Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes:
1861-1865
Private James W. “Diamond R” Brown, An Exceptional Warrior
Part 1
By Ken Robison
For The River Press
March 28, 2012
This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War.
James W. Brown II was a survivor. Wounded at Fort Donelson in February 1862, wounded two months later at the bloody battle of Shiloh, and wounded a third time at the decisive battle at Vicksburg, James W. Brown survived the war and came west to Montana territory to become a legendary freighting wagon boss on the rugged Montana frontier.
Born at Hillsboro, Ohio, September 5, 1841 Brown’s parents James W. and Elizabeth Cooper Brown, both of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry, had earlier moved from Virginia to Ohio. His father died in 1850 and after attending the public schools of Hillsboro, young James left home in 1858 to work as a farm hand in Illinois. At the first call for troops in the Civil war, James Brown enlisted June 13, 1861 at Joliet, Illinois for a term of three years as Private in Company C of the Twentieth Illinois Infantry. He was 21 years of age, 5’ 6” in height with hazel eyes and dark hair. Brown served from June 1861 until July 1864 through extended periods of hard fighting, suffering wounds at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg, three major battles in the Western Theater of the Civil War.
Fort Donelson was located on the left bank of the vital Cumberland River in a strategic position in northwestern Tennessee. It was a bastioned earthwork, on a bluff about 100 feet above the water and commanded the river for several miles down stream. During February 13-16, 1862, a 27,000-man army under General Ulysses S. Grant, supported by ironclad gunboats under Commodore Andrew Foote, attacked and captured Fort Donelson, During this battle, Private Brown’s 20th Illinois Infantry was part of Col. W. H. L. Wallace's 2d Brigade in Brig.-Gen. John A. McClernand's First Division. Portions of the battle report give us insight into the experiences of the Private Brown and his 20th Illinois regiment in the chaos and fury of the Battle of Fort Donelson:
[On Feb. 13th] “McClernand's division, preceded by cavalry, had the advance on both roads [leading to Fort Donelson]. About noon the head of the column commenced skirmishing with the enemy's pickets, the rest of the day being passed in feeling the Confederate position and in learning the nature of the ground, which was full of ravines and ridges and thickly wooded . . . All of the 13th was spent in maneuvering for position and making demonstrations to draw the fire of the enemy's batteries, with a view of locating the weak points in the line of defenses.
[Feb. 14th] “Skirmishers exchanged shots at intervals during the day and from time to time the gunners in the batteries fired a few rounds to try the range of the guns. . .
[During the afternoon the naval gunboats attacked, and were repulsed by Confederate shore batteries.] This repulse of the gunboats made it plain that the fort, if it was taken at all, must be taken by the land forces, and preparations were at
once commenced for an attack on the following morning. Other transports had arrived during the day with additional troops, which were assigned to positions in the line . . . as it was feared the enemy might attempt to cut his way out at that point; batteries were brought up and placed in the most advantageous positions, rations and ammunition were issued to the men, and when night came the men bivouacked without fires, resting on their arms so as to begin the assault as soon as the command might be given . . .
[Also on Feb. 14, another Union force had moved into position near Fort Donelson] “With this command were Birge's sharpshooters, armed with long range Henry rifles, and every man a skilled marksman. All day on the 14th this band of intrepid Missourians kept up from behind rocks and trees a continual fire, making it unsafe for a Confederate to show his head above the works.
[During the 14th the Confederate command, realizing that Fort Donelson was indefensible and that they would be starved into submission, began planning to cut their way out.]
[Feb. 15th] “[Confederate Gen.] Pillow was to begin the attack on McClernand's right, and this was to be followed by [Gen.] Buckner in an assault on the center of the division, driving it back . . . and opening the way to the road, after which Buckner was to cover the retreat. Accordingly at 6 a.m. [the Confederate attack began and a] brigade next moved forward through a depression in the ground and succeeded in turning McClernand's right. McClernand sent . . . for assistance and [a] brigade was ordered to the right, where it managed to check the enemy and for a time held its position . . . Deeming that the time had come for him to act, [Confederate Gen.] Buckner advanced a part of his division [forward. This was] countered by McClernand . . . [with artillery] batteries . . . and Buckner failed to break the line, his troops retiring before the destructive fire of the artillery. Fresh regiments were now hurled against [a part of the Union line], whose ammunition was exhausted, and [they] began to fall back. The enemy swept around [the] flank and appeared in the rear, isolating [a Union] brigade, which also retired. One regiment . . . held on after the others retreated and continued the fight until every cartridge box was empty . . .
“Up to this point the sortie had been successful. Pillow had opened the way for the Confederates to escape, but the escape was not made. This was due to Pillow's erroneous notion of the victory he had won. When he saw the broken ranks of the Union right wing falling back in confusion before him he believed Grant's entire army was in full retreat [but Gen. Pillow was wrong. The Union forces regrouped and] behind this line McClernand's brigades rallied and refilled their cartridge
boxes. Wood's battery was brought up and placed where it could sweep the road. These preparations were barely completed when the Confederates came swarming up the road and through the woods on both sides of it.
[The Union lines held on the 15th] The road . . . was closed and the opportunity to escape had passed. That night the Confederate generals held another council
of war. The session was somewhat stormy, the criminations and recriminations between Buckner and Pillow growing at times especially bitter. Scouts were sent out to ascertain the position of the Federals and came back with the information
that the Union lines occupied the same position as before the sortie. Some of the generals doubted the correctness of this statement and other scouts were sent out who came back with the report that every foot of ground from which the Federals
had been driven in the morning had been reoccupied. Pillow still clung to the notion that they could cut their way out. After canvassing the situation in all of its aspects the command was turned over to Buckner, who immediately announced
his determination to surrender the fort.
[16 Feb. Gen. Pillow and Cavalry Col. Nathan B. Forrest refused to surrender, and about 3,000 Confederates escaped Fort Donelson in the early morning hours.]
“Shortly after daybreak [on the 16th] the notes of a bugle were heard in the direction of the fort, announcing the approach of an officer with a communication from [Gen.] Buckner, asking for an armistice until noon and the appointment of commissioners to agree on the terms of capitulation. Then it was that [Gen. Ulysses S.] Grant sent his famous message, viz: "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works."
[Thus was born the name, “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”]
“Having no alternative Buckner was forced to comply, and the Union forces marched in and took possession. The Union loss at Fort Donelson was 500 killed, 2,108 wounded and 224 missing. [Confederate losses were estimated at about 1,500 while some 13,300 surrendered.] The most important result of the fall of Fort Donelson was the opening of the Cumberland river to the passage of the Union gunboats and transports and the breaking of the line of defense to Nashville.”
As a result of the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, the commander in the area, was forced to fall back, giving up Kentucky and much of West and Middle Tennessee. Private James Brown had been wounded during the capture of Fort Donelson. His wounds, however, did not keep him out of action seven weeks later when the 20th Illinois Cavalry were again part of McClernand's First Division as Gen. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee arrived at Pittsburgh Landing on the west bank of the Tennessee River a few miles south of Savannah, Tennessee. The army camped and awaited the arrival of Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army (expected late the next day) before moving on. The Union forces did not set up defenses or even send out pickets as no Confederates were believed to be nearby.
Unknown to the Union forces, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston had assembled his Army of Mississippi and was moving north to intercept and destroy Grant's army and capture all his supplies before Buell's army arrived. The battle began early April 6 with the Confederate forces streaming out of the woods and totally surprising the Union troops. Grant's army fell back before the attackers putting up stubborn resistance at a sunken road known later as the "Hornet's Nest." The determined resistance at the Hornet's Nest threw off the timetable of the advancing Confederates and likely saved the rest of Grant's army. During the fighting, Confederate General Johnston was killed while leading his troops and command fell to Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard. By the end of the day, the Confederates had pushed the Union army back into a small pocket next to the river where the Union gunboats could offer some protection.
During the night, Union Gen. Buell's Army of the Ohio arrived and the troops were ferried across the river to the west bank. At the end of that bloody day, Gen. William T. Sherman approached Gen. Grant who was smoking one of his cigars, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Gen. Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though." Meanwhile, Confederate Gen. Beauregard completely misread the situation, sending a telegram a telegram to President Jefferson Davis announcing "A COMPLETE VICTORY."
At daybreak on April 7, the newly reinforced Union army attacked and over the course of the day completely pushed the Confederates back across the battlefield of the previous day. The Confederates were forced to retreat from the bloodiest battle in United States history up to that time, ending their hopes that they could block the Union advance into northern Mississippi.
The Battle of Shiloh is named for a small church located in the central portion of the battlefield. The battle is also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing. The Union loss at Shiloh was 1,754 killed, 8,408 wounded and 2,885 captured or missing. Once more Private Brown was wounded during the battle. On the Confederate side the loss was reported as 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded and 959 missing. In the words of Union Gen. M. F. Force, “The battle sobered both armies.” The battle was the first of many large battles during the war that had in excess of 20,000 casualties and was an omen that the war would last for a much longer time and be far bloodier in casualties than anyone had anticipated.
One year later in 1863, the 20th Illinois Infantry participated in the long Vicksburg Campaign from May 18 to July 4, a series of maneuvers and battles in the Western Theater directed against Vicksburg, Mississippi, a fortress city that dominated the last Confederate-controlled section of the Mississippi River. The Union Army of the Tennessee under Gen. Grant gained control of the river by capturing this stronghold and the Confederate forces stationed there. Although the Confederate killed and wounded in the battle and siege of Vicksburg were a relatively small 2,872, and Union 4,910, Grant captured his second Confederate army in its entirety (the first being at Fort Donelson) and 29,495 surrendered.
This was the second major blow to the Confederacy in the summer of 1863. On July 3, Gen. Robert E. Lee's invasion of the North collapsed at Gettysburg. On July 4, the Stars and Stripes rose over Vicksburg. The most significant result of this campaign was control of the Mississippi River. The Confederacy was now cut in two; one week later, an unarmed steamboat arrived in Union-held New Orleans from St. Louis after an uneventful trip down the river. President Lincoln announced, "The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.”
Private James Brown was wounded for the third time at Vicksburg. He was discharged in July 1864 at Nashville, Tenn. Amazingly, he had not had enough of war, and in February 1865 he re-enlisted for a year in the Fourth Veteran Regiment of Gen. Winfield S. Hancock’s First Veterans Corps to provide security for the federal capitol. Private Brown was in camp at Alexandria, Virginia across the Potomac River at the time of the assassination of President Lincoln, April 14, 1865. His regiment was immediately placed on provost duty in Washington, and continued that service until after July 7, 1865, the day execution for Mrs. Mary Surratt, David Herold, Lewis Powell and George Atzerodt, all convicted of complicity in that awful tragedy. In the fall of 1855 Private James Brown went to Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio and was mustered out of service on February 7, 1866. Wounded, but unbowed, he had survived the Civil War.
To be continued next week.
Private James W. “Diamond R” Brown, An Exceptional Warrior
Part 2
By Ken Robison
For The River Press
April 4, 2012
This continues with the second part of the story of James W. “Diamond R” Brown. Part 1 covered Brown’s early years and his service during the Civil War.
