The Democratic advocate., 1877-08-18


General Gibbon had severe engagement
with tho Nez Perees Indians, at Big Hole,
Montana, on the 9th inst. He attacked the
hostile camp and captured IT, after fight
lasting oil day, in which Captain Logan,
Lieutenants Bradley and Bostwieh, IL sol.
diers and FIVE citizens were killed The
wounded were Gen. GibbOn, Capt. Williams,
Lieutenants Coolidge, Woodruff and English,
(the latter seriously,) 30 soldiers and four
citizens. The Indians who fed at night must
have suffered terribly as 40 of their dead
were counted on half the battle field. Gen.
Howard reached the battle field on the lth,
and was to pursue the Indians us soon as his
command arrived. General Gibbon was to
take his wounded to Fort Shaw as soon as
medical aid and transportation we're obtained.
The news from the Indian campaign in
Montana and Idaho is as serious as It Is un.
welcome in all respects. The combined bands
OF Joseph, White Bird, and Looking Glass,
numbering at last accounts, between three
and four hundred, and more likely to be
greater than less by this time, not only re-.
pulsed most vigorous attack made upon
them by Gen. John Gibbon with one hundred
and eighty'two officers and men, but succeed.
J ed IN killing or wounding about eighty Of this
noble little detachment, and in carrying off the
horses, and, we fear, the supplies Of Gibbons
command. Gibbons force, however, was not
hopelessly entrapped in ambush as the gallant
Custer s was, for after a stubborn fight, lasting
all day long, he had about one hundred effective
men left and the Indians had disappeared from
hls front, beyond doubt very badly punished
but the proportion of casualties is terrible,
almost every second officer and private being
wounded or killed. OF the seventeen officers
two probable three) are killed and five
wounded, and of the men not less than sixty,
possibly eighty out of one hundred and sixty.
live, are an the list Of casualties. And an
additional distress about the whole matter is
that there was short supply Of food cloth
ing, medicines and doctors for the suffering
wounded, as well rs for the whole command.
Should the campaign continue for few
weeks more to be as bloody and fatal to the
brave little detachments of our soldiers who
do the fighting, as it has been thus far, it
will sum up in its disastrous details as heavy
an aggregate Of losses as that against Crazy
Horse and Sitting Bull, when Custer and his
command we're sacrificed.
These calamities are forcible remainders to
all OF us thatth character of Indian fighting
in these days is wholly revolutionized. There
was time when squad of cavalry could
charge through an Indian camp of two or
three times its numbers Of fighting men, and
capture or scatter the whole Of it, with very
little damage to the soldiers. That was be.
fore the Indians had the breech. loading rifle
and magazine guns, and was unusually on the
piains-seldom in the mountains, among
gorges, ravines, canons, passes, holes, like
where our men are fighting now. The Win.
chester and Spencer rifle, with their maga
zines of eight TO sixteen charges, that can be
fired "A az m raapsIa anA bn suI. II
ably broken country of the Rocky Mountain
region in which this Nez Perces war is carried
on, have changed the whole mode of fighting
to degree that makes an Indian among the
rocks with his weapon more than match for
the regular soldier, even when the latter also
has his Winchester, which is not always the
case. II is no longer sure thing that
hundred soldiers can attack hundred In.
dams IN broken country and whip them.
single Indian, with his magazine rifle,
under shelter Of rock, is in himself fortifi.
ed garrison, and the Nez Perces chiefs in this
last bloody fight had not less than three hun
dred and thirty such in their stronghold near
the Big Hole Mountain Pass. A considera
ton OF these circumstances and surroundings
not less than the heavy list of casualties, will
serve TO show the desperate character of the
attack which General Gibbon felt called upon
to make with his noble little command. One
hundred and eightytwo officers and men as.
saulting twice their number, well armed, in a
strong position in such country, is about as
serious venture as four or five companies Of
infantry to attempt to carry n regular fort by
storm. That General Gibbon brought one
hundred effective men out of such an action
IS as credible to him as capable commander
as the fight itselfis credita6e to the heroic
courage of all engaged in it.
The American army has no better or more
experienced soldier than John Gibbon. He
has been engaged in every variety of ser.
vice afforded by our American wars-in Mex.
leo, in Florida, on the plains, in the noun.
tAins, and on the great fields of war against
the rebellion. He knows how to handle
bodies of all troops, from skeleton company
OF infantry to q corps ddrmee, and has com.
manded all Of them in actual battle. He is
always where the hard fighting is going on,
and has been wounded twice before the late
battle in which he received his third wound