Remembering Our Civil
War Heritage and Heroes:
1861-1865
When Myth Becomes a Reality: A
Mysterious Background for a
Milk River Pioneer William Bent
By Ken Robison
For The River Press
August 27, 2014
This is the twenty-ninth installment of a
monthly series commemorating Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War
who came to Montana after the war. This month features the mystery of Confederate
veteran William Bent—was he, or was he not the son of Colonel William Bent of
Bent’s Fort fame? Descendants of Montana Civil War veterans are encouraged to
send their stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com.
“When myth becomes reality” might well be
the title of this saga of William Bent, Confederate soldier, Montana scout, and
pioneer rancher. His family legend portrays him as a son of the famed
Colonel William Bent, founder of Bent’s fort. Unfortunately, Col. Bent had no
son named William. (See Progressive
Men of Montana; In the Land of Chinook; and Thunderstorm and Tumbleweeds 1887-1987 East Blaine County.)
William Bent of Harlem, Montana led a life
worthy of legends even if he could not claim those of Col. William Bent.
Montana’s William Bent was born on May 11, 1846 in St. Louis, Missouri, the son
of William and Sarah Sullivan Bent. After attending private school in St.
Louis, young William joined the Confederate Army in the spring of 1863,
enlisting in the 2nd Arkansas Battalion of Mounted Infantry.
On May 14, the 2nd Arkansas
joined the Confederate troops of General Joseph E. Johnston engaged in the
Battle of Jackson, Mississippi as Major General Ulysses Grant moved to seize
the city, cut Johnston’s supply lines, and disrupt Confederate troops from
interfering with the on-going Siege of Vicksburg. After Vicksburg’s surrender
to the Union on July 4th, the 2nd Arkansas as part of
General Johnston’s army attempted once again to defend Jackson from Union
attack. After a ten-day siege and strong Union probes, Johnston ordered
withdrawal on July 16th, ending any Confederate threat to Vicksburg
by then in Union control.
During the Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia
September 19-20, 1863, the 2nd Arkansas served with General Braxton
Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. This bloody battle ended with the most significant
Union defeat in the Western Theater in the Civil War and resulted in the second
highest number of casualties next to Gettysburg. During the battle, Private
William Bent was wounded severely and incapacitated for an extended period.
Bent returned to service in 1864, and he
remained with his battalion until the end of the war. The 2nd
Arkansas participated in nine major engagements during the Atlanta Campaign
from May to September 1864 as General Johnston’s Army of Tennessee attempted to
stem the invasion of northwest Georgia and Atlanta by Maj. Gen. William T.
Sherman. The fall of Atlanta on September 2nd, set the stage for
Sherman’s March to the Sea.
With the defeat of Confederate forces at
Atlanta, the 2nd Arkansas and the Army of Tennessee, now under Lt.
Gen. John Bell Hood, participated in the Franklin-Nashville campaign. In a
series of five battles, Hood’s army suffered repeated defeats and on December
15-16 his depleted army was routed in the Battle of Nashville, and retreated to
Tupelo, Mississippi.
After the battle of Nashville, the 2nd
Arkansas of Reynolds’ Brigade marched via Bainbridge, Alabama, Tuscumbia, Iuka
and Corinth to Tupelo, where they went into a brief winter camp on January 19,
1865. They departed Tupelo on January 30 and marched to West Point,
Mississippi, from there traveling by rail to Selma, Alabama. From Selma the
battalion boarded a steamboat to proceed to Montgomery, and then by rail to
Columbus, Georgia. From there they marched to Mayfield, Georgia; once more
boarded trains to Augusta. They then marched to Newberry, South Carolina, and
on March 19 joined Gen. Johnston’s army to fight their last major engagement at
the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina March 19-21.
After defeat at Bentonville, the 2nd
Arkansas marched to Smithfield, North Carolina, where a depleted Arkansas
brigade consolidated into a single understrength regiment, the 1st
Arkansas Consolidated Mounted Rifles on April 9, 1865. The 2nd
Arkansas formed Companies C and D in the new regiment. The new 1st
Arkansas Consolidated surrendered with the rest of Gen. Johnston’s Army of
Tennessee at Greensboro, North Carolina, on April 26.
