Bows and arrows

[Dullknife]

I am needing help with some research. Trying to find dependable accounts of bow and arrow use in the eastern or transmississippi theatres. Awhile back I had a copy if an archeological report where they found brass arrowheads at a battle site out west....cant seem to find it.

If anyone has info or insight they can share, would much appreciate it.

Thank you,
John

 

[Rhea Cole]

I am not sure what you are looking for. Are you asking after engagements with the Lakota in North Dakota during the Civil War? Or are you focused exclusively on brass arrowheads?

 

[7thWisconsin]

Anton Gag doesn't show any bow armed Natives in his New Ulm paintings, and he was a participant in the battle. Henry August Schwabe shows a Native with both a musket and a slung quiver right in the front. Admittedly, they were painting 40 years after the battle.

 

[johan_steele]

The Dakota didn't use any bows during the Dakota War. The Lakota would have in 1864 in the ND campaign but they would have had steel arrowheads. There were no bows used against Fetterman in his little dust up. As those were all warriors that fixed his wagon.

by the 1860s the bow had been relegated to hunting as firearms were readily available to the plains Indian via trade. That said young warriors had to be able to trade or win firearms. So a young warrior or child guarding the horse herd might still have a bow though a warrior without a firearm would be more likely to carry a lance or coup stick to prove their courage.

I can't say as I've ever read of or seen period brass arrowheads.

 

[DixieRifles]

This is not related but I found it fascinating. I'm reading the biography of General Earl Van Dorn.

General Earl van Dorn was a native Mississippian and a flamboyant cavalry leader. Though criticized for his command in the Civil War, he gained notoriety as a bold fighter in the Mexican War and the Indian campaigns in the 1850 Texas.
In the Battle of Wichita Village, October 1, 1858 , Major van Dorn lead a squadron of the 2nd Cavalry on an attack of a Comanche village. He lead a charge to stop two Indians escaping on one horse. He shot their horse and their turned and fired at Major Van Dorn. H was shot twice by arrows. One penetrated his arm above the wrist and the second entered above his 9th rib on right side, passed thru upper stomach, cut his left lung and exited on left side.

 

[Rhea Cole]

Here is documentation about arrow wounds during the Civil War era.

3 September 1863, the Battle of Stone Hill was fought in North Dakota. Corwin Lee: 7th Iowa Cavalry Company M, The Sioux City Cavalry wrote a vivid account of the engagement that was printed in the Iowa City Republican. The full text is on page 263 of Iowa Valor, a compilation of Civil War Combat Experiences from Soldiers of the State Distinguished as Most Patriotic of the Patriotic.

The Lakota had fought from the cover of a ravine leading to a wetland & lake. As darkness fell, the Lakota who survived retreated from the filed.

"Col. Wilson had his horse shot under him, also the Adutant, who was wounded & lay on the field, covering himself with his robe. During the night he was discovery by an Indian & stabbed with a butcher knife three or four times, the knife being left in a wound. he lived into the next day. In the ravine the Indians' plunder lay, literally covering the ground, showing unmistakable evidence of the severity of our fire. Dead & crippled ponies, squaws, papooses & Indians lay in confusion & blood scattered on all sides."

"During the next day there was considerable running round or the battle field. One wounded Indian was discovered in the grass & with his bow & arrows he succeeded in wounding two of our men before they could kill him. He would shoot tow arrows at a time, & dodge down into the tall grass before they could get a sight of him."

"Our second bugler & the sergeant of the battery brought him down with their revolvers & the bugler scalped him before he ceased kicking."

The Battle of Stone Hill is a state park in North Dakota.


Fetterman was lured into a trap by that the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne & Northern Arapaho had spent weeks to prepare. They called the engagement the Battle of the Hundred in Hand.

Fetterman's death site is location where he & 80 men infantry were brought under attack from two directions. He & his men when down in minutes under a shower of arrows. The attackers inflicted friendly fire casualties on each other.

