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CAPTAIN JOSEPH
LA BARGE
AND THE TRIP UP
THE MISSOURI
WITH THE ROBERT
CAMPBELL.
Collected and Transcribed by
Sue Rekkas
Steamboats and
Steamboatmen of the Upper Mississippi,
Descriptive,
Personal and Historical by George B. Merrick,
The Saturday
Evening Post, Burlington, Iowa,
June 15, 1918,
page 10.
ROBERT
CAMPBELL.
Packet, built in
the early 50’s. She was running in the St. Louis & Keokuk Line
about 1855 in command of Capt. Eads. In 1856, and 1857 she was
commanded by Capt. John S. Shaw.
The main
interest that attaches to the Robert Campbell is the story of her
trip up the Missouri in 1863, in command of Captain Joseph La Barge,
as narrated in Capt. M. H. Chittendon’s life of Captain Joseph
LaBarge, entitled “Early Navigation on the Missouri River.” The
story is one of hundreds like it that record the dangers encountered
by the brave men who manned the steamboats navigating the Missouri
from the Indians who in vain disputed the advance of settlers,
sometimes denominated the advance of civilization into their
country. For this reason I am encouraged to quote a part of Captain
Chittenden’s account of the voyage of the Robert Campbell.
Prefatory to this account it may be said that the Robert Campbell,
and the Shreveport were sent up the river by the government loaded
with Indian annuities, and accompanied by at least two Indian
agents proceeded to distribute the annuities to several of the Sioux
bands assembled to receive the goods but the agents distributed only
about two thirds of the goods, retaining, for some reason as Captain
Chittenden guardedly states it, the other third. He might as well
have boldly stated the truth. The agents retained one third as
plunder for their own personal enrichment. He adds: “The Indians
were not deceived in the matter, and were very angry. Naturally
they went to Capt. La Barge and asked him to interfere and give them
their rights. This he could not do. They then told him that they
would follow the boat and cause it all the trouble possible, and
this they did. They followed it, on horseback to Fort Union, six
hundred miles,-- a very remarkable performance, Captain Chittenden
says, this pursuit of a steamboat on its laborious voyage through
the Western prairies, seeking at every turn to destroy it and kill
the passengers and crew. At every stop for wood the Indian attacked
the woodcutters and crew, and time and again fired bullets thru the
pilot house, intended for Mr. Atkins, the pilot at the wheel.
They had a noted
hunter in the employ of the boat, whose duty it was to go ahead of
the boat, shoot such game as he might find, and hang the carcasses
on a limb on the bank whence they were taken off by the crew, who
were on the outlook for them. On one occasion Capt. La Barge saw a
hat floating down toward them. Its Steadiness in the water
surprised him, and he continued to watch it until it came abreast
the boat when it rose, securely perched on the head of a swimmer,
who proved to be the hunter, Louis Dauphin. “I had to take to the
water this time,” he said as he climbed aboard. “They were too many
for me. You are going to have trouble at Tobacco Garden. The
Indians are gathered there to the number of fifteen hundred or more,
and intend to capture the boat.” Continuing, Captain Chittenden
says--The name “Tobacco Garden” on the Missouri River designated the
Bottoms at the outlet of Tobacco Creek, on the left, or north bank
of the river. The south bank of the river was a caving bank, or one
that was being undermined by the river. At this time there was a
very narrow beach at the water’s edge, above which the bank rose
perpendicularly to a height of six or eight feet. The channel was
close to the shore and a boat in passing had to come within thirty
or forty yards of the bank. Even if anchored to the sand bar
immediately opposite it could not get more than sixty yards away.
It was an ideal place to hold up a boat, and the Indians were shrewd
enough to understand this perfectly.
“It was toward
noon of the 7th of July that the two boats, the Robert
Campbell,” Continuing, Captain Chittenden says, “in sight of the
Tobacco Garden, and there, true to Dauphin’s prediction they beheld
on the south bank a large body of Indians, assembled with the
evident purpose of stopping them. There was no use in trying to run
a gauntlet like that, and accordingly the boats made fast to the
opposite sandbar, the Shreveport about one hundred yards below the
Robert Campbell. A parley ensued with the Indians, who were so near
that it was perfectly practicable to talk back and forth. La Barge
asked them what they wanted. They said they wanted the balance of
their annuities; they wanted no trouble, but simply their just dues.
The agent, S. N.
