New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-08-26

word. when Instantly bullet took
the'captain through the arm and We
parted company without much ceremo-
ny. This was the second wound the
captain had received. having lost 3
finger in the first attack. When the
bullet hit him he said: ..This makes
two, and showed me the stump of his
finger.
About 2:30 o'clock in the afternoon
Asa White and Newell Houghton, of
whom have before spoken, came to
me and said: Judge, in about two
hours from now the Indians will bag
u.s." Ireplied that it looked probable.
and added. What do you propose to
do to prevent it?" (Let me here say
that both OF these men were unlearned,
but men of great frontier experience.
White was married to Winnebago
woman, and all his life had been spent
on the border. Houghton was the best
deer hunter on the whole frontier, and
have been told that the steamer
Antelope, which for many years used to
ply between St Paul and Shakopee, was
built from the earnings of his rife.)
Their answer to my question was, 1--WE
must make for the Cottonwood tim
ber." 1t needed no reflection on nv
part TO satisfy me that their proposed
remedy was utterly untenable, and at
once told them SO; to have left the
town and struck for the Cottonwood
timber would have been to convey l..
500 people, most of whom were wound
ed and dying. across an open prairie
two miles wide, with an enemy largely
outnumbering our fighting men, ready
to concentrate upon us and destroy us.
said to them, ''Our stronghold is
right where we are, if we can't hold
this town with its buildings and barri.
cades we are lost think we will STAY
where we are" but / added, tive must
drive the Indians out of the lower part
of the town. Get me forty or fifty vol
unteers and with your aid
WE CAN DO IT,
They saw at once that their proposal
was impracticable, and in about an
hour they collected about fifty men
who were ready to attempt the critical
effort of the day, that was to drive the In.
dians outof the lower part of the town.
You must know the ground to real
ize the situation. From the bench on
which stands the main town to the riv-
er is low bottom. Across this bot
tom, from mill, was road; where
this road met the high plateau, it be-
came a cut, and was sunken road for
about one or two hundred feet. Just
at this point was grove of trees, and
this point was about quarter of
mile below our barricades.
We had seen the Indians congrepat.
ing at this point, and felt certain that
they contemplated rush upon the
town as soon as they deemed they had
sufficient force to attempt it. We ex-
pected to find the Indians in the sunken
road. The word to charge was given
and we sailed out with yells that
would do credit to any Indians on the
continent We had mistaken our cal
culations, however, and found the In
dams in swail about half way between
our point of starting and the place
where we expected to find them. They
had crawled around the edge of the
bluff and gained this point without our
being able to see them. When we I'M
covered them think there were about
seventy to one hundre. of them and
distant moreover forty or fifty feet The
surprise was mutual. Both parties
opened fire at once. We continued
our rush and they fed. We chased
them, firing as rapidly as VIC could, for
about q quarter of mile and to a
point beyond any building then remain
ing. We then took cover in lot of
saw logs, which lay in the road, and
held them under fire until dark, when
we sent men back with orders to burn
every house between us and the barri-
cades, which orders they carried out
to the demolition of every building and
fence that was standing. We then re-
turned to the town, feeling assured
that we would not be attacked over an
open country. That night rifle pits were
dug outside of the barricades, and the
fighting was kept up all night. but no
assault was made upon us of formid-
able nature.
IN THIS CHARGE
we lost four men. Newell Houghton, an
old man from Nicollet county named
Summers. and two others whose names
have escaped me. Houghton's body
was not found. nor was it known that
he was dead until later. 1t was dis
covered in this way: A man came to
me with rifle, saying ''Here is a good
gun some Indian has lost in the STAN
pede." White ut once recognized it
as Houghton's and said, '.Houghton is
dead. He never let that rifle 60 out of
his hands while alive A search veri-
fed the prediction.
When Sunday morning opened upon
US very few Indians were in sight,
but enough were around to make it
very dangerous to remain exposed, but
by afternoon they had all Withdrawn to
the northward in the direction of the