The Worst Disaster: Bear River

[Harms88]

The year is 1863. The exact day, January 29.

Colonel Connor, leading cavalry and infantry from Fort Dodge in Utah Territory, crosses the Idaho-Utah Territory border. His aim, attack the band of Shoshone who have taken the opportunity to raid Utah Territory that has presented itself since the withdrawal of the 3,500 United States Regulars garrisoned in Utah in July 1861 to fight in the American Civil War.

Here we have the US-91 Interstate Monument and signs. It would not be until 1990 that the Federal Government would recognize this as a historical site. The monument was placed by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

These two long shots are from the top of a nearby hill, which takes in the entire area that the Massacre would occur in. This landscape is nearly the same. Unfortunately, I fear the panorama shots only took in the top of the hill and the further hills.

 

[Harms88]

Currently working on uploading other pictures to my google drive in hopes that they'll be able to show up on here. Currently their just too big of files.

 

[Kentucky Derby Cavalier.]

Such a sad event, the people that escaped either froze to death or suffered nasty frost bite.

 

[Harms88]

Such a sad event, the people that escaped either froze to death or suffered nasty frost bite.

Mothers in a panic to escape soldiers notice would plunge their wailing babies into the freezing Bear River to quiet them. One woman took comfort that her child was "sleeping in the river" and would escape the harshness of life.

 

[Kentucky Derby Cavalier.]

Mothers in a panic to escape soldiers notice would plunge their wailing babies into the freezing Bear River to quiet them. One woman took comfort that her child was "sleeping in the river" and would escape the harshness of life.

Awful, just awful.

 

[Harms88]

This is a Remembrance Tree that Shoshone when visiting the site will leave small mementos.

Under the tree, we can see someone left shoes (who knows why, someone hung a pair in the branches as well) There is a tin can at the edge of the picture (it's the grey circular object midway down the side that's cut in half) and a feather that rests near the shoes.

Not my clearest shot, but you see a few necklaces. But my favorite is the dream catchers that are hanging there. Perhaps the people who placed them there hoped to keep the bad memories of this place on this side, to allow the dead infants and children to sleep peacefully in the next life.

A closer view of the monument. Three sides has plaques. You will notice that the top is actually shaped as a tepee.

Here we obviously have Ma Harms88, the one and only Harms88 himself and Pa Harms88.

 

[Harms88]

All the following pictures are taken from atop the same hill that I did the panoramic shots. The battlefield is almost unchanged in the over 150 years.

Here we get a view of the ravine Colonel Connor used to move into the valley and where he crossed the Bear River. (You can't see the ravine for the hills, but you can see where he crossed, the river is see-able as a blue patch near the right side of the woods).

You can get a pretty good view of the entire battlefield from here. While some of it is cut off by the grass of the hill I'm standing on, You can see the areas where the massacre happened.You can see the Interstate and the top of a roof, and these run by the actual "Killing Field" as they call it.

If you use the width of this solitary trees branches as a measuring stick, you can know exact where additional cavalry companies moved in to flank the Shoshones and their herd which was camped on top of the far ridge.

The line of trees you see are on the banks of the Bear. Woman and children fled to here in an attempt to escape the butchery. Many would freeze to death or would be discovered and shot down. When their babies would start wailing, woman either would drown them or would fall in the freezing river (which still had a strong current) and allow themselves to be taken away by the icy currents.

 

[Harms88]

The town of Preston, Idaho (about 5 miles from the battlefield) has a painting of the battle in their post office. I had hoped I could get a good picture of it, but sadly it was in the part of the office that was locked. However, I like how the symbolism of this picture. That this event is very dark and we should perhaps not look at it too clearly.

Now, with all that said, the Shoshone nation currently owns over 600 acres of the battlefield. Some was given to them by the government and the rest was bought last year. They plan on making a cultural center there. From the that will dig into one of the hills and use it as the walls and ceiling, in a very Native American way. If this ends up getting built, I will definitely show you guys pictures of it.

 

[Harms88]

It is for certain that the Native Americans lost 410 people, 250 at the very least killed and the rest either wounded or captured, with a possibility of as high as 500 casualties, which would push the death count to roughly 340 deaths. Unlike Sand Creek, fought a year later, the most that's ever been verified is 70 deaths, although again, Cheyenne and Arapaho oral tradition claims closer to 500. With confirmed losses, Bear Creek is by far the worst battle in Plains War History.

This battle is one that I call a "Schrodinger's Civil War Battlefield".

You can either argue that it both should and shouldn't be included in the list of American Civil War battles. And you would be correct either way.

Reasons to include this as a CW battlefield:

The soldiers involved were from the 3rd California Volunteers. They had been raised as part of the United States war effort during the Civil War and their assignment was to garrison Utah. Their mission was two-fold, protect the settlers from Native American raids that had increased with the removal of Regular Forces to act as the core around which the rest of the army was built around back east. It was also most likely tasked with preventing Utah from seceding, which was why so many troops were there in the first place, to put down a supposed Mormon Rebellion that never happened.

So the troops involved were only there because of the Civil War.

There is also speculation that Lincoln may have suppressed news of this massacre, although I can't tell you for certain. The Emancipation Proclamation had gone into effect on January 1st of that same year, and the Union had just been granted a platform of moral superiority over the Confederacy through it. It would probably have been bad press to one day be hearing about the liberation of millions, only to read that an entire tribe of native americans had been wiped out mercilessly.

It is also included as a Civil War battlefield in most lists of the war if it's mentioned.

Reasons to not include it as a CW battle:

This was between United States soldiers and Native Americans. It therefore is technically a Plains Indian Wars battle.

The Shoshone had no sympathy for the Confederate Cause. Frankly, the only exposure they had to the war was the removal of the United States troops from Utah. Beyond that, the policies of the East were of no concern to them, a people whose entire life was threatened by the arrivals of settlers.

Nor were they attacked for harboring Southern feelings. They were attacked in retaliation for the raids they had conducted.

So, again, it's up to the individual to decide whether this is or isn't worth the inclusion into Civil War battles or if it's best left in the Plains Indian Wars.