Friday, September 26, 2025

It seems like we live in an age when political polarization will have no ends and no bounds.

Burying Sioux dead at Wounded Knee.

Let's start by noting that the Battle of Wounded Knee occurred almost 135 years ago. Usually, when you say something like that in a casual conservation, you get the "that's a long time ago". In historical terms, it's not. It particularly is not for a defeated people, such as the Sioux. It also isn't, however, for a culture that seemingly is involved in a sort of cultural civil war.

What happened at Wounded Knee, South Dakota on December 29, 1890 isn't really all that well understood now and wasn't really then. other than that 90 Sioux lost their lives, and four were wounded, while 31 US troops fo the 7th Cavalry were killed, and 33 wounded. The fact that the 7th Cavalry sustained 64 casualties typically comes as a surprise to people who don't know much about the event, as it shows that it had at least some character of being a battle, while the 90 Sioux deaths show that it was certainly lopsided. The fact that only 4 Sioux were reported as wounded says a lot as well, as normally there are more wounded that killed. The entire event took place with the Ghost Dance in the background of the times, and the residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation being absolutely desperate. Sitting Bull, as often noted, had been killed by Indian Police just a few days prior.

The actual fight came about with Colonel James W. Forsyth ordered the Sioux disarmed. It's easy to see why this would not have been well received, as that rendered an oppressed people completely defenseless while making them also 100% dependant upon the United States government for provisions. Modern proponents of the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, which the Trump Administration purports to be, would normally have regarded this as being completely beyond the pale, but at the time Native Americans were not American citizens and the common current understanding of the meaning of the 2nd Amendment really didn't exist. At any rate, the disarming was going fairly well when something happened, with it not being clear what, and gunfire ensued. By at least some accounts the first shot was accidental (something that may well be true of Lexington and Concord as well) and occured when soldiers tried to disarm a deaf man who also had no command of English at all. General shooting broke out instantly and the officers very rapidly lost control of their men.

Wounded Knee, as a location, had received the attention of the Western Press at least back to November, 1890, a full month or more before the incident took place, due to the Ghost Dance and the things occuring there.. The action at Wounded Knee was reported almost immediately, with the Laramie Boomerang and the Cheyenne Daily Leaders being the first papers to report on it in Wyoming.

By the first week of January, the newspaper in Buffalo was reporting on the event as a "sorious [sic] engagement". It didn't take long, however before the press was commenting on what occurred there and criticizing it. When looked at, it didn't appear that the Army had covered itself with glory by any means. Perhaps because of that, it took steps to do just that, issuing 20 Medals of Honor, nearly as many has had been awarded due to the Battle of Little Big Horn..¹

Four years ago, we reported here on the review of those Medals of Honor that were awarded for action at Wounded Knee, which were under review by the Biden Administration's Department of Defense:

Today In Wyoming's History: Reviewing the Wounded Knee Medals of Honor.: Sgt. Toy receiving the Medal of Honor in 1891. Sgt. Toy was cited for "bravery while shooting Indians" at Wounded Knee. He is kn...

We link in, although it's probably bad form to do so, our original post below, complete with the names of those who were awarded the medal.²

Now, Secretary of Defense Hegseth.³ has ended the review and determined that all twenty soldiers who were awarded the medal shall retain it "forever".

There's no "final" anything in the U.S. Government or the greater world at large. The Secretary can order the sea held back forever, but he'd be no more successful at that than King Canute. The next administration may very well revisit this topic.

I'd somewhat forgotten about this story, and I'm really surprised that it took four years to get around to the point of a decision being made. For goodness sake, how much time would such a review actually need? Enough time had in fact elapsed that I'd returned to my original misunderstanding on this subject, which was; "that I was under the impression that the Army had rescinded these medals long ago, and I'm not completely certain that they haven't. Having said that, I can't find that they were, so my presumption must have been in error." A lot of pre Great War Medals of Honor have in fact been rescinded, as the criteria for being awarded the medal have radically changed. I addressed that in my original post, noting. that;

To put this in context, the medals that were rescinded, if any were, weren't rescinded because Wounded Knee was a massacre. They were rescinded because they didn't meet the post April 1917 criteria for receiving the award."

