The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-08-18
EVADING INDIANS.
STORY OF THE "sIBLEY scouT"AND
ITS NARROW ESCAPE.


Days without Food
The "Sibley scout" Is famous among In
dian fighters as being one of the narrowest
escapes from savages now on record. The
hero of that hazardous encounter with the
dreaded Sioux passed the winter in com
pany with the writer and favored him with
a sketch of that memorable action of a
handful of troopers away up in the Big Horn
mountains, far from the main command
| 1t was in 1876, at the time of Custer's mas
Bacre when f. w. Sibley of General Crooks
etolumn, then young lieutenant, was or
Lered out with % mounted men to look
about the country and see what was going
on. Frank Grouard, a half breed, and one
| of the best scouts living, accompanied Sib
ley. The young officer was fresh from
West Point and rather inexperienced in
frontier warfare, 80 cautious General Crook
babe him heed the scouts advice should
emergency arise, and off the troopers start
ed almost at the very hour when Custer,
100 miles or so away, was being cut to pieces
by the cutthroats of Sitting Bull.
The scouting party was ignorant of this,
however, and travelled for two days with
out incident. AS they neared the noun
tains, Grouard who always travelled ahead
Of the soldiers, suddenly signaled to halt.
Indian signs were seen. From an eminence
commanding a vast area of rolling coun-
try little specks could be seen here and
there. The glass proved that each speck
was squad of several Sioux in war COS
tune. The specks began to concentrate.
They moved toward the trail made by the
troopers, but without discovering it for
long time. The Indians were ignorant of
the presence of soldiers. After holding a
powwow one of the savages rode toward
the telltale trail BY chance he discovered
it and returned to his comrades, waving
his blanket and gesticulating.
1t then seemed to the young cavalry of
ficer as if Indians sprang from the earth in
all directions to see what had been discov-
cred. There were swarms of them. But
happily they were miles away. Then be-
gan the race for life. The mountains Of
fered the only refuge Up and up scram-
bled the horses. On came the Indians.
They were seen occasionally along canyons
in the rear. The band had divided and
was trying to head off the soldiers and sur
round them. Suddenly, as the soldiers as
cended the side of a gulch and gained
small plateau, party of redskins sprang
at them, firing their rifles and yelling.
"The men scattered like Sheep" says
Captain Sibley, land l confess that for the
moment my heart was in my mouth. My
horse fell down an embankment, which
added to my discomfort. ordered the men
to fire even If they did not aim at the en-
envy, for rifle made noise like cannon
amid those hills Finally the men got to-
gether, and we retreated up a slope to bit
of wooded ground'which protected us from
the Indians fire. This was about O. O'Clock
in the morning The Indians began to
gather about us rapidly. The situation was
growing more serious every minute My
men were doing good work with their rifles.
1T pleased me to see one man shoot a
noted Sioux chief right through the heart.
That old sinner never twitched a muscle
after the lead hit him. We never knew how
many we killed. because when an Indian is
shot his comrades keep him out of sight.
Well we held them off for four hours, and
they were four hours of redhot work, can
tell you. My scout then told ME that the
Indians were on three sides of us. We had
one chance left to retreat, and this chance
was fast lessening. because fresh Indians
were coming.
81 did not like to abandon our horses,
but it was that or die. So the retreat was
ordered. inspected each man personally
to see that his equipment was all right,
but owing to my inexperience and the ex-
element of the moment / forgot the ra-
tions. Only one man in the command took
his rations. 1t was an hour or SO before
the Indians discovered that we had fled
BY that time we were up in the mountains
s,,, kl,,A l. 4
the other up. Horses could not follow us.
So for the time being the Sioux would
not strike us. Grouard took a mountain
trail, which we followed on foot for so
hours without a mouthful to eat.
"Such fearfully vigorous exercise without
food nearly killed u.s. Toward the end of
this perilous march we all became SO
weakened that we marched for 10 minutes
and then would lie down and rest. Several
of the MOTT robust men became insane, and
one or two never regained their wits
When we reached Crook scamp, / slept for
"a hours without waking, and during that
time the camp was sharply attacked by the
Indians. Even the roar of the musketry
did not disturb my sleep in the least. Not
q single man was lost on this trip"
Remarking on the peculiarities of plains
life, Captain Sibley said that it seemed
wonderful to him what remarkable in
stincts a half breed scout possessed. A
scout had led him across trackless waste
on dark night when the snow was falling
and the wind blowing. There was not a
landmark to guide the scout. The horses
were continually drifting to windward, as
1t were, in the effort to get their faces away
from the cutting blast. Yet in the face Of
all these difficulties the scout would lead
the troopers after marching all night to
the exact spot for which they started. and
he never failed.
A surprising popularity of Indians is
their carelessness about posting sentinels
when they go into camp, even when they
know that an enemy is near. Captain Sib-
ley has seen large Indian village com
pletely surrounded by soldiers in the early
morning without an alarm being given
In fact, the only movement in the Indian
camp as late as o'clock in the morning
was the appearance of an old squaw, who
came out of wigwam to change the posi-
ton of tethered horse.-Oor. New York
Tribune.
Collector of Uniforms.
In Ruda-Pesth lives an old tailor whose