Omaha daily bee., 1895-11-24

cessfully repeled by the judicious and brave
action of McClernand and his men. The
ponies were all finally gathered up in Sc
cluded valley in the rear OF the command and
proved to be 800 in number.
That afternoon our train came up under
| the escort of Captain Brotherton, and this
escort. together with the Napoleon gun, was
! used in Strengthening the line then encircling
| the Indian camp, making escape doubly difii-
| cult.
AS result of the desperate encounter I
| found that the two officers before mentioned
| and twenty soldiers had been killed My
assistant, Adjutant General George w.
| Baird, while carrying orders and inspiring
| the command with his own bravery, was
| severely wounded, his right arm being broken
| and part of one ear shot away. Besides Cap
| tains Moylan and Godfrey, Lieutenant
Romeyn was also injured while leading a
| charge, together with thirty-eight soldiers.
DANGER FROM SITTING BULL.
The Indians occupied a crescent-shaped
ravine, and it was apparent that their posi-
| tion could only be forced by charge or a
siege The first could not be accomplished
without too great sacrifice, while the latter,
in my judgment, would be almost sure to
result satisfactorily. My one concern, then,
| was whether the Sioux Indians whom knew
to be encamped under Sitting Bull north of
the Canadian boundry line, some fifty miles
distant, and to whom the few Indians VINO
had been able to escape from the village
had fed might not come to the assistance
of the Nez Percas. During the last eight
months numbers of disaffected Indians who
had been driven out of the valley of the Yel-
lowstone and its tributaries. had sought
refuge on Canadian soil and Joined the large
| camp of Sitting Bull, thus greatly increasing
his force. / afterwards learned, however,
that when the Nez Perces's mess sngers
reached the camp of Sitting Bull. instead OF
coming to the assistance of the besieged, the
whole camp, numbering between 1000 and
2 900 Indians, who evidently had not forgot
ten their experiences during the autumn and
winter, Immediately moved forty miles farther
back into the interior OF the Canadian terri
tory. But as did not know this fact until
several weeks later l was bound to make
provision to meet this large body OF Indians
should they advance 10 the assistance of the
Nez Perces.
!, therefore, desired that the military au-
thorities should have some intimaton OF my
position, and to that end sent word to Gen
eral Terry, commanding the department, who
was then at Fort Benton, nearly 100 miles to
the west. apprising him of our movements
end success. He was then eighty miles to
tho south and separated from us by the Mis-
souri, river. I likewise informed General
Howard of our position.
AS we were bssieging this camp OF In
dians and holding their large herd of stock
In the valley, with our large number OF
wounded to be cared for, did not relish the
idea of being besieged in our turn by the hos
tile Sioux, and, therefore, took every precau-
ton possible to meet such an emergency. We
had no interpreters who corld talk Nez
Perces well enough 10 .e OF any use, but
some of the scouts could speak Chinook and
they called out to the Indians to surrender.
Joseph came up under flag of truce, and
from him we learned that the principal chief,
Looking Glass. and found other chiefs had
been killed, besides a large number Of others
killed and wounded Joseph was Informed
that they must surrender by bringing up their
arms and laying them on the ground. They
pretended to do 10 and brought up few,
which amounted to nothing, but hesitated
greatly about surrendsring the balance.
THE INDIANS UNDER SIEGE.
While this was going on / directed Lieu
tenant Jerome to ascertain what they were
doing In the village, supposing that he would
go to the edge Of the bluff and look down
into the camp. But misunderstanding my in
structions he went down into the ravine,
whereupon he was seized and held until he
was exchanged for Chief Jos.ph.
IL continued to snow during the day, yet
the siege was pressed continuously and
sharp lookout kept for any force that might
come to the assistance of the Nez Perces.
On the morning OF the third day the ground
was well covered with snow and the scouts
reported a large body OF black objects on the
distant hills, moving In our direction This
occasloned much excitement among the troops
and every eye was turned to the north from
whenee II was feared that sitting Bulls hos
tiSs Sioux and possibly the Assineboins and