The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-02-19
Little Bat"
al4a AND THE ae
Sibley Fight.

may be all right, but there are Others"
remarked a dark. swarthy, stout man
in this city yesterday. He was Frank
Grouard, ex-chief Of scouts Of the
United States army, the hero Of hun
bred Indian fights and hairbreadth
escapes. There is nothing romantic in
the appearance Of this big, brawny
man, his black hair now well streaked
with silver, but his exploits are Iiber-
ally blazoned on the army reports by
Crook and Sheridan. Born on an is
land In the south Pacific In 1850, the
son of missionary, through stress Of
circumstance at the age of he was
left to shift for himself. Doing chores
about the California mining camps and
driving an ore wagon were his training
for carrying mail over a lonely star
route. He was captured as youth
by Indians and adopted as a son by
the famous Sioux chief Crazy Horse,
living five years in Indian camps, eat
ing his meat without salt, forgetting
the taste of bread, and intrusted with
the mysteries of medicine making by
Sitting Bull This school Injured him
to hardship and eventually led him to
meet and overcome dangers that few
men have experienced.
When he saw the telegram in the
newspaper of yesterday relating the
tragedy at Crawford, Neb., that sound
ed taps" for Baptiste Gaunier, better
known as the famous scout Little Bat,
he quite forgot the overhanging won
der of the elevated road and the tall
buildings to tell his regret at the pass
ing of one who had shared with him
many periIs. Did you ever hear of the
Sibley fightY' he asked. IF you have
not, John Flnerty can tell you one live
ly side of it. Little Bat might have
told you some more about it, and l
might say something myself. Yes, we
were all In it up to our chins, and as
an all round close shave think all ac-
counts agree that it was about the linn
it. The idea of man living on diet
of that kind and then getting killed in
saloon fight! It seems tough. Poor
Little Bat! Bad whisky was worse
medicine than Sitting Bull ever made
In all his years Of deviltry.
"But you want me to tell about the
Sibley fight do you? 1t was about "A
years ago last July. just about week
before the battle that wiped out Gen
eral Custer and his entire command.
General Crook assigned Little Bat and
myself to go north on the Tongue river
and meet body of friendly Crows that
were joining US to fight against the
Sioux. Much to my regret, Lieutenant
F. W. Sibley and "a picked men of the
Second cavalry were detailed as an es-
cort. The men were splendid fellows,
but all more or less new in Indian fight
ing. We had been moving north two
days when in the dawn of the third
morning / discovered the Sioux moving
toward the Tongue river thicker than
buffaloes in the valley of the Platte.
called Bat softly, and when he saw
the great painted procession stealing
over the plains he said, My God, we
are gone!
81 waited until saw them strike our
trail. Immediately the discoverer be-
gan cfrcling his horse and waving his
blanket, and about ten minutes later
every Indian in that section knew that
white men were somewhere about.
thought we might possibly get away
from them by getting up into the
mountains. told Bat to follow me
with the men as fast as he could, my
idea being to get beyond where the
Twin creek trail crossed our own In
the mountains, knowing that the In
dams would naturally make a run to
cut us off at that point. ! suppose
went I'D the hills rather fast, for at
length l got tired waiting at the trail
crossing and went back for the sol
diers. Imagine my surprise when
learned that the party had stopped to
make coffee. Lieutenant Sibley admit
ted his inexperience in a running fight
and had yielded to the importunings OF
his men, who wanted breakfast. told
him the chances were that none of US
would eat any more between that time
and kingdom come, as the Indians
were probably waiting for us at the
point we should have passed long ago.
l made wide detour from the trail as
we toiled up the mountain. Very for
tunately, for they were ambushed for
us at the crossing of the trails between
two high tree crowned buttes. If we
had passed through that natural gate,
none of us would have been left to tell
about it. AS we passed up the noun
tain to the left they got on to our
curves, and about 200 did some wild
target practice in our direction. Strange
to say. not man was hit. Correspond
ent John FiDerty's horse was shot, and
he came up and joined me in leading
the line. The horses were inclined to
stampede at the first fire, so at the be-
ginning of the thick timber | ordered
the stock tied in a bunch. The Indians
tried In every way to draw our fire.
put Sibley, at my suggestion, ordered
no firing unless they charged up to us,
which is not the way an Indian fights.
eve got to the timber at 10 o'clock
in the morning. and we did not fire
shot until o'clock in the afternoon.
Every man had his tree, and he stuck
to it closer than brother. Early in.
the day leather lunged Sioux yelled
at me that he knew Bat and myself
were there, and they were going to
have great fun with particularly
me. l knew what that meant without
map, so told every soldier to save
q good cartridge for himself before
surrenderIng to the fiendish fortunes,
for the Sioux have very original
methods of making a man die by the
most painful process possible.
"Along about the middle Of the after
noon my red friends who were wait
ing to entertain me began to get very
gay and were growing holder every
minute They had killed all our horses
but five, and thought it was impossible
for us to get away-in fact, heard
them say so quite frequently in the
gutteral language of the Cheyennes.
White Antelope and a band Of Chey-
ennes had Joined the war party, and
this chief began riding closer and
closer to our trees. Finally he and an
other chief, who was riding about five
yards behind him, came into fairly
good range could see the color Of
his eyes as he came toward me.
pulled the trigger Of my rife, and both
Indians went down together as q result
of the single shot. 1t was the first
shot from our party, and the double
tragedy confused the Indians Then
our whole outfit poured in whitening
volley, and | told Sibley it was our
time to take advantage Of their eonfu-
sion and get through their line back to
the gully. waited until they were al