The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-11-08
SEIGE OF THE NEZ PERCEs.
shcidents of the SeiRe of the Indians MS De-
.cribcd by nm Onicer Held as Hostage
Traits of the Nez Perces and the Cbey-


A correspondent of the New York
Herald, who was with General Miles
command during the battle of the Big
Pan Mountain and the subsequent sur
render of Chief Joseph, gives some in
teresting incidents of the seige He says
Among the commanders of companies is
Lieutenant Lowell A. Jerome, son of
Lawrence Jerome, of New York City,
who distinguished himself in the action
in manner which has been partially de-
scribed to you. His distinguishing feat
during the battle, one that entities him
to the highest credit as an officer, was
the saving of the Seventh Cavalry from
absolute humiliation. While the In
dians, after Captain Hale's death, were
pouring q deadly hurricane of lead upon
the Seventies battalion, Lieutenant
Jerome, coming up on the opposite side
OF the cut, bank, or ravine, assailed the
savages with a deadly fusilade which
continued for two OF three minutes,
drove them into their pits, and allowed
the remnants of the Seventh Cavalry to
withdraw.
Lieutenant Jerome went into the Nez
Perces camp as hostage while Joseph
was with Miles. The exchange is thus
described in the Lieutenant's own words
During the day General Miles decided
to surrender Joseph. SO he was brought
down under cover of white flag to a
space half way between the Nez Pelces
position and our own. The General him
self went with Joseph and was accom-
panied by one of his staff officers.
There were three Indians along with me-.
/ suppose that was an interesting posi-
tion. With the suspicion of treachery
on both sides, thirteen of our men lay in
their trenches scarcely forty rods off,
with the rifles held at dead rest ON
Joseph and my three Indian guards.
More than twenty Indians had an equally
sure sight over their Winchesters and
Henry's straight at General Miles and
me. [ have since learned that Miles
staff officer held cooked revolver in his
bosom ready to fix Joseph if should be
harmed. The transfer passed without
trouble, and L was restored to the COM
mand of my company"
Lieutenant Jerome gives several vi
vacious incidents of the battle. From
the first General Miles had ordered all
the troops to push forward their intrench-
ments that night in order to get nearer
and nearer to the enemy. When Lieu
tenant Jerome's line was within forty or
fifty yards from that of the Nez Perces
it was so arranged between the soldiers
and the Indians that either side being
over-fatigued from lying at full length in
the rifle pits might, by showing white
flag, arrest the firing and arise and
stretch their limbs and walk to and fro
within full sight of each other at that
deadly distance. Such q truce with
white men on both sides has been fire.
quent in American warfare never be-
fore had American soldiers such conf
dence in Indian magnanimity as they
were justified in exhibiting on this oc-
casion.
Why" said Lieutenant Jerome,
those Indians are the bravest men on
this continent. There, in the first night,
when our men lay wounded after the
charge when we lost so many, they
wouldn't kill wounded man. All they
wanted was his gun and his cartridge
belt. Several times the wounded would
rise up in sitting posture and stretch
themselves. The Nez Perces never fired
at them yet if one of our men in the
uICuCISS SLOWtu 1--we W
ten bullets came whizzing at it on the
instant.
Once" said Lieutenant Jerome,
"when General Miles was riding along
the line, an Indian jumped up and
raised his revolver at him and shouted,
"'We fight; we do, General, you
bet p"
Throughout the action there does not
(according to the testimony OF ell the
officers of Captain Tyler's command, in
Guiding Captain Tyler himself, who
We're assembled in my tent to-night) ap-
pear to have been single instance of
mean or unheroic conduct on the part of
these manly Nez Perces. They fought
merrily-even as merrily as they lived
and died cheerily, with hardly groan
and never complaint. So extraordinary
a balance of the faculties, so complete
an Indifference to fate, such an apparent
delight in mortal danger, have seldom
been associated, at least in the annals of
red men, with an absolute and knightly
chivalry towards their foes.
The twenty or more Cheyenne scouts
who headed General Miles advance did
not emulate this chivalry, but rivalled
VI tlc NtA ut
Cheyennes fought in sheer love of fight
ing from the moment Joseph's village
was discovered they doffed their super
fuous wear, donned their war paint and
rushed hi-hi-ing to the fray. Lieutenant
Jerome describes their feats as marvels
of hardihood and daring. Whenever,
during the four days of the engagement,
the fire slackened they fell to the rear
and there took to comparative vaga-
bondage, but when the fusilade of maya
zine rifles rolled around the line they
rushed to the front and recklessly ex-
posed themselves.
"They fought" says Jerome, "for the
JOY of it. At one time four of them
formed a combination queerer than any
Wall street combination l ever heard of.
Three of them burrowed in a pit and put
up "a corner ON Joseph's whole baud.
The fourth one-the man who did the
most to win the corner-then used to
jump up and leap on to his horse, and
ride out to draw the Nez Perces fire.
This bravado would, of course, oblige
the Nez Perces who fired at him to ex-
pose their heads above the edges of their
own trenches, whereupon the riders
three companions would lift up and give
them fits"