The 1st Arkansas was paroled five
days later at Jamestown, North Carolina and offered free rail transportation to
locations near their homes by the remnants of the Southern railway companies.
Most of the men, including presumably William Bent, traveled by rail. Adding to
their misery, a large number of Arkansas men were killed or injured in a
railroad accident at Flat Creek Bridge, Tennessee on May 25, 1865.
William Bent’s war was over and after
returning to St. Louis he thought about going to Mexico with other Confederates
to join Maximilian but instead drifted north. He came to Atchison, Kansas, and
remained a while before drifting west into the Platte country. There he fell in
with a Spaniard called ‘Sago,’ and the two wandered around until at last they
reached the wonders that became Yellowstone Park and from there to Virginia
City, in June 1866. Spending only a few months there, Bill Bent moved on to Dry
Gulch near booming Last Chance Gulch (Helena) and for a short time worked as
compositor on the first issues of Helena’s first newspaper, The Radiator, printed on a hand press.
In the spring of 1867 Bent joined the
Montana Volunteer Militia being raised by Acting Governor Thomas Francis
Meagher to respond to incidents on both the Bozeman Trail and the Benton to
Helena Road. Bent’s militia served in Helena and was soon disbanded. Many years
later after his death, William’s widow was granted an Indian Wars pension based
on this militia service.
From Helena, Bent drifted into the
Musselshell River country. During the summer of 1867 he rode for the Northern
Overland Pony Express between Forts Abercrombie (near today’s Fargo) on the Red
River, and Helena. Bent rode with partner Henry Macdonald on the segment from Fort
Hawley on the Missouri River to Diamond City in Confederate Gulch. Fort Hawley,
a trading post of the Northwest Fur Company, located about twenty miles above
the mouth of the Musselshell, was a mail station on the express circuit. The
Express Company started tri-weekly service beginning July 1st, and
Bent had several harrowing experiences with companion rider, Henry Macdonald,
on that dangerous circuit. That express enterprise failed by March 30, 1868,
after just nine months, and Fort Hawley closed for a time shortly after because
of incidents with native Indians.
In 1868 Bent came to Fort Benton and hired
out in August to help construct a new trading post (Fort Browning) for Hubbell
and Hawley, and an Indian agency, the Milk River Agency, at the “Great Bend” of
the Milk River, about 90 miles upstream from the Missouri River, near today’s
Dodson.
When work on the agency was completed the
men engaged were discharged. Bent joined William A. Hamilton and five other
companions on a gold prospecting expedition to the Little Rocky Mountains. They
built a camp on Dry Beaver Creek at the east end of the mountains, where they
found gold, but not in paying quantities. When they had to give up prospecting
as winter set in, they started wolf hunting and trapping for furs, with
considerable success.
During 1869 Bent served as Indian
interpreter for the government along with Alexander Culbertson, the famed founder
of Fort Benton. The following year he worked at the Medicine Lodge trading post
on the lower end of the Great Bend of the Milk River. Upon the arrival of
trader James Stuart at Fort Browning trading post on January 6, 1871, Bent
began working for him. During the winter of 1871 Bent hunted buffalo and trapped
on streams south of the Little Rockies and Bear’s Paw mountains.
In 1873 Bent moved to old Fort Belknap, on
the south side of the Milk River (opposite today’s Chinook), where he began a
long career working for the Indian Service as an interpreter. That same year he
was married at the agency to Bettie [NFI], an Assiniboin (or Nakota) woman, and
they had eight children; George, Louis, Mary, Lucy, Nellie, Emma, Ida and
Florence. After the death of his first wife, Bent married another Assiniboin
woman, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Canoe, on April 4, 1891, and they had six more
children including Elsie, Ruth, and Louis. The marriage license between William
Bent and Lizzie Canoe confirmed that William, a white man, was the son of
William Bent and Sarah Sullivan—not the mixed race son of Colonel William Bent
and his Cheyenne wives Owl Woman and Yellow Woman.
Ken Robison is a local historian and
author of Montana Territory and the Civil War: A Frontier Forged on the
Battlefield and the forthcoming Confederates
in Montana Territory: In the Shadow of Price’s Army.
Photo:
1.
Battle
of Jackson, Private William Bent’s first major battle.
