The entire Nez Percé tribe was overtaken and attacked at daybreak, on the Big Hole, by General John Gibbon’s force of one hundred and eighty soldiers, augmented by some of the erstwhile peaceful settlers. The slaughter on both sides was: whites, twenty-nine killed, forty wounded; Indians, eighty-three dead, wounded undetermined (fifty-three of the dead were women and children).[194] Joseph commented bitterly, “The Nez Percé never make war on women and children.” Notwithstanding the confusion of this surprise attack, Joseph’s band recovered and moved on. Howard was still on their trail. Several Salmon City, Idaho, freighters fell before the drunken wrath of some of Joseph’s braves on Birch Creek. In Camas Meadows Howard maneuvered for a stand. The result was the loss of many mules and horses. Worse still was the mortal wounding of three soldiers and serious injury of five others. Just as Howard was expecting to pounce upon his prey, the crafty chief whirled around and inflicted a surprising blow, escaping almost scot free. [Illustration: A general map of Chief Joseph’s flight.] Several days later the Nez Percé were trailing up the Madison River within the Park. They were strangers in Yellowstone and the most unwelcome tourists it has ever known. Within this identical week Secretary of War William T. Sherman and an escort of five concluded a tour and left for Fort Ellis. They did not see “any signs of Indians, and felt at no moment more sense of danger than we do here.”[195] A few days later they were cognizant of their lucky break. Near Madison Junction the Nez Percé met a prospector named Shively whom they pressed into service as a guide. A few days later they seized another miner named Irwin, and held him for a while. The Radersburg Tourists The Nez Percé spent the night of August 23 in camp on the banks of the Firehole River, above the narrows. At daybreak the next morning several Indians appeared in the camp of some tourists from Radersburg, Montana. The personnel of this party were Mr. and Mrs. George F. Cowan; Mrs. Cowan’s brother and sister, Frank and Ida Carpenter; Charles Mann; William Dingee; Albert Oldham; A. J. Arnold; and Henry Myers. A prospector, named Harmon, was also associated with the Cowan party at this time. These people were just preparing to break up the “home” camp located at this terminus of the wagon road. For the past week they had been enjoying themselves on horseback visits to the geyser basins, and several of them had been to the lake and canyon.