ept wildly into the midst of the slumbering camp. The surprise was
complete. The Indians rushed from their lodges panic-stricken by the
suddenness and ferocity of the attack. They ran for the river banks and
thickets. Squaws yelled, children screamed, dogs barked, horses
neighed, snorted, and many of them broke their fetters and fled.

Even the warriors, usually so stoical, and who always like to appear
incapable of fear or excitement, were, for the time being, wild and
panic-stricken like the rest. Some of them fled from the tents at first
without their guns and had to return later, under a galling fire, and
get them. Some of those who had presence of mind enough left to seize
their weapons were too badly frightened to use them at first and
stampeded, like a flock of sheep, to the brush.

The soldiers, although the scene was an intensely exciting one, were
cool, self-reliant, and shot to kill. Many an Indian was cut down at
such short range that his flesh and clothing were burned by the powder
from their rifles. Comba and Sanno first struck the camp at the apex of
the V, and delivered a melting fire on the Indians as they poured from
the teepees. For a few minutes no effective fire was returned, but soon
the Indians recovered in a measure from their surprise and, getting
into safe cover behind the river banks, and in some cases in even the
very bed of the stream, opened fire on the soldiers, who were now in
the open ground, with terrible effect.

The fire was especially destructive on the right or upper end of the
line where the river made a short bend. As Logan, with a valor equal to
that of his illustrious namesake, swept forward, he and his men found
themselves directly at the backs of the Indians hidden in this bend,
who now turned and cut them down with fearful rapidity. It was here
that the greatest slaughter of that day took place. Logan himself fell,
shot through the head, and at sight of their leader's corpse, his men
were desperate. Regardless of their own safety, they rushed to the
river bank and brained the savages in hand-to-hand encounters, both
whites and Indians in some cases falling dead or wounded into the
stream and being swept away by its current.

In twenty minutes from the time the first shot was fired, the troops
had complete possession of the camp, and orders were given to destroy
it. The torch was applied with a will, and some of the canvas lodges
with the plunder in them destroyed, but the