Qualla: Battle of Sand Butte https://qualla.com/battle-of-sand-butte en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/3/t/battle-of-sand-butte-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Sand Butte https://qualla.com/battle-of-sand-butte Battle of Sand Butte: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-sand-butte/ Photo credit Louis Herman Heller, Public domain. "All you fellows that ain't dead yet had better go home. We don't want to kill you all in one day." With those words, Scarface Charley reportedly dismissed the survivors of one of the most lopsided defeats in the Indian Wars. On April 26, 1873, twenty Modoc warriors killed five officers and thirty-one enlisted men at the base of Sand Butte, turning American public opinion decisively against the Modoc people and sealing their fate.

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Image: Louis Herman Heller | Public domain

]]> Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/3/t/battle-of-sand-butte-wp/9r3t-battle-of-sand-butte-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Sand Butte: Murder at the Peace Tent https://qualla.com/battle-of-sand-butte/ Photo credit Thomas Houseworth 1829-1915, Public domain. The ambush at Sand Butte was revenge served with tactical brilliance. Just weeks earlier, on April 11, Modoc leaders Kintpuash (Captain Jack) and others had killed General Edward Canby and Reverend Eleazer Thomas during a peace parley. Canby would become the only U.S. general kil...

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Image: Thomas Houseworth 1829-1915 | Public domain

]]> Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/3/t/battle-of-sand-butte-wp/9r3t-battle-of-sand-butte-murder-at-the-peace-tent.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Sand Butte: Walking Into the Kill Zone https://qualla.com/battle-of-sand-butte/ Photo credit Louis Herman Heller, Public domain. On the morning of April 26, seventy Army soldiers left Gillem's Camp near the Stronghold and marched south toward Sand Butte, four miles away. Captain Evan Thomas and Lieutenant Thomas Wright led the patrol, hoping to position a mortar battery atop the butte. The soldiers spread ...

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Image: Louis Herman Heller | Public domain

]]> Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/3/t/battle-of-sand-butte-wp/9r3t-battle-of-sand-butte-walking-into-the-kill-zone.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Sand Butte: Gunfire from Every Direction https://qualla.com/battle-of-sand-butte/ Photo credit Louis Herman Heller, Public domain. Kintpuash and Scarface Charley positioned their twenty to thirty warriors perfectly. One group held trees on Sand Butte's northern face. Two flanking squads covered the north and south. A few more took position on a western ridge. When Captain Thomas sent three soldiers to picket...

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Image: Louis Herman Heller | Public domain

]]> Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/3/t/battle-of-sand-butte-wp/9r3t-battle-of-sand-butte-gunfire-from-every-direction.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Sand Butte: A Night Among the Dead https://qualla.com/battle-of-sand-butte/ Photo credit Louis Herman Heller, Public domain. Colonel Gillem finally ordered a relief force to Sand Butte, but darkness fell before they arrived. The surviving soldiers built low rock walls and prepared to spend the night surrounded by their dead. More survivors reached camp at midnight, and Warm Springs scouts agreed to lea...

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Image: Louis Herman Heller | Public domain

]]> Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/3/t/battle-of-sand-butte-wp/9r3t-battle-of-sand-butte-a-night-among-the-dead.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Sand Butte: The Two Vultures https://qualla.com/battle-of-sand-butte/ Photo credit Louis Herman Heller, Public domain. The American press responded with fury. Harper's Weekly published an illustration titled "Modoc Scalping and Torturing Soldiers." Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newsletter ran a drawing of a Modoc warrior scalping a fallen soldier while a vulture perched nearby, captioned "The Two Vu...

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Image: Louis Herman Heller | Public domain

]]> Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/r/3/t/battle-of-sand-butte-wp/9r3t-battle-of-sand-butte-the-two-vultures.mp3 0:06 6 full