I highly recommend an article available online from the Journal of the American Revolution. Techniques & Tech/May 16, 2013.
Battle Wounds: Never Pull an Arrow Out of a Body by Hugh T. Harrington.

The most complete & detailed account of arrow wounds & treatments is Dr. Joseph Howland Bill's "Notes on Arrow Wounds" is considered the definitive work on American arrow wounds.

In 1860 Bill was commissioned 1st Lieutenant & assigned to Fort Defiance, New Mexico. There, he wrote a 22-page essay, "Notes on Arrow Wounds," which was published in American Journal of Medical Sciences, 1862. He was transferred east, serving in the Civil War & stayed in the army until his death in 1885.

Dr. Bill encountered arrow heads made from stone, antler, shell, hardwood, bone & metal. The arrow head was attached with tendons or sinews. Once wet, the arrowhead would become loose form its contact with blood & other bodily fluids. Attempting to pull the arrow out would leave the head in the wound. The doctor would then have to probe the wound like searching for a bullet.

"...expert bowman can easily discharge six arrows a minute."

In one of Dr. Bill's case studies, three soldiers suffered 42 arrow wounds between them. He also says that he only rarely saw a patient with only a single arrow wound. Because of the ragged edges of the arrow head, leaving it in the wound as could be done with bullets, was not an option. An arrowhead would aggravate the wound & cause inflammation. Only amputation could save the patient.

"We might as well cut the patient's limb up until we do find the arrow-head."

If an arrowhead had lodged in a bone, great effort was required to remove it using a wire loop.

"...bracing my knees against the patients thorax, I applied all the action I could muster. Suddenly the arrowhead flew out of its seat, & I would have fallen on the floor, had not the steward caught me."

Bill observed eighty arrow wounds, the majority to the trunk, thirty six in all. Of these twenty-two died. There were 35 wounds to the extremities. He concluded that arrow wounds were more likely to be fatal than those from bullets. Bill's is the only documented historical report on the nature & treatment of arrow wounds.

<ehistory.freeservers.com> Joseph Howland Bill, M.D., Arrow Wounds & Treatments on the Western Frontier... a fatality greater than that produced by any other weapon. by Lisa A. Ennis & Hugh T. Harrington is a really good capsulation of Bill's book.

The metal identified in arrowheads was almost always taken from a barrel hoop. I haven't encountered any copper or bronze heads. In antiquity they were cast, which wasn't a technique used on the plaines.

 

[bankerpapaw]

I remember seeing a picture of an Indian on his pony holding up a compound bow. The caption said: "What if?"

 

[Dullknife]

Neat info. I was trying to find the use of the bow by Confederate allied Indians....like the Cherokee, Choctaw.....

 

[Dullknife]

The Dakota didn't use any bows during the Dakota War. The Lakota would have in 1864 in the ND campaign but they would have had steel arrowheads. There were no bows used against Fetterman in his little dust up. As those were all warriors that fixed his wagon.

by the 1860s the bow had been relegated to hunting as firearms were readily available to the plains Indian via trade. That said young warriors had to be able to trade or win firearms. So a young warrior or child guarding the horse herd might still have a bow though a warrior without a firearm would be more likely to carry a lance or coup stick to prove their courage.

I can't say as I've ever read of or seen period brass arrowheads.

I am not trying to be a wiseass but if you go to the Minnesota Historical Society Page they have bows made by the Dakota from the Dakota War period. One is attributed to Little Crow. I think there is a pretty good darn chance bows were used, along with clubs, knives, who knows maybe even lances....

---John

 

[Dullknife]

The Dakota didn't use any bows during the Dakota War. The Lakota would have in 1864 in the ND campaign but they would have had steel arrowheads. There were no bows used against Fetterman in his little dust up. As those were all warriors that fixed his wagon.

by the 1860s the bow had been relegated to hunting as firearms were readily available to the plains Indian via trade. That said young warriors had to be able to trade or win firearms. So a young warrior or child guarding the horse herd might still have a bow though a warrior without a firearm would be more likely to carry a lance or coup stick to prove their courage.

