The morning call., 1891-08-16
camp HORROR"
The Story Of One Wild Night Among The
Indians.

You will wonder, of course, why a
soldiers camp should have received such a
name. but it is on the military records. and
no man will ever attempt TO explain it to
you without grieving over the recollections
aroused thereby.
1t 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 slaughtered 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
fianks, and night after night they crept
upon us like serpents and sent their silent
arrows into camp to md living targets.
One night, when the day had been full Of
excitement, and VIXEN it seemed as If the
Sioux had determined to retreat no further,
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 l heard light foot
step on the grass. 1t was dark night, with
now and then e gust of wind sweeping up
with lonesome sound, and l could not be
sure l heard Alright.
waited; with finger on the trigger, ready
to fire IL 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. fired into
the darkness. The report of his carbne
had not died away when loud, wild scream
raug out upon the night, and every man
who heard 1t knew that it was uttered by a
woman.
1t is good many years back to that night,
but remember every incident as well as If
only 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 we found an
amazing thing-a woman lying dead on the
grass with year-old baby In her arms !!
The sentinel had shot her dead il her
tracks, but the baby was still asleep, with
Que of her arms hugging it to her breast.
believe we saw Alright. 1t was a settlers
wife. as was afterward known, who had
escaped massacre more than forty miles
away. She had wandered around for five
days. suffering with hunger and thirst. and
had no doubt become crazed with anxiety
and exhaustion.
There were none but old veterans in that
camp, but there we're tears in all eyes when
that poor dead body was brought into camp,
and when the Weakened baby cried with
fright and hunger and held out its little
hands TO the very trooper who had fired
upon the mother. No one could blame him,
but he blamed himself. When he realized
what he had done he turned away from US
without word, walked away as men walk
in their sleep. We had washed the mothers
life blood off the baby's hands, and the Col
onel himself was feeding 1t with the cruel
hastily prepared, when there came another
shot and another alarm. The trooper had
gone just without the lines of the camp and
fired bullet into his own heart Remorse
had driven him to it.
in In net hot hOu hafAx
now grown to manhood, still lives, but the
two graves we dug next morning were years
ago leveled and obliterated from all sight
but that of God. At the last great day he
will awaken the dust Of their dead.-M.
Quad 10 the N. 7. World.