Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far WestDrannan, William F.
History
Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains: An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars
The Lieutenant said: "I think I will attack them at once," and
asked me if I had their horses located. I told him I had. He then
gave orders for all of the men to muffle their spurs, and he asked
me to take my four men and as soon as the charge was made to make
a dash for the horses, cut them off and stampede them. So we made
the start, my scouts and I on the extreme right of their entire
command. The Lieutenant had explained to the command that he would
give the word in an undertone, each corporal to take it up, and
they also had orders to hold their sabres up in a way that they
could not make any noise. Being good starlight that night, one
could see fairly well. We rode within less than one hundred yards
of the Indian camp before the word was given to charge. When we
were in sight of the horses we raised the yell and they all
started, and we did not let them stop until at headquarters the
next morning at daybreak. At this haul we got one hundred and
eighty-two horses.
The Lieutenant returned with his command at ten o'clock the same
morning, and he told me that he didn't think a dozen Indians
escaped.
In this engagement he did not lose a man, and only a few were
wounded, but five horses were hurt, and those he had killed after
returning to headquarters, claiming that in this warm climate,
where the flies were so bad, it took too much attention to cure
them.
The two days following were days of rest with us, very little
being done in the way of scouting. On the morning of the third day
after the battle, George and his force went out to make a tour
around the camp, and Lieut. Jackson, myself and four scouts went
out to try to kill some deer, as we were getting very hungry for
fresh meat, having been so long on bacon that we were all sick and
tired of it. That day we killed four deer, and that night we
camped six miles from our quarters. The next morning the
Lieutenant sent to headquarters for ten pack animals, and we
remained to hunt. In two days we killed all the game we could pack
to camp on the ten animals. On our return the Lieutenant said to
me: "This part we will have to keep to ourselves, for if we tell
the General that we were out hunting and spent three days on the
trip he would swear until everything around would turn blue."
After this we made two and three day scouting trips. While out on
one of these, I found where the Apache stronghold was; down in a
deep canyon, which since then has been known as Black canyon. From
all appearance the greater part of the tribe was there. This
canyon was tributary to the Colorado, and the hardest place to get
into I have ever seen in the Rocky Mountains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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