Just months after the end of James W. Brown II’s service in the Civil War in February, 1866 this exceptional man of adventure headed west in summer of that same year. Engaged as a “bull whacker” driving an ox team between Nebraska City and Salt Lake City, he arrived there in August and immediately loaded freight for Helena, Montana Territory. Reaching Helena in September, he sold his ox team to Carroll, Steele & Hubbell, and in exchange was given the position of wagon master. He then went from Helena to St. Peter’s mission, loaded his teams with hay for the new military post Camp Cooke at the mouth of Judith River. The hay sold for $125 a ton!
At Camp Cooke, Brown loaded with government freight to Fort Benton, receiving ten cents a pound for hauling, and making two trips during the fall. After turning the cattle out for the winter, in February 1867 Mr. Brown engaged with I. G. Baker & Co., to take charge of a pack train to carry provisions to Fort Hawley, on the Missouri River 20 miles above the mouth of the Musselshell. The trip down was made without special incident other than heavy snowstorms and severe cold on the return trip at Camp Cooke. There he found the soldiers in a deplorable condition. A sentinel had been killed while on duty the night before. Major Clinton, then commanding officer, had for several days been trying to get the mail through to Benton, but the party returned, with several of them badly frozen.
Major Clinton asked Brown if he would guide a party through to Benton, and he agreed if he would be furnished with three horses for himself and his men. He was given the pick of the stables and started the following morning, making the trip safely to Benton in two days, arriving there on February 22, 1867. The weather was intensely cold, the river being frozen to the depth of four feet. With the thermometer so low, and a terrific ice-cold blizzard raging over the wide sweep of level country, old-timers who had experience understood what this trip from Camp Cooke to Fort Benton must have been like. No amount of clothing kept them warm, yet under Brown’s leadership they arrived at Fort Benton.
In the spring of 1867 James Brown engaged with the overland freighting firm of John J. Roe & Company, known as the Diamond R, for $150 per month, and moved government stores from Fort Benton to Fort Shaw. During the fall he transferred stores from Fort Shaw to Fort Ellis, thence going to Fort Hawley for oats left there by a stranded steamer. The Indians were decidedly hostile at this time and the train in charge of Brown presented a warlike appearance, having two small cannon and an arsenal of small arms. Fort Hawley had been established in 1866 by Louis Rivet of the Northwest Fur Co to trade with the River Crows. It was named for A. F. Hawley a partner in the company.
In the spring of 1868 Mathew Carroll, George Steele, and C. A. Broadwater bought the Diamond R Freighting Company, and from that point on the moniker “Diamond R” Brown was born. In 1868 Brown secured a contract to remove the stores of Fort C. S. Smith to Fort Ellis in southern Montana. The preparations for this work were elaborate, comprising thirty-eight teams in charge of Brown, James C. Adams and Thomas Clary and accompanied by a company of soldiers, all under the supervision of Major George Steele. On their arrival at Fort Smith they discovered that the major portion of the property had been sold. A part of it had been promised to the Indians who, pronouncing that some tobacco had been stolen, declared war. An investigation revealed that a soldier had stolen it, and upon his being properly punished peace was restored.
In 1868 James Brown married Sarah Bull, daughter of Piegan Blackfeet Melting Marrow (Bull) and Bird Sailing This Way, in Fort Benton in the “Indian custom.” Later in 1888-89 a Priest at Holy Family Mission blessed this marriage. Sarah was born at Pierre Chouteau & Co.’s trading post Fort Benton in May 1854. She became mother to seven children: Geneva Adeline, James William III, Joseph W., Gerusia [died age 13], Josephine [died in childhood], Jesse J., and Leo McKinley. Mrs. Sarah Brown died December 3, 1912 at Browning.
In the spring of 1869 Brown located a ranch at Eight Mile Spring near Fort Benton, but ranch life was not for him at that time. In July of 1869 Brown and Joseph Kipp had a thrilling experience while searching for sixty head of cattle that had escaped from their owner. The cattle were recovered 150 miles from Fort Benton and safely returned, but not until Brown and Kipp had experienced many hardships and had formed a friendship.
Mr. Brown remained with the Diamond R Company until 1870, and in the spring of 1871 he arranged with Joe Kipp to do freighting on shares. Going into Canada over the Whoop-Up Trail Kipp and Brown built a trading post on the Belly River. In December of that year, Brown left Benton with a load of goods for the Belly River post. Soon after starting, his train was overtaken by a terrific snowstorm, accompanied by intense cold. The snow got so deep they could hardly move, and some days advanced not more than one mile, while on other days they could not move at all. Finally they reached the “medicine line,” near the Rocky Spring ridge, where the storm compelled them to remain. The cold was almost unendurable. Whiskey froze solid, coal oil became a thick slush and no food could be obtained for the horses, nor could they be protected from the weather. The horses ate the wagon boxes and also a dozen brooms which were packed in one of the wagons. Twenty horses were frozen to death in this camp. The storm abated on the February 18th and with the remaining horses Brown pushed on to the trading post, having been over two months covering a distance of just 230 miles.
Wagon roads, the lifelines of the northern plains, radiated like a spider-web in every direction from Fort Benton during Montana’s territorial days. “Diamond R” Brown left this account of freighting on the Whoop-Up Trail in a short manuscript that today is in the Montana Historical Society:
“When I came to Montana in 1866, the only road on the reservation was called the Red River Half Breed Cart Trail [part of the Old North Trail], which ran from Edmonton to Fort Benton. It ran along at the foot of the mountains on the east side just outside the timber. It passed through [later] Glacier National Park below the railroad station of the Great Northern. It then kept along the foot of the mountains clear to Fort Edmonton. In 1871 quite a trade sprung up here between the Fort Benton people and the northern Indians. Those of us who engaged in it at that time laid out another road leading from Fort Benton through to Canada. It came up the Teton about 25 miles then left the Teton through the Knees and went on to the Marias. It struck the Marias a little below where the Great Northern Railway now crosses the river. Leaving the Marias it came up Medicine Rock Hill, as it is now called, and from this hill crossed the bench to about where Shelby now is, and down onto the Alkali Flat. It followed up the flat for 15 miles in a northerly direction, when it left the flat and continued along what is called the Rocky Spring ridge. From Rocky Spring ridge it ran on north to what is known as Red River or Dry Gulch.
“. . . After leaving Red River, the road kept on to what was called John Joe’s Spring, and from there on to Milk River. Still going north, it crossed Eighteen Mile Coulee, continuing to Middle Coulee, north to Kipp’s Coulee. Leaving Kipp’s Coulee it went on until it struck St. Mary’s between St. Mary’s and the forks of the Belly, which it forded at Old Fort Whoop-up, a branch running to what is called Standoff at the present time. This is the first wagon road . . . When the Mounted Police came in 1874, there was another road laid out from Fort Shaw to Macleod, a mail route.
“Mule teams were used some on the Whoop-Up trail, the ratio was approximately one mule to every four oxen. They were not used as extensively since they were more expensive and couldn’t carry as much freight. A good mule would cost $300. However, these teams were considerably faster and so would be used for hauling lighter goods, sometime the contraband whisky. They could cover twice the distance in a day as the oxen and could make the whole trip in eight to 10 days. Drivers were proud of their mules and would stop and deck them out with bells before coming into a settlement so they would jingle as they arrived.
“Horses were never used extensively for freighting on the Whoop-Up Trail. After the police arrived they were used for mail and passenger stages. They could make the trip in the fastest time of all, four to six days.
“The establishment of the railway ended the freighting days of the Whoop-Up Trail. As the robe trade had diminished the bull-trains had picked up other freight such as coal. The first train loaded of this commodity, thirty-six tons, arrived in Fort Benton in November, 1880. Over the years the cargoes reflected the economic interests of the area, food, supplies and clothing for the Indians (and whisky); pemmican for Southern Alberta settlers, including the police; and robes and coal to Benton, to name the most important. Goods went to the traders, the Indians, back to the merchants in Benton, to the Mounted police in Canada and the army in Montana.”
In 1872 Brown and Kipp erected a post store at Fort Kipp, at the mouth of Old Man’s River and another at High river, where they traded profitably with the Indians, supplying them with goods brought from Fort Benton in exchange for furs. In the summer of 1874 Diamond R Brown began trading on his own account at Old Man’s River, Canada, and from 1875 to 1881 was in the service of merchant Tom. C. Power as manager of Kipp trading store, and spend part of the time in Fort Benton and Fort Macleod.
In 1890 Brown and his family moved to Choteau where he served for three years as assistant farmer at the Blackfeet Old Agency. In 1893, he secured a ranch of 1,000 acres on South Fork of the Milk River on the Blackfeet reservation where he raised cattle and racehorses. After his wife passed away in 1912, Brown moved to Browning and made his home with daughter Geneva.
Historical writer Martha Edgerton Plassmann visited Browning in 1925 and wrote a biographic sketch of Brown:
“I was charged by no means to neglect interviewing James W. Brown who resided there, and who is one of the oldest pioneers of Montana. With this laudable purpose in prospect, I started out one afternoon. I made arrangements for an interview with him the following day. That night he was taken seriously ill, and it was feared the attack might prove fatal. Notwithstanding his condition, the old gentleman did not forget to send me data concerning his life, which has been unusually eventful. From this I gathered what I could, that is necessarily barren of anecdotes which, had he been well, he would have furnished to adorn the tale.
“. . . One who has known James W. Brown for many years, says of him that he was a man of upright character who earned the respect of all who knew him. He neither gambled nor drank, and never chose his associates from the rough element found here in the early days. While not of a quarrelsome disposition, he was perfectly capable of upholding his rights. He attended strictly to his own affairs, not attempting to interfere with other persons’ business.”
Mrs. Plassmann wrote of Brown’s marriage, “He married a Piegan woman, and by her had several children. Unlike some others in the northwest, the influx of the whites did not lead him to put away the mother of his children to take a white wife—on the contrary he remained true to her until her death a few years ago, and by so doing earned the respect of all right-thinking persons.”
James W. “Diamond R” Brown II passed away December 23, 1927 in Browning. He lived a life of adventure and hardship, surviving wounds in three major battles of the Civil War and the many dangers of the harsh life of an overland freighter on the Montana frontier. His memory lives on through many descendants and the striking image of old “Diamond R” Brown guiding his wagon train up the bluffs from Fort Benton in Charles M. Russell’s powerful tribute to the overland freighters, the painting Wagon Boss.
Note: If you have Civil War veterans in your family who settled in this area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories and photographs that we can share with our readers. Send your Civil War stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT 59442.
[Sources: GFLD 27 Apr 1899, p. 2; Montana Newspaper Association The Browning Citizen 21 Dec 1925; FBRPW 24 Nov 1982; U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles; American Civil War Regiments; Progressive Men of Montana p. 1507; Blackfeet Heritage 1907-08.]
Photos for Part 1:
1. James W. “Diamond R” Brown.
2. Map of American Civil War Western Theater of Operations.
3. Map of the Battle of Fort Donelson.
4. Execution of Lincoln’s assassination plotters.
Photos for Part 2:
1. An ox-train freighting on the Whoop-Up Trail
2. James W. Brown Civil War Gravestone, at St. Michael’s Cemetery, Browning, MT [Courtesy of Find-a-Grave].
3. Diamond R Brown leading a wagon train in Charles M. Russell’s Wagon Boss.
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Civil War. Show all posts
28 February 2012
Private Chapman Pennock, a Canadian Yank
By Ken Robison
For The River Press February 29, 2012
This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War. A special thanks to Edward J. Snider of Harlem, MT for sharing photographs and information on his ancestor, Chapman Pennock.
