The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-08-04

serve ON the hill.
Col Reno ordered his men to
mount and cut their way through. A
wild scramble for life now began. II
was every one for himself. Indians on
every side rose up and fired at the fly
ing horsemen, and hundreds mounted
on swift ponies pursued the soldiers,
easily enough coming up with the heavy
American horses. 1t was hand-to-h hand
fight, one trooper having often as many
as five Indians after him. The troops
used their revolvers at short range,
emptying an Indian saddle at every shot.
At the ford about mile distant, a strong
force of Indians was found holding it.
But the troops dashed over them, crossed
the river, and began to ascend the high
bank opposite. 1t was a mere Indian
trail leading up the face of bald hill.
The Indians rallied and, taking shelter
in the bushes about the ford, opened q
deadly fire on the soldiers as they forded
and ascended the opposite bank.
On account of the narrowness of the
ford great crowd soon collected about
the crossing and became iammed there ;
and into this mass of men and horses the
Indians fired at short range. The loss
of life here was fearful. Lieut.. Hodg-
son fell while gallantly endeavoring to
get his men across the stream. Hodg-
son had already crossed the ford himself
and was ascending the opposite bank
when his horse was shot and rolled down
the bank with him. Detaching himself
from the fallen animal, he grasped the
stirrups of passing soldier to help him
self up the bank, and had nearly reached
the top when shot struck him and he
fell back, rolling down the bank and into
the water. AS soon as the soldiers
reached the hill overlooking this ford
they dismounted and opened fire on the
Indians to cover the crossing of their
comrades. The reserve, which had been
left with the pack train, was now re-
ported coming up and soon occupied the
hill above the ford. The Indians, who
had crossed the river both above and be-
low the ford, charged the hill, but were
repulsed and began to draw off. AS
soon as the command was col
lected, Capt. Benton, commanding
the reserve, ordered Capt. Weir to
push his company along the crest of the
hill, on the right bank of the river, and
see if he could find Custer, who had
gone in that direction with the five COM
panies. Can't. Weir pushed out about
mile, 6ghting heavily, when the In
dians became so strong III his front and
on his fanks that he sent word to Capt.
Benton that if he advanced any further
he feared he would be cut off and sur
rounded, and Capt. Benton at once or
dered hlm back. He returned with diff
ficulty, but succeeded in bringing off his
company with loss of five men. Col.
Reno, seeing large bodies of Indians on
the plain, ordered the men to put their
animals in the ravines and lie down be-
hind the crest of the little ridge that ex-
tended in all directions. The Indians
kept up brisk fire, but it was evident
that the masses had gone off somewhere,
and Col. Reno looked for sudden at
tack in some other quarter. Two hours
went by and there was no news from
Custer. All wondered where he had
gone or what he could be doing. An
other hour and then Col. Reno became
anxious about Custer and his command.
He was about to try and advance up the
ridge to look for Custer, but had 80
many wounded it took q whole company
to carry them. While he was debating
what was best to be done, and waiting to
hear from Custer, he saw large bodies Of
Indians coming up the valley, and soon
terrible attack began on his position.
The men had dug rifle pits as we'll as
they could in the hard ground, and were
very imperfectly sheltered. The Indians
charged on foot, and by tremendous
effort attempted to rout the soldiers
The fight for a few minutes was des-
perate in the extreme, and almost hand
to hand, some of the Indians, who were
evidently unarmed or out of ammuni-
ton, throwing stones by hand at the SOL
diers. Reno's men stood firm, and, after
desperate struggle, the Indians fell
back little. Two or three more efforts
were made to carry Reno's position, but
without success, and the Indians drew
off to hills completely covering them on
every side of the command. A large
body at one time got into ravine close
by, and Col. Reno ordered Capt. Benton
to charge them out of it with his COM
pany. The men sprang out of their
rifle pits and with cheer dashed for
ward, the Indians breaking and running
at their approach.
1t was now discovered that two or
three small hills near by were higher
than the one occupied by Reno and COM
manded it. On these hills the Indians
gathered and poured in a CALLING fire.
One of the hills overlooked the corral,
and from it the savages shot down scores
of fine horses and mules and killed and
wounded eleven packers who were with
the pack train. The fighting closed at
8 o'clock, when it became too dark to
see to shoot. But at dusk the Indians
were on all the hills in the ravines, and
the command was completely surround
ed. The soldiers worked. all night to
strengthen their position; butthe ground
was very hard, and they had nothing to
dig with with except their butcher
knives, hands and tin plates and cups
for shovtls. At daylight on the morn
ing of the Goth the battle was renewed.
The Indians opened with a tremendous
fire and deafening warhoop. The hills
we're black with them, and their numbel
was variously estipated at from 1000 to
1000, while Reno's command at tha
time did not number over 400 men
one-thIrd of whom had to protect the
horses and pack animals, and were in
great measure of no use in resisting al