Year: 1876

ctims, and l employed the time think
ing of my perilous position.


While thus engaged heard crack
ling noise near me, (which, on investigat-
ing, found proceeded from the burning
wood, the Indians having ignited a fire.
The wood being very dry the fire made
rapid head, and / was forced from my
hiding-place. crawled out of the creek
bottom the same way had approached,
and as was about to ascend the bank /
heard voice calling, Lieutenant
Lieutenantw 1 could see no one, but the
call was repeated, and advancing few
yards in the direction from which it
proceeded, / found all three of the party
l had left short while before hidden in
the bottom of the creek. Mr.. Gerard
told me he had left the horses, tied to-
gether, where l had seen them, and fol-
lowed down after me.


found that the party, like myself,
were afraid of the progress of the fire !;
but, fortunately for us, the wind subsidized
and little rain fell, which, thank God,
was sufficient to arrest the flames and
revive our hopes that we might be able
to remain there till night. 1t was now
about three o'clock p. m.- six more hours
to wait-and you may imagine how i'm
mensely long we found them. During
this time we could hear and often see
Indians around us, and could hear them
talk quite near US.


/ can not find words sufficiently ex-
pressive to describe my many thoughts
dnriror fhnoo os hA,,va sc aus
peDse. Finally the time came when,
under the protection of the night Git was
very cloudy, we were able to come out
of our hiding place and take the direction
of the ford. which was two miles to the
south, through an open plain. Mr..
Gerard and the scout mounted their
horses, and the soldier and myself took
hold each one of a horses tail and fol-
lowed them. Mr.. Gerard proposed that
in case he should be obliged to run
and leave us, and succeeded in joining
the command, he would notify Colonel
Reno, the commander, of my position.
During our transit through the open
plain we passed many Indians returning
to their village, and could hear but not
see them, as the night was very dark.
We reached the wood near what we took
to be the ford we had passed in the
morning, but we were mistaken, and
had to hunt for the crossing. Once we
fOrded the stream, but found it was at a
bend, and that we would have to ford it
again.


When we recrossed the river we ran
full into band of eight savages. The
two mounted men ran for their lives /;
the soldier and myself jumped into the
bushes near us. cooked my revolver,
and, in kneeling position, was ready to
fire at the savages if they should ap-
proach me. They evidently thought,
from the precipitate fight of the two
mounted men, that all of us had de-
camped, and began to talk among them
selves. In a few minutes, to my sur
prise, they continued their course, and
soon after went out of hearing. l raised
up from my position, approached the
bank of the river, and called to the SOL
dier, who Immediately answered. We
then saw that the fords were all guarded
by the savages, and that it would be
very dangerous to attempt TO cross any
part of the river. Of course we did not
know the condition of our regiment,
and knew nothing about the extent of
their defeat, so that we hoped if we could
find good hiding place for the night we
could wait for the probable return of our
command in the morning, and could
then easily join them. We also hoped
that the Indians would leave during the
night. Accordingly we searched for a
good place in the thick underwood and
briers near the river, and there waited
with much anxiety our fate on the NOR
row. The night passed, and in the dim
dawn of day we heard an immense
tramping of large cavalry command,
and the splashing OF the water convinced
us some troops were crossing the river. l
imagined it was our command, as /
could distinctly hear the sound of the
horses shoes striking the stones. / eau
tiously stepped to the edge of the bank
to look out U was then no more than
three yards from the bank of the river),
and thought recognized some gray
horses, mounted by men in military
blouses, and some of them in white hats.
They were, thought, going out of the
valley, and those that had already
crossed the river were going up very
steep bluff, while others were crossing
after them. / saw one man with buck
skin jacket, pants, top boots, and white
hat, and felt quite sure recognized him
as Captain Tom Custer, which convinced
me that the cavalrymen were OF our
command.


With this conviction stepped boldly
out on the bank and called TO CAPTAIN
Custer, "Tom, don't leave us here I"
The distance was only few yards, and
my call was answered by an Internal
yell, and discharge of three hundred or
four hundred shots. / then discovered
my mistake. and found the savages were
clad in clothes and mounted on horses
which they had captured from our men.
Myself and the soldier jumped into the
bushes, the bullets moving down the
branches every volley, and crawled off
to get out of the range of the fire. In
doing so we moved the top branches of
the underground, and the Indians on the
top of the bluff fired where they saw the
commotion, and thus covered us with
their rifles. We now decided to cross a
clearing Of about twenty yards and gain
another wood, but before doing this /
took the precaution to look out. The
prospect was very discouraging, for on
our immediate right, not more than
fifty yards distant, I saw four or five In
dians gallOping toward us. Near by me
there were two cottonwood stumps
nearly touching each other, and behind
this slender barricade myself and the
COLDER knelt down, he with his carbine
and with my revolver, ready to do for
a few savages before they could kill us.
We determined not to fire until they
came 30 near that we could not miss
them, and there we waited. Ihad given
up hope, and made my mind up to ii
that the end had come. They had not
seen us, and when the foremost man was
just abreast of me, and about ten yards
distant, ] fred.


They came in Indian file, and at my
fire they turned a right-about and were
making of, when private O'Neill fired
his carbine at the second savage, who at
that moment was refining his pony to