Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-11-20

| nunJers ana Lrappers VINO wanted 70 ge1
sight OF that country. The distance from
the fort to the river is about sixty miles
| and all open country, and we were accom-
panied by two wagons and an ambulance
While we did not number over fifty all told
each man was heavily armed and well
mounted, and ilve hundred Indians would
have hesitated to attack us in the open. All
the scouts were paired OF, and the name OF
my partner was Calvin. He was a rough
and rugged man of fifty, and most of his
| life had been spent IN the Indian country
| He had had dozen of CLOSE calls, and the
scars he could show in proof counted up q
dozen or more. did not know until we
| had started on the march that he had pre-
pared any trick against the Indians, who
would be sure to menace US, but at our first
camp he showed me a canteen OF whisky
which he said was poisoned. He had about
half pound OF smoking tobacco in a bag
| and poison had been mixed with this
While the rest Of US hated Indians as bad
as Calvin did, no one else had prepared any
such weapons. Indeed it was not looked
upon as exactly honorable in white man.
We reached Rio Pccos, opposite Corporal's
Peak OF the CASTLE Mountains, without be
ing annoyed by the Apaches, although we
saw numbers of their scouts and had nc
doubt that considerable force was hang
| ing on our tanks. We made our camp In q
defensive spot, and, after a rest, small
parties secuted up and down the river Ia
examine the lay OF the country. On the
third day Calvin and myself, accompanied
by corporal and two private soldiers, rode
up the Pecos about ten miles, crossed over,
and started 10 come down on the other
side. The ground was moro broken
on the north side, and we had
hardly turned TO go down stream
when we found the redskins more
numerous and far holder. The soldiers had
seven-shooter csrbines and Calvin and
had Winchesters, and we felt no alarm
even when we knew the Indians TO number
fully one hundred. An ambush was the
only thing TO pc dreaded, and we got into
one in spite OF our vigilance. Two miles
below where we crossed the river the
ground became very rough and was out up
into gullies. This extended from the river
back as far as we could see, and we could
not flank 1t. We could have crossed the
river here, but our orders were 10 come
down on the north bank. Every man knew
that IL the Indians meant TO attack they
would do it here, and the first notice would
be volley from one of the blind ravines.
In this emergency we strung out in single
file, the corporal leading, Calvin next, I
and fifth. We had not advanced forty rods
into the "bad ground" and had not caught
sight Of so much as an Indians feather
when we received a volley from twenty
five Indians in a gulch. They were only
two hundred feet away, and one would
have thought every man Of US would have
been riddled. On the contrary, however,
the last three of US were untouched, and
not one of our horses was hit. The corporal
and Calvin were both wounded and their
horses killed. simultaneously with the
volley hundred or more Indians exhibited
themselves in front and on our left, shout
ing and firing. In such an emergency
every man acts for himself. The three Of
US wheeled and retreated as fast as our
frightened horses could run, all the time
under fire. But as soon as we had cleared
the "bad ground we took shelter In q
small grove on the edge Of the stream and
prepared for defense. We were charged by
sixty or seventy warriors on foot, who per-
haps imagined US badly frightened, but we
pegged away at them so steadily that they
broke and took to cover, leaving six dead
men In plain view.
This was at ten o'clock IN the morning,
and we did not get another glimpse of an
Indian until four in the afternoon, when /
climbed one Of the trees and saw body Of
them making on TO the mountain. l then
made a scout Of the neighborhood, and soon
ascertained what had occurred. Both
Calvin and the corporal had been put to the
torture, but they had been amply re-
venged. The six we had killed lay where
they fell, as our fire commanded the spot.
We found, in a sort of pocket, covered with
bushes and limbs, eleven other dead, every
one OF whom had died OF poison. One was
Chief White Bird, noted warrior, and the
others were veteran warriors Of his band.
The bottle was empty and the tobacco bag
had been turned wrong side out. Three or
four years afterward met an Apache who
was present on that occasion and he said
that White Bird and his chosen few drank
the whisky and then smoked their pipes
while the others were making the prisoners
ready for torture. The corporal died before
they could make ready, and when the
warriors began to die Of the poison Calvin
was soon dispatched by blow of toma-
hawk. The bodies were badly mutilated
but it was mostly after death. The band
lost seventeen to our two, and was so dis
heartened that it retreated and went into
mourning for weeks.-N. Y. Sun.