Latta, refused them the goods but requested the Captain to send his
yawl and bring aboard some of the chiefs and head men to have a
talk, and he would make them a present of sugar, coffee, tobacco,
etc., and by this means quiet them. The Indians likewise wanted the
yawl sent out, but wanted the agent to go with it. They would send
their principle chiefs back with him to the boat, where everything
could be talked over. They were very shrewd, and the agent fell
into the trap. The captain told him that he could not possibly
think of ordering the yawl out, considering the disposition of the
Indians and their evident bent for mischief. Latta replied: “Why,
I’ll go; I’m not afraid.” “All right” answered the captain “if you
can get volunteers, I will order the yawl out.” They then went to
the mate, Miller by name, and a crew was made up to take Latta to
the shore. When the yawl was ready the captain sent word to the
agent who had disappeared up stairs. The latter sent back a reply
that he was suddenly taken ill, and could not possibly go, but to
send the men and bring the chiefs on board.
“The crew of
the Robert Campbell were not lacking in courage, and a crew for the
yawl was soon made up. It consisted of seven men. The steersman, a
gallant fellow named Andy Stinger, sat in the stern. Two men named
O’Malley and Chris Sharkey, sat in the bow. There were four
oarsmen, one of them a young man named Martin, and the other one of
the Irishmen who had recently been whipped in a fight with a “Yankee
Jack,” another deck hand on the boat. The yawl put off, and as the
distance was very short it quickly reached the opposite shore head
on and swung around under the forces of the current, so that it lay
alongside the bank.
“A chief and three
Indians were under the cut bank on the be (?) when the yawl
arrived. One of the Indians stood exactly opposite Stinger with a
gun in his hand covered with a leather case. The other two Indians
were armed with spears. The chief was a fierce looking man, and it
seemed as if his eye would pierce one through and through, said
Stinger, who motioned for him to get into the yawl. The men
meanwhile were sitting quietly with their oars across their laps.
The chief gave some quick directions and in an instant the two
Indians with the spears jumped into the boat and the one with the
gun ripped the leather case off. Stinger knew what this meant, and
great presence of mind instantly threw himself into the water on the
side of the boat, where it was fortunately four or five feet deep.
Slipping up along the boat he seized it by the gunwale amidships and
dragged it from the bank. The movement, quick as it was, was not
quick enough. The two young bucks who had leaped into the boat
thrust their spears into the bodies of the oarsmen, killing them
instantly. A third was killed by the Indian with the gun who had
missed his chance at Stinger, and a fourth was severely wounded by
an arrow from the bank. The two men in the bow instantly threw
themselves into the bottom of the boat.
“The crews of both boats were
watching with breathless anxiety the progress of events. When they
saw Stinger jump into the water they thought him killed. Someone
exclaimed: “There goes Andy,” and instantly both boats responded
with their entire armament. This included two howitzers on the
hurricane deck of the Robert Campbell and one on the Shreveport,
together with weapons of various sorts belonging to passengers and
crew. The fire, on the whole was very effective. Numbers of the
Indians were seen to fall, and Captain La Barge afterward learned
thru Pierre Garreau, the interpreter at Fort Berthold, that there
were eighteen men and twenty horses killed, and many wounded. The
Indians soon withdrew, and in about an hour some were trying to get
water for their wounded neat a pile of driftwood half a mile below.
It was an intensely sultry day. The howitzers were turned on them
and they disappeared.
“Returning to the yawl we find
that Andy Stinger, protected behind the gunwale was steadily pulling
the boat into the stream and swimming toward the sandbar as the
current drifted him down. When about half way across he called to
the men to get up, while he himself climbed into the yawl, which was
then rowed to the bank. The people on the two boats were so
absorbed in the battle that no one thought of going to the
assistance of the yawl crew. The wounded man and the two who
unharmed got out and walked up the beach. Stinger was thus left
alone to drag the yawl and its mournful cargo up alongside the
boat. This apparent neglect fired him up to a desperate pitch: and
he let go so some powerful language to the mate and others of the
crew. Captain La Barge presently came aft and looking into the
yawl. He said not a word, but turned away shaking his head in a
manner that showed plainly enough what was passing in his mind.
Such was the celebrated affair of the Tobacco Garden.
As a sequel to the foregoing I
may say that the one third of the annuities that Agent Latta
retained and which caused the slaughter at the Tobacco Garden, were
stored at the Fort Union, which was in command of Captain Napoleon
B. Greer, of Co. I. 30 Wisconsin Infantry Volunteers, my own
regiment, which was up the Missouri for two years skirmishing for
Sioux Indians. Captain La Barge afterward asked Captain Greer what
became of the Indian annuities that were left at his garrison and he
said: “Oh, those, I don’t believe you will find much. The agent
had traded nearly all for buffalo robes.” Of course the Indians
never got a cent. Perhaps the agent Latta, did not. The reader
must judge for himself on this point.
The Robert Campbell was burned
at the ST. Louis level October 13, 1863 on her return from the
upper Missouri.
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