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
George and I went to work at once to organize our scouting
company, drawing our men mostly from the volunteers. About the
time that we were thoroughly organized it was reported that the
Pah-Utes and the Klamaths were all coming to join Captain Jack.
This lava bed where Captain Jack was fortified, was sixty miles
from the Klamath reservation, but the Pah-Utes were one hundred
and fifty miles away, and it both surprised and amused me when
those old officers would tell me that they expected the Pah-Utes
any time. Being afraid of an attack from the rear, we had to scout
a strip of country about forty miles long every day, and all the
arguments that I could produce were of no avail. After going
through this routine for about a month Gen. Wheaton concluded to
take Captain Jack by storm. Captain Jack was there, and had been
all the time, in what was called his stronghold in the lava bed,
being nothing more or less than a cave in the rocks, sixty yards
long, and from ten to thirty feet wide, there being one place in
the east side where a man could ride a horse into it, and numerous
places where a man could enter with ease. Down on the east and
south sides are numerous holes in the rock just large enough to
shoot through. Captain Jack had his entire force in there, had
killed all of his horses and taken them in there for meat, and
through the Klamath Indians had got a good supply of ammunition.
After Gen. Wheaton had made up his mind to take the stronghold by
storm, he asked if I could give a description of the place. Up to
this time there had not been a shot fired at the soldiers by the
Indians, and I had a number of times passed in gunshot of the main
entrance, and I know that the Indians had recognized me, but
because I had befriended them they would not shoot at me.
I drew a diagram of the cave in the best style that I could,
showing the main entrance and the natural port holes, and when I
submitted it to the General, I said: "General, you can never take
Captain Jack as long as his ammunition lasts, for he has the same
kind of guns that you have, and the majority of his men have
pistols also, and all that he will have to do is to stand there
and shoot your men down as fast as they can come."
But the General thought different. The day was set for the attack,
and on Wednesday morning the storm was to commence. The army had
its camp one mile from Jack's stronghold, so the soldiers did not
have far to march. About sunrise the whole command marched down
and turned loose on Jack, and were soon bombarding him in great
shape. This was kept up for three days and nights, when Gen.
Wheaton withdrew, having lost sixty men and something over twenty
wounded, as I was told by Col. Miller afterwards, but Jack did not
come out.
A short time after this Gen. Canby came over and took the entire
command. He brought with him a minister by the name of Col.
Thomas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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