Capt. W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts, As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the Wild West of Fifty Years AgoDrannan, William F.
History
Capt. W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts, As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the Wild West of Fifty Years Ago
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.)
The men that brought the news of the massacre were so excited that they
could not tell how many people had been killed or how many wagons were
in the train. They said that the train had just broke camp and started
on their way when they heard the report of guns at the head of the
train, and in a moment more the Indians came pouring down upon them,
shooting everyone they met with their bows and arrows. "And," continued
they, "when we saw them shooting and yelling, we broke and run before
they got to us, and we did not stop until we got here." They said all
this in a frightened, breathless way, that showed how excited they were.
Col. Bent sent the men and boy into the dining room to get something
to eat, and Uncle Kit followed them, to try to get some more definite
information regarding the massacre. After awhile Uncle Kit came back,
and Col. Bent asked him what he thought of the news the men had brought.
Carson answered that the men in the dining room did not know anything,
and that he thought they were a party of emigrants who were disappointed
and angry at their luck, and they had tried to vent their spite on some
Indians they had met by firing on them, and had got the worst of the
fight.
"You know, Colonel, that the Comanches have not troubled any white
people in a number of years without they were aggravated to do so."
Col. Bent said, "Well, Kit, are you going down there to investigate the
matter?"
Carson answered, "Yes, and won't you send three men along to bury the
dead?"
Col. Bent said, "Certainly, Kit, and anything else you want. When do you
want to start?"
Carson said, "We will start now."
Carson, Bridger, myself and three other men left the fort for the scene
of the massacre, which we reached at the break of day the next
morning, and the sight that met our eyes was a horrible one. We found
twenty-three dead bodies close together, apparently where the attack had
commenced, and down near the river, in the brush, we found five more,
and also four living men who were not hurt, but frightened nearly to
death.
After Carson had talked with these men a while and they had recovered a
little sense, they told how the dreadful thing occurred.
They had just pulled out from camp that morning when they met the
Indians. There were several men on horseback riding on ahead of the
wagons. When they met the Indians, they commenced to shout "How-How,"
and the horsemen began to fire on the Indians without the Indians doing
a thing to provoke them, and then the Indians had turned on them and
killed every white person they could find, but that they had not been
seen by the Indians, as they ran down the river and hid in the brush.
We searched thoroughly the brush all around for quite a distance, but we
could find no more living or dead.
We could not find out by these men how many there were in the train any
more than we could of the men that came with the news to the fort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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