The Medal of Honor was first authorized in 1861 by the Navy, not the Army, following the retirement of Gen. Winfield Scott, who was adamantly opposed to the awarding of medals to servicemen, which he regarded as a European practice, not an American one. The award was authorized by Congress that year, at the Navy's request. The Army followed in 1862 in the same fashion. The medals actually vary by appearance, to this day, depending upon which service issues them, and they've varied somewhat in design over time.
During the Civil War the award was generally issued for extraordinary heroism, but not necessarily of the same degree for which it is today. Because of this, a fairly large number of Medals of Honor were conferred after the Civil War to servicemen who retroactively sought them, so awards continued for Civil War service for decades following the war. New awards were also issued, of course, for acts of heroism in the remaining decades of the 19th Century, with Army awards usually being related to service in the Indian Wars. Navy awards, in contrast, tended to be issued for heroic acts in lifesaving, a non combat issuance of the award that could not occur today. Indeed, a fairly large number were issued to sailors who went over the sides of ships to save the lives, or attempt to, of drowning individuals, often with tragic results to the sailors.
At any rate, the period following the war and the method by which it was retroactively issued may have acclimated the Army to issuing awards as there are a surprising number of them that were issued for frontier battles. This does not mean that there were not genuine acts of heroism that took place in those battles, it's just surprising how many there were and its clear that the criteria was substantially lower than that which would apply for most of the 20th Century.
Indeed, in the 20th Century the Army began to significantly tighten up requirements to hold the medal. This came into full fruition during World War One during which the Army made it plain that it was only a combat medal, while the Navy continued to issue the medal for peacetime heroism. In 1917 the Army took the position that the medal could only be issued for combat acts of heroism at the risk of life to the recipient, and in 1918 that change became official. Prior to the 1918 change the Army commissioned a review board on past issuance of the medal and struck 911 instances of them having been issued. I'd thought the Wounded Knee medals had been stricken, but my presumption must be in error.
Frontier era Medals of Honor, as well as those issued to Civil War era soldiers after the Civil War, tend to be remarkably lacking in information as to why they were conferred. This has presented a problem for the Army looking back on them in general.
Indeed, the Wounded Knee medals have this character. They don't say much, and what they do say isn't all that useful to really know much about what lead them to be awarded. There is a peculiar aspect to them, however, in that they don't reflect what we generally know about the battle historically.

I additionally noted about these specific awards that:

Indeed, save for two examples that reference rescuing wounded comrades, I don't know that any of these would meet the modern criteria. They don't appear to. So once again, most of these would appear to be subject to proper unilateral Army downgrading or rescission all on their own with no Congressional action.

Hegseth's action revivies, and in the worst possible way, a sort of dormant glacial debate on the battle itself, with the popular understanding of what occurred there having somewhat shifted, although perhaps not as much as we might imagine, over the years. Right from the onset, as noted, there were those who regarded what happened at Wounded Knee with horror. While it may have been a battle, it has every appearance of being one in which the officers of the 7th Cavalry simply lost control of the situation and their troops. Had the Sioux been properly armed, chances are high that the 7th, in spite of being very well armed at the battle, would have taken massive casualties. The fact that the Army's dead nearly equalled the wounded says a lot.

But not as much as 90 Sioux being killed, including women and children, and only four being wounded. The battle is normally called a massacre, with the terms battle and massacre not being mutually exclusive.

Regarding the medals, it's also not impossible that some of them were for genuine heroism, but the typical 19th Century spartan citations make it hard to tell. They read:

Sergeant William Austin, cavalry, directed fire at Indians in ravine at Wounded Knee;

· Private Mosheim Feaster, cavalry, extraordinary gallantry at Wounded Knee;

· Private Mathew Hamilton, cavalry, bravery in action at Wounded Knee;

· Private Joshua Hartzog, artillery, rescuing commanding officer who was wounded and carried him out of range of hostile guns at Wounded Knee;

· Private Marvin Hillock, cavalry, distinguished bravery at Wounded Knee;

· Sergeant Bernhard Jetter, cavalry, distinguished bravery at Wounded Knee for "killing an Indian who was in the act of killing a wounded man of B Troop."

· Sergeant George Loyd, cavalry, bravery, especially after having been severely wounded through the lung at Wounded Knee;

· Sergeant Albert McMillain, cavalry, while engaged with Indians concealed in a ravine, he assisted the men on the skirmish line, directed their fire, encouraged them by example, and used every effort to dislodge the enemy at Wounded Knee;

· Private Thomas Sullivan, cavalry, conspicuous bravery in action against Indians concealed in a ravine at Wounded Knee;

· First Sergeant Jacob Trautman, cavalry, killed a hostile Indian at close quarters, and, although entitled to retirement from service, remained to close of the campaign at Wounded Knee;

· Sergeant James Ward, cavalry, continued to fight after being severely wounded at Wounded Knee;

· Corporal William Wilson, cavalry, bravery in Sioux Campaign, 1890;

· Private Hermann Ziegner, cavalry, conspicuous bravery at Wounded Knee;

· Musician John Clancy, artillery, twice voluntarily rescued wounded comrades under fire of the enemy;

· Lieutenant Ernest Garlington, cavalry, distinguished gallantry;

· First Lieutenant John Chowning Gresham, cavalry, voluntarily led a party into a ravine to dislodge Sioux Indians concealed therein. He was wounded during this action.

· Second Lieutenant Harry Hawthorne, artillery, distinguished conduct in battle with hostile Indians;

· Private George Hobday, cavalry, conspicuous and gallant conduct in battle;

· First Sergeant Frederick Toy, cavalry, bravery;

· Corporal Paul Weinert, artillery, taking the place of his commanding officer who had fallen severely wounded, he gallantly served his piece, after each fire advancing it to a better position

A few of those seem pretty clear. A few of those would never meet the current standards. Indeed, almost all of these would not. Pvt. Hartzog's seems to be the only one that probably would under the modern standard, but then again it's hard to know what most of these are really for.

