Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1879-10-31
MILK RIVER.
Incidents Of The Recent Siege.
New York Herald


Capt. Dodge's feat appears more adj
mirablc the more it is dwelt upon by
everybody except the modest captain.
A soldier with Payne thus speaks of
the arrival of Dodge and his colored
company.
1--WE were getting pretty Id tired
about that time. IL was the third MORN
ing after we were were cor. aled, and of
course we didn't know whether any of
our messengers sent out from camp
had struck help or not. Suddenly
that morning in the dusk we heard a
noise. Even by t2at time some If us
had begun to fear that the Indians
would charge us, and we all then sup.
posed it might be Indians. If it hadn't
been for the voice of John Gordon, the
scout, who was riding in the advance,
we might have poured in volley at
them; but you BIT your life there
wasn't no volley except cheers when
Gordon rode in with five or six darkies
alongside of him. Pretty soon he told
us what was up and what 10 expect, and
when Capt. Dodge came up at canter,
leading the rest of his men, we didn't
take much account, except to wonder a
little at the color of their faces. 1t was
the greatest marvel to me and al OF us
at this minute that the Utes didn't pour
in a heavy fire when they heard us
cheer. We forgot all about the danger
of exposing ourselves, and leaped up
out of the pits to shake hands all
around. Why" continued this sol-
der with curious naivete, eve took
those darkies in right along with us in
the pits. We let 'em sleep with us, and
they took their knives and cut off slips
of bacon from the same sides as we
did"
That's So" exclaimed another
trooper, "and one darkev has got q
knife with a dent in it that was made
by n Ute bullet when he was reaching
up to carve slice off of the hog forth
fication in front OF my trench"
Another cavalryman said: "You
ought to have seen them niggers and
watched how they behaved. You know
it wasn't any fun going for water even
in the night time, let alone daylight.
But one afternoon one moke got ter
ribly thirsty; the firing had stopped for
quite spell, and says he well. boss,
Use powerful dry, and somebody's got
to git water TO me, or Use got to git
water TO somebody so what does that
moke do but take two pals in broad
daylight and go down and bring EN-
back both full of water, and the Inguns
never lifted hair on him.
The colored sergeant of Dodge's COM
pany tells the story in this wise in terms
of natural pride:
We did not know what we were to
find when we went in there, whether ~
camp full Of live men or dead men. We
went in though, and they were mighty
glad to see us. We were rather sur
prised when we found how things lay
that the Utes did not fire on us as we
went in and shoot us all to pieces. But
with an amusing grin ii was early in
the morning and | expect they were de-
ceiyed by the color of our compilations.
At any rate, we got in, and there we
stuck. Afterward we had to go out and
make trenches for ourselves under s.
heavy fire. While we were digging,
and when we got about an inch below
ground, the reds saw the outlines Of the
new trench in the early dawn. and
made it so hot that we were glad to hop
out behind some wagons and wait till
we got another show. The water
continued the sergeant, twas the hard.
est thing to get Of all. Some call it 200
yards to that water; some more, less;
but l paced it offone night myself, and
it was 400 yards, or am white man."
For the first three days, according to
all the officers and soldiers who were
there, the situation was chiefly horrible
from the constant wounds and death
struggles of the poor animals. which
they could not in any way protect from
the Indian fire. every few minutes"
says one, "you heard the dying gurgle
of horse or mule, and although we
fastened them as securely as possible at
night their pangs were such that they
would often break away after being hit,
threatening the mems lives in the
trenches. Once n wounded horse leap
ed in his agony right into the pit we had
dug for the wounded, where Lieut.. Pad
dock and seven men were lying at the
time. 1t was miracle almost that he
did not trample them to death AS 1T
was we all opened a terrific fire on the
bluffs so as to make the Utes stop firing
and under cover of this fusilade lot
of our boys jumped up and hauled the
horse out of the trench. We had to
watch out continually to give dangerous
ly wounded horses and mules their
ouietus. If they got governing after re-
ceiving an Indian bullet, and we could
see that they were named or fatally in
jured, the soldiers would aim and fin
ish them. 1t was awfully hard once in
a while. A friend ofmine got three flesh
wounds in trying to save his horses life.
Finally, the horse was shot through one
of his forelegs, Instead of writhing
around like the others, he came hob
bling up to the edge Of the pit where
Joe and l were, and looked down at Joe
as if to say, Help me for Gods sakeI'
Joe turned to me and said, says he.