The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-03-31

Strike when you Finland wherever
you find-Kill Eagles band"
fearful eyes along officers row watch
ing the silent group at headquarters
told all too plainly with what dread the
tidings had been received. With the
wires down, the railway blockaded, the
stage road deep liz snow, there was only
one means of communication left, and
two Indian scouts on their hardy ponies.
leaving the field column at dawn the
previous day, had made their unerring
way through the trackless maze of snow
clad ridge, ravine, divide and coulee,
through labyrinth fof bad lands, bad
enough in midsummer, and across many
frozen creek, until at last they struck
the northern shore of the swollen Platte
and followed on UP stream until oppo-
site old Fort Frayne.
And now, indeed, was the road to the
ferry broken and plowed and speedily
trodden hard, for hosts of stalwart men
had rushed to the river side, and out
from it's winter hiding place they
dragged one of the huge pontoon boats
and launched it in the ice-whirling
flood, and the. sweeps were manned by
brawny arms in blue, and, with boat
hooks driving at the ice cakes and the
foam flying from the oar blades and
from under the blunt and sloping prov,
cheered from the southern shore, they
fought their way to where. like black,
silent statues, the riders waited at the
brink, and then Indians and ponies both
We're bundled aboard and ferried back
again, landing two hundred yards down
stream; but even before they could
breast the bluffs and carry their dis
patches to the cavalry chief the news
they bore was shouted UP the heights:
Red Wolf escaped-kill Eagles whole
village has jumped for the Bad Lands"
And that meant that the Twelfth
must drop its Christmasing and fetch
the wanderers home. The old, old story
told again, and just as 1T had been time
av,l A - ~
dian policy: Acknowledgement of the In
dian Bureau; starvation in the Indian
villages; murmurings of 0iscontent
among the old warriors; talk of sum-
mary action among the young braves:
emissaries from disaffected bands; mid
night councils. harangues, Dances
threats, an arrest or two, escape and
then general rush to join the hostiles
in the field.
Prompt to act on this occasion, as ever
before, the moment he was Enabled to
learn through the chagrined officials of
the Indian Bureau of the escape of this
turbulent leader and the flight of Kill
Eagles people from the agency, the
general commanding in the field dis
patched small force of cavalry to in
terpose between the latter and the large
bands of hostiles already lurking in the
Bad Lands, and, giving the commander
of this force instructions to turn Kill
Eagle westward and by steady pursuit
hunting grounds behind the Black Hills,
he sent courierS across country post
haste to Frayne with orders for Colonel
Farrar to start at once with his entire
force-four fine troops of the Twelfth
Cavalry-to cross the Platte a. the first
possible point and by forced marches
throw himself across the Indians front
and strive to hem them in. With the
Platte sweeping along as it was, bank
full, a crossing might be impossible
nearer than the rocky shadows at the
Fetterman Bend, but that made no
difference; prompt action was the thing.
More than half expecting just such a
contingency. Farrar had long since COM
pleted his preparations. His packers and
their lively mules had been kept in trim.
Ten days rations were always set aside
in readiness to be packed on the APP
pareioS the moment word should come.
Boxes of extra ammunition for carbine
and revolver were stacked uD in the
ordnance storeroom ready to be dashed,
two to each, on the sturdy little bur-
den-bearers' backs. Double sacks of
grain. precious as powder on a winter
campaign, were banked at the quarter
kit of fur cap, gloves, fur-lined canvas
coat. boots. blankets and reinforced
breaches had been carefully inspected
only a DAY or two before. Every horse
had been as carefully shod. Extra shoes
and shoe nails had been stored in each
pair of saddle bags. The horses them
selves In their warm. thick winter coats
and uncropped names and tails looked