garrison and the settlements below. The messenger, having met our
expedition, returned with us to the fort.

Immediately after our arrival, details of men were set to work cutting
logs to put a twelve foot stockade around the fort to provide better
protection against the Indians. Scouting parties were sent out every few
days to scour the country round about from ten to fifty miles in all
directions. Our company remained at Abercrombie until the spring of
'64. We never saw another Indian except the few captured by the scouting
parties and brought to the fort for safe keeping.

About the middle of October when we had been at the fort about a month,
a call for volunteers was made to form a guard to some thirty Indian
prisoners and take some cattle to Sauk Center. I was one of the four
from our company; not that I was more brave or reckless than many
others, but I preferred almost anything to doing irksome guard and
fatigue duties at a fort. So a little train of wagons in which to carry
our camping outfit, our provisions and the few squaws and children, was
made up. The guards, cattlemen and Indian men had to walk. While on this
trip we did not suppose there was an Indian in the whole outfit who knew
or could understand a word of English, so we were not at all backward
about speaking our minds as to Indians in general and some of those whom
we were guarding in particular. On the second or third day out I was
walking along behind the wagons near one of the big buck Indians who was
filling up his pipe preparatory to having a smoke. When ready for a
light he walked up alongside of me and said, "Jones, have you got any
matches?" Before this, no matter what we said to him or any of the
others, all we could get from them would be a grunt or a sullen look. We
arrived at our destination without seeing any Indians. We turned ours
over to the officer in charge of Sauk Center post. Here we had to wait a
long time for a train of supplies which was being made up at St. Cloud
to be taken to Abercrombie. By this time winter had set in and there was
no need for guards, so each man of our squad was assigned a six mule
team to drive up to the fort. If anyone thinks it is all pleasure
driving and caring for a six mule team from St. Cloud to Fort
Abercrombie, one hundred and seventy miles, in midwinter, with nothing
to protect him from the cold but an ordinary army uniform, including an
unlined tight blue overcoat, let him try it once.

That