f
accompanied it as far as Fort Ridgely. On the 9th of June it passed Wood
Lake, the scene of the fight in 1862. About this point it overtook a
large train of emigrants on their way to Idaho, who had with them 160
wagon loads of supplies. This train was escorted to the Missouri river
safely. The march was wearisome in the extreme, with intensely hot
weather and very bad water, and was only enlivened by the appearance
occasionally of a herd of buffalo, a band of antelope, or a straggling
elk. The movements of the command were carefully watched by flying bands
of Indians during its whole march. On July 1st the Missouri was reached
at a point where now stands Fort Rice. General Sully and the First
Brigade had arrived there the day before. The crossing was made by the
boats that brought up the First Brigade. The column was immediately
directed toward Cannon Ball river, where 1,800 lodges of Indians were
reported to be camped. The Indians fled before the approaching troops.
On the last of July the Heart river was reached, where a camp was
formed, and the tents and teams left behind. Thus relieved, the command
pressed forward for an Indian camp eighty miles northward. On the 2d of
August the Indians were found in large numbers on the Big Knife river,
in the Bad lands. These were Unca-Papa Sioux, who had murdered a party
of miners from Idaho the year before, and had given aid and comfort to
the Minnesota refugee Indians. They were attacked, and a very spirited
engagement ensued in which the enemy was badly beaten and suffered
severe losses. The place where this battle was fought was called
Ta-ka-ho-ku-tay, or "The bluff where the man shot the deer."

On the next day, August 3d, the command moved west through the Bad
Lands, and just as it emerged from this terribly ragged country it was
sharply attacked by a large body of Indians. The fight lasted through
two days and nights, when the enemy retired in haste. They were very
roughly handled in this engagement.

General Sully then crossed to the west side of the Yellowstone river,
where the weary soldiers found two steamboats awaiting them, with ample
supplies. In crossing this rapid river the command lost three men and
about twenty horses. From this point they came home by the way of Forts
Union, Berthold and Stevenson, reaching Fort Rice on the 9th of
September.

On this trip General Sully located Forts Rice, Stevenson and Berthold.

On reaching Fort Rice, considerable anxie