, 1885-03-04
IN OLD TIMER
Found on the Plains Near Fort siorgan.

Captain E. d. Farley, of Fort Morgan,
on the Platte river, the other day found
near the banks Of the river about a mile
below the fort an old, rusty aud storm
beaten Spencer carbine. 1t Is one of the
old pattern which was patented two years
before the war, and with which many Of
the cavalry and mounted infantry were
armed in 1864 and 1865. Most Of the
emigrants to Colorado inthese years, too,
used to arm themselves with these guns
Notwithstanding the fact that it was well
nigh impossible to hit anything with them
smaller than a house, though they ''slung
lead pretty rapidly, and made a tremen-
dous amount of noise. They were a sur
prise to the Indians, who had neye
known any kind Of gun except the muzzle
loader, and they became wonderfully
afraid Of the guns that could be wound
up and fired all day." Through the
dread that the Indians in consequence had
of them, they did good defensive and pro
tectiye service, though they were not de.
structive.
When, how and by whom the gun was
lost will, perhaps, never be certainly
known. In the times when it must have
been SURF lost, fights and skirmishe;
with the Indians were so common that
no record could now be made Of them OF
the place oftheir occurrence. The region
around Fort Morgan was prolific ofthem,
but memory fails to tell of only one
which occurred in the exact region where
this gun was found, Il may have been
lost in the fight, in 1865. There are two
or three men yet in the state who were
engaged in it, and they may be able to
throw some light on the subject.
The Cheyennes and Arapahoes were
then on the war path, and were making
things lively for the cmigrants who were
crossing the plains The old road rur
along the Platte by Fort Morgan, and
trains were not safe which were not large
and well supplied with fighting men, 0c-
c%asionly very few wagons would start
across, and they generally had some fight
ing experience before they reached Den
yer. Some of these outfits never reached
there, and their drivers bodies we're left
by the roadside to tester and rot in the
sun.
One Of these small outfits left Omaha
late in the summer Of 1865. 1t consisted
of two wagons and six men. The names
Of all have passed from memory, but there
was one named Cressey, another named
Mcfarland and an Irishman named Ham
ilton, All had been soldiers and were true
grit, and near Fort Morgan they had il
tried. Not less than fifty Indians, well
mounted, attacked them about ten miles
below that tort and captured and burned
their wagons, while the men escaped on
horseback. They made for the fort and
kept up a running fight all the way.
When about two miles from the fort, a
squad Of soldiers came out to their relief.
They were members Of some Michigan
regiment, the one, if memory serves right
ly, to which Captain Medium, the pres
ent surveyor general of Colorado. belong
ed. About a mile from the fort Hamil-
toms horse was shot, and he was wounded.
A halt was made there and the Spencer
carbines made such a racket that they
scared away the Indians, and Hamilton
was carried to the fort. He recovered
and afterwards died in Park county. II
may be that the old carbine just found by
Captain Farley is the one he carried, and
which did effective work hat hot Septem-
Der day twenty years ago.