Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-09-20

slaughter Of their braves; but still
they come.
| "'Crash!
"'They have ceased to yell, but We
they come bravely on. What? No
Yes, down goes their medicine man
but Roman Nose still recklessly lead!
the column; but now I see great gaps
in their ranks, showing that our bull
lets have told heavily among them.
| "'Crash!
"'Can I believe my ears? Roman
Nose is down! He and his horse lie
dead together on the sand, and for ar
instant the column shakes; but hun
dred yards more and they are upon
us!
| "'Crash!
"'They stagger! They draw half
rein! They hesitate! They are break
ing!
"'Crash!
".And like an angry wave that
hurls itself upon mighty rock and
breaks upon its rugged front, the In
dians divide each side Of the little
breastwork, throw themselves almost
beneath the off side Of their chargers
and with hoarse cries of rage and an
guish break for either bank Of the
river and scatter wildly, in every di-
rection, as the scouts, springing to
their feet with a ringing cheer, pour
in volley after volley from their re-
| volvers almost in the very faces OF
their now demoralized and retreatine
foe.
Down, men! Lie down. I fairly
shrieked. Get down! or your lives!
And the men, hurling bitter taunts
and imprecautions after the retreat
ing savages, throw themselves, pant
ing, fiat on their faces inside Of their
rifle pits just in time to escape a
scorching volley from the Indians still
lying in ambush around us, who have
been anxiously watching the charge
and naturally enough are wildly en-
ragged at its failure.
"well after the death Of Roman
Nose they charged us twice again and
then they simply lay around us in the
grass and kept peppering us so hard
that none Of US dared to even show a
hand. That night General Forsyth
selected Pierre Trudeau, an old trap
per, and Jack Stilwell. a handsome
boy Of 19, to try and sneak through
the lines of the Injuns and get to FIT
Wallace for re-enforcements. They
sneaked out at midnight in their
stocking feet, with their boots tied
around their necks.
1.-The next day 1t was plain that the
| Injuns intended to starve us out. They
lay and kept firing at us, but we simply
lay still in our pits and their bullets
could not harm us. The third day II
was the same. BY this time we were
so nearly starved that we were eat
ing the flesh from the dead horses
We got water by digging down into
| the sand.
THAT night General Forsyth select
/
and reach Ft. Wallace. I carried q
letter to Colonel Bankhead asking him
to hasten to the assistance Of the par
| ty. We first sneaked out and robbed
two dead Injuns Of their moccasins
and put them on our feet. Then we
filled our pockets with horse meat and
| crawled 400 yards on our stomachs
out among the Injuns who were guard
ing every point. Several times we
were so close to a sentinel that we
could see him walking back and forth
and once I crawled within three feet
Of an Injun who was asleep in the
grass and snoring. When we got 100
yards away we got upon our hands
and knees and crept 100 yards and
then we got up and walked and rar
until daylight.
1--WE did not dare to travel in the
daytime so we had to find a hiding
place. We were on top Of a divide
with not a spear Of tall grass or 6
tree or weed clump in sight. We
Il
about a foot deep. and we lay dowr
in that. We had got our moccasins
wet in wading out of the camp anc
this softened them so that the cactus
thorns pierced them as easily as they
would paper. Our feet were full OF
| thorns. We took off our moccasin:
and tried to pull out the thorns, but
they broke off. I still bear the scars
of those thorns. AS we lay there oul
feet swelled to twice their natura
size. The sun was very hot and beat
straight down upon us. Our horse
meat had spoiled and we could no
eat 1t.
| About noon we heard the trampine
Of horses's hoofs and peeping over the
rim of our buffalo wallow we saw
band Of 80 Injun warriors heading
straight for us. We got our revol
vers ready and the Injuns kept riding
on. I said to my companion:
"'Jack, I guess our time has come.
"'Yes, here's where we get ours HI
answered.
"They rode up within 100 yards Of
us and then halted and held con
sultation, and veered off to the wes
without seeing us.
/ Jack I said, our time hasn'
come yet
1--WE suffered greatly that hot after
noon in that buffalo wallow, and i
there hadn't been other lives at stake
we would have stayed right there
and died.
THAT night we pushed on. W.
tore off our underclothing and wrap
ped our feet in them. But, to cut {
long story short, we staggered into Ft
Wallace at the end of four days, anC
within 10 minutes after we got ther'
the rescue party was getting read!
Il VI, nf