Joseph said of General Gibbon: "Finding that he was not able to capture us, he sent to his camp for his big guns (cannon), but my men had captured them and all the ammunition. We damaged the big guns all we could and carried away the powder and lead." At eleven o'clock that night the Indians withdrew, leaving Gibbon wounded and his command so crippled that it could not pursue. Joseph had fought and won his third battle. The Nez Perces remained long enough to bury their dead, but when General Howard joined Gibbon at this place, his Bannock scouts, ghoul-like, dug up the bodies, and in the presence of officers and men, scalped and mutilated them. The body of Looking-Glass, their ablest diplomat, who fell here, was abused in this manner, although the Nez Perces, being neither civilized nor the allies of civilization, neither took scalps nor mutilated. It is also their proud boast that they never made war on women and children while the war lasted. Joseph said "We would feel ashamed to do so cowardly an act." Continuing the retreat, Joseph and his band crossed the continental divide again into Idaho, and camped on the great Camas prairie, on the Yellowstone, west of the National Park. He had replenished his supplies, captured two hundred and fifty good horses, and his forces were in excellent condition. General Howard's troops also camped in the prairie a day's march behind. Lieutenant Bacon had been dispatched with a squad of men to hold Tacher's Pass, the most accessible roadway over the divide into the park. The pickets and sentinels were posted, and the weary troopers were soon sleeping, unconscious of war's alarms. In the faint starlight dark forms might have been seen creeping through the tall grass. Halter ropes and hobbles were cut and bells removed from the necks of the bell-mares. Creeping away in the same manner, but with less caution, a slight noise was made. "What was that?" asked a picket of a comrade. "Nothing but a prowling wolf," was the reply. For some time nothing could be heard in the camp but the regular foot falls of the sentinel. Suddenly a troop of horsemen came in sight, riding back over the trail of the Indians. They rode in column of fours, regularly and without haste. "It must be Bacon's men returning," said the pickets. On came the troopers to the very lines of the camp, but when they were challenged by the sentinel they answered with a war-whoop. At once pandemonium was let loose. A wild yell arose, followed by a fusillade of small arms, which startled the soldiers and stampeded the horses and mules, which were seen scampering away, with heads in the air, nostrils spread, snorting with excitement, followed by the Indians, yelling like demons. We must credit the great chieftain with a successful surprise.