The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-05-13
SCAlPED, BUT LIVING.
; Robert McGee's Terrible Experience
--Badly Wounded Seventeen Times.

hhutN SNNGhNtth
Correspondence of the San Francisco
ChroniCle.)
One of the queerest bills ever in.
troduced into Congress originated
with Senator Plumb of Kansas, for
whom that Stale is yet in mourning,
aud aptly illustrates the philanthro-
pic nature of the work which crowd
ed him out of life twenty years be-
fore his time.
The incidents leading up to the in
PRODUCTION of this bill were of the
startlingly atrocious nature that is
not often encountered outside the
covers of the dime novel
Early in the Fiftieth Congress Mr.,
Plumb introduced i'll the Senate
bill asking Congress 10 appropriate
from the Indian funds the sum of
$4,000 for Robert MCGEE of Kansas,
who lost his scalp at the hands of the
Brule Sioux in 1864 while acting as
teamster on a wagon train loaded
with government flour in transit over
the plains from Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas, to Fort Union, New Mexico
The story of Mr.. McGee's life is
intensely interesting and pathetic In
the extreme.
In 1864 slender STRIPPING of IA
years came tramping into Leaven-
worth seeking employment, by no
means uncommon occurrence. His
parents had died en- route to the
plains of Kansas and at Westport
lsnding the wagon train that had
given him shelter that far broke up,
and he was thrown on his own re-
sources.
The times were troublous ones
Bushwhackers and border rutlians
made life burden to all who came
in their path, irrespective of political
faith, and the Indians were scourg-
ing the interior.
Companies were being mustered
for frontier service against the In
dians and Robert MCGEE volunteered
and went with the others to Fort
Leavenworth to be mustered in. The
Government needed men just then,
and needed them bad, but Roberts
youth and diminutive size we're
against him. He was rejected by the
mastering officer.
The basis of supplies for the from
tier post was then at Leavenworth,
and the government was at that time
loading wagon train with -four for
Fort Union, N. M. This wagon train
was owned by contractor named H.
G. Barrett, but he would not take
the chances of the long and perilous
trip of over 100 miles across the In
dian-infested plains of Kansas and
through the mountains ravaged by
robbers and outlaws unless the gov
eminent leased the train outright or
gave him an indemnifying bond and
insuranc. against loss. The govern
ment gave the bond and Barrett pro-
ceeded to employ teamsters. Among
others Robert MCGEE, who had been
refused the right tn bear arms in de-
Tense of the government, was en-
gagged, as he supposed, as teamster
on government train. AS the Sc.
quel shows, it would have been a
head of hair to him had he been
among the troops.
This wagon train, fully equipped,
left Fort Leavenworth on July /,
1864, with an escort of government
troops. They proceeded over the old
Santa Fe trail, striking the Arkansas
river where the town of Great Bend
is now located, at the confluence of
Walnut creek and the Arkansas. This
region IS quite rough and was then
known as the Walnut hills. 1t might
well be called ozark and bloody
ground" for some of the most hor-
rible massacres in the history of
western Indian warfare were perpe-
trated there.
The wagon train was just eighteen
days out on its trip and had traversed
only little more than 800 of the
100 miles. There had been insight
ticant skirmishes with rowing bands
of Indians, but nothing to cause
alarm, and the vicinity of Fort Lar
ned was deemed sufficient protection
from serious danger.
The day had been torrid and the
mules and men were tired, and so
about 3 O'Clock on the afternoon of
the 18th halt was called and the
train went INTO camp. The escorting
troops stacked arms about mile dis
tant from the wagon train and in full
view of it.
The transfers should have been on
the lookout for surprises and proba.
bly, were, but secure in the thought
that regular attack is never made
at that hour of the day in Indian war
fare, the Inflated men prepared to
take their ease.
1t was four clock on the afternoon
of the 18th when 100 Brule Sioux,
under Little Turtle, with wild war
whoops swooped down from the Wal
mt hills npnn thu ~anon tro;, al