Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-09-18

rally his forces he advanced and spread out
! III a crescent before the grove. and not
musket shot away. There his ranks rest
ed, as If to keep US from breaking through
although we had an open route at our
backs. As he was now within reach of
the sings. | stationed 100 men on the
hillside. and instructed them as to the
elevation. Each had an attendant to fur
nlsh missiles, and every stone fell among
Mpstau forces. They could not account
for such a rainfall, and after number of
them had been hurt all moved back out of
range.
had force enough to move down and
attack. but darkness had now come and
no steps could be taken. | knew that
Mpstau would remain quiet during the
night. as he had many wounded to attend
to and must pefect some new plan of bat
tie. and spent good share of the night
moving my troops to new positions. and
seeing that all understood the orders Civ
en-. They had fallen back to the cover of
timber on our left, and during the night
the sky was lit up by the glare of his camp
fires. | divided my forces into three COM
mands. moved out entirely from shelter
and when morning came we moved down
on Mpstati from the north. northeast and
northwest. | was in command of the CEN
ter and probably thinking my 400 men
constituted our entire force he drew on
his command on the edge of the woods to
receive Us. | sent forward skirmisherS
who created considerable loss and confus-
ION. and then advanced in two battle lines
They fired two voll,ys at US as we a3vanc-
ed, but not man was hit. We then
fired IN return and created great loss and
disorder. Mpstati ordered a charge, but
Just as 1t Was to be made our thanking par
ties came up and opened fire, and with
yells OF terror and dismay his force broke
and scattered, and every man became
fugitive. The rout was complete. Had
| been satisfied with it | could not have
restrained my men from pursuit. Had we
been defeated every officer would have
been tortured to death, aud every soldier
been taken as slave. They could not see
why any mercy should be shown invaders
who had come with such evil intent, and
the pursuit was therefore lasting and bit
ter. 1t was continued for fifty miles in
some cases, and of the army invading our
territory not more than fifty escaped We
secured every musket. hundreds of spears
and war clubs. great lot of camp stuff,
and Mpstati himself was one of the dozen
prisoners brought in.
This battle was a great one, and its re-
suits were far-reaching 1t broke up
great rendezvous for cattle stealers and
slave hunters, and repopuIated a district
half as large as the state of MARYLAND.
which had been abandoned for years. 1t
assured permanent peace to no less than
ten different tribes of natives, some of
whom had been compelled to pay Mptasti
large tax each year. The captives were
pl ICED under strong guard until our peo-
pie had had a grand blowout over the vic.
tory. The captured chief was big six
footer 40 years of age, and of great will
and determination. | had several long
conversations with him through an in
terpreter, and at his request he was taken
out for a survey of the battle ground. He
had never seen anything but natural de-
lenses. and he at once pronounced the idea
good one. The fact of so many of his
men being killed and wounded by musket
balls was great surprise to him, as his
own men could never be trained to fire
steadily. He had fought many battles,
but it had never occurred to him to find
artificial shelter for his men, or to divide
his force He anxiously impaired where |
had learned the art of war, and did not
believe me when | told him that | was a
runaway soldier, who had never even
marched with the soldiers. When asked
him what he thought his fate would be
he promptly answered.:
The same that yours would have been
had won the victory
He was doubtless honest In this, as he
was man of brutal and wicked tempera-
ment, and was never known to show the
least bit of mercy to an enemy. After the
jubilee was over it was left to me to name
the manner in which the prisoners should
die. All were defiant and impudent. Had
they been otherwise, believe | should
have helped them to escape, as several OPP
portunities to do so occurred during the
ten days refused to name the manner
of death. and on the day they were ex-
ecuted went up on the mountains and re-
manned away all day. When | returned
all was over, and the bodies had been
dragged away for the beasts of prey to de-
YOUR that night.