,:'c- 
 
 -^j ^^ sgM 
 
,0o 
 
 ,^^ '^ 
 
 vV '^c^ 
 
 \^ ' .-^ -^=^ws^ 
 
 "^^> 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 / 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 // 
 
 y 
 
 ^c,. 
 
 
 
 •v 
 
 ^^^' 
 
 A 
 
 :/ 
 
 X^ 
 
 
 "^^/'.'.-'r^o 
 
 '^^^y-^' V 
 
 .x^'"-^ 
 
 ■^^S 
 
 .% 
 
 \>* 
 
 
 'oo^ 
 
 
 ^/' 
 
 
 : ^' 
 
 o 
 
 
 -Oo 
 
 r>. 
 
■I, %, 
 
 GENERAL CUSTER AND HIS SCOUTS. [Page 218. 
 
FOLLOWING THE GUIDON 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH B. CUSTER 
 
 \ 
 
 AUTHOR OP "BOOTS AND SADDLES" ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 AUG 23 1890" 
 
 -'^v ■} CJ O ' ", 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 
 
 1890 
 
 ;?M. / 
 
Copyright, 1890, by Hahper & Brothers. 
 All rights reserved. 
 
< 
 
 TO 
 ONE WHO HAS FOLLOWED THE GUIDON 
 
 INTO THAT REALM WHERE 
 
 "The war -drum throbs no longer 
 And the battle -flags are furled.'' 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Before beginning the s.tory of our summer's camp on 
 Big Creek, Kansas, I should like to make our bugle a more 
 familiar friend to those who know it only by hearsay. It 
 was the hourly monitor of the cavalry corps. It told us 
 when to eat, to sleep, to march, and to go to church. Its 
 clear tones reminded us, should there be physical ailments, 
 that we must go to the doctor, and if the lazy soldier was 
 disposed to lounge about the company's barracks, or his in- 
 dolent officer to loll his life away in a hammock on the gal- 
 lery of his quarters, the bugle's sharp call summoned him to 
 " drill " or " dress parade." It was the enemy of ease, and 
 cut short many a blissful hour. The very night was invaded 
 by its clarion notes if there chanced to be fire, or should 
 Indians steal a march on us, or deserters be discovered de- 
 camping. We needed timepieces only when absent from 
 garrison or camp. The never tardy sound calling to duty 
 was better than any clock, and brought us up standing ; and 
 instead of the usual remark, " Why, here it's four o'clock al- 
 ready !" we found ourselves saying : " Can it be possible ? 
 There's ' Stables,' and where has the day gone ?" 
 
 The horses knew the calls, and returned from grazing of 
 their owm accord at " Recall " before any trooper had started ; 
 and one of them would resume his place in the ranks, and 
 obey the bugle's directions as nonchalantly as if the moment 
 before he had not lifted a recruit over his head and depos- 
 ited him on the ground. 
 
 The horses were often better tacticians than the soldiers, 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 for it frequently happened that one of them had served our 
 country through one enlistment of five years, and was well on 
 through another when assigned to a recruit who had never 
 before mounted. The intelligent beast, feeling himself in- 
 sulted by being called upon to carry a green trooper, seemed 
 in very scorn to empty the saddle. I sometimes thought 
 the wise animals thus disposed of their riders and went back 
 to the line, as if to say, " I'll teach that greenhorn that I 
 know military life better than he does." 
 
 In large posts, like Fort Leavenworth or Fort Lincoln, 
 there was a corps of trained buglers, and it was a surprise 
 to strangers that such good music could be evolved from in- 
 struments with so few notes. On a summer's day the sound 
 of the buglers came wafted to us from some divide over the 
 plain, where they had gone to practise, and hoped to deaden 
 the sound. Though the bugles might blow, they could not 
 *' set the wild echoes flying " out there, for we had neither 
 the rocky fastness nor the hill alid dale of Scotland or Switz- 
 erland. I should have liked to transport a band of our 
 drilled buglers to the land of Roderick Dhu. The clans 
 could have been summoned for miles by the clear reverber- 
 ating notes, and there the stirring music, reproduced by en- 
 chanting echoes, would have been far finer than on our mo- 
 notonous plains. 
 
 In the telling of this story of our summer's camp there is 
 often reference to both the trumpet and the bugle. When 
 I was first in the army the bugle was used for the infantry 
 and cavalry, but later the trumpet was given to the mounted 
 regiments. In this way it has occurred that the names have 
 been used indiscriminately. The difference between them 
 may be sufficiently indicated by calling the bugle the tenor 
 and the trumpet the barytone of military music. 
 
 The soldiers, for no one knows how long, have fitted 
 rhymes to the calls, and as the men pour out of the barracks 
 to groom their horses for the morning or the evening hour 
 
PREFACE. VH 
 
 a voice takes up the call, to be quickly joined by others, and 
 after the bugles cease the humming of " Go to the stable," 
 etc., continues until the sergeant gives the signal for work 
 to begin with the curry-comb. A few of these jingles have 
 been attached to the calls that were in most frequent use 
 during the day. The words of these simple rhymes are just 
 as familiar to military people as the household tales of in- 
 fancy, and as indelibly impressed on an army child as "Twin- 
 kle, twinkle, little star," or " Now I lay me down to sleep." 
 
 The calls that are in almost daily use head the chapters 
 throughout the book. Possibly a few of them may need 
 some explanation. " Reveille " is the first roll-call of the day. 
 The morning gun is fired as the first note sounds. The sol- 
 diers all come out of their quarters, and the sergeant calls 
 the names alphabetically, and reports to the captain the whole 
 company as " present, or accounted for," or certain ones as 
 " absent without leave," etc. There are three of these roll- 
 calls during the twenty -four hours — at Reveille, Retreat, and 
 Tattoo. "Retreat" sounds at sunset, when the flag is lower- 
 ed and the evening gun is fired at the last note of the call. 
 "Tattoo" is sounded about nine o'clock, and soon after comes 
 " Taps " — a signal to extinguish lights. "Assembly " is the sig- 
 nal for forming the company in ranks, and precedes the three 
 calls described above. "The General" is the signal for pack- 
 ing up, striking tents, and loading the wagons for marching. 
 "Boots and Saddles" is the first signal for mounting. 
 
 As there was a great deal of formality and "circumstance" 
 about all these calls, and not the slightest infringement of 
 the dignity of the routine was permitted, the rhymes which 
 the soldiers made, in their rollicking off-hand fashion, were 
 most violently in contrast with the solemnity of the martial 
 forms to which they were attached. 
 
 The infantry mess-call evidently dates back a long time, 
 as the soldiers' words to the drum-call for mess are " pease 
 upon a trencher." " The dirty, dirty, dirty dough-boy " — the 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 origin of whicli is referred to in Boots and Saddles — is also 
 an infantry call. 
 
 It often happened that the soldiers changed their names 
 in enlisting, and sunk their identity in the ranks of our army ; 
 but sometimes even there an irate wife, who had been de- 
 serted in the States, found out her culprit husband, and com- 
 pelled him to send her money out of his pay for her support. 
 Or, in another instance, though the man may have been angry 
 enough, at the time of his enlistment, to feel that he would 
 never return to his virago of a wife, he eventually melted 
 when attacked with nostalgia, and confided to his comrades 
 that he was married. It must have been on some such oc- 
 casion that a scoffer suited these lines to the marching step 
 in the drill, which begins " Left foot forward " always : 
 
 " Left — left — left my wife and seven small children behind me." 
 
 There is a legend that women never keep step. One of 
 my friends, who is now a civilian, and the commanding officer 
 of only one small woman, marshals his trooper out when 
 husband and wife go for a stroll, repeating the old lines of 
 volunteer days. I imagine that a sergeant who drilled the 
 men was the original poet, for the order of march runs after 
 this fashion : 
 
 " Left — left — left — had a good home and he left I" 
 
 Then, referring to the step : 
 
 "Now you've got it, d n you, keep it — left — left — left!" 
 
 Some children having asked questions to which I could 
 not reply, I was obliged, not long since, to visit the Astor 
 Library to look up answers. I give a condensed summary of 
 the results of my research. One of the old books I consulted 
 had not had many readers, I imagine, for as I turned the mil- 
 dewed, musty pages armies of tiny creatures chased each 
 other to and fro in wild alarm, while bookworms were eating 
 out the foundations of the volume. Still, unconsulted as 
 
PKEFACE. IX 
 
 Grose's Military Antiquities seems to be, I found informa- 
 tion there that must have some interest for a cavalryman. 
 
 The trumpet, of which our bugle is the sister, seems to 
 antedate all musical instruments, as it appeared on the Egyp- 
 tian bass-relief at Thebes, and was also used by the Israel- 
 ites. The trumpets of the Romans were both straight and 
 crooked. A shell bored at the end, and a horn with the point 
 removed, were the most primitive forms of the instrument. 
 The tuba, represented in the bass-reliefs of the triumphal 
 arch of Titus, was a kind of straight bronze clarion, about 
 thirty-nine inches long. Fra Angelico (1455) painted angels 
 with trumpets with straight or zigzag tubes, the shortest 
 being five feet in length. A change from the straight tube 
 of the trumpet to one bent into three parallel lines was made 
 about the middle of the fifteenth century. Luca della Robia 
 represents the tube bent back in that way, and this shape 
 was retained for more than three hundred years. A capis- 
 trum, or muzzle, was used by the ancients to preserve their 
 cheeks in blowing the trumpet. Trumpets were in use dur- 
 ing the crusade of 1248. 
 
 At one time the hautboy and kettle-drums were used in 
 mounted regiments. There is, even now, one of the latter, 
 captured from the English in the Revolutionary War, at the 
 Military Museum on Governor's Island. 
 
 Hinde, in his Discipline of the Light Horse, says : " In 
 the year 1764 his Majesty thought proper to forbid the use 
 of brass side-drums in the Light Cavalry, and in their room 
 to introduce brass trumpets ; the trumpets are slung over 
 the left shoulder and hang at theii backs." 
 
 Grose says : " The banners of the kettle-drums and trump- 
 ets to be of the color of the facing of the regiment ; the 
 badge of the regiment or its rank to be in the centre of the 
 banner of the kettle-drums, as on the second standard ; the 
 King's cipher and crown to be on the banner of the trump- 
 ets, with the rank of the regiment in ciphers underneath ; 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 the depth of the kettle-drum banners to be three feet six 
 inches ; the length four feet eight inches, exclusive of the 
 fringe ; those of the trumpets to be twelve inches in depth and 
 eighteen inches in length. The trumpets to be of brass ; the 
 cords to be crimson mixed with the color of the facing of the 
 regiment; the King's Own Regiment of dragoons and the 
 Koyal Irish are permitted to continue their kettle-drums." 
 
 The chief beats of the drum formerly used by the infan- 
 try, according to Colonel Bariffe (1643), w^ere a Call, a Troop, 
 a Preparative, a March, a Bataille, a Retreat. 
 
 " By a Call, you must understand to prepare to hear pres- 
 ent proclamation, or else to repair to your ensign ; by a 
 Troop, understand to shoulder your muskets, to advance 
 your pikes, to close your ranks and files to their order, and 
 to troop along wdth or follow your oflBcer to the place of 
 rendezvous or elsewhere ; by a March, you are to understand 
 to take your open order in rank, to shoulder both muskets 
 and pikes, and to direct your march, either quicker or slower, 
 according to the beat of the drum ; by a Preparative, you 
 are to understand to close to your due distance for skirmish, 
 both in rank and file, and to make ready, that you may exe- 
 cute upon the first command ; by the Bataille, or Charge, 
 understand the continuation or pressing forward in order of 
 bataille without lagging behind, rather boldly stepping for- 
 ward in the place of him that falls dead or wounded before 
 thee ; by a Retreat understanding an orderly retiring back- 
 \vard, either for relief, for advantage of ground, or for some 
 other political end, as to draw the enemy into some ambush- 
 ment, or such like." 
 
 " The present different beats of the drum," says Grose, 
 " for the infantry are these : 
 
 " The General : this is beat instead of the Reveille, when 
 the whole camp and garrison are to march. 
 
 " Reveille : beat at daybreak to awaken the camp or gar- 
 rison, after which the sentinels cease challenging. 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 " Assembly, or Troop : at this beat tlie troops fall in, the 
 roll is called, and baggage loaded. 
 
 " Foot March : to march. 
 
 " Grenadiers' March : beat only to that company. 
 
 " Retreat : this is beat at sunset in garrisons and at gun- 
 firing in camp, at which time the pickets are formed ; in 
 fortified places it is a signal for the inhabitants to come in 
 before the gates are shut. 
 
 " Tap-too [our modern name is tattoo] : the signal for 
 soldiers to retire to their quarters or barracks, and to the 
 sutlers to draw no more liquor, from whence it derives its 
 name. The tap-too is seldom beat in camp. 
 
 " To Arms : a signal to summon the soldiers to their 
 alarm-posts on some sudden occasion. 
 
 " The Church Call (called also Beating the Bank) : a beat 
 to summon the soldiers of a regiment or garrison to church. 
 
 " The Pioneers' Call : known by the appellation of Round 
 Heads, come dig. This is beaten in camp to summon the 
 pioneers to work. 
 
 " The Sergeants' Call : a beat for calling the sergeants to- 
 gether to the orderly-room, or in camp, the head of the colors. 
 
 "The Drummers' Call : beat to assemble the drummers at the 
 head of the colors, or in quarters, at the place where it is beaten. 
 
 " The Preparative : a signal to make ready for firing. 
 
 " The Chammade : a signal to desire to parley with the 
 enemy. 
 
 " The Rogue's March : this is beaten and played by the 
 fifes when a soldier is drummed out of the regiment. 
 
 " The Long Roll : for turning the regiment out in camp 
 or garrison. 
 
 " There was in the King's household an officer titled 
 Drum-major-general of England, without whose license no 
 one could, except the King's troops, formally beat a drum." 
 
 The different sounds or signals given by the trumpet were, 
 according to Markham, in his Soldires Accidence^ as follows : 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 " The first is Butte Sella [modern Boots and Saddles], or 
 put on your saddles, which, as soon as the souldiere heareth 
 (in the morning or other times), he shall presently make 
 ready his horse and his own person, trusse up his sack of 
 neccessaries, and make all things fitting for his journey. 
 
 " The second is Mounte Cavallo, or mount on horse backe, 
 at which summons the souldiere shall bridle up his horse, 
 bring him forth, and mount his backe. 
 
 " The third is A la Standarde : goe to your colours, or 
 standard, whether it bee standard, cornet, or guidon ; upon 
 which sound, the souldiere, with those of his fellowship, 
 shall trot forth to the place where the cornet is lodged, and 
 there attend until it is dislodged. Also this sound, in the 
 field or in service, when men are disbanded, is a retreat for 
 the horseman, and brings him off being engaged ; for as oft 
 as he heares it he must retire and goe back to his colour. 
 
 " The fourth is Tuquet, or march ; w^hich beinge hearde 
 simply of itself without addition, commands nothing but 
 marching after the leader. 
 
 " The fifth is Carga, Carga, or an alarm, charge ! charge ! 
 which sounded, every man (like lightning) flyes upon his 
 enemy and gives proofe of his valour. 
 
 " The sixth and last is Aquet, or the Watch : which, 
 sounded at night, commands all that are out of duty to their 
 reste ; and sounded in the morning, commands those to reste 
 that have done duty, and those that have rested to awake 
 and doe duty ; and in these sounds you shall make the soul- 
 diere so perfect that, as a song he may lanquet o? sing them, 
 and know when they are sounded unto him." 
 
 The instruments used in battle are mentioned in a quaint 
 ballad of King Edward III., made on the victory over the 
 Scots at Hallidowne Hille, in which are these lines : 
 
 " This was do with merry sowne, 
 With pipes, trumpes, and tabers thereto, 
 Aiid loud clariones thei blew also." 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 In the prose account of the same battle we read : *' Then 
 the Englische mynstrelles beaten their tabers and blewers 
 their trompes, and pipers pipe clene loude and made a great 
 schowte upon the Skotles." 
 
 The guidon told the soldiers in color what the trumpet or, 
 bugle said in sound. If, after a long march, the men of 
 each company detailed to carry the guidon were ordered to 
 the front, the hearts of the weary troopers saw them depart 
 with relief, for it meant that, after joining the commanding 
 officer, the little band of men swinging aloft the fluttering 
 pennants would take their place behind the color-sergeant 
 carrying the guidon of the colonel, and after a brisk little 
 gallop each standard-bearer would be posted at a given point 
 to guide the company as it came up to the place where the 
 tents were to be pitched for the night. The guidon is also 
 posted as a line of march at guard mount, or at drill. The 
 private flag of a general can be of his own design. It is 
 placed in front of his tent or headquarters, or follows on the 
 march or in battle. If the troopers value their general, and 
 have faith in him as a dauntless soldier, they will rally round 
 his flag in case the fight is so desperate as to endanger the 
 colors. 
 
 Markham, an old authority, says : " The guidon is the 
 first color any commander of horse can let fly in the field. 
 It was generally of damask fringed, and usually three feet in 
 breadth, lessening by degrees towards the bottom, where it 
 was by a slit divided into two peaks. It was originally 
 borne by the dragoons,* and might be charged with the ar- 
 morial bearings of the owner." 
 
 The present cavalry guidon is a small United States flag 
 sharply swallow-tailed, and mounted on a standard with a 
 metal point, so that it can be thrust into the ground when 
 in use as a marker. 
 
 * Troops trained to act on foot or on horseback. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 OHAP. TAGE 
 
 I. THE MARCH INTO THE INDIAN TERRITORY .... 1 
 
 II. GENERAL CUSTER'S LETTERS DESCRIBING THE MARCH 11 
 
 III. WHITE SCOUTS 24 
 
 IV. BATTLE OF THE WASHITA 35 
 
 V. INDIAN TRAILS, COUNCILS, AND CAPTIVES .... 51 
 
 VI. IN CAMP ON BIG CREEK . 66 
 
 VII. INDIAN PRISONERS 83 
 
 VIII. CORRAL OF THE CAPTIVES 98 
 
 IX. PETS OF THE CAMP , . 112 
 
 X. A SLOW MULE-RACE 131 
 
 XI. TALES OF soldiers' DEVOTION AND DROLLERY . . 147 
 
 XII. WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE 159 
 
 XIII. HOME OF THE BUFFALO 178 
 
 XIV. FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES ...... 194 
 
 XV. HUNTING RECORDS 213 
 
 XVI. ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING 226 
 
 XVII. NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION 241 
 
 XVIII. '^ GARRYOWEN " LEADS THE HUNT 263 
 
 XIX. ARMY PROMOTIONS 278 
 
 XX. A FLOOD ON BIG CREEK 289 
 
 XXI. RATTLESNAKES AS NEIGHBORS 299 
 
 XXII. DANDY 324 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 GENERAL CUSTER AND HIS SCOUTS Frontispiece. 
 
 INDIANS PREPARING TO MOVE faccs page 6 
 
 INDIANS ON THE WAR-PATII " " 18 
 
 CALIFORNIA JOE " " 26 
 
 RECONNOITRING THE SITUATION " "38 
 
 INDIAN PRISONERS ON THE MARCH '' "46 
 
 DISTRIBUTING THE MAIL " "54 
 
 INDIAN VILLAGE " " 92 
 
 CAPTURED CHIEFS — FAT BEAR, DULL KNIFE, BIG 
 
 HEAD — IN TRAVELLING COSTUME " " 106 
 
 A SCALP-LOCK " " 112 
 
 WARRIOR IN WAR-BONNET " " 120 
 
 THE SCOUT " " 164 
 
 SHOOTING BUFFALO FROM CAR-WINDOWS . . . . " " 184 
 
 BUFFALO BROUGHT TO BAY " "206 
 
 paymaster's ESCORT " " 286 
 
 DANDY " "324 
 
Garr^owen, 
 
 Lively. 
 
 '^M- 
 
 UzS: 
 
 :r^= 
 
 -b^ — ^ 
 
 
 li=F 
 
 ■^=5- 
 
 1. Let Bac - chus' sons be not dis-mayed, But join with 
 
 m^=± 
 
 -m 
 
 x=t 
 
 3ee£ee; 
 
 
 g— # — a»— F^ -^-r— * * ^^- 
 
 \- \ K— 
 
 1^1 
 
 me, each jov - ial blade; Come booze and sing, and 
 
 13 
 
 i 
 
 3^1 
 
 J — «■— r4- 
 
 • » — i- 
 
 tg.=rfc 
 
 i ^^g^^ ^'^g^ 
 
 lend your aid, To help me with the cho - rus. 
 
 iz^^E 
 
 ^e^^eee; 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ■!^i^ 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 =g-T= 
 
 Sg 
 
 :^i 
 
 # J — «- 
 
 b[:z=zfz=t:: 
 
 EE 
 
 In - stead of Spa M'e'll drink down ale, And pay the 
 
 i^t3^ 
 
 g^i: 
 
 ^^ 
 
 tt: 
 
 ^3^ 
 
XX 
 
 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 ^li=^ 
 
 reck - 'ning on the nail ; No man for debt shall 
 
 mm^^^] 
 
 go to jail From Gar - ry - owen in glo 
 
 
 We arc the bo3's that take delight in 
 Smashing the Limerick lights when lighting, 
 Through the streets like sporters fighting 
 And tearing all before us. — Chorus. 
 
 We'll break windows, we'll break doors, 
 The watch knock down by threes and fours; 
 Then let the doctors work their cures, 
 And tinker up our bruises.— Cnoiius. 
 
 We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun, 
 We'll make the ma3'or and sheriffs run; 
 We are the hoys no man dares dun, 
 If he regards a whole skin. — CnoRUS. 
 
 Our hearts so stout have got us fame. 
 For soon 'tis known from whence we came; 
 Where'er we go they dread the name 
 Of Garryowcn in glory. — Chorus. 
 
FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 Zbc 'BB6cmU^, 
 
 
 =1: 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE MAECn INTO THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 
 
 Around many a camp-fire in the summer, and in our 
 winter-quarters before the huge fireplaces, where the 
 wood merrily crackled and the flame danced up the 
 chimney, have I lieard the oft-told tales of the battle 
 of the Washita, the first great fight of the Seventh 
 Cavalry. The regiment was still new, liaving been or- 
 ganized during the year after the war. It had done 
 much hard work, and had not only accomplished some 
 genuine successes in a small way, but its records of 
 long untiring marches in the chill of early spring, dur- 
 ing the burning heat of a Kansas summer sun, and i'n 
 the sharp frosts of a late autumn campaign, were some- 
 1 
 
2 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 thing to be proud of. Still, the officers and men had 
 little in the way of recognized achievement to repay 
 them for much patient work, and they longed individ- 
 ually and as a regiment for a war "record." This 
 would not have been so powerful a desire had not the 
 souls of our men been set on fire by the constant news 
 of the torture of white prisoners by the Indians. His- 
 tory traces many wars to women ; and women certainly 
 bore a large though unconscious part in inciting our 
 people to take up arms in attempts to rescue them, and 
 to inflict such punishments upon their savage captors as 
 would teach the Indian a needed lesson. 
 
 From the Department of the Platte, which has its 
 headquarters in Nebraska, to the Indian Territory and 
 Texas the trails of the regiment could be traced. It is 
 customary to keep a daily record of each march, and a 
 small pen-and-ink map is added. From these a larger 
 one is made after the summer is over, and when the 
 War Department issues yearly maps the new routes or 
 fresh discoveries are recorded. One of these regimen- 
 tal journals lies before me. The map for each day 
 marks the course of the stream, the place where the 
 regiment encamped overnight, the "ford," the "roll- 
 ing prairie," " high ridges," " level prairie," with dots 
 to mark the line of the Pacific Eailway, in course of 
 construction ; " small dry creek," " marshy soil," " level 
 bottom," "stone bluff," etc.. One of the written rec- 
 ords goes on to state where, as the days advanced, the 
 troops encamped at night without water, and all the 
 men and horses had to drink was got by digging down 
 
THE MARCH INTO THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 6 
 
 into the dry bed of a stream ; or where, at anotlier time, 
 they found a "stream impassable," and " halted to build 
 a bridge," together with such hints of experience as 
 these : " struck an old wagon trail "; " marched over 
 cactus-beds and through a deep ravine "; " made camp 
 where there was standing water only"; "banks of 
 stream miry — obliged to corduroy it"; "grass along 
 tlie stream poor, sandy soil"; banks of next stream 
 "forty feet high — great trouble in finding a crossing"; 
 " obliged to corduroy another stream for each separate 
 wagon"; "took four hours to cross twenty wagons"; 
 "timber thick, grass poor"; "struck what is called by 
 the Indians Bad Lands, being a succession of ridges 
 with ravines fifty feet deep between ; two wagons rolled 
 over and went down one ravine "; " passed four ranches 
 destroyed by the Indians and abandoned "; " left camp 
 at 5 A.M. ; so misty and foggy, could not see a hundred 
 yards in advance ;" "distance of march this day guessed, 
 odometer out of order"; "marched up a canon with 
 banks fifty feet high"; " Company E left the columns 
 to pursue Indians"; "all this day marched over Cap- 
 tain S 's old trail"; "this was a dry camp, poor 
 
 grass and plenty of cacti"; "found water-holes, the 
 head of the river"; "total distance of march, seven 
 hundred and four miles." 
 
 The names of the streams, the elevated points of 
 ground, or the gulches were seldom taken from the 
 musical nomenclature of the Indian ; they seemed to 
 have been given by the outspoken, irreverent pioneer 
 or miner. 
 
4 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 Evidently, if these first wayfarers had difficulty in 
 making a crossing of a stream, they caused the name 
 to record the obstacles. Our refined officers sometimes 
 hesitated in their replies if asked by peace commission- 
 ers from the East, whom they were escorting to an Ind- 
 ian village, what the place was called. For instance, 
 one of them said when he replied to such a question, 
 " Hell Eoaring Creek," etc. He looked out over the 
 surrounding scenery till the effect of these shocking 
 names had passed. A humorous Western paper, in 
 commenting on this national idiosyncrasy, wonders, 
 since the law requires that our national cruisers shall 
 be called after cities, if " You Bet," " Hang Town," 
 "Ked Dog," " Jackass Gap," and "Yuba Dam" would 
 answer. The worst of it all is that these names, given 
 by a passing traveller with careless indifference to the 
 future of the places on which they vrere bestowed, rest 
 as an incubus upon localities that afterwards became 
 the sites of places of prominence ; and it is as hard for 
 a town or region so afflicted as for the traditional dog 
 to get rid of a bad name. 
 
 The brief itinerary of this one march, out of the many 
 the Seventh Cavalry made, gives a faint idea of the 
 daily history of a regiment. Concise as is the record, 
 it served to point the way for many a tired pioneer 
 who came after ; for, on his map, compiled from these 
 smaller ones, were the locations of places where he 
 could stop for wood and water, as well as the warning 
 where neither of these necessaries could be obtained. 
 
 Still, there was often a weary sigh among the young- 
 
THE MARCH INTO THE INDIAN TERRITOEY. 5 
 
 sters who had no war record, and who longed to make 
 some sort of soldier's name for themselves. Besides, 
 they passed the dismantled, deserted home of many a 
 venturesome frontiersman ; they saw the burned stage 
 stations ; they met in forts or small settlements placed 
 in a safe position ranchmen whose wives had been 
 killed, or, worse still, made captives; they came upon 
 the mutilated and horribly disfigured bodies of Lieu- 
 tenant Kidder and eleven soldiers ; everywhere on all its 
 marches the regiment followed the trail of the Indian 
 on his frightful career of rapine, murder, and outrage. 
 Many a time the question was asked, what was the good 
 of galloping after foes who knew the country thor- 
 oughly, who w^ere mounted on the fleetest, hardiest ani- 
 mals in the world, that needed no grain, and who could 
 go directly to rivers or streams where they could graze 
 their ponies for a few days and start off refreshed for 
 a long raid, and who each day could be bountifully fed 
 on the game of the country without being hampered 
 with a train of supplies. The odds were all against 
 our fine fellows. 
 
 They had marched and countermarched over the 
 country so constantly that the wit of the regiment said 
 to the engineer officer who made the daily map : "Why 
 fool with that? Just take the pattern supplement of 
 the Harper's Bazar^ and no better map of our marches 
 could be found." 
 
 Much enthusiasm was felt when the announcement 
 was made that a winter campaign was to be under- 
 taken. "Now we have them !" was the sanguine boast. 
 
6 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 The buffalo-linnting among the tribes was over for the 
 year. Enough meat had been jerked or dried to keep 
 them during cold weather, and the villages were estab- 
 lished for the winter. In the summer the tribes trav- 
 elled great distances. As soon as the grass in a riv- 
 er valley was exhausted by the ponies, everything was 
 packed, the village moved, and another point was chos- 
 en. At certain seasons of the year there was a jour- 
 ney to timber lands, where lodge poles could be cut; 
 another was made to certain clay-beds, where material 
 for pipes was obtained ; another to regions where the 
 buffaloes were most numerous, and the winter's meat 
 was prepared, or the hides dressed for robes or tepee 
 covers. It is difficult to estimate the hundreds of miles 
 that the villages traversed in the summer; but in the 
 winter a remote spot was chosen, on a stream where the 
 timber offered some protection from the winter storms, 
 and the grass would last longest, and here the nomad 
 "settled down" for a few months. It was such a vil- 
 lage that our regiment was seeking. 
 
 The command starting into the Indian Territory was 
 formidable enough, and had not the Indians been much 
 emboldened by former successes, they would not hav^e 
 dared dash upon the rear-guard or rush in from a ravine 
 to stampede the animals of the wagon train, as they 
 often did on that march. 
 
 General Custer, in an unpublished letter to a friend 
 in the East, describes the fii-st attacks of the Indians af- 
 ter the march south began. "I had not been in my 
 camp where I first joined two hours, when we Avere 
 
l^' ^AiA^ 
 
THE MARCH INTO THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 7 
 
 attacked by a war party. I wisli that you could have 
 been with us. You would never ask to go to a circus 
 after seeing Indians ride and perform in a fight. I 
 took my rifle and went out on the line, hoping to obtain 
 a good shot, but it was like shooting swallows on the 
 wing, so rapid were they in their movements. Their 
 object had been to dash into camp and secure some of 
 our horses. Disappointed in this, they contented them- 
 selves with circling around us on their ponies, firing 
 as they flew along the line, but doing no injury. As it 
 was late in the evening and our horses all unsaddled, I 
 prevented the men from going from camp to fight. 
 Sometimes a warrior, all feathered and painted, in order 
 to show his bravery to his comrades, started alone on 
 his pony, and with the speed of a quarter-horse would 
 dash along tlie entire length of my line, and even with- 
 in three or four hundred yards of it, my men pouring 
 in their rifle-balls by hundreds, yet none bringing down 
 the game. I could see the bullets knock up the dust 
 around and beneath his pony's feet, but none apparently 
 striking him. We shot two ponies, however, in this way, 
 and may have inflicted greater damage ; but in this as 
 in all things pertaining to warfare, the Indians are so 
 shrewd as to prevent our determining their losses. Oc- 
 casionally a pony is captured. I have one now which 
 is white, with a tail dragging on the ground. We have 
 also captured an article of great value to them, an Ind- 
 ian shield. It is made of the thickest part of the buf- 
 falo-hide, adorned with rude paintings, and is usually 
 hung in front of a tepee to keep off evil spirits." 
 
8 FOLLOWmG THE GUIDON. 
 
 It gave tlie men excellent practice, this running fire 
 on the march. The necessity for troops was so great 
 that raw recruits were sent out, without taking time 
 to drill them in target practice. It came to pass that 
 many a soldier drew his carbine on an Indian in the 
 first shot he had ever fired. A corps of forty sharp- 
 shooters was formed from men who day by day showed 
 unusual skill in the use of fire-arms, and these were al- 
 lowed some privileges, such as being marched as a sep- 
 arate organization, which of itself is a great favor. It 
 is far from agreeable to submit to the irksome rules of 
 a marching column. No guard or picket duty was ex- 
 pected from these sharp-shooters, so that they attained 
 what is the supreme good of a soldier's life, "all their 
 nights in bed." The soldier detailed for guard duty 
 has two hours on and two off for twenty-four hours, 
 and unless the command is large these times of duty 
 come very often — in the estimation of the men. 
 
 In looking over some of the war poetry that filled 
 the papers from 1861 to 1865, I came across a little 
 jingle that describes a soldier's glory and grumbling, 
 whether he be fighting the white or the red man : 
 
 "And how we fouglit and how we tramped, 
 Too long a tale perhaps I'll spin ye ; 
 But, first and last, I think we camped 
 In every field in old Virgiuny ! 
 
 " 'Twas a gay old life, but Lord ! 'twas hard- 
 No rest for the good, no peace for the wicked ; 
 When you didn't fight you were put on guard, 
 And when you came off you went on picket." 
 
THE MARCH INTO THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 9 
 
 On the expedition the cavahy marched in a column 
 of fours ; then came a long wagon train, hauling the for- 
 age, tents, rations, and extra ammunition, and following 
 all this was the rear-guard. The great struggle of the 
 Indian when not actually ready for battle — which he 
 never is unless all odds are in his favor — is to cut off the 
 wagon train ; this he tries to accomplish by frightening 
 the mules. Sometimes the country admitted of the 
 wagons being marched in four lines — an arrangement 
 which required fewer soldiers to be deployed on either 
 flank and in the rear for their protection. 
 
 In letters to his Eastern friend, from one of which 
 quotations have been made. General Custer speaks with 
 the greatest enthusiasm of the stag and fox hounds his 
 correspondent had given him. The former were a new 
 breed to him, and their feats, while only puppies, were 
 daily marvels to their proud owner. 
 
 "Maida and Blucher both seized the first buffalo they 
 saw while running, which was pretty plucky for pups, 
 I think. The dogs have gone beyond my highest ex- 
 pectations. Three days ago Maida alone ran down a 
 jack-rabbit and killed it, and they are the fleetest ani- 
 mals we have, except the antelope. Yesterday while 
 looking for camp, accompanied by a few scouts "^and 
 headquarters men, we jumped a prairie-wolf. Maida 
 and Blucher, Rover and the other little fox-hound, start- 
 ed after it, the stag-hounds, of course, leaving the other 
 two far behind. Blucher was the first to come up with 
 the wolf; he had never seen one before. As soon as 
 he reached it he seized it across the back, and never 
 
10 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 relinquished his hold until he had killed it, and this he 
 did by breaking its backbone. Blucher held on like a 
 bnll-dog. A wolf is one of the ugliest animals a dog 
 can handle. Of the many dogs that are in this regi- 
 ment there is but one that will attack a wolf, and he 
 needs to be encouraged. Don't you think that is pret- 
 ty good for a pup? The other day all the dogs went in 
 chase after a jack-rabbit quite out of sight. An offi- 
 cer mounted and started after them, and met the dogs, 
 Blucher at the head carrying the rabbit in his mouth. 
 What do you think of a stag-hound as a retriever?" 
 
IReveUle, 
 
 I can't get 'cm up, I can't get 'em up, I can't get 'em up this 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 :S=J: 
 
 ±-.^. 
 
 ?i=5: 
 
 morn - ing ; I 
 
 can't get 'em up, I 
 S7id. 
 
 can't get 'em up, I 
 
 -y- 
 
 can't get 'em up at 
 « = 
 
 all. 
 
 The corp'ral is worse than the 
 
 I 
 
 pri - vate, The ser - geant's worse than the cor - p'ral, The 
 
 ^ ^ D.C. 
 
 1^ 
 
 lieut's worse than the sergeant, And the captain is worse than them all. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GENERAL CUSTEr's LETTERS DESCRIBING THE MARCH. 
 
 I HERE make some extracts from many of my own 
 letters from General Custer, in the belief that they will 
 make the daily life on the march, and in camps w^hich 
 were established for nnavoidable delays, on the journey 
 into the Indian Territory clearer than it would other- 
 wise be to the reader, who knows little of the progress 
 of a military expedition. 
 
 Fort Hays, Kansas, October 4, 1868. 
 I breakfasted with General Sheridan and the staff. The 
 general said to me, " Custer, I rely upon you in everything, 
 
12 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 and shall send you on tliis expedition without giving you 
 any orders, leaving you to act entirely upon your judg- 
 ment." 
 
 The expedition will consist of eleven companies of caval- 
 ry, four of infantry, and two howitzers, accompanied by a 
 large train. 
 
 Forty-two Miles from Fort Dodge, October I8th. 
 
 We have been on the war-path but one week. I joined 
 the regiment near our present camp a week since, and within 
 two hours the Indians attacked camp. We drove them away, 
 killing two ponies. That night I sent out two scouting par- 
 ties of a hundred men each, to scour the country for thirty 
 miles round. 
 
 I never heard of wild turkeys in such abundance. AYe 
 have them every day we care for them, and there are five 
 dressed in the mess chest now. All the men have them, and 
 in one day eighty were killed. Tom shot five in a few mo- 
 ments. 
 
 Now I want to tell you about my splendid stag-hounds. 
 The other day Maida caught a jack-rabbit alone. Yester- 
 day she and Blucher took hold of a buffalo, and to-day, as 
 we came into camp, Blucher started a wolf and caught it 
 alone. Within half an hour a jack-rabbit was started near 
 camp. My three stag-hounds. Flirt, Blucher, and Maida, and 
 two greyhounds, went in pursuit. 
 
 We could see the chase for nearly a mile, and it was a 
 pretty sight ; then they disappeared over a hill. The officers 
 are constantly trying to buy the stag-hounds of me. 
 
 I wish that Eliza* was out here to make some nice rolls in- 
 stead of the solid shot our cook gives us. 
 
 Tell Eliza she is the "awfulest" scold and the most " quar- 
 
 * Eliza was our colored cook who was with me at Fort Leaven- 
 worth. 
 
LETTERS DESCELBING THE MARCH. 13 
 
 relsomest " woman I ever met. She and the man who waits 
 on the table have constant rows.* 
 
 Twelve Miles from Dodge, October lid. 
 We will probably remain here ten days before moving 
 towards the Washita mountains. Some of the officers think 
 that this may be like others before it — a campaign on paper ; 
 but I know General Sheridan too well to think that he will 
 follow any such example; he does not readily relinquish an 
 idea. The general has sent to the Osage Indians to employ 
 them on our side ; they will be a profitable assistance. 
 
 Odober 24, 1868. 
 
 The general has finally decided upon a winter campaign. 
 If we cannot find the Indians, and inflict considerable injury 
 upon them, we will be on the wing all winter. We are going 
 to the heart of the Indian country, where white troops have 
 never been before. The Indians have grown up in the belief 
 that soldiers cannot and dare not follow them there. They 
 are now convinced that all the tribes that have been committing 
 depredations on the plains the past season have gone south, 
 and are near each other in the vicinity of the Washita mount- 
 ains. They will doubtless combine against us when they find 
 that we are about to advance into their country. 
 
 To-day I gave the regimental saddler directions how to 
 make me a large pair of saddle-bags. They will contain 
 
 * This cook was the only woman on tbe expedition. She had 
 been a camp woman many years, and was tanned and toughened 
 by "roughing it." She was perfectly fearless, but the life had sad- 
 l}^ affected her temper. Even her brave husband (that is, brave in 
 battle) approached her guardedly if anything went wrong. When 
 the expedition was attacked at one time, she was cooking by a 
 camp-fire, and was heard to mutter when a bullet passed her by, 
 " Git out, ye red divils ye," and went on with her work as if noth- 
 ing were happening. 
 
14: FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 nearly all that I desire to carry, and can be put on my led- 
 horse. 
 
 The men are at target practice, and it sounds like a battle. 
 All the officers of the regiment are now learning signals. 
 Books have been furnished us from Washington. I found all 
 the line-officers to-day in the classes. Most of the officers 
 can now converse quite readily as far as they can see the 
 signals. This is just the country for signalling. Nature having 
 formed admirable signal stations over this part of the terri- 
 tory. General Sheridan, in his letter yesterday, said furloughs 
 would be given to every enlisted man who would do well. 
 
 Camp "Sandy" Forsyth, November Zd. 
 
 You see I have named our camp after the brave " Sandy." 
 I suppose that you have seen considerable excitement to-day 
 over the Presidential campaign. I do not presume that of 
 the many hundreds of men here a dozen remembered that to- 
 day is Election Day, so little is the army interested in the 
 event. I have been quite busy coloring the company horses. 
 Don't imagine that I have been painting them ; but I have been 
 classifying all the horses of the regiment, so that instead of 
 each company representing all the colors of the rainbow by 
 their horses, now every company has one color. There are 
 pure bays, browns, sorrels, grays, and blacks. 
 
 This morning I ordered " Phil " saddled, and rode up the 
 valley looking for a new camp.* I was accompanied by my 
 inseparable companions, the dogs (except Flirt, who is lame). 
 When about three-quarters of a mile from camp, I discovered 
 a large wolf lying down about half a mile beyond. Calling 
 the four dogs — Rover, the old fox-hound, Fanny, the little fox- 
 hound, Blucher, and Maida — I started for the wolf. 
 
 *When the earth becomes much trodden, and it is difficult to 
 keep camp clean, it is customary to move on for a short distance 
 to fresh ground. 
 
LETTERS DESCRIBING THE MARCH. 15 
 
 When within a quarter of a mile he began to run. The 
 two stag-hounds caught sight of him, and away went the 
 dogs, and away went Phil and I, full chase after them. The 
 fox-hounds, of course, could not begin to keep up. 
 
