The Medal of Honor earned on the Mizpah and Pumpkin Creek

By Shane Dunning

http://www.redshalereflections.com

The citation reads:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Sergeant Thaddeus Brown Glover, United States Army, for extraordinary heroism on 10 April 1879 and 10 February 1880, while serving with Troop B, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, in action at Mitzpah [sp.] and Pumpkin Creek, Montana. While in charge of small scouting parties, Sergeant Glover fought, charged, surrounded, and captured war parties of Sioux Indians.

The Medal of Honor was presented to TB Glover over seventeen years after the most recent of the incidents cited. He entered the service in March 1876, and between 1877 and 1881, served under Colonel Nelson Miles in Montana. An ambitious man, he quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant, stationed at Fort Keogh. As indicated by the citation, Glover was involved in two separate incidents, although only one involved the Sioux.

Capturing Black Coyote on the Mizpah in 1879

During the Exodus of the Northern Cheyenne from Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1878, Little Wolf's band split from Dull Knife's Band. Dull Knife went on to surrender to Lt. WB Clark at Fort Robinson. Little Wolf, however, had successfully brought around 150 of his people to the Powder River area. Among the band was an aggressive man named Black Coyote who was married to Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the "girl who saved her brother" at the Battle of the Rosebud.

Black Coyote often clashed with Little Wolf and advocated more violence toward whites. During an argument in a council meeting, he shot and killed Black Crane. For this crime Little Wolf banished him. His wife, two children and several others (totaling eight in all) left the Powder River camp with him.

In early April of 1879, a sergeant and a private were repairing the Keogh-Deadwood telegraph line where it crossed Mizpah Creek. While they were having lunch, Black Coyote and others attacked the soldiers. The private was killed and scalped, while the sergeant was grievously wounded in the hip but managed to fight off the Cheyennes. He was discovered alive by three civilians who took him to Ft. Keogh. Colonel Miles dispatched Sergeant Glover along with ten men to arrest the perpetrators. After three days, Glover caught up with them and deployed his men:

Two Indians were standing on a rock, waving a white flag. Much to my regret they signified their intention of surrendering. I accepted the surrender and turned to my command, when suddenly, I heard firing behind me. The two Indians had been joined by others and they had treacherously begun an attack. Then we started in and captured the entire band.

Black Coyote and two others were brought to Milestown for trial but all three hanged themselves in the jail. While they were committing their crimes on the Mizpah, Little Wolf's band surrendered and joined Two Moons' band at Fort Keogh.

The Battle of Pumpkin Creek in 1880

Sitting Bull had taken his people to Canada in 1877, but small hunting and raiding parties continued to venture into Montana. On the third of February 1880, Fort Keogh learned of a local skirmish between some Gros Ventres and Hunkpapa Sioux, killing ten and wounding 12. Two days later, "Catfish" Sandy Morris, a trapper and friend of Eastern Montana adventurer Yellowstone Kelly, came to the fort detailing how he and his trapping partner had been attacked in a hay corral along Pumpkin Creek. Remembering his success ten months earlier, Colonel Miles again dispatched Sergeant Thaddeus Glover "to look them up." Miles was reported to have told the Sergeant "Glover, make a success of this trip and I will make a success of you."

Glover, six enlisted men, eight Indian scouts, and Morris left Fort Keogh the temperature was recorded at 32 degrees below zero. Also accompanying the party was Yellowstone Kelly, who was at the Fort when his friend brought news of the attack. Driving through deep snow, they reached the sight of the depredations, somewhere near the head of Pumpkin Creek. They soon found the dead body of an Indian covered with leaves at the base of a large tree, along with "a very perceptible trail." Glover recalled later that:

At 11 o'clock that morning, while we were floundering through the snowdrifts girth deep, both men and animals suffering from the extreme cold, my scouts returned to the rear and refused further to lead the party. Their ponies, they said, were played out from breaking through the snow. Unwilling to abandon the trip, I took a corporal with me and, going to the front, assumed the lead, sending the scouts to the rear under arrest.

I immediately corralled my packs. Then I dismounted my men and sent half of them to the left of the ravine under charge of the corporal, taking the other half myself and going to the right. Each party was directed to advance, and, at a preconcerted signal, to open fire on the hostiles. Before the signal could be given, however, a shot was fired and the men were at once ordered to attack, although the most satisfactory position had not yet been reached.

The Indians withdrew in such a manner as to cover all assailable points and I at once ordered all the men to get out of range. Upon inquiry, I learned that the first shot had come from the Indians; that a private name Douglass, who had advanced too far along the ledge in an effort to get a shot at the Indians before the time agreed upon, had been shot and killed.

Not knowing whether Douglass was killed or wounded, Glover called for volunteers to get the man. None did so. Glover then crawled out under heavy fire, tied a noose to Douglass' foot and pulled the body back to a place of safety. Satisfied that the hostiles could not be extracted with his resources, Glover sent one of the Indian scouts to Fort Keogh for reinforcements. He made a chain guard around the Sioux to prevent their escape, a tactic that required every man in his command to stay awake and alert until reinforced.

The next morning, I withdrew a part of my force and directed the balance to keep up the fire. After undergoing this for about two hours I was informed by one of the scouts that the hostiles desired to surrender. But having seen a body of men approaching from the post, I concluded to hold the Indians under fire until the relief arrived. Upon the arrival of Captain Snyder, I reported the state of affairs to him and was directed to accept the surrender.

Accompanying Captain Snyder's reinforcements was the Cheyenne Chief White Bull. White Bull finalized the surrender of the remaining Sioux. According to Kelly's memoirs, they had come upon Sitting Bull's camp and were on a horse-stealing raid into Crow country when they encountered the white men in the corral.

Glover left the Army in 1881 but returned to serve as a Major in the Quartermaster Corps during World War One (1917-1919). He died in 1932 and is buried in Suffolk County, New York.

The precise location of the conflict between the Sioux and Sergeant Glover is not known to historians. If there are any readers with more information regarding the location of this incident, please contact me.