I can't say as I've ever read of or seen period brass arrowheads.

Here is a link. I have a bow very similar to this. Nasty little thing.....https://www.usdakotawar.org/history/multimedia/dakota-bow

 

[Rhea Cole]

I gleaned a few things from Indian Country News & some other sources about Cherokee bow making.

Cherokee bow makers created two types of bows. One was the equilvant of the English longbow. The other was a hunting bow somewhat longer than the ones made by plaines peoples. Traditionally, the long bow was used for defense & the short bow for hunting.

Like many other eastern peoples, the Cherokee hunted with blow darts to hunt turkey & other small game. I learned to do that from Jivaro in the jungles of Ecuador. The advantage of a blow gun in dense forested terrain over a bow its stealth & ease of use. A notch was made in the tip of the palm leaf rib shaft & dipped in poison before it was shot. It numbs the wound so that several monkeys can be shot without spooking the troop.

The bois d'arc tree (Osage orange, hedge apple tree & horse apple) is native to Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas & parts of Kansas. A simple flat bow of bois d'arc without handles was in use by Cherokee people into the 20th Century. Groundhog & squirrel hide was used for making bowstrings. Pull strength was in the 45 to 55 pound range. Deer were hunted at a range of 20 -25 yards. The long bows that are shot in cornstalk shoots are accurate out to 80-100 yards.

None of the sources about Pea Ridge mention anybody using a bow. Since the Cherokee fought what amounted to their own personal Civil War within the tribe in 1863, it stands to reason that somebody would have used a traditional weapon, but again, there is not mention of it any reference I found. To be a proficient mounted archer required dedicated training from childhood & continual practice. That does not sound like the lifestyle of wealthy slave holding Cherokee leaders or their families.

 

[7thWisconsin]

The Dakota didn't use any bows during the Dakota War. The Lakota would have in 1864 in the ND campaign but they would have had steel arrowheads. There were no bows used against Fetterman in his little dust up. As those were all warriors that fixed his wagon.

by the 1860s the bow had been relegated to hunting as firearms were readily available to the plains Indian via trade. That said young warriors had to be able to trade or win firearms. So a young warrior or child guarding the horse herd might still have a bow though a warrior without a firearm would be more likely to carry a lance or coup stick to prove their courage.

I can't say as I've ever read of or seen period brass arrowheads.

I can't remember and am too lazy to dig around in my resources: were any of the Fetterman dead mutilated with arrows? (Sorry for the grisly question?) Ten years later, Wooden Leg, a Cheyenne, used a bow when hunting, but carried a pistol for fighting.

 

[johan_steele]

I am not trying to be a wiseass but if you go to the Minnesota Historical Society Page they have bows made by the Dakota from the Dakota War period. One is attributed to Little Crow. I think there is a pretty good darn chance bows were used, along with clubs, knives, who knows maybe even lances....

---John

I'm quite familiar with the MHS collection and the Dakota War. By the time of the Dakota War firearms were readily available to the Dakota. The bow had been relegated to a hunting weapon. I was involved with the conservation of Little Crows rifle.

the Dakota has been heavily corrupted by a generation of contact with the US. They were not the warrior culture of their Lakota cousins. The short bow used by the plains tribes was not a powerhouse being considerably less destructive than a firearm. It was an ideal hunting weapon.

 

[johan_steele]

I can't remember and am too lazy to dig around in my resources: were any of the Fetterman dead mutilated with arrows? (Sorry for the grisly question?) Ten years later, Wooden Leg, a Cheyenne, used a bow when hunting, but carried a pistol for fighting.

Yes some were. All were mutilated. Like the Little Big Horn the fight was over very quickly. There was liberal use of the war club and lance.