 Before the wolf had run three-quarters of a mile Maida 
 had overtaken him. She grappled with him at once and 
 threw him over and over ; before he could regain his feet or 
 get hold of Maida, Blucher dashed in upon him, and he was 
 never allowed to rise afterwards. These two puppies killed 
 the wolf before Rover and Fanny could reach the spot. I 
 had put Phil to his mettle, and was near at hand when the 
 wolf was caught. Blucher and Maida were perfectly savage ; 
 each time they closed their powerful jaws I could hear the 
 bones crunch as if within a vice. There did not seem to be 
 a bone unbroken when the dogs had finished him. All the 
 officers and men were w^atching the chase from camp. 
 
 We started a jack-rabbit just at evening, and all the dogs 
 joined in. I never saw any race so exciting. The dogs sur- 
 pass my highest expectations. All four are lying on my bed 
 or at my feet. I have a pair of buffalo overshoes, the hair 
 inside, and I am to have a vest made from a dressed buffalo 
 calf-skin, with the hair on. When we were encamped near 
 Dodge I sent the tailor, Frank, in to buy some thread and 
 buttons. He came home very " tight," and when I asked him 
 if they kept thread and buttons in bottles at the sutler store, 
 he answered me in droll broken English that made me shout 
 with laughter. 
 
 November 1th. 
 I want to tell you something wonderful. A white wom- 
 an has just come into our camp deranged, and can give no 
 account of herself. She has been four days without food. 
 Our cook is now giving her something to eat. I can only 
 explain her coming by supposing her to have been captured 
 by the Indians, and their barbarous treatment having ren- 
 
16 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 dered lier insane. I send lier to-niglit, by the mail party, to 
 Fort Dodge. I shall send by the paymaster a live pelican, to 
 be presented to the Audubon Club in Detroit. It is the first 
 I ever saw. It measures nearly seven feet from tip to tip, 
 and its bill is about ten inches long. One of my Cheyenne 
 scouts caught it in the river near camp. He first struck it, 
 and stunned it long enough to effect its capture. 
 
 Camp on Beaver Creek (100 Miles from Dodge), Nov. 21, '68. 
 
 The day that we reached here we crossed a fresh trail of 
 a large war party going north. I sent our Indian scouts to 
 follow it a short distance to determine the strength and di- 
 rection of the party. The guides all report the trail of a 
 war party going north-east, and that they evidently have just, 
 come from the village, which must be located within fifty 
 miles of us in a southerly direction. Had the Kansas vol- 
 unteers been here, as was expected, my orders would then 
 have allowed me to follow the back trail of the war party 
 right to their village ; and we would have found the latter in 
 an unprotected state, as their warriors had evidently gone 
 north, either to Larned or Zarah, or to fight the Osage or Kaw 
 Indians, who are now putting up their winter meat. We did 
 not encounter an Indian coming to this last point, which 
 proves that our campaign was not expected by them. To- 
 night six scouts start for Dodge with our mail and despatch- 
 es for headquarters. 
 
 November 22d. 
 
 It lacks a few moments to twelve ; reveille is at four, but 
 I must add a few words more. To-day General Sheridan 
 and staff, and two companies of the Kansas volunteers, ar- 
 rived. I move to-morrow morning with my eleven compa- 
 nies, taking thirty days' rations. I am to go south from here 
 to the Canadian River, then down the river to Fort Cobb, then 
 south-west towards the Washita mountains, then north-west 
 back to this point, my whole march not exceeding two bun- 
 
LETTEES DESCRIBING THE MARCH. 17 
 
 dred and fifty miles. Among the new horses sent to the regi- 
 ment I have selected one, a beautiful brown, that I call " Dan- 
 dy." The snow is now five or six inches deep and falling 
 rapidly. The general and his staff have given me a pair of 
 buffalo overshoes, a fur cap with ear lappets, and have offered 
 me anything they have, for winter is upon us with all its 
 force. 
 
 As a winter's campaign against Indians was decid- 
 edly a new departure for our regiment, and, indeed, at 
 that time for any troops, and as this one ended with 
 a notable victory for our people, it was the subject of 
 many conversations on the galleries of our quarters, at 
 the fireside, and around our dinner-tables for years af- 
 terwards. Certain ludicrous affairs fastened themselves 
 on ofl&cers seemingly for all time. For instance, one 
 night during the winter, when the regiment was away 
 from its base of supplies, tents, and luggage, except what 
 could be carried on the horses, the troops were obliged 
 to sleep on the ground, and blankets were so scarce that 
 everybody took a " bunkey," officers and all, in order 
 to double the bedding. One very small ofi&cer rolled 
 himself against the back of a huge man, six feet four 
 inches high, who on other windy nights had served as 
 a protection ; but he did not combine every virtue, and 
 when it was botli windy and cold he had the inhumanity 
 to turn in the night, and leave the poor little dot of an 
 ofi&cer entirely uncovered. This is never thought to be 
 an agreeable thing for a bedfellow to do, but on a bitter 
 winter night, when the only awning over the victim was 
 the starry sky, it was such a trial that the manner in 
 2 
 
18 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 which the sufferer told of his woes the next morning 
 made him the laughing-stock of his comrades all winter 
 and long afterwards. 
 
 Officers will run almost any risk to get a bath, but 
 the way in which two of our brave fellows retreated 
 from their toilet was also for years kept as a standing 
 subject of jesting. I believe tliat it was their first and 
 only retreat. In going into the Indian country the 
 officers sometimes relaxed vigilance for a time. Per- 
 haps days would pass with no sight of Indians. At 
 such a time these two daring fellows went down the 
 stream some distance to bathe, and to their delight 
 found water deep enough in which to swim. They for- 
 got everything in the enjoyment of clear water, for 
 many of the streams west of the Mississippi are muddy 
 and full of sand. Their horses saved their lives. Their 
 attention was called to the telltale ears, quivering and 
 vibrating, the nervous starts and the snorts that many 
 old cavalry horses give at sight of Indians or buffaloes. 
 Heeding these warnings, the bathers sprang to the 
 bank. Within a few hundred yards of them Indians 
 approached. There was no pause for clothes or for 
 saddles. Unfastening their horses, and with a leap that 
 would have done credit to a circus rider, they sprang 
 upon the bare backs of the terrified horses, and digging 
 their naked heels into the sides of the animals, they 
 ran a race for life. Fortunately, the Indians came from 
 a direction opposite that of the camp, but they had the 
 temerity to follow with all the speed of their swift ponies 
 until almost witliin sight of the troops. Our officers' 
 
LETTERS DESCRIBING THE MARCH. 19 
 
 perfect horsemanship and the fright of the animals 
 saved their lives. As the Indians yelled behind them, 
 and finally sent their almost unerring arrows whizzing 
 about the ears of our t\vo men, they had little idea of 
 escape. When they entered camp, if there had been a 
 back way, an alley, a tree-bordered walk, through which 
 these lately imperilled men could have reached their 
 tents, it would have been a boon ; but everything in 
 military life is en evidence^ and the camp is often laid 
 out in one long line. Past all these tents, where, at the 
 entrance of each, appeared at once the occupants, on 
 hearing the unusual sound of horses' flying hoofs with- 
 in the company street, and in the face, indeed, of all 
 the regiment, these nude Gil pins reached their own can- 
 vas, and flinging themselves from their foaming horses, 
 darted under cover. Then came the scramble for other 
 clothes, wdiich was a very difficult affair, as few officers 
 carried extras, save underclothes, and the quartermaster's 
 supplies were at Camp Supply, far in the rear. But 
 every one shares freely with a comrade on the frontier, 
 and a pair of pantaloons from one, a jacket from an- 
 other, a cap from a third, fitted out the unfortunates. 
 
 Later a misfortune happened to one of these same 
 men, our brother Tom, which bade fair to oblige him 
 to adopt the costume of his red brethren — a blanket and 
 a war-bonnet. His favorite dog. Brandy, the most te- 
 nacious of bull-dogs, refused to let go of a polecat that 
 he had chased, with the dog delusion that it was a rab- 
 bit. Colonel Tom plunged into the fight in an effort 
 to drag Brandy off, when the animal used the defence 
 
20 FOLLOWING THE GUmON. 
 
 that nature has provided, and Colonel Tom's clothes 
 were gone the second time. He realized that with tliis 
 adventure added to his late aquatic episode, which had 
 been followed by a deluge of jokes from his brother 
 officers, there would be no mercy shown him, and he 
 quickly decided to share with the others his unsought 
 baptism. It was nearly dark ; the tents were closed, 
 the candles lighted, the pipes at full blast. Captain 
 Hamilton, whose sense of fun wms irrepressible, started 
 out with the victim of misfortune to pay visits. Sev- 
 eral of the tents were crowded, but both of the visitors 
 being jolly men, room was made for them ; but soon 
 there was a general sniffing around and forcible exple- 
 tives used about the dogs. "They've been hunting on 
 their own hook again," was said, " and pretty close 
 here, you bet ;" and hands were stretched out for some- 
 thing with which to drive the creatures out. The 
 guests having made sure the aroma Tom carried had 
 become sufficiently apparent, departed, only to enter 
 another crowd farther on. A tent is supposed to be 
 well ventilated ; but fill one with officers whose tobac- 
 co, obtained far away from a good base of supplies, is, 
 to say the least, questionable, add the odor of rain- 
 soaked clothes, the wet leather of troop boots, a dog or 
 two with his shaggy, half-dry coat, and one can well 
 imagine that Colonel Tom was the traditional "last 
 straw." 
 
 When the pair had been in the second tent long enough 
 to have the joke take effect, they bolted out into the 
 night, roaring with laughter, and then went on to a 
 
LETTERS DESCRIBING THE MARCH. 21 
 
 third. The jeers of the officers next day were some- 
 what toned down because of the evening episode, but 
 poor Tom was around, begging for clothes again, and 
 soon every one knew that his own outfit lay " without 
 the camp " for all time. 
 
 Arrests are not at all unusual in military life, and 
 the discipline is so strict it often happens that this 
 punishment is inflicted for very small delinquencies. 
 Sometimes, of course, it is a serious matter ; a set of 
 charges is preferred, and a trial by court-martial and 
 sentence ensue. Still, to be in arrest is so common 
 that it is not in the least like the serious affair of civil 
 law. If an officer was missed from the line that win- 
 ter, and inquiries made by his comrades for him, his 
 messmate or captain, laughing lightly, replied, " Why, 
 don't you know he's leading the pelican?" and this ex- 
 pression, as a synonym for being in arrest, stayed by the 
 regiment for a long time after the bird had gone. 
 
 The pelican General Custer refers to in the letter 
 already quoted was a rare specimen, and all the com- 
 mand had great curiosity about it, considering it was 
 unusual in the country where it was captured, and it 
 was also the first specimen most of our command had 
 seen. The bird was carried in a box in the wagon train 
 that always travels at the rear of a column, and as an 
 officer or soldier is condemned to this ignominious po- 
 sition also, when deprived of his place with his com- 
 pany, it became the custom to describe arrest as " lead- 
 ing the pelican." 
 
 A perfect fusillade of wit was always being fired at 
 
22 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 men to whom accidents had happened or on whom 
 jokes had been played. One unfailing subject for bad- 
 inage was the matrimonial opportunities neglected in 
 the winter's campaign. After the battle, the old squaws 
 were as full of admiration for the successful troopers as 
 they were for their liege lords, and the w^illingness to 
 part with their daughters was quite equal to that of 
 the predatory mother in the States, who is accused of 
 roaming from one watering-place to another in search 
 of game. But the primitive mother and father resort 
 to no subtle plan ; they offer their daughters outright. 
 One officer was proffered a dusky bride by her father, 
 and a cup of sugar was asked for in exchange ; while 
 the commanding officer, after hearing a mysterious 
 mumbling going on near him, found himself already 
 married, before any formal tender of the girl had been 
 made by the parents. It was with difficulty that the 
 fathers and mothers were made to understand that 
 among white people a man was required by our laws 
 to content himself with one partner at a time. 
 
 There were many references to the scouts in Gen- 
 eral Custer's letters, and the subject was an unfailing 
 source of interest to me, so much romance attends the 
 stories of these men's lives. Osage Indians were em- 
 ployed, being not only at peace with us, but imbittered 
 against the Indians by the marauding of hostile tribes 
 on their herds of ponies and their villages. 
 
 I find a few words about these friendly Indians in a 
 letter General Custer wrote to a friend at that time : 
 "Yesterday my twelve Osage guides joined me, and 
 
LETTEKS DESCRIBING THE MAKCH. 23 
 
 they are a splendid-looking set of warriors, headed by 
 one of their chiefs called 'Little Beaver.' They are 
 painted and dressed for the war-path, and well armed 
 with Springfield breech-loading guns. All are superb 
 horsemen. We mounted them on good horses, and to 
 show us how they can ride and shoot, they took a stick 
 of ordinary cord -wood, threw it on the ground, and 
 then, mounted on their green, untried horses, they rode 
 at full speed and fired at the stick of wood as they fiew 
 by, and every shot struck the target." 
 
^be 6eneral. 
 
 _^: 
 
 -^— ^-#-« ^_«_!e— ^- 
 
 
 iig 
 
 -^_- 
 
 ■ • — I — ! — F-h- 
 
 c ^-•-« • • 
 
 =t: 
 
 -j — bii'i III — I — I — # — #■ 
 
 =t 
 
 
 L^e^ 1 — I — I — I — I — 1+* 1 — ^ — r 1 — I — — I — — I — 
 
 
 
 I — ^— #-#-#-»-^^j — F j ^ Hl 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 WHITE SCOUTS. 
 
 The scouts and friendly Indians were an indepen- 
 dent command that winter, and afforded much inter- 
 est and variety to the whole regiment. They each re- 
 ceived seventy-five dollars a month and a ration, and 
 whoever took the regiment to an Indian village was 
 to receive one hundred dollars additional. 
 
 A half-breed Arapahoe boy was the beauty of the 
 command. He was nineteen years old ; his eyes, large, 
 
WHITE SCOUTS. 25 
 
 soft, and lustrous, were shaded by long lashes. I had 
 been amazed at the tiny feet of the Delawares the sum- 
 mer before, but this lad's feet were smaller, and the 
 moccasin showed them to be perfect in shape. His 
 hair was long and black. He was educated, but it was 
 a disappointment to me in hearing of him to find that 
 he called himself Andrew Jackson Fitzpatrick. "With 
 the ardor of a novel reader, I should have preferred at 
 that time that he should lift the fringes of his soulful 
 eyes in response to a Claude or a Reginald. Indians 
 not only lose their picturesqueness when they encoun- 
 ter the white man, but they choose the most prosaic 
 names in place of their own musical appellations. 
 Think how " Running Antelope," or " the Eagle that 
 flies," or "Fall Leaf" would have suited this boy. 
 
 One of the scouts had a nickname that ought to 
 have pleased the most romantic, but the trouble in his 
 case was that he did not fit the name. His real name 
 was Romero, for he was a Mexican, and the officers 
 soon dropped into calling him Romeo. His short, 
 stocky figure, swarthy skin, and coarse features made 
 him a typical " Greaser," and quite the replica of many 
 we had seen in Texas ; but Romeo had lived with the 
 Indians and spoke Cheyenne. 
 
 Another scout was a ^ew Yorker by birth, who emi- 
 grated to Michigan in 1836, thence to Texas, and final- 
 ly to Kansas. He was over fifty, and gray-headed. It 
 is surprising how wonderfully men no longer young 
 endure the hardships of this life. There is something 
 remarkably preservative about the air of the plains. 
 
26 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 When we read now of the reunion of the Forty-niners, 
 and learn what jovial hours they are capable of enjoy- 
 ing even after their years of privation, we are forced 
 to conclude that a life sheltered from the rigors of cli- 
 mate and spared all deprivation is not the longest, and 
 surely not the merriest. When a man's entire posses- 
 sions are strapped in a small roll at the back of his sad- 
 dle, and his horse and outfit constitute his fortune, he 
 is not going to lie awake nights wondering what are 
 safe investments for capital. 
 
 After the campaign I saw the scouts, and though the 
 winter of 1866 was the time of California Joe's first 
 appearance among us, it was not long before I was in- 
 troduced to him. It was not my privilege to hear him 
 talk for some time, as he was as bashful before a wom- 
 an as a school-boy. The general arranged a little plan 
 one day by which I could hear him. I was sent into 
 the rear tent and specially charged to keep quiet, as 
 Joe could not talk without interlarding his sentences 
 with oaths, many of them of his own invention, and 
 consequently all the more terrible to me because so un- 
 familiar. A new oath seems much more profane and 
 vastl}^ more startling than those one hears commonly 
 about the streets. At the time I listened to him sur- 
 reptitiously he had been called to attend court at the 
 capital of Kansas, and had made his first journey on a 
 railroad. He complained bitterly of the hardships of 
 railway travel. The car was too small, too warm, too 
 fast, too everything to suit him. The ofiicer who en- 
 countered him at Topeka said that Joe seized upon him 
 
CALIFOKNIA JOE 
 
WHITE SCOUTS. 27 
 
 with ardor, as being a link with his real life, and that 
 he "never wanted to board them air keers agin, and 
 was durned sorry he hadn't fetched his mule ; he would 
 a heap sight ruther go back on the old critter." He 
 was too much dissatisfied with civilization for any one 
 to doubt for one moment that he would willingly have 
 taken the four hundred miles on horseback in prefer- 
 ence to " them air wheezing, racing, red-hot boxes they 
 shet a man in." After his return he came to our tent 
 dressed in what the officers call " cit's " clothes, which 
 he termed " store clothes." His long, flowing hair and 
 shaggy beard were shorn, and his picturesqueness gone. 
 One cheek was rounded out with his beloved "ter- 
 baccy," and he told the general he had " took his last 
 journey on them pesky keers " ; and when asked if he 
 
 didn't like the States, said, " D n a country where 
 
 you have to wear a shirt-collar." He told us that he 
 had been West forty years, and much of the time be- 
 yond the Rockies. He considered Kansas so far East 
 that he "reckoned his folks would be thinking he 
 was on his way home if they heard of him in there." 
 At that time we were in the midst of such a wilder- 
 ness it did not seem to us sufficiently far eastward to 
 induce any one to think we were anywhere but on the 
 stepping - off place. It was only to show off that he 
 came in his travelling costume. The buckskin and flan- 
 nel shirt soon appeared, but it took some time before 
 his hair and beard grew out long enough to make him 
 look natural. 
 
 AVhen California Joe first joined the general in the 
 
28 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 Washita country he studied him pretty thoroughly. 
 In his rough Yernacular, he wanted to " size him up," 
 and see if he was really soldier enough for him to " fol- 
 ler." The contrast between a plainsman's independence 
 and the deference and respect for rank that is instilled 
 into a soldier is very marked. The enlisted man rarely 
 speaks to his superior unless spoken to, and he usually 
 addresses an officer in the third j^erson. The scout, on 
 the contrary, owns the plains, according to his views, 
 and he addresses the stranger or the military man with 
 an air of perfect equality ; but long acquaintance with 
 their ways taught me that at heart these men were just 
 as full of deference for any brave man they served as 
 is the soldier. In coming to an understanding with 
 the general regarding his giving his services as scout, 
 Joe asked his commander a few j^ointed questions about 
 himself. He wished to know how he intended to hunt 
 Indians. There had been some officers whom he had 
 known who had gone to war in a wagon ; the troopers 
 called them "feather-bed soldiers." So Joe said: 
 " S'pose you're after Injuns, and really want to hev a 
 tussle with 'em, would ye start after 'em on hossback, 
 or would ye climb into an ambulance and be hauled 
 after 'em ? That's the pint I'm headin' for." After 
 putting the general through such a catechism, he de- 
 cided to let himself be employed, as it was evident 
 from his own impressions, and from what he had heard, 
 that there w\as not much doubt that the chief was, in 
 his own language, " spilin' for a fight" just as much as 
 he himself was. 
 
WHITE SCOUTS. 29 
 
 Joe was made the chief of scouts at once ; but hon- 
 ors did not sit easily upon him, for in celebrating his 
 advancement he made night hideous with his yells. 
 The scout gets drunk just as he does everything else — 
 with all his might. Living all his life beyond the re- 
 gion of law and its enforcement ; being a perfect shot, 
 he is able, usually, to carry out his spree according to 
 ]iis own wishes. He tells the man who might express 
 a wish for a peaceful, quiet night that he had better 
 not " tackle " him, and emphasizes his remark by draw- 
 ing out of the small arsenal that encircles his body a 
 pistol, which, pointed accurately, renders the average 
 man quick to say, " It's of no consequence," and retire. 
 I do not even like to say that the scouts were ever 
 drunk, for they were profoundly sober when they went 
 off on their perilous journeys with despatches; and 
 when I think how all our lives were in their hands 
 when they were sent for succor, and how often they 
 took messages across country to put troops or settle- 
 ments on their guard, or of a hundred other daring 
 deeds of theirs, I prefer to remember only the faith- 
 ful discharge of duty, not the carousal that sometimes 
 followed the reaction caused by overstrained nerves 
 and the relief from hours and days of imjDending 
 death. 
 
 Anticipating a little, I remember that California Joe 
 was selected for the most important scouting duty of 
 the winter, which was nothing less than the transmis- 
 sion of the despatch announcing the success of the bat- 
 tle of the Washita. The command was then far away 
 
30 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 from Camp Supply ; it was midwinter, and the Ind- 
 ians were thoroughly aroused and on guard. It was 
 not known how great the distance was that he must 
 traverse, but the troops had taken four days to accom- 
 plish it. Joe was asked how many scouts he would 
 like to take, and after going off to deliberate, return- 
 ed, with the reply that he " didn't want no more ner 
 his pardner, fur in this 'ere bizness more is made by 
 dodgin' and runnin' than by fightin'." At dark he 
 started, without giving the slightest evidence that he 
 regarded the perilous undertaking as anything more 
 than a commonplace occurrence. 
 
 One peculiarity of these men was their evident in- 
 ability to feel surprise ; the most extraordinary occur- 
 rences made so little impression upon them that it 
 would seem as if they must have had a previous ex- 
 istence, and become familiar in another life with the 
 strange events which made us gasp with astonishment. 
 How often I have heard the officers refer to the variety 
 these men made in the tedium of the march, by their 
 stories of adventure, their wit, and their fearless and 
 original expression of views! It was conceded that 
 they '^ drew a long bow " sometimes, but the tales of 
 their own lives were startling enough without the least 
 necessity for exaggeration. 
 
 One story from the mines was told me, and may have 
 lost nothing in the telling. An Irishman who was 
 pretty drunk fell into a shaft sixty-five feet deep. He 
 picked himself up unhurt, but partially sobered, and 
 seeing a passage leading into the open air, he made his 
 
WHITE SCOUTS. 31 
 
 way out to the side of tlie mountain. Then he walked 
 up till he reached the shaft, and looking down into its 
 depths, was heard to say, " Be gorry, and I'm thinking 
 it would kill me if I was to fall down there agin." 
 
 The scouts and frontiersmen were not slow to express 
 their opinion on the few women they encountered, and 
 a tale was told of a family consisting of a mother and 
 several strapping daughters who lived in a cabin on the 
 route over which cattle were driven to market. The 
 "gals," as the Western man terms them, took care of 
 some cows, and the narrator of the story stopped there 
 to get milk. As he sat near the fire smoking, the ra\v^ 
 boned, shrivelled old mother bent over the fireplace 
 puffing at a clay pipe, perfectly stolid and silent, until 
 one girl came in and silently stood at the fire trying 
 to dry her homespun dress. Without raising herself, 
 and in a drawling tone, the mother said, presently, 
 " Sal, there's a coal under you f ut." In no more ani- 
 mated tone and without even moving, her offspring 
 replied, "Which fut, mammy ?" The girl had run bare- 
 foot all her life over the shale and rough ground of 
 that country, and the red-hot coal was some time in 
 making its way through the hard surface to a tissue 
 that had any sensitiveness. 
 
 The widow of a miner, who kept boarders, was also on 
 the scant list of female acquaintances of one of the fron- 
 tiersmen, who describes a person called the " bouncer,'^ 
 who seems to be a well-recognized functionary in such 
 establishments. He is always big and strong, and his 
 duties consist in bringing to time people who neglect 
 
32 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 to pay their bill, and for tliis service lie is boarded with- 
 out charge. An Eastern man, a 'Henderfoot," on one 
 occasion asked some one to pass the gravy, whereupon 
 the bouncer placed his pistol on the table and quietly 
 remarked, " Any man as calls sop gravy has got to eat 
 dust or 'pologize/' 
 
 At that time we all returned to civilization with a 
 goodly collection of frontier stories that had not found 
 their way into the omnivorous newspaper, and our talk 
 was full of allusions to jokes among ourselves, or to 
 portions of these way-side tales that we had appropri- 
 ated, because they fitted into our daily life so well. We 
 believed, and there was no reason why we should doubt 
 it, that the amusing or venturesome stories of these men 
 were their own experiences, and I need not dwell upon 
 the zest it gives to the listener when the hero of a tale 
 is present as he tells it. 
 
 Another relief to the weariness of a march was hunt- 
 ing game, which was so plentiful that no one need run 
 the risk of straying far from the command in search of 
 it. The wild turkeys were the greatest treat of all, that 
 winter, and there were so many of them that the sol- 
 diers' messes had all they wanted while the command 
 remained in the locality they frequented. A former 
 officer of General Sheridan's staff has been only recent- 
 ly reminding me of what a feast they were. In the 
 vicinity of the Antelope Hills the trees were black with 
 these wild-fowl. 
 
 One of the officers afforded great amusement at the 
 time, and gave opportunity for many a sly allusion dur- 
 
WHITE SCOUTS. 33 
 
 ing: the winter because of an attack of " buck fever." 
 At sight of a tree weighed down to the ends of the 
 branches with turkeys, he became incapable of loading, 
 to say nothing of firing, his gun ; he could do notliing 
 but lie down, great strong man as he was, completely 
 overcome with excitement. At one point where Gen- 
 eral Sheridan and his staff came upon an immense num- 
 ber of turkeys, they sent videttes on the neighboring 
 hills to keep watch for Indians, and then began to shoot 
 the fowls. Between half-past five and half-past seven 
 they killed sixty-three with rifles. The place where they 
 first came upon this game is now marked on the map 
 as "Sheridan's Roost." This officer remembers to have 
 seen General Custer cut the head from a turkey with 
 a Spencer repeating rifle at two hundred yards. The 
 poor soldiers, armed only with their short-range carbines, 
 of course saw many a shot go foul, but if they happened 
 to be the selected orderlies of the officers they were often 
 permitted to use the rifle, and in a case where an officer 
 had two, the soldier riding behind his commanding offi- 
 cer proudly carried the second best. I know that when 
 General Custer and his orderly returned from a hunt, 
 their eyes like coals, so brilliant were they, and with 
 every evidence of suppressed excitement, yet neither, 
 as is the custom of the army, speaking a word, I used to 
 accuse the commanding officer of only waiting to get 
 beyond the first bluff that separated him from the camp 
 before he forgot to be military, and fell to talking with 
 the enlisted man. There is so much in common among 
 enthusiastic sportsmen ! 
 3 
 
34 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 The soldiers knew how to make the best of their 
 short-range guns, and many of them became such ac- 
 curate marksmen that they could select the particular 
 part to be hit, and not tear the game into shreds with 
 their large bullets. The best shots in a company were 
 allowed to leave the column and bring in game for the 
 rest. At night, when the troops were bivouacked, the 
 fires lighted for the soldiers' suppers, the men hovered 
 around the coming dinner, rejoicing in its savory smells, 
 suggesting to the company cook their ideas of how 
 game sliould be prepared, and calling out triumphantly 
 to any neighboring mess whose hunters had not been 
 so fortunate as their own. Think what it must have 
 been to vary the frugal bacon of daily use with rump 
 steaks of the buffalo or toothsome morsels of wild tur- 
 key! The men needed no sauces or jellies to whet 
 the appetite or improve the flavor; that would have 
 been "painting the lily" in their eyes. There has been 
 much criticism regarding the destruction of the buffa- 
 lo, but in the case of our soldiers it was often a health 
 measure, as the use of salt meat and absence of vege- 
 tables produced scurvy. 
 
 All this hunting, joking, story-telling on the march, 
 and around the camp-fire, lost some of its charm, how- 
 ever, as winter really set in. Although it is the cus- 
 tom of soldiers to make light of hardships, there were 
 new features in this winter's campaign which needed 
 all their fortitude to pieet and endure. 
 
 I 
 
Cbarge ! 
 
 ^| EEg:^^^^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 ^^-^s— ^-^^— •- 
 
 g3^^^=^.i^|^l 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BATTLE OF THE WASHITA. 
 
 The orders for moving towards the Indian Tillage 
 were issued on the evening of November 22d. It 
 began to snow, and our men stood round the camp-fire 
 for their breakfast at five o'clock the next morning, 
 the snow almost up to their knees. The Seventh, con- 
 sisting of nine hundred men, were to leave General 
 Sheridan and the infantry, and all the extra wagons 
 and supplies, and strike out into this blinding storm. 
 General Sheridan, awake with anxiety at reveille, called 
 out to ask what General Custer thought about the snow 
 and the storm. The reply was, "All the better for us ; 
 we can move, the Indian cannot." The packing was 
 soon done, as every ofince of superfluous baggage was 
 left behind, and forward our brave fellows pushed into 
 the slowly coming dawn. 
 
 The air was so filled with the fine snow that it was 
 perilous to separate one's self even a short distance from 
 the column. The Indian guides could not see any land- 
 marks, and had it not been for the compass of the com- 
 
36 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 manding officer, an advance would have been impossi- 
 ble. The fifteen miles of the first day's march would 
 have been a small affair except for the snow ; but 
 the day dragged, and when at night camp was made in 
 some timber bordering a creek, the snow still fell so 
 fast that the officers themselves helped to shovel it away 
 while the soldiers stretched the small amount of canvas 
 that was spread. Fortunately, even at that late season, 
 fresh meat was secured for all the command, for in the 
 underbrush of the streams one out of a group of be- 
 numbed buffaloes was easily killed. 
 
 In crossing the Canadian River, the quicksands, the 
 floating snow and ice, were faced uncomplainingly, and 
 the nine hundred wet soldiers started up the opposite 
 side without a murmur. 
 
 Finally the Indian trail, so long looked for, was 
 struck, and the few wagons were ordered to halt ; and 
 only such supplies as could be carried on the person or 
 the horse, consisting of rations, forage, and a hundred 
 rounds of ammunition for each trooper, were taken. 
 The detail of the officer to remain with the train (al- 
 ways assigned according to turn) fell to one of the 
 finest of our officers. But Captain Hamilton was not 
 to yield his privilege of being 4n a fight so readily. 
 He appealed to go, and finally the commanding officer 
 thought out a way by which it might be accomplished, 
 for he was thoroughly in sympathy Avith the soldier 
 spirit of this dauntless young fellow. If another officer 
 could be found to take his place, he could be relieved 
 from the odious detail. One of the Seventh was suf- 
 
 I 
 
BATTLE OF THE WASHITA. 37 
 
 fering from snow-blindness, and to this misfortune was 
 Captain Hamilton indebted for liis change of duty. 
 In the long confidential talks about the camp-fires he 
 had expressed an ardent desire to be in an Indian fight, 
 and when the subject of death came up, as it did in 
 the wide range of subjects that comrades in arms dis- 
 cussed, he used to say, " When my hour to die comes, 
 I hope that I shall be shot through the heart in 
 battle." 
 
 The first hours of following the trail were terribly 
 hard. Men and horses suffered for food, for from four 
 in the morning till nine at night no halt could be 
 made. Then by hiding under the deep banks of the 
 stream, fires were lighted, and the men had coffee and 
 the horses oats; but no bugle sounded, no voice was 
 raised, as the Indians might be dangerously near. The 
 advance was taken up again with the Indian guides 
 creeping stealthily along in front, tracing as best they 
 could the route of their foes. The soldier was even 
 deprived of his beloved pipe, for a spark might, at that 
 moment, lose all which such superhuman efforts had 
 been put forth to gain. 
 
 After what seemed an interminable time, the ashes 
 of a fire lately extinguished were discovered ; then far- 
 ther on a dog barked, and finally the long-looked-for 
 Indian village was discovered by the cry of a baby. 
 General Custer in his accounts stops to say how keen 
 were his regrets, even with the memory fresh in mind 
 of the atrocities committed by Indians, where white 
 infants' brains had been dashed out to stop their cry- 
 
38 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 ing, that war must be brought to the fireside of even a 
 savage. 
 
 The rest of the night was spent in posting the com- 
 mand on different sides of tlie village, in snatching a 
 brief sleep, stretched out on the snow, and in longing 
 for daybreak. Excitement kept the ardent soldiers 
 warm, and when tlie band put their cold lips to the 
 still colder metal, and struck up "Garryowen," the 
 soldiers' hearts were bursting with enthusiasm and joy 
 at the glory that awaited them. At the sound of the 
 bugles blowing on the still morning air — the few spir- 
 ited notes of the call to "charge" — in went the few 
 hundred men as confidently as if there had been thou- 
 sands of them, and a reserve corps at the rear. 
 
 All the marching scenes, hunting experiences, the 
 quips and quirks of the camp-fire, the jokes of the ofli- 
 cers at each other's expense, the hardships of the win- 
 ter, the strange and interesting scouts, are as familiar 
 to me as oft-told tales come to be, and in going back 
 and gathering them here and there in the recesses of 
 memory, aided by General Custer's letters, magazine 
 accounts, and ofiicial reports, the whole scene spreads 
 out before me as the modern diorama unrolls from its 
 cylinder the events that are past. Often as this battle 
 has been talked over before me, I do not feel myself 
 especially impressed with its military details ; woman- 
 like, the cry of the Indian baby, the capture of a white 
 woman, the storm that drenched our brave men, are all 
 fresher in my memory, and come to my pen more read- 
 il}^ than the actual charging and fighting. I therefore 
 

BATTLE OF THE WASHITA. 39 
 
 make extracts from General Custer's very condensed 
 official report, instead of telling the story myself. 
 
 Headquarters Setenth Cayalry, 
 
 Camp on Washita, November 28, '68. 
 
 On the morning of the 26th, eleven companies of the 
 Seventh Cavalry struck an Indian trail numbering one hun- 
 dred (not quite twenty-four hours old) near the point where 
 the Texas boundary line crosses the Canadian River 
 
 When the Osage trailers reported a village within a mile 
 of the advance, the column was countermarched and with- 
 drawn to a retired point to avoid discovery. After all the 
 officers had reconnoitred the location of the village, which 
 was situated in a strip of heavy timber, the command was 
 divided into four columns of nearly equal strength. One 
 was to attack in the woods from below the village. The sec- 
 ond was to move down the Washita and attack in the tim- 
 ber from above. The third was to attack from the crest 
 north of the village, while the fourth was to charge from the 
 crest overlooking the village on the left bank of the Wash- 
 ita. The columns were to charge simultaneously at dawn of 
 day ; though some of them had to march several miles to gain 
 their positions, three of them made the attack so near to- 
 gether that it seemed like one charge. The fourth was only 
 a few moments late. The men charged and reached the 
 lodges before the Indians were aware of their presence. The 
 moment the advance was ordered the band struck up " Gar- 
 ry owen," and with cheers every trooper, led by his officer, 
 rushed towards the village. The Indians were caught nap- 
 ping for once. The warriors rushed from their lodges and 
 posted themselves behind trees and in deep ravines, from 
 which they began a most determined resistance. Within 
 ten minutes after the charge the lodges and all their contents 
 were in our possession, but the real fighting, such as has 
 been rarely, if ever, equalled in Indian warfare, began when 
 
40 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 attempting to drive out or kill tlie warriors posted in ravines 
 or ambush. Charge after charge was made, and most gal- 
 lantly too, but the Indians had resolved to sell their lives as 
 dearly as possible. The conflict ended after some hours. 
 The entire village, numbering (47) forty -seven lodges of 
 Black Kettle's band of Cheyennes, (2) two lodges of Arap- 
 ahoes, (2) two lodges of Sioux — (51) fifty-one lodges in all, 
 under command of their principal chief, Black Kettle — were 
 conquered. 
 
 The Indians left on the ground (103) one hundred and 
 three warriors, including Black Kettle, whose scalp was taken 
 by an Osage guide. 875 horses and mules were captured, 
 241 saddles (some of fine and costly workmanship), 573 buf- 
 falo-robes, 390 buffalo-skins for lodges, 160 untanned robes, 
 210 axes, 140 hatchets, 35 revolvers, 47 rifles, 535 pounds of 
 powder, 1050 pounds of lead, 4000 arrows and arrow-heads, 
 75 spears, 90 bullet moulds, 35 bows and quivers, 12 shields, 
 300 pounds of bullets, 775 lariats, 940 buckskin saddle-bags, 
 470 blankets, 93 coats, 700 pounds of tobacco ; all the win- 
 ter supply of dried buffalo meat, all the meal flour, and other 
 provisions ; in fact, all they possessed was captured, as the 
 warriors escaped with little or no clothing. Everything of 
 value was destroyed. 53 prisoners were taken, squaws and 
 their children ; among the prisoners are the survivors of 
 Black Kettle and the family of Little Rock. Two white 
 children, captives with the Indians, were captured. One 
 white woman in their possession was murdered by her cap- 
 tors the moment the attack was made. A white boy, 10 
 years old, a captive, had his entrails ripped out with a knife 
 by a squaw. The Kiowas, under Satanta, and Arapahoes, 
 under Little Raven, were encamped six miles below Black 
 Kettle's village. The warriors from these two villages came 
 to attempt the rescue of the Cheyennes. They attacked the 
 command from all sides, about noon, hoping to recover the 
 squaws and the herd of the Cheyennes. 
 
BATTLE OF THE WASHITA. 41 
 
 Thougli displaying great boldness, about three o'clock the 
 cavalry countercharged, and they were driven in all direc- 
 tions and pursued several miles. The entire command was 
 then moved in search of the villages of the Kiowas and Arap- 
 ahoes, but after an eight-mile march it was ascertained that 
 they had taken fright at the fate of the Cheyennes, and fled. 
 
 The command was then three days' march from the train 
 of supplies, and the trail having led over a country cut up by 
 ravines and other obstructions, difficult even for cavalry, it 
 was impossible to bring the wagons on. The supplies which 
 each man carried were nearly exhausted, the men were wea- 
 ried from loss of sleep, and the horses in the same condition 
 for want of forage. About 8 p. m. the return march was be- 
 gun, and continued until the wagons were reached. In the 
 excitement of the fight, as well as in self-defence, some of the 
 squaws and a few children were killed and wounded ; the lat- 
 ter were brought on under medical care. Many of the squaws 
 were taken with arms in their hands, and several soldiers were 
 wounded by them. In one small ravine 38 warriors were 
 found dead, showing the desperation of the conflict. Two 
 officers. Major Elliott and Captain Hamilton, were killed, and 
 19 enlisted men. Captain Barnitz was seriously wounded. 
 
 The command marched through snow-storms and 
 rough country, sleeping without tents ; and the night 
 before the attack the men stood for hours by their 
 horses awaiting the moment of attack, when the ther- 
 mometer was far below freezing-point. IS'o one com- 
 plained, the one regret being that " the gallant spirits 
 who fell were among the bravest and beet." 
 
 Many of the squaws and children fought like the 
 Indians, darting in and out and firing with cool aim 
 from tlie opening of the tepees. Some of these squaws 
 
42 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 followed in the retreat, but there were some still pru- 
 dent enouo^h to remain out of siojlit. While the fight 
 was going on they sang dirges in the minor key, all 
 believing their own last hour had come. Captain 
 Smith was sent round before the fight was ended to 
 count the tepees for the ofl^icial report. The squaws 
 and children fired away at him so fast that he told his 
 wife afterwards, " The first count of those lodges was 
 made pretty quick, as the confounded popping kept 
 up all the time." 
 
 The attention of Captain Yates was attracted to the 
 glittering of something briglit in the underbrush. In 
 a moment a shot from a pistol explained that the glis- 
 tening object was the barrel of a pistol, and lie was 
 v/arned by his soldiers that it was a squaw who had 
 aimed for liim, and was preparing to fire again. He 
 then w^ent round a short distance to investigate, and 
 found a squaw standing in the stream, one leg broken, 
 but holding her pappoose closely to her. The look of 
 malignant hate in her e}' es was something a little worse 
 than any venomous expression he had ever seen. She 
 resisted most vigorously every attempt to capture her, 
 though the agony of her shattered limb must have 
 been extreme. When she found that her pistol was 
 likely to be taken, she threw it far from her in the 
 stream, and fought fiercely again. At last they suc- 
 ceeded in getting her pappoose, and she surrendered. 
 She was carried forward to a tepee, where our surgeon 
 took charge of her. 
 
 As soon as the warriors were driven out, " Romeo," 
 
 I 
 
BATTLE OF THE WASHITA. 43 
 
 wlio spoke the dialect, was sent by the commanding 
 officer to set the fears of the self-imprisoned women at 
 rest, and they were then all gathered in some of the 
 larger lodges. Two of the sqnaws had managed during 
 the melee to mount and reach one of the herds of po- 
 nies, but in the flight, while driving the property off, 
 California Joe had captured women, ponies, and all, 
 and he came into camp swinging his lariat and wildly 
 shouting. 
 
