. The only casualty suffered by the 5th Cavalry was a scratch from an arrow on the forehead of a soldier. It was believed that between 45-52 members of the Indian camp were killed, mostly Dog Soldiers that included the leader Tall Bull.

Aftermath

Summit Springs, sometimes referred to as Susanna Springs, was the last significant Indian battle in Colorado. It crippled the Cheyenne Dog Soldiers and is considered the last of the Plains Wars battles. [see list of battles below]

The Summit Springs Battle is brilliantly described in Jeff Broome's Dog Soldier Justice, a book that details the prelude and aftermath of the battle. The entire story was written as an historical novel by the late Terry Johnston (Black Sun), similar to his Beecher Island Battle account (The Stalkers), part of his Plainsmen series that fictionalizes other significant Plain Wars: The Fetterman Massacre and the Wagon Box/ Hayfield battles. One of the first serious studies of the battle is the previously cited Reckoning at Summit Springs, Ray G. Sparks.

Four stones mark the battle site, which is five miles east of Highway 63 on the Washington-Logan County line road. Memorial stones remember Susanna Alderdice and Little Hawk. According to a curator at the Overland Trail Museum in Sterling, Colorado and author Jeff Broome, the site is on private property (as of 2009) and one needs permission to enter the property to see the site. I was able to get a few photographs of the area and added some others from Web sites. The museum in Sterling has a diarama of the battle with some artifacts on display.

Timeline of Significant conflicts of the Indian Plains Wars (1864-1869)

• Sand Creek, Colorado Territory, current Kiowa County, November 29, 1864
• Bozeman War / Red Cloud's War - Fetterman Massacre, Dakota Territory (current Wyoming, Powder River Country), December 21, 1866
• Kidder Massacre, Beaver Creek, Kansas, currently Sherman county north of Edson, Kansas, June 27-July 1?, 1867 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1351896/the_search_for_general_custer_the_kidder.html?cat=37
• Wagon Box / Hayfield, Dakota Territory, August 2, 1867
• Beecher Island, Colorado Territory, September 17-26, 1868 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1490984/the_battle_of_beecher_island_the_1868.html?cat=2
• Washita Battle, Oklahoma Territory (current Roger Mills County), November 27, 1868
• Soldier Springs, Oklahoma Territory, Oklahoma, December 25, 1868
• Summit Springs (aka Susanna Springs), Colorado Territory, July 1869

Sources:

Broome, Jeff. Dog Soldier Justice: The Ordeal of Susanna Alderdice in the Kansas Indian War, Bison Books, 2009.

Cody, William F. An Autobiography of Buffalo Bill.

Ghost Towns site. http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dbattle%2Bof%2Bsumit%2Bsprings%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3Dfp-yie8%26fr2%3Dtab-web&w=300&h=225&imgurl=www.ghosttowns.com%2Fstates%2Fco%2Fimages%2FSummit%2520Gullies.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ghosttowns.com%2Fstates%2Fco%2Fsummitspringsbattlefield.html&size=6k&name=Summit+Gullies+j...&p=battle+of+sumit+springs&oid=80c178128bb4e10e&fr2=tab-web&spell_query=battle+of+summit+springs&no=19&tt=27&sigr=121n4d99v&sigi=11onatr7q&sigb=136nh4t7u#FCar=173d3a7c20993134

Sparks, Ray G. Reckoning at Summit Springs, Lowell Press, 1969, Kansas City, Mo.

Pictures of the Beecher Island Battle site:http://public.fotki.com/jcocktail/beechers_island/