Many foreigners fought on both sides during our American Civil War. Chapman Pennock, a Canadian, fought for the Union, later came west to Montana and today rests at Riverside Cemetery, Fort Benton. Pennock was born March 24, 1843 in South Crosby, Leeds County, Ontario, Canada. He was the eldest of seven children born to Arthur W. and Phoebe Ann Woodard Pennock. As a young man he worked on a farm and learned the carpentry trade. He found employment in a sash and door factory at Sandy Creek, New York, and when President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 volunteers to serve for the duration of the Civil War, Pennock quit work at the factory and at the age of 20 enlisted into the Union Army on June 17, 1863. Chapman was enrolled as a Private in Company C 18th Cavalry Regiment New York, just two weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg.
Pennock’s company was sent to Camp Dudorf on New York’s Staten Island for basic training. Upon completion of training, Chapman’s regiment saw action almost immediately in New York in helping to quell draft riots. The draft riots of July 13-16, 1863 have been described as the worst outbreak of urban unrest in U.S. history. On Monday, July 13th five days of mayhem and bloodshed began that would be known as the Civil War Draft Riots. The rioters initially targeted only military and governmental buildings, symbols of the “unfairness” of a new conscription law. Mobs attacked only individuals who interfered with their actions, but by afternoon of the first day, some of the rioters turned to attacks on African Americans, and on all things symbolic of black political, economic, and social power. As the violence escalated, armed mobs of white workers rampaged throughout the streets and fought police, the remaining militia still in New York, and the newly trained 18th Cavalry in pitched battles. They burned government buildings, the Colored Orphan Asylum, many businesses, and attacked black men and women, with special violence for black workers including eleven lynchings.
The 18th New York Cavalry then deployed to Camp Stoneman near Washington D. C. for further training and to perform patrol and guard duty in the capital city. Chapman Pennock saw President Abraham Lincoln several times, and he recalled seeing “Lincoln, passing in review of Union Troops, riding a white horse with his feet barely off the ground and his tall hat bobbing as he nodded to the troops. Quite a comical site [sic]!”
Leaving Washington under command of General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, the 18th Cavalry received orders to the Department of the Gulf of Mexico on February 16, 1864 and then to the Red River Campaign [March 10-May 22, 1864]. The Red River Campaign had several goals: confiscate southern cotton for New England mills; destroy Confederate supply lines; deter the threat of a French-Mexican military force and supplies from joining the Confederates; protect any loyal Union population in Texas; and finally bring Texas back into the Union.
Following the course of the Red River, the Union Army and Navy progressed with little opposition through Alexandria reaching Natchitoches by early April 1864. At Natchitoches the Army veered away from the Red River, going toward Shreveport by way of Mansfield, which left them without naval support. This and another tactical blunder on the part of General Banks and a series of skillful maneuvers by General Richard Taylor (son of President Zachary Taylor), who commanded the Confederate forces, were decisive factors to the final outcome of the battle.
Pennock later described this campaign and what it was like to endure combat action:
“I cannot recall the exact dates of those minor fights but I was in all of them and came thru unharmed but wished many times I was honorably out of it. After leaving Natchitoches, Gen. Banks thought to reach Shreveport, La. Without much fighting and after several days marching and a few skirmishes and loosing [sic] but a few men, on the morning of April 8, 1864 at Pleasant Hill we were suddenly faced by the main Rebel Army and a fight was on. We had several men killed, two by my side, namely, Thos. Oliver and John Fay. I was badly frightened and excited. I felt as tho I had all the war I wanted but had gotten into it and was determined to make the best of it. Expecting to be killed any minute causes strange feelings to come over one that no can realize until he has been there.
“Our next fight was at Mansfield and both parties were determined to hold the field. After noon the Rebels began to weaken and fall back towards the Cross Roads, and tho they were beaten, some fighting was continued all night. The rebels, during the night, had received reinforcements and outnumbered us by many hundreds. The battle continued all day and men lay dead in some places two deep. As night came we had to return to Pleasant Hill were we got some rest but by daybreak the fight was on for the second day and by night we were badly beaten. Our supply train and everything was gone. Gen. Banks was discouraged. We were short about six thousand men, all our supplies and artillery. Banks ordered a general retreat and turned our faces towards New Orleans. Ragged, dirty and hungry before we reached the Mississippi River across from Baton Rouge, there we got new supplies of food and clothing and were thankful to be alive.
“After resting a few days at Baton Rouge, Company C’s horses were turned over to the government and we were ordered to New Orleans to do guard and patrol duty in the city, not mounted. After about ten days, Company C was sent up to Fort Carey to drill, both infantry and artillery. I got very tired of that kind of drilling, but that was orders and had to be done, regardless of our feelings. We remained there four weeks, and were then returned to New Orleans, mounted and put on patrol duty in and around the city.
“At this time some of the boys were applying for furloughs, or leave of absence. I, not feeling very well, sent in my application and received my furlough and transportation to Watertown, New York, good for thirty days. I left New Orleans, September 15th on board the S. S. Campana, had good weather and landed at New York, six days and six hours from the time I left New Orleans. I arrived at Watertown two days later. I met with many old friends, all eager to know about the war. After a few days, I turned my attention to getting over into Canada, to the home of my parents. I met with many difficulties but finally reached home where I remained until time to return to Watertown where I got my transportation papers and passport to New York. On arriving, I found I could not get a boat to New Orleans for several days, so went to the Soldiers Home and the officer in charge wired headquarters that I was there.
“On my return, waiting for the transport ship, after about ten days I was put aboard the S. S. Continental. I had a very rough voyage to New Orleans. On arriving, I found the 18th Cavalry was then at Thipodox [Tribodaux], some seventy miles, from there. I went to headquarters and got transportation on the Algers R. R. which run near Thipodox. On arrival there, I was furnished with a horse and equipment and again took up duty with Company C, 18th New York Cavalry. I cannot recall the exact date but in the year of 1864, after being on duty at Thipodox for several days in continual cold rain, the Regiment was ordered back to New Orleans, where we were dismounted and sent eight miles into winter quarters and remained there thru cold and rainy weather until about the middle of January 1865.”
In a reorganized command under General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby, who had relieved General Banks, Private Pennock took part in another march on Shreveport in January, 1865, but the news of General Lee’s surrender came before they reached that city. The rigors of the campaign, especially the cold, damp weather, having weakened his health, Pennock was confined in a hospital in New Orleans for sometime after the close of the war, and he was honorably discharged January 14, 1866.
Following his discharge Chapman Pennock returned to Canada and married Clarissa Brown in Ontario in 1866, and to this union eight children were born. At this time he engaged in the mercantile business at Fort Williams, Ontario. He sold out there, tried faming in North Dakota for two years, and in 1888 came to Montana to work on the St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Manitoba [later Great Northern] railway. Two years later Pennock located at Fort Benton, and for a time was employed by Henry J. O’Hanlon as manager for the O’Hanlon Livestock Company. On April 16, 1907, Clarissa Pennock died of cancer and was interred in Riverside Cemetery.
Shortly after the death of his wife, Chapman Pennock moved from Fort Benton to the Ralph B. Snider Ranch, thirteen miles southwest of Hogeland, then part of Choteau County [now Blaine County]. He lived with his daughter Elizabeth Ann Pennock Snider and her husband Ralph until the latter’s death in 1910. Chapman helped his daughter raise her three small children and manage the cattle and horses on the ranch. For three more decades Chapman lived with his daughter, and she cared for him. On Memorial Day 1937 at the Snider Ranch, American Legion Posts #59 Hogeland and #109 Turner and a large gathering of friends and neighbors honored Private Pennock as the last remaining Civil War veteran in Blaine County.
On February 10, 1940 Chapman Pennock, age 97, passed way at the Snider Ranch. A military funeral service was held at the Hogeland Lutheran Church with Harlem and Big Flat ex-servicemen attending. An escort accompanied the remains to Fort Benton where the American Legion Post held graveside services. Chapman Pennock, Civil War veteran rests next to his wife, Clarissa Brown Pennock and son, Richard, in Fort Benton Riverside Cemetery.
Sources: [Photos and Family History provided by Edward J. Snider; FBRPW 14 Feb 1940, p. 1; 21 Feb 1940, p. 8; FBRPW 17 Apr 1907, p. 5; Thunderstorms And Tumbleweeds 1887-1987 East Blaine County, pp. 232, 442, 513; Riverside Cemetery Records; U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles; American Civil War Regiments 18th New York Cavalry; New York Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts; A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 2]
Note: If you have Civil War veterans in your family who settled in this area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories and photographs that we can share with our readers. Send your Civil War stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT 59442.
Photos:
1. Young Chapman Pennock. [Courtesy of Edward J. Snider]
2. New York Draft Riots, July 13-16.
3. Chapman and Clarissa A. Brown Pennock. [Courtesy of Thunderstorms And Tumbleweeds]
4. Civil War Veteran Champman Pennock, age 94, Memorial Day 1937 at the Snider Ranch in Blaine County. [Courtesy of Edward J. Snider]
5. Chapman Pennock Civil War Gravestone, Riverside Cemetery.
For The River Press February 29, 2012
This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War. A special thanks to Edward J. Snider of Harlem, MT for sharing photographs and information on his ancestor, Chapman Pennock.
Many foreigners fought on both sides during our American Civil War. Chapman Pennock, a Canadian, fought for the Union, later came west to Montana and today rests at Riverside Cemetery, Fort Benton. Pennock was born March 24, 1843 in South Crosby, Leeds County, Ontario, Canada. He was the eldest of seven children born to Arthur W. and Phoebe Ann Woodard Pennock. As a young man he worked on a farm and learned the carpentry trade. He found employment in a sash and door factory at Sandy Creek, New York, and when President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 volunteers to serve for the duration of the Civil War, Pennock quit work at the factory and at the age of 20 enlisted into the Union Army on June 17, 1863. Chapman was enrolled as a Private in Company C 18th Cavalry Regiment New York, just two weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg.
Pennock’s company was sent to Camp Dudorf on New York’s Staten Island for basic training. Upon completion of training, Chapman’s regiment saw action almost immediately in New York in helping to quell draft riots. The draft riots of July 13-16, 1863 have been described as the worst outbreak of urban unrest in U.S. history. On Monday, July 13th five days of mayhem and bloodshed began that would be known as the Civil War Draft Riots. The rioters initially targeted only military and governmental buildings, symbols of the “unfairness” of a new conscription law. Mobs attacked only individuals who interfered with their actions, but by afternoon of the first day, some of the rioters turned to attacks on African Americans, and on all things symbolic of black political, economic, and social power. As the violence escalated, armed mobs of white workers rampaged throughout the streets and fought police, the remaining militia still in New York, and the newly trained 18th Cavalry in pitched battles. They burned government buildings, the Colored Orphan Asylum, many businesses, and attacked black men and women, with special violence for black workers including eleven lynchings.
The 18th New York Cavalry then deployed to Camp Stoneman near Washington D. C. for further training and to perform patrol and guard duty in the capital city. Chapman Pennock saw President Abraham Lincoln several times, and he recalled seeing “Lincoln, passing in review of Union Troops, riding a white horse with his feet barely off the ground and his tall hat bobbing as he nodded to the troops. Quite a comical site [sic]!”
