Martin Brothers Incident

[Niederlander]

Gentlemen,  The other day I was helping with a vehicle check south of Alda, Nebraska.  My car was parked right next to this marker.  I knew of the incident but never knew exactly where it happened.  It's just a few miles south of the old California Trail.

[Will Ketchum]

Interesting. I really would like to know the rest of the story regarding their survival.

Will Ketchum

[LongWalker]

Almost 40 years ago, I spent a summer interviewing everyone I could find who had second-hand accounts of the events of the 1864 Uprising.  Since I no longer recall the details of that event (and my notes are probably disintegrating in the museum in which they were deposited), I found this, from the Nebraska State Hysterical Society:

The general Indian uprising of 1864 centering in the Platte Valley caused great loss of life and property among the early settlers. The area of one of the most dramatic events associated with this outbreak is marked with a stone monument three miles south of here. There, on a day in August, 1864, George Martin, an ex-English jockey who had come to Hall County in 1862, and his two young sons, Nat and Robert, were loading hay in a field near their homestead. Suddenly they were attacked by a small band of Sioux Indians. While the father attempted to ward off the attackers from the wagon with his repeating rifle, the boys jumped on their mare and, riding double, started for home. Pursued by the Sioux, the fleeing pony and her riders became targets for numerous arrows, one of which passed through Nat's body and lodged in Robert's back. Thus pinned together by a single arrow, the boys tumbled from their horse. The Indians, evidently believing that the boys were nearly dead, rode away without scalping them. Robert never recovered fully from his back injury, and although Nat nearly died of his wounds he lived to tell this story to his grandchildren.

[Kent Shootwell]

The arrow can be viewed in the Hastings Nebraska museum.

[Fox Creek Kid]

https://www.amazon.com/Massacre-Along-Medicine-Ronald-Becher/dp/0870043870

[Rube Burrows]

https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/nebraska/martin-brothers-arrow-monument-ne/

In the above link you can read more on the story and also see some photos.

[Cap'n Redneck]

 "While the father attempted to ward off the attackers from the wagon with his repeating rifle,..."

This incident happening in August 1864 got me wondering:  was the father wielding a Henry or a Spencer...?
With Spencers being made mainly under military contract at that time, my money would be on a Henry.
On second thought it could also possibly have been a revolving rifle...?

[Homer Corn]

It could be any number of repeating rifles such as a Spencer, a Henry, a Colt Revolving rifle or a Volcanic rifle. As well as a few that I am forgetting.