In the late 1860s, in some parts of the United States, you needed to be a Christian to own a gun. The area between Kansas City, Missouri and California was mostly open space. Nebraska had just become a state and Colorado was a territory. And the United States was at war.

“The West” didn’t look much like it does in movies. Cowboys and the people who inhabited the towns in the territories were more likely to be Confederate veterans or deserters, former slaves, or new immigrants than anyone looking like a John Wayne movie. Life was hard, work was hard.

Sigmund Shlesinger was a Czech immigrant arriving in 1865. He was brought up in his father’s tailor shop in Philadelphia. He didn’t want to be a tailor. He wanted adventure. He headed west. The railroad stopped in Kansas City. He found a job bringing newspapers from Kansas City to Fort Hayes, Kansas to sell.

Finding accurate information on events from August 1868 is difficult. According to family legend, one day while he was at Ft. Hayes, he was told to go stand in a line of other men. Shortly he discovered he had just joined the US Calvary as a scout. Other sources say he knew he was volunteering to join the scouts.

European settlers were moving westward into areas that had been given to the Sioux and Cheyenne. The Native Americans were fighting back. The US Army was dispatched to fight the Native Americans.

In 1868 there was a spending freeze. The Army couldn’t hire new soldiers. But the Quartermaster Corps could hire scouts. In essence, the scouts were mercenaries. There were a handful of Calvary officers with the scouts.

General Forsyth was in command of the 9th Calvary. Shlesinger was one of the 48 men in the detail. General Forsyth was worried about Shlesinger. He had never fired a gun before. He road a mule as opposed to a horse. The Army did not provide horses, you road your own. But the General had an ace. One of his men was a Confederate veteran who had served in combat in several battles.

On September 17, 1868, at Arikaree Fork (Beecher Island) on the Republican River, General Forsyth’s men met the forces led by Chief Roman Nose.

Somewhere between 600 and 1,000 Native Americans attacked the 50 soldiers under Forsyth’s command. The Scouts were quickly pinned down on a sand bar in the river. The Native American fighters charged the trapped Scouts several times. The Calvary took shelter behind their saddles and dead horses, trapped by an overwhelming force. Forsyth also learned something about his great Civil War CSA veteran, he was a liar. He had never served in combat and was in fact a coward under fire. He also learned something about Shlesinger. He was a fast learner. He turned out to be an excellent shot after a brief lesson in how to use his rifle. A lesson taught under fire.

Four men were dispatched to bring reinforcements. To stay quiet, the four men snuck out in their stocking feet to walk for days looking for units to rescue the Scouts. The trapped soldiers ran out of food and were forced to eat their horses. Shlesinger refused to eat horse because it is not Kosher. There are a few books that point this out, becoming perhaps the first US soldier to keep Kosher in battle. Although, he did eventually eat non-kosher food. His diary records that he “shot a coyote and eat him up.” (Coyotes aren’t Kosher either.)

On September 25, members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment (Buffalo Soldiers) arrived at Beecher Island and rescued the remaining scouts. The Buffalo Soldiers were made up of African Americans.

Why is this important?

Sigmund Schlesinger survived the Battle of Beecher Island. After a few other battles, he decided to return east and later moved to Cleveland and became a successful tobacconist and tobacco importer. When he opened his tobacco shop, he had a display case of Indian artifacts from his time as an Indian Fighter. The general consensus of his clients was that he was lying about being an Indian Fighter and had bought his case of artifacts. The Buffalo Bill Wild West Show was going to be in Cleveland. Sigmund wrote to Buffalo Bill and got seats in the President’s box for the show and took some of his better customers. Word soon circulated that he had been a hero and Indian Fighter.

His son Albert Schlesinger served in the Spanish-American War. The man who would become his grandson-in-law ran away from home to join the Army at the end of World War I. The son of that World War I aircraft mechanic served as a Green Barret in Vietnam. The son of that Green Barret was a Green Barret JAG Officer in the invasion of Panama.

One of that mechanics daughters is my mother.

In 2019 mom and I attended the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Beecher Island. I learned quite a lot. In Eastern Kansas and Colorado, there are memorials commemorating the battle of Beecher Island. For more than 100 years decedents of the Scouts, and now Native Americans return to the area to remember their ancestors. At the 2019 Anniversary an US Army medic was in attendance. His great, great, grandfather was the medic with the Forsyth Scouts. Sigmund Shlesinger was quite successful around 1900. He made the trip from Cleveland to Colorado each year to meet with and remember his fellow Scouts. It is possible that he funded the first memorial and meeting house. Several people were very pleased that mom and I made the trip and were glad to meet us.

Resources

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Beecher_Island
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Alexander_Forsyth

National

https://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/gforsyth.htm General Forsyth Arlington National Cemetery

 Anniversary of the Battle of Beecher Island & Annual Reunion | Wray, CO (cityofwray.org) The 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Beecher Island

Jewish

1968_20_01_00_Bsiegel.pdf (americanjewisharchives.org) Biography of Sigmund Schlesinger, American Jewish Archives Grandpa had reprints and would hand them out.

Sigmund Shlesinger (1848-1928) – Find a Grave Memorial Obituary of Sigmund Schlesinger</a> – findagrave.com

MS-130: Sigmund Shlesinger Papers. 1868-1975.. (americanjewisharchives.org) Link to the Shlesinger papers at the American Jewish Archives.

The story of Sigumund Shlesinger appears in several books on the Indian Wars.

The American Legion Magazine [Volume 32, No. 3 (March 1942)] | Digital Archive The Story of Beecher Island – American Legion Magazine March 1942

Buffalo Soldiers | History| Smithsonian Magazine Smithsonian Magazine – Buffalo Soldier – December 1, 1998. I take every opportunity to publicly thank the Buffalo Soldiers. For decades they served a country where they were not afforded the rights as citizens.

Books from Sigmund Shlesinger’s library

Fri, 26 Feb 2016 12:10:00 -0600Fri, 08 Feb 2019 11:38:02 -0600 Revised February 28, 2024