 

[Rhea Cole]

Federman & his men were ritually mutilated. Multination of fallen enemies was a cultural norm among Lakota & Cheyenne peoples as well as others. Each tribe had a distinctive pattern of mutilation that was intended to cripple the dead in the afterlife. This has been documented from earliest conflicts between native peoples & europeans. Conquistador Bernal Diaz witness the ritual killing & mutilation of victims atop the great pyramid in Mexico City. Spaniards who were killed or captured were ritually butchered & occasionally eaten.
(The Discovery & Conquest of Mexico by Bernal Diaz de Castillo is a personal account of the conquest of the Aztecs. He is remarkably observant & debunks some the religious events that are part of the official accounts.)

More in line with the theme of this thread, the osteological (scientific study of bones) of the dead of Custer's command from the Little Big Horn gives an insight to that practice. There are multiple accounts of mutilations recorded by the burial party who hastily interred the remains upon discovery of the battlefield. Blunt force trauma to the skull occurred in all the 41% of the victims available for examination. 11% had cut marks from knifes & arrows. 10% had hatchet marks. Also present in the bones was evidence of the damage that serving in the cavalry did to the men's bones. What must have been painful spinal injuries & conditions were ubiquitous.

The Lakota & Cheyenne mutilations were a form of cultural triumph. Not only was the the victim disabled in the afterlife, they also advertised who had done the killing & intended to intimidate those who recovered the body. The length of the fletching on the arrows in the image below indicate that they are heavy war arrows, not hunting arrows. Lighter hunting arrows would have had shorter fletching. The sign language symbol of the Lakota was three fingers making a slash mark on the forearm. The slit throat gesture, like the wound on the victim in the photo, was the symbol of the Arapaho, (?) if memory serves.

Mutilated body of Sargent Fredrick Wyllyams, Troop G, 7th US Cavalry
He was among seven men killed in a skirmish with Cheyenne, Sioux & Arapaho June 26, 1867
U.S. National Archive & Records Administration
The pattern of the knife wounds & the pattern of the arrow placement are deliberate, not some random desecration.
​

I went to hight school in South Dakota. My interest in plaines Indians & wars with the cavalry came long before my Civil War studies. This topic has been an interesting dive back into a subject I have always found fascinating.

 

[7thWisconsin]

Yes some were. All were mutilated. Like the Little Big Horn the fight was over very quickly. There was liberal use of the war club and lance.

Visited both fields several times. I believe Carrington said after Fetterman crossed the ridge, he heard 3 vollies, then a continuous roar of gunfire. It wouldn't take very long to ambush 80 men.

 

[Dullknife]

I'm quite familiar with the MHS collection and the Dakota War. By the time of the Dakota War firearms were readily available to the Dakota. The bow had been relegated to a hunting weapon. I was involved with the conservation of Little Crows rifle.

the Dakota has been heavily corrupted by a generation of contact with the US. They were not the warrior culture of their Lakota cousins. The short bow used by the plains tribes was not a powerhouse being considerably less destructive than a firearm. It was an ideal hunting weapon.

An arrow could go through a bison and a man. The fact that bows were being used by midwestern and western natives well into the 19th c is proof that they were valued in combat. I believe that agent who said something about the Dakota eating grass was found dead shot full of arrows?

---John

 

[johan_steele]

An arrow could go through a bison and a man. The fact that bows were being used by midwestern and western natives well into the 19th c is proof that they were valued in combat. I believe that agent who said something about the Dakota eating grass was found dead shot full of arrows?

---John

An arrow from any plains bow will not go through a bison or through a man. Enough to kill? Absolutely but not enough to go through. At short range an arrow from a Cheyenne or Lakota bow would likely bury itself almost to the fletching in a man. That is well within 20-25 yards though more likely within 5. The only advantage a bow had over a firearm was that it was silent and could be fired quickly, in most cases faster than a firearm. But it was also considerably more susceptible to weather and its power and accuracy varied greatly from bow to bow and often even from day to day.

