The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1876-08-04

before them, and the fifteen troopers
were kneeling or lying on the ground
waiting till the Indians were near nough
to receive their fire, trooper addressed
his comrade:
essay, Teddy, i guess the balls
opened"
-"Yis," says Teddy "and by the way
thin rid nagurs is comm it's openin'
wild a grand march,
"Teddy, if we only had the band
here, we could play Hail to the Chief
for their benefit
Begorrah, il they'll come little
closer to this little shootin' inshtrumint,
I'll play he'll wild their chief for me own
benefit
OF course II was easy to see what had
been the original plan by which the
Indians hoped to Kill or capture our
entire party. Stratagem OF course was
TO play prominent part in the quar-
rel. The few young warriors first sent
to arouse us from our midday
slumber came as decoy TO tempt us
to pursue them beyond the ambush in
which lay concealed the main body of
the savages; the latter were to dash
from their hiding place, intercept our
retreat, and dispose Of us after the
most approved manner Of barbarous
warfare.
The next move on our part was to
fight our way back to the little clump
of bushes from which we had beer so
rudely startled. To do this Captain
Moylan, having united his force.to that
of Colonel Custer's, gave the order,
I" Prepare to fight on foot" This was
quickly obeyed. Three-fourthg Of the
fighting force were now on foot armed
with the carbines only. These were
deployed in somewhat of circular
skirmish line, of which the horses
formed the center; the circle having
a diameter OF several hundred yards.
In this order we made our way back to
the timber; the Indians whooping,
yelling, and firing their rifles as they
dashed madly by on their fleet war
ponies. That the fire Of their rifles
should be effective under these crcum-
stances could scarcely be expected.
Neither could the most careful aim OF
the cavalrymen produce much better
results. Ii forced the savages to keep
at q respectful distance, however, and
enabled us to make our retrogade move
ment. A few of our horses were shot
by the Indians in this irregular skir-
mish none fatally however. As we were
falling back, contesting each foot of
ground passed over, heard sudden
sharp cry Of pain from one of the men
in charge of our horses; the next mo-
ment saw his arm helplessly athi side,
while crimson current flowing near his
shoulder told that the aim of the In
dians had not been entirely in vain
The gallant fellow kept his seat i'm his
saddle, however, and conducted the
horses under his charge safely with the
rest to the timber Once concealed by
the trees, and no longer requiring the
horses to be removed, the number Of
horseholders was reduced so as to al
! low but one trooper to eight horses the
entire remainder being required on the
skirmish line. Theredskins had followed
us closely step by step to the timber,
tempted in part by their great desire to
obtain possession of our Horses. IL sue
cessful in this, they believed no doubt
that fight on our part being no longer
possible we must be either killed or
captured.
Taking advantage of natural ter
race or embankment extending almost
like semicircle in front OF the little
grove in which we had taken refuge,
and at distance of but few hundred
yards from the latter, | determined by
/ driving the Indians beyond to adopt il
as our breastwork or line of defense
This was soon accomplished, and we
found ourselves deployed behind a
natural parapet or bulwark from which
the troopers could deliver carefully
directed fire upon our enemies, and at
the same time be protected largely from
the bullets Of the latter. The Indians
made repeated and desperate efforts
to dislodge US and force us TO the level
plateau. Every effort of this kind
proved unavailing. Several times saw
ages were discovered creeping STEALTH
" toward us through he deep grass in
our front, but the whistling Of few
carbine bullets about their ears changed
their determination. The Indians never
ceased during the fight to engage in
their favorte mode of warfare, ashing
at full speed along our front, firing and
draining our fire. Thus they continued
so long, thai fearing to exhaust our
supply of ammunition, an object that
our enemies had probably in view, d.
rections were given TO the troopers 10
reserve their fire as much as possible
consistent with safety.
The contest had now been going on
almost without interruption for several
hours. 1t had begun about noon, and
: it was now nearly three o'clock in the
J afternoon. / knew that we would
soon be released from all danger by
the arrival Of the main body Of the ex-
neditinn but q serinus nIIestion nre-