 Before leaving the battle-ground it was necessary, 
 if our troops hoped really to cripple the enemy and 
 prevent further invasion, to destroy the property, for 
 it was impossible to carry away much of what had 
 been captured. The contents of the village were col- 
 lected in heaps and burned. The ponies were crowded 
 together and shot. It took three companies an hour 
 and a half to kill the 800 ponies. This last duty was 
 something the officers never forgot. ]S"othing but the 
 exigencies of war could have driven them to it. There 
 were the several grades of animals as the Indian uses 
 them : the ponies for marching, those for pack-animals 
 to carry the luggage, the hunting-pony, and finally the 
 best, truest, and swiftest, for battle alone. But the 
 value of the animals was not what affected the officers ; 
 it was that, mute and helpless as they were, they must 
 be sacrificed. But they could not be driven away in 
 the deep snow, and with so small a command it was 
 impossible to spare men to even attempt such a rescue. 
 Besides, the presence of such a herd would still more 
 strongly have tempted the constantly menacing Indians 
 
44 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 to follow and recapture so miicli valuable property. 
 There was little time to deliberate, for one of the capt- 
 ured squaws reported, what afterwards proved to be 
 true, that along the Washita, for twelve miles, were 
 scattered many other villages. In this comparatively 
 sheltered valle}^ all the southern tribes had congre- 
 gated. It was a hundred miles outside the reserva- 
 tion, but the timber^ water, and grass were favorable 
 for winter camps. 
 
 There was still one detachment from which no news 
 had come. Men were sent out for two miles in the 
 direction taken by Major Elliott, but no clew to his 
 whereabouts was obtained. Officers and men felt the 
 imminent danger that surrounded them. Nine hun- 
 dred men so far from a base of supplies, exhausted from 
 a lone: fast, and with horses worn out with a difficult 
 march through tlie snow, were in no condition to risk 
 the lives of the whole command in further search for 
 their dead comrades. Not till the regiment returned 
 to the battle-ground, a short time later, were the bodies 
 of the brave officer and his men found. 
 
 In order to escape from the situation, which was 
 most threatening, for the Indians were assembling con- 
 stantly on the bluffs overlooking the command. Gen- 
 eral Custer put on a brave front, and ordered the band 
 to play " Garryowen," and the colors to be unfurled ; 
 the skirmishers were sent on in advance, and the com- 
 mand set out in the direction of the other villages. I 
 have often thought what nerve it required to assume 
 so bold an attitude and march towards an enemy scat- 
 
 i 
 
BATTLE OF THE WASHITA. 45 
 
 tered for twelve miles in advance ; the horses and men 
 so exhausted, the ammunition low, and Indians out- 
 numbering them three to one. The Indians, perceiv- 
 ing not only the determined advance, but appreciating 
 that every sign of past victory was apparent, supposed 
 the triumphant troops were about to march on the vil- 
 lages below, and they fled before the column. After 
 dark the order to countermarch was given, and as rap- 
 idly as possible the tired troopers rode back to the train 
 of supplies that had been endeavoring for days to make 
 its way to the regiment. 
 
 In General Sheridan's letter to General Custer, after 
 the battle, he says, in congratulation : " The Battle of 
 the "Washita Eiver is the most complete and successful 
 of all our private battles, and was fought in such unfav- 
 orable weather and circumstances as to reflect the high- 
 est credit on yourself and regiment." 
 
 The following extracts are from General Custer's let- 
 ters to me : 
 
 The sad side of the story is the killed and wounded. Ma- 
 jor Elhott and six men, who charged after two Indians, and 
 Captain Hamilton, are gone. I had Captain Hamilton's body 
 brought to this point (Beaver Creek, supply depot), Avhere we 
 buried him with full military honors. Eleven companies of 
 cavalry and three of infantry followed him to the grave. The 
 band played the dead-march ; his horse was draped in mourn- 
 ing, carrying his boots, sword, etc., and followed his body. 
 We intend to take the remains back with us when we go to 
 Leavenworth. Colonel Barnitz was wounded by a rifle-ball 
 through his bowels. We all regarded him as mortally wound- 
 ed at first, but he is almost certain to recover now. He acted 
 
46 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 very gallantly, killing two Indians before receiving his wound. 
 "Tom" had a flesh-wound in his hand. 
 
 Fort Cobb, Indian Territory, December I'dth. 
 
 Here we are, after twelve days' marching through snow, mud, 
 rain, and over an almost impassable country, where sometimes 
 we made only eight miles a day. We have been following 
 an Indian trail, and three days ago we overtook the Kiowas ; 
 but in order to get the whole tribe together, as well as not to 
 frighten the Apaches and Comanches, who were also with the 
 Kiowas, we refrained from attacking, but permitted Satanta 
 and Lone Wolf, and many other chiefs and w^arriors, to come 
 into our lines. We find it almost impossible to hurry the 
 Indians much, they have so many powwows and ceremonies 
 before determining upon any important action. 
 
 A few moments ago one of the chiefs. Kicking Bird, came 
 in with the news that the entire Kiowa villasje was hastening 
 in to give themselves up. The Cheyennes and Arapahoes 
 are sick of war since the battle of the Washita. Five miles 
 below the battle-ground, in a deserted Indian village, the bod- 
 ies of a young and beautiful white woman and her babe were 
 found, and I brought them away for burial at Arbuckle. The 
 woman was captured by Indians — I think, near Fort Lyon, as 
 she was recognized by several of our command. 
 
 Fort Cobb, January 2d. 
 
 The last remaining tribes of hostile Indians have sent in 
 their head chiefs to beg pity from us. 
 
 Yesterday a grand council was held near my tent. All the 
 head chiefs of the Apaches, Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, 
 and Arapahoes were assembled. I was alone with them, ex- 
 cept one officer, w ho took stenographic notes of the speeches. 
 A line of sentinels had to be thrown around the council to 
 keep back the observers, as there were crowds of officers, 
 soldiers, and employes of the quartermaster's department. 
 
 1 
 
BATTLE OF THE WASHITA. 47 
 
 The council lasted for hours. The arrogance and pride is 
 whipped out of the Indians; they no longer presume to make 
 demands of us ; on the contrarj^, they have surrendered them- 
 selves into our keeping. We are left to fix the terms upon 
 which they may resume peaceful relations with the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Medicine Bluff Creek, January 14, '69. 
 
 I want to tell you about the courage of one of the guides. 
 Last evening, about two hours before dark, a soldier came 
 running into my tent, and said a man nearly naked was mount- 
 ed on a mule and riding through camp. We rushed out, and 
 sure enough there was the man. " It's Stillwell," we both 
 said simultaneously. He is one of my couriers, sent on the 
 4th with the mail to Camp Supply, and whose return with our 
 mail we were anxiously awaiting. He had just returned, and 
 this was the first we saw of him. I began calling to him in 
 my delicate (?) tones, and we soon had him in my tent. Af- 
 ter pouring a gill of whi.skey down him that I directed the 
 surgeon to administer, he was able to speak. Heavy rains for 
 several days have filled all the streams to overflowing. We 
 are encamped on the south bank of this creek, and it is im- 
 passable at any point except by swimming, and even then at 
 great risk to both horse and rider, as the current is both rapid 
 and powerful. Stillwell, with his party, and their pack-mules 
 bearing the mail, reached the opposite bank about a mile 
 above camp, found the stream impassable for the loaded 
 mules, as they thought ; so he plunged in with his horse and 
 swam the stream, and being nearly frozen with the ice-water, 
 he was making his way to the scouts' fire' as rapidly as possi- 
 ble. He decided that, owing to the rapid current, it was im- 
 possible to bring the mail over till morning, when it was 
 hoped the water would fall and render swimming unneces- 
 sary. 
 
 The others submitted to this decision, but I said I knew 
 
48 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 there were letters for me, and I was going to try for that 
 mail, and read my letters, if I had to put a candle in my pock- 
 et and swim the stream. My tongue fairly rattled off the 
 directions. *' Bishop, bring me a horse ; don't wait to saddle 
 him." I ordered so many men to report to me with lariats, 
 axes, etc. ; to another officer I called out to gallop up the 
 stream, and tell the scouts to bring on the mail until they shall 
 see me on the bank. 
 
 Jumping on Bishop's horse bareback, I forded one branch 
 of the stream, and sought the most available point to cross 
 the mail over the main stream. Some of the officers came 
 down at first and looked on, but it was too cold, and they re- 
 turned to their tent fires. I found a place where we could 
 roll a long log out some distance in the water, and from it a 
 rope could be thrown across to the other bank and secured 
 by the mail-carriers. The men had to strip off their boots 
 and pantaloons, and work in the water. I encouraged them all 
 I could, and had the doctor send them whiskey, which Colonel 
 Cook distributed to them. Tom thought he could make his 
 way over on horseback, and tried it ; but the current carried 
 him and his horse down, and he had to struggle to get back. 
 Finally we got the rope over and secured on both banks. One 
 of the men volunteered to strip off and make his way across, 
 holding on to the rope. In he went, and soon called out "All 
 right" from the other shore. Fastening a mail-bag to his 
 neck, he jumped in, and hard pulling against a roaring tor- 
 rent brouo;ht him across ; strono^ hands were waitino' to lift him 
 and his precious load out of the water. All this was after 
 dark. In again he went and called out, as before, from the 
 other side, " All right." Seven times did that brave man 
 breast the current. Cook held the bottle of whisky ready for 
 him as he came out the last time. "Drink, my man, I don't 
 care if you are drunk a week," was my greeting ; then putting 
 hira on a horse, naked as he was the day he came into the 
 world, I told him to gallop to his tent and wrap up well in 
 
BATTLE OF THE WASHITA. 49 
 
 his blankets. As each mail-bag was landed, Tom, wet and 
 cold, received it, galloped to the adjutant's tent, where it was 
 distributed to the camp as fast as possible. 
 
 Two lodges of the Cheyennes have come in, and they say 
 that the Arapahoes and Cheyennes, whose villages were a 
 hundred miles distant when our council took place the other 
 day, are all moving, but owing to the bad roads and high 
 water they travel slowly. I am as impatient as a crazed ani- 
 mal to have them come in, so that I can start on my home- 
 ward journey rejoicing. 
 
 Tell Eliza I have just the thing for her. One of the squaws 
 among the prisoners had a little pappoose a few nights since, 
 and I intend to bring it home to add to the orphan asylum 
 she always keeps. 
 
 The baby referred to was the child of an Indian prin- 
 cess described in a subsequent chapter. Owing to its 
 lineage, the new-comer was treated with every attention 
 by the prisoners, but it was not so with a poor little 
 infant who was not the descendant of royalty. The 
 mother of the little "forlornity" was killed while fight- 
 ing in the Washita battle, and the captive women were 
 given charge of the baby. They took advantage of 
 every opportunity to drop it in the snow on the march, 
 and our officers had to watch vigilantly to see that the 
 squaws did not accomplish their purpose of leaving it 
 to perish on the way. 
 
 In Camp, Medicine Bluff Creek, 11.30 ym., February 8, '69. 
 It has been several days since I wrote to you. I have made 
 a long march since. I asked the adjutant to write you dur- 
 ing my absence. I did not tell you of my intentions, fearing 
 that you might be anxious ; but I am now back safe and well. 
 4 
 
50 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 AVe Lave been to try and bring in the Indian villages, and 
 have had what some people would term a rough time ; were 
 gone sixteen days, without wagons or tents. Our provisions 
 became exhausted, there was no game, and officers and men 
 subsisted on parched corn and horse-flesh, the latter not even 
 possessing the merit of having been regularly butchered, but 
 died from exhaustion. Scarcely a morsel of it was left un- 
 eaten. You could hardly have helped being amused, even 
 though it was so serious, to have seen the officers sitting 
 around the camp-fire toasting strips of horse-flesh on forked 
 sticks, and then eating it without salt or pepper. I had buffa- 
 lo robes for my bed, slept soundly and comfortably on the 
 ground, with no shelter except the large rubber blanket spread 
 over me from head to foot, and the rain pouring down. One 
 night my pack-mule did not reach camp, and my robes and 
 overcoat were all with it. I had to sleep all night without 
 either, but I enjoyed it all, and often thought of the song : 
 
 "The bold dragoon he has no care 
 As he rides along with his uncombed hair." 
 
 I write briefly, as it is late, and one of the officers going to 
 Leavenworth to-morrow will tell you all the news. 
 
 The Cheyennes have delayed their coming in so long that 
 I cannot get home and take our leave of absence as we hoped. 
 
 In returning here from our late march. General Sheridan 
 was anxious to hear the result of our trip as soon as possible. 
 I took half a dozen men, and, mounted on a good mule, I rode 
 eighty miles in sixteen hours, through mountains, and guided 
 alone by the compass, taking the general and every one else 
 by surprise by my sudden arrival in camp. 
 
^I^^^l 
 
 jfuneral /iBarcb. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 INDIAN TEAILS, COUNCILS, AND CxVPTIVES. 
 
 Medicine Bluff Creek, I. T., February 17, 1868. 
 Yesterday we made peace with the Kiowas, and released 
 their two head chiefs, Satanta and Lone Wolf. We are now 
 waiting the arrival of the train with supplies from Arbuckle, 
 when we will at once bid a final adieu to this part of the 
 country, and set out in a westerly direction, intending to 
 treat with the Cheyennes at some point west of here, then 
 turn our faces northward to Camp Supply. 
 
 Medicine Bluff Creek, February 20th. 
 
 It is a bright and pleasant morning, such as we often had 
 in Texas. The climate here is lovely, seldom a day that 
 even a light coat is uncomfortable. We have mistletoe here 
 as plentifully as in Texas. The scenery is sublime — pictu- 
 resque in the extreme ; the climate all that can be desired — 
 not surpassed, I imagine, by Italy ; and such lovely sunsets ! 
 ... I wish you could see with what awe I am held by the 
 Indians. A sound drubbing, you know, always produces 
 this. They have given me a name, Mon-to-e-te, which means 
 Strong Arm. 
 
 I cannot write but a few lines this evening, as I am now 
 using the last piece of candle which can be obtained any- 
 
52 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 where in camp. So bountifully are we supplied with Gov-» 
 ernment stores that not an officer here, from General Sheri- 
 dan down, has any light; nor have they had for several 
 nights, nor will we have until the arrival of the train of 
 supplies. How we shall spend the long evenings I do not 
 know — sleep, I presume. 
 
 As soon as the train of supplies arrives, I expect to move 
 west about one hundred miles, through the Washita mount- 
 ains, to see if the Cheyennes are in that vicinity ; then I turn 
 northward to Camp Supply. Tell Eliza I am tired of living 
 on roast horse and parched corn, as we have had to, and I 
 will soon be at home, and want soup every day. 
 
 General Sheridan hastens to Camp Supply, and will start 
 with a train of supplies to meet me somewhere in the vicin- 
 ity of the Washita battle-field. You see I am telling you 
 our plans, when not a single officer of this command dreams 
 of our destination, and all are wondering when we are going. 
 I am telling you just as if I were with you. Look on the 
 map and find a point on Cache Creek about one hundred 
 miles due west from Fort Arbuckle. That is where we 
 now are. When we move it will be nearly due south-west, 
 following the Red River. There we expect to accomplish the 
 object of our western detour, and will then be nearly on a 
 line due south from Fort Dodge. I am thus minute in order 
 that you may see what a vast extent of country we will have 
 visited since the beginning of my experience on the plains. 
 
 Once back to Camp Supply, nothing further can be ac- 
 complished for some time ; our horses will be worn out, 
 many of them now being unable to proceed that far. 
 
 The horses are being fed on grass alone, running loose 
 night and day. They come in at the sound of water-call as 
 regularly and promptly as if led. The men are living on 
 half rations of bread. 
 
 No officers' stores for the coming march. I intend to 
 have driven along with us one hundred and fifty head of 
 
INDIAN TEAILS, COUNCILS, AND CAPTIVES. 53 
 
 Texas cattle, so that we will not be compelled to eat horse- 
 meat again. You know how Texas cattle can travel, equal to 
 any horse. I also have plenty of salt, so my command will 
 not suffer. 
 
 General Sheridan has been in on my bed talking over our 
 plans. He said again, for the fiftieth time, that I could go 
 east at the earliest possible moment; but I tell him, as I al- 
 ways have, that I would not go till the work was all done. 
 
 Last night, a few moments after I had laid away my un- 
 finished letter and writing materials, and was sitting alone 
 in my Sibley tent, I heard the clatter of several feet coming, 
 as if horsemen were approaching. It was bright moonlight, 
 and I stood peering out of a small opening in the tent try- 
 ing to divine who it could be entering camp at that hour of 
 the night. 
 
 Three muffled figures, human in shape, mounted upon 
 mules and leading two pack-muks, rode up to my tent and 
 dismounted. I could not recognize them, but said, " Come 
 in, who is it ?" " Why, general, we have the mail," was the 
 reply. " Hurrah ! is that you, Jack ?" 
 
 (Jack Corbin, one of my most reliable scouts, whom I sent 
 to Camp Supply a month ago.) 
 
 If they had been my brothers 1 could not have greeted 
 them more warmly. Shaking hands all around and asking 
 them to sit down by my shee-t-iron stove and warm (we are 
 having a terrible norther), I called the adjutant to distribute 
 the mail they brought. Why was I so glad to see these 
 daring men? — not purely for themselves, though they are 
 good, very good men, but a bird whispered in my ear that 
 there were letters for ma I could have hugged them when 
 I thought that they had braved the perils of two hundred 
 miles, through the Indian country, in order to bring to us, 
 'way out here, news from our loved ones. 
 
 I was right in thinking I had letters in the bag. There 
 were eight. The last was dated the 12th of February, and I 
 
54 FOLLOwma the guidon. 
 
 received it in ten days from date. Is that not remarkable 
 time for courier mail ? It has made the quickest time that 
 any document, official or private, has reached this command. 
 Nothing seems to be a sufficient obstacle to prevent our 
 letters coming. It often happens that General Sheridan 
 desires to send off couriers post-haste with important de- 
 spatches and cannot burden him with mail matter, so no one 
 is informed of his going ; but he never fails to quietly notify 
 me, so that I can get a letter to you by every opportunity. 
 
 Medicine Bluff Creek, March 1, 1869. 
 
 This is the last day of our sojourn here. In fact, it was 
 to have been the day of our departure, but the Quartermas- 
 ter and Commissary departments have disappointed us, and I 
 am forced to wait another day for supplies. My command 
 has been living on quarter rations of bread for ten days. 
 General Sheridan has been worried almost to distraction by 
 this cause. He went away with the impression, from what 
 he heard, that we were going to have a large and heavily 
 loaded train. I have received advance lists of all they con- 
 tain, and I can barely get ten days' rations of bread for my 
 command, and about fifteen rations of other articles. 
 
 The troops remaining here have scarcely any commissary 
 stores, but they cannot starve, though compelled to live on 
 beef alone : but even then they will have no salt. I wish 
 some of those who are responsible for this state of affairs, 
 and who are living in luxury and comfort, could be made to 
 share at least the discomforts and privations of troops serv- 
 ing in the field. 
 
 I am going to march over a portion of the country to 
 which every one is a stranger, and the distance unknown. 
 I wrote you, however, our proposed movements. I shall be 
 glad to get on the move again. I have remained in camp 
 until I am tired of it. I seldom care to stay in one camp 
 
INDIAN TKAILS, COUNCILS, AND CAPTIVES. 55 
 
 over two or three days. I am almost as nomadic in my pro- 
 clivities as the Indians themselves. 
 
 I send you a likeness which it may not occur to you is 
 the picture of your husband. How do you like the beard? 
 The costume is a very fine one, made of dressed buckskin 
 and fringed. The cap is the one without a visor, that I 
 have worn all winter. Frank, the tailor, is the maker of the 
 suit.* One of the officers said that he thought you would 
 not recognize it, but would think that it was the man from 
 California, the great hunter, who gave the President the 
 bear-skin chair. 
 
 You would not imagine that I was writing amid frequent 
 interruptions. The officers are constantly coming in inquir- 
 ing about preparations for the march. Several Indian chiefs 
 have been in to "talk" — to them I talk, and continue my 
 writing at the same time, an interpreter being present. I 
 send you a likeness of four of my scouts. The one on the 
 right is " California Joe," mentioned in General Sheridan^s 
 and my despatches. He is the odd genius, so full of origi- 
 nality, and constantly giving utterance to quaint remarks. 
 He has been everywhere west of the Mississippi, clear to the 
 Pacific coast. He has not seen any of his relations for fif- 
 
 * The morning that this letter came, enclosing the little tintype 
 of General Custer with a full beard and a buckskin costume, 1 had 
 a visit from the tailor's wife, to whom I have referred in Boots 
 and Saddles as old "Trouble agin," because it was the preface to 
 all her speeches to me. She entered with an open letter and a 
 tintype of the soldier husband whom after every beating she loved 
 more fondly. 
 
 He was dressed precisely as the general was, as I discovered 
 from the picture that came in my letter later in the day. This 
 mystified me for a time, but I found, after General Custer's return, 
 that Frank, not explaining the exact reason, had borrowed the 
 buckskin suit, hurried to have himself tintyped as the Great North 
 American Scout, and sent off liis letter to show Mrs. Frank what 
 a smart soldier she had for a spouse. 
 
56 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 teen years, and when asked the other day why he never vis- 
 ited home, replied, " Oh, to tell the truth, gineral, our family 
 never was very peart for caring much about each other." 
 
 The third scout in the group is my interpreter, a young 
 Mexican. Do you notice his long matted hair? Barnum 
 would make a fortune if he had him. His hair never made 
 the acquaintance of a comb, and his face is almost equally 
 unacquainted with water. Yet he is a very good and de- 
 serving person, in his way. We have a great deal of sport 
 with him. I threaten to put kerosene oil on his hair and 
 set it on fire. He speaks several of the Indian languages, 
 and is very useful. The fourth in the group is Jack Cor- 
 bin, one of my most reliable scouts and couriers. He has 
 made frequent trips to Camp Supply and back with the mail. 
 
 Washita Battle-ground, March 24, 1869. 
 
 We arrived here yesterday, having marched three hundred 
 and fourteen miles. I will rest two days and then start with 
 my entire command for Camp Supply. 
 
 I have been successful in my campaign against the Chey- 
 ennes. I outmarched them, outwitted them at their own 
 game, proved to them they were in my power, and could and 
 would have annihilated the entire village of over two hun- 
 dred lodges but for two reasons. 1st. I desired to obtain 
 the release of the two white women held captive by them, 
 which I could not have done had I attacked. 2d. If I had 
 attacked them, those who escaped, and absent portions of 
 the tribe also, w^ould have been on the war-path all summer, 
 and we would have obtained no rest. These reasons alone 
 influenced me to pursue the course I have, and now, when I 
 can review the whole matter coolly, my better judgment 
 and my humanity tell me I have acted wisely. You cannot 
 appreciate how delicately I was situated. I counselled Avith 
 no one, but when we overtook the Cheyenne village, and 
 saw it in our power to annihilate them, my command, from 
 
INDIAN TRAILS, COUNCILS, AND CAPTIVES. 57 
 
 highest to lowest, desired bloodshed. They were eager for 
 revenge, and could not comprehend my conduct. They dis- 
 approved and criticised it. I paid no heed, but followed the 
 dictates of my own judgment — the judgment upon which 
 my beloved commander (General Sheridan) said he relied for 
 the attainment of the best results. He had authorized me 
 to do as I pleased, fight or not. And now my most bitter 
 enemies cannot say that I am either blood-thirsty or possess- 
 ed of an unworthy ambition. 
 
 Had I given the signal to attack, officers and men would 
 have hailed it with a shout of gratification. I braved their 
 opinion, and acted in opposition to their wishes, but to-day 
 not one but says I was right, and any other course would 
 have been disastrous. Many have come to me and confess- 
 ed their error. The two women are bright, cultivated, and 
 good-looking. 
 
 I now have the Cheyenne chiefs prisoners, and intend to 
 hold them as such until their tribe comes in. I think we 
 have rendered them sick and tired of war. We are delight- 
 ed to find a large mail here. The paymaster is at Camp 
 Supply waiting to pay the troops. One-half the command 
 is dismounted, and what few horses we have could not go 
 out again for two months. 
 
 General Custer refers in the letters written to me, 
 from which quotations have just been made, to the res- 
 cue of the two white women. It was brought about 
 after unending parleyings, delays, and excuses on the 
 part of the Indians, by threatening to hang the three 
 chiefs, Big Head, Fat Bear, and Dull Knife, who had 
 been captured by our people with a view to holding 
 them until all the white captives then with the hostiles 
 were released. Indian messengers were sent to the 
 
68 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 tribe to report the danger to their chiefs, and finally, 
 after long and weary watching of the hills over which 
 the detachment from the village must come, a group 
 of horsemen appeared. While they traversed several 
 miles that separated them from our troops, the whole 
 command watched with breathless interest. The young- 
 brother of a captured woman had been with the com> 
 mand all winter, and moving daily among our men, had 
 kept their sympathies alive to the atrocity that had 
 been perpetrated. All the troopers were watching this 
 half -grown man, suddenly matured by anxiety and 
 trouble, as he kept his eyes on the approaching Ind- 
 ians. The hearts of the soldiers beat faster and faster 
 as the lad grew paler and more anxious. " The bravest 
 are the tenderest," and that day proved it, for our 
 rough men had scarcely any thouglit but for the suf- 
 fering youth among them. Finally the Indians came 
 near enough for an officer to perceive with his glass 
 that there were two on one pony A little nearer and 
 they reported that they were women. The poor boy 
 had no reason to be sure that one of them was his sis- 
 ter. To the Indian his captive is nameless. The chiefs 
 had confessed that they had two white squaws, but by 
 no means in their power could our people ascertain 
 who they w^ere. Finally the two figures descended 
 from the pony, left the Indians, who were at a halt, 
 and began to walk towards the waiting troops. 
 
 General Caster, by the aid of his powerful field-glass, 
 told young Brewster that one of the figures coming 
 was short and stout, the other taller. As soon as any 
 
INDIAN TRAILS, COUNCILS, AND CAPTIVES. 69 
 
 observation was made by General Custer regarding 
 what his glass revealed, one listening soldier told it to 
 another, and a tremor of excitement spread from one 
 end of the long watching line to the other. As Brew- 
 ster looked through the glass lent to him and saw the 
 women, he began to believe that one of them was his 
 sister, as she was of about her height, and he implored 
 General Custer for permission to go to her. It was 
 hard to refuse, but he was obliged to do so, fearing 
 the boy's horror at the change in her would make him 
 forget the necessity for caution, and attempt revenge 
 before the prisoners had really reached our lines. 
 
 The regiment of Kansas Volunteers had been or- 
 ganized to revenge some of the outrages to the border 
 people, and with the hope of rescuing white prisoners, 
 so General Custer gave them the privilege of first greet- 
 ing their two States women. Three ranking officers 
 went forward to meet the poor creatures, who, even 
 then, except for their white skin, could hardly be dis- 
 tinguished from the Indians, so strange was their dress. 
 Hardly had the officers advanced a quarter of the way 
 when the waiting lad darted from his place beside Gen- 
 eral Custer, and sped on before every one until he had 
 reached the women. As he clasped the taller of the 
 two in his arms the soldiers knew that the sister for 
 whom he had suffered so much was restored to him. 
 The officers, in telling this story to us afterwards, al- 
 ways hurried over this part ; they could not speak 
 calmly. 
 
 They all crowded round the poor girls, eager to 
 
60 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 shake their hands and welcome them ; but the most 
 daring, the most valiant among them, did not at- 
 tempt to conceal the tears that rolled down their 
 cheeks. Men who had laid the fair flower of chivalry, 
 the loved comrade. Captain Hamilton, in the ground 
 only so recently with tearless silence, now wept over 
 the two captives. The longer they looked upon 
 the poor creatures the harder it became to control 
 their emotions. The young faces of the two, who 
 not a year before were bright, happy women, were 
 now worn with privation and exposure, and haggard 
 with the terrible insults of their captors, too dread- 
 ful to be chronicled here. The rudely cut and 
 scanty garment that barely covered them was made 
 from flour sacks bearing the brand that our govern- 
 ment purchases, thus proving that the Indians who 
 captured them had been drawing rations from the 
 United States Indian agency at the time. They had 
 Indian leggings and moccasins, their braided hair and 
 arms encircled with spiral wire, their fingers covered 
 with brass rings, their necks with beads, were evi- 
 dences that the Indians, by thus adorning their prison- 
 ers, hoped to mollify the wrath of the white man. 
 Fortunately, the one" woman on the expedition, who 
 was General Custer's cook, and from whose temper, 
 as I have elsewhere related, her soldier husband so 
 often suffered, now forgot the rages and furies of her 
 daily life, and gave the poor released creatures some 
 of her clothing, clad in which they left in charge of 
 the now happy brother for their homes when the first 
 
INDIAN TRAILS, COUNCILS, AND CAPTIVES. 61 
 
 wagon-train coming with supplies went back to Camp 
 Supply. 
 
 The story of their life among the Indians was one of 
 barbarous treatment and brutality ; one had no knowl- 
 edge that the other was a prisoner, as they had been 
 captured separately, until they met in an Indian vil- 
 lage, and after being traded about from one chief to 
 another, they at last came to be owned by the same 
 warrior. While together, they planned an escape. 
 They did not know where they were, but stole out at 
 night, and, guided by the stars, started north. With 
 great joy they at last reached a wagon-road lately trav- 
 elled. In the midst of this delight a bullet whistled 
 by them, and soon they saw their owner in hot pur- 
 suit. 'New insults were inflicted, and more laborious 
 work was loaded on the two after their return to the 
 village. The conduct of the squaws, always jealous of 
 white women, was brutality itself. The chief finally 
 sold the two apart. With the terrible physical labor 
 required of them, in addition to revolting indignities, 
 it was a wonder they lived. They were almost starved, 
 some days only being allowed a morsel of mule-meat, 
 not over an inch square at most, for an entire day. 
 The squaws beat them with clubs when the Indians 
 were absent, and once one of them was felled to the 
 ground by a blow from these same jealous fiends. 
 
 After all this dreadful life, it would seem as if the 
 two women might have looked for immunity from 
 future trouble, but in one instance it was not to be. 
 Two years after their rescue, two of our ofiicers were 
 
62 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 riding past a ranch and saw a little Indian boy play- 
 ing before tlie lionse. Seeing him, they were too much 
 interested not to inquire who lived there, and found, 
 when the woman of the house came to the door, that 
 it was one of the captives, whose face, owing to the 
 tragic circumstances of the release, was fixed indelibly 
 on their memory. It was impossible for her to resist 
 detaining them a few moments, recalling again her 
 gratitude to the troops for her rescue. When they 
 asked if all went well with her, she could not help 
 confiding to them the fact that the husband whom she 
 had married after her return, instead of trying to make 
 her forget the misery through which she had passed, 
 often recalled all her year of captivity with bitterness, 
 and was disposed to upbraid her, as if she had been 
 in the least responsible for the smallest of her mis- 
 fortunes. 
 
 In the many letters which I have looked over to 
 obtain my few notes of a winter that was so eventful, 
 I have found only occasional allusions to the hardships 
 undergone; but, little by little, references were made 
 after the return of the command that gave some idea 
 of the self-denial and self-control which every one had 
 to exercise. If afterwards any one exhibited the slight- 
 est sign of obstinacy, some teasing voice was sure to 
 pipe up and say, " What can you expect of a man who 
 has dined on mule-steaks ?" General Custer could not 
 eat mule or horse when they were all reduced to that 
 desperate strait, but in his Imnger he told me he used 
 to think that he might, to save himself from starva- 
 
INDIAN TRAILS, COrNCILS, AND CAPTIVES. 63 
 
 tion, make up his mind to eat his dogs' ears ; and as 
 they trotted along in front of him, quite happy over 
 their mule breakfast, he looked longingly at these de- 
 voted friends, but with a hope that he might be spared 
 the necessity of mutilating them. 
 
 The soldiers bartered for everything. One came to 
 General Caster to beg to trade some tobacco for a loaf 
 of bread. He received the half of the last loaf, but the 
 tobacco was declined, as it was not the habit of Gener- 
 al Custer to use it. That night the remaining half of 
 the loaf was stolen. A little sack of oats was carefully 
 treasured in General Custer's tent for his favorite horse, 
 and the hungry animals left loose to pick what grass 
 they could under the edges of the snow, came at night 
 sniffing and snorting around the oats in hungry search. 
 The horses grew so expert in foraging for themselves 
 that they learned to put one hoof on a fallen sapling 
 and tear off the bark with their teeth, as a dog holds 
 and picks a bone. 
 
 It was on that campaign that I first heard of a sack 
 made of a buffalo-skin to sleep in, and not even then 
 should I have learned that such an invention was 
 known, had not the handsome Adonis who used this 
 clever device been unmercifully teased for indulging in 
 so much luxury. 
 
 Indeed, it was mostly owang to the tormenting spirit 
 of raillery, that is the characteristic of officer and sol- 
 dier, that many of the hardships endured came to 
 my knowledge at all. When the attention of a group 
 was called to some comical situation, reminding the 
 
64 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 bystanders of some desperate plight, either of danger or 
 deprivation, in which an officer had been placed, I had 
 an insight into what had been endured by them all. 
 
 I suppose that I never should have heard of several 
 incidents of the winter, had it not been that the Kansas 
 Volunteers afforded some amusement to our men, from 
 the fact that they, though brave men, were inexperi- 
 enced campaigners, and their complaints did not escape 
 our men, who considered themselves scarred veterans 
 in comparison. For years, if any one said, talking of a 
 hoped-for leave of absence, or describing some one who 
 was lonely, " I can see home just as plain," I knew that 
 it referred to a volunteer who was heard by some of 
 our men crying with homesickness, and confiding his 
 woes to his " bunkey." At heart our men were sorry 
 for them, as there were some pitiful instances of nos- 
 talgia among them ; but when they whined like chil- 
 dren they were apt to encounter ridicule. 
 
 At the time when the supplies were getting low and 
 half-rations were issued, and still tlie expedition pur- 
 sued a fresh trail, instead of returning to the wagon 
 train, the commanding officer ordered the band to play 
 the regimental tunes, " Garryowen," " The Girl I left 
 behind Me," etc., after camp was reached, in the hope 
 of raising the spirits of the men. Evidently the soul 
 of the Kansas Volunteers was not attuned to music 
 when assailed by the pangs of hunger, for they were 
 overheard to grumble and complain that " Custer fed 
 them on one hardtack a day and the ' Arkansaw Trav- 
 eller.' " 
 
INDIAN TRAILS, COUNCILS, AND CAPTIVES. 65 
 
 The story of the military part of the rest of the win- 
 ter, unmarked by any battle, but full of parleyings, 
 ruses, subterfuges, councils, and promises of peace on 
 the part of the Indians, who eventfully did come to 
 terms, has been much better told by another pen than 
 mine. I needed only to outline the battle of the Wash- 
 ita, that I might introduce the prisoners who formed 
 such a feature of our life during the following summer 
 at Fort Hays, and explain how it came to pass that the 
 regiment was able to have a permanent camp instead 
 of being all off on a campaign at once. 
 6 
 
asoots an& SaDDles. 
 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN CAMP ON BIG CREEK. 
 
 Early in the spring tlie Seventh Cavalry found 
 themselves again in Kansas, and with the cheering pros- 
 pect of some degree of quiet. The same Big Creek on 
 which they had been located two summers before was 
 chosen for a camp ; access was had to the regimental 
 baggage, which had been stored, and every one pre- 
 pared to make himself comfortable. Some of the offi- 
 cers took leave of absence, and after the year's separa- 
 tion from their families the rejoicing was great. Two 
 of our number brought their wives back to camp. 
 Others were deprived of that pleasure, because their 
 wives could not endure the hardships, or their children 
 were too young to bear the exposure. There was great 
 exchanging of confidences concerning the experiences 
 of the ofiicers on their leaves, and much unreserved 
 narrating of domestic scenes ; for, full of railing as every 
 one was, a man's family life Avas sacred, and he felt that 
 he could speak of it freely ; so it was indeed as if we 
 were one family. Those who went home amused us, on 
 their return, by their stories of how they had surprised 
 the home people — stealing in at the backdoor, catch- 
 ing up their wives and swinging them in air, while the 
 frightened servants, hearing the screams, ran from the 
 
IN CAMP ON BIG CREEK- 67 
 
 kitchen with hands covered with flour, and the coach- 
 man from the stable, still holding his ciirrj-comb, all of 
 them ready to defend their lady against the imagined 
 burglar or assassin. One of our number reached home 
 in the evening while his little son was sleeping. He 
 was awakened in the morning by the vigorous applica- 
 tion of a pair of little fists on his face, and an angry 
 demand from the little fellow, accompanied by some 
 terrible language that the youngster had learned at 
 the cavalry stables, to "get out of his mother's bed." 
 He had, in the year that had elapsed, entirely for- 
 gotten how his father looked, and not knowing he 
 was coming, he did not suspect the identity of the in- 
 truder. 
 
 Those ofiicers who had no families were busy over 
 piles of love-letters awaiting them from the East, and 
 sought in vain places where they might read in peace, 
 for those who were not so fortunate as to have a sweet- 
 heart rallied the lucky ones, and interfered as much as 
 possible with the envied enjoyment. Still, it is a well- 
 known fact that a soldier is usually a lover. The old 
 saw, " Love rules the camp, the court, the grove," is 
 one that fits all nations and all eras. Officers are pret- 
 ty fearless about their devotion ; if not avowing it 
 openly, still wearing all sorts of love-pledges — chains 
 and lockets which with the open-throated shirt in a 
 campaign are easily seen, or keepsakes on the watch- 
 chain : perhaps a curious ring which could not be mis- 
 taken for a man's under any circumstances, or other 
 such things. I have even seen a bangle made large 
 
QS FOLLOWING THE GnDON. 
 
 enough to encircle tlie arm, and locked on, of course, 
 bj fair hands. A Catholic officer often wore an Ag- 
 nus Del, and I believe that many a man would have 
 disfigured himself with an ear-ring if the girl he left 
 behind him liad asked to pierce his ear for that pur- 
 pose. They did not hesitate to carry their sweet- 
 hearts' pictures in their inner pockets, and around the 
 camp-fire take them out and look at the loved faces 
 by the firelight the last thing before sleeping. Imag- 
 ine, then, with all these officers, most of whom were in 
 love with women, either their wives or the girls they 
 hoped to make their wives, what a time of rejoicing it 
 was when partial civilization was again reached, and the 
 cars of the railroad were almost in sight, meaning to 
 them an opportunity to go East — or failing that, at least 
 a daily mail! Every one's heart seemed to be merry; 
 the sound of laughter and song rang out from the 
 tents, and the soldiers danced in the company streets 
 to the music of an Irish bagpipe (differing somewhat 
 from the Scotch instrument, but with just as merry 
 music) that belonged to a recruit newly arrived. 
 
 Our summer camp was between two and three miles 
 from Fort Hays, on Big Creek. Sometimes the stream 
 ran along for a distance with no timber or underbrush 
 to border it, but the place selected for our tents was 
 under a fringe of good sized cotton -wood -trees. It 
 was most gratifying to have this protection, and after 
 a hot ride on the arid plain we came under the boughs 
 and saw, with a real home feeling, the white tents 
 gleaming in the shade. All about us the undulating 
 
IN CAMP ON BIG CREEK. 69 
 
 country stretched its naked, glaring surface ; not even 
 clumps of bushes survived the scorching sun or the 
 fierce tornadoes of wind that swept unchecked over 
 the great unbroken stretch of country. 
 
 Professor Hayden so clearly explains the peculiar 
 formation of the plains that I here insert a few para- 
 graphs from his account of the matter : 
 
 We beUeve that at the close of the cretaceous period the 
 ocean rolled uninterruptedly across the area now occupied 
 by the Rocky Mountain Ranges. Near the close of the cre- 
 taceous era the surface had reached an elevation so great as 
 to form long lines of separation between the waters of the 
 Atlantic, on the east, and those of the Pacific on the west ; 
 and thus this great water-shed began to rise above the sur- 
 rounding country. Then, also, began the existence of the 
 first of that series of fresh-water lakes which we now know 
 was a most prominent feature in the physical geography of 
 this country during the tertiary period. 
 
 During the cretaceous period there was a gradual, slow 
 elevation of the whole country west of the Mississippi ; that 
 about the close of that period the crust of the earth had 
 been strained to its utmost tension, and long lines of fract- 
 ure commenced, which formed the nucleus of our present 
 mountain ranges. At the close of the cretaceous period, in 
 the early days of the tertiary, when the crust had been ele- 
 vated to its utmost tension, it broke sometimes in long lines 
 of fracture, which gave birth to these lofty, continuous ranges 
 along the eastern portion of the Rocky Mountains, as the 
 Wind River, Big Horn, Black Hills, or the basaltic ridges 
 formed by outbursts of melted matter arranged in series 
 of sharp peaks or sierras. 
 
 It is possible to trace the growth of the continent, step by 
 step, from the purely marine waters of the cretaceous ocean 
 
70 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 and the period when the mountain ranges were elevated in 
 well-defined lines above the waters, causing the ocean to re- 
 cede to the eastward on the one side, and to the westward 
 on the other. The Rocky Mountains formed immense water- 
 sheds, which gave birth to innumerable fresh-v/ater streams, 
 which fed those great tertiary lakes along the eastern slope, 
 two out of the four or five, of great extent. We believe that 
 one, the great Lignite basin, extends as far southward as 
 California, possibly, westward over the mountains to Utah, 
 and northward probably to the Arctic Sea, interrupted by 
 the upheaval of mountain ranges. 
 
