The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-03-23
IN A WESTERN FORT.
The Experience mt Fort Pease whore
Forty Men have Spent Months Fighting
the Indians.

the Indians.
Fort Pease, the garrison which has
been relieved by the troops, is on the
west side of the Yellowstone river, six
miles below the mouth Of the Big Horn
river, and is strong fort. 1t was gar
risoned originally by one company of
forty men.
From the very first day of the occu-
pancy of the fort, the Indians have been
around it, and have amused themselves
by shooting at the inhabitants. The
colonists hadan old iron ntwelve-pounder,
and when their guns would not reach
their annoying enemies the border men
threw bolt of iron at the savages, and
laughed to see them run as the missile
went kissing and whistling through the
air. When the savages crowded and
came closer, stones, old boots, shoes and
pieces of wood were fired, and kegs of
tenpenny nails were made to answer the
place of grape and canister. The old
iron gun did not seem to be at all par
ticular about what it was loaded with, and
was most accommodating in hurting all
sorts of proiectiles, to the evident dis
comfort and annoyance of the enemy.
How the Indians came to allow the
colonists to establish Fort Pease and the
colony is explained by the fact that they
were away at the time the fort was built,
and it was some time before Sitting Bull
heard of it. Then he came over in great
wrath and ordered the fort to be pulled
down. but the colonists threw a bolt of
iron at his head from the old twelve
FOUNDER, and he retired to think about
it. Since that day Fort Pease has been
@bo &c 0f pr1l 20 ha
could not even get close enough to have
good look at it for that old gun which
threw cord wood, stones, spikes, boots,
shoes, nails and everything at him.
The forty men of Fort Pease have,
perhaps, had as rough an experience as
ever fell to the lot of any settlers of a
new country. Almost constantly since
June last they have been in a state of
war. At times they were entirely shut
up, but occasionally rallying, they
would sally out and attempt to drive off
their assailants. In these battles they
lost six killed and nine wounded out of
their little band of forty souls. The
battles of these men would fill a volume.
The last man from the fort was Mr..
Hubbell, who came with letters to the
commander of Fort Ellis, from the men
of Pease, asking him to come and get
them out of the country. The garrison
divided; thirteen men coming out with
Mr.. Hubbell and fourteen remaining. 1t
was not known if any party could get
through the Indian lines, but it was con-
sidered prudent to risk only half the
garrison in attempting to communicate
with the settlements and military posts.
A few days before Hubbell came out Mr..
Mccormack started to come out and
brought nine men with him to guard a
wagon. They waited week for storm
and started in the night in the midst of
binding snowstorm. The nine men
came forty miles with Mccormack, when
he told them to lay by until night and
then go back to the fort. They started
for the fort but have not been heard
from since, and it is believed they were
surrounded by Indians and all killed.
Mr.. Mccormack and the man with him
got through to Bozeman with the wagon,
laying by in the daytime and travelling
by night.
When the nine men who went out
with Mccormack did not return the men
at the garrison became uneasy and be-
lieved they had all been killed. Mr.
Hubbell was surprised to find McCor-
mack and the other man had got
through, and he now thinks the nine
men may have abandoned the idea of
going back to the fort and gone into the
settlements at some other point.
Hubbell reports that after Mccormack
left the Indians became very bold,
pushing up quite close to the walls of
the fort and conining the men entirely
within the stockade. The ammunition
for the twelve FOUNDER had given out,
and the besieged could drive the savages
off but short distance with their rifles.
One man, Jesse, who saw two Indians
warming at fire, and evidently watch
ing the fort, was so onraged that he
crawled out of the fort, and, creeping
up, shot one of the Indians dead and
wounded another, but his temerity cost
him his life, for before he could get
back into the stockade he was headed of
by other Indians, driven into some tim
Der, and there killed and scalped, The
Indians next morning called to the men
in the fort and said they had killed
Jesse and the body was lying over in the
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