Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-08-26
A THRILLING ADVENTURE.
How Newspaper Man Cheated the
siouK---Retreat Of the Thirty Under
GTounrd, the scout.

How Newspaper Man Cheated the
siouK---Retreat of the Thirty Under
Grouhrd, the scout.
We we're looking death full in the face,
saysa correspondent of Chicago paper,
and so close that we could feel his cold
breath upon our foreheads, and his icy
grip upon our hearts. "No surrender"
was the word passed from man to man.
Each one of us would have blown out
his own brains rather than fall alive into
Indian hands. A disabling wound would
have been the same as death. have often
wondered how n man felt when he saw
inevitable, sudden doom before him. 1
know it now, for l had no idea of escape,
and could not have suffered more if an
Indian knife or bullet had pierced my
heart. So it was with all of US. 1t is
one thing TO face death in the midst of
excitement. 1t is quite another thing
to meet him in almost cold blood, with
the prospect of your dishonored carcase
being first mutilated and then left to
feed the fox and the vulture. Aftel a
man once sees the skull aud crossbones
as our party saw it on the afternoon of
July 7, no subsequent glimpse of grim
mortality can possibly impress him in
tie same manner Well, the eternal
shadows were fast closing around us; the
bullets were hitting nearer every mo-
ment, and the Indian yell was growing
stronger and fercer, when a hand was
laid on my shoulder, and a soldier
named Rufu7, my neighbor on the Skin
mish line, said: The rest are retiring,
Lieutenant Sibley tells us to do the
same" 1 quietly withdrew from the
friendly pine tree which had kept at
least dozen Indian bullets from
making havoc of my body. $50 to
your saddle bags and take all your ammu-
milton, said Sibley, as l passed him.
GIVE are going to abandon the horses,
The Indians are all around us, and we
must take to the rocks on foot. It is
our only chance" 1 did as directed,
but felt pang at leaving my noble
beast, which was bleeding from wound
in the side. We dared not shoot our
horses, for that would discover our
movement to the enemy. Grouard adj
vised this proceeding.
With CELEBRITY which was only posi-
bic to men struggling for life, and to
escape dreadful fate, our party obeyed
their orders, and, in Indian file, retired
through the wood and fallen trees in our
rear, toward the east, firing a volley and
some scattering shots before we moved
out, to make the Indians believe we
were still in position. Our horses were
evidently visible to the savages-a Cir
cumstance that facilitated our escape.
We ran for mile through the forest,
waded Tongue river (the headwaters) up
to our waist, and gained the rocks OF
the mountain range, where no Indian
pony could follow us, when we heard
five or six scattering volleys in success
! sion. 1t was the final fire of the Indians
before they made their charge at our
late "corral to get our scalps. "We
are safe for the present" said Grouard,
with grim smile, "but let us lose no
time in putting more rocks between us
and the White Antelope" We followed
his advice with feeling of thankfulness
which only men in such trials can ever
know. How astonished the indians
must have been when they ran in upon
the manned horses and did not get q
single scalp! Even under such circum-
stances as we were placed in, we had a
little laugh at their expense. But we
had escaped one danger only to encoun-
ter another. Fully forty five miles of
mountain rock and forest lay between
us and Crooks camp. We could not
carry single particle of food, and had
to throw away everything superfuous
in the way Of clothing. With at least
five hundred Indians behind us, and IN
counted precipices before us, we found
our rifles and one hundred rounds of
ammunition each, n sufficient load to
carry. The brave Grouard, the ablest
of scouts, conducted our retreat, and we
marched, climbed, and tumbled over
places that at other times would have
been impossible to us, until midnight.
Then we halted under all immense pile
of rocks on the top of the mountain, and
there Witnessed one of the most terrible
wind storms that can be imagined,
Long before dawn we were again stun
bling through the rocks and forest, and
at daylight reached the tremendous
canyon cut in the mountains by what is
called the eastern fork Of Tongue river.
Most of our men were too exhausted tc
make the descent of the canyon, sc
Grouard led us through an open valley
down by the river, on theleft bank, for two
miles as hard as we could go, for if dis
covered there by the savages, we coult
only halt and die together. Fortune
favored us, and we made the right banl
Of the stream unobserved, being thel
about twenty-five miles from Crook
headquarters. In our front were thu
plains of the eastern slope, full of hostil,
Indians, while our only avenue of es
cape was to climb over the tremendou
precipice which formed the right sid
of the canyon.
But the dauntless Grouard was equa
to the crisis. He scaled that giganti
wall diagonally, and led us along
mere squirrel path, not more than foo
wide, with an abyss five hundred fee
below, and with sheer wall of rocl
two hundred feet high above us. Afte
an hours herculean toll we gained tn
crest and saw the point of the mountain
about twenty miles distant, where la
our camp. This, as may be imagined
was blissful vision, but we were hal
dead with fatigue, and some of us wer
almost famine stricken. Yet the indie
fatigable Grouard would not stop unit
we reached the eastern foothills, wher
we made dive into the valley to obtai
water, our only refreshment ON tina
hard, rugged read. Scarcely had W
slaked orr thirst when Grouard led II