The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1896-07-11
BATTLE OF BIG HOLE.
"REMINISCENCES or A MAN WHO WAS
IN THE FIGHT.

IN The FIGHT.
Warm In His Praises Of tho Courage and
Goodness of General Gibbon-Chie Jo-
seph Vas . Fighter Vino Tested tho
Qualities Of His Opponents.
William Woodceck was with the late
General Gjibbcn. the famous Iudian fight
or, for moro than hvc years Whilo lie was
the commander Ct tho department Of the
Dal-9:as lie va civilian il the sarv-
ice and wa nate ConEdantCf the gen
eral aud tie ctler officers III saGAc Ct
tho councils 70 wk.ci only the favored
few were admitted. such I. cou.cil was
the clc HELD tho evening before the Dat
tle & 10 NJ. Hole, when tie command
OF General GiLb1n engaged three times
the nrailer cf warriors under command
OF Caler Joseph. the most crafty fighter
who ever crossed the path Of Uncle Sam.
The battle was i victory for the whites.
1T anybody tells you that General
Gibbon wasn't d fighter, just tell him
he lies ard charge il TO me- said Viii
liam yesterday. General Gibao. was
all right. remember the evening he
called the officers together and advised
with them about the battle Of the Ecxt
day. he had sent on: scouts, aEd they
had como back and said there were
heap Indians ahead. Trey hadn' found
as many tepees as usual, but they had
learned somehow that there were Us
many as l6 men to the tepee, and they
estimated the Indians as several hun
drcd, ! don't remember just how many.
General Howard was expected in q short
time. and General Gibbon called the Off
GERS together and said to them:
Boys, the Indians are out there
ahead OF us and the question is whether
we will go after them or not. You
know, if we wait for General Howard
we may never have a chance
There wasn't q man in the crowd
who didn't hold mp his hand to show
that he was in favor Of a fight. That
was the kind Of a man Gibbon was, and
that was the kind Of men he had with
him. There were 26 or ~ citizens who
lived down in that country who were
following the command and camping
just a short distance from us. General
Gibbon called them in and asked them
b they wanted to do. He told them
that If they were going to go into the
fight there would be an understanding
that they would be under his command,
Out OF the whole of them there were
about q dozen who didn't turn back st
that, and it is a remarkable fact that
those who staid were nearly all killed.
There We're ten dead civilians the next
day, and their leader was shot through
the hips, and never did recover entirely
from the wound. 1t was q real battle.
and we lost So killed and wounded, out
OF 9 part Of five companies of tie Sew
enth regiment. There were 200 or $40
soldiers ii the engagement.
General Gibbon was wounded
through the thigh that day, and was
taken to his tent, where I helped to
take care OF him. The battlefield was !
couple ct miles from the camp Of the
evening before. At the time / was with
q party tha5 had just lest 4 mountain
hoTltzer to the Indians, but we never
got it back, though we tried hard
enough. the Indians had sense enough
to destroy i, and q lot Of ammunition
BESIDES. some things happened that dav
that l wouldn't believe if I hadn't seen
them. We were out on 4 skirmish line
when just IN front Of me I saw an HI
dian girl with her hand over her ewes.
just like she had been looking out to see
who was coming.
~ called out to the officer near me
that there was a little girl III front.
All right, don't hurt her. says he.
ana When we went up nearer we found
that she was dead. She had been shot
through and had died so suddenly that
she hadn't moved a muscle. She looked
Tor all the world as if she were alive.
And there was an officer shot SO that
the bullet went into his skin near one Of
the soft ribs and came out in exactly the
same place it went in, after going
his body and keeping under the
all the way. The doctors ran a
cord through it, and they used to pull it
back and forth every day to keen i
from healing too fast. He got well, and
there was a black ring around him the
rest OF his life, one Of the prettiest
you ever saw.
We couldn't find any dead Indians to
speak OF after the fight, and we wonder
what we had done. One Of the scouts
out and came back and said, 'Heap
mum dead. We didn't find any marks
u It, but he showed us where there
were bodies cached by the hundreds.
! ou know an Indian will bury his dead
# be has to take all kinds Of chances 10
10 It. There were over 100 bodies in ona
po1o xy.n Fc,rl -