The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1904-10-25

H company went ahead. They
charged through the village and SIAM
peded the pony herd on the other side.
AS they disappeared in a cloud of
dust we rode up.
First came Miles and two aides
with one or two Grow Indian scouts
Then, riding company front L F and
G. companies. We wern't walking our
horses and we wern't charging, but
we came on as if we were going some
where.
AS we got in front of Lame Deer's
tepee Miles pulled up his horse and
We all stopped. The village looked de-
serted, but a group of Indians came
out Of the chiefs tepee. Lame Deer
himself was at the head of them.
Il was close enough to see, but could
saw that he had his blanket folded
around him.
with steep hills on each side, covered
with scrub pine and sage brush. We
all sat waiting on our horses. Then
Lame Deer threw Off his blanket and
pushed a rifle almost into Miles face.
Everybody let a yell out as he fired
and | don't remember what happened
for a few minutes.
I'VE had been in the field for so long
that those things worked automatical-
ly. Every fourth man grabbed the
brides and the rest of us ran up the
hills after Lame Deer and his men. 1t
was all so quick that l didn't even
have a chance to fire before they had
disappeared.
Then the bullets began to come and
we dropped down behind stones, sage
brush. pines, or anything else that
We could find.
We squirmed our way up the hill,
and near the top a bullet nipped my
partner. l saw where it came from
and watched. Once or twice l saw some
feathers moving behind big sage
brush, and finally l fired little below
them. l didn't see them move any
more.
Near the Top.
In few minutes we worked our
way pretty we'll up, and then ran at
the crest of the ridge. All the Indians
had gone who were able to move, but
behind my sage brush l found Lame
Deer with a bullet through his fore
head. l gave his war bonnet to Gen.
Miles aide and l understand it is now
in the National museum at Washing
ton, With Gen. Miles compliments. in
memory of the narrowest escape he
ever had, and he was a brave man and
great Indian fighter, too"
Aside from this incident of Indian
warfare, Davis is one of the few liv-
ing men who saw the Custer battle
field, just after the braves had fired
their last bullet at the living and the
squaws had finished their CHASTITY
work with the dead. He was in that
column of Gen. Gibbons to whom the
Crow scouts brought the word: THE
Sioux are killing Clusters men like
buffalo,
The rest of that night they rode and
all that day, and the next night were
forced to halt for rest within a few
miles of the battlefield. At dawn, as
they pushed onward, they could dis
Germ the stencil from the slaughter
pen and see the last of the herds of
ponies as the retreating Sioux drove
them over the buttes.
Shortly after Reno's remnant of the
Seventh dashed out to charge what
they hOpelessly believed to be more
Indians coming to finish them, but
halted with a cheer at the sight of the
cOlOrS.
Then Davis tells the CHASTITY story of
how they hurried to the battlefield and
found Custer with his men slaughtered
around him. Custer and the other Of
ficers he says, We're lying as they
fell. Custer with four bullet wounds
The men were stripped and mutilated
and had been lying for almost two
days under the burning SUM- They
skinned the horses. cut willows and
made stretchers with which they car
ried Reno's wounded to the steamer
Far West on the river bank, and then
buried Clusters dead.
But it was all so long ago that it is
only an occasional display of friend
illness for the young fellows who wear
the uniform he once wore that betrays
the fact that Davis was ever a soldier
500 Reward, 500.
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