rriors knew
well what had occurred.

Captain Fetterman had crossed the ridge, to chase the Sioux. Two
thousand Red Cloud men were waiting for him. They permitted him to
advance to the forbidden road. The white soldiers fought until their
ammunition was almost spent. Then the Red Cloud men rushed. Only six
of the white soldiers were shot; the rest were killed by hand.

The plan of Red Cloud and his chiefs had been laid to get all the
troops out of the fort, together; kill them and seize the fort.

But the warriors had not waited long enough. Their victory was too
quick, and they lost too many men, themselves, in the one fight:
seventy, of killed and wounded, they said; sixty-five of killed, alone,
said the red blotches on the field.

Still, Red Cloud had closed the road with the bodies of the soldiers.
He had made his word good.

The garrison in Fort Kearney gave up all thought of glory by capturing
Red Cloud; and this winter there was no more fighting. How many
warriors Red Cloud had, to "cover the hills with their scarlet
blankets," nobody knew; but the count ran from three thousand to five
thousand.

The spring came, and the summer came, and the road had not been opened.
In more than a year, not a single wagon had passed upon it, through the
hunting grounds of the Sioux.

Another white chief had been sent to take command of Fort Phil Kearney.
He was Brigadier General H. W. Wessels. All this summer the soldiers
were having to fight for wood and water. The contractor in charge of
the teams hauling lumber complained that he must have more protection
or he would be unable to do the work.

Captain James Powell of the Twenty-seventh Infantry was ordered out to
protect the lumber camps. He took Lieutenant John C. Jenness and
fifty-one men.

The wood choppers had two camps, about a mile apart. The captain
detailed twenty-five of his men to guard the one camp, and escort the
wagon trains to the fort; with the twenty-six others he made a fort of
wagon boxes, at the second camp.

He arranged fourteen of the wagon boxes on the ground, in a circle.
Some of the boxes had been lined with boiler iron. Two wagons were
left on wheels, so that the rifles might be aimed from underneath. The
boxes were pierced low down with a row of loop-holes. The spaces
between the ends of the boxes were filled with ox-chains, slabs and
brush. He had plenty of ammunition and plenty of new breech-loading
rifles.

The little