The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-01-12
IN THE DAYS OF OLD.
Ne1o York Sun.

They splaShed through the water. DuC
we did not fire. AS Roman Noses
horse plunged on to the island Gen.
Forsyth sat upright in his pit and
shouted:
Let EN- have it Now and
now and the command was repeated
by Beecher.
s'Forty bullets crashed into the
charging warriors, but they only an
swered with ringing whoop. y Sc
cond solley staggered them, and the
third volley did bloody execution, for
above the noise of the battle We could
hear the cries of the women and chill
dren on the hills. But they hesitatcd
for moment only, and then dashed
on, only to meet another withcring
volley, which cut deep gap in their
ranks. Another crash Of rifles and
Roman Nose was dead upon the sand.
Two more volleys and the few survi-
yors broke wildly for the bank, and
we fired scattering volley at them
from our revolvers.
"It was magnificent charge. Since
that day on the Arickaree, I have
been in many fights with Indians, but
| never saw that exhibition Of pure
nerve equaled. Three of our men
were wounded and Lieut.. Beecher was
killed. Gen. Forsyth was wounded in
the side and in the head, besides hav-
ing both legs broken. but he did not
give up for moment. DR.. Moore
was mortally wounded in the head.
GA young warrior who have always
believed was a relative Of Dull Knife
now assumed command. He lad just
succeeded in rallying his horsemen,
nearly all of whom were dismayed at
the death of Roman Nose, when he,
too, fell dead. From that moment
the Indians didn't seem to recognize
any commander, but kept up the fight
in haphazard way until about 2
o'clock in the afternoon, when they
received reinforcements and also a
new chief in command. Under the
new leader they made another charge,
but it was failure. After third
charge, which had no better result,
they gave the thing up as bad job,
though they were wrought to frenzy
by the taunts of the women. 1t was
simply death to approach that island,
and the boldest of the redskins could
not stand our fire, for the scouts had
a habit Of making every shot count.
After the third attack it began to
grow dark and we felt ourselves com
paratively safe. 1t began to rain, and
after the long day on the blistering
sand it was mighty grateful. The
General had time to draw up list Of
the dead and wounded. Seven names
were on the list Of killed and liz men
were more or less wounded. There
were % fairly sound men to continue
the fight on the next day.
''It was nearly midnight when Gen
eral Forsyth ordered old Pierre Tru-
dead and myself to make an attempt
to slip through the Indian lines and
reach Fort Wallace, which was about
125 miles away. Pierre was an old
trapper and the best rife shot I have
ever seen. Wrapping blankets about
ourselves, we crawled out among the
Indians. Each of Us had cut off a
chunk of raw horse meat for food OH
the way, and then, with moccasins
made from the tops of our boots and
with the saddle blankets wrapped
around US, we made, as we thought,
fairly representative Indians, at least
as far as poverty and filth were con-
cerned. We succeeded in making
three miles tho first night.
;Then we hid ourselves in wash
out in ravine where the grass had
grown so tall that it hung over the
ledges. We remained there all the
next day listening to the fighting on
the island, and powerless to get the
relief we were after or return to our
party. That night we made more
tracks toward Fort Wallace, only to
find ourselves within half IL mile OF
the main village of the Indians on the
south fork Of the Republican. We
got into swampy place and hid dur
ing the day, knowing that the Indians
would not follow US into the marsh
with their horses. The next morning
we found ourselves at the head of
Goose Greek en- a high. rolling prairie.
''rhc Indians were 50 thick all
around that we had to hide in the car
casscs of two butfalocs. The beasts
had been killed the winter before, so