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| Robert McGee was scalped as a boy by Sioux Chief Little Turtle in 1864. Photo taken in 1890. |
In 1890, photographer E.E. Henry photographed scalping survivor Robert McGee. As you can see, his scars were very visible even though he was scalped almost 30 years earlier. This is the story of how Robert McGee was scalped in the summer of 1864 by Sioux Indian warriors and lived to tell the tale of what happened.
Bob McGee's Scalp
The Sioux Took It and Robert Wants $5,000 Indemnity for It.
Robert McGee of Easton, Kansas, is but 39 years old, yet he has gone twenty-six years without a scalp, with a bullet in his ribs and the scars of several awful wounds by Indian arrows. It adds not a little to the interest of his case to learn that he was shot and scalped by the once noted Little Turtle, and the ball now lodged between two of his ribs was put there by Little Turtle, with the identical pistol which President Lincoln had not long before presented to the "noble red man."
Senator Plumb of Kansas has introduced a bill in Congress to pay McGee $5,000 out of the general or Indian fund and presents in support of it abundant evidence to prove the following facts:
In 1864, Robert McGee, 13 years old, was left an orphan and without means, but being quite tall for his age, he tried to enlist at Fort Leavenworth. He was rejected but employed as a teamster, and started with a small train to Fort Union, New Mexico.
On the 11th of July, near where the city of Great Bend now stands, Chief Little Turtle and his band of Sioux warriors attacked the train. The whites fought long and well, but were overpowered and everyone killed except young McGee.
It seems that the Indians at first intended to spare him for some reason, but after compelling him to witness the torture of the others not quite dead, they decided to kill him also.
The Chief shot him with the elegant pistol he carried as a Lincoln souvenir, and three spears were run into his back as he lay upon the ground. Little Turtle then tore off his scalp and struck him twice with a tomahawk, fracturing the skull at each blow.
The savage departed and in a few hours a party of soldiers arrived on their way to Fort Larned. Sorrowfully they gathered the corpses for burial, but perceiving signs of life in McGee they bound up his wounds and took him to the fort.
The surgeons exhausted their skill upon him; the struggle was long and terrible, but he lived -- as remarkable a recovery as any related in history. The details were laid before President Lincoln, who sent for the boy, and was deeply affected by his account. The western generals were directed to favor him in employment.
Many years after McGee's uncle acquired wealth in the west and tried to recover the scalp from Little Turtle, but unsuccessfully. McGee is now in robust health, but of course terribly disfigured.
-- end of story as it appeared in The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune newspaper on August 10th, 1890.
Yes indeed, Robert McGee is one of the few people in American frontier history who survived being scalped. Think about that for a moment and let's remember that in 1864 when that took place, just the infection alone from having his flesh ripped from his skull would have killed someone. Fortunate for Robert McGee, he lived to tell the horrid tale of what took place to him and his entire party that day.
While some sources say he was 13-years-old and others say he was 14-years-old in 1864, we know for certain that was the year that Robert McGee and his family decided to go West to seek a better life on the American Frontier. As with so many others, his family joined a wagon train heading to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It's said that somewhere on the trail, the young boy's parents died. Some say it was cholera, some say it was dysentery, either way Robert became an orphan. Once in Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, Robert applied to join the Army, but he was not accepted. He was simply too young even for those days.
In July of that year, a government caravan owned by a Mr. H. C. Barret, loaded with military supplies for Fort Union in New Mexico, left Fort Leavenworth for the long and dangerous journey of more than seven hundred miles over the Great Plains. Barret was a contractor with the Army Quartermaster's Department and he needed teamsters. Barret hired as many teamsters as he could find for the journey, but he found it difficult to talk teamsters into taking on the job since most knew it would be a hazardous trip -- and most were rightfully worried about being attacked by Indians.
Barret tried to convince men that they would be protected, since he had talked the Army into furnishing an escort. Among those who Barret turned to to take on the perilous journey was a 13-year-old boy, Robert McGee. Hungry and desperate, young Robert took the job with a freight company to take supplies to Fort Union in New Mexico. Young Robert was one of the teamsters working on this wagon train.
At that time the Indians of the Great Plains, especially along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, were very hostile and in a state of war with the United States. They fought hit-and-run attacks continually harassing stage-coaches and wagon caravans on the overland route. The slow moving wagons only traveled about 16 miles a day. Because of the dangers on the trail, the wagon train's Army escort was to stay nearby.
On July 18th, overcome by the horrid Kansas heat, the teamsters made camp near Walnut Creek, not far from Fort Larned near present-day Great Bend, Kansas. It is said that with the fort being so close, both the teamsters and their Army escort became lax about security. They were so lax that neither the teamsters or the Army escort thought that the Sioux would attack -- especially if the teamsters camped only a mile away from their Army escort.
