However, Huning was obviously impatient
and the small party soon set out alone. The group made their way south
to the
Santa Fe
Trail and began to make their way to the southwest.
After traveling for another 45 miles or so, they
came to the
Little Arkansas River Crossing where Huning found Captain Edward
Byrne of the Tenth Cavalry
Buffalo
Soldiers. By this time, the experienced teamster was having second
thoughts about traveling with such a small party and asked Byrne for a
military escort. However, despite the fact that the troops were
stationed there specifically for that purpose, Byrne refused as his
soldiers were out on a picnic.
Once again, Huning bravely moved on alone.
Wary now, he rode ahead of the freight train scouting for Indians.
However, when his worst fears were realized, the alarm came from the
back of wagons, when a teamster in the back
began yelling, “Indians, Indians!” Huning, hearing the cry, quickly turned around. While he had been
riding ahead, a number of
Kiowa,
Arapaho and
Cheyenne
warriors had sneaked up behind the wagons on foot.
Taking refuge from the third wagon from
the front, Huning began to blast the Indians
at the back of the train, but alas, he was too late. The warriors
stampeded the mules and pulled the four wagons at the back, the
carriage, and the ambulance away from the rest of the group.
The other three wagons pulled ahead into a
circle as they faced off another of wave of warriors astride horses
and on foot. Oddly, they didn’t attack the group of three wagons,
instead turning their attention to the wagons they had already
acquired and had moved several hundred yards from the trail.
As Huning heard the sounds of his
mother-in-law’s screams as the Indians
ravaged her, he continued to fire upon them until his rifle jammed. As
he watched helplessly, the warriors plundered his goods, packed them
onto the backs of his mules, and began to set the large items on fire.
His mother-in-law's cries of terror were finally silenced with a pistol
shot. Huning then saddled a mule and quickly
began to make his way to Fort Zarah,
some 15 miles away.
Upon his arrival, there were no soldiers in camp,
but two civilian scouts, Captain Charles Christy and a man named Roma,
set out with an ambulance to Plum Buttes. When they arrived they found
the scalped and mutilated body of one of the teamsters under a wagon
and stuffed inside a featherbed, the mutilated bodies of Huning’s
mother-in-law and and brother in-law and the prairie littered with
burned wagons and goods.
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Freighter, photo by W.D. Harper.
This image available for
photographic prints and downloads
HERE!
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The scouts loaded the three bodies into
the ambulance and began to return trip to the fort. On their way
back, they too were assailed by the warriors and were engaged in a
four mile chase. Fortunately, they were lucky enough to hold off the Indians
until a large group of Fort Zarah
soldiers came quickly riding in and the Indians
fled.
Huning returned to the rest of his family
in
Albuquerque
where he continued on as a successful merchant. He became the first
person in the American West to complain, "Where's the damn cavalry
when you need them?" For years afterward, partly burned wagons,
barrels, and broken dishes lay scattered in the area. Many historians
believe that the attack was led by Charley Bent, the half-breed
renegade son of William Bent, and a group of
Dog Soldiers.
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The Massacre site is located
about one mile west of
"Ralph's Ruts" in Rice County, about five miles
west of Chase,
Kansas,
north of US Highway 56.
Compiled by
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of Kansas, updated May, 2011.
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LEGENDS
OF KANSAS
Native
American Postcards
