Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-11-28
WARNING IN THE SKY.
How . Party of Soldiers Were Saved BY .
Mirage.

How = Party of Soldiers Were Saved by .
Mirage.
A remarkable instance in which
that mysterious phenomenon Of
nature known as the mirage was of
inestimable service to the United
States army, is related in the Chicago
Post by Captain Frank D. Baldwin Of
The Fifth Infantry. 1t was during
the Cheyenne campaign of 1874, and
the troops under General Nelson A.
Miles, were pushing along over the
Texas plain with much caution, con-
'cious that the hostiles were not far
alstant, hut unable to locate them
and dreading, as all soldiers must,
the sudden onslaught of the enemy.
1t was September, but the earth and
sky were bathed in a glare of white
heat. The air was like the breath
OF furnace and the men and horses
pressed on in SILENT logged endur-
ance, growing with every mile more
apDrehensive Of the fight before them
and searching the level sweep of sun
baked land for some trace of the
widest foes that an army or govern
ment has ever had to face.
General Miles alert and soldier
like, and with eyes long trained to
every sign, suddenly gave a low ex-
clamatiOn. He shaded his eyes with
his hand and looked intently into the
sky, and then called an orderly and
SEN the message ahead to Captain
Baldwin:
''The Indians are ahead of us.
They are reflected by a mirage. Move
forward with much caution and pre-
pare to fight"
The Captain looked up and there,
crawling across the sky like flies on a
ceiling, the nearest ones highest and
the long, OnmOving line trailing down
to the horizon, was the inverted re-
Election of the enemy. The soldiers
could distinguish the forms of the
horses and their riders; could see even
the waving of the eagle feathers on
the nearest warriors heads, and note
their gestures and warlike evolutions:
but could not estimate their distance
from them, as the camera of the sky
may receive impressions many miles
away as easily as it takes snap shot
at the shortest range. Travellers
across the continent have sometimes
seen distinctly the waters of the blue
Pacific shimmering and dashing
against the inverted Rocky Noun
tains, and it has been hard in not a
Few Instances to convince them that
the scene was an illusion, a trick of
the mirage, the mirror OF the air.
and that the ocean was separated
from the majestic hills by land enough
to home and yield the food for an
other mighty nation.
The soldiers, with the utmost rapid.
ity but in perfect silence, made their
final preparations for what they knew
awaited them, and watched with
anxious eyes the reflection in the sky,
One difficulty in Indian warfare is
the fact that the enemy always
greatly outnumber our own troops
They swarm like red hornets from
every side and no code of warfare but
to embrace every opportunity for re-
vengc. The line. broken with dark
patches where the savages were
thickly massed, still swept up from
the horizon, but so far they did not
Outnumber the resolute bluecoats to
whom their movements were revealed
in such a wonderful way; and when
at last whirl Of dust from the dis
lance, swirl of brilliant colors flash
ing IN the sun, faint, long, echoing
yell from their brazen threats an
nounced their actual, visible presence
in the cruel flesh, the boys were ready
for them, quite ready, and the battle
on that September day was won be-
cause of the timely warning given ty
what might truthfully be called. 'the
powers of the air."