Reminiscences of a PioneerThompson, William, Colonel
History
Reminiscences of a Pioneer
Thompson, William, Colonel
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon; Modoc Indians -- Wars
Col. Green realized that if the Indians could be kept from the water,
they would have to surrender or leave the stronghold, and he held on
with the tenacity of a bulldog. During the night the squaws went out
under the lines and returned with a load of snow, but the warm spell of
weather melted the snow rapidly and soon this source was cut off. Still
the outlaws held on, and for three days and nights, pressed in by men
and guns on every side, subjected to a fire from four sides, with five
mortars and three howitzers raining shells upon them, they held to the
"hole in the wall" that had been for ages their salvation and their
safeguard. The constant rain of bursting shells had filled the caves and
crevices of the lava beds with smoke, and cut off from water, on the
night of the third day they quietly slipped out from under Gen. Gillem's
lines and left--no one knew where.
It may appear incredible, but it is true, that during all this battle of
three days and nights, amid the hum of tons of leaden bullets and the
bursting of countless shells, not a single Indian was killed. We must
except one buck who started in to investigate an unexploded shell. That
buck was going to "get 'um powder and lead out" with file and hatchet,
and was scattered out over the rocks for his inquisitiveness. But the
other Indians were nowhere to be seen. They had passed out under the
line of troops as ants would pass through a sponge. The troops took
possession of the lava beds, the stronghold, but the Indians were gone.
It yet remained for Gen. Gillem to learn another lesson in Indian
warfare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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