There is no Native tribe in North America that is truly of a bow culture, certainly none that compare to those of central Asia. The warrior culture of the Native American... has been butchered by Hollyweird. The US had only begun to brush against the true warrior cultures by the 1850's and those would be a very rude awakening in the years to come.

Things changed rapidly for all of the Native tribes who encountered the white man and had access to trade goods in fairly short order. As I said earlier by the time of the Dakota War the Dakota were quite well armed with firearms particularly of the shotgun variety as well as numbers of rifles. As were the Lakota by 1870. A lot depends upon tribe as to what weapons were favored, for how long and in what capacity etc. I'm unaware of any example of the bow being used by any native in combat during the ACW in either CS or US service. War clubs, knives and hatchets yes; bows no. Scalps were liberally taken on several occasions by Indian troops on both sides of the argument.

I'm most familiar with the Lakota and Cheyenne and know their style of warfare rather well from period accounts and analysis. The abrupt fast assault was the preferred method with much of it at very close quarters. Carbines and pistols were favored because they were short and carbines were often shortened further with the butt stock entirely removed because the preference was often to place the muzzle against an opponents chest before pulling the trigger. Plus there was the added benefit of giving the butt plate to the women to be used as a hide scraper. The Dakota were not the warriors of the Lakota, not by any stretch of the imagination. Thank god they weren't or Minnesota would have been completely emptied of breathing white people in short order and I doubt very much the US would have won the Dakota War. As it was the Dakota did more damage to the US than any other opponent in history. No other opponent has depopulated such a large area, 2/3 of a state, in such a short time.

I've been a volunteer at Rock Island Arsenal and had the opportunity to handle many of the captured Lakota and Cheyenne weapons that were at Little Big Horn. I've also worked among the collections of both MHS (their collection is impressive but their cataloging, preservation and other things leave a lot to be desired if not being outright suspect. There are a sizeable number of Dakota artifacts, many of which should never have been added to the collection.

I was friends with a man whose grandfather was present at the Little Big Horn as a young man (teenager) guarding horses who used a bow along with others. But they were not the norm. The bow was not considered the warriors weapon in the same vein as a rifle, shotgun or pistol by that time the bow was considered suitable for hunting or a weapon of war only for the young and the desperate.

The Commanche and Kiowa appear to have used the bow longer against their white adversaries than the Lakota and Cheyenne. They were quick to snatch up firearms whenever available however. This was especially true as revolvers became available. Trade guns were becoming readily available to most Natives and were common throughout the various tribes west of the Mississippi by 1855. The Dakota had been heavily trading with and were rather dependent upon white traders by 1860 which was part of the problem. The Lakota and their Cheyenne allies were only a few years behind them.

As for the agent who was said to have told Dakota people to eat grass. He is not known for being perforated with arrows but being found w/ his mouth stuffed with both grass and his private parts. The bastard had it coming.

 

[Dullknife]

I think you might be making a generalization about native folks. Unless you are strictly speaking about plains warriors. Otherwise some Haudenosaunee folks out my way might take issue.

The arrows going through bison. I have seen accounts of that. Will try and find them.

No bows in the Civil War. Just because you, one person, says so dont make it so.

What is the current, up to date info on archery at the Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass) battle?

--John

 

[Dullknife]

I think you might be making a generalization about native folks. Unless you are strictly speaking about plains warriors. Otherwise some Haudenosaunee folks out my way might take issue.

The arrows going through bison. I have seen accounts of that. Will try and find them.

No bows in the Civil War. Just because you, one person, says so dont make it so.

What is the current, up to date info on archery at the Little Big Horn (Greasy Grass) battle?

--John

Here is an account of Union allied folks...it is in the context of a dance but I believe the weapons in display would have been used...Link
<edited by moderator to clean up the link>