The Washington weekly post., 1900-04-10

said Il was fordable. and / took my com.
fany down. My horse came I'm good play
ior he carried about twenty men acros.
IN four trips. either astr1de OF him or hold.
ihg onto his tail. tc keep from being
swept away BY the current.
When We got on the other side We
maze nun for the canyon, which was
about quarter OF a mile on the other
s!ue- When We reached IT the Indians.
VINO mad been lying In ambush gave a
yen ana Jet Us have IL. Some OF them had
riles, and the rest were armed with bows
ana arrows The way the bullets and ar
rows WhiStled around Us made Us get 20
cover ! had been IN the Indian country
TOO long TO stand up and ge; shot Just for
the sake OF saying that / was not afraid
AT the very first whoop all of us burrowe,i
IN the snow and got behind rocks and
Tees. and fought the Indians In their own
fashion.
Inen followed a fight that would do
!our heart good &c see. There was not a
i'.@h III the bunch who could not draw 4
Oeao me enough to knock the eve out II
squirrel hundred feet away. and every
,inae an Indian showed his head he was
ooWied over with a bullet through mis-
Skull No one fired till he saw his man.
ana very frequently a quietus would be
put 10 q redskin by two OF the boys who
"a" MN al the same moment There was
10 ceremony about the encounter. didn't
si'e 'hfee orders in a whole hour ! didn't
nave a sword. IL would have been as use
i'As as lady's fan. But / used my rife
~''4 'he old Colt "a, that ] had carried
thfouSh the Mexican war till the barrels
a. ffsrrr
furnace.
NOt d man was killed By the Indians.
Ihe cavalry kept firing over from the
other side OF the river. and mad 10 send
man out 10 tell them TO stop it. Their
bullets kept patterIng among Us till Il
IOohed as though they were more anxious
10 wipe Us out than TO whip the Indians.
Thanking the Enemy.
The boys had gradually ranged Them
serves over the whole canyon, so there
was no chance for them 10 get out. and
We mad them completely fanked. Then
We started 10 drive them down the g1lcn
70 where il turned toward Bear River
lhe only way for them to escape was ID
eInD out or swim the stream When we
''ad them gong once, the slaughter was
something terrible. They hoped around,
ana got behind rocks and trees, which
were very thick, but they couldn't dodge
.He ufe OF those iron-Eeryed, keen-eyel
iTOnuersmen. AS We swept them down
'he canyon we came across a dead body
every Few yards, and nearly every one Of
them had been shot through the head
Consequently there were not enough
wounded TO have 1iiled q ward in a pri-
Vate hospital
The "a rypr, boa . A..
led away from the river. and a few Of the
Indians escaped by dashing into il. hut we
headed OF the main body and drove them
into the river. When We got them in the
Icy stream We dyed the water red with
their blood. They dropped their guns ami
ammunition in their efforts TO swim and
wade across. Finally the only Indians in
sight were dead ones with the exception
OF few that wriggled their blood-stained.
painted bodies in the snow. Not one of
my boys had been killed. and only four of
them wounded. as ] recOlIect.
Il went back to the colonel and told him
that the Indians were gone, expecting to
have him thank me. al least. He looked
at me very coldly and said:
Capt HOyt. 1 am sorry that a man of
whose courage L had always had such 4
nigh opinion should prove guilty OF such
paltry cOWardice.'
How is that sir L replied, stunned at
the accusation.
When you went into the canyon where
the Indians were you and your whole
company threw yourselves on the ground
10 escape the fire of the enemy
! only did ii 10 fight them in their
own fashion. We killed our share. and
did not lose a man
II looked to me as though you would |
lei them all escape he said. I'll go with |
you and see how many you killed
We went through the canyon together.
ana when the colonel passed along the |
whole course of the running fight AMI /
counted l3 Indians he looked at me in
surprise
You did better than l thought, can
tain was all he said.
II took him a long time 10 get over the
way We had dOdged among the rocks and /
trees, and don't believe he ever did give
me or my men credit for the courage we |
showed p"