Roanoke Rapids herald., 1923-10-12

dispatch from the Red Cloud agency
IN Nebraska stating that 500 Cheyenne
warriors would leave the reservation
the next morning and take the war
path. Here was a desperate situation.
If he continued his march to Fort
Laramie as he had been ordered to do,
this force of warriors would be al
lowed to Join the hosts of Sitting Bull
and Crazy Horse unmolested, an event
which might mean another Custer dis
aster. If he marched for the reserva-
ton, 60 miles away, it would simply
drive the Indians out and hasten their
going. There was but one thing to 10
and that was to throw his force across
their path and drive them back. 10 do
this he must march over three sides
of square, while they were covering
the distance of the fourth.
Ready to Fight.
Merritt acted with his usual prompt
ness, Leaving a small guard with his
wagon train and orders that 1t was to
follow as rapidly rs possible, the com
mander and seven troops of the Fifth
swung into their saddles and started
up Rawhde creek, Their objective
was the point where the great Indian
trail from the Sioux reservation
crossed War Bonnet creek in the
southwestern corner of what Is now
South Dakota and 1t was So miles
away. After a march of IA miles, the
troopers halted to water their horses,
then pushed on until 10 o'clock that
night when they bvouacked under the
buttes of the Running Water. They
had already covered 80 miles of the
50.
At 5 the next morning they were on
their way again. They were now so
miles from War Bonnet creek and the
Cheyennes were only 2S miles from
it. From now on it would be race
to see which would arrive there first.
All that day, with only a brief stop
at noon for rest, the Fifth pushed on.
At 0 o'clock that night the seven COM
panies went into camp along the War
Bonnet The hostileS were nowhere
in sight. Merritt and the Fifth, by
marching 50 miles in 81 hours had
won the race. More than that the cav
airy leader had brought every man
and every horse through safely and
fit for fight
The fight the next morning, with
its thrilling incident of Buffalo BilI's
duel with Chief Yellow Hand, was
brilliant victory, but the result of
: hn fnripu nf thASn lpfn
ments for Sitting Bull and Crazy
Horse and sending them back to the
reservation mell-was even more
important, for it probably saved Crook.
Certainly it Won for Merritt and the
Fifth the recognition which their mag
niticent dash deserved.
Three years later came another In
dian campaign. Sept. 80, 1879, Mer
rift and part of the Fifth was sta
toned at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyo,.
when message arrived from Rawllns
telling of tragedy away up In the
northwestern corner of Colorado. The
Utes had gone on the warpath. killed
Agent n. {. Meeker and burned the
agency. Then they had ambushed a
body of troops under the command of
Maj. T. T. Thornburgh, marching to.
ward the agency. Thornburgh had
been killed and leadership had de-
volved upon Captain Payne Of the
Fifth cavalry. who, with five troops Of
the Fifth had accompanied the expe-
dition.
of to the Re0cue.
The message had been brought to
Rawlins by Joseph E. Rankin, a scout
who had broken through the hosttjes
around Payne's beleaguered soldiers
and had ridden from the ambush at