Indians, lasting several hours. We captured several head
of their horses and most of their lodges. At night we returned to the
command, which by this time had crossed the creek on the beaver dam.

We scouted for several days along the river, and had two or three lively
skirmishes. Finally our supplies began to run low, and General Carr gave
orders to return to Fort Wallace, which we reached three days afterwards,
and where we remained several days.

While the regiment was waiting here for orders, I spent most of the time
in hunting buffaloes, and one day while I was out with a small party, we
were "jumped" by about fifty Indians. We had a severe fight of at least
an hour, when we succeeded in driving the enemy. They lost four of their
warriors, and probably concluded that we were a hard crowd. I had some
excellent marksmen with me, and they did some fine work, sending the
bullets thick and fast where they would do the most good. Two or three of
our horses had been hit, and one man had been wounded; we were ready and
willing to stay with the red-skins as long as they wished--but they
finally gave it up however, as a bad job, and rode off. We finished our
hunt, and went back to the post loaded down with plenty of buffalo meat,
and received the compliments of the General for our little fight.

[Illustration: A HARD CROWD.]

CHAPTER XIX.

A TOUGH TIME.

General Carr soon received orders from General Sheridan that he was to
make a winter's campaign in the Canadian river country, and that we were
to proceed to Fort Lyon, on the Arkansas river, in Colorado, and there
fit out for the expedition. Leaving Fort Wallace in November, 1868, we
arrived at Fort Lyon in the latter part of the month, and outfitted for
the coming expedition.

General Penrose had left this post three weeks previously with a command
of some three hundred men. He had taken no wagons with him and his supply
train was composed only of pack mules. General Carr was ordered to follow
with supplies on his trail and overtake him as soon as possible. I was
particularly anxious to catch up with Penrose's command, as my old
friend Wild Bill was among his scouts. We followed the trail very easily
for the first three days, and then we were caught in Freeze-Out canyon by
a fearful snow storm, which compelled us to go into camp for a day. The
ground now being covered with snow, we found that it would be almost
impossible to follow Penrose's trail any furth