There were about six thousand members of the four tribes assembled there and some of the greatest soldiers the United States has furnished. General Sherman, then General of the Army, Generals, Harney, Terry, Marcy, Auger, Gibbs and others of lesser fame, together with Senator John B. Henderson, of Missouri, and other prominent civilians in the public service, composed the representatives of the Government. This body is known to history as 'The Peace Commission' whose duty it was to learn from the Indians themselves the cause of their grievances, and make such a treaty with them as would forever put an end to the continuous hostilities which year after year devastated the frontier.

An agreement was entered into after much parleying, which came near ending in a row; and there would have been another massacre if it had not been for the excellent disposition which had been made of the troops, which completely surrounded the Indians, who outnumbered the soldiers by many hundreds, and who foresaw nothing but a terrible slaughter of their warriors if they took the initiative.

The treaty was signed, as they always are, by each chief touching the pen, (some of them were mounted and riding furiously around) while a clerk handed it to him, the ignorant savage having no more idea what he was subscribing to than if it had been a Greek manuscript.

Congress passed an act in July, "to establish peace with certain hostile Indian tribes," which provided for the appointment of commissioners with a view to the following objects:

1. To remove, if possible, the causes of war.

2. To secure, as far as practicable, our frontier settlements, and the safe building of the railways looking to the Pacific.

3. To suggest or inaugurate some plan for civilization of those Indians.

The commissioners selected were: N. G. Taylor, president; J. B. Henderson, W. T. Sherman, lieutenant general; W. S. Harnet, bevet major general; John B. Sanderson; Alfred H. Terry, bevet major general; S. F. Tappan; C. C. Augur, bevet major general.

These commissioners organized at St. Louis, August 6, and set to work to obtain interviews with the chiefs of the hostile tribes. Runners were sent out to assure the Indians of the purposes of the commissioners, who visited various parts of the military Division of the Missouri, taking evidence of the place and number of hostilities and the causes of the war, and completing arrangements for a great council of the northern hostile tribes at Fort Laramie on the 13th of September, and of the southern tribes at Medicine Lodge on the 13th of October.

At the conference, Medicine Lodge in October, the Kiowas, Comanches, and Apaches who had not engaged in any of the outrages upon the plains during the summer were readily persuaded to meet the commissioners and a satisfactory treaty was signed with them on the 20th of October. There was more difficulty with the southern Cheyenne and Arapahos, but they were finally induced to sign a joint treaty.

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