The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-03
MOVED THEM DOWN
RED CLOUD COULDN'T UNDER
 STAND
How u Small Force Of Soldiers Kept
 Up such Fire.

How unhappy old Red Cloud must be
 in these days of peace when there flash
 es across his memory the frontier days of long ago, the recollection of the time
 when, as a gallant warrior painted and
 decorated for war, he rode at the head of his braves, in an assault on wagon
 train or military supplies destined for the Phil Kearney post. Those were the
 days of bloodshed in the west, and Red
 Cloud the bloodiest chief among all the tribes. ..... Red Cloud in his time was one of the
 most successful, daring savage chiefs
 of the great Sioux nation. During the hostilities waged so brutally on the plains against the encroachment of the
 whites his name was the dreaded one on
 every emigrants tongue. knew him personally quite well. have had many
 talks with him about old times. Fossil bly our relations were more friendly in asmuch as I had had skirmish with him and his war party on my march ! into the Big Horn country in the fall of 1 1867, on Crazy Woman's Fork. Wyo-
 ming. ,-....... .-.s~s. :...,a Red Cloud was the Big Chief com
 manding the hostile Sioux forces that attacked Brevet Major "Jim" Powell's | command. Several times I asked the old fellow to give me an account of his side of that battle. never succeeded ! in making him talk freely about it. I The reason may have been that he was defeated in this, one of the most des- perate of our Indian engagements. Red Clouds prominence among the Sioux | was owing to his bitter declaration of
 war to the death against the whites. All the disaffected of the tribe joined
 his band. 1h..r | Although I could not get Red Cloud
 to talk about his attack on Major Pow
 ell had been we'll posted on that fight Il by several members of the Twenty-sev-
 enth infantry. who were in the engage I ment. The old chief verified many of | the details of the Indian side of the story such as had been told me about the approximate number of Sioux en- gagged, their losses in killed and woun- ded and the terrifying effect on the at l tacking Indians of the much talk" gun, the then new to them, breech- | loading rifle.
 Major Powell and his soldiers were guarding a wood contractors party Of citizens, who supplied the Fort Phil Kearney garrison with wood. Powell, l knowing that he would be attacked at any time, had fortified his camp by l building nasty entrenchments, His foresight stood him in his hour of great peril, for on the morning of August 2. 4 1867. nine hundred warriors, splendidly mounted, the best and bravest of the
 Sioux nation, appeared in hostile array \ before the camp of this little band of white men-two officers, twenty-cix pri- I vate sodiers and four citizens, These determined men knew this was fight to the death. There would be nothing
 between them and torture at the stake Tiff driven from the hastily constructed fort. 3s9l
 That these warriors advanced openly lon this little band of white men, con- trary to the Indian Weli-knoWn secret tactics, showed the utter contempt in which Powell's force was held. On they came shrieking their war cry, fir- ing a volley of bullets. The reply was ready and continuous stream of shot lfrom the little band. The warriors
 could. not face that deadly fire. They were driven back in confusion and anazernsnt. The secret of the white mans success was that but a short time before the Fort Phil Kearney soldiers had been armed with a new breech-
 loading rifle, fact at that time un- known to the Indians. They were call culating on the old-tirne muzzle-loading guns in the hands of the troops. aa5 l Red Cloud and his principal chief held a hurried consultation. They de- termined to launch their whole fighting
 force, and on foot, against the little fort on the hill. Major PowelFs lieuten-
 ant, Jenness, gallantly and, as he thought, necessarily exposing himself Iduring the first attack, had been killed; one or two men had been killed or
 wounded and the attack had developed 1 certain week points of his defenses which were promptly strengthened with l whatever was at hand. The firing was so rapid that the gun barrels became loverheated; spare guns were placed in
 each wagon bed. Some of the men
 wee poor shots and fired wildly. They
 were ordered not to fire. but to load and pass guns to the selected maksmen.
 Now from the hills swarmed a senli-
 circle of warriors at least two thousand strong. When within about five hum
 dred yards, the order to charge was l given. The whole line dashed on to the corral to be, when they had almost
 touched it, hurled back in confusion and Idismay. Again and again did the gal
 lant line rally and charge, to be again broken, discomfited and driven back; I and it was only after ''three continuous
 hours" of almost superhuman efforts
 against this unseen, intangible foe that the line became utterly demoralized and fled in consternation to the hills. Al. Red Cloud and some of the older oi
 his principal chiefs had watched the whole action. For long time they thought the wonderfully continuous fire was due to the fact that there were
 more men in their coral than it would appear to hold; but on the final impulse of the long succession of desperate
 charges, they concluded that the white { men had some medicine guns" which
 would fire "all the time" without thu . aid of human hands and that their bes
 plan was to stop the conflict -ry 4 When the demoralized host hat reached the safety of the hills, they