Leaving Washington under command of General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, the 18th Cavalry received orders to the Department of the Gulf of Mexico on February 16, 1864 and then to the Red River Campaign [March 10-May 22, 1864]. The Red River Campaign had several goals: confiscate southern cotton for New England mills; destroy Confederate supply lines; deter the threat of a French-Mexican military force and supplies from joining the Confederates; protect any loyal Union population in Texas; and finally bring Texas back into the Union.
Following the course of the Red River, the Union Army and Navy progressed with little opposition through Alexandria reaching Natchitoches by early April 1864. At Natchitoches the Army veered away from the Red River, going toward Shreveport by way of Mansfield, which left them without naval support. This and another tactical blunder on the part of General Banks and a series of skillful maneuvers by General Richard Taylor (son of President Zachary Taylor), who commanded the Confederate forces, were decisive factors to the final outcome of the battle.
Pennock later described this campaign and what it was like to endure combat action:
“I cannot recall the exact dates of those minor fights but I was in all of them and came thru unharmed but wished many times I was honorably out of it. After leaving Natchitoches, Gen. Banks thought to reach Shreveport, La. Without much fighting and after several days marching and a few skirmishes and loosing [sic] but a few men, on the morning of April 8, 1864 at Pleasant Hill we were suddenly faced by the main Rebel Army and a fight was on. We had several men killed, two by my side, namely, Thos. Oliver and John Fay. I was badly frightened and excited. I felt as tho I had all the war I wanted but had gotten into it and was determined to make the best of it. Expecting to be killed any minute causes strange feelings to come over one that no can realize until he has been there.
“Our next fight was at Mansfield and both parties were determined to hold the field. After noon the Rebels began to weaken and fall back towards the Cross Roads, and tho they were beaten, some fighting was continued all night. The rebels, during the night, had received reinforcements and outnumbered us by many hundreds. The battle continued all day and men lay dead in some places two deep. As night came we had to return to Pleasant Hill were we got some rest but by daybreak the fight was on for the second day and by night we were badly beaten. Our supply train and everything was gone. Gen. Banks was discouraged. We were short about six thousand men, all our supplies and artillery. Banks ordered a general retreat and turned our faces towards New Orleans. Ragged, dirty and hungry before we reached the Mississippi River across from Baton Rouge, there we got new supplies of food and clothing and were thankful to be alive.
“After resting a few days at Baton Rouge, Company C’s horses were turned over to the government and we were ordered to New Orleans to do guard and patrol duty in the city, not mounted. After about ten days, Company C was sent up to Fort Carey to drill, both infantry and artillery. I got very tired of that kind of drilling, but that was orders and had to be done, regardless of our feelings. We remained there four weeks, and were then returned to New Orleans, mounted and put on patrol duty in and around the city.
“At this time some of the boys were applying for furloughs, or leave of absence. I, not feeling very well, sent in my application and received my furlough and transportation to Watertown, New York, good for thirty days. I left New Orleans, September 15th on board the S. S. Campana, had good weather and landed at New York, six days and six hours from the time I left New Orleans. I arrived at Watertown two days later. I met with many old friends, all eager to know about the war. After a few days, I turned my attention to getting over into Canada, to the home of my parents. I met with many difficulties but finally reached home where I remained until time to return to Watertown where I got my transportation papers and passport to New York. On arriving, I found I could not get a boat to New Orleans for several days, so went to the Soldiers Home and the officer in charge wired headquarters that I was there.
“On my return, waiting for the transport ship, after about ten days I was put aboard the S. S. Continental. I had a very rough voyage to New Orleans. On arriving, I found the 18th Cavalry was then at Thipodox [Tribodaux], some seventy miles, from there. I went to headquarters and got transportation on the Algers R. R. which run near Thipodox. On arrival there, I was furnished with a horse and equipment and again took up duty with Company C, 18th New York Cavalry. I cannot recall the exact date but in the year of 1864, after being on duty at Thipodox for several days in continual cold rain, the Regiment was ordered back to New Orleans, where we were dismounted and sent eight miles into winter quarters and remained there thru cold and rainy weather until about the middle of January 1865.”
In a reorganized command under General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby, who had relieved General Banks, Private Pennock took part in another march on Shreveport in January, 1865, but the news of General Lee’s surrender came before they reached that city. The rigors of the campaign, especially the cold, damp weather, having weakened his health, Pennock was confined in a hospital in New Orleans for sometime after the close of the war, and he was honorably discharged January 14, 1866.
Following his discharge Chapman Pennock returned to Canada and married Clarissa Brown in Ontario in 1866, and to this union eight children were born. At this time he engaged in the mercantile business at Fort Williams, Ontario. He sold out there, tried faming in North Dakota for two years, and in 1888 came to Montana to work on the St. Paul, Minneapolis, & Manitoba [later Great Northern] railway. Two years later Pennock located at Fort Benton, and for a time was employed by Henry J. O’Hanlon as manager for the O’Hanlon Livestock Company. On April 16, 1907, Clarissa Pennock died of cancer and was interred in Riverside Cemetery.
Shortly after the death of his wife, Chapman Pennock moved from Fort Benton to the Ralph B. Snider Ranch, thirteen miles southwest of Hogeland, then part of Choteau County [now Blaine County]. He lived with his daughter Elizabeth Ann Pennock Snider and her husband Ralph until the latter’s death in 1910. Chapman helped his daughter raise her three small children and manage the cattle and horses on the ranch. For three more decades Chapman lived with his daughter, and she cared for him. On Memorial Day 1937 at the Snider Ranch, American Legion Posts #59 Hogeland and #109 Turner and a large gathering of friends and neighbors honored Private Pennock as the last remaining Civil War veteran in Blaine County.
On February 10, 1940 Chapman Pennock, age 97, passed way at the Snider Ranch. A military funeral service was held at the Hogeland Lutheran Church with Harlem and Big Flat ex-servicemen attending. An escort accompanied the remains to Fort Benton where the American Legion Post held graveside services. Chapman Pennock, Civil War veteran rests next to his wife, Clarissa Brown Pennock and son, Richard, in Fort Benton Riverside Cemetery.
Sources: [Photos and Family History provided by Edward J. Snider; FBRPW 14 Feb 1940, p. 1; 21 Feb 1940, p. 8; FBRPW 17 Apr 1907, p. 5; Thunderstorms And Tumbleweeds 1887-1987 East Blaine County, pp. 232, 442, 513; Riverside Cemetery Records; U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles; American Civil War Regiments 18th New York Cavalry; New York Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts; A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. 2]
Note: If you have Civil War veterans in your family who settled in this area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories and photographs that we can share with our readers. Send your Civil War stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT 59442.
Photos:
1. Young Chapman Pennock. [Courtesy of Edward J. Snider]
2. New York Draft Riots, July 13-16.
3. Chapman and Clarissa A. Brown Pennock. [Courtesy of Thunderstorms And Tumbleweeds]
4. Civil War Veteran Champman Pennock, age 94, Memorial Day 1937 at the Snider Ranch in Blaine County. [Courtesy of Edward J. Snider]
5. Chapman Pennock Civil War Gravestone, Riverside Cemetery.
28 January 2012
Larger Than Life Frontier Character, Colonel John J. Donnelly
Remembering Our Civil War Heritage and Heroes:
1861-1865
Larger Than Life Frontier Character, Colonel John J. Donnelly
By Ken Robison
For The River Press
January 25, 2012
This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War.
Frontier Fort Benton was a town of colorful characters, but they broke the mold with John J. Donnelly. In the span of six decades, Colonel Donnelly fought with distinction through the Civil War, led Irish Fenian Army invasions of Canada, led a civilian army in the Nez Perce War, served as Fenian agitator, Louis Riel advisor, attorney, county clerk and recorder, and probate judge, and was elected Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives. After this extraordinary career, even in the end, he died a uniquely spectacular death.
Who was this man of triumph and tragedy in frontier Montana? John J. Donnelly was born November 15, 1838 at Providence, Rhode Island of Irish immigrant parents. He was educated in schools of Providence and the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. Moving west to Michigan, he studied law in the office of Sylvester Larned, of Detroit, Michigan, and was admitted to practice in November 1860 on the eve of the Civil War.
On November 18, 1861 at the age of 23, John J. Donnelly enlisted in the service of the United States and raised an infantry company. As Captain of Company G, his regiment, the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry, with 925 officers and men, was mustered into service February 13, 1862 at Ypsilanti, Michigan under Colonel Robert P. Sinclair.
The Fourteenth left Michigan on the 17th of April 1862 for St. Louis, Mo., and joined General Grant's army at Pittsburg Landing. It participated in the siege of Corinth, Miss., and when the enemy evacuated, the Fourteenth formed a part of
General Buell's army in the famous race with the Confederate army under General Bragg, to Louisville, Ky.
At Nashville, Tenn., the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry Regiment was assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division, Fourteenth Corps of the Army of the Cumberland, and served in that corps for the rest of the war. In November the regiment had a sharp encounter with Alabama troops at Lavergne, Tenn., when it captured a fort and took a large number of prisoners. After a series of marches and victories the regiment was at Stone River, Tenn., in January 1863 when it took part in that engagement.
Captain Donnelly led Company G until he was appointed engineer officer on the staff of Major General George H. Thomas, Commander of the Fourteenth Corps. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Donnelly served with General Thomas during 1863-64, while Thomas was gaining fame with his stout defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, saved the Union Army from being completely routed, earning him his most famous nickname, the "Rock of Chickamauga." General Thomas followed soon after with a dramatic breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga. In the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of 1864, he achieved one of the most decisive victories of the war, destroying the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood, at the Battle of Nashville.
By 1864, Major General John M. Palmer had taken command of the Fourteenth Corps, and on August 5th, Lieutenant Colonel Donnelly was promoted to Full Aide-de-Camp on General Palmer’s staff. In the Civil War an Aide-de-Camp was a confidential officer appointed by general officers to their staffs. An aide-de-camp reported directly to his commander and took orders only from him. In a position of great responsibility, an aide was required to write orders, deliver them personally if necessary, and be thoroughly knowledgeable about troop positions, maneuvers, columns, orders of corps, routes, and the locations of officers’ quarters.
General Palmer effectively commanded the 14th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland in the Atlanta Campaign. Palmer's corps was a part of General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea and the actions to capture Savannah, Georgia, late 1864. During the March to the Sea, Colonel Donnelly was appointed assistant general superintendent of the military railway service in General Sherman’s department.
Throughout the war until his discharge March 14, 1865 Colonel Donnelly took part in many of the principal engagements of that great conflict, and was twice wounded, at Corinth and Resaca. One of his obituaries reads, “A braver soldier never drew his sword in any cause, and such is the testimonial of his superior officers and of the men who served under him.”
As the Civil War drew to an end, Treasury Secretary Chase appointed Colonel Donnelly as special agent of the Treasury department. During reconstruction days he settled all war claims against the United States government in the Carolinas and part of Georgia and handled enormous sums of money without any suspicion of malfeasance.
Little is known of this period in Donnelly’s life, except that Colonel Donnelly engaged in the wholesale grocery and commission business at Savannah, Georgia. In 1866 Colonel Donnelly closed out his business and came north to Michigan on account of the death of his wife, to whom he was married but a few days before entering the service in 1861.
