Wednesday, August 6, 2014

August 7, 1864---Another war on the frontier

AUGUST 7, 1864:

The Battle of Moorefield, West Virginia:

Jubal Early’s cavalry raids the town of Moorefield, West Virginia, but is driven off by the Union garrison there. As they withdraw from the town, a Union cavalry force tasked with destroying them launches a surprise attack on the flank. Although the battle itself is small, Early loses 500 men to the Union’s 40.



The Cheyenne War of 1864:   

In the Nebraska Territory, the diversion of even the most basic sustenance materiel away from the Indian Reservations to the Civil War has worsened the already terrible conditions under which the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes are living. Starving, without shelter, and forbidden to leave the Reservations to hunt buffalo to feed their families, illicit bands of braves begin a retaliation campaign against the white man by attacking stagecoaches and settlements along the Oregon Trail. Sometimes aided by the powerful Sioux, the most severe attacks were along the upper Little Blue River in Nebraska, where about 100 people were killed. 38 died at Oak Grove. Teamsters were killed, wagon trains burned, and ranches were destroyed. Most settlers fled to Fort Kearny on the Platte River for protection. On this day at a place called "the Narrows," the Eubanks families were attacked. Seven men were killed. Mrs. Eubanks and Miss Laura Roper and two of the Eubanks children were taken prisoner and held captive for months. Sadly for the Indians, these raids, undertaken out of sheer desperation, would later provoke the atrocities of the Washita River and Sand Creek Massacres.