Milford chronicle., 1903-02-13

but Sibley, at my suggestion, ordered
no firing unless they charged up to us
which is not the way an Indian fights.
1--WE got to the timber at 10 o'clocl
in the morning. and we did not fire &
shot until 3 o'clock in the afternoon
Every man had his tree, and he stuck
to it closer than a brother Early in
the day a leather lunged Sioux yelled
at me that he knew Bat and myself
were there, and they were going to
have great fun with us-particularly
me. l knew what that meant without
a map, so I told every soldier to save
a good cartridge for himself before
surrendering to the fiendish tortures,
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 bolder every
minute. They had killed all our horses
but five, and thought it was impossible
for us to get away-in fact. l heard
them say so quite frequently in the
gutteral language of the Cheyennes.
White Antelope and n 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. 1 could see the color Of |
his eyes as he came toward me. 1 !
pulled the trigger of my rifle, and both (
Indians went down together as n 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 a whitening
volley, and 1 told Sibley it was our
time to take advantage of their confu-
sion and get through their line back to
the gully. waited until they were all
fairly started back through the heavy
timber then, taking the lariat from
timber, then, taking the lariat from the
saddle Of my dead horse, followed.
1t was a mile from where we made
our stand to the main fork of the
Tongue river, and the woods were full of
terrible windfalls. and it was awfully
hard travelling. The first 200 yards the
men had to simply squirm their way
through the timber and keep very low.
The savages had comparatively thin {
line at our rear, as they knew the char
acter of the country and thought we
would be helpless without our horses.
when l rejoined the men, sent Bat
IN the lead and covered the rear. The
soldiers took off their boots and stepDed
rom rock to rock in order to leave our
rail as blind as possible. About dark
heavy rainstorm, with much wind,
anne up and soon drowned out the fir.
ng that our foes kept up on our camp.
)ur policy Of holding our fire so fooled
hem that they did not rush our camp
ntil the following morning. a fact that
learned later. The storm was wild
nd terrible. We were drenched. and
he timber began to fall all about us.
We kept in a territory where horses
ould not travel for reasons Of our own.
nd we hit an unblazed trail over the
fountains for the following 40 hours al
ithout a mouthful to eat Sometimes ii,
le squirrel path was so steep that Bat m
nd l had to pull the soldiers up over tn
le rocks with our lassoes. rif
"The following morning at 3 O'Clock HI
e forded Goose creek, the cold water no
ming up to our armpits, and at day 81
5ht fell in with a scouting party of in
e Second cavalry. Then we went tn
lck over the trail and picked up two ria
our exhausted soldiers that had Civ ne
up. We had been under a hot fire of
'arly ten hours, had travelled 80 miles l
er a terribly rough mountain country Sn
ID during all that time had not en- is
yed the luxury of ration. as we '
ere forced to abandon everything MI
hen the Indians sighted us except cur do,
pc and our ammunition. Yet we new nu
lost a man. me
Poor Little Bat! He was in the lead. DIRE
st to think Of it! Now he is snuffed for
as the result of a cowardly misdeal
a miserable saloon fight"
The speaker cast aside the stump of
cigar and said 'Where do you think II
'oulG find John Finerty Anyway pri
icago Record. NH