 It is chiefly remarkable for its fossil flora of fan-palms 
 and other tropical plants, which points to the conclusion 
 that along the shores of this great lake grew luxuriant for- 
 ests like those in Central America and Brazil. 
 
 "We who roamed the vast plains had every reason to 
 corroborate all the investigations that the scientists 
 made. The great trackless waste of land all about our 
 camp was like nothing but the sea, and the rolling 
 country we rode over day after day was as if the earth 
 had been indented by waves of a powerful ocean. We 
 came sudde"nly, on our marches, upon canons that were 
 sharp fissures in the earth extending for many miles. 
 These chasms, in an otherwise comparatively level sur- 
 face, could mean nothing but cracks in the cooling 
 earth's crust, through which a mighty rush of water 
 had once plunged, deepening and widening the gorge. 
 If we halted for luncheon, and spread our simple meal 
 on the stunted grass, we could reach about us and pick 
 up the vertebrae of fish that had once glided through 
 water where we then sat. 
 
IN CAMP ON BIG CREEK. 71 
 
 In geological research the officers of our army have 
 been of incalculable use to their Government. They 
 explored the Indian infested countries long before the 
 colleges or Government sent out scientists for the pur- 
 pose. The remains of fishes, serpents, birds, crocodiles, 
 lizards, turtles, bats, etc., were gathered by our officers 
 and sent to the East. It was a strange sensation to 
 find ourselves monarchs in a land which once was 
 given up to all forms of vegetable and animal life, 
 many varieties of which are now forever gone from 
 the earth. The moss-agate was as common as the peb- 
 bles along a country road, and we broke off large flakes 
 of rough surface to find incased in its transparent tomb 
 exquisite sprays of delicate foliage, which reproduced 
 in stone the fairy, fragile flora of a by-gone time. 
 There was nothing remaining of that time of exquisite 
 herbage. The dull sage -bush, or grease -root, or the 
 sparse buffalo-grass, were all that the sun spared from 
 its scorching rays. 
 
 The understanding was that we should have a per- 
 manent camp during the summer. By that it was 
 meant that the regiment would have a headquarters in 
 the field, and scouting parties be sent out from it. As 
 we were so near a post, it was not difficult to get all 
 the canvas we wanted. Our regimental quartermaster 
 made requisition for the tents, which would be return- 
 ed to the post in the autumn. We felt very rich, for, 
 by borrowing from our Uncle Sam, we had as many 
 rooms as some houses have — that is, calling each tent 
 a room. The sitting-room was a hospital tent which 
 
72 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 is perhaps fourteen by sixteen. It was clean, and had 
 no association of illness to keep one awake with imag- 
 inings at night. These huge tents are really designed 
 for hospital purposes, but, fortunately, I never knew 
 them to be used except in one epidemic of cholera. 
 In the few cases of illness or injury occurring among 
 the soldiers the patients were sent to a garrison hospi- 
 tal, for most posts have a regular building for this pur- 
 pose. Opening out at the rear of our sitting-room was 
 our own room, a wall tent ten by twelve. In pitching 
 these tents General Custer had an eye for a tree with 
 wide-spreading branches to shade us, and in order to 
 utilize it he put the tents on the side bank running 
 down to the stream. Of course it was necessary to 
 build up a rough embankment of stones and earth, and 
 that left the tent floor at the rear almost up to the 
 limbs of the tree. We then thought how foolish of 
 us not to continue the floor around the tree. The com- 
 pany carpenter built such a comfortable little platform, 
 with a railing, that we felt as if we had a real gallery 
 to our canvas house ; and sitting out there, Tom smok- 
 ing, I sewing, and General Custer reading, we imagined 
 Big Creek to be the Hudson, and the cotton -wood, 
 whose foliage is anything but thick, to be a graceful 
 maple or a stately, branching elm. Our brother Tom, 
 while he enjoyed our arbor, refused to call it anything 
 but the " beer-garden " — but calling names did not de- 
 stroy our deliglit. The floors of the tents were an es- 
 pecial luxury, for every board in that region counted, 
 as it was difiicult to get lumber. The cotton -wood 
 
IN CAMP ON BIG CREEK. 73 
 
 warped before it was fairly nailed down, and a pine 
 plank even now looks to me like rare wealtli. 
 
 The canvas of our rear tent was cut and bound, and 
 a roller of wood to keep it down in wind-storms was 
 sewed in, so that when tied up it left a broad window, 
 seven feet wide, opening on the platform and giving a 
 fine circulation of air. A huge tarpaulin of very thick 
 canvas, used to cover grain and military stores, for 
 which there was not room in the storehouses, was 
 spread over the large tent and extended far in front, 
 so that we had a wide porch, under which we sat most 
 of the time. 
 
 It was with great relief that I saw the holes dug in 
 which to sink the poles at the four corners of each 
 tent. These were usually young saplings with a notch 
 near the top ; and across the two on either side was 
 laid another long pole, to which the ropes were lashed 
 so securely that no storm tore the tent down during all 
 the summer. To have a whole summer of relief from 
 fear that our cotton-house would blow over w^as a great 
 boon, for a Kansas wind can do much havoc with can- 
 vas, and it is not comfortable to lie watching a swaying 
 ridge-pole in a storm and imagine yourself crushed in 
 its downfall. 
 
 We had, of course, only the barest necessities in the 
 tents — a rude bunk for a bed, a stool, with tin wash- 
 basin, a bucket for water, and a little shaving-glass for 
 a mirror. The carpenter had nailed together some 
 benches and a cumbrous table. These, with our camp- 
 chairs, were our furniture. There was a monotonous 
 
74: FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 similarity of construction in the chairs made by the 
 carpenter. Each consisted of one long board rounded 
 at the top, to wliich another sliorter board was nailed 
 for the seat, and another put on as a brace at the back. 
 One of our friends had a chair of this pattern, and as 
 her husband, coming home to the tent at dusk, saw this 
 white -pine board gleaming through the twilight, he 
 called out, merrily : " If you do ' turn up your toes to 
 the daisies,' we can just set this up at your head, with 
 the inscription, 'Died so-and-so'; it would make a 
 beautiful tombstone." They were truly sepulchral- 
 looking, but we were not inclined to be over-critical of 
 the style. It never occurred to us that we wanted any- 
 thing more; for if all the camp-chairs, benches, and 
 stools were occupied, the young officers threw them- 
 selves down on the buffalo -robes, or smoked sitting, 
 d la Turque, on a blanket spread under the fly. Sev- 
 eral Indian articles of luxury had been given us, out 
 of which we had much comfort. They consisted of 
 a light framework of interwoven willow withes about 
 the width of a chair-back, and were called head-rests. 
 These were laid on the ground, raised at the farther 
 end at a gentle inclination, and strongly propped at the 
 back. They could be rolled into small compass for car- 
 rying, and were vastly superior in strength to anything 
 we could buy. When the officers reclined on these 
 primitive but comfortable affairs, smoking, they looked 
 so at ease that we addressed them as " bashi-bazouk," 
 or pacha, or by some Eastern term that suggested hab- 
 its of luxurious indulgence. 
 
IN CAMP ON BIG CREEK. 75 
 
 On the right of our tent began the others — one for 
 guests, another for the dining-tent, then the round Sib- 
 ley, that General Custer had used during the winter, 
 for the cook tent. This must have been modelled af- 
 ter an Indian tepee, as it looked much like it. At that 
 time Sibley tents were not in use, but why, we could 
 never understand, as the wind had so little purchase 
 upon them, finding no corners to toy with, that this 
 circular house could almost defy a hurricane. The fire 
 was built in the centre, and the smoke escaped through 
 an aperture at the top, which could be half covered, 
 according to the direction of the wind, by pulling ropes 
 attached to a little fly. The Indians had the same 
 arrangement, only they managed the opening a little 
 better. 
 
 [N'ext to the Sibley Avas a veritable tepee, that Gen- 
 eral Custer had brought from an abandoned Indian 
 village. It was made of tanned buffalo skins sewed 
 together with leather thongs, and stretched over a 
 framework of thirty-six lodge-poles. These poles are 
 fastened together at the top, and extend out in all 
 directions above the hide covering. They are a pre- 
 cious possession in the eyes of an Indian, as he is often 
 obliged to travel hundreds of miles to procure them, in 
 the heavily timbered part of the country, where strong, 
 light, flexible saplings can be cut. The buffalo hides 
 were covered with rude drawings representing the his- 
 tory of the original owner, his prowess in killing Ind- 
 ians at war with his tribe, the taking of the white man's 
 scalp, or the stealing of ponies. Instead of the flap of 
 
76 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the entrance opening down to the ground, the aperture 
 began some distance up, so that one had to undo and 
 pull out innumerable little sticks that were put through 
 holes in the hide, and made quite a step up before get- 
 ting into the tepee. As it was carefully staked down 
 with picket -pins all about the edge, and a ditch was 
 dug around to carry off the water, such a tepee could 
 challenge almost any storm. In this house of the abo- 
 rigine lived our Henry, a colored coachman, who had 
 come with us from Virginia years before. Sometimes 
 he was teased by having his possessions pilfered, some- 
 times some one borrowed and forgot to return ; but 
 after the general gave him the tepee to live in, and 
 he had tied a dog inside, and fastened the flap with the 
 wooden pins, his " traps " were secure, and he said : 
 "'Tain't no kind or manner of use to try to lift* my 
 plunder now ; for, as the soldiers say, ^ I got the bulge 
 on all of em.'" Usually a small line was hung to a 
 tree at the rear, proclaiming that all days were Mon- 
 days with Henry. He was very neat, and the clothes 
 swinging in the breeze were his washing. He said to 
 me one day : " The general jest tries to tease me about 
 my washin'. I jest tell him, 'I ain't no Chinee, gen- 
 eral, and can't wash any but my Government clothes, 
 but those can't be beat.' " 
 
 We were living quite apart from the main camp, in 
 a little curve in the creek. The two other officers who 
 had brought their wives out joined us, and put their 
 
 * "Lift," a word meaning steal. 
 
IN CAMP ON BIG CREEK. 77 
 
 tents farther on in the bend. Nearer the prairie the 
 parade-ground began, then the rows of tents of the 
 companies and the picket -ropes for the horses. The 
 soldiers lived in "A" tents, so called because thej have 
 no side walls, but slope directly from the ground to the 
 ridge-pole which joins the two upright poles, one at 
 either end. At the end of each company street stood 
 a wall tent for the first sergeant, who, as ranking non- 
 commissioned officer of the company, is a great person- 
 age with the enlisted men. At a little distance, facing 
 the company street, were the tents of the captain and 
 lieutenant of each company. The sutler's tent was far- 
 ther on at the other end of the line. Nearer us was a 
 great room put up by the soldiers for their own enter- 
 tainment. It was built of a framework of logs and 
 cotton-wood slabs, over which were nailed tarpaulins. 
 It was dignified by the name of the Opera House. The 
 sutler lent a billiard-table, and in this improvised hall 
 the soldiers could give minstrel performances or con- 
 certs. There is always in the ranks much amateur and 
 sometimes some professional " talent." There were the 
 clog-dancers, who were the idols of our regiment. How 
 they managed to carry their professional shoes and 
 tights was always a secret. The soldier is only allowed 
 his haversack for his food and his overcoat, inside of 
 which he can squeeze a few things. The roll at the 
 back of the saddle is made up very tight on parades 
 and inspection days, but on a march an indulgent offi- 
 cer allows the bundle to expand so that it mounts half- 
 way up the soldier's back. If the officer is strict, he 
 
78 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 demands to see the inside of this roll and orders it re- 
 duced; then the soldier makes friends with the team- 
 ster who drives the one wagon with the company prop- 
 erty, and the violin, accordion, banjo, or other extra, 
 like the clog-dancer's shoes, is slipped into the box nn- 
 der the driver's seat, and no one thinks of " inspect- 
 ing" him. 
 
 A teamster is rather an independent sort of being. 
 He swears and growls, and when his wagon is stuck in 
 qnicksand, or up to the hub in mud, no one ventures 
 to enter into conversation with him. He has ways, 
 last resorts for stirring his animals from lethargy into 
 activity, but in emergencies he communes only with 
 himself or with them. The soldiers may be directed 
 to "man the wheels," and after fifty are tugging at 
 the ropes that are fastened to the axles, calling out 
 " Heave ho !" as sailors do at each new struggle, the 
 teamster's voice rises above all in invectives that are 
 startling to every one except the mules. But the big 
 hearts of these frontiersmen are something to remem- 
 ber. They are very apt to share everything they have 
 with wlioever comes along. They hide and coddle a 
 little fyst dog, or make a soft place for a pet antelope, 
 and take care of these creatures like trained nurses. 
 
 During the war there were some splendid stories 
 told of army teamsters. Ferocious and blasphemous 
 as they seemed to be, they took many steps to aid the 
 freedman, and permitted the ragged, half-starved, foot- 
 sore children of the plantations — for they were, even 
 at sixty years of age, nothing but children — to share 
 
IN CA^IP ON BIG GREEK. 79 
 
 their seats or their fare with them. The story that 
 stays by me is of a burly driver who fearlessly tended 
 a little negro baby, whose mother had abandoned it by 
 the road-side. It is the sarcasm and bantering that 
 makes all of us hide our good deeds, or prevents our 
 doing any at all in public — but this tender-hearted 
 man let hundreds of soldiers pass him as his wagon 
 was being dragged slowly along by the tired mules, 
 and heard, quite unmoved, the ribaldry and the keen 
 wit which comes from a line of soldiers, and which 
 sets the company into roars of laughter, while he held 
 the little pickaninny w^ith one arm and managed the 
 reins with the other. 
 
 General Custer was genuinely attached to the Gov- 
 ernment teamster who drove his headquarters wagon 
 during the campaign of the winter. He was very in- 
 telligent, and as some of our teamsters then were old 
 stage-drivers, they had a fund of anecdote and valuable 
 information about what they called the " lay of the 
 land," the features of the country, etc. Our teamster 
 was rarely moved to wrath, nor did he seem capable of 
 becoming excited over any occurrence. By some rare 
 mode of silent understanding the driver and the mas- 
 ter became deeply attached to each other. If General 
 Custer came with his orderly galloping up to the wag- 
 on at the rear wdth game, or with the head of an elk 
 or a buffalo to preserve, the driver found a place for 
 the article in his crowded wagon, and his own little 
 camp-fire at night crackled as the buffalo, antelope, 
 or venison steak given him dropped its fat from the 
 
80 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 stick on which he broiled his supper. When the sum- 
 mer was ended, and these two were about to part, Gen- 
 eral Custer asked for his picture, but what was his 
 disappointment when he found the patched and pictu- 
 resque clothes of the summer were replaced for the 
 occasion by new " store clothes ;" a thing which took 
 all the naturalness away. 
 
 The pleasure of our camp life was greatly enhanced 
 by our being so near the post. Fort Hays was com- 
 manded by General JSTelson Miles, who had been but a 
 short time on the plains, and though an infantry colo- 
 nel, was at heart a true cavalryman, and entirely in 
 sympathy with our branch of the service. The man- 
 ner in which he welcomed our regiment, ragged and 
 travel-stained from their long campaign, won all hearts. 
 The band in full uniform was sent to accompany the 
 regiment for a distance, and played the Seventh Cavalry 
 tune, " Garryowen." General Miles rode at the head 
 of the column, and all the officers came from their 
 companies to join him for the short distance he rode 
 with us. He did not hesitate to say that he envied 
 the success of the regiment, and should emulate their 
 successful mode of Indian fighting as soon as he had 
 an opportunity. 
 
 Of course, with such a reception we knew that we 
 were all quite welcome, and though we had little to 
 offer them in the way of hospitality, it was always a 
 pleasant sight to us when an ambulance from the post 
 came in view round the bend, filled with ladies with 
 cavaliers as outriders. 
 
IN CAMP ON BIG CKEEK. 81 
 
 The post was about as dreary a spot as can be im- 
 agined. I do not remember a tree near it, and the 
 sparse, stunted grass on the scorched parade-ground 
 was scarcely green. The officers' quarters were almost 
 as plain and bare as the soldiers' barracks, and were 
 crowded. Two families, I remember, who were not 
 friendly, were obliged to live in a double set of quarters. 
 The hall was narrow, the rooms were small, and the walls 
 so thin that every word spoken on one side could be 
 distinctly heard on the other. The wife of one of our 
 Seventh Cavalry officers was the occupant of the quar- 
 ters on one side, and the wife of an infantry officer lived 
 on the other. A swarm of little children prevented 
 the cavalry officer's wife from coming to camp to live, 
 but she consoled herself as best she could by the per- 
 mit her husband received to spend from Saturday night 
 till Monday morning" of every week at home. The 
 husband and wife were of different nationalities, and 
 though sincerely attached to each other, they were 
 of such decided natures that they disagreed on many 
 points. When the children were all in bed on Satur- 
 day night it became necessary, as the wife told me, 
 that the question at issue, whatever it might be, should 
 be talked over — each endeavoring, I suppose, to con- 
 vince the other that he or she was wrong. But, as the 
 madame further explained, it was impossible, while her 
 enemy was on the other side of so thin a wall, to enter 
 into any animated discussion, lest she and her spouse 
 should be accused of serious quarrelling ; so, as she ex- 
 pressed it, " We were obliged to go out on the parade- 
 6 
 
82 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 ground and have it out there." Then, when the ar- 
 gument was done and tlie domestic air cleared, they 
 returned to their cramped little quarters, the wife 
 cooked her companion an excellent supper, and harmo- 
 ny reigned until the next difference of opinion. A 
 government that deprives a man of the luxury of a 
 Caudle lecture may have male suj^porters in plenty, 
 but no one can uphold a parsimonious country in de- 
 priving a man and woman of the privilege of arguing — 
 to put it mildly — and compelling them both to take to 
 the open prairie to do the necessary convincing. In 
 this small and uncomfortable post there was much 
 happiness, harmony, and generous hospitality, and we 
 joined in many a little merrymaking among the cord- 
 ial people. 
 
 They scarcely realized what pleasure they gave us. 
 We are told something of one who gives a cup of wa- 
 ter to a thirsty man, but when in this case it turned 
 out to be ice-water, those who were condemned habitu- 
 ally to drink the rather warm water of Big Creek were 
 anxious to add a line to the blessing in token of grati- 
 tude. Our young officers sometimes came home at 
 night from the post, after an evening's hospitality, 
 full of boyish delight over a pie or a cake baked on 
 purpose for them, and almost ludicrously grateful for 
 the ministration to appetites long unused to dainty 
 gratification. 
 
fatiaue. 
 
 ^t^f^^E3E 
 
 iEii^&lgl^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INDIAN PKISONEKS 
 
 The one feature of great interest at tlie post was 
 the presence of the Indian prisoners brought from the 
 battle of the Washita. General Custer was obliged to 
 go to them very often, as he had learned their sign- 
 language, and his scout, who spoke their dialect, acted 
 as interpreter. It happened, therefore, that we often 
 rode up on horseback, or I drove in our large travel- 
 ling carriage to take guests, who were constantly com- 
 ing by the Eastern trains. 
 
 It was an unprecedented event to have sixty Indians 
 from warlike tribes on whom we could safely look, 
 or with whom we could actually visit. I cannot say 
 that I mounted my horse with perfect tranquillity the 
 first time General Custer took me up to see them^ 
 nor that the hand that held my Phil was quite steady. 
 
84: FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 Though there were but three chiefs among them, and 
 those carefully guarded, I had a perfect knowledge of 
 what desperate work the squaws and children had done 
 in the battle ; and our own General Gibbs described a 
 charge he had made into an Indian village before the 
 war, wdiere he had seen an old squaw cease for an in- 
 stant stirring her soup, snatch her knife from her 
 belt, plunge it into a soldier who was unsuspicious of a 
 woman as a warrior, resume her soup-stirring perfectly 
 imperturbed, not even looking at the dead soldier at 
 her side. All these, and many more such tales, from 
 my friends who had been eye-witnesses, made the road 
 from camp to Hays a purgatory to me, and for once 
 my side of the conversation languished. General Cus- 
 ter understood that silence meant fright with me, as 
 scarcely anytliing save fright kept me still, and he re- 
 assured me over and over again. lie reminded me 
 that every advantage was ours — that these were whip- 
 ped and, consequently, peaceful Indians ; but Indians 
 were Indians to me, and no amount of explanation 
 quieted my agitation. 
 
 To add to my fears, I found Phil trembling as we 
 neared the high stockade which had been built next to 
 the guard-house. Horses once thorouglily frightened 
 by Indians never quite recover from their panic. Their 
 sense of smell is so keen that they early begin to man- 
 ifest their inward perturbation by the quivering ears, 
 which express so much. I had all I could do to keep 
 Phil from turning back to camp, and had not my rep- 
 utation for horsemanship been at stake I should have 
 
INDIAN PRISONERS. 85 
 
 liked to give him liis liead, for I wanted to go back 
 just as badly as he wanted to take me in that direc- 
 tion. It was a relief to dismount and give the restless 
 brute to the orderly, for as I was riding with a snaffle- 
 bit to get a smoother gait, he had nearly dragged my 
 arms from their sockets. 
 
 The stockade where the prisoners were confined was 
 perhaps fifteen feet high, and made of perpendicular 
 logs driven deep into the ground. Near the top ran a 
 sentinel's walk around the whole corral. The enclosure 
 was big enough to hold several large tents, and yet leave 
 a good-sized vacant place where the children could play. 
 "We ascended the steps by which the sentinel reached 
 his beat, and looked down upon the occupants, but this 
 did not satisfy General Custer. He took me inside ; 
 and, as the crowd of women and children gathered 
 around me, I almost felt knives penetrating my dress 
 for a deadly stab, so great was my distress. I was in- 
 troduced, and at once was an object of great interest, 
 for General Custer had established confidence in them 
 and they trusted his word. Moreover, there is no de- 
 nying that a man who has once conquered Indians in 
 battle commands ""the deepest admiration possible to 
 their natures. When he told the squaws that I was 
 his wife they made a sign to ask if I was the .only one; 
 and an expression of compassion came into their faces 
 when he said yes, for among some of the tribes an Ind- 
 ian is always very much married if he is a chief of any 
 consequence. Possibly they imagined that a white wife 
 has the same amount of labor to perform for her hus- 
 
86 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 band that a chief's squaws have, and they pitied me. 
 Polygamy has its advantages when it provides for a 
 division of the heavy labor done by the squaw wives. 
 
 The squaws came still closer, put their hands on my 
 shoulder, smoothing and caressing me. Others took 
 my hand in tlieir horny old palms, the touch of which 
 moved me to pity, as ft revealed the amount and kind 
 of work that they had done; but, worst of all, the 
 oldest, most withered and wizened of them laid their 
 cheeks against mine^ after the manner of their kissing. 
 For once I was grateful that there are fashions in os- 
 culation as there are in everything else. 
 
 I kept my eyes furtively on the entrance, looked 
 stealthily towards the sentinel, and sought a reassuring 
 look from General Custer. The squaws and children 
 had many requests to make, and being busy with them, 
 he had no idea how tremulous were my steps, for after 
 reassuring me at the gate he supposed that my fears 
 had departed. Besides, he too was soon the centre of 
 a group of old hags, who drew his head down to lay 
 their parchment cheeks against his, and crooned some 
 gibberish over him. 
 
 It is strangely difficult to realize that deaf people 
 or foreigners do not understand us, and in speaking 
 of them in their presence we involuntarily lower our 
 voices. I asked under my breath why the old women 
 singled him out, and made him submit to the kind of 
 caresses they had invented, while the young and coy 
 faces were seen shyly hanging back on the outer limits 
 of the circle. He explained, in a word or two, that 
 
INDIAN PRISONERS. 87 
 
 among certain tribes it was deemed eminently proper 
 for the grandmothers and elderly squaws to embrace 
 strangers, but it was not permitted to the young girls 
 either to receive or to offer such familiarities. 
 
 I forced a smile of feigned pleasure at all the atten- 
 tions bestowed upon me, and so hid my tremors and 
 my revulsion, but inwardly I wished with all my heart 
 that the younger and prettier women had been detail- 
 ed as a reception committee. The cunning and crafty 
 looks of the antique ones kept me imagining that knives 
 were hidden in the voluminous folds of their blankets, 
 and that, quick as thought, they might plunge one into 
 us as we stood there defenceless, for General Custer, to 
 inspire confidence in these prisoners, entered the en- 
 closure unarmed. 
 
 The old women were most repulsive in their appear- 
 ance. The hair was thin and wiry, scattering over their 
 shoulders and hanging over their eyes. Their faces 
 were seamed and lined with such furrows as come from 
 the hardest toil, and the most terrible exposure to every 
 kind of weather and hardship, as the roving life took 
 them sometimes to the bleak north, and again as far as 
 the hot suns of Texas. The dull and sunken eyes seem- 
 ed to be shrivelled like their skins. The ears of these 
 hideous old frights were punctured with holes from 
 the top to the lobe, where rings once hung, but torn 
 out, or so enlarged as they were by years of carrying 
 the weight of heavy brass ornaments, the orifices were 
 now empty, and the ragged look of the skin was repug- 
 nant to me. 
 
88 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 They wore one garment, cut in the most primitive 
 manner, and over tins a blanket, held in at the waist 
 by the rough leather belt into which they had driven 
 as many brass-headed nails as it would hold. As this 
 blanket fell loosely over the belt, they made it a recep- 
 tacle for every sort of utensil or household article, and 
 were constantly thrusting their hands into its ample 
 folds and bringing forth strange objects. It was at 
 this opening of the garment that I gazed, expecting 
 that each successive article would be the dreaded weapon 
 with which to despatch me. 
 
 The bent old Avitches were curious beyond concep- 
 tion about every object I had on, and with an effort to 
 suppress the terrified start with which I felt my hair 
 being examined at my back, I made an effort to bend 
 my head in politeness while the bird on my hat was 
 fingered. They compared my hair to theirs, laying the 
 two side by side, and generously giving mine the pref- 
 erence. The children were called to admire the mili- 
 tary buttons on my habit, as on the plains our riding 
 costumes were nmcli gayer than the regulation habits 
 we wore near or in a city. My hand was imprisoned, 
 and the kid stroked and toyed with, while an inquiry 
 was made, by signs to General Custer, asking what 
 young animal ever wore that soft skin. While they 
 bent over the hand General Custer said to me in a low 
 monotone, for the purpose of teasing by frightening 
 me, "They would admire those gloves, even to the 
 point of possession, should they catch you alone out- 
 side the post !" It was all I could do not to snatch my 
 
INDIAN PRISONERS. 89 
 
 hand away, and run as hard as I could to the exit of 
 the stockade. 
 
 Even my feet were not neglected, and comparisons 
 ensued ; but they disapproved of my shoes, thinking 
 their soft, pliable moccasins preferable. After all this 
 careful inspection they turned to General Custer and 
 gave their opinion of me, which amused him hugely ; 
 but I was denied a translation of their verdict. 
 
 Meanwhile the future warriors of the tribe danced 
 around us, yelling and gesticulating like embryo chiefs. 
 They played like other children in racing, catching 
 each other, and scuffling; but their arrow shooting 
 showed how truly the child is father to the man. It 
 was done with the coolest, steadiest -handed, most 
 "nervy" skill of a trained marksman. Even the tini- 
 est, with his one little garment fluttering in the breeze, 
 could handle a bow with the grace and dexterity of 
 the matured boys. The latter w^ere naked save for 
 the cincture about their loins, but still the little girls, 
 burdened with a blanket, belted on like their mothers', 
 could fly over the ground as lightly and swiftly as the 
 bronzed legs that followed them in pursuit. The pap- 
 pooses came the nearest of anything in that strange 
 place to making me forget my trepidation. Swathed 
 in innumerable bandages wound tightly round the lit- 
 tle form, as is the Italian bambino, it was a wonder 
 that the bright, black beads of eyes looked out from 
 the nest as contentedly as they did. If one unaccus- 
 tomed to children trembles to hold a white infant be- 
 cause the sprawling arms and limbs seem to be drop- 
 
90 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 ping off, there is no such difficulty with a pappoose. It 
 is gathered into a little cocoon-like roll that stays where 
 you put it, because the limbs are lashed into absolute 
 quietude. The brown mothers were just as suscepti- 
 ble to flattery concerning their babies as white women 
 are, and understood as readily as if they spoke our lan- 
 guage that everything we said was praise. We said, 
 sotto voce, " Talk about a universal language, there is 
 one, and it is flattery." 
 
 There was one little scion of the race in whom we 
 felt extreme interest, because it had been born after 
 the prisoners were taken at the battle of the "Washita. 
 Its mother deserves the first word. Her two names, 
 Nav-a-rouc-ta and Mo-nah-se-tah, were so musical that 
 they well became the comely squaw. The latter meant 
 " The grass that shoots in the spring." She was the 
 Princess, the ranking woman among them all, being 
 the daughter of Little Eock, who, since the death of 
 Black Kettle, in the battle of the Washita, was the 
 highest in authority among the Cheyennes. During 
 the winter her intelligence and judgment had been of 
 service in the attempts that had been made to bring 
 the tribes to surrender. When couriers from among 
 the Indians, who had previously given themselves up, 
 had been sent out to their villages to try to induce the 
 others to come in, Mo-nah-se-tah had been consulted 
 and her advice taken. Mah-wis-sa, sister of Black 
 Kettle, had been a powerful ally in endeavoring to 
 bring her tribe to terms of peace, but when she went 
 on a journey to her village her people detained her. 
 
INDIAN PRISONERS. 91 
 
 sending back the warrior who accompanied her with 
 the messages. 
 
 Mo-nah-se-tah could be most useful in examining a 
 trail, and the painstaking of her patient search was' 
 something wonderful to watch. The bones of the 
 game killed by the party encamping, the fur or skin 
 of the animals, the ashes of the camp-fire, all the small 
 and apparently unimportant details were suggestions 
 to her. The condition of the marrow in the bones 
 told her the length of time the game had been killed, 
 the ashes yielded np their testimony as to when they 
 had been red with the glow of a camp-fire. Of course 
 the troopers soon learned to trace a trail when ponies' 
 hoofs and lodge-poles had beaten down the grass, but 
 for subtle study of the smaller signs no one could 
 equal an Indian, and above all a squaw, on account 
 of her delicate touch and her untiring patience. 
 
 Mo-nah-se-tah had in many other ways made herself 
 of service to the command. She was young and at- 
 tractive, perfectly contented, and trustful of the white 
 man's promises, and the acknowledged belle among all 
 other Indian maidens. Until a girl is married her life 
 with her tribe is one of ease. The older women wait 
 on her, and no duty or labor is ever exacted. The idle 
 lolling of the young girls about an Indian village is in 
 strange contrast to the untiring industry of the mar- 
 ried women. Work of the most exhausting kind be- 
 comes their portion after marriage. The game may 
 be shot by the braves, but it is the women who ride 
 out to the hunting-ground, bring back and prepare the 
 
92 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 animal for use, jerking the meat — that is, cutting it in 
 strips and drying it on poles — and tanning the skin. I 
 never heard of a buffalo-robe being dressed by an Ind- 
 ian man. The women tanned all of them. There is 
 a great amount of work necessary to tan a buffalo-hide. 
 It is, while still pliable, stretched on the ground and 
 tacked down on the edge very closely with small 
 wooden pegs. Then, day after day, the squaw bends 
 over the skin, rubbing it with a very hard bit of stone 
 that is kept for the purpose. When the hide is soft 
 and quite white her lord often sketches his career on 
 the surface. The figures are usually painted in red, 
 blue, and yellow, and the pictorial history consists of 
 the number of Indians at war with the tribe, or the 
 number of white men the invincible has shot. Some- 
 times a buffalo hunt is added. It is almost invariably 
 the chiefs public life that is delineated : domestic de- 
 tail seems to him too insignificant, and besides, it would 
 elevate the servile squaw to a plane she is never al- 
 lowed to reach. The hauling of wood and water, the 
 pitching of tepees, the packing of camp equipage, and 
 the braiding and embroidery of the war garments, to- 
 bacco-pouches, and gun-cases of the warriors, besides 
 cooking the food and the care of the children, left no 
 idle hour, and so the freshness of youth soon departed 
 from the face of a bride. 
 
 Mo-nah-se-tah had not been married long enough to 
 fade and grow old with manual labor. Her one matri- 
 monial venture had not been successful. The Indian 
 women, like the French, have their marriages arranged 
 
INDIAN PRISONERS. 93 
 
 for them bj the parents, as a rule. It is true there 
 are elopements, and in some tribes if a brave can get 
 his sweetheart away from the village for twentj-fonr 
 hours it is equivalent to a marriage ceremony, and op- 
 position ceases when he returns. Most of the unions 
 are wholly practical, however. The young w^arrior has 
 to show himself to be worth so many ponies or other 
 commodities that constitute wealth with the red man. 
 He buys his wife, in other words. The wife costs all 
 the way from two ponies up. The real road to these 
 dusky maidens' hearts is the reputation the lover bears 
 for deeds of valor. These are never hidden under a 
 bushel, for at every war-dance each warrior airs his 
 record with entirely unblushing egotism. This prow- 
 ess does not count, however, with the father in the 
 dickering for his daughter. 
 
 The daily intercourse of men and women in an Ind- 
 ian family is not as free as in ours. The first son-in- 
 law, the husband of the eldest daughter, takes prece- 
 dence after the father. Should the latter die, all the 
 questions of the family government are decided by 
 this son-in-law, and no marriage is contracted but by 
 his consent. The laws prevent his speaking to his 
 mother-in-law, or even remaining in the tepee with 
 her if they are alone. A sister and brother cannot 
 speak together. The girls of some tribes are so care- 
 fully guarded that their only opportunity for love- 
 making is perhaps when they go for water to the 
 stream. The affection of Indians for their babies is 
 a well-known trait. Even at a solemn council, when 
 
94 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 General Custer was discussing some subject with them, 
 the talking ceased when a babe far on the outskirts of 
 the log-hut, where the band of Indians were staying 
 near our post, began to cry. The mother, uneasy at 
 the interruption her child had caused, gave it to the 
 squaws near, to pass it on to the father, who was out- 
 side. The infant was handed on till" it reached the 
 council, the old chiefs each took it, giving it tenderly 
 from one to another, till the father at the door re- 
 ceived the little one and stilled its cries. "While all 
 this went on there was complete silence. General 
 Custer remained watching the scene quietly, and the 
 interpreter observed tli^e event interestedly, all the 
 Indians and squaws looking on ; the council neither 
 spoke nor moved until the pappoose was quieted. 
 
 Mo-nah-se-tah found the husband her father had 
 chosen a. very distasteful one, and being, I suppose, 
 somewhat spoiled, owing to her exalted rank, she re- 
 fused to do all the grovelling labor expected of her, 
 and became unmanageable. Neither threats nor warn- 
 ings moved her, and when her liege attempted to force 
 her to submission she shot him, crippling him for life. 
 There seemed to be no course open for them but di- 
 vorce, which is such a simple affair among the Indians 
 that the return of the eleven ponies by Little Rock to 
 the irate husband constituted a quitclaim to the pos- 
 session of his daughter. The birth of her baby after 
 her capture, her high position, and the stories from the 
 Indian scouts of the lofty manner in which she had 
 reminded her husband of her superiority of birth, all 
 
INDIAN PRISONERS. 95 
 
 made me anxious to see her ; and yet, when the soft 
 eyes smiled on me, I instantly remembered how they 
 must have flashed in anger when she suddenly, and to 
 her husband's surprise, drew the pistol from under her 
 blanket and did him the greatest injury, next to death, 
 that can happen to an active warrior. How could I 
 help feeling that with a swift movement she would 
 produce a hidden weapon, and by stabbing the wife, 
 hurt the white chief who had captured her, in what 
 she believed would be the most cruel way. Her dis- 
 cernment in taking from her hated husband all that 
 makes life valuable to an Indian warrior — that is, his 
 capacity to hunt or to fight — would perhaps make her 
 keen to discover equally effective means of harming 
 the foes who had triumphed over her. 
 
 But the baby disarmed me. ^'A little child shall 
 lead them," and so it did me. Mo-nah-se-tah, when 
 called, slid away from the outer circle of the crowd 
 and ran into a tent, dropped the ugly gray Government 
 blanket and threw about her a red one, coming forward 
 to us shyly, and modestly hanging her head. Her face 
 was not pretty in repose, except with the beauty of 
 youth, whose dimples and curves and rounded out- 
 lines are always charming. The features of the Indian 
 women are rarely delicate, high cheek-bones and square 
 jaw being the prevailing type. Mo-nah-se-tah let the 
 blanket fall from her glossy hair, her white, even teeth 
 gleamed as she smiled, and the expression transfigured 
 her, and made us forget her features. I missed the 
 paint that the beauties of the village usually lay on 
 
96 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 with no sparing hand ; for even though it is but a 
 big blotch of color on either cheek, it certainly im- 
 proves the brown skin. Of course we asked for the 
 baby, feeling unusual interest in a captive born within 
 our lines. Mo-nah-se-tah turned to a bent old crone 
 who had the honor to be grandmother to this rather 
 imperious granddaughter, and authoritatively ordered 
 her to bring the child. It was a cunning little bundle 
 of brown velvet, with the same bright, bead-like eyes 
 as the rest. The mother saw a difference, doubtless. 
 She was full of maternal pride, and ran into the tent 
 again to bring a ferrotype of this young chieftain that 
 had been taken by a travelling photographer who 
 stopped at the post. We were amused and rather sur- 
 prised at her quick observation, and at the perplexity 
 in her face as she asked with signs why the pappoose 
 was on the left arm in the picture while she had held 
 it in her right when sitting. It was rather difficult 
 for General Custer to explain the photographer's art 
 to this woman, ignorant of any world outside the Ind- 
 ian village, and I think the mystified and superstitious 
 look after he finished meant that she should continue 
 to think as she did at first — that it was the interven- 
 tion of the Great Sjiirit which changes a baby in its 
 mother's arms without her knowledge. Though she 
 was so proud and fond of the little creature, she offered 
 it to us to keep until she should return to her people. 
 I presume I should have accepted this somewhat em- 
 barrassing gift (from sheer fear of the consequences I 
 dreaded if I declined) had not the other head of the 
 
INDIAN PEISONERS. 97 
 
 house had the tact to assure the mother that we could 
 not think of robbing her, however sincere her generos- 
 ity might be. 
 
 Mo-nali-se-tah's hair was braided, and this fearless 
 departure from the custom of the Indian women was 
 due to her admiration for the Irish woman to whom 
 reference has been made as having been a cook, and 
 the only woman on the expedition during the previous 
 winter. Another departure from custom was her ac- 
 ceptance of the name our brother Tom gave her. He 
 gave up trying to pronounce the musical sobriquet, 
 and took " ' Sallie Ann,' for short," he said. Mo-nah- 
 se-tah had no other feeling but pleasure at the ex- 
 change, and she was rarely addressed by any other 
 name. Colonel Tom himself had been rechristened 
 by the Indians, and though Mouksa sounds very well 
 to the ear, the peculiar intonation the officers gave it 
 betrayed a teasing significance, which the translation 
 " Buffalo Calf " may explain. 
 
 Mo-nah-se-tah seemed to trust the word of our peo- 
 ple from the first. She believed that in time the cap- 
 tives would be released ; and, with this trust in the 
 promises of those who had won the victory over her 
 people, she made a most tractable captive ; and as she 
 was the highest in authority among the prisoners, her 
 influence had weight with the rest of her people. 
 7 
 
Zo Brma! 
 
 
 |:e=^=^ £=^^^=gz jjg Eg^^^ 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CORKAL OF THE CAPTIVES. 
 
 While we walked about the corral, waiting for the 
 council for which the women clamored, we saw the 
 three chiefs Fat Bear, Dull Knife, and Big Head being 
 prepared for the solemn powwow. They were oiled 
 and combed, the occasional stray hair on their beardless 
 chins plucked out with tweezers — for Indians despise a 
 beard — the vermilion laid oh their cheeks, their gaudy 
 beaded and embroidered garments fitted and smoothed 
 upon them, their moccasins and leggings fastened, and 
 the very pipes put into their indolent fingers by the 
 usual valets of Indian warriors, the servile squaws. 
 
 The officers constantly made comparisons, and sug- 
 gested changes in their domestic life in imitation, and 
 roguishly affected to think that while we, as a people, 
 might be in advance of the red man in some forms of 
 civilization, we were not so in all. 
 
 Among the squaws tliat clustered around us was one 
 who began a sign conversation with General Custer 
 about the battle of the Washita. She walked away for 
 a moment, returning with her two sons, striplings of 
 
CORRAL OF THE CAPTIVES. 99 
 
 boys, who, she asked General Custer to tell us, had lost 
 their father in the light. The tears ran down her 
 cheeks as she talked on with her eager fingers, and 
 though answering tears rose in mine, I could not but 
 look at the promise of athletic strength in the children, 
 and wish with all my soul that instead of these embryo 
 warriors she might have had daughters, who would nev- 
 er be reared to go to war. It was strange how these 
 little fellows reproduced tlieir fathers as soon as they 
 could toddle. When any of the hunting parties re- 
 turned the prisoners had buffalo-meat served to them, 
 and these tiny sons of braves cut strips from the raw 
 meat and ate it, turning with wide-eyed wonder when 
 we exclaimed at this evidence of barbaric tastes. 
 
