It was therefore deemed advisable to remove the friendlies from this central scene of hostilities, and consequently, on July 11, 1865, a company of 135 soldiers, under Captain Fouts, were commissioned to act as an escort for the friendlies, who, in the number of 15,000, including squaws and papooses, were inclined to go. They were to be taken to Julesburg, and part of them to Kearney. Captain Fouts proceeded carefully down the river on the south side, and, lest a nervous finger should press a trigger prematurely, most of the guns were unloaded. There was nothing of a suspicious note occurring except occasionally signal fires on the hills bordering the Rawhide and Sheep Creek, and occasionally a fire arrow lost itself in the dark vault of the sky. These weird manifestations of an undercurrent of hostility was naturally trying to the nerves of the families of Captain Fouts and Lieutenant Triggs, which accompanied the party, and especially so because Mrs. Eubanks and daughter, and Miss Laura Roper, recently captured from the Indians, and whose six months in captivity had familiarized them somewhat with Indian signs and their meaning, expressed grave apprehension. On the night of June 13th, they went into camp on Horse Creek, the Indians on the west side and the soldiers on the east side of the creek. The Indians proceeded to give a dog feast, and the officers were unable to discover what was in the air. Three hundred and eighty warriors went into council, and the outcome was a tremendous fury at certain of the white soldiers who had taken young Sioux squaws into their tents and kept them there for hours. On the morning of the fourteenth the advance guard started with the wagons at five o’clock, the intention being to cover the eighteen miles to Camp Shuman, where they would camp in the luscious meadows adjacent and near by. The wagons were strung out for a mile or more when rapid firing was heard in the rear. Captain Fouts’ zeal for peace was the direct cause of his death. The delay incident to loading and distributing ammunition gave the Indians an advantage. The captain had gone back across Horse Creek to hurry the Indians, and they had killed, stripped, and mutilated him, and had fled three miles toward the river and were making warlike demonstrations, while the squaws and papooses were crossing the river, riding, or swimming beside their swimming ponies. The rear guard had at first run toward the front, but the front guard met them halfway, and together they charged after the Indians. When near at hand, Charles Elston was sent forward to offer those who would accept it and come forward peacefully, immunity from punishment. They met his offer with a shriek of defiance and charged furiously.