The Ashley/Henry story began in April of 1822 when Major Andrew Henry left St. Louis with about 150 men, about 50 horses and one keel boat loaded with supplies and trade goods to "ascend the Missouri River to its source", followed on May the 8th by the keelboat Enterprise under the command of Daniel Moore. Henry's brigade made it to the mouth of the Yellowstone by fall, having peacefully passed the Arikaras (also known as the Rees) but having had a brush with the Assiniboines who stole a large number of Henry's horses.
The second part of the expedition was not so lucky. On about May 30th or 31st the Enterprise was lost, possibly from hitting a snag under the surface of the water or by snagging the mast on a low hanging limb and being swamped by the current. However it happened, this was a loss to the Ashley/Henry partnership of $10,000 worth of boat and trade goods. Henry immediately obtained credit and outfitted another keelboat and headed up the river, joining Henry's brigade at their new fort at the mouth of the Yellowstone in October. Ashley and Henry were finally in business in "The Mountains"! Ashley returned to St. Louis that fall and immediately began preparations for the next spring's expedition.
In the spring of 1823 Ashley outfitted two keelboats, The Yellowstone Packet and The Rocky Mountains, which left St. Louis on March 10th headed upriver to resupply and reinforce Major Henry's brigade. This party included such notable hunters as Jedediah Smith (who had gone upriver with Henry the previous year and had been dispatched to St. Louis with messages for Ashley), James Clyman, and probably Bill Sublette as well.
By the end of May Ashley had made it to the Ree villages and began trading for horses. By the evening of June 1st, after several days of trading, Ashley had acquired about 40 horses and the men had camped on the bank of the river with the horses. About 3am on the morning of June 2nd Ashley was awakened and told that one of his men had been killed in the Ree village. The man, Aaron Stephens, had probably sojourned into the village to partake of the female population and ended up setting off the volatile Ree Indians.
Just before dawn the Rees commenced firing at the Ashley men and horses on the beach. In just a few minutes the Indians had succeeded in killing most of the horses and quite a few of the men. The rest of the men on the beach took cover behind the dead horses and attempted to return fire on the Rees. Ashley attempted to get the keelboats in close to shore to pull the rest of his men off the exposed beach but the French boatmen were paralyzed with fear and refused to maneuver the boats in close. A handful of men were pulled off the beach with a skiff but after the first trip the oarsman was shot and the skiff drifted down river. The men on the shore were being forced into the river, some going under, some being swept downstream and some making it to the keelboats. Ashley pulled up his anchors and let the keelboats drift downstream several miles where he pulled the boats in to shore to regroup. The final toll for the fur brigade was 13 dead and 11 wounded.
General Ashley dispatched The Yellowstone Packet down river to Fort Atkinson requesting military aid and sent Jedediah Smith and a volunteer French Canadian engagee to Major Henry's post at the mouth of the Yellowstone for reinforcements, then retreated downstream to the mouth of the Cheyenne River to await help. This whole affair led to "The Arikara Campaign" by the Missouri Legion led by Colonel Henry Leavenworth, who finally reached Ashley and his men in early August.
This attempt to subdue the Rees, ineptly led by Leavenworth, did nothing more than force the Rees from their villages and alienate them further with the result that the upper Missouri was closed to travel for the fur companies. Thus, the decision by Ashley and Henry to abandon the River as the route into the mountains and turn to overland travel. In early September Major Henry left Fort Kiowa with a small party of men and a few horses headed for the the mouth of the Bighorn via the Yellowstone River. This party included Hugh Glass and a young man named Jim Bridger.
The second party Ashley dispatched got away from Fort Kiowa in late September. This party, made up of somewhere between 11 and 16 men, was led by Jedediah Smith with Tom Fitzpatrick as second in command, and include Jim Clyman, Billy Sublette and Edward Rose. They, with a few borrowed horses, headed southwest across South Dakota to the White River, headed for the Bighorn to meet up with Henry's brigade coming down from the Yellowstone post.Both of these parties endured harrowing adventures, with both Jedediah Smith and Hugh Glass being mauled by grizzly bears.
But the real story, the big result, of the battle with the Arikaree Indians, was Ashley and Henry moving away from the Missouri River, heading overland to the Rocky Mountains and opening up a whole new era in the western fur trade; the era of the "Mountain Man" and the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous!
Yes, 1823 was a remarkable and pivotal year in fur trade history!
Keep yer flint sharp and yer primin' dry!
TC