 Amone: the tailless curs that scurried and skulked in 
 and out of the tents there was a yellow one which was 
 ill, and when our brother Tom came a second time he 
 asked where it was. The squaws pointed nonchalant- 
 ly to the iron dinner-pot, where the steam was rising 
 from the poor dog's dismembered body, as it was being 
 cooked for dinner. Tom in his quaint way bowed to 
 the old frights, and promptly declined, most urbanely, 
 an invitation to dine that had never been given, and 
 which declination was of course all gibberish to the 
 women. 
 
 Among the squaws was one who had holes shot 
 through her blanket in the Washita battle. When we 
 visited the corral she always held out the blanket and 
 pointed to them, making a sound, " ping! ping !" to sug- 
 gest what had occurred when the bullets went through. 
 
100 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 There was another old creature wliose little finger 
 had been mutilated, as is the custom of Indians when 
 mourning. She had taken all the flesh from it, and 
 then blackened the bone in commemoration of the dead. 
 The squaws sometimes give away all their clothes, as 
 one manner of showing their grief at the death of one 
 of their family, and another way of mourning is to cut 
 off all their hair. Some of the southern tribes believe 
 that the spirits of horses accompany the spirit of a dead 
 man to the happy hunting-ground. In the death of 
 Colore w, leader of the Meeker massacre, thirty or forty 
 horses were shot by young braves. 
 
 Finally the three chiefs were pronounced ready, un- 
 der the hands of their adorners, and we were signed to 
 enter the tent, where the eager women, who had been 
 all impatience, quickly followed. General Custer told 
 me what an innovation it was to allow me to enter, and 
 what an honor the three chiefs considered they had con- 
 ferred upon me in shaking my hand ; but I could have 
 foregone the distinction, for, in the presence of these 
 gigantic, fierce, and gloomy chiefs, my quakings began 
 anew, and if the council could have taken place with 
 both of us on the other side of the stockade, looking 
 over, no matter how much such a position might have 
 lacked in dignity, I should have been relieved. I took 
 my place on the robe beside General Custer, who sat 
 a la T\irque^ like the Indians. The usual solemn, silent 
 preface to all councils ensued. The restless impatience 
 of women and children, admitted on this rare occasion 
 to a ceremony from which the chiefs usually excluded 
 
CORRAL OF THE CAPTIVES. 101 
 
 them, was exhibited in the eager eyes, and the nest- 
 ling, nervous moving. A sqnaw lighted the inevitable 
 pipe of red clay, with its long wooden stem, at the end 
 of which beads were cunningly interwoven with the del- 
 icate, brilliant feathers of rare birds. The oldest of the 
 chiefs received it first, took a whiff, then the others fol- 
 lowed with a prolonged inhaling of the fragrant kinni- 
 kinnic and it was passed to General Custer, who heroi- 
 cally followed the example. Even in this small coun- 
 cil of four the Indian rules were rigidly observed, and 
 the seats were placed on a line from west to east, so that 
 all should face the south. The pipe is always handed 
 to the one nearest the east, and follows the course of the 
 sun, not going back, but being handed across. 
 
 Having been treated with so much honor as to be ad- 
 mitted to a council, I inwardly trembled for fear the 
 honors would not stop there ; but, fortunately, the pipe 
 was kept circulating only among the four. It requires 
 infinite patience to wait for speech from these taciturn 
 beings. To be shut up in a Sibley tent with a crowd 
 of Indians on a warm day was not an experience that 
 one longed to repeat. Added to the odors and close- 
 ness, there was still a fire in the ground, in the centre 
 of the tent, where the squaws had been preparing the 
 dinner for the conquering heroes they served. 
 
 The kinni-kinnic saved our nostrils from what would 
 have been a still more insufferable infliction. It is a 
 mixture of willow bark, sumach leaves, sage leaf, and 
 tobacco, and this is thoroughly mingled with marrow 
 from buffalo bones. 
 
102 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 In vain I buried my rebellious nose in my handker- 
 chief. I seemed hopelessly permeated with the pecul- 
 iar Indian odor, but etiquette forbade my going into 
 the open air. When the silent trio at last signified 
 their willingness to talk, the squaws were reanimated, 
 for the subject of the conference was their exchange 
 and return to their village. The utmost caution was 
 necessary not to hurt the feelings of the chiefs, and to 
 signify impatience or haste is, in their estimation, an 
 insult to them. Many questions were put to General 
 Custer. The replies, from first to last, were that as 
 soon as every white man, woman, and child was released 
 from captivity the Indian prisoners should be allowed 
 to return to their homes. Grunts of satisfaction, fur- 
 ther exchanges of the pipe, more hand-shaking, and we 
 escaped into the open air. 
 
 Our visits were quite frequently repeated. Eliza, our 
 colored cook, who was introduced in Tenting on the 
 Plains^ has recently given me her recollections of her 
 first visit with us to the corral. We took her every- 
 where that it was possible to take her, in order to vary 
 the monotony of the life of deprivation she endured 
 for us, and we were always rewarded by enthusiastic 
 gratitude ; and her descriptions, afterwards given to 
 the home people in the States, were more graphic than 
 any we could furnish. Here is Eliza's account of her 
 initiation into the mysteries : 
 
 "The ginnel asked me didn't I want to see Ingins. 
 You know. Miss Libbie, I had never saw one afo'. I 
 went in the big gate with the ginnel. You went up 
 
CORRAL OF THE CAPTIVES. 103 
 
 the steps wliere the guard was, where you could look 
 down on the whole sixty. Ginnel told them with his 
 fingers who I was, and called me black squaw. Miss 
 Libbie, they had never seen a colored person afo'. 
 They felt of me, rolled up my sleeve to see if I was 
 brown under my dress, they patted me on the shoul- 
 der. I went into a tepee, and was looking at how 
 they lived, and at a pappoose that was strapped to a 
 board and lay in a corner as quiet as a mouse. 
 
 " Well, to be cunning, the ginnel slipped out when I 
 didn't notice it, and they w^as making ready to give 
 me a pipe to have me smoke their tobacco, for kind 
 of friendship like, among the old squaws. I looked 
 around and found the ginnel gone, and I took one leap 
 and lit out of thar in a jiffy. The ginnel was watch- 
 ing and laughing at me, and the squaws, when they 
 saw I was so scared, they just shouted. Well, I was 
 scared, and I hadn't got no use for them nohow. They 
 clapped their hands and yelled to think the black 
 squaw was so afraid of 'em. Pretty soon they all 
 come right up round the ginnel and began to moan 
 and cry, and move their hands slowly together, and 
 make signs* to know how long it was before they 
 went home to their people — how many moons — and 
 
 * Extracts from Clark's Indian Sign Language: — 1. Moon. 
 Conception : Night sun. — Make siga for Night (see 2), and then 
 partially curve the thumb and index of right hand, space of about 
 an inch between tips, closing other fingers; then raise the hand in 
 a direction a little to south of zenith and well up, the plane of the 
 circle formed with index and thumb perpendicular to the line of 
 sight from the eye, through the incomplete circle of thumb and 
 
104 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 they made a pretty sign for moon. When the ginnel 
 made signs, ' right away,' by closing his pahns, to tell 
 them the time was come, they rejoiced. Miss Libbie, I 
 never did see such hard old women. They looked like 
 they had been lashed with trouble ; they was bent and 
 wrinkled, and carrying such loads I don't know how 
 they did wag themselves along. This was when they 
 was leaving." 
 
 The squaws had some small sense of humor. When, 
 on one of our visits, an officer whom they knew well 
 took his wife in to see the prisoners, one of tliem asked 
 by a sign if that was his wife. He, being fall of fun, 
 shook his head, and placing two lingers in his mouth, 
 made the Indian sign for '' sister." The squaw care- 
 fully scrutinized the wife's face, she trying not to flinch 
 while the brown Angers passed over the skin ; when 
 
 index, to the position in tlie heavens where the moon is supposed 
 to be. 
 
 Some Indians, in making the circle which represents the moon, 
 use tlie index fingers and thumbs of both hands. 
 
 I have seen a half-month represented by forming a crescent with 
 thumb and index ; and usually the moon is represented as full, 
 gibbous, half, and crescent, by indicating such and such a portion 
 as dead or wiped out. 
 
 2. Night. Conception : Earth covered over. — Bring extended 
 hands, backs up, well out in front of body, fingers pointing to front, 
 right hand very little higher than left, hands about height of breast 
 and several inches apart; move the right hand to left, left to right, 
 turning hands slightly by wrist action so that fingers of right hand 
 point to left and front, left hand to right and front, terminating 
 movement when wrists are crossed. Darkness, as I have said, 
 seems to be considered a material thing by Indians ; it spreads 
 over the earth like two huge blankets. I have also seen sign made 
 to denote sun setting for night. 
 
COERAL OF THE CAPTIVES. 105 
 
 the examination was finished, the sqiiaw made a sign 
 that she knew the statement was not true, and, as she 
 shook her head decisively, a gleam came into her eyes 
 as if of triumph in her keenness of perception. 
 
 The buttons of the lady's habit, her whip, with a 
 dog's head on the handle (at sight of which the squaw 
 bow-wowed), and finally the visitor's curls were closely 
 examined, and great curiosity and surprise were evinced 
 when the hair was pulled straight and the curl resumed 
 its form on being released. 
 
 After many visits to the corral, which really added 
 greatly to the interest of our life, we came to feel at 
 home with these dusky strangers ; and even the woman 
 who at first would only stand by the sentinel and look 
 down, because, as she said, she chose to die some other 
 death than that by disembowelling, summoned courage 
 to enter the tents and look at the ever-interesting, ever- 
 new object to a woman, the pappoose. I at last forgot 
 the knife that at first, in my excited state, I had almost 
 seen gleaming in the folds of the blanket, and we even 
 stood quietly while the bent and odious old squaws 
 crooned and smoothed our faces. The uniform kind- 
 ness with which these prisoners had been treated had 
 convinced them that the white man meant to keep his 
 word. In the councils that were constantly held, Gen- 
 eral Custer gave them the news of the negotiations 
 that were going on regarding the delivering up of white 
 captives to our people, and they knew that each event 
 of that kind hastened tlieir release. 
 
 One day an orderly from the post rode hurriedly up 
 
106 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 to oiir tent in camp, and dismounting, gave the compli- 
 ments of the commanding officer of the garrison, and 
 asked that General Custer should come to the post at 
 once, as the Indian prisoners had made trouble, and no 
 one could understand their desires further than that 
 they kept calling for " Ouchess," meaning " Creeping 
 Panther," a name they had given General Custer some 
 time before. The two miles were soon accomplished, 
 and General Custer found a sorry state of affairs and 
 intense excitement prevailing. The officers in charge 
 explained that as constant rumors were circulated of 
 parties of hostile Indians hovering around the post and 
 the corral, with the intention of rescuing the captives, 
 and as it was feared that the three chiefs were preparing 
 to attempt an escape, it had been thought best to re- 
 move the latter from their tent to the guard-house ad- 
 joining. The sergeant and guard had gone to them, 
 but being unable to make any signs that the Indians 
 could understand, they had attempted to force them to 
 go into the prison. With the suspiciousness natural to 
 the race, the braves had resisted with all their strength. 
 All the women and children, witnessing the encounter, 
 surrounded the officer, who had joined the soldiers as 
 soon as trouble seemed imminent, and while he and the 
 sergeant and men were trying to make their exit with 
 the three chiefs, a general fight had taken place. The 
 chiefs quickly drew from the folds of their blankets 
 the knives they had been allowed to eat with. These 
 had been surreptitiously sharpened and polished, and 
 they flashed right and left as the braves plunged to and 
 
CORRAL OF THE CAPTIVES. 107 
 
 fro in their struggles. The squaws, similarly armed, 
 threw themselves with wild fury upon the guard. An 
 old squaw singled out the officer in charge, sprang upon 
 him, and plunged her knife down the back of his neck 
 with unerring aim. One of the chiefs leaped upon the 
 sergeant and stabbed and gashed him in so horrible a 
 manner that his life was despaired of. The remainder 
 of the guard came to the rescue, but not before one 
 chief, Big Head, had fallen dead, and another, Dull 
 Knife, was mortally wounded by a bayonet thrust 
 through the body. The third, Fat Bear, was felled by 
 the butt of a musket, but was uninjured. The outside 
 guard, by firing in, had quelled the mutiny among the 
 women. When General Custer reached the corral the 
 excitement was still intense, but he insisted upon en- 
 tering the stockade alone, and talking with the prison- 
 ers. The women were running about, making frantic 
 gestures, angrily and revengefully menacing the guard 
 and the sentinel on his beat. As soon as General Cus- 
 ter appeared they closed around him, asking vehement- 
 ly if they were all to be shot. He quieted them by 
 his decision of manner, and his assurances that they 
 w^ere now safe, and asked what was the meaning of 
 their violent conduct. They told him that they had 
 asked again and again to have him as interpreter, for 
 when the soldiers had come in to take the chiefs, they 
 could neither understand nor be understood. They 
 had supposed tliat the braves were being forced out to 
 be hanged, and the special dread of an Indian is to die 
 such a death. General Custer had learned to treat the 
 
108 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 Indians with the patience that children require, and 
 he told tliem, in endeavoring to conciliate and quiet 
 the still agitated women, what the real intention of the 
 guard was, how friendly the men had constantly been 
 up to that time, and that their brusque conduct when 
 resisted was not to be marvelled at, for that soldiers 
 were drilled to quick, peremptory ways. The men had 
 no intention, he assured them, of injuring any one ; 
 they only wanted to remove the three chiefs to the in- 
 side of the guard-house, and they could not talk with 
 them, not having been out on the campaign the winter 
 before. 
 
 This talk had at once a perceptible effect. Some of 
 the older women crouched down to croon and moan 
 over the dead, as is their custom ; others walked about 
 wailing and gesticulating in the expressive manner of 
 the Indian. Many of them had gashed their legs hor- 
 ribly, in commemoration of the dead, and their leg- 
 gings constantly irritated the wounds. One old squaw 
 had been shot in the leg in the melee, and another ex- 
 hibited her blanket with bullet-holes in it ; but there 
 was not much pity felt among the soldiers, whose lives 
 had been imperilled, for these old viragos, who had 
 fought so furiously. 
 
 General Custer went into the cell where the dying 
 chief lay, and explained in the same manner the cause 
 of the misunderstanding and disaster. The old warrior 
 told the general how much they had wished, through 
 all the imprisonment, that they had been confined with- 
 in the limits of the cavalry camp, among the soldiers 
 
CORRAL OF THE CAPTIVES. 109 
 
 who had captured them, and who, during the past win- 
 ter, had learned to talk with them by signs ; he com- 
 plained that the " Walk-a-heaps," as they called the 
 infantry, who now had them in keeping, did not under- 
 stand them at all. 
 
 After this unfortunate affair there was no more vis- 
 iting the stockade on the part of the women. The very 
 hands that had smoothed our faces and stroked our 
 hair had too skilfully wielded the knives that we had all 
 the time suspected them of carrying under their gar- 
 ments. They were now more dissatisfied, suspicious, 
 and restless than ever, and when at last the news came 
 that the white captives were released, and that they, 
 in turn, would be sent back to their tribe, there was 
 general rejoicing. 
 
 General Custer would not let me miss the departure, 
 which he went up to arrange. The wagons that were to 
 convey the Indians on their way to their village were 
 drawn up in front of the corral when we arrived, and 
 the company of cavalry which was to accomj)any them 
 as escort stood at their horses' heads, awaiting the 
 trumpet-call " Boots and saddles !" It seemed incred- 
 ible that people who had come to us with nothing 
 should depart with so much luggage. "All kinds of 
 truck," to use the phrase with which the Western 
 man designates a variety of possessions, was heaped in 
 the big army-wagon by the willing soldiers, and the 
 women and children mounted upon their property. 
 Every one had given them a present — and nothing 
 seemed to come amiss to them — though the donor 
 
110 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 might be puzzled to imagine liow they would ever use 
 the gift. 
 
 Finally, Nav-a-rouc-ta walked out of the gate, her 
 pappoose on her back, smiling and shy, and showing 
 some regret at departure, for she had thriven in the 
 idle life. The soldiers and by-standers called, " Good- 
 bye, Sallie Ann," and she turned from the right to 
 the left to receive the homage her sweet face elicited. 
 Behind her, bent almost to the ground with a weight 
 which we could scarcely believe concealed a human 
 being, crept the old grandmother, carrying Mo-nah- 
 se-tah's accumulated wealth. "Sallie Ann" came over 
 to where we waited to say a special good-bye to us, 
 and as she raised her liquid eyes coyly to smile and 
 bid adieu, I could not realize that those same orbs 
 could flash in anger, and the hand we took grow rigid 
 in the madness of revenge ; but her maimed husband, 
 now limping through life, was a witness of her capacity 
 for rage. 
 
 The old chief walked forth, too dignified to show 
 joy at his release, but no amount of impressiveness of 
 manner could subdue the soldiers and ourselves. Cries 
 pealed out on all sides, " Halloa, Cardigan !" He had 
 been relieved of his own title, Fat Beai*, long before, 
 and named for the Cardigan jacket that had been 
 given to him, and that he evidently had never re- 
 moved from the day of its presentation to the morn- 
 ing of his departure. An underling squaw carried his 
 enormous pack as he stalked towards the wagon, she 
 struggling on in the rear. 
 
CORRAL OF THE CAPTIVES. Ill 
 
 The prisoners, forgetting for once their stoicism, 
 huighed and chattered their unintelligible gibberish, 
 poking their heads out of the semicircle that the wag- 
 on-covers made at the rear, and went off with many 
 a hearty cheer from their captors. The sentinel, re- 
 lieved at the completion of the unusual duty, descend- 
 ed from his elevated beat to allow the stockade to bo 
 demolished, and with it departed all trace of the Ind- 
 ian captives, save the circles made by their tents in the 
 soil. 
 
mm 
 
 ^-0-r^ 
 
 — #-#-#-h-i— [-p-iiiJ — h-H-f-^^—^^— F — ,^-j — H 
 
 fegE-feiiiii^i 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PETS OF THE CAMP. 
 
 My first visit to our brother Tom's tent, after we 
 made camp on Big Creek, will not become a dim mem- 
 ory during my life, I think, for I was so thoroughly 
 frightened I shivered for days afterwards when recall- 
 ing it. Of course, after all our arrangements for the 
 summer were made, we very naturally wanted to ex- 
 hibit our triumph over circumstances, our ingenuity 
 at inventing conveniences, and to elicit praise from 
 each other for doing so much with so little. Tom was 
 not so proud of his tent as of his captures. At that 
 time we all had many valuable Indian trophies — even 
 Indian shields made of the toughest part of the buffalo- 
 hide, and painted with warlike scenes ; necklaces of 
 the fore-claws of the bear ; war-bonnets, with the eagle 
 feathers so fastened that they stood out at right angles 
 when worn, and extended from the head to the heels ; 
 and, alas for my peace of mind, there seemed to be 
 scalp -locks everywhere! We had a warrior's jacket 
 trimmed with them as fringe, with soft yellow cliild's 
 hair among the rest. This was presented by an Ind- 
 
PETS OF THE CAMP. 
 
 113 
 
 ian, wliile some of the officers were offered other tro- 
 phies in trade. 
 
 There was a captured scalp -lock, stretched over a 
 small hoop made of a willow withe to keep it from 
 shrinking, and this was hung to the belt in an Indian 
 dance, or to the te- 
 pee walls wdiile they 
 were not in full 
 dress. Our brother 
 Tom always had an 
 ample collection of 
 these Indian memen- 
 tos, and it made his 
 tent or quarters in 
 garrison very uncan- 
 
 ny, m my estima- 
 tion. But if the 
 war - bonnet, shield, 
 or bear- claw neck- 
 lace could be bought 
 or traded for, or cap- 
 tured in an Indian 
 fight, it was like pos- 
 sessing one's self of 
 the family diamonds a scalp-lock. 
 
 of an Indian, as these 
 
 three heirlooms were handed down as we white peo- 
 ple bequeath jewels, plate, or pictures. 
 
 Colonel Tom's next most valuable possession was a 
 box of rattlesnakes. He was an expert in catching 
 8 
 
114: FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 tliem. Being very agile and extremely quick, he never 
 failed to bag his game. When he discovered a snake 
 with seven or more rattles he leaped from his horse, 
 called his orderly to take off his coat and tie up the 
 end of the sleeve and hold it for the prisoner. Then, 
 with a well-aimed and violent stroke with the butt of 
 the carbine he pinioned the reptile near the head, and 
 holding it down with one hand, seized it by the back 
 of the neck, lifted it from the ground, dropped it into 
 the sleeve, tied it again, and swinging into the saddle, 
 joined the column as unconcerned as if the seven rat- 
 tles were not threatening vengeance behind him. On 
 my first meeting with him after a campaign he usually 
 said, " Well, old lady, I have some beauties to show 
 you this time, captured them on purpose for you," 
 and I knew that my hour had come. I never passed 
 for a fearless woman, and I did not hesitate to beg off, 
 telling him I " appreciated the honor," but would see 
 the reptiles " some other day," and resorting to any 
 subterfuge to escape this form of hospitality. But I 
 might as well have argued with the snakes themselves 
 for all the good I accomplished. He came after me, 
 and we started ; in vain I dawdled by the way to delay 
 the moment that was simply horrible to me ; his cheer- 
 ful "Here we are !" seemed to sound so soon. The in- 
 secure cages were 23atclied-up hardtack boxes, and the 
 snakes had to bo lifted out to exhibit them. 
 
 Tom's bull-dog was always a terror to me, but in 
 this new fright his ominous growls were forgotten. 1 
 only begged before the performance began to take up 
 
PETS OF THE CAMP. 115 
 
 my place on the bed — and oh, how I bemoaned the low- 
 ness of it ! The agonizing thought was forced upon 
 me that at that very moment a snake might be lurk- 
 ing under the low camp-cot, or, worse still, wriggling 
 Tinder the blankets on which my trembling toes then 
 rested. Then, with skirts gathered about me for a 
 sudden flight, with protruding eyeballs, I shook and 
 gasped as the box -lids were removed, and the great 
 loathsome objects stretched up to show their length, 
 a chance being given to each one to shake his rattles 
 in rage. 
 
 Words of regret from Tom awoke no answering 
 emotion in me when he found himself minus one 
 snake. What was a source of regret to him was an 
 occasion of horror to me ; there was not a vestige of 
 the snake remaining ; it had not escaped ; it was a vic- 
 tim of reptile cannibalism, for the larger of the two 
 had eaten his smaller comrade, and not even a rattle 
 was left ! 
 
 After this entertainment was over, and I was going 
 home, almost frisking with joy, over the plains that 
 separated us from the soldiers' and officers' tents, I 
 tried to argue with Tom that he sliould keep all of his 
 snakes together instead of in separate boxes ; and I con- 
 tended that this was nothing more than a measure of 
 justice to them, as they must miss the sort of compan- 
 ionship, a craving for which is said to exist through- 
 out the animal kingdom ; but he discovered my mo- 
 tive, and replied, " If you think, old lady, that after 
 all the trouble I have been to, to catch these snakes to 
 
116 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 show you, I am going to make it easy for them to eat 
 each other up, you are mightily mistaken." Some 
 English tourists were so interested in Tom's daring 
 mode of capture, and the snakes themselves were so 
 novel a sight to them, that they persuaded him to send 
 some specimens to the "Zoo" in London; and last 
 summer I saw one of those who were our guests at 
 that time (Dr. Town send), and he told me that the 
 snakes were still there. Tom's orderly might appear 
 in this affair as an object of pity, but he was as much 
 interested and as enthusiastic in the sport as his officer, 
 and posed before the soldiers as a snake -catcher — a 
 position not without lionor among many daring men, 
 who were willing to meet any sound of war except the 
 threatening rattle of such a foe. 
 
 When we were encamped on Big Creek, buffaloes 
 were all about us ; the Kansas Pacific Railroad had been 
 completed only to Fort Hays, and the herds were still 
 roaming in immense numbers along the line. They 
 frequently crossed the track in front of a train, but 
 they were so intent upon getting away that the sharp- 
 est, most continued shrieks of the whistle did not turn 
 them from their course ; the leaders in a move are very 
 faithfully followed by the herd as a rule. The en- 
 gineer was often obliged to whistle down the brakes 
 to avoid accident. 
 
 I remember standing among a group of officers at 
 one time, resting after a charge into a herd. We were 
 on a divide, where the horizon was visible in every di- 
 rection. One of the group said to me, " Turn about, 
 
PETS OF THE CAMP. 117 
 
 Mrs. Custer, and notice that you are surrounded with 
 buffaloes." It was as if tho horizon was outlined with 
 a dark rim. The officer continued, " You are looking 
 now upon a hundred thousand buffaloes." I was rather 
 incredulous of their stories when they were told to me, 
 as I had been so often ^' guyed." I said: "Are you 
 really in earnest? And can I tell this to the people 
 in the East when I go home ?" " Honor bright," he 
 said ; " I do not exaggerate." 
 
 I have been on a train when the black, moving mass 
 of buffaloes before us looked as if it stretched on down 
 to the horizon. Every one went armed in those days, 
 and the car windows and platforms bristled with rifles 
 and pistols, much as if it had been a fortification de- 
 fended by small-arms instead of cannon. 
 
 It was the greatest wonder that more people were 
 not killed, as the wild rush for the windows, and the 
 reckless discharge of rifles and pistols, put every pas- 
 senger's life in jeopardy. N^o one interfered or made 
 a protest with those travellers, however. They were 
 the class of men who carry the chip balanced very 
 lightly on the shoulder, and rather seek than avoid its 
 jostling. I could not for the life of me avoid a shud- 
 der when a long line of guns leaning on the backs of 
 the seats met my eye as I entered a car. When the 
 sharp shriek of the whistle announced a herd of buffa- 
 loes the rifles were snatched, and in the struggle to 
 twist round for a good aim out of the narrow window 
 the barrel or muzzle of the fire-arm passed dangerous- 
 ly near the ear of any scared woman who had the te- 
 
118 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 merity to travel in those tempestuous days. Men are 
 pretty patient with women's tremors if they try to 
 keep them in control, and don't carry their shrieks too 
 far; but when the delay was long enough to empty 
 the car I felt intensely relieved. Sometimes the whole 
 train was abandoned for a time, engineer and all going 
 out for sport. There was no railroad competition then, 
 and only one train a day was run — therefore, there 
 was no attempt to keep a correct schedule. We rarely 
 used the raih'oad, even if it was near, when once out 
 in camp. Our own mode of travel seemed preferable. 
 In going on hunts the officers were not obliged to 
 ride far before coming upon herds of grazing buffaloes, 
 and sometimes the animals even came in sight of camp. 
 Once, I remember, we were entertaining a distinguished 
 Eastern journalist. He wanted to return with the rec- 
 ord of a Nimrod, but he was too much exhausted from 
 overwork to attempt riding, and he said, with regret, 
 that he feared he would be obliged to go back without 
 seeing a buffalo, and be unmercifully teased by his 
 friends in the States into the bargain. Still he could 
 not endure to lose for an hour the heaven of calm that 
 his tired head enjoyed under the shade of our tarpau- 
 lin, where we begged him to lounge all day. Of course 
 his enforced quiet was a boon to us. We plied him 
 wuth questions as to Eastern progress, for, reading of 
 new inventions put into use since we had come West, 
 we could not quite understand from the newspaper ac- 
 counts their practical application. I well remember 
 how glad I was out there, wdien the first Elevated Road 
 
PETS OF THE CAMP. 119 
 
 was built in 'New York, to have it carefully explained 
 to me ; for the papers, after all, take it for granted 
 that every one lives in the heart of civilization. As 
 our guest lounged under the shade one day we heard 
 a shout near, the dogs rushed barking to the stream, 
 the men ran at breakneck speed in the same direction, 
 and one of our own people called back, " Buffaloes !" 
 Here was a chance, for, when this Mohammed could 
 not go to the mountain, it bore down on him. The 
 stream was then low, so that with help we could go 
 over on logs and stepping-stones ; and, standing on the 
 other bank, we saw a splendid chase. The officers, al- 
 ways ready to do what they could to entertain stran- 
 gers, had driven the herd as near our tent as possible, 
 and the buffalo singled out to be killed was shot so 
 near us that we all saw it. 
 
 The air of Kansas was so pure that we had no diffi- 
 culty in keeping meat ; but our trial was the rapacity 
 of the dogs. They always seemed to be caverns, and at 
 no hour could we eat without being surrounded by a 
 collection of canines of all ages, which turned up their 
 large appealing eyes to us, contesting in this pathetic 
 manner every mouthful we took. In order to save the 
 buffalo-meat from their tremendous leaps, as they were 
 great thieves, it had to be strung far up in a tree, and 
 let down by ropes when the meat for dinner was to be 
 cut off. By violent " shooing," scolding, and throwing 
 of sticks at the waiting dogs, Eliza cut what was need- 
 ed, and swung the rest back to its safe height. We 
 had then a pet wolf, or rather one that we would have 
 
120 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 liked to pet ; but the wolf is not an easy animal to 
 tame. One of the soldiers, who was so devoted to 
 General Custer that he would have lain down with a 
 lion for his sake, kept the animal in his tent, and the 
 chain allowed it to walk up and down, but, to my great 
 relief, did not admit of a prowl of any considerable 
 length. 
 
 The whole camp seemed like an animated " zoo," and 
 each soldier or officer Avho owned a prized treasure 
 boasted that his was superior to all others. There were 
 besides wolves, prairie-dogs, raccoons, porcupines, wild- 
 cats, badgers, young antelopes, buffalo-calves, and any 
 number of mongrel dogs. Our wolf Dixie, being near 
 the creek, could send his lonely cries at night over the 
 still prairie on the farther side ; and these appealing 
 howls were often answered by other wolves, which we 
 frequently saw in the moonlight, skulking along the 
 bank on the opposite side. 
 
 By this time Eliza had been provided with a few 
 chickens, which were the pride of her life ; and it would 
 be hard to give the reader a conception of how strange 
 their domestic cackle seemed in that wilderness. Eliza's 
 antipathy to the wolf was made a permanent memory, 
 because her nmch-loved poultry suffered from his pres- 
 ence. Here is a report of one of her reminiscences 
 touching the wolf and the other animals of the camp : 
 " You know. Miss Libbie, our wolf Dixie. Well, I 
 had to gain the good-will of him before I got up to 
 him, or he would bite me sure if I didn't. He did 
 bite me once, and I learned something from that. One 
 
VN^i^ 
 
 WARRIOR IN WAR-BONXET. 
 
^i 
 
TETS OF THE CAMP. 121 
 
 day I heered my cliickies a-sqiialling and a-cackling at 
 a great rate, and all of 'em up a tree. I cast my eyes 
 at Dixie's house and Lo was gone ! Miss Libbie, ho 
 had broken his chain, climbed up on some logs and 
 into that tree, and was a-laying out on a limb as nice 
 as ever you see anything in your life, watching chick- 
 ens, and trying to get his chance to leap and catch one. 
 I took hold of his chain and yanked him down, and 
 Dixie was ' mad with me for two.' He used to chaw 
 up the table-cloths and gnaw the sheets if we left 'em 
 anywhere near him, and he was a terror, and I never 
 could see why the ginnel would keep him. But, Miss 
 Libbie, he wa'n't a showin' to that 'coon we had for 
 long-headed mischief. He'd drag everything he could 
 to the tin wash-basin, and fumble everything in the 
 water, and all I could do the ginnel would just lie there 
 and laugh at him. One day he got the ginnel's money 
 out of his pocket-book, and rolled it into little wads. I 
 ketched him, and I says, ' Ginnel, if you don't kill him 
 Iwill^^ but, lor'. Miss Libbie, one of them pets was as 
 precious as if it had been a gold-mine. Do you mind 
 that time the 'coon nearly got killed, the time we just 
 had an old colored man as waiter come to us? The 
 'coon got loose and mounted up on the tent, and the 
 old man hadn't no -notion it was a pet, and he licked 
 and cut around there, and was a-pounding the 'coon, 
 when the ginnel came out. Lord sakes. Miss Libbie ! 
 the old man cut and run the first word the ginnel said. 
 He just hollered to him like as though he was going to 
 leap through him, just to scare him, for fun, you know. 
 
122 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 The old man just sprung to liis feet like lie was a 
 young sparrow, and run back to him, for he liked him. 
 Ginnel says, ' What are you doing V ' Killing a 'coon, 
 sail,' says the old man, and then he found out that all 
 'coons didn't belong to the colored folks. ' Well,' he 
 says, ' if you haven't got anything to do but kill my 
 'coon, come in and wash my collars,' and then the old 
 man primped up his mouth and went at it. Miss Lib- 
 bie, I watched his face, and as they cum to pieces he 
 prepared to cut again, for he had never seed paper col- 
 lars. Some one had given the ginnel a box, thinkin' 
 they would come handy on the march ; but when they 
 cum to pieces he just roared and shouted, and the old 
 man found out, after all, that 'twasn't his fault that the 
 collars didn't stay together." 
 
 Our tents were usually a menagerie of pets : the sol- 
 diers, knowing General Custer's love for them, brought 
 him everything that they could capture. The wolf was 
 the only one of the collection to which I objected. I 
 was afraid of him, and, besides, he kept ns, with his 
 nightly howls, surrounded by his fellow -vagrants of 
 the plains. Our own tent opened on the little plat- 
 form at the rear, and, giving as it did a draught 
 through to the front, made us comfortable during the 
 warmest night. The dogs, of course, ran in and out at 
 will ; no one ever thought of repressing them. The 
 best we had was not considered good enough for them. 
 We knew them to be faithful and affectionate, and we 
 kept them about us almost constantly. We knew their 
 step, even, and could distinguish ours from the others 
 
PETS OF THE CAMP. 123 
 
 in the camp. One niglit I was awakened by the pecul- 
 iar tread of some animal, and woke General Custer. 
 He said it was a large dun-colored dog from camp that 
 was roaming coolly from the fly to the platform ; but to 
 make quite sure he rose to investigate, and came back 
 to take his pistol. This alarmed me, but he soon re- 
 turned and said there was nothing more to be seen of 
 the intruder, and I went to sleep. J^ext morning I 
 was told that our uninvited guest was a large wolf; 
 but, thinking that if I knew it, it would effectually 
 end sleep, General Custer had reserved the informa- 
 tion till day. 
 
 Harrison, the soldier who so adored liis general that 
 he gladly kept the wolf near him, was a little discour- 
 aged one morning, and we learned through Eliza, who 
 was rewarding him with hot biscuit for perils passed, 
 that, awaking in the moonlight, he had found a wolf's 
 head just inside of his tent, and he "reckoned if he 
 kept Dixie much longer the hull tarnal lot of varmints 
 would think they'd got to visit him." 
 
 It was the only time I knew myself to be in such 
 proximity to wolves ; but the calls of the pet animal, 
 added to the temptation offered by the odor of the 
 fresh meat hanging in the tree, made it more than pos- 
 sible that these ugly brutes wandered around our tents 
 night after night. Our dogs were often oS on a pred- 
 atory excursion of their own, and thus left the way 
 open for the strangers. 
 
 A camp is a very still place at night. Military rule 
 is so rigid that a soldier is not permitted to leave his 
 
12i FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 tent after taps without special permission. Of course 
 there is always a daring set of men who do go to the 
 nearest town ; but they learn to skulk in shadows, and 
 creep off so silently that the sentinel on his beat, no 
 matter how vigilant, can be easily evaded. In one of 
 the tents within call — that is to say, a loud call — of 
 ours, we had a dear friend who was very plucky. She 
 could fire a revolver, and as the officers added, "hit 
 something, too," which was so significantly said that 
 the dullest of us drew the conclusion that they thought 
 it an impossibility for the rest of us ever to have an 
 accurate aim. These tents, like ours, were near the 
 stream, and domestic life went on there as happily as if 
 the tent had been a palace. These friends were affec- 
 tionately called the " Smithies"; that is, the husband was 
 called " Fresh " 'Smith, to distinguish him from the sea 
 captain in our regiment, who was " Salt " Smith, and 
 the wife was Mrs. Smithy. Sometimes the head of the 
 house answered if called " Pilgrim," which appellation, 
 traced out, was found to have reference to the gray 
 clothes he wore when he reported for duty, and also 
 to be connected with some discordant notes he insisted 
 upon singing, which, after much trouble, his jocular 
 companions discovered to be an attempt at the hymn, 
 " I'm a pilgrim and I'm a stranger." He was either 
 musically unequal to the task, or he never was allowed 
 to finish the "Do not detain me." It was an altogether 
 unnecessary request, for no one thought of detaining 
 him if he attempted to sing. 
 
 When he reported for duty in camp, before Mrs. 
 
PETS OF THE CAMP. 125 
 
 Smith joined liiin, he was met by our brother Tom, 
 who was cordial and hospitable, as was liis wont, urg- 
 ing the new-comer to go to his tent until his own was 
 pitched, and help himself to anything that was needed. 
 Tom, being on duty, could do no more than point out 
 tlie way. Captain Smith was a brave soldier, as his 
 disabled shoulder proved. After the war he had re- 
 ceived an appointment in the regular anny as reward 
 for his services, and this was his lirst appearance on the 
 plains. 
 
 The captain did not feel wholly at ease as he ap- 
 proached Colonel Tom's tent. A wolf was chained at 
 the entrance, growling and walking his restless beat, as 
 is the custom of that animal. He knew that it \vas re- 
 garded as a pet, but a wolf is a wolf, and do what you 
 will, the familiar prowling gait of the jackal or panther 
 is kept night and day, and the vicious eye roams from 
 side to side in search of game upon which the beast 
 can make his co\vardly spring. Thinking of " Pilgrim's 
 Progress," and the approach to the castle, the young 
 stranger accomplished the entrance successfully, ex- 
 pecting momentarily that the wolf would set his teeth 
 in his unprotected calves, only to be met with threat- 
 ening grow^ls from under the bed. The red eyes of 
 Brandy, the greatest fighting dog of the regiment, 
 glared at him, and a whole -set of molars ^vas lavishly 
 exhibited. While the stranger stood irresolute in the 
 centre of the small tent, the snakes in the boxes set up a 
 rattling that was not to be mistaken for anything else. 
 When Tom came hurrying in from drill, some time 
 
126 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 after, his guest was prepared for a roar of merriment 
 at what he supposed was intended as a joke ; but, on 
 the contrary, Tom having been accustomed to strange 
 room-mates, it had really not occurred to him that 
 there is always a first time for every one, and so 
 " Smithy " had passed alone through a part of his ini- 
 tiation. 
 
 Smithy was compelled to wait a short time for his 
 own tent, and Tom entertained him with an exhibition 
 of his snakes, and stories of the prowess of his dog. In 
 one of the contests illustrating Brandy's tenacity of 
 grip our bull-dog — Turk — had figured. So savage had 
 the dogs become that no ordinary means could separate 
 them. At last an officer knelt down and bit one of 
 Brandy's toes with all his might, but he did not relax 
 his grip in the least ; then Colonel Tom seized a car- 
 bine, thrust it into the dog's collar, twisted it till Bran- 
 dy gurgled and choked, and was compelled to drop 
 " the under dog in the fight." After that, if Tom was 
 separated from us, he would write, " Brandy sends his 
 love to Turk, ' his dearest foe ;' " and when he came back 
 it became the study of every one to see that these im- 
 placable enemies should not meet. When Brandy's 
 record had been aired to Captain Smith, the history of 
 the snakes was narrated, and the wolf also had special 
 attention ; but the pitching of his tent gave the new 
 officer an opportunity to regain the equilibrium that 
 had been so disturbed on his entrance into the new 
 life. 
 
 The Smiths themselves soon gathered a little coUec- 
 
PETS OF THE CAMP. 127 
 
 tioii of pets about tliera, and even a stupid little prairie- 
 dog was partially tamed by their care. They had in 
 time a buffalo-calf, which soon grew to be as much at 
 home as if it had been a descendant of domesticated 
 animals. Sometimes the soldier who cooked for them 
 thought the calf altogether too familiar when he came 
 galloping down to the cook-tent, knocking the camp- 
 kettles about, butting at everything (the cook included) 
 in the desire to exhibit a pair of growing horns. 
 
 The calf knew and was accustomed to officers and 
 their uniforms, but one day one of them appeared in a 
 spotless suit of white duck. It was warm, and the cool 
 clothes were very aggravating to those who had none 
 and were clad in woollen. The guest stroked the calf, 
 petted and pla^^ed with the apparently innocent animal, 
 not noticing that the bushy little head dropped lower 
 and lower. The spectators knew this ominous sign, but 
 said nothing, trying even to hide the gleam in their 
 eyes. In a flash the owner of the hated white duck 
 was picking himself up from a neighboring mud-pud- 
 dle, while the apparently innocent calf went on graz- 
 ing as if he had not so much as thought of experiment- 
 ing with his embryo horns. 
 
