Warrior Gap: A Story of the Sioux Outbreak of '68.King, Charles
General
Warrior Gap: A Story of the Sioux Outbreak of '68.
King, Charles
Dakota Indians -- Wars -- Fiction; Western stories
muster to the aid of those already up there in the Big Horn. Next time
he hits he'll have all the Northern Sioux at his back, you mark my
words!"
But, who the devil is John Folsom? said the Bureau again. Arrest Red
Cloud. Bring his band in prisoners, were the orders to the agents, and
the agents called for troops to go and do their bidding. It's one thing,
as I've had occasion to say before, to stand off with breech-loaders a
thousand Indians armed only with old percussion cap muskets, squirrel
rifles, bows, clubs and lances; it's another thing for soldiers armed
even with the best the market affords, to march into an Indian position
and arrest an Indian chief. There were not soldiers enough north of the
Platte to do it, and the War Department knew it if the Bureau didn't.
Hence the mustering in force along the river, and the mounting in hot
haste of perhaps ten more troops and companies, nowhere near enough for
the work in hand, but all the nation had within a month's march that
could possibly be spared from other work and work more important.
And there was wrath at Emory, where the colonel found himself ordered to
send all his transportation to Frayne forthwith, and all his remaining
troops except one of foot. "Damnation! I've only got two companies of
foot," he screamed, in the shrill treble of piping senility. "And they
mean to rob me of my cavalry, too! 'C' troop is ordered to be held in
readiness for special service."
The transportation, consisting of three wagons and two ambulances, with
the somber company of infantry, started next day, however, and Dean,
with eager expectancy kept his men in camp, cooked rations ready,
ammunition pouches filled, arms and equipments overhauled and in perfect
order, horses examined and reshod, ready for the word that might come
any minute and carry him--he knew not whither. Folsom and the girls had
to drive back to dinner without him. Despite the permission sent by the
colonel, he would not leave his troop and go in town. So back they came
in the soft moonlight and spent a long, lovely summer evening with him,
while the band played melodiously in the fort inclosure, and the stars
twinkled over the peaks of the Rockies in the southern skies. Folsom
spent the hours wiring to Omaha and conferring with such officers as he
could reach. They thought the lesson given Red Cloud would end the
business. He knew it would only begin it. Burleigh, saying that he must
give personal attention to the selection of the teams and wagons, spent
the early evening in his corral, but sent word to Folsom that he hoped
to see him in the morning on business of great importance. He had other
hopes, too, one of them being that now the order to send that big sum in
currency to the new stockade would be revoked. He had lost no time in
suggesting to the chief quartermaster of the department the extreme
hazard. He quoted Folsom as saying that before we could send one hundred
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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