Woodbury Historical Tours

08/20/2024

The Grattan Fight
170 years ago

170 years ago today, on August 19, 1854, Brevet 2nd Lt. John Grattan and 29 soldiers killed by Lakota Sioux near Fort Laramie, igniting a generation of war.

"The Grattan Fight: Prelude to a Generation of War" written by Douglas R. Cubbison for WyoHistory.org shares the rest of the story.

"It is Aug. 19, 1854. At a site just east of Fort Laramie, on the Oregon/California Trail along the North Platte River, the weather is hot, pleasant and clear. And this afternoon, Brevet 2nd Lt. John Lawrence Grattan, an 1853 graduate of West Point, will start a 22-year war between the U.S. Army and the Great Sioux Nation.

Thirteen years earlier, the first small emigrant party followed the North Platte River heading west to Oregon. In 1843, an estimated 1,000 emigrants made the same trip over the identical route. Two years after that, 5,000 emigrants followed what was now being called the Oregon Trail, from the Missouri River west to free and fertile farm lands in Oregon.

When gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill northeast of Sacramento in California early in 1848, it unleashed the fabled Gold Rush of 1849. That year, approximately 30,000 forty-niners made the trek across the Northern Plains to California and Oregon." CONTINUE READING 👉 https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/grattan-fight-prelude-generation-war

📷The North Platte River near the site of the Grattan fight. Author photo.

08/18/2024

—our 2nd tour of 2025—

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STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN LAND
The Apache Tragedy in Old Arizona and New Mexico
OCTOBER 13-20, 2025 (Phoenix, Arizona)
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Luxury van tour with Neil Mangum. SEATING IS LIMITED — reserve your seat on the van with a deposit.
Visit: https://whtours.org/the-apache-wars.html

08/18/2024

—our 1st tour of 2025—

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THE CORPS OF DISCOVERY:
Exploring the Lewis & Clark Trail
JUNE 16-26, 2025 (Great Falls, Montana)
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A ten-day expedition following the route of the Corps of Discovery through some of the most stunning landscapes of the American West

Visit: https://whtours.org/the-corps-of-discovery.html

08/18/2024

Announcing the 2nd Annual Central Coast Conference, to be held in beautiful Monterey, California. For 2025, we have another stellar lineup of historians on board for a full weekend of intriguing presentations.

Visit: https://whtours.org/seldom-heard-history-2025.html

Next year’s theme is “Seldom Heard History of the Civil War Era,” and will include talks on the “Free State of Jones” by Victoria Bynum, as well as new and groundbreaking scholarship on Harriet Tubman and the Combahee River Raid, by Carnegie Mellon professor Edda L. Fields-Black. Historian Kevin Levin will discuss his book on the Battle of the Crater, as well as his forthcoming volume on Robert Gould Shaw. Gordon Rhea—the new Attorney General of the U.S. Virgin Islands—makes a return appearance, this time to discuss his biography of Stephen A. Swails, Black Freedom Fighter. Stanford law professor William Gould will give a presentation on his illustrious ancestor, who escaped enslavement and joined the Union Navy, and kept a diary of his experiences.

08/17/2024

Pobody's nerfect. Yes, there is a typo in the Lincoln Memorial. It's a good reminder that no matter the level of talent, skill, and attention, even working on an iconic memorial on America's front yard, people make mistakes.

On the north interior wall of the chamber, President Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Speech is carved into the limestone. Delivered on March 4, 1865, the eloquent speech gives Lincoln's perspective on his first term and the terrible Civil War that was consuming the nation before looking forward to the war's coming end. It's ironic then that there's a flaw in the future. The actual word "FUTURE" was originally engraved as "EUTURE." Under the guidance of architect Henry Bacon, artists Ernest C. Bairstow and Evelyn Beatrice Longman completed the memorial's exterior details such as the states, wreathes, festoons, and eagles, and were also responsible for the lettering of the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. Likely the result of grabbing an "E" stencil instead of an "F," the error can be found about halfway down the first panel. The extra space has since been filled in, so you have to look very closely to see it. See if you can spot it on your next visit.

Photo by National Park Service.

08/17/2024

"The knoll where Custer fell," by C. D. Gedney.

