The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-29

| a very duh knife
The other instance which has come
Under my own observation is that OF
Robert MCGEE In 1864 MCGEE. a slen-
der stripping OF a lad, came to Leaven-
worth, Kan, seeking employment
That town was the base of Govern
ment supplies for all the frontier mill
| tary posts even as far away as Arizo-
/ ma. a freight caravan was at that
i time loading for Fort Union, n. NJ.
| The wagons and whole outfit We're own
! ed by a contractor named H c. Barret,
/ but he would not take the chances of
/ the long and perilous trip of more than
seven hundred miles through the In
| dian infested plains unless the Govern
ment leased the train outright, or gave
him an indemnifying bond and assur-
ance against loss. The bond was given
and Barrett proceeded to hire teamsters.
a hard task on account of the danger
attending the journey. Young MCGEE
was among the number engaged, and
the caravan started July l. 1864.
It took the old Santa Fe trail, strik-
ing the Arkansas River at the Great
Bend of that stream, near its confiu-
ence with the Walnut. The region
was very rough and called the dark
and bloody ground" for some of the
worst Indian massacers in the history
of the plains We're perpetrated there
Some insignificant skirmishes with. the
Indians had taken place, but nothing
to cause any serious alarm, and now,
as the caravan was approaching the
vicinity of Fort Larned, its proximity
was believed to be sufficient protection
from further possible danger.
On the afternoon of July 1S-it had
been an excessively hot day-the cara
van went into camp at an early hour.
The escorting troops stacked arms
about half a mile distant. but in full
view of the train. The men should
have kept good lookout for surprises.
probably did in a way, but there was
a feeling OF security in the knowledge
that regular attack by savages is
rarely made until the early hours of
the morning when sleep is heaviest.
About 4 o'clock, however, a band of
BruIe Sioux. under the lead of Little
Turtle, descended from the sand hills
in all the fury OF a tornado. uttering
their wild warwhoops. and of all the
small army of mem employed by the
caravan young Robert MCGEE alone
came out alive to tell the story of the
massacre. Every Individual was shot
dead and scaloed as he Law or sat at
the mess table The mules, of course,
went TO swell the herd of the savages,
but the wa CONS We're destroyed by fire.
their canvas covers cut up into breech
clouts ana the -four with which the
caravan was loaded emitted from its
sacks on the prairie.
Young MCGEE was attacked by Lit
tie Turtle himself and Knocked to the
ground by one blow of his tomahawl1.
As he lay there, partially stunned and
bleeding, Little Turtle fired two arrows
into his body, pinning him to the earth,
Then in a transport of fiendishness he
took Roberts own pistol and shot him,
the bullet lodging in his backbone.
Not quite satisfied that he had made a
good job of it, he stopped over the
PROSTATE boys body and running his
knife around his head lifted sixty
four square inches of his scalp, trim
ming it off just back of the ears.
Believing his victim to be dead by
his time, the chief abandoned him, but
others of the band in passing hacked
1lm with their knives and poked holes
nto him with their long lances. All
he others in the train were long since
lead. killed outright. and their bodies
INITIATED.
After the savages had completed
heir work they rode; whooping and
felling, away, and the troops that had
Witnessed the whole affair from their
'antage ground came upon the scene
o investigate and learn whether the
sioux had been properly met or not by
he. Inflated men of the caravan. The
'fficer in command was very properly
curt martialed and dismissed in dis
race from the service. He never gave
my satisfactory reason for his out
ageous and cowardly conduct.
The only part the troops took in the
flair was to bury the dead When ,
hey attempted to put young MCGEE
inder the ground they found a very
lively corpse, despite the fact that he
vas scalDed and had received fourteen
istinct wounds, any one of which !
eould have terminated the life of the ,
rdinary man. {
After interring the dead the soldiers
astened to Fort Larned, thirty miles
istant, where young MCGEE was plac- 5
q under the care of the post surgeon. {
was three months before he was able
D be moved from there. During that 6
me he had fair command of his men