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.)
In a moment more the time had come to act, and when I said, "Charge,"
every man responded and did his duty. I had been in several Indian
fights before, but I never saw Indians so taken by surprise as this band
was. They did not draw their arrows or run, until we had fired into
them, and after they turned to run, they had gone at least two hundred
yards, before I saw them try to shoot an arrow.
We got fourteen of them in the first charge, and inside of three hundred
yards we got six more. The remainder had reached the thick brush, so we
let them go.
We now commenced catching the horses. We caught sixteen horses, and they
all had good hair ropes around their necks. We tied them all together,
and I left them in charge of two men, and the rest of us went to take
the scalps of the Indians, and I was surprised to find when I said, "We
will take the scalps of these Indians," that the men did not know what
I meant. I showed them how to take the scalps off, and then they asked
what I was going to do with them. I told them I was going to give them
to Jim Bridger, and he would make guards out of them. "Jim wouldn't take
the biggest hundred dollar bill you could offer him for these scalps,
when he gets his hands on them."
One of the men said, "What will Bridger do with them horrid bloody
things?"
I told him to just wait until night and then Jim would explain the use
they would be to him. I tied the scalps to my saddle, left two men to
care for the horses we had captured and biding the others to follow me I
struck out for the place where we were to camp that night.
Jim told me that night how surprised the emigrants were when the train
came to the men who had charge of the horses, and seeing the bodies of
the dead Indians.
He said, "I had to let them stop the train a few minutes so they could
all look at them." He said, "Some of the women wanted to know what
had become of the hair off the top of their heads. I told them that I
reckoned Will had taken them to give to me."
"And what are you going to do with those horrid Indians' hair?" one
woman inquired.
"I am going to protect you and the rest of the train with them," he
answered her.
The place we had picked out for camping ground that night was Sage
Creek. There was no timber in sight as far as one could see; there was
nothing to see but sage brush, but there was plenty of good water and
fine grass.
We had been riding around looking for signs of Indians, so we did not
reach the camping ground until Jim had the wagons corralled. I gave him
the scalps I had taken and I told him I was going to get some meat for
supper. He said, "What have you found? Bison or Antelope?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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