Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1941-10-04

I Colvin did on the occasion Of the hay
field fight. He was armed with q l6-
shot repeating rifle, and had 1000
rounds Of ammunition. He was q dead
shot and If he missed an Indian IN
that fight none of us ever knew 1t.
He fired about 800 shots that day,
and after the fight the ground out
little way from where he was lying
was simply covered with dead Indians.
He killed one Of their chiefs as the
savage was leading a charge against
the corral on foot and this chief was
the first to cross Warrior creek, only
few yards from the corral. The 9TH
ers attempted several times to recover
his body, but he made 1t so hot for
them that they were obliged to aban-
don the attempt.
Captain Colvin's brother, Zeke.
killed the first Indian of the fight.
The warrior was riding toward the
corral with a firebrand, with which
he apparently hoped to set our barri-
cade ON fire Colvin shot the Indians
horse as the latter was almost against
the corral. The animal fell, pinning
its rider down, and while the Indian
was just crawling out from beneath
his horse and starting to run Colvin
brought him down with another shot.
Several times the Indians fired
burning arrows into the willow lattice
work of our barricade, hoping to smoke
us out. They also set fire to the grass
on three sides of it, but they never
succeeded in getting fire started where
it damaged us any. We were all ready
to grab our wounded and take to
Warrior creek, only IS or 80 feet south
of the corral, but we managed to eX-
tinguish every fire they started, even
though the willows were dry enough
to burn.
Stock Is Killed
There were 81 head of mules and
one horse in the corral picketed to
the cable stretched across from north
to south All this stock was either
killed or wounded, except one mule
and the horse.
Among our crowd there was a big
bully Of whom we had all been afraid |
We had expected great things of this
man when it came to a showdown, |
but at the critical moment-when the |
fighting started-the coward hid him
self and never fired shot all through |
the battle. Another mana soldier
kept threatening to commit suicide, !
for fear the Indians would get him |
alive and hold him for torture Zeke |
Colvin finally took the fellows gun |
away from him, and he hid himself !
In hole which the dogs had dug ,
near the fence. He kept so quiet that
we thought he was dead, until after |
the fighting was over.
"An the while we were fighting for /
our lives, from a. m. to 5 D. m, we |
wondered why no reinforcements came
from the fort to our relief. We knew
they must have heard the sound of
our guns. We also knew there were
plenty Of soldiers at the fort, who
aided by the civilians, could easily
have held the fort against the In
dians. But there was no attempt made
10 send us reinforcements until the
fighting was all over and the Indians
had withdrawn, having come to the
conclusion that we were in1pregnable,
and that they could neither drive us
put into the open nor smoke us out
Ordered Fort Locked
'1t appears that Captain Hartz,
With his company Of soldiers, was es-
,orting a wood train from the noun
aims to the fort and when he reached
point where he could overlook the
1alley where the hay field was sit
lated, he heard and saw the battle in
He had a pair Of powerful
ield glasses with which he looked the
ALLEY over and saw what a desperate
1tuation we we're In. He fastened to
he fort as quickly as possible, where
Re reported to the commander that
he men in the hay field were sur
ounded by at least $500 Indians. and
'sked for three or four companies of
oldiers to so to our relief. And now
ONES the almost unbelievable part
{ my story:
Instead of granting Captain Hartz's
equest, the commander Immediately
rdered the gates Of the fort to be
ocked and refused to allow a man
D leave while the battle was IN prog
ess. We were thus left 10 fight it
uk as best we could. The commander IA