arpets unpacked and spread upon the floors, the
furniture arranged, and, though last not least, a noble supper smoked
upon the board by the time we had made, once more, a civilized toilet.

Many of our friends from the Fort were there to greet us, and a more
happy or thankful party has seldom been assembled.

CHAPTER XXXV.

SURRENDER OF WINNEBAGO PRISONERS.

The war was now considered at an end. The news of the battle of the Bad
Axe, where the regulars, the militia, and the steamboat Warrior
combined, had made a final end of the remaining handful of Sauks, had
reached us and restored tranquillity to the hearts and homes of the
frontier settlers.

It may seem wonderful that an enemy so few in number and so
insignificant in resources could have created such a panic, and
required so vast an amount of opposing force to subdue them. The
difficulty had been simply in never knowing where to find them, either
to attack or guard against them. Probably at the outset every military
man thought and felt like the noble old veteran General Brady. "Give me
two infantry companies mounted," said he, "and I will engage to whip the
Sauks out of the country in one week!"

True, but to whip the enemy you must first meet him; and in order to
pursue effectually and _catch_ the Indians, a peculiar training is
necessary--a training which, at that day, few, even of the frontier
militia, could boast.

In some portions of this campaign there was another difficulty,--the
want of concert between the two branches of the service. The regular
troops looked with contempt upon the unprofessional movements of the
militia; the militia railed at the dilatory and useless formalities of
the regulars. Each avowed the conviction that matters could be much
better conducted without the other, and the militia, being prompt to
act, sometimes took matters into their own hands, and brought on defeat
and disgrace, as in the affair of "Stillman's Run."

The feeling of contempt which the army officers entertained for the
militia, extended itself to their subordinates and dependants. After the
visit of the Ranger officers to Fort Winnebago, before the battle of the
Wisconsin, the officer of the mess where they had been entertained
called up his servant one day to inquire into the sutler's accounts, He
was the same little "Yellow David" who had formerly appertained to
Captain Harney.

"David," said the young gentleman, "I see three bottles of cologne-wa