 There were animals that w^ere not sought as pets, 
 and naturally the " prairie dandy " was one. We were 
 made aware that these animals w^ere around us, for the 
 dogs, in their zeal for game, made no distinction. After 
 a successful chase of the polecat by themselves, they 
 came bounding back to us in a most triumphant man- 
 ner, sure of a welcome, and prepared to get on the bed, 
 
128 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 under it, in the camp-cliairs, on my lap, anywhere they 
 could be sure was the best and easiest place. Their 
 look was full of surprise and reproach when all their 
 friends started hurriedly to their feet, seized sticks, 
 cliairs, anything to hurl at them, shouting wildly, " Get 
 out ! get out, you brutes !" while onlj^ that morning we 
 had exhausted the vocabulary and coined words to tell 
 them what darlings they were. Of course, followed by 
 every available missile, they beat a retreat, but not for 
 any great distance. Perfectly unconscious why they 
 were not as acceptable at night as in the morning, 
 they sat in a grieving semicircle some distance out in 
 front of the tent, and reproved us by pitiful inquiring 
 whines, by short interrogatory barks, by wagging tails 
 and sinuous bodies, trying by their expressive motions 
 to argue us out of our hard-heartedness. 
 
 There was another enemy that we did not cultivate 
 livins: alonsc the stream. We had a little cellar that 
 the soldiers liad dug in the side bank, making a roof 
 of logs, and covering all with earth ; a rude door was 
 cobbled out of drift-wood planks — for if you wait long 
 enough on a Kansas stream you can almost count on 
 any houses, fences, or household utensils you need being 
 washed down to you, if there are any settlements above, 
 so violent are the freshets. This cellar, being the first 
 we had ever had, was a great possession to us, and we 
 proceeded to get supplies from the commissary in some 
 quantities, instead of, as usual, sending daily for enough 
 to last twenty-four hours. The cellar was pronounced 
 a grand success until it began to empty with such ra- 
 
PETS OF THE CAMP. 129 
 
 pidity that we mildly asked Eliza if we had not better 
 order the whole Commissary Department down at once. 
 We even lost some supplies for w^hicli we had been ex- 
 travagant enough to send to St. Louis. 
 
 Eliza says : " I used to hear a crawling near my tent. 
 There was an old fallen tree near, and the creeping 
 and crawling and sneaking 'peared to be right there. 
 I thought it was a snake. I just kept missing my things 
 out of the cellar right along. I was afraid to report 
 it, 'cause I was afraid it was somebody stealing. Final- 
 ly I told the ginnel my potatoes was agoing so fast I 
 didn't know what was the cause of it. You know, 
 Miss Libbie, he was always a-teasing me, 'cause, he said, 
 I fed so many ; so he says : ' I know the cause of it. Just 
 as like as not there's an orphan asylum started again 
 near my tent.' Next morning I had everything ready 
 to cook breakfast, and w^as running up the hill to wake 
 you and the ginnel. As I was a-passing that old hollow 
 tree I saw the biggest rat I ever did see, a-looking at 
 me as sassy as ever you saw anything. Well, I didn't 
 think it was a rat. I ran on to the tent and said, ' Gin- 
 nel, get right up and see the biggest rat you ever did 
 see.' He says, ' Eat ! where ? who ever heard tell of rats 
 in the timber V But he jumped up and dressed, and 
 come down. Oh, my sakes, Miss Libbie ! thar the rat 
 lay, with his paws sticking out, ready to run out of the 
 tree again. Well, he had carried out a load that night, 
 but he had lugged out a loaf of bread, and got stuck 
 on that, for he couldn't tug it into his den. The offi- 
 cers all come up, and every one had a shoot at it, but 
 9 
 
130 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the rat ran in, and they had to split open the tree be- 
 fore they could get at him. Everything* got together 
 to have a look at him after he was killed, for he was a 
 foot and a half long. He had in that old tree two 
 buckets of potatoes, two candles, and a box of matches 
 (the ginnel said he was fixing to get supper), a package 
 of chocolate, beans, and lots of other things, as he was 
 laying by stores for winter." 
 
 It was not pleasant to feel that we had such loath- 
 some neighbors, but after I saw the rat I never felt 
 sure that one like it would not dart through the tent, 
 and every strange sound was attributed to them. But 
 no such daring trespasser was found again on our door- 
 step almost — that is to say, what would have been a 
 door-step if we had possessed a door. 
 
 * Eliza's expression " everything " meant everything human in 
 camp — officers, soldiers, quartermasters, quartermaster's employes, 
 and servants. 
 
stable Call. 
 
 1^^ 
 
 ^-^^ 
 
 :n-^- 
 
 1CW=^W=W 
 
 t^=LJ d v^- 
 
 n 
 
 Come off to the sta - ble All ye who are a - ble, And 
 ^— #f— ^ = ^ 
 
 :t=f=t^ 
 
 _IIIjiz3=^ 
 
 give your hors - es some oats and some com; 
 
 :i=_#_«_«_^ 
 
 For 
 
 ^z^-^-t=^. 
 
 if you don't do it Your col 
 
 onel ■will know it, 
 
 And then you will rue it 
 
 you're born. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A SLOW MULE-RACE. 
 
 The dislike I always had for liorse-racing was some- 
 what abated when I learned, after my marriage, how 
 different an affair it is when conducted by gentlemen. 
 There were none of the usual obnoxious features of a 
 course. The officers rode their own horses ; there was 
 no pool-selling ; all the sport was within the Govern- 
 ment reservation, or near camp, where no rough char- 
 acters were admitted. We women were always expect- 
 ed to be present, and the rest of the spectators were the 
 soldiers, who rejoiced in an opportunity to vary their 
 dull lives, and though deprived of the privilege of 
 backing their captains or lieutenants with money, they 
 
132 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 made up with boasts and applause. The officers, kept 
 down to a light weight by their active life, and learn- 
 ing to a nicety how to sit on their horses so as to favor 
 them as to weight, often got as much out of them as a 
 jockey could have done. We women felt that we would 
 gladly sacrifice the few seconds of time that a lighter 
 weight might make, to be permitted to look upon the 
 easy grace and fine physique of a gentleman as rider 
 instead of the wizened little monkey that the profes- 
 sional jockey seems when mounted. 
 
 The Seventh Cavalry spent several winters at Fort 
 Leavenworth, where there were comfortable quarters, 
 and the city, a few miles distant, offered a great variety 
 of privileges to men who were most of the year in the 
 field. There was a track on the reservation, where our 
 horses were timed, and many happy hours were spent 
 glorying in the speed, the beauty, the endurance of the 
 animals we owned. The track was on the side farthest 
 from the town, and perfectly retired. There was a 
 little stand for the group of ladies who accompanied 
 their husbands or their lovers, for there was much 
 sweethearting at that delightful post, and the joyous 
 cavalcade riding over the pretty road to the track made 
 litiusic with their voices and happy laughter. 
 / We had at one time sixteen horses ridden by their 
 owners at a hurdle-race, which was arranged only for 
 ourselves. The prizes were gold spurs and a silver- 
 mounted riding -whip. If our officers were not all 
 handsome, one was deceived into thinking they were, 
 for the brilliant eyes, the glow of health, the proud 
 
A SLOW MULE-RACE. 133 
 
 carriage of the head, which is a soldier's characteristic, 
 and, above all, the symmetry of their well-developed 
 figures, gave one the impression that there was little 
 to be desired in the general make-up of the men. 
 These gentlemen riders were in gay jockey costumes, 
 and the bright colors were reflected by knots of rib- 
 bon, or the scarfs about the pretty throats of the ad- 
 miring womon who looked on. The track was lined 
 for some distance with the blue blouses of the excited 
 soldiers, who were allowed to come eii masse. It was 
 decidedly a home-party, but none the less enthusiastic 
 on that account. 
 
 The first hurdle was taken almost simultaneously by 
 the sixteen riders, and as they vaulted into air rider 
 and horse exhibited alike the greatest joy, and scarce- 
 ly seemed to touch the earth before they shot ofi for 
 another hurdle. All that wretched feeling of anxiety 
 one experiences in looking on the set features and 
 wild-eyed frenzy of the professional jockey, and on 
 the absorbed, strained gaze of the by-standers when 
 large sums are at stake on a regular race-course, was 
 left out of our races. When money comes in, it is, to 
 say the least, a disturbing element, and real sport can 
 be had where gain is not in question. The familiar 
 phrase which describes horse and rider as one is most 
 perfectly justified when officers and soldiers ride thus 
 in friendly rivalry. They not only sit the horse as if 
 they really were centaurs, but the sympathy that ex- 
 ists between the animal and his master, after years of 
 daily association, becomes almost human. 
 
134 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 The officers spoke of the humor their horses were in 
 as married people refer to the peculiar state of mind 
 the circumstances or the day produces. For instance, 
 riding beside us, they said : " I don't find Lulie or 
 Peggy " (or whatever the name happened to be), " in 
 first-rate humor this morning. I shall leave her to 
 herself a while till she gets over her sulks;" or another 
 would ask permission to leave the ranks, and the rest, 
 
 looking after him, would say : " There goes to 
 
 fight it out with his stubborn old brute of a Nero;" 
 and after a while the subdued horse, carrying his tri- 
 umphant master, returned to his place. Some one else, 
 perhaps, observed : " My horse is teasing for a run, 
 and bother it all, here we are, sandwiched in between 
 the old jog-trotters at four miles an hour !" 
 
 Of course, when our men came to put their horses 
 to their mettle, as in a race, they knew how to get their 
 best out of them. They leaned forward, to throw their 
 weight from the back as much as possible, and with 
 their faces down almost on their horses' necks, they 
 knew pet phrases and encouraging words that were 
 secrets between master and beast, having been learned 
 on many a lonely ride over the plains ; and hearing 
 these murmured in the sensitive ear, the animal in- 
 stantly responded by increased effort. 
 
 Our hurdle-race ended suddenly by an accident to 
 one of the officers. We resolved to discourage hurdle- 
 jumping after that, when we saw the handsome head 
 of one of our best riders in the dust. The group gath- 
 ering round him, two of the riders returning, the sol- 
 
A SLOW MULE-EACE. 135 
 
 diers carrying the insensible officer to an ambulance, 
 made a sad and anxious spectacle for the little group 
 of women, off by themselves, especially for each one 
 who feared that the wounded man might prove to be 
 her husband ; it proved to be a bachelor officer in- 
 stead. The horse, faltering, had rolled over him ; but 
 the breaking of an arm and a rib or two were light 
 affiictions to him, and he was soon himself, making 
 light of his accident, regretting with all his heart that 
 he had proved a " spoil sport." The two riders who 
 gave up their race to return to their fallen comrade 
 lost their oj)portunity to win the prizes, and one of 
 them, the best rider in the regiment, had every pros- 
 pect of triumph when, with rare self-denial, he aban- 
 doned the contest to care for his friend. 
 
 While we were at Fort Leavenworth there was a 
 mule-race arranged to be run on our track, and the 
 preparations were most elaborate ; hearing the arrange- 
 ments so much talked of and studied over, we could 
 scarcely wait for the day. A purse of fifty dollars was 
 made up for the prizes. In the first 23lace, the women 
 were all tranquil in their minds. There would be no 
 lofty leaps over dangerous hurdles, for reasons that the 
 mule could ofl[er; and as one of the conditions was 
 that the slowest animal was to win, even the most 
 timid woman need not dread reckless speed. The Gov- 
 ernment sent out from Fort Leavenworth, then the 
 headquarters of the division, great trains of supplies 
 for the far-distant posts ; consequently there were many 
 mules always in the quartermaster's corral. And they 
 
136 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 were not only many in number, but various in charac- 
 ter, from the skittish little leaders to the ponderous 
 wheelers. The latter were no one knows how old ; 
 they were stiff and lumbering, and their tough old 
 sides seared and hairless, in long welts, where the har- 
 ness had worn into the flesh in many a pull through 
 sand or muddy river-bottom, or up the steep banks of 
 streams. 
 
 It was over these antiques that the officers lingered. 
 They sought out the dullest and the laziest, and were 
 assured by the teamsters, when asking about their pow- 
 ers of lagging, that if it was laziness they were look- 
 ing for, " that 'ere brute could beat the record." Poor, 
 down-trodden animals, working all their dull lives in 
 heavy harness, never in all their days so much as ask- 
 ed to go out of a walk, now suddenly to be launched 
 upon the world as racers ! Each officer, after his se- 
 lection from the corral, had his mule conveyed to his 
 own stable, and there in privacy he practised the art, 
 new to all of them, of mounting mule-back. The ani- 
 mal, always taught to think that his mission in this 
 world was to writhe and struggle through life under 
 harness, had to be made acquainted little by little with 
 a saddle. It was a long and dangerous instruction. 
 
 The mule General Custer selected never submitted 
 to the discipline until the most marvellous harness was 
 invented by the would-be rider, which so bound in ev- 
 ery muscle, and subdued every kicking heel, that at last 
 the saddle could be adjusted. General Custer, always 
 brimming .over with fun, had determined to add to the 
 
A SLOW MULE-KACE. 137 
 
 amusement of the day by selecting the animal that the 
 entire quartermaster's department declared to be the 
 most obstreperous. His record as a kicker was well 
 known. Eliza described the mules that hauled our 
 travelling-wagon along a quiet road as " the stupidest, 
 stubbornest, most contrary animals ever I did see," and 
 here was one that was renowned for being the most 
 " coutt'ai'y " of all that were used in the department. 
 
 The harness prepared extended from the tips of the 
 mule's ears to the last hairs on the tail. There were 
 huge blinders, consisting of a strap over his ears and 
 broadening over the face like a mask. The whole 
 body was a net-work of straps of leather, which bound 
 the rebellious animal from head to foot. Even with 
 the mask down, the orderly had to throw his coat over 
 the entire head while General Custer leaped with the 
 quickness of a cat into the saddle. The officers had 
 heard something of the history of this mule from the 
 quartermaster's employes, and when the time came for 
 each officer to give up his mule and take another — for 
 it was the rule that no one should ride his own animal — 
 the one to whom the famous kicker fell was somewhat 
 doubtful whether he might not be prevented by the 
 animal from joining in the race at all. When General 
 Custer, incited by the spirit of mischief, which was up- 
 permost in a frolic, insisted upon taking his newly in- 
 vented harness as well as his saddle to put on the mule 
 he had drawn, there was a wild uproar and a general 
 protest. 
 
 The thirteen gentlemen did not look like gentlemen, 
 
138 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 for all, catching the spirit of the occasion, were attired 
 in peculiar costumes, each flying a color or colors that 
 were as infelicitous as the beasts they had selected. 
 One of the young men was an object of ridicule be- 
 cause of his bald head. For some strange reason his 
 hair had dropped out, and his head looked like a bill- 
 iard ball. The fine curly wig, the chef-cVmuvre of the 
 town barber, was wisely left at home, as there was a 
 not unfounded idea that the kicking would almost dis- 
 lodge well-rooted hair, to sa}^ nothing of wigs. The 
 courage of this officer in appearing in so ridiculous a 
 plight ought to have insured him immunity from the 
 laughing taunts of his fellows ; but for fear he should 
 be assailed, he prepared his revenge in advance, and had 
 his mule carefully covered with a thick coat of white 
 paint ; while the discussions preliminary to the race 
 went on he rode unconcernedly among the riders, jos- 
 tling every one, until he had left so much of the paint 
 on his comrades that the mule's hide was quite visible 
 again. Spurring their animals to get out of his way 
 only put them in more fiendish temper, and the buck- 
 ing, backing, and kicking were general. 
 
 It was plain that each mule was determined to pro- 
 test against taking the track, and each objected in his 
 own particular fashion. From the ladies' stand it looked 
 like a conglomeration of hoofs, tails, fluttering ribbons, 
 and flying coat-tails, legs vigorously digging spurs into 
 ribs, arms swinging, whips waving, and every one talk- 
 ing at once, but not drowning the braying of the out- 
 raged animals. 
 
A SLOW MULE-RACE. 139 
 
 A programme was prepared, in which some names 
 were inserted that may not be understood, unless it is 
 known that hardtack was issued by the commissary. 
 " Eaton " was the name of the quartermaster who gave 
 out the contracts ; and " Card " was the name of anoth- 
 er quartermaster, who had charge of the wagon train, 
 muleteers, etc. The programme ran as follows : 
 
 UISriTED STATES i COUESE. 
 
 Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 
 
 JUNE MEETING, 
 
 TUESDAY, JUNE 16th, 1868, 4 P.M. 
 
 MULE-RACE ! 
 
 ONE-MILE DASH SLOW EACE. 
 
 $50 
 
 1. General Custer enters Hyankedank, by Hifalutin, out 
 of Snollygoster, second dam Buckjump, by Thunder, out of 
 You Bet. Age, threescore years and ten. Colors, ring-ed, 
 streak-ed, and strip-ed. 
 
 2. General McKeever enters Hard Tack, by Commissary, 
 by Eaton (eatin'), second dam Contractor, by Morgan, out 
 of Missouri. Age, forty years. Colors, purple, tipped with 
 orange. 
 
 3. Colonel Parsons enters Symmetry (see me try), by 
 Considerably, out of Pocket, second dam Polly Tix, by 
 Nasby, out of Office. Age, seventeen years. Colors, un- 
 commonly blue. 
 
 4. Captain Yates enters William Tell, by Switzerland, by 
 Apple Tree, second dam Gessler, by Hapsburg, out of Aus- 
 tria. Age, eighteen years. Colors, apple green. 
 
140 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 5. Lieutenant Leary enters Trump, by Card, out of Con- 
 tractor, second dam Leader, by Mule-Teer, out of Wagon. 
 Age, ten years. Colors, lemon. 
 
 6. Lieutenant Jackson enters Abyssinia, by Napier, out 
 of Africa, dam Theodorus, by Solomon, out of Magdala. 
 Age, thirty -nine years. Colors, scarlet, yellow spots. 
 
 7. Colonel Myers enters Pizzarro, by Peru, out of South 
 America, second dam Cuzco, by Incas, out of Andes. Age, 
 sixteen years. Colors, light brown. 
 
 8. Lieutenant Umbstaetter enters Skirmisher, by Picket, 
 out of Camp, second dam Carbine, by Breech Loader, out of 
 Magazine. Age, twenty -five years. Colors, dark blue, tipped 
 with red. 
 
 9. Lieutenant Moylan enters Break-Neck, by Runaway, 
 out of Wouldn't Go, second dam Contusion, by Collision, 
 out of Accident. Age, fifty-six. Colors, sky blue. 
 
 10. Captain Huntington, enters Spavin, by Quartermaster, 
 out of Government, second dam (not worth one). Age, 
 twenty-one years. Colors, a-knock-to-ruin (an octoroon). 
 
 11. Lieutenant Howe enters Slow, by Tardy, out of Late, 
 second dam Lazy, by Inactive. Age, three times 6, four 
 times seven, twenty-eight and 11. Colors, queer. 
 
 12. Lieutenant Dunwoody enters Horatio, by Dexterity, 
 by Taunt, second dam Estop. Age, fourteen years. Colors, 
 tawney. 
 
 13. Captain Weir enters Revolutionist, by Hard Luck, 
 out of Rib Smasher, second dam Blood Blister, by Can't- 
 Stand-it, out of Let's Quit. Age, sixteen. Colors, black- 
 and-blue. 
 
 Note. — The money accruing from this race is to be devoted to the 
 support of the widows and orphans made so thereby. 
 
 If there is a reporter more energetic tHaii another it 
 is the Western man. The enterprise that drives him 
 
■ A SLOW MULE-EACE. 141 
 
 West furnishes plenty of perseverance to penetrate 
 wherever there promises to be novelty. The mule-race 
 was unique, and the Leavenworth newspaper proved 
 that there was a " chiel amang us takin' notes," which 
 was, in reality, very easy to do, as the soldier, though 
 he is silent on duty, cannot be muzzled when he gets 
 furlough to go into town. The personal references in 
 the following newspaper article were to officers who 
 were either very large, very staid, or extremely quiet, 
 and in one or two instances no longer young, which 
 made the allusions extremely funny to us who knew 
 them. The sensational exaggeration of Western jour- 
 nalism is sometimes got up to order now, in expecta- 
 tion of the instant appropriation of the wit by ex- 
 changes ; but at that time it was spontaneous, and 
 reflected the every -day habits of speech in the West : 
 
 THE GREAT SLOW MULE-RACE TO-DAY. 
 
 A FEAST OF REASON AND A FLOW OF SOUL. 
 
 INTENSE EXCITEMENT - THRILLING TIMES AHEAD. 
 
 Cato, a distinguished old grumbler, who resided some- 
 where some centuries ago, it is said, rebuked a good rider 
 at a steeple-chase by telling him that his skill and ability 
 were thrown away. Cato owed his publisher, hence Cato 
 was sour and down on racing. 
 
 Gentle reader — that is to say, girls and boys — were you 
 ever at a mule-race — a slow mule-race — a mule-race with 
 Sheridan and Card and Gibbs and McNutt and Mills ? If 
 not, we advise you to go this afternoon. 
 
 W 
 
142 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 THE RACE. 
 
 Every commissioned officer at this post has either to ride 
 at the race this afternoon or pay a forfeit of five dollars. As 
 money is scarce, and times tough at present, nearly all the 
 officers will ride. At the call of time each rider is to mount 
 his own mule, and parade before the judge's stand to show 
 that he is not afraid. The judge then gives the order to 
 dismount and " swap mules." At this command every rider 
 mounts a strange mule — no one being allowed to ride his 
 own. Then, at a signal, all start, each riding his darndest, 
 and the mule that comes in last wins the race. 
 
 With feelings of deep regret we announce that the major- 
 general commanding will not ride. This may be relied on 
 as positive. He has paid his forfeit. He had bought him 
 a little bob-tailed, blue, mouse-colored mule, and was train- 
 ing him like Sam Hill, when an idea struck him, to wit, that 
 there were poets in Kansas. Suppose, thought he, that one 
 of these fellows should get olf a strain called " Sheridan's 
 Mule-ride !" The thought sickened him, and, as aforesaid, 
 he paid his forfeit. Buchanan Reid came near ruining 
 Sheridan. After Jim Murdock first spouted the poem, every 
 little girl and boy, every tough old maid, every big-paunched 
 parson, every lawyer, every doctor, and everybody just rode 
 Sheridan, until, from sheer exhaustion, he asked to be sent 
 to the Indian country. 
 
 GIBBS WILL RIDE. 
 
 The gallant general commanding the post will ride — 
 feather-weight. The general is said to be an accomplished 
 mulist. General McNutt will also ride his trained mule 
 Calamity, said to be one of the slowest mules in the depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Card and Morgan have paired off, and paid their forfeits 
 
A SLOW MDLE-KACE. 143 
 
 like men. Both were raised on mules, as it were, and liave 
 ridden them from infancy, but the responsibilities weighing 
 upon them were too great, and they were reluctantly forced 
 to forego. 
 
 Dr. Mills won't ride, as he expects to be on hand to attend 
 the wounded. He paid his forfeit like a Muncie chief. 
 Dr. Brewer will be there, however, with his black-and-tan 
 mule, Esculapius, and expects to get round if they will give 
 him time enough. 
 
 The gallant Yates, with his massive three-deck jackass, 
 proposes to go through on his own quarter-deck. 
 
 Both the Forsyths will appear above the horizon, and be 
 visible to the naked eye, on gorgeous mules. Three friends 
 are backing them against the field. 
 
 The chivalrous Parsons and the fiery Custer are practising 
 on two mules. We saw them the other evening " rehears- 
 ing" in a ten-acre field, to the tune of "Benny Havens."* 
 They propose to cross the last ditch, and as they are polite- 
 ness itself, each will insist on crossing last. 
 
 The magnificent band from the Fort will be on hand to 
 discourse sweet music. Boys, you'd better go and take the 
 girls. These mule-races are fine places to study human nat- 
 ure. Every jackass, properly observed, contains a sermon — 
 or perhaps two. Else why did Goldsmith write of the Vicar 
 of Bray ? f 
 
 When McKeever rides everybody should be on hand. 
 Talk of John Gilpin or Israel Putnam ! They are nothing 
 to McKeever on a graphic mule. McKeever's friends are 
 taking odds on him. Boys, go ! 
 
 When the race finally began each officer forgot per- 
 sonal appearance, ignored the ridiculous position into 
 
 * The West Point tune. 
 
 f The reporter's information concerning classic English litera- 
 ture seems to have needed some refreshing. 
 
144: FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 which he had put himself, and bent every energy of 
 his body and mind to getting over that mile of earth. 
 It was as ridiculous a sight as is not often seen. Men 
 who prided themselves on having a perfect seat in the 
 saddle, now doubled up in a heap, dug their knees into 
 the animals' sides, and shouted as they tried to get the 
 " dumb, driven " creatures into a gallop. Imagine how 
 surprised the mules must have been to be lashed into 
 a lumbering run ! The officers' legs and arms were fly- 
 ing, the mules' long ears flopping in indignation, while 
 their tails flew up in angry protest at every cut of the 
 whip. These queer tails were shaved according to the 
 fancy of the teamsters, only one little tuft usually being 
 left on the end, like a lion's brush, while in some cases 
 two rings of hair were spared at stated intervals to 
 vary the plain surface. Whether tufted or plain, the 
 animated tails expressed the mules' idea of the situa- 
 tion most graphically. 
 
 As each officer came straggling in by the judge's 
 stand, quite done up with fatigue from his exertions 
 in chastising his animal, he was greeted with applause ; 
 but when, after fifteen minutes, the last one entered, 
 fagged and heated with the whacking he had adminis- 
 tered to the unconscious and indifferent winner of the 
 prize, all the company lifted up their voices in cries of 
 excited merriment, while the beast that had won on his 
 demerits and not on his gifts, if he had any, declined 
 even to look around, but hung his dejected head and 
 drooped his wide ears, and allowed the anger to depart 
 from the much tufted and trimmed appendage, while 
 
A SLOW MULE-EACE. 145 
 
 he was decked witli a gaudy ribbon as an emblem of 
 victory. 
 
 Then our gay afternoon ended, and every one mount- 
 ed spirited horses and started for home. First came 
 the officers, eagerly talking over the race to the women 
 who rode by their sides ; then all the orderlies, riding 
 at the regulation distance in the rear, disputing quietly, 
 for fear of reprimand, over their especial views of the 
 afternoon sport ; while a crowd of vociferous, jolly sol- 
 diers, too far back to be heard and brought to order, 
 laughed and shouted and rehearsed the events of the 
 day in eager, buoyant tones, as pleased over the droll af- 
 fair as if they had taken part in it, and each one boast- 
 ed over the doings of the officer he especially liked, as 
 if a vast sum of money and the reputation of thorough- 
 breds had been at stake. 
 
 The dews of evening were falling, and as our way 
 for a time led through the rich bottom-land of the 
 river, the flowers and the blossoms of the wild grape 
 loaded the air with fragrance. It is seldom that so 
 light-hearted and joyous a company of people is gath- 
 ered together. They were light in pocket, it is true, 
 but rich in health, in the keenest capability for enjoy- 
 ment, in blessed fellowship for each other. Take envy 
 out of a character and it leaves great possibility for 
 friendship. Every one was so nearly even in the dis- 
 tribution of this world's goods and its gifts that there 
 was little chance for that covetousness which eats like 
 a canker. 
 
 If we had gone out with full purses, and had returned 
 10 
 
146 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 with them empty, after the fashion of the race-course, 
 the laugh would not have been so ringing, or the sound 
 of merriment in the voices so free and fun-provoking. 
 Delighting in contrasts, we drew pictures of the now 
 distinguished - looking men as they had appeared in 
 their grotesque attitudes and ridiculous energy over 
 the " cattle " they had urged on to victory. The cav- 
 alcade was now something to rejoice in, and as the long 
 line of horsemen wound through the wood and along 
 the country road, the days of knight-errantry might 
 seem, in the dim twilight, to have returned again in this 
 nineteenth century. 
 
1RoQue'6 /Rarcb. 
 
 Poor old 
 
 i 
 
 p=5^ 
 
 
 
 sol - dier. Poor old sol - dier, He'll be tarred and feathered and 
 
 
 j—Dij-rJ — iz^ — ^4: 
 
 sent 
 
 to h— 1, Be - cause he would -n't sol - dier well.' 
 
 ^= 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 TALES OF SOLDIERS DEVOTION AND DEOLLERT. 
 
 By one of tlie changes that are constantly occurring 
 in tlie line of duty, our brother Tom lost his tent-mate. 
 There was no use in lamenting this apparently small 
 circumstance, but still we could not help doing so, as 
 the two had great comfort out of the intimate com- 
 panionship ; but there was another, and a ludicrous as- 
 pect of the change. Colonel Tom's tent-mate was afraid 
 of snakes, and had good reason to be, as is subsequent- 
 ly explained. He had used Tom as a barricade on one 
 side of the mattress spread on the ground, while the 
 combined outfit of the two was heaped upon the other, 
 as if it had all belonged to the younger oflScer, and thus 
 he slept. This great, splendid fellow Tom, groaning 
 
148 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 over the exposed position lie was destined to occupy 
 alone in his tent, was an amusing sight ; but his anxie- 
 ties were very real, and nothing was too small in the 
 way of a grievance for all of us to enter into it sympa- 
 thetically in that circumscribed life. As the officer 
 moving sat with us his man, an old Irish soldier named 
 Hughes, kept travelling by carrying the " traps " of his 
 lieutenant. Presently Tom cried out to the soldier : 
 " See here, Hughes, it seems to me you're making a 
 good many journeys, considering the condition of your 
 lieutenant's wardrobe," and out he went to overhaul 
 the load. Hughes, to reconcile his officer to leaving 
 his tent-mate, and to supply some long-felt wants in 
 the improvident lieutenant's outfit, had quietly ex- 
 tracted some of Tom's best things. When Tom came 
 back with a bundle, of which he had relieved Hughes, 
 he found even his tooth-brush and sponge in the par- 
 cel, and the laughing lieutenant, shaking with fun at 
 Tom's indignation, said, calmly : " Hughes is so provi- 
 dent I never seem to need anything ; I never ask how 
 it happens that my holey socks are replaced by good 
 ones, and my ragged underclothing in a single night 
 comes out whole, if I happen to have a guest, but I do 
 draw the line at a second-hand supply of tooth-brushes 
 and sponges. There are limits even to friendship, and 
 those two commodities I prefer shall be new." 
 
 It is, and has been for all time, a characteristic of 
 army servants that however immaculate their honesty 
 may be where they themselves are concerned (and they 
 can be trusted with everything), they relax when it 
 
149 
 
 comes to setting up the officer tliey serve with what 
 they think a suitable outfit. 
 
 Once at Winchester, during the war, we entertained 
 General Sheridan and his staff. It was a cold night, 
 and the officers did not all take an orderly, as is their 
 custom, not liking to expose the men to the bitter air. 
 While we were welcoming and ontertaining our guests 
 in the old Virginia house used as headquarters, our 
 men in the stable were doing the same with the order- 
 lies. As the pipes went round, and the canteen of w^his- 
 key was tipped, one soldier, conspiring with his com- 
 rades, slipped out of the circle and replaced all the 
 shining bridles, and some of the fresh saddle-cloths 
 and stirrups, with our well-worn property. In the dark, 
 and in the excitement of departure, these changes were 
 not noticed ; but next morning a friendly note came 
 with very pointed remarks about the cavalry thief be- 
 ing the most unscrupulous and adroit in the service, 
 and the first that General Custer knew of the "lift- 
 ing" was the announcement that General Sheridan 
 made. No one could help laughing, however, at the 
 shameless audacity of our men, who thought a major- 
 general's outfit just as available for looting purposes as 
 that of a second lieutenant, when the replenishing of 
 their own officers' outfit was in question. 
 
 The devotion of the soldiers to their officers w\is so 
 great that they were capable of such self-sacrifice as is 
 seldom known outside of the army. They kept the 
 purse sometimes, and when their spendthrift master 
 demanded money, if he happened to be not quite him- 
 
150 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 self, the faithful soldier refused to give it, or declared 
 that it was all gone ; but afterwards, when the mess bill 
 was to be paid, the necessary funds were forthcoming. 
 I remember that General Custer and I were paying 
 a visit at the tent of an Irish officer who had turned 
 himself over to his man for safe-keeping. Literally, he 
 had given himself up to be directed as Finnigan willed 
 — not, of course, in official affairs, but in every-day do- 
 ings. He even enjoyed declaring that he had no fur- 
 ther responsibility in life. Finnigan kept track of his 
 purse, his clothes, his outfit, his debts. He did not 
 know where anything was, and he did not propose to 
 inquire. "Wishing to show us some decorations he had 
 received in foreign service, he called to his man. Fin- 
 nigan, clean, respectful, unspoiled by the familiarity and 
 dependence of his master, produced the orders from his 
 own little " A " tent at the rear. This captain, proud 
 as Finnigan was of him, sometimes became so hopeless- 
 ly boozy, the man concluded that the safest place for 
 the valuables and the family funds was in his own quar- 
 ters. As we held these precious possessions, admiring 
 their beauty, and drawing their owner out to tell us of 
 the field on which they were won, the subject turned 
 upon the Pope. Finnigan visibly swelled with pride 
 to think his master had once been in the service of that 
 magnate. His straight back became straighter, and his 
 expressive face spoke volumes. I sometimes thought 
 the enforced silence of a soldier taught him to use his 
 body as well as his face in expressing thought, and 
 made them both take the place of speech. Suddenly 
 
TALES OF SOLDIEES' DEVOTION AND DROLLERY, 151 
 
 there was a limp look about him, his militaiy spinal 
 column seemed to have hollowed out and to droop, and 
 his face looked reproof and disapproval. In trying to 
 account for this change I attributed it to the conversa- 
 tion. It was, if I am not mistaken, the summer when 
 the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope was agitated. 
 The captain was a Romanist, but not an ultra one, and 
 Finnigan had looked remonstrance when the laughing 
 officer said to us, " Why, I have had so many notices of 
 excommunication I feel strange if I waken and don't 
 find one waiting for me every morning now." 
 
 The wit among these men was fully appreciated by 
 all of us, and very clever remarks filtered through the 
 kitchen which we never would have heard otherwise. 
 If an old soldier was addressed by an officer he replied 
 as briefly as possible, in obedience to the instructions of 
 his sergeant. Consequently, they habitually condensed 
 their replies, having so little chance at speech with the 
 officers, and no one tried to keep a straight face when 
 some of the Irishmen made answer. The higher the 
 rank the more the officer spoke with his men, those of 
 higher grade having reached that point in exaltation 
 where silence was not necessary to compel respect, as 
 in the case of the raw lieutenant. A ranking officer of 
 the Seventh said to an old soldier who was married to a 
 camp woman, and had lately been presented with twins, 
 "Well, Scott, I hear you've got a couple of recruits at 
 your quarters." A most pompous military salute was 
 given, accompanied by a pleased grin, and the reply, 
 " 1^0, sir, a recruit and a laundress." 
 
152 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 The mistakes of the raw recruits came around also 
 by way of the kitchen tent to us, and afforded us many 
 a laugh. For instance, a company drawn up in line is 
 the severest type of exactitude. Each soldier stands 
 like a statue, and if he does bend out in front, or his 
 shoulders stoop the least bit, the sergeant claps the 
 back of his sabre on the offending outline, and it 
 straightens in a twinkling. The men, drilled to this 
 immobility, stand without swaying while the roll is 
 called. A certain sergeant, who had been promoted 
 from the ranks of recruits for soldierly conduct, had 
 not yet learned to distinguish accurately between offi- 
 cial and social affairs. He seemed to think domestic 
 as well as military news must be officially set forth, 
 and on one occasion he reported his company " pres- 
 ent, or accounted for," and, without pausing to take 
 breath, continued, '^ Mulligan's baby's dead, sir." 
 
 Another incident illustrative of army life may be 
 mentioned. An infantry officer was calling on a cav- 
 alry general, and they fell to discussing the discipline 
 of the two arms of the service, each claiming for his 
 own corps the more advanced state of military perfec- 
 tion. While they conversed a cavalry orderly brought 
 a despatch, and before he could dismount his horse 
 stumbled and threw him over his head, landing him in 
 front of the officers. In an instant the man was on his 
 feet, and saluting, he handed the paper to his officer 
 with undisturbed face. The infantry officer was aston- 
 ished at this quick recovery, and prompt compliance 
 with military etiquette; but turning to his companion, 
 
TALES OF soldiers' DEVOTION AND DROLLERY. 153 
 
 he met a perfectly immobile countenance, as, with a 
 wave of the hand, the cavalry commander said, *' That's 
 the way they always report." 
 
 In military life it is rather difficult to approach the 
 commanding officer, for were it not so the men would 
 run to him, like a lot of school-boys, with every trifling 
 complaint. The soldier is therefore required to speak 
 to his sergeant, he in turn to his captain, and the latter 
 gives permission to the enlisted man to carry his re- 
 quest or complaint in person, if it proves to be of suf- 
 ficient consequence. Rather an elderly man had come 
 on as recruit, and he, not knowing the " divinity that 
 doth hedge " a commanding officer, said to his troop 
 commander, "See here, cap'n, where's the old man? 
 I want to have a talk with him." After that General 
 Custer went by the name of " the Old Man " among 
 his brother officers when off duty. 
 
 The town of Hays City, near us, was a typical West- 
 ern place. The railroad having but just reached there, 
 the " roughs," who fly before civilization, had not yet 
 taken their departure. There was hardly a building 
 worthy of the name, except the station-house. A con- 
 siderable part of the place was built of rude frames 
 covered with canvas; the shanties were made up of 
 slabs, bits of drift-wood, and logs, and sometimes the 
 roofs were covered with tin that had once been fruit 
 or vegetable cans, now flattened out. A smoke rising 
 from the surface of the street might arrest your atten- 
 tion, but it indicated only an underground addition to 
 some small " shack," built on the surface of the earth. 
 
154 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 The carousing and lawlessness of Hajs City were in- 
 cessant. Pistol-shots were heard so often it seemed a 
 perpetual Fourth of July, only without the harmless- 
 ness of that pyrotechnic holiday. The aim of a border 
 ruffian is so accurate that a shot was pretty certain to 
 mean a death, or, at least, a serious wound for some 
 one. As we sat under our fly in camp, where all was 
 order, and where harmony reigned, the report of pistol- 
 shots came over the intervening plains to startle us. 
 The officers, always teasing, as is so apt to be the case 
 with those who are overflowing with animal spirits, 
 would solemnly say to us, " There goes a man to his 
 long home ;" and this producing the shudder in me 
 that was expected, they elicited more shivering and 
 sorrowful ejaculations by adding, as the shots went on, 
 '' 'Now, there goes a woman ; two were shot last night." 
 Our men knew so much of the worthlessness of these 
 outlaw lives that it was difficult to arouse pity in them 
 for either a man's or a woman's death in the border 
 towns. 
 
 It was at Hays City that the graveyard was begun 
 with interments of men who had died violent deaths, 
 and there were thirty -six of their graves before we 
 left. The citizens seemed to think no death worthy 
 of mention unless it was that of some one who had 
 died " with his boots on." There was enough desper- 
 ate history in the little town in that one summer to 
 make a whole library of dime novels. I should not 
 have heard much about these things had not the men 
 delighted to shock the three women in camp with 
 
TALES OF soldiers' DEVOTION AND DROLLERY. 155 
 
 these tales of bloodshed; and, besides, it was rather 
 difficult to keep us in ignorance of much that occurred 
 in the town, as our soldiers were, unfortunately, en- 
 gaged in many an affray with the citizens. No matter 
 if our men were as much to blame as the rest, it w^as 
 quite natural that we should be interested, and disposed 
 to defend our own. 
 
 Soldiers seem always capable of escaping the vigi- 
 lance of the sentinel, and after waiting till taps had 
 long sounded, and the camp was still, they stole away, 
 and no one was the wiser, for they were at reveille in 
 the morning. If one of them got drunk, bruised, or 
 wounded, the rest brought him home and propped 
 him up to report at reveille ; or, if he was too much 
 intoxicated, they hid him until he was sober. If two 
 or three men of a company were worsted in some en- 
 counter in town, they had only to come back and tell 
 their version of the story to their comrades ; the com- 
 pany would take the matter up, and such valiant par- 
 tisans were they that even the sober, law-abiding ones 
 would set out the next night to " clean out the town." 
 When such a night came it seemed to us that an en- 
 gagement was going on, for as many shots were fired 
 as in a skirmish with a military foe. Next morning 
 our men, if victors, revealed where they had been ; but 
 if they were driven off the enemy's ground, the van- 
 quished kept sullen silence. 
 
 There was an officer of the guard each day, whose 
 duty it was to remain at the guard-tent throughout the 
 twenty-four hours. It was odious duty, but every kind 
 
156 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 of precaution was taken to keep the men from leaving 
 camp. It was pretty solemn business when the detail 
 came to either of the two officers whose wives were 
 with them; but when they obtained permission to 
 bring their wives to the regiment, it was with the un- 
 derstanding that their presence should not interfere 
 with any duty. With such a stipulation it goes with- 
 out saying that we three women made as little trouble 
 as possible. "With a whole camp of faithful soldiers 
 who, no matter what they did outside, would never 
 harm their own, the wives of the two lieutenants were 
 perfectly safe ; still they quieted themselves, if left 
 alone, one with her pistol beside her at night, the other 
 with her husband's sabre. We all laughed at a huge 
 lock one of them had put on a door which was made 
 of some canvas stretched over a light wooden frame. 
 To turn the key in that cumbrous lock seemed to give 
 her a feeling of security. If an officer suggested, teas- 
 ingly, how quickly an entrance might be made with a 
 penknife in the canvas, she took the sabre in her vig- 
 orous hand, and replied, " Whoever comes will not get 
 very far." Often and often our soldier-servants pitch- 
 ed their shelter tents outside ours, or brought their 
 blankets and slept under the fly to assure us that they 
 were watching, if we happened to be alone. 
 