Gedney was a member of the Montana Boundary Survey, and made this drawing sometime between 1881 (when the 7th cavalry memorial was erected) and 1887. [Library of Congress]

08/17/2024

"1948 Gathering of the Nine Surviving Warriors" — Detail from one of the Sioux panels in the Indian Memorial

08/16/2024

The Chumash lived on the northern Channel Islands for more than 13,000 years before the arrival of Europeans.

The annual Chumash Indian community paddle across the Santa Barbara Channel took place on August 10. A rotating crew paddled a tomol called Muptami, or “Deep Memories,” for about eight hours on a 24-mile journey to Santa Cruz Island, one of the five islands that make up Channel Islands National Park. The Chumash crew, along with National Park Service Director, Chuck Sams, launched Muptami from the Channel Islands Harbor before dawn and reached Swaxil, present-day Scorpion Harbor, on the island of Limuw, commonly known as Santa Cruz, by midday Saturday.

Chumash life has never been separated from the Channel Islands. The Chumash and their ancestors originated and lived on the northern Channel Islands for more than 13,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. Nevertheless, the Chumash were removed from their ancestral islands.

This event also highlighted the many partnerships that support the crossing and arrival, including the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, the Barbareño Chumash Tribal Council, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the NOAA Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, and the National Park Service (NPS) at Channel Islands National Park. Every year, the crossing grows and the relationships between the tribes, partners, and supporting agencies deepen.

National Park Service and Marine Sanctuary acknowledge the ancestral homelands of the Chumash people which predate the agencies. As stewards, both agencies are entrusted to conserve and protect for future generations, including sites and resources that hold significance to Chumash who have lived and cared for Santa Cruz Island since time immemorial. NPS and NOAA support tribal partners in keeping with their responsibilities to embrace Chumash people with original cultural and historical ties to the island.

Read the full press release at: https://tinyurl.com/3r4r948m.

[Image description: A Tomol Muptami with Senior Captain Steven Villa (Chumash/Kumeyaay Tribes), Channel Islands Supt Ethan McKinley, Director Chuck Sams (Cayuse/Walla Walla Tribes), John Mia (Vanumay/Tatviam Tribes), Toni Cordero (Chumash Tribe), Tom Lopez (Chumash Tribe). Photo/Robert Schwemmer]

08/15/2024

"Senator Broderick's San Francisco funeral was attended by thousands of mourners and Senator Edward Dickinson Baker (for whom Fort Baker in Sausalito was later named) gave the moving eulogy. The City of San Francisco erected a large monument in Laurel Hill Cemetery and named a downtown street "Broderick Street" in his honor. Leonidas Haskell's house at Fort Mason, now known at Quarters 3, still stands today. While the house is not open to the public (park tenants live in the building), visitors can walk down Franklin Street and see the house where David Broderick died in 1859." [NPS]

Senator Edward Dickinson Baker was later killed in the Civil War Battle of Ball's Bluff, near Washington DC (he remains the only sitting US Senator to be killed in a military engagement). He is buried in the San Francisco Presidio.

08/14/2024

A recent hot August day on Last Stand Hill

08/12/2024

Mays’ Fight, August 11, 1861

After secession, U.S. troops abandoned Fort Davis in Texas, and Confederate troops took their place in the frontier installation. The remote garrison did not have to worry about Yankee troops, but they did have to contend with Apaches.

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In August 1861, Mescalero Apaches under Chief Nicolas ran off with the livestock from the post. An inexperienced Confederate Lieutenant, Reuben Mays, lead a party of six men from Company D, 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles, and seven civilian. They followed the Apaches trail into Big Bend country. Mays partially succeeded in recapturing most of the stolen herd only to fall into a trap in which all of his men perished except for one Mexican guide. [NPS] https://tinyurl.com/f4pvcahw
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According to author Tim Simmons, writing for "True West" magazine, "The Mays fight is one of the biggest mysteries in Western lore. Apaches usually stripped their victims, took weapons, mutilated the bodies and left them for others to find. This time it was the reverse. Weapons and clothing were found, bodies never were." https://truewestmagazine.com/article/vanished/

08/10/2024

OTD in 1861 — The Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri.

