Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1896-05-14

hp to me WShOut waiting for me to
Ipeak he said:
Lieutenant, think
He got NJ further, for at that point l
interrupted him AS he began to speak
the thought flashed through my miud /.
''Thcre IS l Lad expected, he is going
to presume on his position as an old
soldier ami give me advice. did not
want any advice. wanted the credit,
and the whole credit.
knew that his advice would DC good,
for he was an old Indian fighter and a
level headed man, but that gas all the
more reason for my not wanting to hear
his advice, for no doubt | should be in
finenced by it, and then | should feel in
honor bound to acknowledge his share
III the success. Therefore, as he began
to speak, said, perhaps rather too
abruptly:
''Never mind, sergeant, what you
think. Join the troop and have it ready
to attack as soon as / come back n
With a suspicion cf smile on his
face, but true to his reputation as d
splendid soldier, he obeyed without a
word. l again crept forward to the crest
of the hill, and protected by my mask Of
grass made a thorough. survey Of the
ground.
The Indians, as | had expected, be-
lieving themselves absolutely safe, had
taken no precautions to guard against a
surprise They had gone into camp on
the bank Of small stream, which at
this point made a bend away from me
and then back again, forming v, with
the Indian camp at the vertex The
stream had at the bend cut into the op-
posite bank, making it steep and hard
to scale.
Their camptires Were lighted, and the
Indians were evidently preparing sup
per. Their rifles We're stacked little in
advance on one side.
Ny plan was quickly formed. l would
send small detachments up and down
the stream to cut off escape in those di-
rections and would draw up my main
body behind the crest where / was.
They would have perfect command Of
the camp and could also pick off any
one who attempted to escape by scaling
the opposite bank.
When everything should be ready, !
would advance alone as far down the
slope as possible, and as soon as discov-
cred would call on the camp to surren-
der. AT my call my men would appear at
the crest with their rifles cooked and
aimed hoped by this plan to capture
the whole camp without firing q shot.
returned to my troop and carefully
explained the plan. Again / thought
that | noticed one or two peculiar smiles
on the mems faces paid no attention
to them, but made the details for the
two parties to cut off the retreat up and
down the stream.
/ selected trustworthy noncommis-
stoned officers to command these parties
and started them for their designated
places then deployed my men as sllir-
mishers, and after waiting sufficient
length Of time for the two detached par
ties to reach their places | gave the or
der for the men to advance cautiously to
the crest of the hill.
1t was quite dark by this time, and
with sigh Of relief | saw my plans
completed without any alarm having
been given.
/ cautiously advanced alone till with
in easy speaking distance, when | step
ped into plain view and called for the
surrender Of the camp, at the same
time telling them that escape was i'm
possible
was perfectly astounded to see nc
commotion, no confusion i'll the camp,
but in reply TO my summons a voice an
swered in good English;
"All right, old fellow, we surrender.
Now march your men in and have some
supper. "
l recognized the speaker as one of the
captains from the next post, who was
in command Of company of Indian
scouts, that | had mistaken for band
Of hostiles.
The joke was on me, and | had moth
ing to do but to make the best Of it, So,
hiding my chagrin as best l could,
gave the order for the men to return fo1
their horses and march into camp
The captain told me that all the hos
tiles had returned to their reservation,
but when his scouts had reported tc
him that we were following him he
had guessed that we had not heard Of
their return, but had mistaken his com
pany for the Indians He had thought
that it would be good joke on me tc
let me 60 ahead and capture his com
pany.
After supper, when l went to inspect
the horses, the first sergeant said to me
Lieutenant, | started to tell you
that thought that those We're friendly
Indians, and when you sent me back tC
the troop cautioned the men not tc
shoot unless proved to be mistaken
1t would indeed have been dreadful
mistake if any one had been hurt. So
thanked the sergeant for his thoughtful
ness and at the same time mentally re-
solved that the next time Iwould listen
to his advice
1t did not take long after returned
to my post for the story TO leak out.
But it was a long time before they tired
Of telling how | captured company d
our own Indian scouts. Lieutenant ].
O. W. Brooks, u S. A., in Youth I
Companion