Dangers of the Trail in 1865: A Narrative of Actual EventsYoung, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
History
Dangers of the Trail in 1865: A Narrative of Actual Events
Young, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Colorado -- Description and travel; West (U.S.) -- Description and travel
Fifty good men could whip five times their number, especially when
fortified by those immense white covered prairie schooners in corral
formation. On they came in single file, their blood-curdling war whoop
enough to weaken the bravest. Closer they came, bedecked in war-paint
and feathers, their chief in the lead resembling the devil incarnate
with all his aids bent on exterminating as brave a band of freighters
as ever crossed the plains. Nearer they came, their ponies on a dead
run, the left leg over the back, the right under and interlocking the
left, firing from the opposite side of them, ducking their heads,
encircling the camp and yelling like demons. Their racket, together
with the yelping of their mongrel dogs and the snorting and
bellowing of the cattle, made it an unspeakable hell. Every man stood
to his gun, and from between the wagons, at the command of the wagon
boss, poured forth with lightning rapidity his leaden messengers of
death. For about an hour they made it very interesting for us. It was
almost impossible to hit one as they kept circling the camp, drawing
nearer with each circle made. How many were killed we did not know as
they carried them off, but from the number of riderless ponies, a
dozen or more must have been dispatched to their happy hunting
grounds. During the fight a portion of them bore down on the poor
pilgrims' camp, in plain sight, and massacred all, running off their
cattle and such of their outfit as they wanted.
[Illustration: MASSACRE OF EMIGRANTS]
SAVAGES IN THEIR GLORY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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