On November 26, Major John Steele reported signal fires on the mountain south of Virgin City and General Snow issued an order to establish posts at the mouth of (Black) Rock Canyon sixteen miles southeast of St. George and near Gould’s Ranch, eight miles south of Virgin City.[74] The men at these posts were to serve as guards as well as herders of livestock and were to build stone quarters; the “house to be covered with stone flagging or earth in a manner that it cannot be fired from the outside, with but one door and that heavy and strongly barred, so that one or two men, well armed, may defend themselves against any number of Indians.” Despite these precautions, the Navajos scattered in small bands, easily passed through the military posts, and hid in the mountains north of St. George. On the evening of December 28, word reached Harrisburg from local Paiutes that some Navajos had killed and dried three beeves between Grapevine Springs and Toquerville. Captain J. D. L. Pearce, with fifteen men from Washington, at once took up their trail along Harrisburg Creek toward Pine Valley Mountain but failed to overtake them. In the meantime, on December 28, near Pine Valley, Cyrus Hancock saw three Indians skulking on the range and called to them. The Indians proved hostile and tried to capture him. One seized his horse’s bit and another tried to shoot him with an arrow. He slid off his horse and ran toward Pine Valley, the Indians in pursuit. One of them shot him in the arm with an arrow. He stumbled and fell as they yelled in triumph, but he regained his footing and outran them into the valley. These Indians were thought to have been hiding around the town for two or three days, quietly gathering stock. As soon as discovered, they left with about thirty horses and passed down the Black Ridge between St. George and Middleton on the night of December 28, gathering more horses at both places and hastening southwest via Fort Pearce Wash. Col. D. D. McArthur immediately ordered out all available cavalry in pursuit of the thieves, who had an entire day’s start. An expedition of thirty men headed by Lt. Copelan followed the Indian trail from the Washington Fields past Fort Pearce, through Black Rock Canyon and out toward Pipe Springs where it met another detachment returning from an Indian encounter.