Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-09-20
FOUGHT THOUSAND REDSKINS.
Indian Outbreak in Kansas.
Thrilling Experience of Fifty Soldiers During

He was gathering elderberries along
the bank Of the Kaw river In Ar
mourdale, his sunbronzed face snow
ing above the purple clusters OF WHO
fruit.
The Indians bullet that has lain Tor
As wears in the muscles Of his ankle
caused him to limp as he came out OF
the tangle Of weeds in answer to a
call.
"Is this Captain Pliley"
THAT'S me-" he answered.
"Are you the Captain Pliley VINO
was in the battle Of the Arickaree a.
years ago?"
Eyes sir, I'm the fellow.
"You are the man who crawled out
through a thousand Indian warriors
who were besieging SO white scouts
ON an island in the Arickaree river
and who went 100 miles without 1000
to FIT. Wallace and got the soldiers 10
come to their relief?'
.I'm one Of the four men who did
that" he said with a laugh as he SET
his basket Of elderberries under the
shade of a cottonwood tree and took
off his felt hat to wipe his forehead.
This old man with his shirt front
rolled back disclosing V OF tanned.
chest, with his basket Of elderberries
by his side, standing there wondering
what his visitor wanted Of him, was
one of the real heroes Of the plains.
He had been one Of the great heroes
of a battle Of the Kansas frontier
more tragic than all the Wild West
novels that ever came off the press.
He was one Of so white men VINO
fought off q thousand blood-thlrsty
Cheyenne and Sioux warriors for nine
days, living on decayed horse flesh,
and then, starving and weak, his feet
full of cactus thorns and swollen to
twice their size, he had walked and
crawled and crept 100 miles across a
plain baking in a hot sun for aid.
He was the man whom General
FORSYTH praised in his official report
as lone of the bravest Of men 1t has
ever been my good fortune to meet
Lets go to the house and talk II
over" suggested Captain Pliley. He
lives at sos South Thirteenth street,
Kansas City, Kan, and on the front
porch of his home there he told one
day las week Of his part in that
bloody drama Of the border known as
the Battl, Of the Arickaree.
In 1858 the Indians, angry because
the government had again occupied
the frontier forts that had been al
most empty Of soldiers during the civil
war, and angry because the Union "a
cific railroad was building out through
the centre ofs their best hunting
grounds, went on the warpath. and that
summer they murdered 154 white set
tiers in western Kansas and Nebraska
and eastern Colorado, captured many
white women and children and burned
many houses and barns. In August
General G. A. Forsyth and a company
of 81 picked citizen scouts went out
from Ft. Wallace to follow and pun
ish a band Of Indians that had at
tackled a freighter's train near Sher-
idan, thirteen miles east Of Wallace,
killed two Of the teamsters. and had
then struck off across the plains to-
ward the northwest.
After following the Indians for
several days Forsyth went into camp
on the bank Of the Arickaree river
in Colorado, near the Kansas line.
His camp was in level valley two
miles long and two miles broad, with
a river running through its centre.
The oval valley was trimmed with
bluffs. Opposite his camp was a small,
low island covered with brush and
weeds. The river divided and ran on
each side Of this island, the stream
being Is feet wide and about five
inches deep on each side.
1T was the evening Of September
16 that we camped there" said Cap
tain Pliley. I'VE knew we were close
to the Indians and we thought maybe
we would be attacked the next morn
ing, and sure enough. at the first
streaks of dawn we were all awake
and watching the bluffs. We saw
something moving on the horizon, and
listening intently, we could hear the
soft thud of unshod hoofs on the prai-
rie turf, and the cry went up: In
juns.'
"a bunch Of mounted warriors
came for us at a gallop, beating drums
rafting dry hides to scare our horses
but every man Of US stood with his
horses lariat twisted around the left
arm, and standing that way we pour.
ed in a volley from our Spencer rifles
This drove the band back. and Forsyth
ordered us to get upon the island. Be.
fore we could mount and wade across
the narrow stream the whole band Of
Indians charged us. They came or
foot and on horseback; they seemed
to start out of the very earth. From
over the bluffs, out to the thickets
from the bed of the stream, from
the long grass, from all direction:
they appeared and charged upon us
whooping and yelling and shooting.
heard General Forsyth say:
1.-The worlds covered with 'em
boys
1--WE found out afterward that there
were 1000 warriors IN that charge
and there were only 81 Of us, but ev
cry man jack Of us had been picked
because of his experience as Injur
fighters. There was not regular
soldier in our bunch. They were
mostly farmers sons who had be
come scouts from the love Of adven
ture. 1 had been raised on farm
near Topeka, and was studying Law
in that city when word Of the Injur
outbreak came, and showed m!
books upon the shelf and enlisted a!
scout. Before that I. had beel
through the civil war, had fought a
the battle of Westport. and in 1856
had been in a big Injun fight tina
landed a bullet in my ankle that il
there yet.