The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-12

1OICc, dHu lOTly-ulH0 men rom L1lo Eighteenth infantry and twenty-seven troopers from the Second cavalry, a detachment of which had arrived some time before, were detailed as a relief party. To command this detachment at once became the uppermost desire in the mind of Captain Fetterman and he begged Darlington for permis- sion. The latter well knew that Fet- terman's contempt for Indians might lead to rashness. Fetterman how ever pleaded his senior captaincy, and to his requests the general at last re- luctantly acceeded. But he took great care to give Fetterman explicit pre- cautionary orders.
 Just beyond the point where the wood train had corralled to beat off the Indians was an eminence called Lodge Trail bridge, and Carrington's order to Fetterman was to "relieve the wood train and drive back the sue them beyond Lodge Trail bridge.' So necessary did Darlington deem it that. this order of caution be thor oughly comprehended that he repeat ed, it to Lieutenant G. w. Grummond, who commanded the cavalry in the rescuing detail, in voice loud enough to be audible to everybody in the fort. And finally, to make assurance doubly sure, he went to the gate of the fort and shouted another repeti- tion of the order just after the de- tail departed.
 Among the officers under Fetter- man was Captain Brown, and'with the party there went as volunteers two frontiersmen, Wheatley and Fisher, who were armed with the then new Henry repeating rifle. These two had often expressed their longing to try this weapon on the Indians. The to- tai of the force under Fetterman was eighty-one. In the fort, Lieutenant Grummond left wife who was in dSl- icate health, and Wheatley, the from tiersman, was one of several in Fet- terman's party who had in the fort not only a wife but also children. Cap tain Brown was quartermaster of the post On the preceding day he had remarked that "he must have one chance at the Indians before he left,'' for he had been recently ordered to assume other duties at an early date.
 Eighty-One Mastered.
 The situation of the wood train was critical. In relieving it the detail un- der Fetterman was obliged to use all speed, but at the approach of the lat ter the Indians withdraw from the train and retreated in the direction of Lodge Trail bridge. Back at the fort it was suddenly discovered that no doctor had been detailed to accom- pany Fetterman, a serious omission, and Acting Assistant Surgeon Hines, with an escort of four men, was sent out to join him. Presently, however, this party returned to the fort with information that Lodge Trail bridge was covered with Indians and that of Fetterman's ScOmmand there were no signs. It was evident that the latter officer had disoveyed orders and pursued the Indians over the bridge. The alarm in the fort wGs consequent ly grave and was not lessened when, at noon, sounds of firing from beyond Lodge Trail bridge came in such vol ume as to indicate a pitched battle. had to act quickly. He sent Captain Ten Eyck with all the
  to go out, join Fetterman and bring him in. So great was the generals alarm that, shortly after, he sent an- other party of forty men after Ten Eyck.
 The number to which the garrison of the fort was now depleted was inf1n- itely small; the stockade might be at any time, and Darlington was reduced to the extremity of arm ing the quartermaster's employees and all other civilians, and also of releas- ing all his prisoners from the guard house. But even such desperate as these left him only 119 men for the defense of the fort, a du- W for which such a member was woe fully inadequate.
 Concerning what might, have hap pened to Fetterman and his men those in the fort could not permit to even imagine. The wo- men and children. especially those who had husbands or fathers in the de- tails which had been sent out, were almost insane with fear. Then, sud- denly, an orderly was seen galloping furiously toward the stockade. He pore d 1leSSdS0 u IIIc SSllcl d1 II O1ll Captain Ten Eyck. It was to the eff feet that the valley on the other side of the ridge was filled with Indians; that the latter were threatening Ten Eyck, that the firing had stopped, that there were still no signs of Fet- terman, and that Ten Eyck had inn mediate need of one of the howitzers from the fort.
 But Darlington could not send this fense All the general could do was to order the courier to return to Ten Eyck with orders to join Fetterman if possible.
 Not until late in the afternoon did Ten Eyck's party come in. With the arrival the worst fears of those in the fort were realized, for Ten Eyck s men had with them ghastly evidences of appalling disaster. These were the bodies of Captains Fetterman and Brown and of no less than forty-seven
 their men. Stripped, scalded, shot full of arrows and hacked almost to pieces, they told their own horrible story.
 Bodies Mutilated.
 Ten Eyck had found these gory re- mains on the farther side of Lodge Trail bridge. Empty shells on the ground around them told of their re- sistance, but against the savage wave which swept over them the hapless men had had but little chance. Of all the forty y-nine bodies only four be-