Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1891-11-26
ITO BE Continued
A LEGEND OF CAMP HORROR.
. Terrible Incident of Bivouao in TIN

A Terrible Incident of BivOuae in the
Country of the Sioux Indians.
You will wonder, of course, why sol
dier's camp should have received such
name, but it is on the military records,
and no man will ever attempt to explain it
to you without grieving over the recollec-
tions aroused thereby,
It was out in the Indian country, on the
Kansas frontier, when the red men were
making such fight against the troops
sent out after the close of the rebellion,
They had swooped down on the Smoky
Hill stage route and scalped and slaugh
tered right and left, and our command
had been hurried forward to protect such
settlers as might have escaped and to open
the route again Day after day the red
men lowered on our hanksi and night
after night they crept upon us like ser
pents and sent their silent arrows into
camp to find living targets,
One night when the day had been full OF
excitement, and when it seemed as if the
Sioux had determined to retreat no fur
ther, the sentinels were warned to extra
vigilance We knew that peril menaced
us, and we who stood sentry after midnight
peered into the darkness with bated breath
and were ready to fire at the first suspicious
sound At o'clock thought | heard
light footstep on the grass, 1t was dark
night, with now and then gust Of wind
| sweeping up with lonesome sound, and |
| could not be sure heard Alright.
| waited, with finger on the trigger
| ready to fire if heard the footstep again,
| but it did not come to me- Scarcely ten
minutes had passed when the sentinel on
my right, who was only thirty feet away
| fred into the dark ness. The report of his
carbine had not died away when loud,
wild scream rang out upon the night, and
every man who heard it knew that it was
| uttered by woman.
1t is a good many years back to that
night, but remember every incident as
well as If f~0nly week had passed Now
and then | have dreamed of it, and that
scream has aroused me and taken all my
nerve AS soon as we could investigate VIZ
found an amazing thing-a woman lying
dead on the grass with year-old baby il
her armsl The sentinel had shot her deat
in her tracks, but the baby was still asleep
with one of it's mothers arms hugging /
to her breast.
We looked and looked, and it was hare
TO DelleV6 we saw dTlBub. Ii WIS SetCIeT
wife, as was afterward known, who haC
escaped massacre more than forty mile
away She had wandered around for fiv
days, suffering with hunger and thirst, ant
had no doubt become crazed with anxiet,
and exhaustion.
There was none but old veterans in tina
camp, but there were tears in all eyes whel
that poor dead body was brought int
camp, and when the wakened baby cried
! with fright and hunger and held out it,
little hands to the very trooper who ha,
fired upon the mother. No one coul,
blame him in the least, but he blamed him
self When he realized what he had don
he turned away from us without wor,
: and walked away as men walk in thei
sleep
We had washed the mothers life bloc,
7 off the baby's hands, and the colonel him
self was feedingit with the Cruel hastil
prepared, when there came another sho
and another alarm The trooper had gon
Just without the lines of the camp ant
fired bullet into his own heart Remors
had driven him to it.
Somewhere in the west that boy baby
now grown to manhood, still lives, but tn
t two graves we dug next morning wer
years ago leveled and obliterated from al
, sight but that of God At the last grea
day he will awaken the dust of their dead
J M Quad In New York World.