R.P.P.C. - BEECHER ISLAND BATTLE MONUMENT

Description

R.P.P.C. - BEECHER ISLAND BATTLE MONUMENT
R.P.P.C. - BEECHER ISLAND BATTLE MONUMENT
UnUsed R.P.P.C. Of The Beecher Island Battle Monument.  Back of the card was too light to photograph, but the stamp corner reads ANSCO which makes it circa 1930's - 1940's.
On Sept. 17, 1868 a large group pf Cheyenne, Arapho and Lakota warriors attacked 50 U.S. Army scouts, under the command of Major George A. Forsyth and Lt. Frederick H. Beecher, on the Arickaree River about 18 miles southeast of Wray, Colorado.  The Army Scouts were in search of a band of Natives believed to have raided a freight train in Kansas.  When attacked, the scouts retreated to a sandbar in the middle of the Arickaree River, and concealed themselves behind the bodies of their horses.  Major Forsyth dispatched scouts to walk the 75 miles to Fort Wallace, Kansas for reinforcements; four of those scouts made it to Fort Wallace on the 22nd & 23rd.  Carpenter Company H & I (Buffalo Soldiers) under the command of Col. Henry Bankhead Carpenter arrived at the battle site on the morning of Sept. 25 to the relief of the besieged scouts.
Major Forsyth named the sandbar "Beecher Island" in honor of lt. Beecher, who died during the attack.  Three other Army scouts died during the battle, and two more died from wounds sustained at the fight; another 20 scouts were wounded.
Listing and template services provided by inkFrog