The Battle of Strangefields

The Battle of Strangefields was fought on March 6, 1809, roughly 1 mile from Fort South Bend. The battle was fought between the Nebraskan Republican Army under the command of General Kelmen, with the support from the Head of the Circle tribe, and the Calcaterrican Army under the command of General Murphy. It was the first major battle of The Great Plains War.

Prelude
In February of 1809, due to territorial disputes in the west and the legitimacy of the Nebraskan Republic, Calcaterra officially declared war on the Nebraskan Republic on March 1, 1809. General Frank Cook of the Calcaterrican Armed Forces ordered General Dane Murphy to begin an offensive to capture key points along the Platte River and hold them until reinforcements can arrive. General Murphy informed the High Command that he did not have enough soldiers to begin an offensive, so requested he be able to take troops out of the garrison at Fort Abram. His request was granted, and he took his 350 men, along with 100 out of the 356 men stationed at Fort Abram. He began his march towards Fort South Bend on March 5. As he marched, his men were spotted by a native hunting party, but he ordered his men not to fire upon them. He did not know, at the time, the native hunting party belonged to the Head of the Circle tribe, which were loyal to the Nebraskan Republic. The leader of the hunting party, Jumping Bull, reported to Fort South Bend that an army numbering in at around 400 was marching towards the Fort South Bend. The commander of the fort, Captain Henry Franker, sent a messenger to General of the Nebraskan Armies, General Kelmen, who was stationed 30 miles away in the city of Douglas. Captain Fanker did not write how many men were in the approaching force, so General Kelmen believed this was the main Calcaterrican force, so he began his march towards Fort South Bend. He did not have his whole army with him, as the were training in Columbia. Instead, he enlisted the help of several Militias and native tribes. General Murphy  needed to stop his forces at 9:30 PM due to weather. General Kelmen was able to rendezvous with Captain Franker at a small farm on March 5, 10:34 PM. General Kelmen took control over Captain Franker’s troops, and had them rest for the night. After the weather cleared up at 10:45 PM, General Murphy marched his troops another 2 miles, before setting up camp for the night.

Calcaterra
General Murphy had his men prepare to march towards Fort South Bend at 6:00 AM. He believed that he would put to siege the Fort, so his men could take turns resting while his sappers prepared siege works. Most of the men only getting about 4 to 6 hours of sleep, also they did not receive breakfast, as General Murphy believe they could eat while the sappers were working. At around 6:45 AM, scouts spotted General Kelmen's men stationed atop a hill and in a nearby farmhouse to the north, so he had his men line up and prepare to march forward. The scouts failed to spot men General Kelmen had stationed men in a large tree line to the south, and a company of native horsemen that Kelman had hid behind the hill.

Nebraskan Republic
While perform their morning prayers on a hill at around 6:30 AM, natives from the Cosca tribe spotted General Murphy's men about 700 yards away marching towards the farm. Upon finishing their prayers, they rode back to General Kelmen's camp, and informed him that a large group of Calcaterrican soldiers were marching towards the farm. At 6:40 AM, Kelmen and 3 other men surveyed the land. Kelmen came to the conclusion that he could fire upon the advancing men from both the hill and a nearby farmhouse. He also had a two platoons hid in a large tree line. They would protect the force stationed on the hill from a flanking maneuver, and they were also told to hold their fire until ordered. He also had native horsemen hold position behind the hill, as they had no ranged weapons.

Midday
At 10:46 AM, General Murphy had his whole line advance, and hold fire. Seeing the advancing line, General Kelmen had all his men to hold fire until further notice. The Calcaterrican line, consisting of 450 men in four ranks, marched at a walking pace towards the hill through a wheat field. General Murphy hoped that by marching his men through the wheat field, it would make them harder to hit. As the Calcaterrican line came within 200 yards of the hill, General Kelmen had his men on the hill and in and around the farmhouse fire at will. The first volley from the hill and the farmhouse killed about 3 men in the Calcaterrican line. As the line continued their advance, another 17 men from the middle rank fell. Upon the line coming in to about 80-120 yards from the hill, the General Murphy ordered his men to halt, and had them fire 3 volleys. Those 3 volleys killed about 22 men atop the hill, and 5 men stationed around the farmhouse. The Calcaterican line was ordered to advance after the third volley. As they advanced, 16 men fell. General Murphy had the line halt at about 50 yards from the hill. As they stopped, General Kelmen ordered the two platoons at the tree line to open fire at the line. The first volley was devastating, killing about 45 men. General Murphy had his men focus their volleys at the farmhouse and the men surrounding it. General Kelmen ordered the men in the tree line and the men atop the hill to unleash volleys one at a time. After the first volley, Kelmen order the men at the farmhouse to retreat to the hill. During their retreat, 18 men were killed. After the remaining men reached the hill, he ordered all his men to fire at will. The Calcaterrican line, which was in the open, took heavy casualties. The Calcaterrican line was ordered to fall back to the wheat field. During the fallback, another 32 men fell. The Calcaterrican muskets did not have the range Nebraskan muskets did, so the Nebraskans were able to inflict more casualties upon their enemies. That this time, the battle had been raging for about 2 hours. At 12:56 AM, the leader of the Cosca tribe tribe, Chief Crazy Water, informed General Kelmen that his men where ready at any time to charge the Calcaterrican line. Kelmen had them hold, and ordered all of his men to fire three volleys. It is unknown how many were killed by the volleys, but after the third volley Kelmen had his men draw swords and fix bayonets, and ordered all men and the tribe horsemen to charge. During the charge 20 Nebraskans fell. As the tribesmen smashed in the Calcaterrican line, many tried to flee, only to be cut down by the horsemen. After the half and hour long melee, the battle came to an end at 1:48 PM. Of the 450 Calcaterrican soldiers, 449 were killed. This was because the General Kelmen gave full permission to the native tribes to kill as many as they wished, so they did not hold back. Only General Murphy survived the battle, after he rode horseback back to Fort Abram at full speed.

Aftermath
After the battle ended, General Kelmen had his men to bury the dead of both sides in separate graves. The tribesmen were allowed to care for their dead separately. Both graves were marked with white crosses. At 3:14 PM, General Kelmen had his men return to Fort South Bend. General Murphy returned to Fort Abram, and had a messenger sent to North West City to inform the Calcaterrican government of the devastating loss. President Jerry Clarke was personally handed the message. Two days afterwards, he ordered General Murphy of the Calcaterrican Armed Forces to send a force of 30,000 to crush the Nebraskan Republic. Many historians argue whether the order was given as a direct result of the message, or whether he was already planning on sending more troops to combat the Nebraskan Republic.