 One night Mrs. Smithy was by herself, as her hus- 
 band was officer of the guard. She was awakened 
 with a start by hearing muffled sounds of voices. An 
 altercation was going on at the creek, which was so 
 near her tent that every word could be heard through 
 
157 
 
 the canvas. The main camp was too far to be reached 
 by the sound of her voice, she reasoned, and she asked 
 herself what sort of showing she should have even if 
 her soldier-servant came from his shelter tent at the 
 rear of hers, as they would be but two against so many. 
 All the voices were threatening but one, and that 
 tremblingly appealing. She shivered with fright, and 
 sat up in her camp-bed with her pistol in her hand. 
 There was scuffling, and suppressed though angry and 
 profane conversation. All this fracas, as these men 
 crossed the stream, was unlike the conduct of soldiers ; 
 she felt sure that it was a party of desperadoes from 
 the town, coming to the border of the camp to pillage 
 and murder. It seemed ages before the threatening 
 sounds ceased. Then there was a splashing and plung- 
 ing in the water, and all was still. 
 
 Next morning brought a solution of the mystery. 
 A cavalry horse, tied in front of one of the saloons in 
 town, had been stolen. As soon as the theft was dis- 
 covered the soldiers gave chase, and came up with the 
 thief in a ravine beyond the town. The man knew 
 perfectly that death was the recognized penalty for 
 horse-stealing. Murder was considered a comparative- 
 ly trivial crime by all the border people. The soldiers 
 bound the man, put a rope around his neck, and start- 
 ed him towards camp. There were no trees on which 
 to hang him, so he was brought on and on, with the 
 expectation that his last hour had come. As he neared 
 Big Creek, and the trees appeared, he was sure that 
 he would soon dangle from a limb ; but the soldiers, 
 
158 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 having recovered their horse, had no idea of such ven- 
 geance. They considered that many a man would 
 rather be sliot down at once than live through such a 
 period of fear as he had passed while travelling over 
 miles of prairie to eternity, as he supposed. After 
 some parting words of admonition, mingled with oaths 
 and threats, he was set free ; and it was to all this ser- 
 mon from the soldiers, and to the entreaties for mercy 
 from the criminal, that Mrs. Smithy had listened. 
 
 Civilians were not so lenient with offenders. I was 
 set into terror of excitement by knowing that crime 
 was going on so near us — and unpunished as it was, 
 there was no manner of doubt that it would be repeat- 
 ed until some culprit should suffer. But there was 
 nothing at hand to serve as a gallows. There was no 
 lumber, and logs could not be dragged from the stream 
 even had any one taken time from the gambling, the 
 dickering, and the horse-racing to so much as fell them. 
 Finally, a horse-thief was caught in the town, and the 
 citizens, aflame with wrath which had no time to cool, 
 dragged the culprit to the nearest railroad bridge — 
 really not much more than a culvert — and here the 
 thief hung as a warning to all. From that time for- 
 ward the improvised gallows had many such a burden 
 swaying in the Kansas wind. In our hunts and our 
 pleasure rides I asked to shun the railroad track, for I 
 never felt sure that we might not come upon a ghastly 
 body swinging from the beams that supported the 
 bridge. 
 
Catering. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE. 
 
 Sometimes the fights took place in broad daylight, 
 and the streets were soon cleared, for even those out- 
 laws were not willing to encounter a stray bullet, if 
 they were not personally engaged in the altercation. 
 At one time General Miles and General Custer went 
 to meet General Schofield and his staff, and while they 
 waited at the station a terrific row began ; the air was 
 filled with flying bullets, and no one had any thought, 
 seemingly, but of murder. The two officers in the sta- 
 tion could not attempt to quell this maddening crowd, 
 and their only course was to remain quietly in the 
 building ; but General Custer, being in some exposed 
 position, was intensely amused to have his brave com- 
 rade, in looking out for his safety, say, " Lie low, Cus- 
 ter, lie low !" 
 
 Occasionally we went to the train to see excursion- 
 ists who had telegraphed us to meet them. The offi- 
 cers were all of them more than strict in their injunc- 
 tions to us to look neither to the right nor to the left in 
 the town, and as they shut us in behind the closed cur- 
 tains of the travelling-carriage they called out, laugh- 
 ingly, but nevertheless in earnest, " No peeking, now." 
 
160 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 The driver had his loaded carbine beside him, and lis- 
 tened attentively to some whispered instructions as he 
 took up his reins. He was told, in addition, to draw 
 up at the depot on the side farthest from the town, 
 where our escort, having ridden beside the wagon, lift- 
 ed us dow^n and hurried us out of what seemed like a 
 " Black Maria," it was so dismal in the carriage, and 
 we were taken into the station, where the crowd was 
 kept away by the dignity and authority of the officers' 
 manner. One of the guests did '' peek " through, and 
 seeing the tables in the saloons with heaps of money, 
 guarded by knives and revolvers, she was frightened 
 into never looking again. 
 
 In one of these excursion parties were some of our 
 Eastern acquaintances, and they begged to see Wikl 
 Bill. They sent the brakeman into the little street to 
 ask him to come in, and they gave flowers to any by- 
 stander whom they saw, requesting that they be given 
 to the renowned scout. But the more he was pursued 
 wuth messages the more he retired from sight, hiding 
 in the little back room of one of the drinking-saloons 
 opposite. He was really a very modest man and very 
 free from swagger and bravado. Finally, General Cus- 
 tei*, persuaded by pretty girls, whom no one ever can 
 resist, returned with the hero of the hour, for Wild 
 Bill and General Custer were fast friends, having faced 
 danger together many times. 
 
 Bill's face was confused at the words of praise with 
 which General Custer introduced him, and his fearless 
 eyes were cast down in chagrin at the torture of being 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE. 161 
 
 gazed at by the crowd. He went through the en- 
 forced introduction for General Custer's sake, but it 
 was a relief when the engine whistle sounded that re- 
 leased him. 
 
 Physically, lie was a delight to look upon. Tall, 
 lithe, and free in every motion, he rode and walked as 
 if every muscle was perfection, and the careless swing 
 of his body as he moved seemed perfectly in keeping 
 with the man, the country, the time in which he lived. 
 I do not recall anything finer in the way of physi- 
 cal perfection than Wild Bill when he swung himself 
 lightly from his saddle, and with graceful, swaying 
 step, squarely set shoulders and well poised head, ap- 
 proached our tent for orders. He was rather fantasti- 
 cally clad, of course, but all that seemed perfectly in 
 keeping with the time and place. He did not make an 
 armory of his waist, but carried two pistols. He wore 
 top-boots, riding breeches, and dark-blue flannel shirt, 
 with scarlet set in the front. A loose neck-handker- 
 chief left his fine firm throat free. I do not at all re- 
 member his features, but the frank, manly expression 
 of his fearless eyes and his courteous manner gave one 
 a feeling of confidence in his word and in his undaunt- 
 ed courage. 
 
 There was no question that in the affrays in which 
 he was often engaged he dealt murderous blows and 
 shot unerring bullets ; and one of the stories others told 
 of him, as he was not given to boasting of his prowess, 
 was of the invasion of five men in his sleeping-room in 
 one of the new towns, where no law was established. 
 11 
 
1G2 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 These desperate characters locked the door, but though 
 Wild Bill was in bed he did not lose his presence of 
 mind. Some one hearing the noise of the contest 
 burst open the door, and found four of the assailants 
 dead on the floor, and Wild Bill stretched fainting on 
 the bed across the dead body of the fifth assassin. His 
 appearance bore no traces of this desperate side of his 
 life. He was "the mildest manner'd man that ever 
 scuttled ship or cut a throat." While on duty, carry- 
 ing despatches, he let no temptation lure him into the 
 company of the carousers who acknowledged him as 
 their king. His word was law and gospel in that lit- 
 tle town, for even where no laws are respected the 
 word and the will of one man, who is chosen leader, is 
 often absolute. 
 
 The impression left upon my mind by the scouts 
 of which Wild Bill was the chief was of their extreme 
 grace. Their muscles were like steel, but they might 
 have been velvet, so smooth and flexible seemed every 
 movement. Wild Bill reminded me of a thorough-bred 
 horse. Uncertain as was his origin, he looked as if he 
 had descended from a race who valued the body as a 
 choice possession, and therefore gave it every care. 
 He not only looked like a thorough-bred, but like a 
 racer, for he seemed, even in repose, to give evidence 
 of great capabilities of endurance — of fine "staying 
 powers," in his own vernacular. The days of the 
 Greeks are slowly returning to us, when the human 
 form will be so cared for that no develoj^ment it is ca- 
 pable of will be neglected. Among the white aborig- 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE. 163 
 
 ines of the plains, the frontiersmen and scouts, there 
 have long existed fine specimens of physical develop- 
 ment that one seldom encounters among people who 
 live an in-door life. 
 
 When not in camp, Wild Bill was off duty, and con- 
 sequently ruling his realm, the turbulent town. Some 
 of our men having received, as they considered, a dead- 
 ly insult to their company, determined to right their 
 wrongs, and planned to assassinate the renowned scout. 
 In these feuds there was very little margin for the 
 right on either side. In our ranks were just as law- 
 less men as were found in Hays City, but the strict 
 discipline of military life soon subdues the most vio- 
 lent spirits. In the town, however, with restraints re- 
 moved, the bluff and the bully showed forth in his true 
 colors. A little of the very bad liquor sold there turn- 
 ed an obedient soldier into a wrangling boor. Three 
 desperate characters, planning to kill Wild Bill, de- 
 cided that no one of them stood any chance if the 
 scout was left the use of his arms ; not only was his 
 every shot sure, but he was so lithe and quick, and so 
 constantly on the alert for attack, that it was next to 
 impossible to do him any injury. It was planned that 
 one soldier should leap upon his back, and hold down 
 his head and chest, while another should pinion his 
 arms. It is impossible in the crowded little dens, im- 
 perfectly lighted, and with air dense with smoke, al- 
 ways to face a foe. Wild Bill was attacked from be- 
 hind, as had been planned. His broad back was borne 
 down by a powerful soldier, and his arms seized, but 
 
164 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 only one was held in the clinching grasp of the assail- 
 ant. With the free hand the scout drew his pistol 
 from the belt, fired backw^ard without seeing, and liis 
 shot, even under these circumstances, was a fatal one. 
 The soldier dropped dead, the citizens rallied round 
 Wild Bill, the troopers were driven out of the town, 
 but not without loud threats of vengeance. There was 
 no question among the citizens but that every tlireat 
 would be carried out, and it was decided that if Wild 
 Bill hoped for life at all he must flee. It was impos- 
 sible for General Custer to interfere in such a contest. 
 His jurisdiction did not extend to the brawls of the 
 town ; the soldiers off duty were not punished, unless 
 the citizens found something so flagrant, and proof of 
 the dereliction so positive, that the o£Pence must be in- 
 vestigated by a court-martial. 
 
 So Wild Bill, the most daring and valuable scout in 
 the West, had to leave. I have heard General Custer 
 say that he did not believe the scout ever shot a man 
 except in self-defence; but no one who mingled in 
 such melees, where infuriated mobs of men followed 
 every savage impulse of their nature, could ptjgsibly 
 hope for justice. The regiment lieard w^ith regret of 
 his being murdered afterwards in the Black Hills. A 
 man whose brother had been shot in an affray in which 
 Wild Bill had been a participant followed him into 
 the Black Hills, and finding him sitting at table with 
 his companions, the miners, shot hijn in the back. With 
 his marvellous coolness, courage, and self-control, above 
 all, with that rare gift which is given to few, compara- 
 
THE SCOUT. 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE. 165 
 
 tively, of control over men — doubly, trebly remarkable 
 when exercised over outlaws — with a nature that evi- 
 dently was not devoid of refinement (for he was singu- 
 larly free, the officers told me, from profanity or coarse 
 ribald language), his seemed to all of us as conspicuous 
 an instance of wasted life as we had ever known. A 
 nature trained in such a career as his was, however, 
 could never have submitted itself to civilization, and 
 his death was the necessary ending of such a life. His 
 grave, on a bleak hill-side, bore this inseription : 
 
 I. B. HICKOCK, 
 
 (" WILD BILL,") 
 
 KILLED BY THE ASSASSLX JACK McCALL, 
 July 4th, 1876. 
 
 Pard, we shall meet again in the happy hunting-ground, to part no more. 
 
 D. H. UTTER. 
 
 (" COLORADO CHARLIE.") 
 
 It seems rather singular that two valued scouts like 
 Wild Bill and California Joe should have lost their 
 lives during the same summer that the man they so 
 faithfully served offered up his life for his country. 
 We had no letters from Wild Bill ; but he sent friend- 
 ly messages by many a roundabout route. California 
 Joe wrote several letters, the last of which is given as 
 characteristic of himself. The "counsil house," we 
 inferred, alluded to the State legislature. 
 
 SiERE Nevada Mountians California Mar. 16 74 
 Dear Geneal after my respets to you and Lady i thought 
 that i tell you that i am still on top of land yet i have been 
 in the rocky mountian the most of the time sence last i seen 
 
166 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 you but i got on the railroad and and started west and the 
 first thing i knew i landed in san Francisco so i could not go 
 any farther except going by water and salt water at that so 
 i turned back and headed for the mountains once more re- 
 solved never to go railroading no more i drifted up with the 
 tide to Sacramento city and i landed my boat so i took up 
 through town they say there is 20 thousand people living 
 there but it look to me to be 100 thousand counting china- 
 man and all i cant discribe my wolfish feeling but i think 
 that i look just like i did when we was chaseing Bujffalo on 
 the simarone so i struk up though town and i come to a 
 large fine bulling crouded with people so i bulged in to see 
 what was going on and when i got in to the counsil house i 
 took a look around at the croud and i seen the most of them 
 had bald heads so i thaught to myself i struck it now that 
 they are indian peace commissioners so i look to see if i 
 would know any of them but not one, so after while the 
 smartest look one got up and said gentlemen i introduce a 
 bill to have speckle mountain trout and fish eggs imported 
 to Cal. to be put in the american Bear and Yuba rivers (those 
 rivers is so muddy that a tadpole could not live in them 
 caused by minging) did any body ever hear of a speckle 
 trout living in muddy water and the next thing was the game 
 law and that was very near as bad as the Fish for they aint 
 no game in the country as big as mawking bird 1 heard 
 some fellow behind me ask now long is the legislature been 
 in sesion then i dropt on myself so i slid out took acros 
 to Chinatown and they smelt like a Ciowa camp in August 
 with plenty buffalo meat around it was getting late so no 
 place to go not got a red cent so i hapen to thing of an old 
 friend back of town that i knowed 25 years ago so i lit out 
 and sure enough he w^as thar just as i left him 25 yr ago 
 backing so i got a few scads i going to platte in a few day 
 give my respects to the Tth Calvery and excipt the same 
 yourself California Joe 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTKATE. 167 
 
 A little joniTiey we made that summer comes to me 
 now, and as it does not seem at all like any travelling 
 one would ever be likely to do in the States, an ac- 
 count of it is offered by way of contrast. A great 
 event was about to happen to the Ousters. The fam- 
 ily idol, the petted mare, was to run a race at Leaven- 
 worth. There was incessant gabble in the tent, and it 
 was all horse-talk. The past records of other famous 
 animals were taken out for inspection ; the newspapers 
 chronicling the feats of the mare's competitors were 
 spread over chairs and tables ; the men who had seen 
 races talked wisely and well, and every one was on tip- 
 toe of anticipation. The mare I dearly loved. She 
 had shared our hardships with us. Once, in a pro- 
 longed cold and penetrating storm. General Ouster 
 had brought her up from the picket line, loaded her 
 with blankets, and placed her under our fly. I peered 
 at her from the opening between the tapes that se- 
 cured the front of the tent, handed out sugar, patted 
 her sleek neck, and mourned over the shivering of the 
 chilled and delicate creature. General Ouster asked 
 me if I minded her being there, and I promptly re- 
 plied that it seemed only providential that horses rare- 
 ly lie down, or I knew I should be wheedled into offer- 
 ing her the camp-bed. 
 
 After this bitter experience she was sent away to 
 better quarters, and given into the care of some pro- 
 fessional horseman, who, after a time, wrote that he 
 had entered her for a race. The racing part I hated, 
 especially on a public course, but it was our mare, and 
 
168 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the curse seemed someliow to be taken off. Besides, 
 we had nothing to do with it; we had no money at 
 stake, and Government gave us too much to do to per- 
 mit us to dissuade people who might put up money 
 on our mare. We had but three or four days' leave of 
 absence, and it would require great expedition to get 
 back at its expiration. When I was put in the travel- 
 ling-carriage the curtains were all strapped down, and 
 the driver armed, as usual, in case of disturbance in 
 the town. I went through the usual exhortations from 
 the two men — for Colonel Tom was going with us. 
 They made a rather general statement that women are 
 forever trying to look where they ought not to. " Now 
 mind, old lady, don't you try to look out if there is a 
 crevice left open. The town is nothing but a medley 
 of disreputable people, and we don't wish you to see 
 or be seen." The vehement Ousters jDOured these in- 
 junctions in on me like hot shot. I did not " look " ; I 
 was so glad to be taken along on this rare outing that 
 no veteran soldier could have been more obedient. 
 
 They lifted me out at the station from my temporary 
 prison, and, as the train approached, I was hurried into 
 the car, and we found a seat among the usual collec- 
 tion of armed men, whose guns, leaning against the 
 backs of the seats, made me as uncomfortable as pos- 
 sible, for I was very much afraid of fire-arms. If a 
 fleeing antelope sped over the plains the window was 
 shoved violently up, out went a rifle, and off went a 
 bullet that was simply absurd in its aim, for even our 
 best hunters found it difficult to bring down antelope 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE. 169 
 
 under wliat were considered favorable circumstances. 
 Peace being restored, the unsuccessful marksman was 
 loudly laughed at and jeered for missing his aim. 
 Suddenly all the windows on one side went up with a 
 bang, heads were thrust out, most of the men on the 
 other side of the car plunged over, and ran their rifles 
 out through any window they could reach, and dan- 
 gerously near to any head that might occupy the 
 opening ; and all this to attack a prairie-dog village. 
 
 These men were dressed in every sort of costume, 
 from the tattered remains of what were once tailor- 
 made clothes to buckskin fashioned by their own fin- 
 gers. They were ragged and unkempt in most in- 
 stances. Many of the plainsmen scorned water in any 
 form, and even the Texan's definition, when offered a 
 glass of water, " Oh yes, that's what you wash with," 
 was lost upon the real Mmrod of the West. Still 
 wdth all this ignoring of the " tub " there are alleviat- 
 ing circumstances. An exasperated writer speaks of 
 " inhaling your fellow-creature " ; and on entering a 
 Pullman -car, lately, at night, I heard some one say, 
 "Here are all breaths of our brother man, carefully 
 preserved from Chicago to jN'ew York." All this we 
 were spared, for in the West we seldom found our- 
 selves packed in crowds, as happens every day in the 
 city. In addition to the soiled clothing of the foreign 
 laborer, next which you snifiE and shudder in the horse- 
 car, you have the additional odors of sewer gas, stale 
 beer emptied into the gutters, a leaking gas-pipe, and 
 hundreds of cabbage and onion dinners sending their 
 
170 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 domestic incense to heaven. All tliis one escapes on 
 the plains. With the plainsman, Nature at least makes 
 up for this ignoring of one element by blowing an- 
 other through him, and sometimes taking him in a lit- 
 tle encircling embrace, or touching him up with a 
 small hurricane of wind which dances the delinquent 
 on his feet and airs him well, nolens volens. 
 
 Our soldiers were often nearly desperate when wa- 
 ter was scarce, for it is their duty first, and afterwards 
 their habit, to be clean. If a good stream was reached, 
 the whole command was sometimes halted for a day on 
 the march to permit the enlisted men to have a wash- 
 day. When water was scarce, I have seen a buffalo- 
 wallow in the West look for all the world like a hea- 
 then deity. Around the circular edge knelt as many 
 men as could crowd in, dipping their canteens, hollow- 
 ing their horny hands into a cup, or holding their caps 
 in the shallow pool of standing water that owed its 
 storage-basin to the gambols of the buffalo. After tear- 
 ing the turf, pawing the sod, and digging his horns 
 in the ground, the buffalo rolls his huge body in the 
 loosened soil, and rubs off the loose hair from his coat. 
 When he is shedding he is a tattered old tramp, with 
 flying bunches of faded hair sticking at intervals 
 among the new. After the monster has rolled himself 
 free from his last year's rags he leaves quite a hollow 
 in the ground. The rain comes, is soon dried by the 
 scorching sun, and the basin has a baked surface that 
 holds water afterwards for many a parched throat. 
 
 As our journey advanced, blood-curdling stories were 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE. 171 
 
 strung out with no end of ghastly detail, with minute 
 particulars of encounters with Indians, game, and des- 
 peradoes. I could not help but hear, and I saw the 
 frontiersmen shyly eying me, as if I had been a cu- 
 riosity from another world ; but they smoked their 
 pipes, and handed round the inevitable black bottle 
 out on the platform, instead of in the car, for my sake ; 
 but the talking, the boasting, the shooting — those were 
 their best manners, under any circumstances, and they 
 never thought to suppress a detail. The bones of any 
 brakeman who should have had the temerity to try to 
 subdue these reckless characters would have bleached 
 on the plains in those days. The mounds along the 
 route of travel to the Rocky Mountains were not al- 
 ways raised over the mouldering bodies of exhausted 
 pioneers; they marked the spot of many a deadly af- 
 fray where some one of a party had paid the penalty 
 which is usually attached to such encounters. 
 
 The Kansas Pacific trains did not run at night, and 
 we were compelled to stop at the little town of Ells- 
 worth, if possible, even worse than Hays City. There 
 was but one hotel, and that not worthy of the name. 
 The building, twenty by fifty feet, had a great loft, 
 low and close, where cots were as thick as they could 
 stand. One narrow room was boarded off, and to this 
 we were assigned. As the house was unplastered, 
 and built mostly of canvas and slabs, the Kansas wind 
 waved it about at will. The one large room on the 
 ground-floor had the bar and billiard-table at one end, 
 and the tables for dining at the other. We were, of 
 
172 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 course, Imngiy, and the crowd of drinking, smoking 
 brawlers was kept in some sort of subjection by the 
 landlord, who mentioned the talismanic name of lady 
 to quiet them. It was unusual for them to see any 
 one save themselves on their ground. After a hasty 
 dinner — and such a dinner! — only people savagely 
 hungry, as we were, could have eaten it at all — I was 
 hurried up to the little den of which the landlord was 
 extremely proud. The noise below going on till dawn, 
 the snoring heard through the thin partition that sep- 
 arated us from the lodgers, the ominous vibration of 
 the rickety old building — all helped to murder sleep 
 for us. 
 
 The frontiersman had then, as now, a great " de- 
 spise," as they put it, for the tenderfoot, and a party 
 of buffalo - hunters, who had stopped at this hotel a 
 short time before, were the subjects of much derision 
 and criticism. One of the men had insisted upon wear- 
 ing a "stove-pipe" hat from the East — which, to say 
 the least, was inappropriate, and attracted almost as 
 much attention as if he had worn a French bonnet. 
 The frontiersmen scoffed and jeered at this offending 
 hat, discussed the " biled shirts," and viewed the whole 
 party with lofty scorn. 
 
 The tourists did not look much like the active mus- 
 cular hunter, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, 
 who could ride fifty miles as easily as most people do 
 ^ve. Two of the party were over size, and had the 
 contour which betokens good dinners and convivial 
 life. One of the number was inclined to match a lit- 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE, 173 
 
 tie Eastern swagger witli Western bravado, by telling 
 with pride where they were going, and what they ex- 
 pected to do, etc. A burly border ruffian raised his 
 voice in the crowd that surrounded the would-be Nim- 
 rods, and said, '^ You uns is the folks General Custer 
 is expectin' ?" " Yes," promptly answered our friends, 
 exultant, and sure no game would escape them. Emp- 
 tying one cheek to transfer the quid of tobacco to the 
 other, the latter jaw evidently not being the better talk- 
 ing side, the frontiersman looked at these huge men 
 with half-closed, sarcastic eyes, and said, " Stranger, 
 I was at Custer's camp on Saturday, and he was awful 
 busy a-preparing." *'AVliat was he doing?" asked the 
 eager tourists. " Why, stranger, he had men out all 
 the week a-corrallin' buffaloes for you fellows to kill." 
 The point of the retort is lost unless one knows that 
 wild buffaloes are not the animals that submit tamely 
 to corralling. 
 
 A family discussion took place, after we reached our 
 room in the loft, about what to do with our brother 
 Tom. All the cots outside were engaged, and had a 
 roll of blankets been available everything would have 
 gone well, for Tom could sleep anywhere. As it was, 
 we decided to take him in, as there was an extra bed 
 in our narrow room. We went in first, prepared for 
 sleeping, put out the light, and called to Colonel Tom. 
 He came for the place gratefully — for, with all our 
 vicissitudes, we nearly always had a tent to ourselves, 
 and whole families were not obliged to live in one 
 room, as in a tenement. Tom praised me ; thought I 
 
174 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 not only remembered when in " Kome to be aKoman," 
 but, since I had been willing to take him in, it was his 
 opinion I was the " noblest Roman of them all "; and 
 then he dropped to sleep, soon to wake with a start, 
 thinking the brawlers down -stairs had ascended to 
 make an attack. It Avas only his affectionate brother, 
 who, from time to time, threw over on his bed, with 
 such accurate aim that each shot told, shoes, stockings, 
 brushes, and any other available missile. It hardly seem- 
 ed a breath before the voice of the landlord woke us, 
 sa^^ing that some one had forgotten to call us ; that it 
 was late, and we must hurry, as the train was nearly 
 ready. Tom rose first, and dressed partly in the dark, 
 for the one train of the day started at dawn. The land- 
 lord came again, saying the conductor was holding the 
 train. As the road depended upon the Seventh Cav- 
 alry to protect it, there was no lack of courtesy to the 
 commanding officer. He did not wish to take ad- 
 vantage of any such favor, so Colonel Tom was hur- 
 ried with half his clothes to dress in the dark passage- 
 way, and on me fell the whole responsibility of the 
 day, for if I was late we would miss the coming sport. 
 In moments of excitement the two men always talked 
 as if I were not present. " What shall we do with the 
 old lady?" (this name was given me by these young- 
 sters when I first began to write myself Mrs.). " Can't 
 we bundle her up and carry her ?" " Will you go as 
 you are ?" General Custer said, turning to me at last. 
 " If you say so, I can go," I replied. It would not take 
 a paragraph to describe my toilet as far as I had ad- 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE. 175 
 
 vanced. I tlirust mj feet into my shoes, General Cus- 
 ter threw mj large travelling -cloak about me, Tom 
 seized the hand-bags and a heap of mj clothing, and 
 down the rickety steps we sprang, across the little 
 space between the hotel and the cars, I not daring to 
 look to the right or left among the usual crowd of 
 idlers who surround all stations. I was lifted into the 
 car, hurried into one corner, and the two began to plan 
 about me again. This sounds as if I had no voice in 
 the discussions, but tliat is giving too modest a rep- 
 resentation, for I did my share ; but I only refer to it 
 as a droll way the two men had of going on talking 
 and arranging regardless of my vote. They decided that 
 the fast - approaching day necessitated my being clad 
 more fully than I then was ; so one said he would hold 
 up the travelling-cloak while the other buttoned my 
 shoes and helped put on the tumbled mass of apparel 
 that was to make me presentable. Between the hurry, 
 the laughter, and the embarrassment, no button would 
 button, no hook would fasten, but the cloak was low- 
 ered at last, and I looked out of the window most of 
 the time, preferring the monotonous scenery to any 
 chance glance I might encounter from what I feared 
 would be the amused eyes of the people. 
 
 At Leavenworth we had just time to make our toi- 
 let, get something to eat, and take a carriage for the 
 race-course. We went, of course, to the stall of the 
 family idol. The mare was sleeker, finer, more lovely 
 than ever. She knew us, and vibrated her delicate ears, 
 whinnied, and arched her glossy neck in pride and love. 
 
176 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 Colonel Tom reminded her of some of bis past encoun- 
 ters, and of his very first ride, when saddle, bridle, and 
 man were gracefully lifted over her bead and dropped 
 at her feet. It had been a family riddle ever since, 
 bow even such an agile creature- as she could shed ev- 
 ery trapping, and the rider as well, with one flourish 
 of her nimble heels. Colonel Tom took occasion to re- 
 mind me of the noble sacrifice I had been willing to 
 make of my husband's relatives. It seems that when we 
 first had the mare, she reared and plunged with such 
 violence, gave such agile leaps from one side to the 
 other, that I, with tears of terror streaming down my 
 face, had called to General Custer, " Don't, don't mount 
 the dangerous creature, let the bachelor officers try her 
 first." The men without wives heard me, and as they 
 valued their lives in spite of the fact that they were 
 single, I never heard the last of it. 
 
 The adulation which the slender, beautifully propor- 
 tioned creature had from the whole regiment was de- 
 lightful to us. AVe frequently stood about her noting 
 her fine points, and assenting with responsive nods to 
 any new beauty discovered. One of the pretty girls we 
 entertained was somewhat discomfited one day when a 
 group had gathered around the mare. Her boy brother, 
 in rapt admiration, called out, " Why, sister, her ankles 
 are as small as yours." The blushing girl sank down 
 into her petticoats, fearing the rude and daring Kansas 
 wind would try to indorse her brother's praise by lift- 
 ing the concealed drapery. 
 
 I haven't the least idea how the race at Leavenworth 
 
WILD BILL AS A MAGISTRATE. 177 
 
 turned out ; I only know that had the mare been beaten, 
 her admiring owners would have been certain that it 
 was due to every other cause than that there was in 
 existence a faster, finer horse than our beloved prop- 
 erty. 
 12 
 
tro tbe Color. 
 
 _^_^_^^.^- 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 
 
 The buffaloes were in such enormous herds all about 
 us in Kansas that it seemed as if nothing could dimin- 
 ish their numbers. General Sherman told me, not long 
 since, that from the time we were there until the date 
 of their almost total annihilation nine millions had been 
 killed. After the Pacific railroads were completed the 
 Indian was partially subdued, and civilization spread 
 along the routes of travel ; the frontiersmen were more 
 daring, and buffalo-hunting became a slaughter. The 
 skin-hunters carried on a great traffic. Wherever the 
 steamers stopped to wood along the Missouri the river 
 was lined with heaps of hides, tied in bales ready for 
 
 i 
 
HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 179 
 
 shipment. At the railroad stations in Kansas the same 
 thing was true. Seven hundred and fifty thousand 
 liides were shipped from one station on the Atchison, 
 Topeka, and Santa Fe road about 1874. The skin- 
 hunters used this plan : One of the number still-hunted, 
 singling out his animal, and firing at long range so that 
 the sound of the bullet did not disturb the herd. The 
 smell of the blood drew perhaps twenty about the slain 
 animal, and the hunter fired at them from behind the 
 carcass, where he had hidden himself on coming up to 
 his dead game. The rest of the party skinned the car- 
 casses, and then proceeded to follow up the herd. One 
 man, an expert, has thus shot over a hundred in a day. 
 The bones were gathered and shipped East also. In 
 this systematic killing it is no wonder that great num- 
 bers disappeared, and that now only a small herd in 
 the Black Hills is reported in existence. While we 
 were in Kansas the Indians were on the war-path, and 
 no men were sufficiently daring in the pursuit of pelf 
 to make hunting a business. The fearful destruction 
 of buffaloes seems to cause national regret ; and yet, 
 on the other hand, according to the theory of Mr. 
 Theodore Roosevelt, who is an authority on Western 
 matters, nothing has done more to settle the Indian 
 question. He does not detract from our army, and 
 its patient service for so many years, but less than 
 twenty-five thousand men to guard our immense fron- 
 tier could do little more than protect the settlers, and 
 guard the builders of the railroads. It was a grief to 
 lay waste the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah and 
 
180 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 destroy that garden of the South, thus cutting o£E the 
 source of fruitful supplies for General Lee's army, and 
 yet, here again, it shortened our war and saved thou- 
 sands of valiant men. General Miles differs from Mr. 
 Roosevelt, and thinks that were not the Indians sub- 
 dued by our army nothing would keep them from the 
 war-path, as they would not hesitate to kill the cattle 
 on the ranches which now replace the buffaloes. The 
 Clieyennes, in a raid from the Indian Territory to Mon- 
 tana, did live on the cattle of the ranchmen for the 
 entire distance. 
 
 All the wide plains about us for hundreds of miles — 
 and thousands, for aught I know — were stamped with 
 the presence of the American bison. Innumerable 
 proofs that they had long been monarchs in that great 
 desert were encountered on our long marches, no mat- 
 ter in what direction we moved. No other animal im- 
 pressed itself so on the land as to have its trail become 
 a feature of the vast country. The most noticeable of 
 these evidences of their presence were the intermina- 
 ble trails to the streams. Many a desert mariner, guid- 
 ing his canvas-covered wagon across the trackless West- 
 ern sea of prairie to the El Dorado of America, has 
 saved his life by following these unfailing guides. 
 The ruts were sometimes in four parallel lines, and so 
 deeply cut by the huge monsters that patiently plod- 
 ded through them that we often had to check our 
 horses to cross safely. The narrowness of these paths 
 — for they were not much wider than the impression 
 of a cart-wheel — was a surprise, until I saw how closely. 
 
HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 181 
 
 how evenly each lioof seemed to replace the other 
 as the steady march went on. We learned very soon 
 that we need not count on finding a stream near, by 
 following the trail, unless it was by some rare chance, 
 if in hunting it became necessary to give the horses 
 and dogs water. It might be a journey of hours — for 
 with a buffalo what was time ? He lived but to eat 
 and drink. There was never the wild, exultant run of 
 deer or antelope, which flew over the plains apparently 
 from joy and excess of animal life. The solenm, prac- 
 tical existence of the lumbering buffalo seemed to have 
 begun before calfdom was fairly over. 
 
 It is true there was much fighting for supremacy 
 and leadership, and the heartless conduct towards the 
 old bachelors of the herd is well known. When they 
 showed signs of antiquity, the stronger, younger bulls 
 drove the enfeebled ones out into a dreary existence, 
 which, happily for them, was soon ended by the wolves 
 that pursued the solitary tramp until exhaustion gave 
 him up a prey to those persistent followers. Occasion- 
 ally several of the outcasts from the different herds 
 evidently met, even in that vast extent of country, 
 and, exchanging their grievances, concluded to join 
 forces and defy their joint enemy, the wolves. With 
 us, unaccustomed that summer to the habits of the 
 buffalo, the sight of a single animal browsing, appar- 
 ently contentedly, augured an approaching herd ; and 
 great was our disappointment, when the antediluvian 
 was allowed to gallop off at sight of us and escape, to 
 find that he was not the forerunner of a herd, but only 
 
182 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 an animal in disgrace because the gods did not love him 
 enough to decree that he should die young. 
 
 Many combats occurred among the bulls of the herd 
 because two selected the same cow for a wife, and the 
 painter who could have fixed these monsters on his 
 canvas while they were raging with the fierceness of 
 rivalry would have made his mark. The heads bent 
 forward to the ground in attempts to gore each other, 
 the burning eyeballs, the desperate plunges which they 
 made, apparently oblivious of their great weight, the 
 turf torn with their maddened hoofs, the air thick with 
 dust and bits of loosened sod, the temporary retreats 
 of the contestants only to enable them to rush at one 
 another with renewed force, afforded the most mag- 
 nificent example of jealous fury. Meanwhile the cow 
 over which this war was waged quietly browsed near 
 by. When domestic life began, the winner of the hard- 
 fought battle became a very good defender of his fam- 
 ily. In the great herds the cows were always in the 
 centre, and a cordon of bulls surrounded them and 
 their young, while outside them all were the pickets, 
 which kept watch, and whose warnings were heeded at 
 once if danger threatened. 
 
 The circles, perhaps fifteen feet in circumference, 
 that I saw for the first time, were one of the mysteries 
 of that strange land. When the officers told me that the 
 rut was made by the buffalo mother's walking round 
 and round to protect her newly born and sleeping calf 
 from the wolves at night, I listened only to smile in- 
 credulously, with the look peculiar to an innocent who 
 
HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 183 
 
 desires to convince the narrator of fables tliat he has 
 met one person of superior intuition who cannot be 
 gulled. I had been so often " guyed " with ridiculous 
 stories, of which this last seemed the crowning exam- 
 ple, that I did not believe the tale. In time, however, 
 I found that it was true, and I never came across these 
 pathetic circles in our rides or in hunting without a 
 sentiment of deepest sympathy for the anxious mother 
 whose vigilance kept up the ceaseless tramp during the 
 long night. 
 
 The calf is born with wonderful strength and vitali- 
 ty, and soon does remarkable feats in marching. lie is 
 quite a big fellow in a year, but keeps on growing un- 
 til he is seven. We always waited quietly for develop- 
 ments, and could not resist the temptation to let the 
 stranger try, when a guest said, " I shall begin on the 
 first day's hunt with a calf, for practice." He never 
 tried again, for a yearling will get over the ground so 
 much faster than his elders, which weigh perhaj^s eight 
 hundred pounds, that one chase after him is enough to 
 decide the novice to keep to the larger animals if he 
 hopes to bring down game. Before the war, when our 
 officers were on the march to New Mexico, they used 
 to pass a ranch kept by two men. Booth and Allison, 
 at Walnut Creek, on the Santa Fe trail. The ranch- 
 men had devised a plan to capture buffalo calves which 
 seems inhuman, but is nevertheless true, as an old cam- 
 paigner told me of it. When a herd of buffaloes passed 
 near the ranch, the cows travelling slowly on account of 
 their young, the buffalo bulls guarding their families, 
 
184: FOLLOAVING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the Imnters rode suddenly into the herd, caught a young 
 calf by the tail, whirled it round two or three times un- 
 til the little thing had not only lost its bearings but its 
 mother also, and there never was the slightest difficulty 
 in driving the calf back to the ranch, where it grew up 
 with the domestic cattle. 
 
 The spring and activity of the largest buffaloes are 
 marvellous. One day General Custer, returning from a 
 hunt, called me to the tent-fly to see his favorite horse 
 Dandy. He was so quick, strong, and intelligent that 
 he was accounted as good a buffalo-horse as there was in 
 the reo:iment. General Custer said that he was so am- 
 bitious that as soon as he saw which animal was singled 
 out for pursuit he bent every nerve to the work. When 
 the game became angry Dandy grew more wary, and, 
 leaping to the right and left to escape the butting horns, 
 he carried his master so near that the side of the buffa- 
 lo was almost rubbed in passing. Dandy knew that the 
 only way to bring an animal down Avas by sending the 
 fatal shot behind the fore-shoulder, so he darted for the 
 side, plunged off at a tangent when the animal wheeled, 
 gathered and sprang for the unguarded quarter, and his 
 master had to exercise vigilance lest through the ani- 
 mal's ambition both he and Dandy sliould be impaled 
 on the wicked horns of the adversary. The bridle did 
 not need to be touched, so clever was the horse in get- 
 ting into favorable position for firing. 
 
 One day, however — there always comes a " one day " 
 in all stories of adventure — Dandy pursued a buffalo 
 down the side of a ravine, where the footing was inse- 
 
!i'7!!iii!ll!!«i:'i;'7ri^l^OTfil!ii1 
 
 ^^yaiiiiiiiiiiiffijiiiiiii 
 
HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 185 
 
 cure and narrow. The furious beast, raging because he 
 was followed into what he considered a fastness, sud- 
 denly wheeled, and before horse or rider could escape 
 or even turn General Custer felt himself poised in air. 
 The huge animal had actually lifted both man and beast 
 on his strong vicious horns. It was only by Dandy's 
 sudden leap to one side, and the coolness of both, that 
 General Custer and his favorite gained a place of safe- 
 ty, for an enraged buffalo is not a safe animal to en- 
 counter, especially with all odds on his side. When I 
 came out to the fly, on their return that day. Dandy 
 had a hole in his side, where one horn had gored him, 
 while the thick felt saddle-cloth was cut through by the 
 other. This very narrow escape had no effect on Dan- 
 dy's nerves. The very next hunt he recognized the 
 animal selected for game, and did not draw breath till 
 he had darted up to its side, when he slackened to en- 
 able the bullet to be sent home to the vulnerable spot. 
 In certain places the cactus-beds were almost con- 
 tinuous for miles, and it required great patience to pick 
 our way through the thorny route. Dandy could be as 
 patient as any horse, if it was necessary, but when soli- 
 tary clumps were encountered he made short work and 
 leaped them. His master, knowing this little playful- 
 ness, was rarely unprepared ; but woe be to the guest 
 to whom Dandy was lent as a great favor. He made 
 so sudden and unexpected a spring that the rider was 
 apt to be quickly seated either on the crupper or astride 
 Dandy's neck ; or, worse still, impaled in the very cac- 
 tus-bed that Dandy had cleared. 
 
