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.
It was the Army that brought Frank M. Honey, the son of a disabled Union veteran, and Gus Hennessee, the son of a disabled Confederate veteran together during the Pine Ridge Campaign of 1890-1891. On the day following Wounded Knee, these two troopers voluntarily stood shoulder to shoulder in a valley near the White Clay Creek, and provided critical suppressing fire from exposed positions on a ridge enabling their squadron to break contact and withdraw. The Commanding General of the Army recognized their conspicuous bravery with honorable mention in general orders, and following their enlistments, the two troopers went their separate ways. They were two men from different backgrounds and different futures who courageously fought together on 30 December 1890 as comrades in arms in the 7th Cavalry. Continue reading →
Posted in Enlisted, Official Reports
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Tagged 1891, 7th Cavalry, 7th Cavalry Regiment (United States), Battle of Wounded Knee, Big Foot, Cavalry, Cavalry Troop, Drexel Mission, Fort Riley, Medal of Honor, 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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Honey is sweet, but the bee stings. —Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs, 1732 I am proud to introduce my first publication, Sting of the Bee: A Day-By-Day Account of Wounded Knee and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 – 1891 as Recorded … Continue reading →
Posted in Newspaper Articles
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Tagged 1890, 1891, 7th Cavalry, 7th Cavalry Regiment (United States), Battle of Wounded Knee, Cavalry Troop, Charles Cressey, Department of the Platte, ghost dance, Lakota, Nelson A. Miles, Oglala Lakota, Omaha Bee, Pine Ridge, Pine Ridge Agency, Pine Ridge Campaign, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Sioux, Sitting Bull, White Clay Creek, Wounded Knee, Wounded Knee Creek, Wounded Knee Massacre
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I cannot describe in language the battle but bullets sang home sweet home around our ears, but I always said that Indian bullets were not made to kill me. During the course of the Pine Ridge campaign, Sergeant Michael Conners … Continue reading →
Posted in Enlisted, Personal Letters
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Tagged 1890, 1891, 7th Cavalry, 7th Cavalry Regiment (United States), Battle of Wounded Knee, Cavalry, Cavalry Troop, 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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Sam Russell
Army at Wounded Knee 