A series where we take a #lookback at the stories and history of our community, brought to you by Mick Pryor, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones.
According to Ancestry.com, Thomas Cosgrove was born in Ireland about 1836. He came to America at age 12 and lived in Pennsylvania until he migrated to Texas. He served in the Texas Confederate cavalry during the Civil War. He entered the cavalry with the rank of sergeant, but left the service with the rank of private, so he may not have been a stellar soldier as a young man. Cosgrove was a “Horse Marine” assigned to the Confederate transport ship “John F. Carr,” a cotton clad ship patrolling the Texas coast.
After the Civil War, Cosgrove arrived in Cheyenne in 1867 or 1868 and soon settled on the newly formed Shoshone Reservation in the area of Camp Augur which is now Lander. Camp Augur was built to protect the Shoshone from hostile Sioux who were historic enemies of the Shoshone. Ancestry indicates for a time Cosgrove was married to a Comanche woman named Segaya. It is unclear if she came with him from Texas. He evidently found work as a hunter supplying wild game to the soldiers at Camp Augur and gold miners at South Pass. Mart Hornecker, another early arriver in Lander Valley wrote an account of a buffalo hunt he and Cosgrove did to supply meat for Camp Augur. They killed two buffalo just before dark and had to defend their kills all night from hungry wolves who were determined to take a share of the meat.
By 1874 Cosgrove had established himself as an Indian Scout leading Shoshone warriors teaching them military discipline and cavalry tactics. He led his soldiers in an attack on an encampment of Arapaho at the southern foot of the Bighorn Mountains. The skirmish is known as the Bates Battle where soldiers and Shoshone warriors worked together to defeat a camp of Arapaho. Arapaho Chief Black Coal lost several fingers in the battle. Since the Arapaho had no reservation of their own, a few years later they were placed on the Shoshone Reservation. The historic enemies were forced to share the Wind River Reservation.
Cosgrove led his Native American soldiers in several significant battles during the Sioux wars.
On June 4,1876 between 120 and 130 Shoshone Indian Scouts left Fort Washakie, including a son of Chief Washakie, Dick Washakie, to join General Crook’s army in Montana. Tom Cosgrove and Edmo LeClair were designated as head scouts. Tom Cosgrove and his Shoshone troops fought at the Battle of Rosebud on June 17, 1876. This was an all-day battle and most historians consider it a draw without a clear winner. This battle was a prelude to the Battle of the Little Bighorn where the Sioux and their allies defeated Custer’s army. General Crook wrote to James Irwin, the Shoshone agency chief telling him that Tom Cosgrove and his detachment fought with “more than ordinary discipline and behaved with marked bravery during our latest engagement with the hostile Sioux.”
The Battle of Little Bighorn occurred about a week later and was a major defeat for Custer. There were no survivors among Custer’s soldiers or his Indian Scouts. Cosgrove’s troops, however, had returned to the reservation and luckily for them did not participate in the battle.
Cosgrove also participated in the Battle of Red Fork also known as the Dull Knife Battle. In November of 1876 Col. Mackenzie and his Native American allies came across a sleeping Cheyenne village and attacked. The goal was to totally disable any future Native American resistance. As a result, the Cheyenne were no longer able to fight.
Tom Cosgrove returned to the Wind River reservation soon after the Battle of Red Fork and died in May 1877. He was about 40 years old. He had led a hard warrior’s life. His autopsy report is in the museum collection. Cosgrove left several children behind. A daughter, Margaret Cosgrove born 1869 was adopted by Benjamin Franklin Lowe, one of the founding fathers of Lander. Lenore “Babe” Cosgrove became the stepdaughter of Billie O’Neal. Thomas “Tivo” Cosgrove born at Fort Washakie in 1876 was just an infant when his father died. He was raised by priests at Fort Hall and married Nancy Wishwop.
Cosgrove led a warrior’s life and never really settled down. He fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, but he made a life for himself among the Shoshone fighting with the Shoshone against the Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho.
Author: Liz Farmer
Fremont County Pioneer Museum Lander
Next up for the Fremont County Museum
January 17, 7-9pm at the Pioneer Museum, “PREZ ervation: The Art of All Hubbard; A Retrospective Collection of Contemporary Indigenous Art” Opening Reception
March 29, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Celebrating Women’s History Month” Wyoming Community Bank Discovery Speakers Series
April 19, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Sheep Shearing Day” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
April 26, 9-2 with the Pioneer Museum, “Garden Expo Craft Booth” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
May 24, 1-3pm at the Pioneer Museum, “Being a Pioneer Kid” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
May 31, 11am at the Riverton Museum, “Horned Owl Draper Raptor Experience” Bailey Tire/Pit Stop Children’s Exploration Series
Call the Dubois Museum 1-307-455-2284, the Pioneer Museum 1-307-332-3339 or the Riverton Museum 1-307-856-2665 for detail regarding their programs.
The Dubois Museum, the Pioneer Museum in Lander and the Riverton Museum need your financial support. In the current economic environment, the museums are more reliant than ever on donations from the private sector to continue to provide the quality programs, collections management, exhibits and services that have become their hallmark over the last four years. Please make your tax deductible contribution to be used specifically for the benefit of the museum of your choosing by sending a check to Fremont County Museums 450 N 2nd Rm 320 or taking it directly to the museum you choose to support.