The Fargo forum and daily republican., 1909-09-09

The unveiling Of the Whitestone
Hill battlefield monument in Dickey
county viii take place in the latter
part Of the month. One Of the sur
vivors of the battle contributes vivid
description of the engagement with
the Indians in a letter to a Dickey
county paper. F. e. Caldwell was the
soldier in question and he says:
we Joined the Sixth Iowa at Sioux
city and left there some time In
.Tune. we went up the Missouri river
70 Crow Creek, where we stayed sew
eral weeks. we then went on to the
mouth Of the Cheyenne and there left
the river and went towards DeVlis
Lake where we were told the Indians
were in force at Fort Pierre. we en-
gagged a guide named Frank Frlnh-
boise. a Frenchman, but the real guide
was a full -blooded Sioux Indian nam
ed Fool Dog. also secured az Fort
Pierre. We were ordered to go In hght
marching order. did not carry much
hut rations and ammunition, took one
blanket each and dog tents, One day
the thermometer was 100 in the shade
of the tent. and that afternoon we
had terrible storm Of hail Ihe
next morning our tents were frozen'
WE went on and when we, reached the
"Jim" river we struck the ouHalo
country and the Indian signs. 1t seem
cd as though there were millions OF
buffalo. we found wnere Indians had
heen camped and saw buffalo car
casses with the meat stripped off, We
kent on for several days, and In the
meantime a reward had been offered
n the scout that first brought the
report OF finding the Indians In force.
we had camped at noon on Sept. 3,
when a horseman was seen coming
like tine wind He rushed to head
nuarters and in an instant the bugle
sounded Boots and Saddles. and
in iust eighteen minutes we were IN
line. One battalion was left with the
train. General Sully rode down the
line on his iron gray horse Git was
. saving among the men: When the
iron gray comes look out for trou-
bles) and said, Boys, you ala at
well. Fours. to the right, marcn.
Soon we were on the run, and MADE
that twelve miles in one hour. we
came to the Indians and they were
prepared to fight, having been warn
cd OF our coming. Our regiment
| rode to the right and the Sixtn 70 the
LEFT Of them. we dismounted and
fought on foot, and those devils bat
tied for one good hour. The bullets
and arrows flew like hall and the
Yelling and screaming seemed to me
the most terrible that ever reached
human ears number Of our men
were killed. more wounded, and we
began to think our scalps were In
danger. for they far outnunbered US.
| Az this time here came our little bat
terv and poured the shells into them.
| About the fourth volley the Indians
broke and ran. AS they did SO the
sixth Iowa killed some Of them and
stanpeded their horses. The redskins
scattered in all directions. We mount
ed and followed them until night came
on. and then we formed In hollow
square and laid on our arms until
daylight Here we made mistake,
4 ] think. for we should have returned 70
the battlefield, where our dead and
wounded lay, for some OF the Indians
returned, carried or their dead and
wounded, and tomatawked and scalp
ed some OF our men, Probably this
was done BY squaws. 1t was . sight
II do not care to see again -tepees were
torn down, suuaws dead and wounded
ana children Of all ages from few
! DAYS to eight and ten years; dead SOL
diers, dead Indians. dead horses, dead
dogs. Some OF the dogs were packed
like ponies and were howling for their
Il masters. The first thing Sully did was
to care for the children, and we gath
1 cred about sixty Of them together. We
lhad captured about d hundred and
II Atty warriors and squaws ana they
cared for these poor waits. The gen
erai ordered everything DESTROYED
tepees buffalo robes and tons b
dried buffalo meat and talIow. II wa
piled i'm hollow and D stream Q
tallow ran from II. We secuted t
I destroy any Indians that might b
found. hut without much success. A
we secuted we could see nothing IN
til an Indian would spring up whe
I run over. scare the horses and i
4 shooting arrows: he would alway