Milk River Pioneer William Bent
Played a Key Role in the Nez Perce War. (Continued)
By Ken Robison
For The River Press
September 3, 2014
This continues the story of Confederate veteran
William Bent who fought with the Arkansas 2nd Battalion of Mounted
Infantry in the Civil War before heading up the Missouri River to Montana
Territory. Settling with the Assiniboin Indians, Bill Bent became an important
advisor on the Fort Belknap Reservation. Descendants of Montana Civil War
veterans are encouraged to send their stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com.
In 1876 the Nez Perces sent a delegation
with horses to trade and present as gifts to the Assiniboin. According to Bent,
the Nez Perces stated that they expected to have trouble with the whites in the
country where they lived in Idaho Territory. One year later by late September
1877 the Nez Perces had moved from their traditional homeland, with the U.S.
Army in pursuit, and were approaching the Missouri River with their clear
destination the Province of Canada. In early October with Colonel Nelson Miles
was in pursuit from southeast of the Bear Paw mountains, Major Guido Ilges,
commanding the Fort Benton Military Post, sent couriers to Fort Belknap directed
Bill Bent to keep the Assiniboin from joining the fleeing Nez Perces. Bent related
to historian Al J. Noyes in 1917:
“I at
once called the Indians together in council and told them that the people who
were here the summer before [the Nez Perces] with all the horses and presents
were fighting the soldiers and that the soldiers were after them and coming
this way and the best thing they could do would be not to have anything to do
with them as the soldiers would punish all they found in arms.”
Just an hour later five Nez Perces arrived
in the vicinity, though the Assiniboin heeded Bent’s advice, refused to offer
assistance to the Nez Perces, and remained in camp. Two days later sounds of
battle were heard in the distance in the direction of Snake Point north of the
Bear’s Paw. To keep the Assiniboin in camp, Bent told them it would be better
for him to go to scout the situation. Bill Bent related,
“So I started and kept going toward the
sound and got south of the West Fork of Snake creek and it became so dark that
all I could see was the flashes of the guns once in a while. I got up to where
I could see the pickets in one place and laid down and waited till morning. As
soon as it was light enough I went to one of the men on picket and explained
who I was and he told me to go in. I could see the whole thing, the pits of the
Indians, and the breastworks of the soldiers, and away back were the tents. I
went over and reported to Miles . . .
“In my report I told him what the Assinniboines
were doing and the orders I had from the War Department through [Major Ilges].
He told me to go back and keep them in hand and see that they did not get in
the fight . . .
“After going back and telling the Assinniboines
what Miles had said I returned to the battlefield. I think it was the fourth
day of the fight that Miles, Sweeny, Arthur Chapman, an interpreter from Idaho,
Captain John, a Nez Perce, and myself went down to have a talk with the
Indians. John was sent down into the pit to talk with the Nez Perces while we
laid down peeping over a hill. He rode a pinto horse with a hospital sheet tied
to a pole. He would stop and wave the flag and halloo at them and at last he
was allowed to approach near enough to carry on a conversation. You could see
them throwing out the dirt, as they were occupying all their spare time
fortifying. After a little some of the Indians came out and John went out of
sight for a few minutes and then appeared again with six or seven of them. They
all had their guns with them, and Miles said to Chapman: ‘You tell those
fellows not to use any treachery because there are hundreds of men looking
through their sights ready to shoot.’ They shook their heads and came on. Of
course we did not know who they were.
“We started towards Miles’ tent but a lot of
officers began to crowd around, the Indians stopped and Miles said to Arthur:
‘What’s the matter with them?’ Chapman replied that they did not like the
officers to be so handy so Miles ordered them back as they were confusing the
Indians.
“We all went over to Miles’ tent and he got
some camp stools for the Indians, but not enough as some had to sit on the
ground. They sat there a while and then he said that they had better have a
smoke but for the Indians to furnish the tobacco as then they would be sure it
was all right.
