About Sam Russell
I am a fifth-generation retired Army officer with three decades of commissioned service. I have been researching the frontier Army for over eighteen years and am interested in documenting the lives of the soldiers that participated in the battle of Wounded Knee using primarily official reports, diaries, letters, newspaper articles and other primary source documents.
My interest in Wounded Knee stems from my kinship to one of the principal participants. I am the great-great-grandson of Samuel M. Whitside, who was a major and battalion commander at the battle.
I welcome and encourage comments on posts and pages and am always interested in any new primary sources. If you have copies of letters, diaries, etc, from participants and are willing to share, please contact me.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are strictly my own, and should in no way be construed as official Army or U.S. Government positons.
The Camp of Observation on the Cheyenne River Adapted from remarks delivered by Colonel Samuel L. Russell, U.S. Army retiredto the Order of the Indian Wars Annual Assemblyat Rapid City, South Dakota, September 5, 2024 “Big Foot advi[sed that] no one … Continue reading →
The man that stood next to me was shot down in the first discharge. I fired at the Indian at the same time but only struck him in the leg. He returned my fire and struck my revolver which knocked … Continue reading →
Posted in Enlisted, Newspaper Articles, Personal Letters
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Tagged 7th Cavalry, 7th Cavalry Regiment (United States), Battle of Wounded Knee, Cavalry, Fort Riley, Pine Ridge, Pine Ridge Agency, Pine Ridge Campaign, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Sioux, White Clay Creek, Wounded Knee, Wounded Knee Creek, Wounded Knee Massacre
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They fired two shots at me. One went through me, and the other struck on the top of my head and glanced off. At the beginning of December 1890, a troop’s worth of recruits were transferred from Jefferson Barracks, Missouri—where … Continue reading →