The Price of the Prairie: A Story of KansasMcCarter, Margaret Hill
General
The Price of the Prairie: A Story of Kansas
McCarter, Margaret Hill
Kansas -- Fiction; Western stories
News of this engagement reached Sheridan's garrison on the day after our
arrival, with the word also that Custer, unable to cope with the tribes
swarming down the Washita River, was returning to Camp Supply with his
spoils of battle.
"Did you know, Phil," Bud Anderson said, "that Cuthter'th to have a
grand review before the General and hith thtaff when he geth here
to-morrow, and that'th all we'll thee of the thircuth. My! but I wish we
could have been in that fight; don't you?"
"I don't know, Bud, I'd hate to come down here for nothing, after all
we've gone through; but don't you worry about that; there'll be plenty
to be done before the whole Cheyenne gang is finished."
"It'll be a sight worth seein' anyhow, this parade," O'mie declared. "Do
you remember the day Judge Baronet took his squad out av Springvale,
Phil? What a careless set av young idiots we were then?"
Did I remember? Could I be the same boy that watched that line of
blue-coats file out of Springvale and across the rocky ford of the
Neosho that summer day? It seemed so long ago; and this snow-clad valley
seemed the earth's end from that warm sunny village. But Custer's review
was to come, and I should see it.
It was years ago that this review was made, and I who write of it have
had many things crowded into the memory of each year. And yet, I recall
as if it were but yesterday that parade of a Plains military review. It
was a magnificent sunlit day. The Canadian Valley, smooth and white with
snow, rose gently toward the hills of the southwest. Across this slope
of gleaming whiteness came Custer's command, and we who watched it saw
one of those bits of dramatic display rare even among the stirring
incidents of war.
Down across the swell, led by Hard Rope and Little Beaver, came the
Osage scouts tricked out in all the fantastic gear of Indian war
coloring, riding hard, as Indians ride, cutting circles in the snow,
firing shots into the air, and chanting their battle songs of victory.
Behind them came Pepoon's citizen scouts. Men with whom I had marched
and fought on the Arickaree were in that stern, silent company, and my
heart thumped hard as I watched them swinging down the line.
And then that splendid cavalry band swept down the slope riding abreast,
their instruments glistening in the sunlight, and their horses stepping
proudly to the music as the strains of "Garry Owen to Glory" filled the
valley.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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