Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-09-29

allow a dozen candidates to consume
time and "cuss' each other, when the
law prescribes their duties and they
have nothing to do with the making
or executing the laws.--August Kohn.
REBUKED BY HIS COLONEL.
Regular Army Mar Thought Volunteers Were
Cowards.
"I am glad the Beers have been
teaching the British how to fight" said
Uncle Sam Hoyt. "This business OF
standing up and letting the bullets hit
you because you don't know any better
is an error that the English soldiers
have made from the time Of Braddock
down to the present day. 1 was 7s
years old last month, and the only time
I was ever accused Of cowardice was in
1861, and the charge was made by 9
man who did not know how to fight
Indians.
IT was In California when the civil
war broke out. Companies were or
ganized and I sent word to lot Of my
old friends who had been. with me In
the mining business in '49 and the sos,
that I would pay their travelling ex-
penses and buy them their outfits II
they would enlist in q company I was
getting up. It wasn't long before I had
80 as good men as ever had their eye
along a Henry rife. An old regular
army man by the name Of Colonel Con-
nor, was getting up the regiment and
my company was mustered in at Stock
ton. Our regiment started east In the
latter part Of the summer Of 1861 for
Salt Lake City, and we got there some
time in September and went into Camp.
The colonel was afraid his reputation
would suffer on the ground that he was
doing nothing, when word reached us
that the Bear River Indians were out
on the warpath.
1.-THE Bear River Indians were a mon
grel lot Of redskins. and the tribe con-
sisted Of renegades from the Utes, Pi-
utes, Blackfeet and other tribes, which
were even too respectable to own them;
They had swept down and wiped out q
Mormon village at !: the head Of the
great Salt Lake, and were reported to
be gathered about 800 strong among
the canons along the Black river
which Is the outlet Of Bear lake into
the Great Salt Lake.
II think It was sometime in Decem-
ber when the news reached us, and Col
Connor decided to start at once. He
feared that there might be an outbreak
among the Mormons while we were
gone. so he left the greater part Of the
regiment in the barracks at Salt Lake
City, and took only about $50 men with
him. 1 had between 40 and so Of my
company Of infantry, and the rest OF
the force was cavalry.
The colonel ordered me to set out
ahead with my men and the cavalry
would start later and overtake ID. II
was a good three days march to where
the Indians were reported to be, and
we wanted to make all haste and reach
them before they got away.
when we started it was nice wealth
err; but we hadn't gone more than 70
miles before the worst blizzard ever
saw, began to whirl the snow In our
faces The thermometer dropped about
40 degrees and 1t got colder than a
Klondike Christmas. The snow piled
in great drifts over the trail and 1t was
with difficulty that we found the way,
I had a horse, but I let the men ride 1t,
one otter another, as they got too tired
to push on. In spite Of all the obsta-
cles we made about 80 miles day,
ploughing the snow up to our waists
and the cavalry did not overtake us
until we were within 20 miles Of the
rendezvous of the Indians.
when the colonel came up he was
riding in a sleigh drawn by two horses,
and bundled up with as many robes as
a Russian prince. He told US to hurry
up and went on with his sleigh bells
jingling on the frosty air like the
chimes Of cathedral. asked him to
take the bells off his horses, and he f.
nally did 80. If he had refused we
wouldn't have found an Indian within
100 miles Of Bear River. We stopped
for the night about five miles from the
canon where the redskins were located,
and pushed on in the morning a little
before daybreak.
when we got to Bear River we
found the cavalry already there, and
they were banging away with their
carbines as If they were slaughtering
the enemy by hundreds. My men laugh
ed at the idea of fighting Indians that
way, and asked where the redskins
were. One Of the captains Of the cav
airy replied that they were on the 9TH
er side Of lne river in a gulch. It was
one Of the most ridiculous things you
ever saw, for not one Of the copper-col-
ored rastcals was in sight, and there
was enough ammunition being exter-
minated to exterminate the whole tribe.
The colonel turned to me and said:
Captain, take your company across
the river and drive the cusses out of
the canon"
II knew there were about 400 Indians
over there, and had only 40 or so men;
but didn't wait to be told the second
time. I went down to the river to re-
connoitre, and found the stream about
100 feet across, with big cakes Of Ice
floating down its swift current. The