Entering a new phase of his life, Colonel Donnelly plunged headlong into the Fenian movement, which was then at its highest, becoming one of the most prominent figures in the subsequent “invasions” of Canada. The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish republican organization founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. Members were commonly known as "Fenians". O'Mahony, who was a Celtic scholar, named his organization after the Fianna, the legendary band of Irish warriors led by Fionn mac Cumhaill.
In 1866 together with many other Irish Civil War veterans Colonel Donnelly joined the Fenian movement to invade Canada to punish the English for their occupation of Ireland. The Fenians dreamed of capturing Canada, forcing the English to free Ireland in exchange for return of Canada. A thousand strong force of Fenian troops took the field in June, 1866, crossed the Niagara River into Ontario, defeated a company of Queen’s Own Rifles of Toronto, and captured Fort Erie. Shortly afterward the Battle of Pigeon Hill practically ended this outbreak. In this battle Col. Donnelly had 200 men in his command, and was able to hold his position from 9 o’clock a. m. until sundown, with 2,300 men opposing him. He had twelve men killed and seventeen wounded, with Donnelly among the wounded. He was captured, but escaped, and a large reward was offered for him.
We are the Fenian Brotherhood, skilled in the arts of war,
And we're going to fight for Ireland, the land we adore,
Many battles we have won, along with the boys in blue,
And we'll go and capture Canada, for we've nothing else to do.
— "Fenian soldier's song"
After the defeat at Pigeon Hill, Col. Donnelly drifted west and had a role in the Red River Rebellion of 1870, in which Louis Riel was the leader of the Metis and Cree. This collapsed as did another Fenian raid at Pembina, N. D. the next year. Donnelly came to Montana from Pembina, at the time of the boundary line survey, traveling with the survey party but not part of it. He settled in Fort Benton in 1872 to resume his practice of law.
In Fort Benton Colonel John J. Donnelly became a spokesman for the many Irish Democats of the town that included among others the Healy brothers, Matthew Carroll, John Tattan, and John Evans. Donnelly played a prominent part in the aftermath of the Cypress Hill massacre of 1873, when in 1875 Bentonites were arrested by federal officials and troops for an extradition hearing in Helena. The so-called “Extradition Prisoners” were released, and upon their triumphant return to Fort Benton, were welcomed by Colonel Donnelly with an eloquent speech, condemning governmental actions to surround the town and patrol the streets with armed soldiers, “while five of its most respected citizens were seized, chained together, and thrown into a military prison.”
In 1877 as Chief Joseph’s Nez Perce turned north from the Musselshell in their flight toward Canada, trader James Wells from Fort Claggett raised the alarm in Fort Benton. Col. Donnelly, warrior and leader of men, raised a company of 50 civilian mounted volunteers to hasten down the Missouri to the Cow Island. The men of Donnelly’s Company were tough men, experienced in the hard and dangerous life of frontier Montana. At least four, and likely more, of Donnelly’s men had extensive Civil War service, and three had recent service in the Seventh Infantry. At least three were Army scouts.
Donnelly’s Company arrived at Cow Island just after the Nez Perce had crossed the Missouri and were moving up Cow Creek. On September 27, 1877, Donnelly’s men engaged elements of the Nez Perce in a three-hour battle, with one man, African American Edmund Bradley killed. Fortunately for Donnelly’s Company the main Nez Perce camp was moving northward toward their fate at Snake Creek.
Popular and capable, Col Donnelly served Choteau County as Clerk and Recorder and Probate Judge, and was elected a member of the Twelfth Montana Territorial Legislative Assembly in 1881, being chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. Throughout his time in Montana, Donnelly engaged in the practice of the law, and his last law partner in the 1890s became the talented young Charles N. Pray.
By 1885, Fort Benton was home for many Civil War veterans, and in early August of that year, Union veterans signed a petition to form a Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) post. Among those signing this list was “J. J. Donnelly, Lieut. Colonel, 14th Michigan.”
Although not well documented, during 1883-84 when Louis Riel, leader of the Canadian Metis, was in exile in Montana, he spent time with Col. Donnelly. According to writer Joseph Kinsey Howard, Donnelly offered his support and advice, and the two met several times in Fort Benton. Donnelly advised him on the wording of petitions and military strategy and told Riel that he considered Riel’s dream of Metis freedom in western Canada a splendid dream. Riel’s 1885 invasion, defeat, and hanging must have been very hard on the old Fenian Donnelly.
Donnelly never remarried, and as he advanced in age his memories of battles lost and won in the Civil War, loss of his young wife, defeats in his glorious Fenian cause, loss of many of his Fort Benton Irish friends, the defeat of the Metis and loss of Riel, all must have weighed heavily on his mind. In November 1897, Donnelly was found lying in his bedroom with his throat badly cut and unconscious from loss of blood. Although he eventually recovered, the end was nearing for the old warrior. Yet, his drinking increased.
Two years later, in September 1899, friends became concerned over his strange absence from his usual haunts for several days. A search began, and Finlay Tower discovered footprints leading down to the water’s edge at the wing-dam at the end of Whalen bottom, and could find no place where anyone had come out. When last seen Donnelly had been drunk, and friends became concerned that the Colonel had met with some mishap. For weeks the search continued, but it was about a month later that remains were found on a sandbar on the south side of the Missouri river at the upper end of the Lansing ranch, having floated some 60 miles from the place where the tragedy occurred. Although badly decomposed, the remains were recognized as Donnelly. The remains indicated a determined case of suicide. He had filled his pockets with about 14 pounds of rocks, cut his throat from ear to ear, and completed his work of self-destruction by drowning. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of death by drowning and self-inflicted injuries.
After a special requiem mass, the remains of the late Col. John J. Donnelly were interred in Riverside cemetery by pallbearers Judges DuBose and Tattan, Jere Sullivan, H. J. O’Hanlon, and G. A. R. veterans T. A. Cummings and R. S. Culbertson. A large number of his old friends attended the simple ceremonies at the graveside.
Joseph Kinsey Howard, in Strange Empire, eulogized Civil War veteran and Fenian leader Colonel Donnelly, “In September, 1899, the last of the Pembina plotters, last of the irreconcilables, perhaps last of the Fenian fighting men, joined his comrades. General Donnelly walked down to the Fort Benton levee, filled his pockets with fourteen pounds of rocks, slit his throat from ear to ear, and marched unfalteringly into the Missouri river.” And we might add, Colonel John J. Donnelly, Civil War hero, marched into history.
Note: If you have Civil War veterans in your family who settled in this area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories and photographs that we can share with our readers. Send your Civil War stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT 59442.
Photos:
1. The goal of the Fenian Brotherhood is reflected in this patriotic lithograph, "Freedom to Ireland," by Currier & Ives, New York, ca 1866.
2. The Battle of Eccles Hill was part of a Fenian raid into Canada in May 1870. This scene is located near the site of the Battle of Pigeon Hill where Colonel Donnelly was wounded in the 1866 Fenian invasion.
3. This portrait of John J. Donnelly is the only image of the famed Irishman in the Overholser Historical Research Center.
4. Civil War Gravestone of Captain John J. Donnelly at Highland Cemetery.
1861-1865
Larger Than Life Frontier Character, Colonel John J. Donnelly
By Ken Robison
For The River Press
January 25, 2012
This continues a monthly series commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War.
Frontier Fort Benton was a town of colorful characters, but they broke the mold with John J. Donnelly. In the span of six decades, Colonel Donnelly fought with distinction through the Civil War, led Irish Fenian Army invasions of Canada, led a civilian army in the Nez Perce War, served as Fenian agitator, Louis Riel advisor, attorney, county clerk and recorder, and probate judge, and was elected Speaker of the Montana House of Representatives. After this extraordinary career, even in the end, he died a uniquely spectacular death.
Who was this man of triumph and tragedy in frontier Montana? John J. Donnelly was born November 15, 1838 at Providence, Rhode Island of Irish immigrant parents. He was educated in schools of Providence and the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. Moving west to Michigan, he studied law in the office of Sylvester Larned, of Detroit, Michigan, and was admitted to practice in November 1860 on the eve of the Civil War.
On November 18, 1861 at the age of 23, John J. Donnelly enlisted in the service of the United States and raised an infantry company. As Captain of Company G, his regiment, the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry, with 925 officers and men, was mustered into service February 13, 1862 at Ypsilanti, Michigan under Colonel Robert P. Sinclair.
The Fourteenth left Michigan on the 17th of April 1862 for St. Louis, Mo., and joined General Grant's army at Pittsburg Landing. It participated in the siege of Corinth, Miss., and when the enemy evacuated, the Fourteenth formed a part of
General Buell's army in the famous race with the Confederate army under General Bragg, to Louisville, Ky.
At Nashville, Tenn., the Fourteenth Michigan Infantry Regiment was assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division, Fourteenth Corps of the Army of the Cumberland, and served in that corps for the rest of the war. In November the regiment had a sharp encounter with Alabama troops at Lavergne, Tenn., when it captured a fort and took a large number of prisoners. After a series of marches and victories the regiment was at Stone River, Tenn., in January 1863 when it took part in that engagement.
Captain Donnelly led Company G until he was appointed engineer officer on the staff of Major General George H. Thomas, Commander of the Fourteenth Corps. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, Donnelly served with General Thomas during 1863-64, while Thomas was gaining fame with his stout defense at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, saved the Union Army from being completely routed, earning him his most famous nickname, the "Rock of Chickamauga." General Thomas followed soon after with a dramatic breakthrough on Missionary Ridge in the Battle of Chattanooga. In the Franklin-Nashville Campaign of 1864, he achieved one of the most decisive victories of the war, destroying the army of Confederate General John Bell Hood, at the Battle of Nashville.
By 1864, Major General John M. Palmer had taken command of the Fourteenth Corps, and on August 5th, Lieutenant Colonel Donnelly was promoted to Full Aide-de-Camp on General Palmer’s staff. In the Civil War an Aide-de-Camp was a confidential officer appointed by general officers to their staffs. An aide-de-camp reported directly to his commander and took orders only from him. In a position of great responsibility, an aide was required to write orders, deliver them personally if necessary, and be thoroughly knowledgeable about troop positions, maneuvers, columns, orders of corps, routes, and the locations of officers’ quarters.
General Palmer effectively commanded the 14th Corps of the Army of the Cumberland in the Atlanta Campaign. Palmer's corps was a part of General William T. Sherman’s March to the Sea and the actions to capture Savannah, Georgia, late 1864. During the March to the Sea, Colonel Donnelly was appointed assistant general superintendent of the military railway service in General Sherman’s department.
Throughout the war until his discharge March 14, 1865 Colonel Donnelly took part in many of the principal engagements of that great conflict, and was twice wounded, at Corinth and Resaca. One of his obituaries reads, “A braver soldier never drew his sword in any cause, and such is the testimonial of his superior officers and of the men who served under him.”
As the Civil War drew to an end, Treasury Secretary Chase appointed Colonel Donnelly as special agent of the Treasury department. During reconstruction days he settled all war claims against the United States government in the Carolinas and part of Georgia and handled enormous sums of money without any suspicion of malfeasance.
