The Portland daily press., 1888-05-19

only sign of life that Immediately followed
was the wild rush Of pony past me into the
darkness. The fight was on, and we felt
better.
The Indians thus surprised by an unknown
foe and under the circumstances must have
been at a loss how to act or where. to shoot,
but their rapid recovery from such start
ling surprise was sure evidence that we had
no ordinary foe to master. 1t was possibly
three minutes before we got on answer, but
come In the right direction, and johnnie
Bruigher, third man on my left, in his
French Indian accent, Kissed out loud enough
for me to hear, "Jesu" The Indians could
not hear him, nor did they know how close
they came in their random. Vic passed
word to me and all, fire on the instant the
Indians fire again. 1t seemed an hour before
the Indians delivered another volley, but
possibly not over five minutes, when whiz
answered on the instant. Only one yell was
the answer. The Indians were evidently
standing on higher ground. The flash OF
their guns was observed, but not distinctly,
and it is reasonable to suppose they saw
ours, for volley after vollev followed in quick
succession. WeIneeded no instructions to
get down in the snow, nor did we wait for
any.
We allowed them to blaze away for some
minutes, when Vic passed the word to begin
firing. SO far as known Bruigher was the
only one hit. Our fire was delivered with
the slope of the snow, but it must have been
half an hour baf0re fourth yell told us OF
another victim. Our position in the snow
was cramping and terrible, and nothing but
the excitement could have held us in such
condition of cramped up misery. Vic passed
the word to all to fire after he did and then
crawl forward, but for every third man to
indicate by yell that he was hit on the next
yolley from the redskins, then crawl forward
as indicated until the enemy was discovered
and close in, after delivering general fire of
two shots each rapidly. Our first fire was de-
livered and instantly answered, followed
with yells of pain. This was answered by a
savage howl of exultation. Our next two
volleys found the Indians off their guard and
somewhat exposed, as between their shots
and ours an occasional yell was heard as we
fire point blank with every man yelling Snow
cold and everything else was forgotten when
Vic yelled in vioce heard by all the infer
nal din of strife and bowling blizzard around
us: "Close in with the knife"
Three Indians alone stood their ground.
Two fired, but missed, while the third made
a desperate blow at Ben Whitsett with his
gun as club. He broke Ben's arm, but Ed
McGilrery found the Indians stomach with
his murderous knife in an instant after.
The other two disappeared in the bowling
storm, and the fight was over. The teams
were sent after and managed to reach the
much needed shelter. Vic surveyed the big
hole in the bank and found evidence of a
large number of Indians. Three were left
and we got their hair Others were wounded
DuL went OUT INTO Tile SIOTu 10 0le Will eLcll
companions, preferring to risk their lives in
such storm rather than face their supernat-
ural enemy, as the knitted Indian expressed
1t before he breathed his last.
/ afterwards learned that the war party
we encountered and fought under such
thrilling and fantastic fatality, belonged to
Two Bears camp at Standing Rock 1t is
not known to this day, by me at least, what
ever became of the entire outfit. They had
their horses and blankets with them, but It
seems to me that not even an Indian could
live through that dreadful night without
some kind of shelter. Our stay at the coal
bank was pleasant, though not one Of pleas
ure. On the second morning after the storm
we retraced our steps and headed for the
cantonment on the little Missouri; where we
separated part of the boys went down to Ft.
Buf0rd, while Vic and myself headed for
Fl Keogh, then strong military post.
Talk about fights in the dark or fighting q
concealed enemy by day, or any other kind
of fighting man ever dreamed Of, but our
battle with the Sioux in that blizzard by
night was the toughest of all tough expert
ence / ever had on the frontier.