After a while Miles began to talk. He said
that it pained him to do what he was doing but it was his duty. They did not
make any reply. Captain Baird and another officer were taking down everything
that was being said in writing. When Miles was talking he was addressing a very
fine tall Indian who was sitting on a stool not far away. When Chapman was
doing his interpreting he was looking and talking to an Indian sitting on the
ground. The Indian to whom Miles was talking would hardly say anything but the
Indian sitting on the ground would smile. A little while after I noticed an old
gray-haired officer come in and stand way back, he only had one arm and the
coat sleeve was pinned across his breast. As soon as the Indians saw him they
seemed to be awful angry, their eyes blazed. This was Howard.
“Miles once more addressed the Indian
sitting on the stool and asked him if he hadn’t had enough of this by now. But
the Indian did not reply. Miles turned to Chapman and looked for an answer.
Chapman had noticed that Miles had addressed all his talk to the particular
Indian who would not reply and as Miles looked at him he said (pointing to the
one on the ground). ‘Why don’t you ask him? Miles said: ‘Who is he?’ ‘That’s
the leader, Chief Joseph.’
“Miles was surprised but he got up and
handed his stool to the Chief and from that time all his remarks were made to
the proper person. Joseph said that White Bird did not want to surrender and
that he would take one more night so as to give him a chance to think it over.
During that night White Bird escaped with his two wives and went over the line.
“The next day, the last day of the fight,
Miles said: ‘I want you to go down to the river and tell the Indians down there
not to kill any more Nez Perces. About seven Nez Perces were killed by the
Assinniboines.
“The day that Joseph surrendered he said he
thought the [Missouri] river was the line and that the Indians would be
friendly but as they were enemies he would give up. He handed his gun, muzzle
first, to Howard but Howard said: ‘No, that man, pointing to Miles, is the one
who won it.’ He then turned and handed his gun, butt first, to Miles. I have
always thought that if Howard had reached for that gun he would have been
shot.”
When Bent left the battlefield to go to the
reservation to tell the Indians what Miles had said, he was captured by some of
the escaping Nez Perces. His captors claimed that Bent was a soldier since he
had been on the battlefield and was riding a government horse. Bent replied, I
am “not a soldier but belonged on the river and that my children were the
offspring of an Indian mother.” Eventually, Bent convinced his captors that he
was from the Assiniboin camp, and he was released to go.
William Bent played a key role in counseling
and convincing the Assiniboin Indians not to aid the Nez Perces. The failure of
the Nez Perces to win over Indian allies to their cause as they moved through
Montana Territory was a devastating blow. The actions of roving bands of Assiniboin
to seek out and kill escaping Nez Perces must have been a great disappointment
to Chief Joseph. The role of the Assiniboin aiding the U.S. Army was rewarded later
when their service was honored in 1879 when a new military post on Beaver Creek
near today’s Havre was given the name Fort Assinniboine.
Bill Bent continued work at Fort Belknap as
interpreter until 1890, under successive Indian agents, Alonzo S. Reed, Clark,
Capt. Buck, Fenton, Capt. Williams, W. L. Lincoln, Fields, Andrew J. Simmons
and Lieut. Macanny. As interpreter and an intermarried ally of the Assiniboin,
Bent played an important role in commissions negotiating relinquishment of
Assiniboin lands. His influence together with that of Major W. L. Lincoln, were
factors in negotiations that gained the right-of-way for construction of the
St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba (later Great Northern) Railroad through the
Milk River Valley.
From 1890-93 Bent worked as interpreter at
the new Fort Belknap agency, located southeast of today’s Harlem. The following
year he served as government farmer at the agency and thereafter as government
butcher for two years.
In the fall of 1896 Bent located a 400-acre
cattle and horse ranch at the mouth of Snake creek, five miles southwest of
Harlem. Unlike most former Confederates, William Bent became an active member
of the Republican party.
William Bent lived the rest of his days on
his ranch, working, reading, and swapping old time tales with visitors
including Charles M. Russell. Suddenly on November 15, 1919 William Bent died
at his home of heart failure. The old Confederate soldier and Montana pioneer
was interred on his ranch beside the graves of two of his daughters.
Ken Robison is a local historian and
author of Montana Territory and the Civil War: A Frontier Forged on the
Battlefield and the forthcoming Confederates
in Montana Territory: In the Shadow of Price’s Army.
Photo:
1.
Civil
War and Nez Perce War Veteran Bill Bent in his later years. [In the Land of Chinook]
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