Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1895-11-29
aeliseellaneuus 8mding.
In REAL DANGER.

Captain Baldwin gave me an account
of an incident that happened to him in
May, 1866, writes General A. A. Miles
in The North American Review.
II was stationed," said he, "at Fort
Harker, Kan, in command of COM
pany of the Thirty-seventh Infantry.
Fort Harker was located on the over
land stage route from Fort Riley to
Denver, and after leaving Fort Harker
it was unsafe for any to travel in day.
light except with a good escort of
troops.
"On one of my journeys ofinspection
1 stopped about 80 miles from the fort
to have buffalo hunt, and hunted all
day, but at night I was obliged to start
back for the post. I left the station
about 4 o'clock in the afternoon in a
light snowstorm, with tolerably fresh
horse that was both strong and spirited.
l was alone, and armed only with a
small, 36-calibre pistol, depending al
most entirely upon my horse to escape
any danger from Indians, not anticipat,
ing danger from any other source.
II had ridden about 10 miles when
it began to grow dark. My horse
taking an easy trot, I was rather en-
joying the ride. I had noticed previ-
ously to this time the bowling OF
wolves, but had paid very little atten-
ton to it. AS l rode along l noticed
that this bowling began to get closer,
and at length was aroused from my
reverie by the bark and howl oftwo or
three wolves very close to me. Look
ing back, l saw two coyotes and one
big prairie or Lobo wolf following close
behind me, and bowling their utmost.
This rather startled the horse, as you
may be sure it did me. I increased
my speed, but still they gained on me,
aud it wasn't long before their num-
bers grew to a dozen or more, and the
distance between them and my horse
was very much lessened.
II began to appreciate the danger,
and realized for the first time that
had a weapon with which it was very
doubtful whether I could defend my
self against such ravenous beasts as
these. recalled the fact that just be-
fore leaving I had counted the number
of rounds of ammunition 1 had, which
was just 40.
II had left the stage route, intending
to 60 to the post by trail which would
save me something more than five miles
in distance, and as it was dark / had
hopes Of gaining one of the stations
along the route, but was obliged to
keep to the trail, trusting to my mount
to take me out of what had now be-
come real danger. The wolves kept
gaining on me until they had got with
III very short distance before fired
the first shot at them, which, fortu-
nately, disabled one of their number to
the extent that the blood ran from him,
and he began to howl, whereupon the
whole pack pounced upon him and
tore him to pieces. This gave me a
little start of 100 to 200 yards before
they commenced following again. l
fired every shot with the greatest care,
and it was very seldom that l missed
disabling or killing one of them.
"Afraid of firing my horse at the
start, l rode very carefully. The
number of the wolves increased until
there were not less than from so to Is
of them, and they followed me for at
least 20 miles, cutting my horse in the
rear and flanks, often getting almost in
his front, enabling me to shoot from
right to left, firing when the animals
were not four feet distant from me.
Fortunately I ran through large herd
of buffalo, which / think diverted a
large portion of the wolves from fol-
lowing me. Still some of them kept
after me until l got within five miles of
the post, when 1 had only four rounds
of ammunition left, and felt it was
necessary to make the supreme effort
to escape from them. My horse was