Only 86 men were awarded the Medal of Honor for the entire Philippine Insurrection, which occured only shortly after this event. 112 Medals of Honor were awarded for servicemen for the Spanish American War, of which 31 went to soldiers, and the balance went to sailors.

Can it really be possible that the men of the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee were that much more heroic than the men who fought at Kettle Hill?

That's awfully hard to believe.

It's a least questionable.

It was obvious even at the time that Wounded Knee closed entirely the era of Frontier campaigning. There would be some fighting with Native Americans even after that, but the West had been won and the real wars were over. Wounded Knee was the tragic and sad end to it. By that time the Army was simply trying to keep Natives on their reservations, and to some extent was a police force poorly trained for that role, and frankly arguably just poorly trained. Wounded Knee occurred because the Army feared that the Sioux on Pine Ridge would try to break off of the reservation and they knew that disarming them would render them completely helpless. That reasoning was not incorrect. Doing it got very badly out of hand and the events thereafter had every appearance of an Army attempt to whitewash what happened. It didn't succeed at the time.

And it won't now.

The fact that the Administration feels that this somehow serves its interest, 135 years after the events, but with the wounds still fresh for the Sioux, says a lot about it views history, and those who have suffered at our hands.

Footnotes:

1. It's common to see it stated 19 medals were issued. It was 20.

2. Reviewing the Wounded Knee Medals of Honor.

Sgt. Toy receiving the Medal of Honor in 1891. Sgt. Toy was cited for "bravery while shooting Indians" at Wounded Knee. He is known to have shot two during the engagement, which is about all that his citations and the supporting material relates.

Tribes Want Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Revoked.

While this isn't a Wyoming item per se, the Battle of Wounded Knee has been noted here before, as its a regional one.

It would likely surprise most readers here that twenty Medals of Honor were awarded to soldiers who participated in the actions at Wounded Knee. The odd thing is that I was under the impression that the Army had rescinded these medals long ago, and I'm not completely certain that they haven't. Having said that, I can't find that they were, so my presumption must have been in error.

To put this in context, the medals that were rescinded, if any were, weren't rescinded because Wounded Knee was a massacre. They were rescinded because they didn't meet the post April 1917 criteria for receiving the award.

The Medal of Honor was first authorized in 1861 by the Navy, not the Army, following the retirement of Gen. Winfield Scott, who was adamantly opposed to the awarding of medals to servicemen, which he regarded as a European practice, not an American one. The award was authorized by Congress that year, at the Navy's request. The Army followed in 1862 in the same fashion. The medals actually vary by appearance, to this day, depending upon which service issues them, and they've varied somewhat in design over time.

During the Civil War the award was generally issued for extraordinary heroism, but not necessarily of the same degree for which it is today. Because of this, a fairly large number of Medals of Honor were conferred after the Civil War to servicemen who retroactively sought them, so awards continued for Civil War service for decades following the war. New awards were also issued, of course, for acts of heroism in the remaining decades of the 19th Century, with Army awards usually being related to service in the Indian Wars. Navy awards, in contrast, tended to be issued for heroic acts in lifesaving, a non combat issuance of the award that could not occur today. Indeed, a fairly large number were issued to sailors who went over the sides of ships to save the lives, or attempt to, of drowning individuals, often with tragic results to the sailors.

At any rate, the period following the war and the method by which it was retroactively issued may have acclimated the Army to issuing awards as there are a surprising number of them that were issued for frontier battles. This does not mean that there were not genuine acts of heroism that took place in those battles, it's just surprising how many there were and its clear that the criteria was substantially lower than that which would apply for most of the 20th Century.

Indeed, in the 20th Century the Army began to significantly tighten up requirements to hold the medal. This came into full fruition during World War One during which the Army made it plain that it was only a combat medal, while the Navy continued to issue the medal for peacetime heroism. In 1917 the Army took the position that the medal could only be issued for combat acts of heroism at the risk of life to the recipient, and in 1918 that change became official. Prior to the 1918 change the Army commissioned a review board on past issuance of the medal and struck 911 instances of them having been issued. I'd thought the Wounded Knee medals had been stricken, but my presumption must be in error.

Frontier era Medals of Honor, as well as those issued to Civil War era soldiers after the Civil War, tend to be remarkably lacking in information as to why they were conferred. This has presented a problem for the Army looking back on them in general.

Indeed, the Wounded Knee medals have this character. They don't say much, and what they do say isn't all that useful to really know much about what lead them to be awarded. There is a peculiar aspect to them, however, in that they don't reflect what we generally know about the battle historically.

Wikipedia has summarized the twenty awards and what they were awarded for, and this illustrates this problem. The Wounded Knee Wikipedia page summarizes this as follows

· Sergeant William Austin, cavalry, directed fire at Indians in ravine at Wounded Knee;