THE ENGLISH WESTERNERS' SOCIETY
FEBRUARY 2018 BOOK REVIEW
This review first appeared in the Tally Sheet (Summer 2016, Volume 62, Number 3)
 |
 |
JAY COOKE’S GAMBLE - The Northern Pacific
Railroad, the Sioux, and the Panic of 1873
By M. John Lubetkin, University of Oklahoma
Press, 2006. Maps Illus. Endnotes. Bibliography. Index. 380 pp. $29.95.
CUSTER AND THE 1873 YELLOWSTONE SURVEY - A
Documentary History
By M. John Lubetkin, The Arthur H. Clark Co.,
2013. Maps Illus. Footnotes. Bibliography. Index. 336 pp. $20.00.
The period between the signing of the Laramie Treaty in
1868 and Custer’s incursion into the Black Hills six years later has been
generally ignored by historians of the American West in as far as they relate to
the Northern Plains. No white man entered Sioux Country; Red Cloud apparently
remained triumphantly in residence in the Powder River country and everything
was tranquil. For the history of the West has tended to be a series of episodic
events with no intervening narrative. In fact, the Laramie Treaty was broken on
several occasions during this period and Red Cloud’s people migrated to the
Agencies a few years after the signing of the Laramie Treaty, but other events
were to transpire which were more fundamental.
The most significant of these were the expeditions to survey and
construct the Northern Pacific Railroad, a railway to run between Duluth in the
east, through Minnesota and the present state of North Dakota, then through
Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Work commenced in 1871, and surveying parties in Montana
were protected by troops from Fort Ellis.
They encountered hostile Indians, Piegans, but moved east only as far
along the Yellowstone as a point 20 miles west of Pompey’s Pillar. In the East
the surveying parties moved west from Fort Rice as far as the Yellowstone but
the Sioux Indians ignored them. The following year as the railroad moved
westward through eastern north Dakota, more surveying parties were sent out,
escorted by infantry in the east and cavalry in the west. These encountered
hostile Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapahoe and several skirmishes took place, with
some casualties. The militancy shown by the Sioux led to General Terry, who
commanded the Department of Dakota, to request reinforcement by a regiment of
cavalry – he had only one 4 company battalion of the 2nd in 1872 – and Custer’s
7th was ordered north in 1873. That
year was to see more serious fighting.
In parallel with this, the finance needed for the
construction of the railroad abruptly terminated with the Panic of September
1873, which is why the railroad no longer featured in the history of the West
until after the Sioux War was over.
In his earlier book, the author competently relates the
history of the Northern Pacific Railroad from its founding by Jay Cooke to its
ultimate bankruptcy in 1873. The various expeditions are thoroughly described,
together with the chief personalities involved.
It is surprising that there are few works on these matters, and those
that do exist, such as the books by John M. Carroll and Dr. Lawrence Frost, tend
to concentrate on Custer’s involvement in 1873. The only significant point with
the author’s coverage where I have some reservations concerns the reason he
attributes for the collapse of the Northern Pacific. It had less to do with the
fights between Custer and the Sioux in August 1873 – there had, after all, been
fights in 1872 – but in fact, quite simply, the U.S. ran out of cash.
There was also undoubtedly some interplay with a similar collapse
throughout Europe, starting in Vienna in May 1873 and involving Germany and also
in Great Britain, where it became known as the Great Depression, lasting until
1897. The events along the Yellowstone may have had some marginal impact on
investor confidence, but many other factors impinged on this. One minor point:
the statement on page 49 that the Department of Dakota contained about 1,700 men
is contradicted on page 50 in a table showing that its correct strength was
between 2,368 and 4,148 during the years 1869 – 1873.
The second book in effect buttresses the author’s
coverage of the chapters in his earlier volume relating to the 1873 expedition
by including first-hand accounts by participants and others. The accounts
include despatches by the New York
Tribune’s correspondent, Samuel J. Barrows, extracts from the diaries of
Thomas L. Rosser, Luther P. Bradley and several others. The official reports by
Custer, Stanley, and others are not included, however, the compiler
concentrating on accounts with which most students are unlikely to be familiar.
Both
volumes are recommended to students of the Indian Wars, the Little Bighorn
campaign and Custer himself. The tactics he used in 1873 may well have been
repeated three years later.
Copyright © 2018 English Westerners' Society