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Disregarding the maxims of military textbooks (just as Robert E. Lee later did to win his greatest victories), Lyon divided his small army in the face of a larger enemy and sent a flanking column of 1,200 men under Franz Sigel on a night march around to the south of the Confederate camp along Wilson’s Creek, ten miles south of Springfield. While Sigel came up on the Confederate rear, Lyon would attack from the front with the main Union force. The Federals carried out this difficult maneuver successfully, achieving surprise in a two-pronged attack at sunrise on August 10. But McCulloch and Price kept their poise and rallied their men for a stand-up, seesaw firefight at short range along the banks of Wilson’s Creek and on the slopes of a nearby hill.

The battle was marked by two turning points that finally enabled the rebels to prevail. First, after initially driving back the Confederates on the southern flank, Sigel’s attack came to a halt after another incident of mistaken identity. A Louisiana regiment clad in uniforms similar to the militia gray of Lyon’s 1st Iowa approached close enough to Sigel’s vanguard to pour in a murderous volley before the unionists recognized them as enemies. Sigel’s attack disintegrated; a Confederate artillery barrage and infantry counterattack soon scattered his demoralized brigade to the four winds. The Louisianians and Arkansans in this part of the field then joined the Missourians fighting Lyon’s main force, whom they now outnumbered by three to one. In the thick of the fighting, Lyon was twice wounded slightly and his horse was shot from under him before a bullet found his heart. This demoralized the unionists, who in addition had almost run out of ammunition. Slowly they pulled back, yielding the battlefield to the enemy and withdrawing to Springfield unpursued by the equally battered southerners.

Each side in this bloody battle suffered about 1,300 casualties, a considerably higher proportion of losses than at Bull Run.
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McPherson, James M.. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States Book 6) (pp. 351-352). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

Photo: from CompuServe Civil War Forum conference in 2004, featuring William Garrett Piston (standing at right), author of "Wilson's Creek: The Second Battle of the Civil War and the Men Who Fought It" (UNC Press, 2000).

08/09/2024

50 years ago
https://tinyurl.com/3z53ycc3

08/09/2024

Diversion and Escape: The Nez Perce War

08/09/2024

Chief Plenty Coups home and grave.
https://fwp.mt.gov/stateparks/chief-plenty-coups/

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Plenty Coups (Aleek-chea-ahoosh, meaning "many achievements") was a man of war - and then a man of peace - whose vision has helped bridge a gap between two cultures. Recognized for his bravery and leadership, he was made a chief of the Apsáalooke (Crow) tribe by age 28.

When Plenty Coups gave up his nomadic ways in 1884, he became one of the first Apsáalooke to own and settle on a farm, which was deeded to him through the federal Indian Allotment Act. On his 320-acre tract, located a half mile east of Pryor, he opened a general store, built a home, and tilled the earth until his death in 1932 at age 84.
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08/06/2024

Visiting the graves of Cheyenne Chiefs Little Wolf and Dull Knife, in Lame Deer Cemetery.

08/06/2024

What if Meade had Nike missiles at Gettysburg?

Civil War reenactors at a Cold War Historic Site?!

Now there’s something you don’t see everyday!

Members from the 20th Maine Reenactment Group stopped by the Nike Missile Site SF-88 in the Marin Headlands after being a part of this weekend’s “Living History Day” over at Fort Point National Historic Site.

The San Francisco Bay has always had a strong military presence throughout different chapters of U.S. history due in large to the perceived notion that it was/is the key to the entire West Coast of the U.S.A.

offers opportunities for visitors to learn about various chapters of military history from the Civil War to the Cold War and beyond!

Have you visited the Nike Missile Site SF-88?

How about Fort Point NHS?

For more information on either site, please click the link in our bio and toggle to either the “Nike Missile Site” and/or the “Fort Point” buttons

Photo: NPS, James Manzolillo

08/06/2024

Where Captain Myles Keogh and his troops were killed, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

"It looked to me as if Keogh must have attempted to make a stand on foot to enable Custer to get away because he and his company died in one compact mass, wheras from here on the graves are scattered in irruregular clumps and at intervals about like those in the slaughter of buffaloes..."
—Lt. John Bourke, 3rd-Cavalry

"The soldiers were on one side of the hill, and the Indians on the other side, a slight rise between the two parties. At this point Crazy Horse came up and rode between the two parties. The soldiers fired at once, but missed him."
—Red Feather, Oglala Lakota

08/05/2024

Day Three of our Little Bighorn Tour (August 4, 2024). Two views of Last Stand Hill.

