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Lieutenant Casper Collins: Fighting the Odds at Platte BridgeWild West | 8 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post A general hinted he was a coward; some said he was a showoff. But most hailed 20-year-old Lieutenant Caspar Collins as a hero for what he did one day in the summer of 1865–lead 20 men, unfamiliar to him, against anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 Indians just outside Platte Bridge Station in what is now Wyoming. Casper, the city in central Wyoming, was named for the young lieutenant, but is spelled differently. So, too, a nearby creek and a mountain. A fort bearing his name (with the second ‘a’ left intact) has been restored and houses a museum. Subscribe Today
As a youngster back in Dogwood Knob, the family home in Hillsboro, Ohio, Caspar liked to draw pictures of Indians and tepees. But on this July day, far from his boyhood home, he saw more Indians than he had drawn in his life. And there would be no going home again.
The Battle of Platte Bridge, like many other frontier events, had its roots in the westward migration. Covered wagons that jolted along the Oregon Trail in 1865 were crossing the North Platte River at Platte Bridge. Tensions with the nearby Indians were high because buffalo hunters continued to slaughter bison and treaties continued to be broken. The Civil War had drained fighting power from the western outposts; the Indians had more freedom to harass emigrants and cut telegraph lines. But with war’s end in April, more soldiers headed West to deal with the Indian problem.
For years the North Platte Valley had been the domain of such Indian tribes as the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho. In 1864, General Alfred Sully fought a three-day battle in North Dakota that drove even more Sioux south toward the North Platte River. Sully and other officers considered all the Plains Indians hostile, and certainly more Indians began to show hostility after Colonel John M. Chivington led his 3rd Colorado Cavalry against a peaceful Cheyenne village at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864. The infuriated Cheyenne and their Arapaho allies ripped up telegraph wire, ambushed emigrant wagon trains on the Oregon Trail and attacked white settlements in early 1865.
In this tense environment, a violent confrontation at Platte Bridge Station, a stockaded outpost on the south bank of the North Platte River near a 1,000-foot-long bridge, was not so surprising. The bridge was the last crossing of the North Platte, and destruction of the bridge and station would disrupt emigrant travel. ‘Platte Bridge was a strategic point,’ wrote S.H. Fairfield in 1904. ‘It was here that the savages from the Powder River country crossed to the lines of travel on the southern overland route where they reaped a rich harvest….The military forces at Platte Bridge Station were a hindrance…and the redskins were determined to remove the soldiers out of their path.’
In July 1865, the 11th Ohio Cavalry’s designated commander, Lieutenant Henry Clay Bretney, who had his headquarters at Platte Bridge Station, arranged for Lieutenant Collins, stationed at Sweetwater Station near Independence Rock, to take a detail of 10 men east to Fort Laramie to pick up remounts for Sweetwater. Bretney gave Collins permission to remain at Fort Laramie a few days while his detail returned.
In the meantime, back at Platte Bridge Station (located between Sweetwater Station and Fort Laramie), the Kansas and Ohio troops stationed there not only skirmished with Indians but also feuded among themselves. It all came to a head on July 12 when Captain James Greer of the 11th Kansas Cavalry attempted to usurp command from Bretney. But, as Bretney later said, ‘the Kansas boys had to ‘hunt cover’ and allow the Ohio boys to conduct the station as they saw fit.’
When Major Martin Anderson arrived to take command four days later with 40 men of the 11th Kansas Cavalry, he didn’t like what he saw at the station. He decided it would be best to banish Bretney and his Ohioans to Sweetwater Station to the west. And so, when 11th Kansas Cavalry Sergeant Amos J. Custard, escorting a wagon train to Sweetwater, obligingly arrived at Platte Bridge with 16 dismounted men of Company H and 11 men of Company D, Anderson acted. He had Bretney and his men, along with three six-mule army wagons of supplies, accompany Custard to Sweetwater. Of the 11th Ohio, only Sergeant Merwin and his crew of three remained behind to man the mountain howitzer. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: 19th Century, American Indian Wars, Historical Conflicts, Native American History, Wild West
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8 Comments to “Lieutenant Casper Collins: Fighting the Odds at Platte Bridge”
Why is that they call a white guy brave for killing indians but when indians kill the whites they are savages????
