chanting the death-song while they were burying
their warriors under the blackened sod of the prairie.

I witnessed a spirited encounter between a small band of Cheyennes and
Pawnees in the fall of 1867. It occurred on the open prairie north of
the mouth of the Walnut, and not a great distance from Pawnee Rock. Both
tribes were hunting buffalo, and when they, by accident, discovered the
presence of each other, with a yell that fairly shook the sand dunes on
the Arkansas, they rushed at once into the shock of battle.

That night, in a timbered bend of the Walnut, the victors had a grand
dance, in which scalps, ears, and fingers of their enemies, suspended by
strings to long poles, were important accessories to their weird orgies
around their huge camp-fires.[65]

One of the most horrible massacres in the history of the Trail occurred
at Little Cow Creek in the summer of 1864. In July of that year a
government caravan, loaded with military stores for Fort Union in New
Mexico, left Fort Leavenworth for the long and dangerous journey of more
than seven hundred miles over the great plains, which that season were
infested by Indians to a degree almost without precedent in the annals
of freight traffic.

The train was owned by a Mr. H. C. Barret, a contractor with the
quartermaster's department; but he declined to take the chances of the
trip unless the government would lease the outfit in its entirety, or
give him an indemnifying bond as assurance against any loss. The chief
quartermaster executed the bond as demanded, and Barret hired his
teamsters for the hazardous journey; but he found it a difficult matter
to induce men to go out that season.

Among those whom he persuaded to enter his employ was a mere boy, named
McGee, who came wandering into Leavenworth a few weeks before the train
was ready to leave, seeking work of any description. His parents had
died on their way to Kansas, and on his arrival at Westport Landing, the
emigrant outfit that had extended to him shelter and protection in his
utter loneliness was disbanded; so the youthful orphan was thrown on his
own resources. At that time the Indians of the great plains, especially
along the line of the Santa Fe Trail, were very hostile, and continually
harassing the freight caravans and stage-coaches of the overland route.
Companies of men were enlisting and being mustered into the United
States service to go out after the savages, and young Robert McGee
volunte