At about 5pm, the wagon train was attacked by about 150 Sioux warriors being led by Chief Little Turtle. Without a moment to rally their defence of their lives, the Sioux warriors rode in and mowed down the teamsters within just a few minutes. While the teamsters were armed, they were no match for the overwhelming number of Sioux warriors who attacked.
The teamsters were slaughtered. Then they were tortured, ritualistically mutilated, and scalped -- many while still alive. In all, it is said that 14 teamsters were killed that day. Almost every member of the caravan died after being horribly mutilated, in some cases cut open and castrated, before being scalped.
The Army escort in charge of protecting the wagon train later reported that they didn't even hear the shooting taking place a mere mile away. The Army's investigation into what took place didn't paint a glowing portrait of the Army escort.
Believe it or not, there seems to be some question about what the Army was doing during the attack. Some reports say the Army escort was bivouaced about a mile to the rear of the wagon train. Another report said the soldiers of the Army escort watched the massacre take place from a vantage point.
Then there's a report that says on the same day of the massacre, the commanding officer of Fort Larned had learned from some of his scouts that the Brule Sioux were in the area of the Fort. He supposedly sent scouts along with a handful of soldiers out to reconnoitre the area. It's said they found Chief Little Turtle's trail and followed it to the scene of the massacre on Cow Creek. Supposedly, the soldiers arrived there only two hours after the massacre.
When their Army escort found them, they were greeted by the carnage of what took place. The massacre that took place was one with everyone being scalped and laid open in some way. Everywhere, dead men were lying in the buffalo-grass. All had been mutilated in some manner. All had been scalped.
Of course, to their surprise, when the soldiers were picking up the bodies, they found that Robert McGee and another boy had survived. Both were brutalized, shot, stabbed several times, speared, and scalped before being left for dead. The other boy died almost immediately after the Army got them back to Fort Larned.
I find it interesting that the soldiers only arrived on the scene after the fight. A mile is a short distance for soldiers on horseback. Of course, it is said that those same soldiers were ordered to return and examine the site of the massacre. The Army wanted to find out if the teamsters had driven away their assailants before it was done. Supposedly, the officer in command of the escort was later discharged from the Army because he couldn't give anyone a satisfactory reason for not going to the rescue of the caravan that he had been ordered to guard. Some say the Army ordered those men to the massacre site to see what took place as a result of their cowardice.
As for Robert McGee, the soldiers were shocked to see that young Robert McGee was still alive. He was taken to Fort Larned, where the post surgeon treated his injuries. To everyone's surprise, Robert McGee recovered from his wounds and he lived -- even though he no longer had a scalp, he was alive.
Slowly, he regained his strength. And soon, he told the story of what happened that day. He claimed he was scalped personally by Chief Little Turtle while face down in the dirt. McGee was hit with several arrows, was speared, then shot in the back, stabbed by warriors as they were leaving, and was tomahawked a few times.
He said he was conscious, but was too weak and couldn't even fight back by then. Chief Little Turtle cut off sixty-four square inches of his scalp and hair from his head. Starting just behind the ears, the Chief did what the Sioux warriors were known for -- Sioux warriors were known for taking larger pieces of scalp from their victim's heads than other tribes would.
Some sources say that young Robert McGee was later taken in by settlers traveling through. Supposedly, they cared for him, nursed him back to health, and tried to make his life as normal as possible. Then again, how is that done when half your scalp is missing and everyone knows your story.
As the sole survivor of one of the most horrible massacres in the history of the Santa Fe Trail, Robert McGee became well-known for his resilience and strength of character. Believe it or not, he even got married and had a family.
And while some say he fought depression and the haunted memories of what took place, that shouldn't surprise anyone. I believe he suffered from what today would be diagnosed as Post Trauma Stress Disorder. Yes, as is the case with someone who has gone through something so ghastly, he probably had scars unseen to the naked eye.
Here's something else, soon after what took place, the newspapers got a hold of the story and dubbed young Robert McGee "The man with 14 lives." For a little while, he became a side-show attraction at a Carnival for people to see for a dime. In many ways, he became a living legend. Of course, newspapers helped by promoting the legend of him being "The only person to ever survive a scalping."
In fact, a mere 31 years earlier in 1833, Texan Josiah Wilbarger was attacked by Comanche Indians about four miles East of present-day Austin, Texas. He and another surveyor were shot with arrows, stabbed, scalped, and left for dead. While the other man died, Josiah Wilbarger survived and actually lived another 12 years after being scalped. He too demonstrated what true resilience and strength of character are all about.
If you want to read about another man who survived being scalped, take a look at William Thompson -- Scalping Survivor 1867.
Tom Correa