By Tia on Jan 21, 2009 at 12:52 pm
well i acctullay read the story of Crazy Horse a Indian leader was friends with him i think in about in the 1870’s
By Jack on Feb 4, 2009 at 2:40 pm
the indans were named savages by whites thats why
By Grant on Apr 7, 2009 at 7:30 pm
The story goes (and this has been repeated throughout the Collins family as well) that Caspar was very interested in the Native American cultures. His father was the commander of his unit (Lt. Col. William Collins) and allowed his son to visit friendly tribes in the area. The story goes that he and Crazy Horse, who was shy and a bit of an outsider, even though he was a great warrior, became friends. No on knows for sure what happened on that day, but he lead 20 soldiers out and according to some accounts, tried to stop hostilities. There’s even a story that Crazy Horse tried to warn him to get out of the area. But none of us were there and we don’t know for sure. A lot of truth has been replaced by (1870’s white) propaganda and legends. I don’t know why a white man would be called a hero for killing a Native American, nor do I know why Native Americans were called savages, other that ignorance, fear, greed, and racism.
By Liz on Apr 22, 2009 at 4:16 pm
love the info on casper collins. because my kids r related to the famous LT Collins, they r his cousin, by a few generations. their greatgrand mother was christina casper. who married dominico ziccardi. i was told by family relatives that christina casper was the little girl that ran/walk across the Brooklyn Bridge when it was built in 1880’s.
By phyllis nalick on May 15, 2009 at 8:42 pm
My great, great, great grandfather, Jonas Robinson was a trooper in the 11 th ohio vol cavalry, I believe company c of the 1 st battalion.
By Paul Robinson on Jul 1, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Bob Specht Native Casperite, Geologist, and historian of the west
Fort Caspar or Upper Platte River post was not a true Stockade post. Only The trading post had a stockade around it. The trading post was taken over by the army in about 1861 and was used as the Generals quarters. The telegraph shack was close to the south end of the bride where the howitzer was located to protect the bridge. The troopers at that time had tents outside the post on all sides. The restored post as you see today was based on Caspar Collins’ drawings that his father, Lt Colonial William Collins had instructed his son to do to beef up some of the existing old pony express stations along the trail.
After the battle of 1865, Fort Casper rivaled the size of Fort Laramie with a Garrison of about 360 men until the post was abandoned in 1868. The post extended out to the south and east to where the Fair grounds is located and to the water purification station is. I suggest you visit the Fort Caspar Museum in Casper if you get the chance.
As for the different in the name’s between Fort Caspar and the existing incorporated City of Casper, Wyoming, came about in 1889. At that time the town was part of Carbon County with the existing county seat at Rawlins, Wyoming along the Union Pacific Rail road line built in 1868. When taking down the information on the then towns name of Caspar, the clerk wrote it down as Casper, Wyoming.
If it had not been for his Father’s retirement from the military in March of 1863, the post may have been named Fort Collins. Collins father was given the honor first and the post on the Pouder River , where he conducted the operations along the Oregon trail, was given that name of Fort Collins, Colorado.
To help answer your question as to why white men call Indians savages comes from fear. Remember we came to the new world to spread the Gospel of the good news to all man kind. The early Puritans and pilgrims came to the world and had developed relationships with the native American’s. Over time when you have people colonizing that don’t believe in a God and don’t want to understand another man’s culture, they are different from us and are heathens or savages. Yes Caspar came to the west at age 14 or 15 to visit the west and his father and did have or had built relationships with the Natives as his father had build a good resolution with the Native Americans. I have also heard that Caspar may have be friend Crazy Horse as well. If you have questions you can also write me at rspecht@yahoo.com
Descendents of Lt Colonial William Collins’ brother moved in the State and have settled near North of Glendo Wyoming. This I have learned from Jay Collins, town council member of Glendo, Wyoming and a good friend of mine.Bob Specht
By Bob Specht on Aug 31, 2009 at 12:16 am
I think that Major Anderson was coward and stupid. He should have gone out at night to rescue my Great Great GrandGrandunlce Commissary Sgt. Amos Jefferson Custard. Lt Collins should have ignored the orders of Maj. Anderson and make the Major order one of his own officer’s to lead the doomed rescue attempt.
By Doug Custard on Nov 8, 2009 at 9:03 pm