About Sam Russell
I am a fifth-generation retired Army officer with twenty-nine years 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.
It is sure death to go down here. For most of the enlisted soldiers killed or mortally wounded in the fighting along the creeks of Wounded Knee and White Clay the only recognition they received was their misspelled names in … Continue reading →
Posted in Casualties, Enlisted, Newspaper Articles
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Tagged 1890, 7th Cavalry, 7th Cavalry Regiment (United States), Battle of Wounded Knee, Cavalry, Fort Riley, ghost dance, Killed in Action, Pine Ridge, Pine Ridge Agency, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Wounded Knee, Wounded Knee Creek, Wounded Knee Massacre
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It was bitterly cold. The warriors’ blankets covered them completely, exposing only their eyes. My first sergeant and I, with a few men, started the search of the line. —Captain Charles A. Varnum Dora S. Coffey, the young twenty-four-year-old first … Continue reading →
Posted in Casualties, Enlisted
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Tagged 1890, 7th Cavalry, 7th Cavalry Regiment (United States), B Troop, Big Foot, Dora S. Coffey, First Sergeant, Fort Riley, Killed in Action, Lakota, Miniconjou, Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge, Pine Ridge Agency, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Sioux, Wounded Knee, Wounded Knee Creek, Wounded Knee Massacre
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I then called to the captain that it was squaws, and he replied “Don’t kill the squaws.” I said – it is too late, I am afraid they are already killed. –First Sergeant Herman Gunther Three weeks after Wounded Knee an … Continue reading →
Posted in Enlisted, Newspaper Articles, Official Reports, Wounded Knee Investigation
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Tagged 1890, 1891, 7th Cavalry, 7th Cavalry Regiment (United States), Big Foot, Cavalry, Edward Godfrey, Fort Riley, Lakota, Miniconjou, Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge, Pine Ridge Agency, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Sioux, White Horse Creek, Wounded Knee, Wounded Knee Creek, Wounded Knee Massacre
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