alled train. Captain North with his eighty Indians undertook to
drive the captured stock. They were soon a great ways ahead, while the
rest of the force was engaged in beating back the Indians. The Indians
pressed on every side. They seemed to have plenty of ammunition, but
they did most of their fighting with arrows. Before dark we were
reduced to forty men, and had only a little ammunition. The Indians
showed no signs of stopping the fight, but kept on charging on us,
dashing away at the stock, and keeping us constantly on the move until
fifteen minutes of twelve, when the last shot was fired by our
pursuers. The incidents of this fight would make very interesting
reading. Every man was a general. Not a man in the company but
realized that his life was in the balance. We must either whip the
Indians and whip them badly or be whipped ourselves. We could see that
the Indians greatly outnumbered us, but we were better armed than
they. As for fighting qualities the savages proved themselves as brave
as any of our men. We had accomplished a great deal; 250 Indian lodges
and their contents had been burned, with the entire winter's supplies;
the son of Black Bear was killed: sixty-three Indians were killed,
1,100 ponies were captured, and a lot of women and children were taken
prisoners.

General Connor's report of this battle was burned in Utah, and
consequently was never forwarded to me or to the Government, so we do not
know what the loss on his part was; but it was severe.

General Connor now moved down the Tongue River to make a connection with
Colonel Walker and Colonel Cole, at the appointed rendezvous. His scouts
discovered that Colonel Cole in moving north had endeavored to reach the
mouth of Powder River and had failed, and after six days' fighting had
marched south, expecting to go to Port Laramie, not knowing that there
were supplies at Fort Connor.

Colonel Cole, who with his column had started from Omaha, had made
reasonable progress, following out the routes laid down, and did not
discover any Indians until he reached the Little Missouri River, on a
branch of the Piney that he was coming down. Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, of
the center column, visited his camp and was two days behind him. He should
have immediately joined him, to carry out his instructions. Cole was
headed toward the Tongue River, near the Wolf Mountains. When he got in