General Sheridan’s Winter Campaign to force the Indians out of Kansas was launched in November 1868. The most famous action of the campaign was the attack on Black Kettle’s camp by the Seventh Cavalry led by “Gen.” George Armstrong Custer. However, the entire campaign lasted until early spring 1869.

Sheridan arranged a council with the leading chiefs of the Apaches, Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes and Arapahos at Fort Cobb Indian Territory Jan. 2, 1869. The frost-bitten and starving tribes had little choice but to agree to peace with the U. S. government.

Life-saving food supplies were brought to Fort Cobb by wagon train, but a few scattered bands of Indians stubbornly refused to come to the fort.

In that atmosphere, Custer took to the field with 10 companies of the 19th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry and 11 companies of the 7th U. S. Cavalry, seeking out uncooperative villages south of the Kansas state line.

On March 15, Custer discovered a large village of Cheyenne, which included some of the trouble-making Dog Soldiers. His first instinct was to attack, but he held up when scouts informed him that two white women were being held in the camp.

A parley was arranged with Medicine Arrow, one of the chiefs of the large village. Custer then rode into camp with Medicine Arrow at his side. The two arrived at Medicine Arrow’s lodge in the center of the village as troops moved slowly toward the village. Frightened women of the village began breaking down the camp and preparing to run away.

Seeing Custer, many of the warriors, including Chief Little Robe, followed suit and began to abandon the camp. The soldiers quickly moved into the camp and in the midst of chaos, arrested four chiefs before they could leave. One of the captive chiefs was released and sent to Little Robe, who had fled with the rest of the village. Custer’s message demanded the return of the two Kansas girls held captive by the Cheyennes. Failure to do so would result in a direct attack on Little Robe’s village.

Concerned for the safety of his people, Little Robe returned to meet with Custer, who grilled the chief about the captive women in his camp. Little Robe was allowed to return to his people on the expectation of the womens’ release, but nothing happened for the next several days.

Pvt. David L. Spotts, Company L, 7th Cavalry, kept a diary of the campaign. While waiting in camp, he met Daniel Brewster, a teamster with the wagon train supporting the supply for the campaign. Brewster’s sister, Mrs. Anna Morgan, was being held captive in one of the Cheyenne camps.

Pvt. Spotts wrote, “Ever since his sister’s capture, Brewster has been at forts and with troops, trying to find some trace of her, and now he has great hopes that one of the women is she.”

Custer patiently waited for Little Robe’s response. On the third day, a runner came to Custer asking why the three chiefs that he still held had not been released. By this time, the general’s patience was growing thin. Custer angrily demanded the release of the two white women by sunset of the following day. There would be no more negotiation. If his demands were not met, the three chiefs would be hanged, and Little Robe’s village would be attacked. To emphasize his demand, Custer had three ropes thrown over a broad limb of a nearby Cottonwood.

Friday morning, March 19, Pvt. Spotts noted, “It is nice and pleasant this morning and everybody is quietly waiting. We have a double line of pickets out today, for we do not know whether it is war or peace...”

Custer later wrote his impressions of the day. “The sun was perhaps an hour high when the dim outlines of about 20 mounted figures were discerned against the horizon … Two figures (were) mounted upon the same pony … Can they be the girls?” Custer continued. “I saw the two figures descend from the pony and, leaving the rest of the group, advance toward us on foot.

“They were clothed in dresses made from flour sacks, the brand of the mills being plainly seen on each dress. As they passed through a double line of soldiers, officers and soldiers gathered around the newly-released captives.”

Daniel Brewster recognized his sister, and throwing his arms about Mrs. Morgan, he cried. “Oh sister, how you must suffer!”

They were soon confirmed to be 18-year-old Sarah White, who had been taken captive west of Concordia on Aug. 13, 1868, and 24-year-old Mrs. Anna Morgan, who was taken captive Oct. 13, 1868, in Ottawa County.

Custer was moved by the scene. “Men whom I have seen face death without quailing found their eyes filled with tears, unable to restrain the deep emotion produced by this joyful event … More than one voice faltered with emotion…” The Winter Campaign drew to a close, but the events of that morning of March 19, 1869, lingered in the hearts of many an old soldier and two young women who had found both tragedy and joy in one tender moment, on The Way West.

“The Cowboy” Jim Gray can be reached at 220 21st Rd., Geneseo, KS 67444, (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@