7th Calvary
Colonel James W. Forsyth in command of the 7th Calvary that murdered an estimate 280 to over 300 Indians, most of them daughters - sons - women & Babies.
On the 28th December 1890 51 year old Major Samuel Whiteside had already stopped Chief Big Foot from going to Pine Ridge agency, with blood dripping from his nose & barley able to speak the dying chief followed the Majors instructions to take his people to Wounded Knee creek.
Chief Big Foot who was slowly dying of pneumonia, was with his family and band of Miniconjou Indians & some of the Hunkpapa that ran away after Sitting Bull was killed, an estimate of 350 people.
Winchester Repeating rifles used by the 7th Calvary during their slaughter of Indian women & Children at Wounded Knee 29th December 1890.
Hotchkiss Cannon - rapid fire exploding shells to kill the defenseless boys & girls as they ran away at Wounded Knee 29 December 1890.
Big Foot was in a Wagon wrapped in blankets with a white flag on top, when he and his band of Indians camped at wounded knee creek on the evening of the 28th December.
Later that evening Major Whitside was joined by Colonel Forsyth who took command of over 500 heavily armed soldiers of the 7th Calvary.
As the Indians went into camp for the night, the 7th Calvary placed 4 Hotchkiss cannon around the Indian camp. Escape was never an option.
Colonel James W. Forsyth
Blood dripping from his nose Big Foot was dying of pneumonia & his men outnumbered 4-1 surrounded by the 7th Calvary with experienced officers, such as Moylan, Varnum, Nowlan, Wallace, Godfrey and Edgerly all had been in the regiment since their loss with Custer when they attacked the Indians at The Battle of The Little Big Horn in June 1876.
As the night temperature went below freezing, the soldiers enjoyed drinking whiskey to celebrate the capture of Chief Big Foot.
Some of the officers in charge on The 7th Calvary graduated from the acclaimed West Point Military Academy where cadets learn about the duty of - Dignity & Honor, it seems these values fell on deaf ears the next day during the slaughter of women & children.
Captain Edward Godfrey
Major Samuel Whiteside
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Blue Whirlwind with Her Two Children on Wood Frame Porch, Survivor's of Wounded Knee Massacre,
"We tried to run but the soldiers shot us like we were Buffalo"
LOUISE WESSEL BEAR
George H. Harries of the Washington Evening Star published an article in that paper that heightened eastern outrage over Wounded Knee.
"Those who killed the Indians as the assassin kills are murderers of the most villainous description. No one who looked upon that scene can ever forget it, and not a man or woman who is acquainted with the facts but regards the bloody circumstances with anything save horror. An Indian woman, comely in life, with her three children were brutally murdered at about the time of the Wounded Knee massacre and within three miles away from Wounded Knee"
After the slaughter of the Indians trying to escape - Captain Edward Godfrey recalled
" Warriors, squaws, ponies, children and dogs for they were all mixed together......I believe about 30 bodies were found on our front"
In command of D Troop was 47 year old Edward Godfrey who had graduated from West Point Military Academy with over 20 years experience fighting Indians. Godfrey was involved in the slaughter of a Cheyenne village at Washita Colorado 1868.
After the massacre at Wounded Knee that morning Godfrey with 14 soldiers rode into the wooded valley looking for Indians trying to escape the Wounded Knee carnage. The soldiers saw some Indians running towards the tree's & Godfery ordered his men on horseback to chase the Indians through the snow.
The Indians ran along the waters edge to hide behind a ridge of pine tree's. The soldiers moved forward shouting "How Cola" = Squaw with no response from the Indians Godfrey shouted the command to "Commence Firing" and his men took aim & kept up a rapid fire towards the trees until nothing was alive - Over 30 Indians were killed here - Men - Women - Children - Babies - Dogs - all mixed together. When the soldiers approached the bodies they saw some of the women - boys & girls moving in pain gasping for air frothing at the mouth and later died right their in the snow in front of the Soldiers.
"Sergeant Gunther’s men moved forward crouching down pretty close to the ground, and pretty soon some one called out: “There they are,” and they commenced firing. I heard the wail of a child and called to them to stop firing, but they had already stopped. The party was then about twenty-five or thirty yards from where the Indians were found. I immediately ran forward to where the bodies were and saw at a glance a boy, squaw and two children lying there. The look was sufficient to satisfy me that I could do nothing for the squaw and children. The boy was lying on his face motionless and I supposed he was dead. I had already ordered the men to continue on down the creek and was turning away hurriedly to look after my detachment when I heard a shot and Blacksmith Carey said: “Captain, the man ain’t dead yet,” and I saw that he had shot the boy in the back of the head."
