The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-05-31

| knew. Twenty days and nights had
passed, and Ibegan to reckon up what
| had done in this world and the time
had left to stay in it. / got through
that night some how or other, but i
guess my head was little off next day,
for / seemed to hear voices all. around,
and didn't feel the bitter cold as / had
before. An of a sudden I heard foot
steps cracking on the show outside,
and knew they were real, but couldn't
call out for the life of me. 1t was George
He crawled slowly into the dug-out and
came alongside of me, where lay with
my eyes shut, for l couldn't look up at
first, and when did then-welI, we did
MT either of us say any thing for awhile.
You see he had reached the settle
ments all right, and had started back all
alone with an OK team-people didn't
care about travelling around much that.
winter On the second day out an aw-
full snow storm commenced, and he
struggled and Numbered against it till
his team wouldn't go any further He
didn't give up, however, but fought his
way along whenever he could get start
out of his team, although he made up
his mind at last that he'd find nothing
of me but the bones; and this is how he
came to be so late. He took me down
to the nearest fort on the cart, and there
they set the leg over again. You can
see the lump on it still. No, that's a
bullet wound, and that's where an arrow
struck" 81 1sUt
A TICKLIsH SITUATION.
On another, but similar, occasion,
VIII told the following story:
1--WE were coming back from the
Mormon scrimmage, when Sidney John
ston had command, you know, and
was sort of assistant in the wagon train.
was quite lad then. Lou Simpson
was Brigade Wagonmaster, and had
charge of two trains, which travelled
about Is miles apart, and his second in
command was George Woods. About
noon one day Simpson, Woods and l
started from the hindmost train to over
take the one in front Knowing there |
were Indians around, we kept the |
sharpest kind of lookout, but |
didn't see any thing until we got near
Ash Hollow, on the North Platte, some |
eight miles from the train we'd left, |
when a band of about sixty Indians rose
out of a gulch half mile off and came
for us. Simpson, who understood that |
sort of business, made us jump off and |
put our mules together, head to tail, in
the shape of triangle, and he then shot |
them dead in their tracks with revol-
yer. This made an all around breast
work, behind which we lay. Each of us
had a heavy muzzle-loading rifle and
two Colts reyolvers, SO we made it pref
ty warm for the reds; but it was right
on the smooth prairie, and they charged
up within a few yards of us, hitting
Woods hard at the first fire. He could
MT do any more fighting, poor
fellow, but he lay on his back and load
ed while we did the shooting. The In
dams didn't have any guns at that time,
and they didn't charge right over peo-
pie as they sometimes do nowadays, but
they'd ride up within a few yards, pop
off their arrows, and circle away, throw
ing themselves on the off side off their
ponies. After keeping up this business
until almost shutdown, they gave it up
and squatted out of range, evidently de-
termined TO starve us out, and
so we had no way of getting water.
They of course thought we were stray
glers from the train they had seen pass.
During that afternoon we killed twelve
Indians, besides wOunding number,
for they would ride up so close that we
could give it to them with revolver in
each hand. In the morning they made
a few charges, just enough to keep us
excited, but the holding-on policy was
what they meant. At II O'Clock that
day the train hove in sight, and the In
dams, whooping like devils, made one
final charge, and left in short order.
That is about the tightest scrape l ever
got caught in, and it did not make me
love the Indians any better, you may be
sure.''