1. Where Custer Fell, and 2. Spirit Warrior Memorial

08/04/2024

Day Two of our Little Bighorn Tour (August 3, 2024) — we followed the 7th Cavalry down Reno Creek to site of Reno's Valley Fight, and his command's subsequent retreat to the hilltop across the river. The day ended at Weir Point.

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"Seeing many horsemen over on the distant ridge with guidons flying, Weir said, 'That is Custer over there,' and mounted up ready to go over, when Sergeant Flanagan said: 'Here, Captain, you had better take a look through the glasses; I think those are Indians.' Weir did so and changed his mind about leaving the place. Accordingly the men were dismounted and the horses led behind the hill.”
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— Pvt. William Morris
Company M, 7th Cavalry

08/04/2024

Day One of Little Bighorn Tour (August 2, 2024) — a visit to Deer Medicine Rocks, north of Lame Deer, Montana. This is reputed to be the place where Sitting Bull, during a Sun Dance ceremony, received a vision of soldiers falling into his camp, upside down, foretelling a great victory.

08/04/2024

On Day One of our Little Bighorn Tour with Neil Mangum, we traveled over rough roads and roadless country, deep into the Wolf Mountains, to find the famed Crow's Nest.

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[Custer's Chief of Scouts, Lt. Charles Varnum and several of his [Crow and Arikara] scouts climbed a high hill to the south, known as the Crow's Nest, and at dawn scanned the wrinkled landscape stretching off to the Bighorn Mountains. Some 15 miles to the west, where a thread of green traced the course of the Little Bighorn, the Crows discerned smoke rising from the Sioux village and on the benchland beyond a vast undulating mass that represented the Sioux pony herd. Lieutenant Varnum could not see these things, and neither could Custer when he arrived in response to a message from the lieutenant.
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Utley, Robert M.. Little Bighorn Battlefield and Custer's Last Stand (American History: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (Custer Battlefield)). Kindle Edition.

08/02/2024

BONUS Gettysburg-related stop during the first day of our Battle of the Little Bighorn Tour, in Billings, Montana.

"Mr. McClellan, who as an infant survived the battle within the walls of the historic McClellan house, was later referred to by historians as the "youngest veteran of Gettysburg." [obit]

Visitors to Gettysburg know of the famous "Jennie Wade House," which was actually the house of her sister, Georgia Wade McClellan, who had given birth to a son on June 26, on the eve of the great battle. Little Lewis was in the house when Jennie was killed. He eventually made his way west, and lived to age 77.

07/27/2024

"The residents of On-A-Slant lived where the Heart River meets the Missouri. Here it’s believed there were between 75 and 85 earthlodges. But even the remnants of the village were long gone by 1872 when the U.S. Army arrived to establish Fort Abraham Lincoln on the lower, flatter land closer to the river."

It’s Where Are We Wednesday! Today’s site, along the Missouri River, was visited by Lewis and Clark in October 1804, but the Captains found only ruins.

The abandoned village, believed to have been the home to a thousand or more Native people, was founded sometime before 1600 but was devastated by the 1781 smallpox epidemic.

The few people who remained vacated to the north, near the Knife River. According to William Clark’s October 20, 1804, journal entry: “I saw an old remains of a village on the Side of a hill which the Chief with us Too né tells me that nation lived in a number villages on each Side of the river and the Troubleson Seauex caused them to move about 40 miles higher up where they remained a fiew years & moved to the place they now live.”

This was On-A-Slant Village, “Miti O-pa-e-resh,” which, as the name implies, sat high on a large sloping hill above the Missouri River and had natural defenses on three sides. This was the only Mandan village that needed an artificial ditch to be dug on just one side – the western slope of the hill where a bluff rose above the earthlodges. High on the interior slope of the ditch and around the entire circumference of the village, the Mandan erected a tall log wall, probably of cottonwood trunks.