The following day, the frozen bodies - which had been stripped by the soldiers for souvenirs - were buried in mass grave.
First Sergeant Theodore Ragnar & his troop K walking in a skirmish line through the ravine up to the positions held by D & C on the South Side.....
"Here we found (the dead after the fighting)...in big heaps piled on each other. Women the children in their arms, young & old horses and mules in various broken carts & clothing. More scattered the warriors lay on their faces, still clutching their weapon. There lies a whole family, except the father under & overturned cart, with the horses still in the shafts: with their legs crushed they were writhing in agony. There a baby cries by its mothers breast which frozen can nourish it no more: there lies a young girl with her long hair sticky of blood, hiding her mutilated face....and here rests the beautiful young squaw whom yesterday I offered a cigarette - dying with both legs shot off. She lies there without wailing and greets me with a faint smile on her pale Lips"
"General Nelson A. Miles who visited the scene of carnage, following a three day blizzard, estimated that around 300 snow covered bodies were strewn over the countryside. He also discovered to his horror that helpless children and women with babies in their arms had been chased a distance of 2 miles from Wounded Knee and cut down & killed without mercy by the 7th Calvary.."
Private Flynn of Troop A was looking for survivors, he wrote in his diary " I came across a dead Indian and a little child was sucking on a piece of hardtack. I picked up the little child and carried it in my arms. A little way farther on, I found another dead Indian and a baby. I picked it up too and brought them over near the hospital tent, where there was a number of injured Indian women. As I came over to where they were, I met a big husky sergeant who said
"Why didn't you smash them up against a tree and kill them? Some day they will be fighting us" I told him I would rather smash him than those innocent children. The Indian women were so glad that I saved the young children that they almost kissed me"
General L. W. Colby of Nebraska State Troops Holding Baby Girl, Zintkala Nuni (Little Lost Bird), Found at Wounded Knee
General Nelson Miles
June 1876 The Little Big Horn -Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer & his 7th Calvary trespassed onto Indian land in South Eastern Montana and attacked an Indian Village of men women & children - Custer - Benteen & Reno had no remorse about killing young Indian Boys & Girls - Chief Gall had his wife and family shot & killed by Reno and his soldiers - Gall fought the remainder of the battle defending his home using only a Tomahawk & killed many of those soldiers who murdered his young daughters. General Custer was sure of Victory with superior firepower Custer was sure the Indians would run for their lives once Ambushed - the same Victory Custer had when in November 1868 Custer & The 7th Calvary attacked a sleeping village of Chief Black Kettles peaceful Cheyenne's on the Washita River Oklahoma, here in the freezing winter Custer & his men Violently massacred over 103 Indians as they ran from the charging soldiers - most of the Cheyenne's were hunted down and killed while swimming across the ice cold river - Wounded Cheyenne's shot as they lay dying - Indian Baby's found frozen to death. Indians mutilated & butchered by Custer's scouts, such a brave solider Custer was !! There was rumors' of raped Cheyenne female prisoners' at Fort Cobb. Most of Custer's officers graduated from the acclaimed West Point Military Academy where cadets learn about the duty of Dignity & Honor - it seems these important values fell on deaf ears during the theft of Indian land in all Montana & Dakota - 14 years after The Little Big Horn in Winter of 1890 the 7th Calvary surrounded Chief Big Foot & his people at Wounded Knee Dakota, after a brief fight the Indians fled - ran terrified for their lives, the soldiers of the 7th Calvary opened fire on the fleeing women & children with their Hodgkin Guns like machine gun The 7th Calvary slaughtered over 150 Indians while running away through the freezing snow, for 3 hours the soldiers on horseback chased the Indians who ran for safety on the river banks along Wounded Knee creek, its was here the Soldiers continued to shoot women & children, shot in the back as they ran for cover - one reporter noted he saw a dead women lying on her back with her baby trying to suckle for Milk. It was told that some of the officers commented, Now we got even for The Battle of The Little Bighorn.