Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1873-06-13
Letter from the Lava Beds.
Their Chnracteristic of Indian
Observation-Disclosures of the soidiers-An
incident.

MODOC EXPEDITION, CAMP SOUTH [
OF TULE LAKE, CAL. May II, 1873. !
So much has already been said and
written about this Modoc war, that l
don't anticipate the pleasure of adding
anything to the stock of general infor-
nation on the subject, yet if by an
hours fighting with the pen" l shall
have entertained an old friend, my OBJ
ject will have been accomplished.
My advent here is comparatively
speaking of recent date, yet am " free
TO confess" that am ready and willing
to leave, whenever my duty shall have
been performed and this "cruel war end
ed" This has been unlike any war in
the history of the world. Soldiers never
fought better, and troops never endured
more suffering and privation, and Drawer
men never lived Yet the verdict Of the
outside world is,-What have you &C.
complished?
There is not a parallel in the history
of our country, where the casualties
have been so great, or where the number
killed equalled or exceeded the wounded,
CIR where the percentage of officers sacri-
feed has been SO great in proportion to
the number of men engaged. This has
become so notorious that all officers and
non-commisioned officers are directed to
remove from their person every vistage
of rank before going into battle, and
are even required to dress like the pri-
vate soldier, the officers carrying car
bines instead of swords or pistols. With
these precautions much larger percent
| age of officers, non-commissioned Off
GERS and buglars are killed and wound
ed than private soldiers. An Indian
who once sees "Tyee" never forgets
him.
The Indians soon learn that the sol
diers act from the bugle calls and the
buglars are therefore mistaken for Tyees
and consequently selected as objects up
on which to wreak their vengence. 1t
is at times with the greatest difficulty
that sufficient number of buglars can
be found to accompany the different
commands, owing to so many of them
having been killed or wounded. When
fighting in the Lava Beds, they are in.
dispensable as among the rocks and
chasms, with strong wind blowing, Gas
is almost invaribly the case) the com.
mands of the officers could not be heard
one hundred yards, and the ground is
SO rough that line of skermishers can
not be seen for one-half that distance.
Fighting Indians in this Internal coun-
try is, to say the least, not pleasant.
venture the assurance that nine
tenths of the officers and men, in the
three days fight, of the 10Th, 10Th and
18th of April, never saw an Indian al
though they were within fifty yards of
them. One could see puff of smoke,
hear report of rife and feel a bullet
holesomewhere in his person, yet an ene-
my could not for an instant be discovered.
The fire of our men was almost always
directed to point where the puff of
smoke was seen to issue from the rocks,
and perhaps hundred bullets from our
rifles would strike the rocks in and
around the mark, but that was all. One
instant, the same Indian would be firing
at our men from the front, the next from
the flank, and the next perhaps from
the rear, and yet the Indian in his tran
sit would be invisible.
All through the Lava Bed the sur
face of the ground, or rather rocks, ii
torn up and cracked open by volcanic
action, leaving cracks and assures from
a few inches to ten feet wide and from 8
few feet to perhaps fifty or one hundred
feet deep, and these cracks or crevice.
run in all directions. AT places the sur
face rocks have fallen in obstructing the
passage Of man or Indian. Then there
, are natural or artificial passages from
! one of these assures to another, known
e only to the Indian, through which they
: can crawl if hard pressed. There are
f natural arches with regular cut blocks
of lava with key stone and all complete
/. through which one can pass into the
: bowels of the earth in some places for
| several hundred feet, at the end of which
is perhaps spacious cave capable OF
, holding fifty people. / know of one OF
3 this character in Jacks strong hold
? "Infernal chasams" with vengence.
) There is Captain Jacks stronghold
i and its Surroundings which no mortal
| man can find language to describe, COM
| posed of what is known among militia.
, ry men as black lava, which is composed
; of rocks, cliffs, ridges, bluffs, holes, hol
lows, chasms, caves, cracks, crevices and
ravines, and all piled together in the
greatest confusion imaginable. 1t is moi
to be wondered that the soldiers have
named this section of the Lava Bed
cold He'll" and its surroundings d" Hell's
Delight"
ao 70 of hot r,1Nsz