Little is known of this period in Donnelly’s life, except that Colonel Donnelly engaged in the wholesale grocery and commission business at Savannah, Georgia. In 1866 Colonel Donnelly closed out his business and came north to Michigan on account of the death of his wife, to whom he was married but a few days before entering the service in 1861.
Entering a new phase of his life, Colonel Donnelly plunged headlong into the Fenian movement, which was then at its highest, becoming one of the most prominent figures in the subsequent “invasions” of Canada. The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish republican organization founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. Members were commonly known as "Fenians". O'Mahony, who was a Celtic scholar, named his organization after the Fianna, the legendary band of Irish warriors led by Fionn mac Cumhaill.
In 1866 together with many other Irish Civil War veterans Colonel Donnelly joined the Fenian movement to invade Canada to punish the English for their occupation of Ireland. The Fenians dreamed of capturing Canada, forcing the English to free Ireland in exchange for return of Canada. A thousand strong force of Fenian troops took the field in June, 1866, crossed the Niagara River into Ontario, defeated a company of Queen’s Own Rifles of Toronto, and captured Fort Erie. Shortly afterward the Battle of Pigeon Hill practically ended this outbreak. In this battle Col. Donnelly had 200 men in his command, and was able to hold his position from 9 o’clock a. m. until sundown, with 2,300 men opposing him. He had twelve men killed and seventeen wounded, with Donnelly among the wounded. He was captured, but escaped, and a large reward was offered for him.
We are the Fenian Brotherhood, skilled in the arts of war,
And we're going to fight for Ireland, the land we adore,
Many battles we have won, along with the boys in blue,
And we'll go and capture Canada, for we've nothing else to do.
— "Fenian soldier's song"
After the defeat at Pigeon Hill, Col. Donnelly drifted west and had a role in the Red River Rebellion of 1870, in which Louis Riel was the leader of the Metis and Cree. This collapsed as did another Fenian raid at Pembina, N. D. the next year. Donnelly came to Montana from Pembina, at the time of the boundary line survey, traveling with the survey party but not part of it. He settled in Fort Benton in 1872 to resume his practice of law.
In Fort Benton Colonel John J. Donnelly became a spokesman for the many Irish Democats of the town that included among others the Healy brothers, Matthew Carroll, John Tattan, and John Evans. Donnelly played a prominent part in the aftermath of the Cypress Hill massacre of 1873, when in 1875 Bentonites were arrested by federal officials and troops for an extradition hearing in Helena. The so-called “Extradition Prisoners” were released, and upon their triumphant return to Fort Benton, were welcomed by Colonel Donnelly with an eloquent speech, condemning governmental actions to surround the town and patrol the streets with armed soldiers, “while five of its most respected citizens were seized, chained together, and thrown into a military prison.”
In 1877 as Chief Joseph’s Nez Perce turned north from the Musselshell in their flight toward Canada, trader James Wells from Fort Claggett raised the alarm in Fort Benton. Col. Donnelly, warrior and leader of men, raised a company of 50 civilian mounted volunteers to hasten down the Missouri to the Cow Island. The men of Donnelly’s Company were tough men, experienced in the hard and dangerous life of frontier Montana. At least four, and likely more, of Donnelly’s men had extensive Civil War service, and three had recent service in the Seventh Infantry. At least three were Army scouts.
Donnelly’s Company arrived at Cow Island just after the Nez Perce had crossed the Missouri and were moving up Cow Creek. On September 27, 1877, Donnelly’s men engaged elements of the Nez Perce in a three-hour battle, with one man, African American Edmund Bradley killed. Fortunately for Donnelly’s Company the main Nez Perce camp was moving northward toward their fate at Snake Creek.
Popular and capable, Col Donnelly served Choteau County as Clerk and Recorder and Probate Judge, and was elected a member of the Twelfth Montana Territorial Legislative Assembly in 1881, being chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives. Throughout his time in Montana, Donnelly engaged in the practice of the law, and his last law partner in the 1890s became the talented young Charles N. Pray.
By 1885, Fort Benton was home for many Civil War veterans, and in early August of that year, Union veterans signed a petition to form a Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) post. Among those signing this list was “J. J. Donnelly, Lieut. Colonel, 14th Michigan.”
Although not well documented, during 1883-84 when Louis Riel, leader of the Canadian Metis, was in exile in Montana, he spent time with Col. Donnelly. According to writer Joseph Kinsey Howard, Donnelly offered his support and advice, and the two met several times in Fort Benton. Donnelly advised him on the wording of petitions and military strategy and told Riel that he considered Riel’s dream of Metis freedom in western Canada a splendid dream. Riel’s 1885 invasion, defeat, and hanging must have been very hard on the old Fenian Donnelly.
Donnelly never remarried, and as he advanced in age his memories of battles lost and won in the Civil War, loss of his young wife, defeats in his glorious Fenian cause, loss of many of his Fort Benton Irish friends, the defeat of the Metis and loss of Riel, all must have weighed heavily on his mind. In November 1897, Donnelly was found lying in his bedroom with his throat badly cut and unconscious from loss of blood. Although he eventually recovered, the end was nearing for the old warrior. Yet, his drinking increased.
Two years later, in September 1899, friends became concerned over his strange absence from his usual haunts for several days. A search began, and Finlay Tower discovered footprints leading down to the water’s edge at the wing-dam at the end of Whalen bottom, and could find no place where anyone had come out. When last seen Donnelly had been drunk, and friends became concerned that the Colonel had met with some mishap. For weeks the search continued, but it was about a month later that remains were found on a sandbar on the south side of the Missouri river at the upper end of the Lansing ranch, having floated some 60 miles from the place where the tragedy occurred. Although badly decomposed, the remains were recognized as Donnelly. The remains indicated a determined case of suicide. He had filled his pockets with about 14 pounds of rocks, cut his throat from ear to ear, and completed his work of self-destruction by drowning. The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of death by drowning and self-inflicted injuries.
After a special requiem mass, the remains of the late Col. John J. Donnelly were interred in Riverside cemetery by pallbearers Judges DuBose and Tattan, Jere Sullivan, H. J. O’Hanlon, and G. A. R. veterans T. A. Cummings and R. S. Culbertson. A large number of his old friends attended the simple ceremonies at the graveside.
Joseph Kinsey Howard, in Strange Empire, eulogized Civil War veteran and Fenian leader Colonel Donnelly, “In September, 1899, the last of the Pembina plotters, last of the irreconcilables, perhaps last of the Fenian fighting men, joined his comrades. General Donnelly walked down to the Fort Benton levee, filled his pockets with fourteen pounds of rocks, slit his throat from ear to ear, and marched unfalteringly into the Missouri river.” And we might add, Colonel John J. Donnelly, Civil War hero, marched into history.
Note: If you have Civil War veterans in your family who settled in this area, we would be pleased to hear from you with copies of stories and photographs that we can share with our readers. Send your Civil War stories to mtcivilwar@yahoo.com or to the Overholser Historical Research Center, Box 262, Fort Benton, MT 59442.
Photos:
1. The goal of the Fenian Brotherhood is reflected in this patriotic lithograph, "Freedom to Ireland," by Currier & Ives, New York, ca 1866.
2. The Battle of Eccles Hill was part of a Fenian raid into Canada in May 1870. This scene is located near the site of the Battle of Pigeon Hill where Colonel Donnelly was wounded in the 1866 Fenian invasion.
3. This portrait of John J. Donnelly is the only image of the famed Irishman in the Overholser Historical Research Center.
4. Civil War Gravestone of Captain John J. Donnelly at Highland Cemetery.
19 September 2009
“Old Waxy”: J. D. Weatherwax From the Belly to the Judith
By Ken Robison
Presented by Bob Doerk at the International Fur Trade Symposium at Fort Whoop-Up 12 September 2009.
Fort Benton has been home to many colorful characters over its long history, but few can top J. D. Weatherwax, known fondly by his many friends as “Old Waxy.” Standing over six feet tall and bearing a commanding presence, he made and lost fortunes, acquired and abandoned families, and made his mark at every stop along the frontier from the Belly River to the Judith. Yet in many ways, Weatherwax lived a life shrouded in mystery. Even his given name remains blurred through his own use of Joseph, Josiah, and John, but most often simply J. D.
For our purposes today, Joseph David Weatherwax, as we’ll call him, is important for two reasons: first, because he unwillingly played a key role in ending the whiskey trade and made a bit of Mounted Police history in the process; and second, because he left many descendants on the Blackfeet reservation.
During this past year we have begun to understand J. D. Weatherwax through research conducted at our Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton and from excellent research and insight shared by Weatherwax family members in the south and east such as C. Raymond Burklin of Dallas, Texas, a grandson of J. D.’s eldest son Charles Lindell Weatherwax, and Wayne Weatherwax of Westfield, Massachusetts, who although not a direct descendant is writing a Weatherwax Family History.
Joseph David Weatherwax, was born in New York in 1830, son of Thomas and Jane Weatherwax, though Wayne Weatherwax believes the father was Peter Weatherwax, also of New York. The family moved West to Illinois by 1849, and J. D. and a brother started a carriage factory in Quincy, Illinois. On February 21st, 1854, Joseph D. Weatherwax married Martha Virginia Sanks, and by 1859 two sons, Charles Lindell and Edward Thorne, had been born.
No photo has been found of J. D. Weatherwax, but this is his eldest son Charles Lindell Weatherwax (Courtesy of Charles Raymond Burklin)
From here the trail dims. Martha and the boys remained in Illinois, while J. D. apparently did not serve in the Union Army, but rather spent much of the Civil War in the cotton trade in New Orleans. During this time he made and lost a fortune and spent little time with his first family. Like many from both North and South at the close of the Civil War J. D. Weatherwax headed West to seek a new life and opportunities. J. D. made the long trip up the Missouri River on the steamboat Agnes departing St. Louis bound “for the mountains,” April 27, 1867, and 70 days later arrived at Fort Benton on July 5th. The following winter, his wife Martha obtained a divorce in Illinois.
Settling into life in the toughest town on the Upper Missouri, by 1870 J. D. Weatherwax had been elected Sheriff of the massive Choteau County then extending from the Rockies eastward past the Bear’s Paw Mountains and from the Judith Basin to the northern border. He was popular, respected, and known to fear no man. Living with him at this time was his Deputy H. A. “Fred” Kanouse, who personified to Hugh Dempsey an “unsavory character.”
During the trading season of 1871, Winfield Scott Wetzel of Fort Benton hired Weatherwax to build a robe trading post across the Medicine Line on the northern end of the Whoop-Up Trail. Suddenly, like many others from Fort Benton, Weatherwax was knee-deep in the robe and whiskey trade, establishing a post on the Lower St. Mary River near Fort Whoop-Up. The next year J. D. had worked his way into partnership with Scott Wetzel, and throughout the 1870s the firm Wetzel & Weatherwax became famous as an aggressive merchant house competing with the powerful T. C. Power & Brother and I. G. Baker firms.
