Mexico weekly ledger., 1910-04-28
TWO SURVIVE ATTACK
OF OSAGE INDIANS
COL. WARNER LEWIS TELLS OF
THE STORY AND HOW HE AND
HIS coMRADE ESCAPE FROM
THE sAvAeEs IN THAT BAT
TILE.

Through mere incident it devel-
ops that Col. Warner Lewis, an old
and prominent attorney of this city,
father of Robert Lewis, republican
candidate for governor in 1896, is
the erst-while unknown Confederate
soldier who escaped the bloody con-
flict with the Usage Indians in 1868,
in which sixteen of his comrades
We're killed and scalped and their
heads cut off. There were only IS
in the company i'm all, but in fact
there were two suryivors--one, Col.
Lewis, and the other, John Lafferty,
who met death shortly after his es-
cape, leaving Col. Lewis the only
survivor.
Eyes, it is the fact that | am the
only survivor of that awful battle"
said Col. Lewis. Il have told only
a few of my friends about it in re-
lating war history, of my remark
able experience and escape. 1t
comes to the surface through a mag.
azine article just published in Okla
homa which gives meager account
of the battle, which is gathered from
some of the Indians who have heard
of the massacre.
This magazine story telling OF
these Confederabes, says: Down on
a sand-bar in the Usage country, in
a space of some four rods square
were found the almost nude bodies of
the dead Confederates. Their heads,
besides being scalped, had been ac-
cording to the Usage eustom severed
from their bodies. Long gashes had
been cut the entire length of their
bodies. Leading from these dead boc4
les were the foot tracks of two
men walking side by side and close
together, as if one might have been
supporting the other. 1t is probab&
that these two men were shot while
i'm the water attempting to cross al
stream near by, and it is also proba-
bic that they made good their es-
cape.
"You see this magazine writer
comes pretty near guessing correctly
when he says that 1T is possible that
two of this fatal company made their
escape. Myself and John Lafferty
were the lucky ones, but LaffertyI
was killed before the war closed.
1--WE had begun saddling up to re
new our journey, after rest, when
we discovered a body of men coming
at full gallop. BY the time we were
all mounted they were in hailing dis
tance, and proved to be a body of
about $50 Indian warriors. 10 avoid
"a conflict we moved off at brisk
walk, and they followed us. We had
not gone far until some of them fired
and killed one of our men, Douglass
Huffman; we then charged them Wig
orously and drove them back some
distance. My horse was killed i'm
the charge and | was severely wound
ed i'm the shoulder with an arrow.
mounted the mule on which Huff
man was killed
The Indians kept gathering strength
from others coming up, and we had
a running fight for eight or ten
miles. Our horses were becoming ex-
hausbed, so we concluded to halt In
the bed of small stream and give
them a rest.
Here the Indians surrounded us
ana ko,yo ~ sn incessant fire at gun
shot range. We had only side arms
and pistols, and they were out OF
our range. Frank Roberts was shot
here through the head and fell from
his horse. | immediately dismounted
the mule and mounted Roberts horse
which incident was the saving of my
life. When our horses were rested
We mad dash for liberty.
eve broke through the Gordon,