The Battle of Suggs, also known as the Suggs Affray or the Suggs Affair, was a shootout between Buffalo Soldiers and Wyoming

homesteaders The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than of public land, or nearly 10 percent of t ...

in Suggs, Wyoming on June 17, 1892. The skirmish was part of a larger conflict known as the

Johnson County War The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a range war in Johnson County, Wyoming from 1889 to 1893. The conflict began when cattle companies started ruthlessly persecuting alleged Cattle raiding ...

fought from 1889 to 1893 between wealthy ranchers and settlers of modest means whom the former accused of being rustlers.Tuccille, Jerome. ''The Roughest Riders: The Untold Story of the Black Soldiers in the Spanish-American War''. Chicago Review Press (September 1, 2015). Chapter 1: The Landing. ISBN 978-1613730461

Background

Communities near the Powder River in

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

became battlefields for a range war known as the

, in which large cattle ranchers fought smaller settlers and homesteaders for the limited resources needed for ranching. The war resulted in lynchings and assassinations, culminating in a gunfight at the KC Ranch and a large siege at the TA Ranch. To stop further violence, the government sent out the army to keep the peace. Initially, the 6th cavalry from Fort McKinney was tasked to pacify the locals but failed because many became embroiled in the conflict. This failure resulted in the death of US Marshall George Wellman and the injury of First Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood. The 6th was later replaced by the

9th Cavalry The 9th Cavalry Regiment is a parent cavalry regiment of the United States Army. Historically, it was one of the Army's four segregated African-American regiments and was part of what was known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The regiment saw combat d ...

, a Buffalo Soldier regiment from

Fort Robinson Fort Robinson is a former United States Army, U.S. Army fort and now a major feature of Fort Robinson State Park, a public recreation and historic preservation area located west of Crawford, Nebraska, Crawford on U.S. Route 20 in the Pine Ri ...

, on June 13, 1892. The regiment was composed of 310 men and was led by Major Charles S. Isley. They created Camp Bettens as a base of operations upon arriving. The cattle barons hoped that the regiment would be less sympathetic to the plight of the homesteaders as compared to the 6th. This turned out to be correct, as the arrival of the 9th was met with hostility from the locals who did not take kindly to the authority of colored soldiers. The hostility was exacerbated by the 9th's association with Phil DuFran, a

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...

and combatant for the cattle barons during the TA Ranch siege. DuFran assisted the soldiers during their occupation.

Battle

The battle occurred on June 17, 1892. Off-duty Buffalo Soldiers were being refused services in bars, barbershops, and

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

s by the locals of the nearby town of Suggs. At that time, Suggs was a temporary makeshift community built near a railroad. The fraught relationship between the two parties became heated to the point that a dispute over a prostitute resulted in a brief gunfight. Even after the soldiers retreated, they were continually shot upon by the locals. The next day, a group of 20 or more soldiers slipped out of the camp and rode out to Suggs. Upon arrival, they began firing their guns and demanded the town surrender the people responsible for the prior act of violence. The locals refused and began firing at the soldiers from behind windows, doors, and walls. The retaliation surprised the soldiers; two of them were wounded and another, Private Willis Johnson, was killed. The soldiers were then forced to retreat. In his report, Major Isley stated: After the gunfight, Camp Bettens sent out two detachments to pacify Suggs. In contrast to the previous event, the homesteaders allowed these troops into the town. The Army conducted an investigation but could not identify the people responsible for Johnson's death. To prevent further violence, the camp could only prohibit the presence of off-duty soldiers in the town.

Other murders

Another soldier by the name of Brown was murdered in a separate incident in Johnson County. Brown was at a shooting range when a

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

rode by and came upon him. After a brief conversation, the cowboy drew a pistol and shot Brown, killing him. DuFran also went missing during the fracas. Wyoming native G. T. Seabury wrote to a friend about another incident in the town where locals fired on a hotel where several soldiers were staying. He stated:

Aftermath

The deaths of several Buffalo Soldiers forced the Army to remove the regiment from Johnson County and back to Fort Robinson in November 1892. Peacekeeping went back to local law enforcement for the duration of the war.

In other media

The battle was briefly mentioned in

Asa Mercer Asa Shinn Mercer (June 6, 1839 – August 10, 1917) was the first president of the University of Washington, Territorial University of Washington and a member of the Washington State Legislature, Washington State Senate. He is remembered primar ...

's book entitled ''

The Banditti of the Plains ''Banditti of the Plains'' is a book written by Asa Mercer about the 1889 to 1893 Johnson County War in Wyoming, United States, where wealthy cattle ranchers intent on controlling limited resources enlisted hired guns to fight smaller settler ...

''Homsher, Lola M. Archives of the Wyoming Stock Growers' Association, ''

The Mississippi Valley Historical Review ''The Journal of American History'' is the quarterly official academic journal of the Organization of American Historians. It covers the field of American history and was established in 1914 as the ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', the of ...

'', Vol. 33, No. 2. (September 1946), pp. 281. and the episode "Johnson County Cattle War" of the documentary ''Vendettas'' by

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

.Vendettas – The Johnson County War – The History Channel
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References

{{Reflist Battles involving the United States Conflicts in 1892 Battles of the Johnson County War 1892 in the United States Battles in Wyoming