Old Waxy’s duties apparently included acting as agent for T. C. Power & Brother, and keeping a watchful eye on Healy & Hamilton’s operations. He freighted trade goods including whiskey up the Whoop-Up Trail, selling them to other traders. He acted as buyer at trading posts around both the Standoff and Whoop-Up areas. In the words of Hugh Dempsey, [Quote] “Over the winter of 1871-72, the traders did a booming business, and it seemed as though just about everyone from Fort Benton was in the area.” [Unquote] [Hugh Dempsey’s Firewater The Impact of the Whisky Trade of the Blackfoot Nation, p. 86]
In October 1873, Canadian Reverend John McDougall visited the Belly River area, and wrote, [Quote] “Presently we looked upon the junction of the St. Mary’s and the Belly rivers, two deep valleys . . . The scene was rather picturesque, but the crowd we might meet down there was causing somewhat of a tremor in our minds . . . Further down [from Fort Whoop-Up] was another post. Whoopup itself belonged to Healy & Hamilton, and the other post to a Mr. Weatherwax, or, as the boys called him, ‘Old Waxy,’ and when we came in contact with him we thought he was well named—cool, calculating, polished, using the finest of English, crafty. [He told us] ‘Yes, gentlemen, we are glad to see you travelling through our country. We wish you most heartily a bon voyage.’” [Unquote] [On Western Trails in the Early Seventies Frontier Pioneer Life in The Canadian North-West by John McDougall. Toronto: William Briggs, 1911, pp. 66-7]
For three years, Old Waxy operated north of the line during the trading season, and Wetzel & Weatherwax prospered. During the fall of 1874 Old Waxy built Fort Weatherwax on the Oldman River downriver from the new site of Fort Macleod. While he hauled whiskey with other trade goods up the Whoop-Up Trail and sold it to traders at Fort Whoop-Up, Dick Berry’s Post, and others, Fort Weatherwax did not have the reputation of a whiskey post. Old Waxy appears to have let others do the “dirty work.”
During the winter of 1875, a long, rambling letter appeared in the Helena Herald from a member of the newly arrived North West Mounted Police at Fort Macleod. The writer declared (Quote)“Our duties are to suppress the whisky trade or die in the attempt . . . The renegade Yankees have monopolized the entire Indian trade. They are coarse, unpolished and uneducated, they are insulting in their conversation and disgusting to our sight.
. . . They tell us we can’t try and convict a man and confiscate his property until he is arrested. How absurd, when our civil record shows that we have done it repeatedly, and by this process we expect to regenerate the N. W. Territory, or drive the outlaws into exile.
. . . We must make arrests and seizures, or we will lose our shoulder-straps, and the Police force will be disbanded. Such a thing must not happen.” (Unquote) [Letter dated 30 Jan in HHD 15 Mar 1875, p. 3]
Within days of that letter, the North West Mounted Police made their arrest, but it didn’t turn out the way it was planned. The action was described in a letter dated February 18, 1875, from the Mounted Policeman at Fort Macleod. The letter opened with (Quote) “Hurrah for our side! In the language of a celebrated English General, ‘We have met the enemy, and they are ours.’
“Complaint was made last fall against Wetzel, Weatherwax and Berry for selling liquor to Indians. We have had our Yankee detectives shadowing them ever since, Wetzel at Benton, Weatherwax on Old Man’s river, and Berry on Bow river. On February 1st two loads of robes were driven into Weatherwax’s Fort. We seized them at once as property of Dick Berry. Old J. D. was foolish enough to protest, on the ground that he had purchased them from Berry.” (Unquote)
Eight days later a second load of robes was seized, and on February 15th a hearing was held at Fort Macleod with J. D. Weatherwax present. The meager testimony presented as evidence was that Berry had traded whiskey contrary to law, that he bought his goods from Wetzel & Weatherwax, and had in turn sold them his robes. This was enough. The intended culprit, Berry had not been caught, but actually had passed within rifle shot of Macleod on his way south just a few days after a detachment had been sent north to arrest him. It was enough that Weatherwax had the robes and money. He was found guilty of selling whiskey to Dick Berry, and sentenced to six months imprisonment [and fined $500]. In the words of the Mounted Police correspondent to the Helena Herald (Quote) “Old J. D., the chief of all the smugglers and desperadoes of the great Northwest, was locked up in jail, while the Union Jack floats triumphantly from the butt end of a broken lodge pole over his place of solitary confinement. At Fort Benton we laid the programme, and at Fort Macleod we consummated it.” (Unquote) [HHW 18 Mar 1875, p. 2]
Many in both Fort Benton and Helena were outraged. A correspondent for the Helena Herald from Fort Macleod laid out the “facts in the case”: noting that 711 buffalo robes had been seized. It was not charged that Wetzel & Weatherwax had indulged in illicit traffic, nor was any proof to that effect obtained or offered. No proof was introduced that W. & W. had sold or had in their possession any liquor in the country since the arrival of the Mounted Police. The prosecutors disregarded proof that Berry was not a partner of W. & W.; that they were innocent sellers and purchasers; that they should not be legally held liable for a crime committed by a third party; that they were in no way responsible for the acts of Berry. During the trial Weatherwax was not allowed to cross-examine the prosecuting witness. The detectives and those who expect half the proceeds and the prosecutors sat as judges in the case. [HHW 20 Mar 1875, p. 3]
Irish Fenians operated the fledgling newspaper in Fort Benton, The Benton Record, and the town was filled with Irishmen such as Colonel John J. Donnelly, a leader in the 1870 Fenian invasion of Canada. The Record’s headline of March 1st screamed: (Quote) “Arrest of Mr. Weatherwax. We did not expect that the conduct of the Queen’s Regulators would be according to law; in fact, we knew from experience, that wherever the English flag floats, might is right, but we had no idea that the persons and property of American citizens would be trifled with in the manner that American merchants have been of late in the British Possessions.” (Unquote) The Record concluded (Quote) “We demand an investigation of this matter, and we demand the immediate release of Mr. Weatherwax from the bastile.” (Unquote) [BRW 1 Mar 1875, p. 3]
All pleas and demanded were to no avail, and Old Waxy remained in jail at Fort Macleod. After serving his six-month sentence, he returned to a hero’s welcome at Fort Benton Sunday evening August 15th. Many townsmen met him on the trail and escorted him into town for a big celebration.
Hero or not, Old Waxy had learned his lesson, and we find no evidence that he ever traded above the border again. The tough enforcement measures by the Mounted Police in early 1875 proved effective in shutting down the whiskey trade.
About the time of his return to Fort Benton or possibly the previous year, J. D. Weatherwax married Bird Tail Woman or Su wats ak a, a Pikuni woman, also known as Tail Feathers and in the U. S. Census as Mary Weatherwax. Bird Tail Woman was the daughter of Crow Red Bird Tail and Medicine Calf. The Children of J. D. and Bird Tail Woman were Anna (or Nannie) born in December 1876 and baptized at St. Peter’s Mission; Josephine (or Jane) born about 1878 and who married a Mr. Murphy; Mary H. born about 1880 and wife of Joseph Ollinger; and Joseph, born in 1884 at the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning and married first to Margaret or Maggie Little Dog and later to Agnes Butterfly.
For the winter of 1875-76, Wetzel & Weatherwax turned their focus to the historic trading area at Willow Rounds. T. C. Power built a trading post in December 1875 at Willow Rounds, near the winter camp of the Blackfeet on the south side of the Marias north of the present town of Valier. Trading posts had operated at that site since 1848 when Augustin Armell established a winter post there. Now Old Waxy took charge of Willow Rounds in a joint operation for T. C. Power and Wetzel & Weatherwax. The following year W & W took over the post, and Old Waxy continued to manage the Willow Rounds post for W. & W. until the spring of 1877. At that time J. D. ended his partnership with Scott Wetzel, although he rejoined the firm in 1878.
In January 1879 Weatherwax left Fort Benton by stage for his first trip to “the States” since 1867. During this trip he probably visited his sons Charles and Edward, then living in St. Louis—both sons later visited their father in Montana Territory. Old Waxy returned to the Upper Missouri on the steamboat Dacotah in June 1879. In the spring of 1880, Old Waxy started a horse ranch on the Teton River about 20 miles above Fort Benton. That same year, Old Waxy was elected to serve as one of three commissioners of Choteau County.
Many other great stories surround the restless ways of Old Waxy as he ran ranches, freighting operations, retail stores, and gold mines. By 1881 fewer buffalo roamed the fertile Judith Basin, and Old Waxy became one of the first ranchers there. He built a log building in the fledgling town of Utica and opened the first merchandise store, serving miners from the Yogo mines and cowboys from the Judith Basin. An old ledger from his store shows one unpaid account for saloon and clothing charges by cowboy Charlie Russell for $36.43. By 1885 Old Waxy, a victim of his generous nature, had extended too much credit to friends so he lost the store. By then he had opened a gold mine at Yogo, a few miles above Utica in the Belt Mountains. Two years later, in October 1887, while working his promising mine, J. D. Weatherwax slipped and fell striking his head and breaking his neck.
Ironically, Old Waxy is buried in an unmarked grave in the Utica Cemetery, where even the cemetery records fail to reflect his presence. He died alone and largely forgotten by his white and Blackfeet families, but not by his friends. Old Waxy made an indelible mark in the dying stages of the robe trade.
Perhaps it is fitting to end with the words of James Willard Schultz, [Quote] “I make no excuse for the whiskey trade. It was wrong, all wrong and none realized it better than we when we were dispensing the stuff. It caused untold suffering, many deaths, great demoralization among those people of the plains. There was but one redeeming feature about it: The trade was at a time when it did not deprive them of the necessities of life; there was always more meat, more fur to be had for the killing of it. In comparison with various Government officials and rings, who robbed and starved the Indians to death on their reservations after the buffalo disappeared, we were saints.” [Unquote] [My Life as An Indian, p. 95]
Presented by Bob Doerk at the International Fur Trade Symposium at Fort Whoop-Up 12 September 2009.
Fort Benton has been home to many colorful characters over its long history, but few can top J. D. Weatherwax, known fondly by his many friends as “Old Waxy.” Standing over six feet tall and bearing a commanding presence, he made and lost fortunes, acquired and abandoned families, and made his mark at every stop along the frontier from the Belly River to the Judith. Yet in many ways, Weatherwax lived a life shrouded in mystery. Even his given name remains blurred through his own use of Joseph, Josiah, and John, but most often simply J. D.
For our purposes today, Joseph David Weatherwax, as we’ll call him, is important for two reasons: first, because he unwillingly played a key role in ending the whiskey trade and made a bit of Mounted Police history in the process; and second, because he left many descendants on the Blackfeet reservation.
During this past year we have begun to understand J. D. Weatherwax through research conducted at our Overholser Historical Research Center in Fort Benton and from excellent research and insight shared by Weatherwax family members in the south and east such as C. Raymond Burklin of Dallas, Texas, a grandson of J. D.’s eldest son Charles Lindell Weatherwax, and Wayne Weatherwax of Westfield, Massachusetts, who although not a direct descendant is writing a Weatherwax Family History.
Joseph David Weatherwax, was born in New York in 1830, son of Thomas and Jane Weatherwax, though Wayne Weatherwax believes the father was Peter Weatherwax, also of New York. The family moved West to Illinois by 1849, and J. D. and a brother started a carriage factory in Quincy, Illinois. On February 21st, 1854, Joseph D. Weatherwax married Martha Virginia Sanks, and by 1859 two sons, Charles Lindell and Edward Thorne, had been born.
