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
I proposed that we give the Captain a surprise. We all dismounted,
and each fastened a scalp to the browband of his bridle, and when
the Captain saw us coming and saw that each had a scalp, he said:
"Boys, let's give them three cheers." At that the valley rang out
with the yells.
This pleased the new recruits that had been engaged in the battle,
and I can truthfully say that I never saw the same number of green
men equal them in the first engagement, for every one of them
fought like heroes.
We dismounted, turned our horses over to the herder and called for
supper. This was the first square meal that it had been our
pleasure to sit down to for four days, and this was where none of
us shrunk from duty, in the least.
By this time the wound in my leg was beginning to pain me, and
gave me more trouble than I anticipated. The next morning it was
badly swollen, and I was not able to ride horseback for several
days.
That morning we pulled for Steen's Mountain, which we supposed to
be about forty miles from where we were camped.
Not being able to ride horseback, I rode in one of the ambulances.
From here we kept guards out on each side of the trail, with
orders to keep from five to six miles from the train, and if any
Indians were seen to report at once.
The second day in the afternoon Capt. Mills established his
headquarters about one mile from the trail, in a beautiful spot;
plenty of water, an abundance of good grass, and a few pine trees
scattered here and there, making it an unusually pleasant place
for quarters that summer.
Not being able to ride, I stayed in camp, but sent all the other
scouts out. The second day my first assistant returned and
reported having found the trail, as he thought, of about fifty
Indians, traveling west, and about parallel with the emigrant
trail.
The next morning I started my assistant and three scouts after the
Indians, with orders to report as soon as they had the redskins
located.
They were gone four days and no word came from them. I began to be
very uneasy, as well as Capt. Mills, thinking something must have
happened them or they would have returned, as they only took three
days' rations with them. I took four other scouts and went on
their trail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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