The National tribune., 1901-05-09

, the most lonesome place I was ever in;
man would go out to look after the
stock, and perhaps the next we would see
of him he would be in the agonies of
death.
Maj. Douglass, who was in command
at Fort Dodge, was taken sick with the
cholera, the Surgeon and his wife died,
and Mrs. Douglas succumbed to the dis
ease. There was no one to take care of
those poor women but soldiers, and have
often thought what those poor creatures
must have suffered in that dismal, dreary
place, with no woman to help or care for
them. OF course the soldiers did all they
could for them, but they couldn't do what
a woman would have done.
"0ne afternoon a big rain storm came
| up, and after that we never had another
case of the cholera.
DOG SOLDIERS
eve had considerable fighting with the
Indians in the Fall of '67, but in the Sum
Iner OF '6S they broke out and ripped
things up the back in great shape. There
were several white men and half-bTeads
among the Indians, and they urged them
on. Col. Brent was married to a Cheyenne
squaw, and their children were sent to col
lege in st. Louis.
when they came back in '6S, they or
ganized what was called the dog soldiers
They were mostly renegades from the
different tribes, and were the cause of
more murders than any tribe on the plains
at that time.
During the Summer of '6S | was en-
gagged in scouting and carrying dispatches.
When l would get ready to leave the fort
as soon as it got dark, the boys would
come around and bid me bood-by When
we'd adjourn to the sutler store for last
round, the boys would say, as they raised
their glasses, We'll, here's s looking at you,
Lee If we don't see you again, goOd-by,
old feIlowp
The Indians were all around us at that
time-Just like fieas on a dogs back, and
at night we could see their Signatures In
all directions. They made signals by fire
at night and with smoke during the day,
and could easily communicate with each
other at distance of 80 to go miles. Dur
ing that Summer | carried dispatches to
Forts Lyon, Wallace, Hays, Fletcher,
Ellsworth, Larned, and south to Camp
Supply in the Indian Territory.
"One OF the hardest fights I ever got
mixed up in was between Fort Dodge and
Fort Larned, at place called Little Coon
Creek, on what was then called the Dry
Route Trail ii miles from Fort Dodge.
Big Coon Greek was 30 miles from
Fort Dodge, on the old Santa Dry
Route Trail, and near there was a small
tort called Fort Coon garrisoned by
Sergeant and ten or twelve men. 1t was
place for scouts to run for when hard
pressed by the Indians, and also exchange
played-out horses for fresh ones.
There was no fuel to be obtained in
that section, and the boys were obliged to
use buffalo chips or 90 without fire.
The Indians finally surrounded the place,
and amused themselves shooting at the
boys when they left their dugouts and
went out on the prairie to get enough
chips to cook their meals.
This condition of affairs was reported
10 the commanding officer at Fort Dodge
who ordered a six-mule team to be loaded
with wood and taken TO the men, under
an escort of Corporal and three men.
Il was coming in from the south with
dispatches, and met the men with the
wood told the Corporal not to start back
until wagon train came along as the
whole country was swarming with indians
and 1t wouldn't be safe for them to start
back with such a small party
Il reached Fort Dodge without anv
trouble, delivered my dispatches and was
IN the suffers store, chatting with some of
the other scouts. when the COMMANDING
oiilcer sent his orderly after me. He said
he wanted me to select another man and
be ready to start out as soon as il got
dark enough. l selected Paddy BOYLE TO
go with me, and at 8 O'Clock we were
ready to leave. We filled our canteens
with good Government whisky, something
fSiJ ueStoSdEy III tHat country at that
tlme, as we didn't know what minute we
might be bitten by a rattlesnake, and in
case we were wounded 1t would come in
mandy as Stimulant.
When We were near Little Coon Greek.
hiding In ravine and resting up for n
long nights ride, we heard lot Of firing
ana yelling within quarter OF a mile of
US. We knew that somebody was in
trouble and needed help, so we jumped
on our horses, and started in the direction
Of the firing. The Indians we're SO busy
pumping lead into wagon train that
they didn't see us until we went dashing
through their lines, whooping and yelling
and firing right and left.
Instead of being a wagon train. as
we thought it was, it proved to be the
Corporal and the three men that went out
with the wood wagon, and we arrived
just in time to save them from being
massacred.
PADDY BoYLE's HERoIsM.
when l looked the ground over and
saw that we were in poor place to make