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Kinzie Bates Papers: Finding
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mssHM 60325-60354
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Title: Kinzie Bates Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1863-1929
Bulk dates: 1874-1877
Collection Number: mssHM 60325-60354
Creator:
Bates, Kinzie, -1884.
Extent:
32 items in 1 box
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: The collection contains 32 items by or related to United States army office Kinzie Bates (died 1884), including his 1877 diary
written during his field
assignments to various Dakota Territory camps near the Black Hills during army campaigns against the Sioux and their search
for Sitting Bull and Lame Deer.
Language: English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities.
The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the
researcher.
[Identification of item]. Kinzie Bates Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Purchased from L & T Respess Books, August 18, 1998.
United States Army Officer Kinzie Bates joined the 1st Michigan Infantry as a private in 1861 and saw battle during the United
States Civil War at Corinth and Vicksburg, Mississippi.
After the war he was promoted to Captain and stationed at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was transferred to
the frontier in 1869 and married Elizabeth
Chumley Bates in 1873. Bates participated in the final months of Colonel Nelson A. Miles' "Yellowstone Campaign" as a battalion
commander in the US 1st Infantry. Bates died in 1884.
Bibliography
Greene, Jerome A.
Battles and Skirmishes of the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877: The Military View.University of Oklahoma Press:Norman and London, 1993.
Greene, Jerome A.
Yellowstone Command: Colonel Nelson A. Miles and the Great Sioux War, 1876–1877.University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1991.
Robinson III, Charles M.
A Good Year to Die: The Story of the Great Sioux War.Random House: New York, 1995.
Wooster, Robert.
Nelson A. Miles and the Twilight of the Frontier Army. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London, 1993.
The collection contains 32 items by or related to United States army office Kinzie Bates (died 1884), including his 1877 diary
written during his field
assignments to various Dakota Territory camps near the Black Hills during army campaigns against the Sioux. The collection
contains typed transcripts of all the correspondence by Kinzie Bates and his diary. Elizabeth Chumley Bates' 134 page diary,
which contains mostly blank pages,
includes a three-page chronology of Kinzie Bates' life.
The majority of correspondence in the collection was written by Bates to his wife, Elizabeth Chumley Bates, in 1874 and 1875,
during three thirty-day field assignments to
various Dakota Territory camps along the Niobrara River south of the Black Hills. His diary, made up of 48 letters written
to his wife, was written in 1877 during the army's
search for Sitting Bull and Lame Deer. The letters and journal entries record the U. S. Army campaigns during the war with
the Sioux. Bates' letters tell in great detail the
everyday hardships of military life including the separation from his wife. He also gives opinions regarding fellow officers,
including Colonel Nelson A. Miles, General William Hazen,
and his commanding officer Major Henry Lazelle. Bates gives detailed descriptions of the scenery, game and people he encountered
on his marches, as well as his experience with several
groups of Indians including the Yankton Sioux and the Brul Indians. Bates often mentions Sitting Bull's current location and
the army's newest strategy to catch him.
The collection also contains a photograph of Kinzie Bates from late in his military career, and his obituary from the
Detroit Free Press.
Related Materials in the Huntington Library
- Kinzie Bates Letters, 1865-1869 (Call number: mssHM 55585-55602)
The collection is broadly arranged chronologically.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Bates, Kinzie, -1884.
Hazen, William Babcock, 1830-1887.
Lazelle, H. M. (Henry Martyn), 1832-1917.
Miles, Nelson Appleton, 1839-1925.
Sitting Bull, 1831-1890.
United States. Army. Infantry -- History.
United States. Army -- Military life.
Brulé Indians.
Black Hills War, 1876-1877.
Indians of North America -- North Dakota.
Indians of North America -- South Dakota.
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1866-1895.
Indians of North America -- Wyoming.
Indians of North America -- Montana.
Black Hills (S.D. and Wyo.)
Fort Buford (N.D.)
Fort Peck (Mont.)
Fort Randall (S.D.)
Niobrara River (Wyo. and Neb.)
Powder River (Wyo. and Mont.)
Tongue River Cantonment (Mont.)
Yellowstone River Valley.
Diaries -- West (U.S.)
Letters (correspondence) -- West (U.S.)
Bates, Elizabeth Chumley, correspondent.
Brulé, Indians –
1874, July 14–15. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, letter to Elizabeth Chumley Bates.HM 60330.
1874, July 18. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, letter to Elizabeth Chumley Bates.HM 60332.
1874, July 24. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, letter to Elizabeth Chumley Bates.HM 60333.
Cheyenne Indians –
1877, June 29–July 9. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, letter to Elizabeth Chumley Bates.HM 60348 (10).
Dakota Indians –
1874, July 13. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, letter to Elizabeth Chumley Bates.HM 60329.
1875, May 9. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, letter to Elizabeth Chumley Bates.HM 60337.
1875, May 21. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, letter to Elizabeth Chumley Bates.HM 60340.
1877, June 9–27. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (9).
1877, June 29–July 9. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (10).
Hazen, William Babcock, 1830–1887 –
[1877], May 10–11. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (3).
Lazelle, Henry Martyn, 1832– –
1877, June 9–27. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (9).
Miles, Nelson Appleton, 1839–1925 –
[1877], May 10–11. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (3).
1877, May 19–22. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (5).
1877, May 23–30. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (6).
1877, June 5–7. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (8).
1877, June 9–27. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (9).
Powder River (Wyo. and Mont.) –
1877, June 9–27. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (9).
Sitting Bull, 1834?–1890
[1877], May 7–10. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (2).
[1877], May 10–11. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (3).
1877, May 19–22. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (5).
[1877]. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, letter to Elizabeth Chumley Bates.HM 60349.
1877, June 29–July 9. Kinzie Bates, d. 1884, diary.HM 60348 (10).