passable under the most favorable circumstances. The wagons had
to be literally carried over some of the worst places, the mules having
all they could do to get through without pulling a pound.

As soon as the train had been safely delivered to the command, General
Gibbon asked for a volunteer messenger to go to Deer Lodge with
additional dispatches, fearing that Edwards might have been killed or
captured en route, and Sergeant Wilson, the hero of so many brave
deeds, promptly volunteered for this perilous service. He started at
once, rode all night, and reached his destination only a few hours
behind Edwards.

The last party of Indians withdrew about 11 o'clock on the night of the
10th, giving the soldiers a parting shower of bullets, but it was not
known until daylight on the morning of the 11th that all had really
gone.

From the time the last shots were fired, as stated, all was quiet, and
the men got a few hours of much-needed rest, such as it was, for they
had slept but two hours in the past forty-eight. The fight was over;
the enemy was gone. The sun that rose on the morning of the 11th, shone
brightly over as beautiful a valley as the eye of man ever beheld, and
the blackening corpses that lay strewn upon the field were the only
remaining evidences of the bloody tragedy that had so lately been
enacted there.

Acts of personal heroism in the fight were numerous, and it would be a
pleasure to record them all, but at this late date it is impossible to
obtain full particulars of this nature. Among those worthy of special
mention, however, is this same Sergeant Wilson, of Company K, who,
during the fight among the lodges, killed an Indian who was in the act
of aiming at Lieutenant Jacobs, at very short range, and but for the
quickness of Wilson's movements and the accuracy of his aim, Jacobs
would undoubtedly have been killed. Wilson distinguished himself
several times during the day, and is known to have killed several
Indians. Indeed, it is said that his rifle seldom cracked but an Indian
was seen to fall. He was subsequently promoted to regimental
quartermaster sergeant, for gallant and meritorious conduct on that
day.

CHAPTER V.

The Indians claimed after their final surrender that they would have
held Gibbon's command in the timber longer than they did, and would
have killed many more, if not all of them, had they not learned that
Howard was at hand with reinforcements. They admit that they were