Wichita eagle., 1889-02-21
THE WICHITA EAGLE,
WICHITA, KANSAS.
A RUSTY OLD RIFLE.
Whereby Hangs a Tale of Murderous Red.
skins Robbers and Such.
EDenver Tribune Republican,

| iDeHNeT lTiDune- hepuDllCan.I
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 and 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 ragi.
ments were armed in 1864 and 1862 Most
OF the emigrantS to Colorado in these
years, too, used to arm themselves with
these guns, notwithstanding the fact that
it was well -nigh impossible to hit any
thing with them smaller than a house,
though they "slung lead" pretty rapidly
and made tremendous amount of noise.
They were a surprise to the Indians, who
had never known any kind of gun except
the muzzle-loader. and they became won
derfully afraid of "the guns that could be
wound up and fired all day"
When, how and by whom this gun was
lost will perhaps never be certainly
known. In the times when it must have
been lost fights and skirmishes With the
Indians were so common that no record
could now be made of them or the place
of their occurrence. The region around
Fort Morgan was prolific of them, but
memory fails TO tell of only one which oc-
CURED in the exact region where this
gun was found. 1t may have been
lost in that fight, in 1865. There are
two or three men vet in the State
who were engaged in it, and they may be
able to throw some light on the subject.
The Chey ennes and Arapahoes were then
on the war-path and were making things
lively for the emigrants who were cross
ing the plains. The old road run along
the Platte by Fort Morgan, and trains
were not safe which were not large and
well supplied with fighting men. Occa-
slonally train of very few wagons
would start across, and they generally had
some fighting experience before they
reached Denver. Some of these outfits
never reached here, and their drivers
bodies were left by the roadside to tester
and rot in the sun.
One of these small outfits left Omaha
late in the summer of 1868. 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 Hamilton. All had been soldiers
and were true grit, and near Fort Morgan
they had it tried. Not less than fifty In
dams, well mounted, attacks tn em about
ten mikes below the fort and captured and
burned their wagons, while the men es-
capped on horseback. They made for th
fort and kept UP running fight all the
way. When about two miles from the
fort, a squad of soldiers came out to their
relief They we're members of some
Michigan regiment, the one, if memory
serves rightly, 70 which Captain Meldrun,
the present Surveyor General OF Colorado,
belonged. About a mile from the fort,
Hamilton's horse was shot and ne was
wounded. A halt was made there. and
the Spencer carbiaes made such a "a cket
that they scared away the Indians, and
Hamilton was carried to the fort Here
covered and afterwards died in Park
County. 1t may be that the old carbine
Just found by Captain Farlev Is the one
be carried, and which did effective work
that hot September day. twenty years
400.