d the fact that mounted parties of Indians were frequently seen
passing in his rear made it extremely dangerous to attempt to pass to
or from it. Indeed, he feared the train had been captured, for it was
but lightly guarded, and during the night he started a runner to Deer
Lodge for medical assistance and supplies. This man, W. H. Edwards by
name, succeeded in making his way out through the Indian lines under
cover of darkness, and walked or ran to Frenche's Gulch, a distance of
nearly sixty miles, where he got a horse, and made the remaining forty
miles during the following night, arriving at Deer Lodge on the morning
of August 11.

On the morning of the 10th, a courier arrived from General Howard,
informing Gibbon that he (Howard) was hurrying to his assistance with
twenty cavalrymen and thirty Warm Spring Indians. On being questioned
as to the supply-train, this courier reported that he had seen nothing
of it, which statement greatly increased the fear of the men that it
had been captured and destroyed. Later in the day, however, a messenger
arrived from the train, bringing the cheering news that it was safe.
The Indians had menaced it all day, but the guard in charge of it had
fortified their position and fired upon the savages whenever they came
in sight with such telling effect that the latter had made no
determined attack. Howard's messenger had passed the train in the night
without seeing it.

Early on the morning of the 10th, Sergeant Mildon H. Wilson, of Company
K, with six men, was sent back to bring up the train, and later in the
day, Captain Browning and Lieutenant Woodbridge, with twenty men, all
of whom had volunteered for the service, were sent to take charge of
it. They met the train on the way, in charge of Sergeant Wilson, and
with it succeeded in reaching the command just at sundown, bringing the
blankets and provisions so much needed by the men.

This detachment performed a hazardous and meritorious piece of work in
thus rescuing and bringing up the train, for large parties of Indians
were still scouting through the woods and hills watching for
opportunities to cut off any small body of troops who might be found
away from the main command and with whom they might successfully
contend.

In the face of this danger, Browning and Woodbridge, with their few
supporters, marched nearly ten miles through the swampy, brush-lined
ravine, and succeeded in moving the train over roads that were well
nigh im