The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-20
THE STORY OF A BATTLE
A Veterans Graphic Description
of an Indian Fight.
ROAR OF THE ARTILLERY
Over His Hot One'' the Old Timer Tells
of an Experience on the Plains.
Unfortunately. the Name of the
Battle Was Not Learned.

Did you ever see battle?' asked
nice young reporter for the Anaconda
Standard of a bottle-scared veteran.
The question was propounded in the
snug back room of ginnery. The re-
porter was there strictly for business
and SO was the B. S. ", but there was
difference in the business.
We'll, l should sneak behind a log.'
said the regular habitue. Saw all of
one little battle and part of big one
when I was a kid, playing the part of
undutiful son to a sire who wouldn't
stand a big lot of monkey work
We'll. tell me about it, said the COM
ing great journalist, as he raped on
the table to attract the barkeeper's at
tention.
You see, papa and I We're out ON the
prairie on a little land speculation When
the reds got to acting nasty. Too many
people had been out among them on
similar business. So we cinched up our
ponies and flew, but We're lucky enough
to strike a body of soldiers being sent
out to garrison new post, if | remem-
Der correctly. There was battery and
section of artillery going from one
place, a company of infantry from an
other and two regiments of cavalry
from another. The forces were to unite
at certain place and then proceed to-
gether for a considerable distance, sep
arating as they approached their new
environments.
1T was the infantry we struck and
they We're accompanied by 80 or 40 citi-
zens who had joined them for the same
reason we had-to preserve their hair.
True, the soldiers We're going west and
we wanted to go east, but we couldn't
think of leaving them to mourn our abb
a or wa a
warm reception among our red broth
ers if we turned back.
1T was about o'clock in the after
noon when an Indian scout rode up and
stopped his pony in front of Major
Mushead-lets call him that. The major
was annoyed.
where's my interpreter he asked
the orderly.
Hell be along in about half an
hour answered the sergeant. Gone
back a ways on the trail by your orders
My father spoke to the scout who
replied to him that there were more In
dams in the surrounding raVines and
coulees than he had ever seen together
at one time and that they would attack
the column near the foot of the slight
eminence we were then crossing. My
father attempted to translate this to
Major Mushead, but was stopped curt
~. l suppose it would have been dis
courtesy to the regular Interpreter.
." Are the Indians also behind us?' my
father asked the scout.
" Not yet
Then cinch up your pony, boy, and
Wen take our chances said he, turning
toward me.
His remark to me having been made
in English, Major Mushead insisted on
knowing what had been said in the In
dian language, and my father told him.
The major was not coward, but mere
ly an ass, and the matter SO impressed
him that he made instant preparations
for an engagement. There was lake
three-quarters of a mile in our front
and he should have attempted to reach
in order that we might have had water
and a good defsne on one side, for the
lake was two miles across.
THE wagons We're drawn up in a
circle about the troops and as much of
their loads as possible used as barri-
cades. We had a woman strapped down
in one wagon who had become insane
over the massacre of her family, a half
dozen officers wives and some other inn
pedimenta that was not easily disposed
of. But in half an hour we were ready
for eventualities.
THE reds, of course, had been watch
ing US and knew about the artillery and
cavalry we were expecting. Among the
things taken out of wagon We're
barrel of brown sugar and box of
cTdCkeIS, Cdleu HdIu ldch ny lHe SUI
diers. A big Norwegian corporal came
along and looked at them and at me.
Then he arranged them to his satisfac-
tion, and taking me by the collar and
the eXpanse of my jeans trousers
dropped me between them-that is, the
sugar and the crackers. Then he
mixed up two languages into something
that sounded like this:
!" 'Fon k'nusami mitt syndikki k5nock-
kiben. 1T ay see you komm out ay
braak you're back two times,' Not de-
string broken back L tarried where
he put me till the fight ended.
J And the fight was not long in be
ginning. The savages, conscious of the
proximity of reinforcements. apparently
decided to carry our position by assault
and charged yelling. This was pleasing
to the civilian contingent, who We're
armed with shotguns charged with
buckshot and jagged pieces of lead.
Many red man was left kicking his
heels at the sky when his friends We're
repulsed.
Then Major Mushead's strategic abi-
lilies We're made manifest, for there was
a slight eminence 800 yards away which
the Indians took possession of and be-
gan to kill soldiers at their leisure. They
killed the crazy woman in the wagon
very early-which looked to a child like
a beneficent dispensation of Providence;
but they also shot off one ear of Major
Musicals wife-which looked like a
nlisfortunei
/" The long shadows most beloved of
coyotes We're settling over the prairies
when diversion in our favor occurred.