The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-12-06

joy of the weary watchers, the parties
approaching proved to be troops; re-
lief was at hand, the dangers and anx-
ieties of the past few days were ended,
and death either by starvation or tor
ture at the hands OF the savages no
longer stared them i'm the face. The
strong set up shout such as men sell
dom utter. 1t was the unburdening of
the heart of the weight of despair
The wounded lifted their fevered forms
and fixed their elaring eyes upon the
now rapidly approaching succOr, and
in their delirinm involuntarily but
feebly reiterated the acclamations of
their comrades.
The troops arriving for their relief
were q detachment from Fort Wallace
nnder command of Colonel Carpenter
of the regular calvary, and had started
On the morning of September %, the
sun rose upon Forsyth and his famish-
ed party with unusual splendor, and
the bright colors of the morning hOri-
zon seemed like rainbow OF promise
to their weary, longing spirits. Hope,
grown faint with long waiting, gather
ed renewed strength from the bright
ness of nature. The solitary plain re-
ceding in all directions possessed
deeper interest than ever before, though
ii still showed no signs of life and pre-
sented the same mOnOtonous eXpanse
upon which the heroic band had gazed
for so many trying days. Across the
dim and indefinable distance which
swept i'm all directions, the eye often
wandered and wandered what might
be the revelations Of the next moment.
Suddenly several dark figures appeared
family on the horizon. The objects
we're moving. The question upper.
most in the minds of ali was, Are they
savages or messengers OF relief? As
on such occasions of anxiety and sus-
pense, time wore heavily, minutes
seemed like hours, yet their doom or
their escape therefrom. Over an hour
had elapsed since the objects first came
in sight, and yet the mystery remain
ed unsolved Slowly but surely they
developed themselves, until finally
they had approached sufficiently near
for their character as friend of foes to
be unmistakably established. To the
from the fort promptly upon the arri.
val of Trudeau aud Stillwell with in
telligence of the condition and peril in
which Forsyth and his party We're.
When Colonel Carpenter aud his
men reached the island they found its
defenders in a most pitiable condition,
yet the survivors were determined to
be plucky to the last. Forsyth him.
sells, with rather Indifferent success, af-
fected to be reading an old novel that
he had discovered in q saddlebag; but
Colonel Carpenter said his voice was
little unsteady and his eyes some
what dim when he held out his hand
to Carpenter and bade him welcome to
"Bsecher's Island," name that has
since been given to the BATTLE ground.
During the fight Forsyth counted
thirty two dead Indians within rife
range of the island. Twelve Indian
bodies were subsequently discovered
in one pit, and five in another. The
Indians themselves confessed loss OF
seventy five killed in action, and when
their proclivity for concealing or di-
minishing the number of their slain in
battle is considered, we can readily be-
lieve that their actual loss in this fight
must have been much greater than
they would have US believe.
OF the scouts, Lieutenant Beecher,
Surgeon Movers, and six of the men
were either killed outright or died of
their wounds; eight more were disa-
bled for life; of the remaining twelve
who were wounded, nearly all recover
ed completely. During the fight in
Vulnerable interesting incidents occur
red, some laughable and some serious.
On the first day of the conflict num-
ber of young Indian boys from fifteen
to eighteen years of age crawled up and
shot about fifty arrows into the circle
in which the scouts lay. One of these
arrows struck one of the men, Frank
Harrington, full in the forehead. Not
being able to pull i6 out, one OF bis
companions, lying ia the same hole
with him, cut off the arrow with his
knife, leaving the iron arrowhead,
sticking in his frontal bone; in a mo-
ment a bullet struck him in the side of
the head, glanced across his fofeh cad,
impinged upon the arrowhead, snd the
two fastened together fel! to the ground
"a queer but successful piece of anna
teur surgery. Harrington wrapped q
cloth around his head, which bied pro-
fuseIy, and continued fighting as if
nothing had happened.
Howard Morton, another of the
Scouts, was struck in the head by a
bullet which finally lodged in the rear
of one of his eyes completely destroy
ing its sight forever; but Morton never
faltered but fought bravely until the
savages finally withdrew. Hudson
Farley, a young STRIPPING Of only
eighteen, whose father was mOrtally
wounded in the first ay'sfight, was shot
through the shoulder, yet never men-
toned the fact until dark, when the list
of wounded was called for. Mccall the
First Sergeant, Vilott, Clark, Farley
the elder, and others who wounded,
continued to bear their full share of the
fight, Notwithstanding their great suf-
ferings, until the Indians finally gave
up aud withdrew. These incidents, or
similar ones might be told, only go to
show the remarkable character of the
men who composed Forsyth's party.
Considering this engagement in all
its details and with all its attendant
circumstances, remembering that
Forsyth's party, including himself,
numbered all told but fifty one men,
and that the Indians numbered about
seventeen to one, this fight was one of
the most remarkable and at the same
time successful contests in which our
forces on the Plains have ever been
engaged; and the whole affair, from
the moment the first shot was fired
until the beleaguered party was finally
relieved by Colonel Carpenters COM
mand was a powerful exhibition of
daring courage, stubborn bravery, and
heroic endurance, under circumstances
of the greatest peril and exposure In
all probability there will never occur,
in our future hostilities with the savage
tribes of the West, struggle
the equal of that in which were en-
gagged the heroic men who defended
so bravely "Beecher's Island" For
syth, the gollant leader, after long
period of suffering and leading the
fife of an invalid for nearly two years,
finally recovered from the effects of
his severe wounds, and Is now L am
happy to say, as good as new, content
ediy awaiting the next war to give him
renewed excitement.