The National tribune., 1910-06-09

return to camp. The Indians harassed
US over the entire return trip from all
directions. We marched all night, and
arrived at camp about daybreak Gen.
Connor's official report was 65 Indians
killed, about 600 horses and about 25
squaws captured and the entire band
broken up. Our loss was one killed
and several wounded. / remember Com
rade Johnson, of our company, who
was shot, the arrow going thru his
cheek and tongue, and fastening itself
III the jawbOne, where it remained un-
| I we arrived back at camp, where the
Doctor and another man were required
to get it out. After a rest in camp the
General ordered all the squaws to be
mounted on ponies, and had them
brought before him, where he gave
them a long talk thru an Interpreter,
and told them that he wanted them to
tell their men that he had lots of SOL
diers, and there were lots more of them
coming, and unless they went to Fort
Laramie and made peace he would kill
them all, capture all their squaws and
children and destroy all of their prop
erty. He then dismissed them and told
them they could CO.
we continued our march down the
Tongue until we arrived at the mouth,
Where we were to meet Col. Cole. On
finding no indications of Col. Cole and
his command, we sent out scouts and
tried to locate him, but failed, after re-
naming in camp for awhile Antwine
Ladue, one of our guides, reported that
he had found where Col. Cole had
camped; that their wagons had been
burned and horses shot Indications
were that the Indians had captured
their supply train and destroyed it. Gen.
Connor called for volunteers to carry a
message to Col. Cole and to find out
what had become of them. Two men,
Ders or our company volunteered to GO
provided they had a choice of mounts,
which they got. After numerous hair
breadth escapes they succeeded in
reaching Col Coles command with the
message. They were found in a de-
moraliZed condition. lot of them on
foot, no provisions no clothing, bare
footed and in many cases no arms The
Indians were harassing them on all
sides.
Our march back to Fort Connor was
on nearly the same trail that we took
when going. There was very little diff
ference in the trip, the same routine
day after day. While we had no en-
gagements with the Indians, we were
continually reminded that we were in
the Indian country. On arriving at
Fort Connor / saw some of Coles com
mand, and had no reason to doubt any
of the reports of their hardships. We
arrived at Fort Laramie about Nov. 1,
having been gone about five months
and being cut off from all communica-
ton since we left in the Spring. On
arriving We found many of the hostile
tribe already there. l do not know
what part the whole expedition had in
helping bring peace, but the following
Spring Red Cloud, Spotted Tail and 9TH
er principal chiefs, with their tribes,
assembled at Fort Laramie, where they
met the Peace Commission from Wash
ington and a treaty was framed"
He Was the Hero.
Josephus Rich, Co. D, 18th Mo. Cav,
Dillon, Mont, writes:
"Comrade Bayles's account of the
Missouri boy of the 18th Mo. Cav. who
whipped 16 Indians on Powder River
i'm the Fall of 1865 interested me when
it was published in The National Trib-
une of March II. Comrade Bayles, |
am that Missouri boy. l could have
logged your memory on some of the
details that led up to that scrap, but
If you wrote that from memory you did
very well. The boy who was killed
near the river was William Bradshaw
His mother, widow, lived in Harrison
County, Mo. / sent the arrow to his