The residents of On-A-Slant lived where the Heart River meets the Missouri. Here it’s believed there were between 75 and 85 earthlodges. But even the remnants of the village were long gone by 1872 when the U.S. Army arrived to establish Fort Abraham Lincoln on the lower, flatter land closer to the river. The fort operated until 1891. In 1907, North Dakota created Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park which also includes several reconstructed earthlodges of the Mandan. The ditch was restored in 1935 and an archaeological survey of the village was completed in 1937.

The park is about nine miles south of Mandan, North Dakota. To learn more about On-A-Slant Village and Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, go to: https://ow.ly/Fmq250SAkbT.

Image: NPS / K. Schlawin

Image Description: A photo taken high on the slope overlooking the site where the Mandan village would have been. The area is covered in tall, green grasses and a line of mature trees stretch along the banks of the Missouri River in the distance. Several reconstructed earthlodges are in the center of the image and a recreational trail runs from left to right.

07/25/2024

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LAST CALL
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Join us for a unique overview of the fateful events of late June, 1876, when Custer’s 7th Cavalry raced to catch up with a moving assembly of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho people in SE Montana.

We’ll visit the reputed site of Sitting Bull’s Sun Dance—the sacred sandstone outcropping called Deer Medicine Rocks—where the celebrated Hunkpapa chief had a vision of a great victory over pursuing soldiers.

We’ll see another rarely-visited historic spot, the Crow’s Nest, where Custer’s Crow and Arikara scouts first spotted the distant campfire smoke and pony herd that indicated a massive village lay ahead.

Next, we'll follow Reno Creek down to the Little Bighorn river, take in a good view of the area of Reno’s Valley Fight, then enter the National Monument and walk the perimeter of the Reno-Benteen hilltop defense site. This special tour will conclude with stops at Weir Point, Calhoun Hill, the scene of Keogh’s demise, and Last Stand Hill. There will be time, too, to stroll down Deep Ravine Trail, and pay respects to the fallen in Custer National Cemetery.

Our tour guide, Neil Mangum, has a deep association with the Little Bighorn story. He first worked at the then-Custer Battlefield National Monument as historian, and later served two separate stints as Superintendent. He played an integral role in the establishment of the Indian Memorial, when the name of the NPS unit was changed to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, and oversaw the installation of the first markers to fallen warriors on the battlefield.

For details, visit: https://whtours.org/little-bighorn.html

07/21/2024

Peter Carmichael was a great scholar of the American Civil War, and beloved educator.

We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of our good friend Pete Carmichael, director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. Please keep Pete's family in your thoughts and prayers during this extremely difficult time. He was a fixture in our community and an advocate for so many organizations, including ACHS.

07/21/2024

OTD in 1864: The Battle of Peachtree Creek

Starting at Chattanooga in May, William T. Sherman's United States forces moved inexorably closer to Atlanta. For 2.5 months, Confederate leadership in Richmond nervously watched Gen. Joseph E. Johnston fall back from one position to another in the face of the encroaching Federals. Finally, President Jefferson Davis replaced Johnston with John Bell Hood, with the expectation that he would vigorously contest Sherman's advance.

Contest he did, beginning on July 20, at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, but things did not go well for the Rebels. Peachtree Creek began a series of battles for Atlanta that would end with Sherman driving the remnants of Hood's army away, and seizing the important railroad hub, with its foundries, factories and munitions plants.

The capture of Atlanta had an incalculably positive effect on President Lincoln's campaign for reelection in November. Before the fall of Atlanta, war weariness in the North was taking its toll, and confidence in ultimate victory was wavering. Lincoln's opponent in the election, former General George McClellan, was running on a peace platform that would concede the Confederacy's independence.

The capture of Atlanta by Sherman's seemingly unstoppable western armies changed the calculus in Lincoln's favor.

Map by Robert M. McDowell (Topographical engineer). Library of Congress.

07/21/2024

OTD in 1881, five years after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull returned from Canada and surrendered to the U.S. at Fort Buford, Dakota Territory. Nine years later he was killed by Lakota Indian Police when supporters contested his arrest.

Courtesy of the National Park Service, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, LIBI_00312_11170, D. F. Barry, "Sitting Bull with Fur Wrapped Braids," circa 1881.