Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-03-19

ers. Finally Bloody-Knife, the scout
and guide, appeared; shading his eyes
with his hands he took a long look,
and said there were no Indians. Then
using the glass, he confirmed his first
ideas, and said that what we saw was
a piece of half. burned log and a few
rocks. An hour later we passed the
place. Bloody-Knife was correct. His
naked eyes were better than ours, with
the glasses thrown in. -
On the 14th of August we were op-
posite the mouth of Tongue river 1t
was the hottest day we had had.
Custer had as usual gone ahead with
Troops A and B. Troops f. was part
of the escort of the surveyors. Our
troop U) was the rear of the left
flank, between the train and the rear.
About 2 o'clock in the afternoon the
train came to stop, at place where
| it was necessary for the wagons to
go one by one over a gully. Long be-
| fore this, scores of infantrymen had
sucoumbed to the heat, and crawled
into the wagons. The horses would
not Craze; they stood motionless with
their heads lowered and the tongues
protruding. We sat in the shade
made by the bodies of the animals,
and found little relief from the
broiing sun. The air was a dead
calm, and we afterwards heard that
one of the hospital attendants said
the thermometer on the shady side
of an ambulance had registered ITO
degrees. The officers and men were
about as languid as the horses.
Suddenly the scene was changed.
A few shots were heard to our left
and the rear. Although we had not
seen up to this time any Indians or
signs of them, we felt that the shots
meant something doing. Every one
jumped up and quickly put the bride
on his horse. At this time the column
moved forward, and in another minute
we saw coming toward us, as fast as
he could urge his horse, single
rider, behind him his picket pin flying
up and down as it struck some OBJ.
struction. AS he approached us
Weston and l. rode out to meet him
AS he got within hearing he yelled,
All down there are killed."
He belonged to F Troop, which was
a part of the engineer escort We at
once concluded that the engineers and
their escort had been attacked and
that this man had escaped from the
supposed slaughter. Such, however
was not the case. The soldier with
another had struggled and looked fol
water. They had Joined the vet
Urinary surgeon of the regiment and
the post trader. The four finding a
spring had taken the brides off their
horses. picketed them out to. Craze
and were sitting near the spring
when they were surprised by a small
party of Indians. The two civilians
fell at the first round, but the soldiers
pulled UP the picket pins and started
to get away. They were pursued, and
one was killed, the other escaping I'M
hurt and giving us warning. i
Lieutenant Weston at once sen,
word ahead to the officer in command
OF our wing, and gave orders for the
men to go in the direction of the
firing. We were on very high
plateau, probably three hundred feel
above the river. The descent was
very steep and covered with loose
stones of all sizes. The men scat
tered, each going down as best he
could, with orders to assemble at the
bottom of the hill. was fortunate il
flnd1ng the best place for the descen
it was in little vaIley-and wa.
the first to get down The, horse:
> were led, and at times fairly slid OF
their launches. Loose stones, started
above us, came whirling past Oh
heads, and it is a wonder that no on.
: was injured. A few of the men wer,
: close behind me. 49,
A minute or so before we reached
the bottom, and travelling at RICH
angles to our direction, rode at tro
3 five or six Indians, leading seyera
, horses, one Of which recognized a
/ that of our veterinary surgeon, be
8 cause of the size of the animal, an,
} the red saddle blanket. We coul
l easily have fired on and ,rprobabl
t killed some of the party, but W
< thought they belonged to,,the Re
r scouts with us. They were in fac
e as we afterwards learned, Rain-in-ths
q Face and a few of his warriors VIII
J., had killed, as before mentioned. til
t veterinary and, trader and apprs
b priated their horses and other belon,
d ings. r.ss. X <..~
= In a few minutes more the entir
e troop was down the hill and al
sembled. Saddle girths were tigh