heir bodies horribly mutilated; but while the Indians
had heavy losses in the fight, they were able to divide up and scatter
before any of the troops sent to attack them could reach them. I named the
post at Platte Bridge Fort Casper, and it is now known as the town of
Casper, on the North-Western railroad.

On August 16th a large band of Sioux Indians attacked a military station
on the South Platte route. They were overtaken by the Pawnee Indian
Battalion of our forces, who gave them a good whipping. They killed a
large number and took their stock and scattered them. This was a band of
Sioux Indians that had been lying on the North Platte and made this dash
to the South Platte stage-line, thinking we had withdrawn the troops from
it to the northern expedition. Very few of them ever got back to their
tribes.

The battalion of Pawnees with General Conner had made a great capture of a
band of Cheyennes who had been down on the Fort Halleck route. The latter
had there captured a part of a company of a Michigan Regiment who were
escorting a few wagons, the captives having been tied to the wagons and
burned. By some means, General Conner got word of this, and knew the trail
they would take to get back to the main command, and on this trail he
placed Major North and his battalion of Pawnees. Major North, in
describing to me what followed, said that when the Indians came back and
discovered that they were surrounded, one, an old man, moved up towards
him and placed his hand up to his mouth, telling him to come on; that they
were ready to die; that they were full of white men up to that,--meaning
up to his mouth. The Pawnees killed every one of this band and scalped
them. On one of them was found a diary of one of the Michigan soldiers who
had been killed, and one of the Cheyennes had used the book to give an
account of their travels, their camps and fights, and what they had done
on this raid. From this diary our guides could tell just exactly where the
party had been, where they had camped, where they had captured the
Michigan soldiers, and their route on their return. A half-breed had
written in the book a defiance of the troops, telling what the Indians
demanded. Among other things they demanded that before they would make
peace we should give up all their prisoners; that we should abandon the
country north of the Platte River, etc.

As soon as General Connor reached Powder River he established his post and
named it Fort