ll the horses that could be captured, save enough
to mount his command, and that meantime his men would divide their last
ration with their citizen comrades. This announcement created great
enthusiasm among soldiers and volunteers alike, and the latter at once
decided to follow their gallant leader until the Indians should be
overtaken, no matter where or when that might be.

Lieutenant Bradley, with eight men of the Second Cavalry, and all of
the mounted volunteers, was now ordered to push on, strike the Indian
camp before daylight the next morning, if possible, stampede the stock
and run it off. If this could be done, and the Indians set on foot,
then their overwhelming defeat would be certain. Lieut. J. W. Jacobs
asked and obtained permission to go with Bradley and share in this
hazardous undertaking. This detachment, amounting, all told, to sixty
men, made a night march across the mountains, while the main command
camped at the foot of the divide on the night of the 7th, and at 5
o'clock the next morning, resumed the march. The road up the mountain,
a steep and difficult one at best, was seriously obstructed at this
time by large quantities of down timber that had to be cut out or
passed around, so that the ascent was very slow and trying to men and
beasts. The wagons were but lightly loaded, and by doubling teams and
using all the men at drag ropes, the command succeeded in reaching the
summit, a distance of three miles, in six hours, and by the performance
of such labor and hardship as only those can realize who have
campaigned in a mountainous country.

[Illustration:

1. LIEUT. J. H. BRADLEY.

2. LIEUT. W. L. ENGLISH.

3. LIEUT. G. H. WRIGHT.

4. LIEUT. C. H. COOLIDGE.

5. LIEUT. A. H. JACKSON.

6. LIEUT. J. W. JACOBS.

7. LIEUT. C. A. WOODRUFF.

8. LIEUT. J. T. VAN ORSDALE.

9. LIEUT. E. E. HARDIN.

10. LIEUT. F. WOODBRIDGE.]

From the summit the road leads down a gentle incline for a mile, when
it reaches the head of Trail Creek, and follows down that stream a
distance of ten miles into the Big Hole basin. It crosses the creek
probably fifty times, and the banks being abrupt, and the road
obstructed in many places by down timber, the progress of the command
was extremely slow and tedious.

While ascending the mountain on the morning of the 8th, General Gibbon
received a courier from Lieutenant Bradley, with a dispatch stating
that, owing to the difficult nature of the trail and the