No photo has been found of J. D. Weatherwax, but this is his eldest son Charles Lindell Weatherwax (Courtesy of Charles Raymond Burklin)
From here the trail dims. Martha and the boys remained in Illinois, while J. D. apparently did not serve in the Union Army, but rather spent much of the Civil War in the cotton trade in New Orleans. During this time he made and lost a fortune and spent little time with his first family. Like many from both North and South at the close of the Civil War J. D. Weatherwax headed West to seek a new life and opportunities. J. D. made the long trip up the Missouri River on the steamboat Agnes departing St. Louis bound “for the mountains,” April 27, 1867, and 70 days later arrived at Fort Benton on July 5th. The following winter, his wife Martha obtained a divorce in Illinois.
Settling into life in the toughest town on the Upper Missouri, by 1870 J. D. Weatherwax had been elected Sheriff of the massive Choteau County then extending from the Rockies eastward past the Bear’s Paw Mountains and from the Judith Basin to the northern border. He was popular, respected, and known to fear no man. Living with him at this time was his Deputy H. A. “Fred” Kanouse, who personified to Hugh Dempsey an “unsavory character.”
During the trading season of 1871, Winfield Scott Wetzel of Fort Benton hired Weatherwax to build a robe trading post across the Medicine Line on the northern end of the Whoop-Up Trail. Suddenly, like many others from Fort Benton, Weatherwax was knee-deep in the robe and whiskey trade, establishing a post on the Lower St. Mary River near Fort Whoop-Up. The next year J. D. had worked his way into partnership with Scott Wetzel, and throughout the 1870s the firm Wetzel & Weatherwax became famous as an aggressive merchant house competing with the powerful T. C. Power & Brother and I. G. Baker firms.
Old Waxy’s duties apparently included acting as agent for T. C. Power & Brother, and keeping a watchful eye on Healy & Hamilton’s operations. He freighted trade goods including whiskey up the Whoop-Up Trail, selling them to other traders. He acted as buyer at trading posts around both the Standoff and Whoop-Up areas. In the words of Hugh Dempsey, [Quote] “Over the winter of 1871-72, the traders did a booming business, and it seemed as though just about everyone from Fort Benton was in the area.” [Unquote] [Hugh Dempsey’s Firewater The Impact of the Whisky Trade of the Blackfoot Nation, p. 86]
In October 1873, Canadian Reverend John McDougall visited the Belly River area, and wrote, [Quote] “Presently we looked upon the junction of the St. Mary’s and the Belly rivers, two deep valleys . . . The scene was rather picturesque, but the crowd we might meet down there was causing somewhat of a tremor in our minds . . . Further down [from Fort Whoop-Up] was another post. Whoopup itself belonged to Healy & Hamilton, and the other post to a Mr. Weatherwax, or, as the boys called him, ‘Old Waxy,’ and when we came in contact with him we thought he was well named—cool, calculating, polished, using the finest of English, crafty. [He told us] ‘Yes, gentlemen, we are glad to see you travelling through our country. We wish you most heartily a bon voyage.’” [Unquote] [On Western Trails in the Early Seventies Frontier Pioneer Life in The Canadian North-West by John McDougall. Toronto: William Briggs, 1911, pp. 66-7]
For three years, Old Waxy operated north of the line during the trading season, and Wetzel & Weatherwax prospered. During the fall of 1874 Old Waxy built Fort Weatherwax on the Oldman River downriver from the new site of Fort Macleod. While he hauled whiskey with other trade goods up the Whoop-Up Trail and sold it to traders at Fort Whoop-Up, Dick Berry’s Post, and others, Fort Weatherwax did not have the reputation of a whiskey post. Old Waxy appears to have let others do the “dirty work.”
During the winter of 1875, a long, rambling letter appeared in the Helena Herald from a member of the newly arrived North West Mounted Police at Fort Macleod. The writer declared (Quote)“Our duties are to suppress the whisky trade or die in the attempt . . . The renegade Yankees have monopolized the entire Indian trade. They are coarse, unpolished and uneducated, they are insulting in their conversation and disgusting to our sight.
. . . They tell us we can’t try and convict a man and confiscate his property until he is arrested. How absurd, when our civil record shows that we have done it repeatedly, and by this process we expect to regenerate the N. W. Territory, or drive the outlaws into exile.
. . . We must make arrests and seizures, or we will lose our shoulder-straps, and the Police force will be disbanded. Such a thing must not happen.” (Unquote) [Letter dated 30 Jan in HHD 15 Mar 1875, p. 3]
Within days of that letter, the North West Mounted Police made their arrest, but it didn’t turn out the way it was planned. The action was described in a letter dated February 18, 1875, from the Mounted Policeman at Fort Macleod. The letter opened with (Quote) “Hurrah for our side! In the language of a celebrated English General, ‘We have met the enemy, and they are ours.’
“Complaint was made last fall against Wetzel, Weatherwax and Berry for selling liquor to Indians. We have had our Yankee detectives shadowing them ever since, Wetzel at Benton, Weatherwax on Old Man’s river, and Berry on Bow river. On February 1st two loads of robes were driven into Weatherwax’s Fort. We seized them at once as property of Dick Berry. Old J. D. was foolish enough to protest, on the ground that he had purchased them from Berry.” (Unquote)
Eight days later a second load of robes was seized, and on February 15th a hearing was held at Fort Macleod with J. D. Weatherwax present. The meager testimony presented as evidence was that Berry had traded whiskey contrary to law, that he bought his goods from Wetzel & Weatherwax, and had in turn sold them his robes. This was enough. The intended culprit, Berry had not been caught, but actually had passed within rifle shot of Macleod on his way south just a few days after a detachment had been sent north to arrest him. It was enough that Weatherwax had the robes and money. He was found guilty of selling whiskey to Dick Berry, and sentenced to six months imprisonment [and fined $500]. In the words of the Mounted Police correspondent to the Helena Herald (Quote) “Old J. D., the chief of all the smugglers and desperadoes of the great Northwest, was locked up in jail, while the Union Jack floats triumphantly from the butt end of a broken lodge pole over his place of solitary confinement. At Fort Benton we laid the programme, and at Fort Macleod we consummated it.” (Unquote) [HHW 18 Mar 1875, p. 2]
Many in both Fort Benton and Helena were outraged. A correspondent for the Helena Herald from Fort Macleod laid out the “facts in the case”: noting that 711 buffalo robes had been seized. It was not charged that Wetzel & Weatherwax had indulged in illicit traffic, nor was any proof to that effect obtained or offered. No proof was introduced that W. & W. had sold or had in their possession any liquor in the country since the arrival of the Mounted Police. The prosecutors disregarded proof that Berry was not a partner of W. & W.; that they were innocent sellers and purchasers; that they should not be legally held liable for a crime committed by a third party; that they were in no way responsible for the acts of Berry. During the trial Weatherwax was not allowed to cross-examine the prosecuting witness. The detectives and those who expect half the proceeds and the prosecutors sat as judges in the case. [HHW 20 Mar 1875, p. 3]
Irish Fenians operated the fledgling newspaper in Fort Benton, The Benton Record, and the town was filled with Irishmen such as Colonel John J. Donnelly, a leader in the 1870 Fenian invasion of Canada. The Record’s headline of March 1st screamed: (Quote) “Arrest of Mr. Weatherwax. We did not expect that the conduct of the Queen’s Regulators would be according to law; in fact, we knew from experience, that wherever the English flag floats, might is right, but we had no idea that the persons and property of American citizens would be trifled with in the manner that American merchants have been of late in the British Possessions.” (Unquote) The Record concluded (Quote) “We demand an investigation of this matter, and we demand the immediate release of Mr. Weatherwax from the bastile.” (Unquote) [BRW 1 Mar 1875, p. 3]
All pleas and demanded were to no avail, and Old Waxy remained in jail at Fort Macleod. After serving his six-month sentence, he returned to a hero’s welcome at Fort Benton Sunday evening August 15th. Many townsmen met him on the trail and escorted him into town for a big celebration.
Hero or not, Old Waxy had learned his lesson, and we find no evidence that he ever traded above the border again. The tough enforcement measures by the Mounted Police in early 1875 proved effective in shutting down the whiskey trade.
About the time of his return to Fort Benton or possibly the previous year, J. D. Weatherwax married Bird Tail Woman or Su wats ak a, a Pikuni woman, also known as Tail Feathers and in the U. S. Census as Mary Weatherwax. Bird Tail Woman was the daughter of Crow Red Bird Tail and Medicine Calf. The Children of J. D. and Bird Tail Woman were Anna (or Nannie) born in December 1876 and baptized at St. Peter’s Mission; Josephine (or Jane) born about 1878 and who married a Mr. Murphy; Mary H. born about 1880 and wife of Joseph Ollinger; and Joseph, born in 1884 at the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning and married first to Margaret or Maggie Little Dog and later to Agnes Butterfly.
For the winter of 1875-76, Wetzel & Weatherwax turned their focus to the historic trading area at Willow Rounds. T. C. Power built a trading post in December 1875 at Willow Rounds, near the winter camp of the Blackfeet on the south side of the Marias north of the present town of Valier. Trading posts had operated at that site since 1848 when Augustin Armell established a winter post there. Now Old Waxy took charge of Willow Rounds in a joint operation for T. C. Power and Wetzel & Weatherwax. The following year W & W took over the post, and Old Waxy continued to manage the Willow Rounds post for W. & W. until the spring of 1877. At that time J. D. ended his partnership with Scott Wetzel, although he rejoined the firm in 1878.
In January 1879 Weatherwax left Fort Benton by stage for his first trip to “the States” since 1867. During this trip he probably visited his sons Charles and Edward, then living in St. Louis—both sons later visited their father in Montana Territory. Old Waxy returned to the Upper Missouri on the steamboat Dacotah in June 1879. In the spring of 1880, Old Waxy started a horse ranch on the Teton River about 20 miles above Fort Benton. That same year, Old Waxy was elected to serve as one of three commissioners of Choteau County.
Many other great stories surround the restless ways of Old Waxy as he ran ranches, freighting operations, retail stores, and gold mines. By 1881 fewer buffalo roamed the fertile Judith Basin, and Old Waxy became one of the first ranchers there. He built a log building in the fledgling town of Utica and opened the first merchandise store, serving miners from the Yogo mines and cowboys from the Judith Basin. An old ledger from his store shows one unpaid account for saloon and clothing charges by cowboy Charlie Russell for $36.43. By 1885 Old Waxy, a victim of his generous nature, had extended too much credit to friends so he lost the store. By then he had opened a gold mine at Yogo, a few miles above Utica in the Belt Mountains. Two years later, in October 1887, while working his promising mine, J. D. Weatherwax slipped and fell striking his head and breaking his neck.
Ironically, Old Waxy is buried in an unmarked grave in the Utica Cemetery, where even the cemetery records fail to reflect his presence. He died alone and largely forgotten by his white and Blackfeet families, but not by his friends. Old Waxy made an indelible mark in the dying stages of the robe trade.
Perhaps it is fitting to end with the words of James Willard Schultz, [Quote] “I make no excuse for the whiskey trade. It was wrong, all wrong and none realized it better than we when we were dispensing the stuff. It caused untold suffering, many deaths, great demoralization among those people of the plains. There was but one redeeming feature about it: The trade was at a time when it did not deprive them of the necessities of life; there was always more meat, more fur to be had for the killing of it. In comparison with various Government officials and rings, who robbed and starved the Indians to death on their reservations after the buffalo disappeared, we were saints.” [Unquote] [My Life as An Indian, p. 95]
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