and would make him believe that they were for peace, and would
promise to bring to the agency their tribe. Probably by the time the
report of the Indian agent reached the Government, this same tribe would
be off on the warpath and have captured a train or murdered some settlers,
and the troops in return had attacked and destroyed them, and we were
called to account for it, as it was claimed by the agents we were
attacking peaceable Indians. This went so far that it prevented me from
opening the southern emigrant trail several weeks. Finally I took the
matter in my own hands, regardless of the action or report of the agents.

While these parleys were going on the Indians suddenly appeared all along
the southern emigrant trail in the Arkansas River Valley, attacking
trains, posts, and escorts. I threw my troops against the bands of
Southern Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas that were in the
vicinity of the trail. The troops had caught on to the severe fighting on
the Platte, had heard of the new methods of warfare and victories, and
they in all cases stood their ground and defeated the Indians, although
they suffered severely in some instances. This was a reception that the
Indians did not expect and they fled to the Wichita Mountains, suing for
peace, which I knew was simply to prevent us attacking them there, but
accomplished its purpose with the Government and finally brought about the
treaties that were not worth the paper they were written on, and later on
forced the campaigns that Sheridan afterwards made, while if we had been
allowed to have followed them up and punish them as we did the northern
tribes, we would have conquered a peace that would have been a lasting
one.

The Indians of the plains are the best skirmishers in the world. In
rapidity of movements, in perfect horsemanship, sudden whirling,
protecting the body by clinging to the side of the horse, and rapid
movements in open and difficult ground, no trained cavalry in the world
can equal them. On foot their ability to hide behind any obstruction, in
ravine, along creeks, and under creek and river banks, and in fighting in
the open plains or level ground, the faculty to disappear is beyond one's
belief except he has experienced it. In skulking and sharpshooting they
are adepts, but troops properly instructed are a match for them on foot,
and never fail to drive and route them, if they will stand and fight and
never retreat except slowly with th