The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1880-03-11
A FEAT ON SKATES.

: Uncapapas, six years ago, Company G.
of the -th regiment. was stationed on
the upper Missouri at Fort Galpin, where
| was in command.
speak of it as Company" G, though
in point of fact we could not then muster
more than seventeen men, and were al
together in a sorry plight-avay up there
in the midst of the two or three hundred
Sioux warriors, every one of whom had
better arms than the government fur
nished them.
Trouble had been brewing for four or
five months. 1t is hard to say just what
the cause was. In fact the Uncpapas had
been "good" Indians about as long as
they wanted to be, and were perhaps
spelling for little war.
Their first hostile act was to capture
| soldier who had received his discharge,
and was on his way east with party of
teamsters. He was way-laid while ante
| lope shooting at distance from his
party, and taken (still wearing his uni
form to one of their villages, was tor
tured and killed after their most ap-
proved fashion. Such at least was the
report.
Three or four weeks later the Indians
attacked a party of teamsters about
| fifteen miles from this same village.
Every man was killed and the wagons
were robbed. Next day the savages rode
to the fort and had the audacity to show
us the coats they had taken from the
poor men, some of them stained with
/ blood.
! OF course we were indignant and eager
| to retaliate, hut what could we do2 We
were so few that we did not dare to stir
| outside of the stockade, and we lived IN
| hourly expectation of an attack which we
had little hope of being able to resist.
| For the Uncpapas were now being joined
by numbers of the worst characters from
other neighboring tribes of Sioux, who,
like hungry wolves, were drawn to the
place where there was prospect of
bloodshed.
Meanwhile cold weather came on, and
the river froze over. There was not much
snow, but just thin layer of it over the
hard frozen ground and ice. For more
than month no couriers from below had
come to us, nor had L dared to send out
messengers. But at length it became
necessary, in view of the threatening
hostility of the Indians, to communicate
with Forts Union and Buforu, at all
hazards.
On the morning of the nineteenth of
November the men were called together,
and after telling theIa of my dislike to
detail one Of them for such a service, L
inquired whether either of them would
volunteer to-take dispatch to Fort Un-
iona distance of nearly or quite one
hundred miles.
There was hesitation, as had expected.
No one responded for some minutes
Presently private nau. Led Freeman A.
Starbird stepped from the line and said
he would try it if he con Id be furnished
with a good pair of skates.
Starbird was a young, man OF about
%, from sCme of the eastern states, New
Hampshire, / think. His name was
Freeman Amariah StarbIrd. / remember
the middle name distinc tly, because the
boys used loosely to call him Cam
Maria, from the similarity of the sounds.
He WAS a long egged, rather tall
youngster, with clear, brown complex
ION, black eyes and black hair; good
soldier, who took what; came and never
grumbled.
"Can you skate, Stfrbird?" asked.
"Oh, | used to skate little" said he.
Il rather guess can get down to Fort
Union by night-if l don't come to too
many open stretches.
"And the redskins don't shoot you
from the bank" some one in the line
added, very audably.
''You will hardly reach Fort Union in
one day" l said. But I was only too
glad to accept the offer of his services.
Nj. W, the Indian agent and
/ tarder at the post, had in his stock some
skates. From these Star bird selected a
| pair and meantime | wrote dispatch TO
Major P at Fort Union, informing
him of the peril we were in.
Within swenty minutes Starbird was
buckling on his skates at the river-bank.
An ordinary knapsack. stuffed with bread
and meat, and a revolver and knife in his
belt, completed his equipment. Jumping
10 his feet he circled out upon the river,
then coming round, he dashed past us,
with a smart military salute, and skim
med away down the broad stream, at.the
rate of fifteen miles an hour.
The sun had risen bright in the gauze-
like winter haze. Every bush sparkled
with frosty pendants. There was Just a
dust of dry snow on the smooth ice, not
enough to impede skates. Away went
our man round high bluff, at a bend,
half a mile below.
We hoped, and rather thought, that he
might not fall in with any of the Indi-
ans; and no very great uneasiness was
felt for him. Had we known, however,
what perils he was pass ng through that
morning, our hearts would have thrilled
with fear.
For the first twenty or twenty-five
miles below the fort, the river is very
crooked, flowing in series of great
bends, or ''bows," as they are termed,
first to north then to south. Round
these bends Starbird glided at racing
pace, for he was fresh and the morning