The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-09-05

Safe beyond the range of the troop
ers' light carbines, the Indians, with
their heavier rifles, kept hurting a
constant storm of lead, hugging the
gullies, and spreading out until there
was no rear toward which the harass-
ed cavalrymen could turn for safety.
One by one, continually under a heavy
hre, the scattered troops were form
ed into something more nearly re-
sembling a battle line-Calhoun on
the left, then Keogh, Smith and
Yates, with Tom Custer holding the
extreme right. Thus they waited grim
~ for the next assault.
Nor was it long delayed. Scarcely
had the troopers recovered, rei1led
their depleted cartridge belts from
those of their ead comrades, when
the onslaught came. The soldiers
waited their coming. The short,
brown-barrelled carbines cleaned at
the level in the sunlight, and then
belched forth their message of fame
into the very faces of those reckless
horsemen. 1t was not in flesh and
blood to bear such a blow. With.
screams of rage, the red braves
swerVed to left and right, leaving
many a dark, war-bedecked figure ly--
ing dead behind them, and many a
riderless pony skurrying over the
prairie. Exultant over their seeming
ly successful repulse, the men flung
themselves again upon the earth,
their cheers ringing out above the
thud of retreating hoofs.
w can hold them here, boys, until
Reno comes" they shouted to each
other.
The skulking e rinemen crept
ever closer behind the ridges, driving
their deadly missiles into those ranks
exposed in the open To the command
of the bugle they discharged two
roaring volleys from their c%arbines,
hopeful that the combined sound
might each the ears of the tagging
Reno. They were hopeful yet, al
though one troop had only a sergeant
left in command, and the dead bodies
of their comrades strewed the plain.
1t was -four O'Clock. For two long
hours they had been engaged in ase
less struggle, and now barely a hun
dred men, smoke begrimed, thirsty,
bleeding, half their carbines empty,
they still formed an impenetrable ring
around their chief. The struggle was
over, and they realized the fact
When that wave of savage horsemen
swept forth again it would be to ride
them down, to crush them under their
horses pounding hoofs.
Like a whirlwind those red demons
came-howling wolves, now certain of
their prey. On both TANKS of the
short, slender line struck Gall and
Crazy Horse, while like a thunderbolt
Crow-King and Rain-in-the-Face at
tackled the center. These three storms
converged at the foot of the hill,
crushing the little band of troopers.
With ammunition gone, the helpless
victims could meet that mighty on
rushing torrent only with dubbed
guns, for one instant of desperate
struggle. Shoulder to shoulder, in
ever-contracting circle, officers and
men stood shielding their commander
to the last. Twenty or 80 made a de-
spairing dash, in a vain endeavor to
burst through the red e~nveloping
lines, only to be t~omahawked or shot;
but the most remained, a thin strug-
Cling ring, with Custer in it's center.
Then came HI inevitable end. The
red waves surged completely across
the crest, no white man left alive
upon the field. They had fought a
good fight; they had kept he faith
Two days later, having relieved
Reno from his unpleasant predica-
ment in the valley, Terry's and Glib
bons's infantry tramped up the ravine,
and emerged upon the stricken field.
In lines of motionless dead they read
the fearful story; N there they
found that man we know. Lying upon
q bed of emptied cartridge shells, his
body riddled with shot and mutilatsd
with knives, his clothing torn to rags.
his hands grasped a smashed and
twisted carbine, his lips smiling even
in death, was that soldier whom he
Seventh had disowned and cast out,
but who had come back to defend its
chief and to die for its honor-Robert
Hampton Nolan.
CHAPTER xxxv.
The Curtain Falls.