186 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 The servant of one of our surgeons, a negro of about 
 fifteen, bought himself a bucking pony, as he was too 
 ambitious to ride any steady-going animah He de- 
 lighted in racing his animal in front of the command, 
 to show his horsemanship, and being a negro, and droll, 
 he was not restrained as much as he perhaps deserved. 
 Suddenly he came upon one of the cactus -beds that 
 continue for miles, not in masses but in clumps, through 
 which a horse can pick his way slowly if left to him- 
 self. The darky's pony knew this sort of ground well, 
 and was not going to be sent galloping into such a 
 snare, so he refused to go, suddenly settled himself on 
 his haunches, and sent John over his head, landing him 
 squarely on his back in the cactus-bed. The thorns 
 fairly pinned the poor fellow's clothes to his flesh. He 
 slowly picked himself up, even the liand that he used 
 to raise himself being stuck full of thorns, and strug- 
 gled to pull off his coat, exclaiming, " Holy Moses, but 
 ain't them jaggers !" The doctor thought so, after 
 spending two hours extracting the thorns from John's 
 lacerated back ; but the pointed lesson made the youth 
 wary of racing in future. 
 
 At first the bleaching bones of thousands of buffa- 
 loes were rather a melancholy sight to me, but I soon 
 became as much accustomed to the ghastly sockets of 
 an upturned skull as the field-mouse which ran in and 
 out either orifice with food for her nest of little ones in- 
 side. All evidences of death are sad to a woman. Tlie 
 bones were often verj^ old, for the bone collectors did 
 not dare carry on their traffic at that dangerous time; 
 
HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 187 
 
 and it seemed to me that the sadness of thinking of the 
 death of these naturally peaceful creatures was softened, 
 as it is when one goes into a very old burying-ground, 
 and the crumbling stones, covered with lichen, prove 
 that the hearts that once bled for those under the sod 
 are themselves at rest beneath some grass-covered spot 
 elsewhere. There would be few hunters if women had 
 to be the Nimrods. I suppose in a world where wom- 
 an reigned there would be little question that, unwill- 
 ing to kill anything, in time she w^ould be crowded out 
 by the animal kingdom. But the buffaloes were sin- 
 gularly pitiful prey to me. They fought terribly when 
 brought to bay, but when simply startled by the ene- 
 my, they ambled off as if saying, " See here, this place 
 is surely big enough for all of us ; we'll get out of the 
 way." Then when they were pursued, and the herd 
 broke into a frightened stampede, my heart was wrung 
 with sympathy, especially if I chanced to spy calves. 
 I hardly need say how careful the officers were not to 
 shoot the cows. The reverence for motherhood is an 
 instinct that is seldom absent from educated men. Be- 
 sides, I know too many instances in proof of the poet's 
 words, "the bravest are the tenderest." Our officers 
 taught the coarsest soldier, in time, to regard maternity 
 as something sacred. 
 
 It was only by the merest chance that I heard some- 
 thing of the gentleness of one of our officers, whose 
 brave heart ceased to beat on the battle-field of the 
 Little Big Horn. In marching on a scouting expedi- 
 tion one day he went in advance a short distance with 
 
188 FOLLOWING TUE GUIDON. 
 
 his sergeant, and wlien his ten men caught up with 
 him he found that they had shot the mothers of some 
 young antelopes they had chased. Captain Yates, in 
 righteous indignation at this desecration of sacred 
 rights, ordered the men to return to the young, and 
 each take a baby antelope in his arms and care for it 
 until they reached the post. For two days the men 
 marched on, bearing the tender little tilings, cushion- 
 ing them as best they could in their folded blouses. 
 One man had twins to look out for, and as a baby an- 
 telope is all legs and head, this squirming collection of 
 tiny hoofs and legs stuck out from all sides as the sol- 
 dier guided his horse as best he could with one hand, 
 the arm of which encircled the bleating little orphans. 
 
 I also heard, only a year or so since, of an incident 
 that happened perhaps fifteen years ago. A repre- 
 sentative of the press, Mr. Barrows of Boston, was sent 
 for scientific purposes with our regiment during the 
 summer campaign. He told me that General Custer, 
 riding at the head of the column, seeing the nest of a 
 meadow-lark, with birdlings in it, in the grass, guided 
 his horse around it, and resumed the straight pourse 
 again without saying a word or giving a direction. The 
 whole command of many hundred cavalrymen made 
 the same detour, each detachment coming up to the 
 place where the preceding horsemen had turned out, 
 and looking down into the nest to find the reason for 
 the unusual departure from the straight line of march. 
 
 Our officers' tenderness to children was unceasing. 
 One of them, going to the steamer which made its rare 
 
HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 189 
 
 stops at I ort Lincoln, to meet an aunt lie had not seen 
 for a long time, found among the crowd that swarmed 
 over tlie narrow guards a frontiersman who was attend- 
 ing a child with croup. The mother of the child had 
 died a few days before. The little one was dying, ap- 
 parently, but, thinking there was time to save its life, 
 our Seventh Cavalryman put spurs to his horse, went 
 to the post, sought out the doctor, secured medicine, 
 wrote a letter to the surgeon at the next post, asking him 
 to go to the steamer while it was wooding, and prescribe 
 for the child ; he then returned to the boat, giving the 
 distressed father the medicine, and not even explaining 
 to his aunt why he had left her so summarily. 
 
 But how shall I ever hope to paint the surround- 
 ings? How can any one imagine a country where 
 there were no apothecaries, no j)hysicians, no nurses 
 outside a military post, and where an act of kindness 
 so common in the States means the saving of life that 
 otherwise would have perished on the isolated frontier? 
 I cannot name the instances where officers, unused to 
 children, have taught themselves to be helpful when 
 the overtaxed mother, the wife of his comrade, needed 
 help with an ill child. Those gallant men, walking the 
 floor with a peevish baby, had not one moment's thought 
 of whether they presented a ridiculous appearance or 
 not. 
 
 And when they tamed their fiery charger to a walk, 
 and took the little boy of a friend in front of them on 
 the saddle, suiting the gait of the animal to the soft 
 wabbling of the fat little body and legs, there was no 
 
190 FOLLOWING THE GriDON. 
 
 turning in fear to notice a smile of derision in the cor- 
 ner of any scoffer's mouth. On one of the through 
 trains I knew an officer to offer, soon after he left Chi- 
 cago, to get warm milk at the stations for a fellow-trav- 
 eller whom he did not know, a poor woman with two 
 little children, and until they reached the Pacific coast 
 he kept this up three times a day. The Pacific road was 
 then new, and the journey was not made in the few 
 days that it occupies at present. No amount of comic 
 speeches from his brother officers at the figure he cut 
 as milkman with his tin cups moved him to forsake 
 his mission. 
 
 When we were first in Kansas women had never, to 
 any one's knowledge, been taken on buffalo-hunts, and 
 our officers determined to begin. General Miles, who 
 commanded Fort Haj^s, and General Custer, who were 
 most congenial friends, loving hunting next to their 
 profession, determined to take their wives. It was an 
 extraordinary privilege, for we were undoubtedly in the 
 way, and it required a good deal of planning to arrange 
 for us, and see that we were protected with an escort 
 while the officers made the charge into the herd. As I 
 remember what an amount of bother it was for them, 
 I do not think, in common parlance, it " paid " to take 
 us along, but it was a very great pleasure to us. From 
 the very first I was not permitted to ride on horseback. 
 The country was so full of prairie-dog and gopher holes 
 that the best and surest-footed horse was apt to stum- 
 ble, and sometimes even break a leg when the honey- 
 combed earth gave way suddenly, and let him into the 
 
HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 191 
 
 subterranean liomes of the little burrowing animals. It 
 was difficult to ride full tilt over the trails the buffaloes 
 made to the streams, for the earth was baked hard by 
 the water that had gathered and dried in these narrow 
 trenches. The bujffalo-wallow w\as another serious ob- 
 stacle to rapid riding. There again the hard surface 
 of the sun-baked rim to this basin did not give under 
 the flying hoofs of a running horse. Unless they were 
 seen in time to go round them — for they were from ten 
 to fifteen feet in circumference — it was a sudden and 
 dangerous slackening of speed to leap into the depres- 
 sion and spring out again. All the muscles of the 
 officers' lithe bodies were free to resist such sudden 
 plunges, while one half of us was as useless as if para- 
 lyzed as we clung to the side of the horse. There were 
 no limits to w4iat we contended we could have done 
 if it had been the custom for us to ride as they did. 
 Fortunately for us, our boasts were never put to the 
 test, and thus our reputations as horsewomen were not 
 imperilled. 
 
 The officers considered all these dangers, and dis- 
 suaded us from riding. Our coachman drove so well, 
 and entered so into the spirit of the hour, that I was 
 often in at the death, though living a lifetime of fear 
 in getting there. He had strong horses, and he espe- 
 cially prepared the stout Government harness, which 
 was always of the best material, before a hunt, and ex- 
 amined the wagon-springs carefully. General Custer 
 rode by the carriage until they struck the herd, and 
 then, giving Henry orders to follow slowly, off went 
 
192 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the gay riders. Henry, true to liis orders, drove slowly 
 for a time over divide after divide until the chase 
 began to be spirited, and then, forgetting the wagon- 
 break, forgetting his orders, oblivious of everything 
 except the vanishing herd, he urged his steeds on and 
 on until they broke into a gallop. Henry rose to his 
 feet to urge them forward, and flourishing his whip, 
 we tore over the country at a real breakneck speed. I 
 cowered on the back seat with fear, and of course I 
 remonstrated. Henry argued, his eyes eagerly watch- 
 ing the horsemen. Finally I implored, and said, " Oh, 
 don't, donH^ Henry ; we'll go to pieces, I'm sure !" 
 With his kindly voice, talking to me as he would to a 
 scared child, he would reply, " There ain't no kind of 
 danger. Miss Libbie ; I'll take keer of you ; you jest 
 wait till I get to see 'em from the top of that next 
 divide, and I'll stop." 
 
 With all our experience, w^e, officers and all, lived 
 day after day with the delusion that "the top of the 
 next divide" would reveal us some sight, and wave 
 after wave of land swept on without discovering any- 
 thing but the ever-deluding knoll beyond the gentle 
 undulation into which we descended. So Henry fol- 
 lowed with all the speed he could get out of his horses, 
 telling me, " The next divide. Miss Libbie, we's sho' to 
 see 'em." 
 
 How he managed to guide his excited horses with- 
 out accident around the wallows, through the prairie- 
 dog villages, and to twist through the cactus -beds, to 
 descend the gullies, and to jerk the wagon up the as- 
 
HOME OF THE BUFFALO. 193 
 
 cendiiig knoll, was of course an unsolved mystery. The 
 wagon creaked out an occasional protest, the harness 
 snapped threateningly, but on we flew in safety. Ev- 
 erything rattled and clattered and banged as we tore 
 over the prairie, but the ambitious Jehu, with every 
 faith in his horses and harness, chuckled with delio-ht. 
 Finally we would begin to overtake the hunters, 
 and at last, as the successful sportsmen were dismount- 
 ing to cut up the game, Henry, triumphant and beam- 
 ing, drove his galloping, panting, foam-flecked horses 
 into the circle, and a shout of laughter went up from 
 the hunters at the very idea of chasing buffaloes in a 
 carriage. 
 13 
 

 
 Go 
 
 get 
 
 :[=li=:l 
 
 your pillp, go get your pills, Go 
 
 .#_^_«- 
 
 et your pills, go get your pills, Go get your pills, go get your 
 
 e ' ' ' 
 
 :F#iz=ggrp =gE 3 
 
 ^-'-M—^ 
 
 M— 
 
 pills, Go get your pills,. 
 
 go. 
 
 get your pills. 
 
 S 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 
 
 Henry did not drive us on the hunt when we wom- 
 en were taken for the first time. We had an ambu- 
 lance fitted up as a travelling -wagon, with the seats 
 across instead of lengthwise, as in the regulation am- 
 bulance. Under the rear axle hung the keg of water, 
 and under the front was suspended the bucket for the 
 animals. There were four mules, and the whole estab- 
 lishment, from the rack for luncheon-hampers, at the 
 rear, to the farthermost tip of the lead-mules' ears, was 
 a long-drawn-out affair, and as we halted in front of 
 the commanding ofiicer's quarters at Fort Hays we cast 
 a lengthened shadow on the burning sand of the al- 
 most bare parade-ground. 
 
 The driver, a faithful soldier, had his carbine by his 
 side and his cartridge-belt buckled around his waist. 
 
FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 195 
 
 These ominous preparations for a pleasure-party made 
 me shudder a little, while the detachment of cavalry 
 waiting outside the post, with jingling spurs, rattling 
 arms, and impatient, stamping horses, suggested further 
 precaution, and added still more to my fears. The 
 escort was unusually large, as the unfortunate shoot- 
 ing of the Indian chiefs in the corral was too recent an 
 event not to make the officers realize the necessity for 
 caution. It was impossible to communicate with the 
 liostiles and explain this catastrophe, and no one knew 
 at what moment a band of warriors, intent on revenge, 
 would start out from a ravine and attack any one 
 venturing outside the post. 
 
 I was not the only one of the four women who 
 were so honored as to be taken along who trembled 
 at these warlike preparations, for Mrs. Miles, then a 
 bride, and having her first experience of the plains, 
 watched her husband anxiously as he rode about giv- 
 ing final directions, and would gladly have urged him 
 to drive with us, thus striving to secure his safety, had 
 she hoped to dislodge a born cavalryman from his seat 
 in the saddle that he so loved, and that he filled so 
 well. General Miles had been a cavalry officer during 
 the war, and though at that time an infantry colonel, 
 he took to this mounted pleasuring as naturally as if 
 leading a charge. When the officers declared that all 
 was ready the bugle sounded, the impatient horses 
 started, and the little cavalcade was, after many de- 
 lays, set in motion. There was an ambulance at the 
 rear, and that was another rather gloomy accompani- 
 
196 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 ment of a laughing, singing, rollicking hunting party. 
 It was considered necessary, however ; for, though the 
 accidents were never serious, there was rarely a hunt 
 in which some one was not hurt. 
 
 Our progress to the part of the plains where the buf- 
 faloes grazed was slow, as all the officers tried to save 
 their horses until the actual cliase began. The only 
 variety for some miles was the sudden darting off of 
 the dogs in pursuit of the jack-rabbits that lifted their 
 fawn-like heads above the tufts of grass where they had 
 been nibbling, and then shot over the plain in terrified 
 haste. AVe were so much in sympathy with the little 
 creatures that we did not share the sportsman's disap- 
 pointment when they succeeded in getting so great a 
 start of the dogs that they were soon too dim a speck 
 on the prairie to be discernible. The officers occasion- 
 ally came riding back from the advance to chat with 
 us ; but through all the day the doctor, who had con- 
 stituted himself our escort, never left us. He rode a 
 cumbersome gray, and he himself, having started out 
 in his military career with over six feet of person one 
 way, was busy with good dinners getting himself into 
 condition to measure that much the other, and the cir- 
 cumference he had acquired made him anything bat a 
 light weight or a typical cavalryman. 
 
 All the novelty of the occasion, the soft air of the 
 plains, deliciously pure and exhilarating, the rare sen- 
 sation when we looked about us and saw the entire 
 horizon with " the sky fitting close down all around," 
 as our officers expressed it, did not banish from my 
 
FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 197 
 
 mind the dread of the Indian. Every tuft of grass, or 
 sage-bush, or dump of cactus, silhouetted against the 
 sky seemed to sway slowly as if a human being were 
 hiding behind the low barricade. As one rides or 
 drives with cavalry the least diversion seems to trem- 
 ble along through the column and reach you in a doz- 
 en mute ways. The sudden rattle of steel or accoutre- 
 ments as the rider turns slightly in the saddle, the short, 
 low ejaculation of the troopers, the horses' ears starting 
 from a listless droop into alert erectness, the click of 
 the hoof evidencing a change in gait — all these simple 
 signals reached me, and before a word was spoken my 
 heart pounded a wild tattoo on my ribs, and to solve 
 the mystery my eyes quickly scanned the great circle 
 bounding the sky. Perhaps a herd of antelopes stood 
 transfixed by curiosity as we were discovered approach- 
 ing ; possibly a deer, taking fright for himself and the 
 pretty doe and fawn, sprang off with marvellous bounds 
 to lead the way to securer haunts. The ever-vigilant 
 eyes of a terrified woman soon have a whole collection 
 of small signs that telegraph to her quick sensibilities 
 the possibility of danger. If in description of the tri- 
 fles that produce this tremor of almost impercejDtible 
 excitement through a cavalry column Longfellow had 
 framed a line such as he wrote for the ship — " She feels 
 a thrill of life along her keel" — it would have saved 
 much prose which cannot even clumsily portray the 
 momentary precursor of disturbance that pervades a 
 body of horsemen. When the disturbing object pre- 
 sents itself, then the voices are outspoken, and after 
 
198 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the mystery is solved the column resumes its even gait 
 of four miles an hour. 
 
 After several of tliese slight interruptions, which 
 gave me, nevertheless, a start of agitation, finally there 
 came something that even the troopers watched with 
 suspense. Human beings, whether white or red men, 
 were seen far away to our left. The command was 
 instantly halted, and the officers consulted together. 
 We were too far at the rear to hear a word of the dis- 
 cussion. All eyes were turned to the left. Our lead- 
 mules' ears began to express excitement as their eyes 
 descried the distant figures. The driver, trying not to 
 let us see him, quietly freed his carbine from the reins 
 and litter that had been tossed on the front seat. The 
 doctor instinctively put his hand to his belt and tug- 
 ged at his pistol, which, uncomfortable at being jos- 
 tled about his broad proportions, had settled itself in 
 the small of his back. The officers rode back to us 
 in a few moments, and St. Peter recorded another of 
 those fibs of which he has such a list laid up against 
 officers who tell women " there is not the slightest dan- 
 ger." I had then been married several years, and this 
 assertion, that I had heard so often, had no effect in 
 calming me. 
 
 General Miles and General Custer determined to ride 
 on and investigate, and an Irish officer, a reckless rider, 
 begged to accompany them. Both officers had field- 
 glasses, but the distance was too great to discover any- 
 thing definite. The Irishman's horse was like himself, 
 and plunged on in advance at headlong speed ; Gener- 
 
FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 199 
 
 al Miles and General Caster were mounted on animals 
 that combined other traits even more desirable in buf- 
 falo-hunting — tenacity of will and strength. As the 
 horseman in advance dashed on precipitately, the fig- 
 ures we were watching so closely began to ride in a 
 circle. Still, though this, all over the plains, was the 
 established signal for a parley, we knew that Indians 
 had sometimes used it as a ruse to decoy the white man 
 into their power. When the daring captain was near 
 enough to speak to them, we saw him turn and ride 
 back ; and as we gazed through our opera-glasses, which 
 we found aided us even then, it was with intense re- 
 lief that we saw the circle-riding given up, and the 
 captain's own pace become more moderate. The horse- 
 men proved to be herders looking for their mules, and 
 seeing our little cavalcade, they were as much frighten- 
 ed as we were, and only too glad to be relieved of their 
 terrors. 
 
 Finally, after the beautiful cool morning merged into 
 the warmth of noon, and the quivering heat over the 
 scorching ground made us feel thirsty, and sigh for a 
 murmuring stream, it was decided that our pursuit of 
 game could go on more actively if the inner man were 
 fortified. We might look in vain for a tree, or for a 
 brook, or even a pool : there was no shade except a very 
 narrow strip beside the wagon, for the sun was still al- 
 most above us. The water in the kegs was not im- 
 proved by the constant swinging that had been kept 
 up with the motion of the wagon ; the " cold " tea and 
 coffee were lukewarm, but what did we care ? I wish 
 
200 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 that I could see such sparkling eyes, such devouring 
 appetites, such enthusiastic diners at Delmonico's, as 
 were gathered about the luncheon-baskets on that glo- 
 rious summer day. Every one had contributed some- 
 thing, and the jumble was amusing ; but when we had 
 finished there was scarcely enough left to give the 
 driver a taste of each of the viands to add to his hard- 
 tack, pork, and the tepid water in his canteen. Tlie dogs 
 sat around the outside of the circle, disputing, as usual, 
 with their hungry eyes every mouthful we took, and 
 jumping for the bones that were tossed them. Then 
 the two generals poured from the keg containing the 
 only water we might see during the entire day, a little 
 for each hound, and in return got an affectionate lick 
 from the rough but loving tongues, and a gambol of 
 grateful delight as they sprang off for the march. 
 
 Coming to a stream, we found the column suddenly 
 halted, and our heads were instantly out of the side of 
 the wagon to see what could be the matter. The doc- 
 tor soon came hurrying back to say that the j^assage 
 was disputed by a small but well-armed foe, and added 
 that " as soon as that essence-peddler saw fit to move 
 on, the major-general commanding would issue his or- 
 der to march." It was rather laughable to have a 
 whole command held at bay by one small animal. 
 
 Not long after we had started again there was a 
 shout from the head of tlie column, and on came to us 
 the word " Buffaloes !" It conveyed to me another trem- 
 or of agitation. I am ashamed to confess that I was even 
 afraid of buffaloes. I had not then seen them, for. 
 
FIRST AVOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 201 
 
 tliongh in previous cliaj^ters reference may have been 
 made to them, the aUnsions were to the events of the 
 summer. These great black blotches against the fault- 
 less sky were my introduction to the American buffalo. 
 They loomed up like elephants to my scared vision. I 
 thought at that time that they combined the ferocity 
 of the tiger with the strength of the lion. I had no 
 idea how peaceful they reall}^ were if let alone. The 
 soldiers who had gone in advance, and who had inform- 
 ed us by riding in a circle (a preconcerted signal) that 
 buffaloes were ahead, now joined the column, and a halt 
 was called to prepare for the chase. The doctor and a 
 few men were to remain as our escort, while we fol- 
 lowed slowly. 
 
 There was no particular care as to the dress of the 
 hunters, and officers and enlisted men took every lati- 
 tude in the matter of costume. The legs of a cavalry- 
 man are usually well cared for ; his corduroy or buck- 
 skin breeches are an excellent fit, and his troop-boots, 
 coming to the knee, set off a shapely thigh. A flannel 
 shirt, with the loose collar confined by a soft tie, was 
 especially becoming to those bronzed men. The sol- 
 diers were nondescript in their dress. There was a pre- 
 vailing tint of army blue throughout ; but there were 
 picturesque patches, and the gaudy shirts bought from 
 the army sutler seemed an appropriate costume for 
 their fine muscular forms. Every sort of close cap and 
 hat appeared, for nothing broad in the brim could with- 
 stand the furious speed with which they rode against 
 the wind. It was impossible for women to make toi- 
 
202 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 lets on such an occasion. We simply looked up the 
 strongest garments we had, for the rough riding, the 
 constant clambering in and out of the carriage, the ab- 
 sence of any protection to our clothes when we halted 
 and sat on the ground for luncheon or to rest, made 
 havoc with anything good. 
 
 Our opera-glasses looked just a little "frilly" in 
 such a place, but they were really useful. It struck 
 us as rather odd, when taking them from their velvet 
 cases on the barren desert of a plain, to contrast our 
 surroundings with the last place where they were used. 
 The brilliantly lighted opera-house, the air scented with 
 hot-house flowers, the rich costumes of the women, the 
 faultlessly dressed men, the studied conventionality of 
 the calmly listening audience, hearing ravishing music 
 unmoved — all these recollections presented a scene 
 about as different from that on the plains as can be im- 
 agined. Here we were, after all that glimpse of lux- 
 urious life, rolling over the arid desert, breathing with 
 joy the intoxicating air, and going into ecstasies over 
 everything, even over the one flower the hot summer 
 had spared — the soapwort with its scentless blossom, 
 its dagger-like leaves, and its prosaic root, which was 
 really used as a substitute for soap. 
 
 As soon as the men dismounted every soldier began 
 to examine his girth, bit, bridle, stirrups, and fire-arms, 
 to buckle his carbine-belt, and fasten on his hat. The 
 little company of troopers was told off into detach- 
 ments, and directed to approach the herd to leeward, 
 so that the quick nostrils of the buffalo picket might 
 
i 
 
 FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 203 
 
 not sniff danger. There were only murmuring voices — 
 no loud talking was allowed — and the merriment which 
 rarely leaves the happy-go-lucky trooper was momen- 
 tarily suppressed. Some took off their caps, and tied 
 them, with their blouses, to the saddle ; other super- 
 fluous articles were strapped down so as not to make a 
 sound. Then, with a low signal, they all gave rein to 
 their already excited horses, and dashed up from the 
 little divide in which these preparations had gone on, 
 and were off like a flash. The buffaloes, finally startled 
 by the noise of the hoofs of the advancing steeds, 
 awakened from their lazy, stupid browsing, started 
 their cumbrous gait, and made over the country far 
 more rapidly than any one would imagine possible 
 in view of their enormous size. Soon our men were 
 among the herd, singling out the especial buffalo they 
 wished to kill ; and with our glasses we saw tliem for 
 some time, but at last a divide hid pursuers and pur- 
 sued. 
 
 After a time Colonel Tom was discovered riding tow- 
 ards us. He brought the news that his brother had 
 wounded a buffalo, and waited for us before he put 
 in the death-shot. We were guided to the spot, and 
 found a huge beast pawing the ground, his short tail 
 waving defiance and rage, his bloodshot eyes glittering 
 from beneath the thick mat of bushy hair on his fore- 
 head, his horns ripping up the sod. As the officers 
 darted up to him he plunged forward to gore their 
 horses, and failing, dug his hoofs in the soil and tore 
 up the earth, throwing the dust about him in his fury. 
 
204 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 It was a repetition of the Spanish bnll-fight with the 
 matadore for a few brief moments ; but the telling 
 shot was soon sent, and the great animal's tongue hung 
 out helplessly, his nostrils bled as he rolled over, shook 
 his huge frame, and struggled no more. We left the 
 carriage in order to view him on all sides ; and while we 
 used up adjectives in the most reckless manner trying 
 to find language fitting to describe our surprise at the 
 size of the monster, we suddenly heard a scream, and 
 found that General Custer had cauglit up the young 
 lady of the party and set her down on the huge carcass 
 of the dead game. She cried out in terror, but was firm- 
 ly held there, and told to take the knife and cut a tuft 
 from the buffalo's head as a trophy. Iler hands trem- 
 bled so much that Colonel Tom had to do the work, 
 and then his brother laughingly handed the tuft to the 
 temporarily enthroned queen of the hunt, telling her, 
 with a droll twinkle of the eye, to take it to her sister 
 with his compliments, and say that it was snatched 
 from the head of a certain woman whom we knew that 
 she desjDised. The brush was given to another one 
 of us, and lochs of hair secured for others ; then we 
 returned to the carriage while the buffalo was being 
 cut up. It required much dexterity to take out the 
 tongue. I know that our officers did some awkward 
 hacking before they learned from a scout that it is 
 skill and experience that are necessary. The rump- 
 steaks were easily removed, and then the soldiers cut 
 where they chose, and strung the meat to their sad- 
 dles. It was a great privilege to the enlisted man to 
 
FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 205 
 
 get this salutaiy change from his ration- of salt pork 
 to fresh meat. 
 
 We were placed again in the carriage, the liorsemen 
 monnted, and the hunt was resumed. Finally we came 
 to the edge of a cliff, and our carriage halted to find a 
 safe descent. The officers and soldiers descended care- 
 fnlly, while the buffaloes seemed to go down head-first, 
 but gathered themselves quickly, and started off so 
 rapidly that they gained considerably on the riders, 
 who had to take more time in getting again to the 
 comparatively level ground. From our rather elevated 
 position we had a fine view of the chase, and began 
 to enjoy it all as we found what daring and splendid 
 horsemanshij) was exhibited without accident. The 
 manner in which the soldiers and officers rode was 
 alone worth our trouble in coming as spectators. On 
 our ordinary daily rides, or on the hunts after jack- 
 rabbits or wolves, or even antelopes, there was not 
 
 * The Ration (Par. 1367, Army Regulations). — A ration is the 
 established daily allowance of food for one person. As now fixed, 
 its components are as follows : 
 
 Twelve ounces of pork or bacon or canned beef (fresh or corn- 
 ed), or one pound and four ounces of fresh beef, or twenty-two 
 ounces of salt beef; eighteen ounces of soft bread or flour, or six- 
 teen ounces of hard bread, or one pound and four ounces of corn- 
 meal ; and to have, ever}^ one hundred rations, fifteen pounds of 
 pease or beans, or ten pounds of rice or hominy; ten pounds of 
 green coffee, or eight of roasted (or roasted and ground) coffee, or 
 two pounds of tea; fifteen pounds of sugar, four quarts of vinegar; 
 four pounds of soap, four pounds of salt; four ounces of pepper; 
 one pound and eight ounces of adamantine or star candles; and 
 to troops in the field, when necessary, four pounds of yeast-pow- 
 der to one hundred rations of flour. 
 
206 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 much opportunity for us to see the remarkable intelli- 
 gence of some of the best horses, or have an exhibition 
 of the superb equestrian ship of a wild charge into a 
 herd of buffaloes. Horse and rider were keyed up to 
 such a pitch that not a word, and hardly a touch of 
 the bridle, much less of a spur, was necessary. With- 
 out any guiding, the intelligent beast swung one mo- 
 ment into a graceful semicircle as he avoided the buf- 
 falo-wallow, hardly slackening his speed, or sprang with 
 a pov/erful leap over a bunch of cactus, or made his 
 tortuous way through the prairie-dog village, planting 
 his hoofs with such unerring precision, it seemed in- 
 credible in view of the s^eed kept up. Then, when 
 the one animal singled out as game was reached, the 
 speed of the steed slackened, and a series of tactics 
 w^orthy of a trained circus-horse began. The sudden 
 rearing, and the quick backing in retreat to avoid the 
 threatening horns, the dash forward beside the beast, 
 the leaping to one side on all fours when the buffalo 
 made a charge, were movements repeated with won- 
 derful agility. 
 
 All amateurs fired at a buffalo's head, but the largest 
 bullets made no impression on the thick skull. The 
 animal shook his huge head as if dislodging a fly when 
 a shot struck him in the face, or perhaps he paid no at- 
 tention at all to the leaden hail as the bullets glanced 
 off him as from an iron-clad. 
 
 With all the quick veering from side to side, the 
 rapid wheeling to get out of the way, the rider, with 
 body swaying at every movement of the horse, met 
 
FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 207 
 
 each new change of gait, each fresh impulse of the 
 vigilant animal, as if man and beast were one. In all 
 these evolutions, so quickly and skilfully effected, the 
 rider was able to load the poor liunted beast with lead in 
 aiming for the telling spot, giving scarcely a thought 
 to his horse. It goes without saying that our officers 
 were good shots ; but it was no easy affair to get a 
 bullet just outside the edge of the great mass of tan- 
 gled woolly hair that was packed so densely around 
 the luige head. I remember one buffalo into which 
 forty shots had been fired, and yet, with liis hide thus 
 perforated with bullets, he fought with desperation, 
 even with his tongue hanging out, the unerring signal 
 of fast-coming death. 
 
 One of the sights of the day, and one to remember 
 for many a long day afterwards, was a contest with a 
 buffalo which General Miles and General Custer had 
 singled out of the herd and driven to bay. The ex- 
 asperated animal made a furious fight, his great eye- 
 balls red and glittering with rage, his huge head thrust 
 downward as he hurled himself first at one officer who 
 rode at him on one side, and then suddenly wheeling, 
 he made desperate lunges towards the other when the 
 hunter's temerity brought him too near. These lithe 
 young men, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, 
 with their bright eyes dancing with excitement, their 
 fair hair flying, their throats bared and throbbing with 
 the hot blood that rushed through their veins, their 
 muscles steeled to the absorbing work before them, 
 made such pictures of vigorous manhood that are not 
 
208 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 soon effaced from the camera of the mind. They 
 thrust their feet out of the stirrups, and held them- 
 selves in place by their powerful and pliable legs ; and 
 as neither weighed over one hundred and sixty pounds, 
 they knew how to sit their horses lightly, and so favor 
 the nervous, active animals under them. 
 
 It was something to occupy every energy, and keep 
 even young and agile men vigilant, when the colossal 
 animal suddenly wakened out of the usual dull lethargy 
 of his humdrum life into the ferocity of rage. Had not 
 the horses been so attuned to their riders, and so one 
 with them in the excitement of the chase, one of the 
 wildly tossing horns of the beast would liave been thrust 
 into the side from which such persistent aim was taken. 
 The hunters trusted to their faithful steeds, and believed 
 that they would take care of themselves as well as of 
 their riders. The bridle was scarcely touched, and as 
 the horses whirled first to one side and then to the other, 
 the swaying supple forms of the athletic riders followed 
 instinctively every motion of their steeds. Sometimes 
 one of the horses sprang back almost upon his haunches 
 in his struggle to retreat from the threatening head of 
 the foe. Tlien, had not the skilful horseman, poised 
 so lightly in the saddle as he was, been quick to dig 
 his muscular legs into the horse's sides, and had not the 
 bridle been loosely held so that there was not the least 
 pull on the animal's mouth, there would surely have 
 been a heap of tumbled-up and prostrate humanity 
 floundering in the soil, and sending up a cloud equal to 
 that which the hoofs of the great fierce monster threw 
 
FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 209 
 
 into the air at every lunge of liis enormous body. E"o 
 one can conceive what marvellous activity was exhib- 
 ited by these great creatures weighing eight hundred 
 pounds, and cumbered as they were with a thick matted 
 coat of hair about the head and shoulders, which alone 
 seemed enough to retard their celerity. 
 
 As this battle was being waged by these two deter- 
 mined men with an equally resolute foe, they firing the 
 pistols held constantly cocked and aimed at the fore- 
 shoulder of the buffalo, there was still a fourth assail- 
 ant in the fray. A large and courageous dog had 
 separated himself from the pack and followed the 
 hunters. He began a series of attacks on the buffalo's 
 hind-legs, his instinct pointing out, if not the vulner- 
 able point, still one that was likely to ])vovq a telling 
 one on the animal's nerves and temper. 
 
 At last the frantic beast, coming just short of gor- 
 ing the horses that darted before him, condescended to 
 bend his huge head lower, and while the dog leaped to 
 secure another hold on the flying legs, the ponderous 
 creature wheeled, and was for once too quick for the 
 poor canine. He tossed him thirty feet in the air, and 
 when the daring dog descended to the upturned turf it 
 seemed as if his last yelp of pain was sounding. 
 
 But whatever crunching of bones went on in his 
 terrible tumble, those of his legs were still intact, for 
 he rose to his feet, dragged his tail between his legs, 
 and started with a limp and a howl for home, possibly 
 twenty miles away over a country without landmarks. 
 
 Still the buffalo fought on, his short, tufted tail, that 
 U 
 
210 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 usually hangs so limj:), raised in air and waving de- 
 fiance. The blood at last trickled from his nostrils, 
 one front-leg went under, and with a mighty crash 
 down came the conquered foe, floundering and wallow- 
 ing in the loosened soil, yielding reluctantly to the 
 bullet that had pierced his side. 
 
 As we women watched this panorama spread at our 
 feet we were filled with alarm, and trembling with 
 anxiety one moment, triumphant and delighted with 
 the horsemanship the next. Several buffaloes in differ- 
 ent parts of the field were down, and we began to hope 
 that the set of instruments one of the younger sur- 
 geons had carelessly exposed, and which had given us 
 shudders when we started, would lie in their case undis- 
 turbed. This hope was suddenly dissipated when we 
 saw one of the riders plunge over his horse's head, and 
 lie motionless on the ground. There were three wom- 
 en who could not breathe except in gasps for a few mo- 
 ments, and the unmarried woman, in deep sympatliy, 
 strained her eyes to see if the wounded man could 
 not be identified. Our gallant escort, the doctor, pity- 
 ing the suspense of those who feared the prostrate man 
 was the one of all the world to them, rode forward and 
 soon brought us news. A sergeant's horse, getting his 
 foot into a prairie-dog hole, had thrown him. The 
 ofiicers and soldiers gathered about the j^rostrate man, 
 who almost instantly sprang to his feet, and declared 
 liimself " all right " with only his arm sprained, he 
 thought. The young surgeon was only too proud to 
 produce the instrument-case, so odious to us in the 
 
FIRST WOMEN TO HUNT BUFFALOES. 211 
 
 morning ; but it was no sj^rain. Tlie arm of tlie fine 
 fellow was broken, and the surgeon had work to do. 
 
 However, with all his courage, the officers feared the 
 man would faint, and there was wild riding about to 
 see if among the hunters there was any whiskey. The 
 young follower of Esculapius, familiarly called " Little 
 Pills," had all the apparatus to cut up his patients, but 
 nothing to resuscitate them afterwards. Finally, after 
 a fruitless search among the officers, the orderly rode 
 on to our carriage to give the doctor's compliments, 
 and ask if the ladies had any whiskey. There was just 
 a momentary smile awakened, but a real round laugh 
 came from three throats when one of us asked to look 
 under the carriage seat, where the wraps and extra 
 necessaries were kept, and from a bag a little flask was 
 quietly brought forth. By this time some officers had 
 joined us, and deep and long was the peal of laughter 
 that they gave, for the woman who produced the whis- 
 key was the one of the four who never tasted it, nor 
 even had so much as a gill in her house. In a twin- 
 kling this little joke spread among the hunters, with 
 the following questions : " Who produced the ' need- 
 ful V " " Why, who do you suppose ? — Mrs. So-and- 
 So !" At sound of the name another shout, and such 
 ejaculations as, " Well, I should just as soon have ex- 
 pected old Gough himself to have handed out a flask 
 from his pocket !" and it was in vain that the woman 
 protested that she had "feared accidents." When mer- 
 ry people want to get a joke out of anything it is dif- 
 ficult to turn the tide into another channel. 
 
212 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 Tlie sergeant, tliaiiks to his pluck and to his splen- 
 did physical condition, was able to ride back to garri- 
 son, and as no one had much heart for further hunt- 
 ing, we all turned our faces in the direction in which 
 the compass told us our home lay. There was not 
 a distinguishing mark in the landscape to guide us. 
 The utter monotony of the plains prevents any one 
 from attempting to be a path-finder ; and sometimes a 
 boastful one among us, proud of his bump of locality, 
 attempted to find his way, but travelled in a circle in- 
 variably as the lost traveller has always done. Soon 
 the stars came out to light and guide us onward, and 
 at ten o'clock we entered the camp, chaffing, singing, 
 and chattering in spite of fatigue. 
 
$itc Blarm. 
 
 JiJI^Bifeg^ ^ ^Sip^ 
 
 Fire I fire ! 
 
 fire I fire I 
 
 Fire I . 
 
 fire ! fire ! fire I 
 
 m ^^^% 
 
 
 ^^^^^^ 
 
 
 fire ! Go get your buckets, get your buckets, Get your buck-ets, 
 
 V — :: — ^— ^ — '- — "^L^ ^ - --r_tZ-: 
 
 soldiers ; Get your buckets, get your buckets, Get your buckets, all. 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 HUNTING RECORDS. 
 
 The summer on Big Creek was not an idle one for 
 our regiment, thougli the village of white canvas seem- 
 ed to nestle so peacefully in the bend of the sinuous 
 stream. The tents represented many hundred men, 
 and always gave that impression to marauding Ind- 
 ians, who hover near booty in the shape of horses, even 
 if they do not take regularly to the war-path. They 
 estimate numbers among themselves by the tepees, al- 
 lowing so many warriors to a lodge. But two-thirds 
 of our tents were often empty, as two or three scout- 
 ing parties might be out at one time. 
 
 There were several young graduates, Avho came from 
 West Point that summer, who sighed to make a record, 
 hearing every day with envious ears the constant ref- 
 erence to the glorious success of the Washita. These 
 youths were called '' tads " and " plebes," and treated 
 
214 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 in a half-contemptuous manner by officers of their own 
 age possibly, but whose one successful winter's cam- 
 paign lifted them a generation beyond. The exultant 
 way in which these youngsters strutted about after- 
 wards, when they had been in a fight, and the vaunt- 
 ing tone they assumed when they told me no one could 
 call them "tads" or "plebes" now, was amusing to 
 one who believed that the most delightful paths were 
 those of peace. Still there was so much teasing that 
 I was inclined always to side with the minority, for 
 in the general tormenting I often felt the need of a 
 champion myself. No one but these embryo warriors 
 sighed for war. It is a mistaken impression that our 
 army hailed the anticipation of a fighting campaign 
 with delight. The change from their dull life to one 
 of variety made our people rejoice at the prospect of 
 active duty, but to fight Indians was not their desire. 
 The outrages that brought on the winter's campaign 
 had fired all hearts with the determination that pun- 
 ishment should be inflicted ; but now that peace had 
 been established, the whole command believed in doing 
 everything to preserve it. I lately came across a tele- 
 gram that General Custer sent to General Sheridan 
 that summer, which has been preserved only by acci- 
 dent, but which bears upon this subject : 
 
 (Confidential.) 
 
 Hays City, Kansas. 
 Lieutenant-general Sheridan, Chicago, III. : 
 
 Without delicate handling of the Indian question by per- 
 sons of experience in Indian affairs, we are liable to lose all 
 
HUNTING RECORDS. 215 
 
 benefit of our last winter's campaign, and be plunged into 
 another general war with the southern tribes. I think this 
 can be avoided. G. A. Custer, 
 
 Brevet Major-General. 
 
 There were parties of northern hostiles in our vicin- 
 ity often, and sometimes, had they known how many 
 of the tents were empty, it would have been an 
 easy affair to have overcome us. The coming or going 
 of the scouting parties was a fresh occasion of interest 
 every time. It was General Custer's policy to keep 
 troops travelling all the summer. Though he did not 
 hope to engage the wily red men in open combat while 
 their ponies were in sufficiently good condition to en- 
 able them to run, still he did not mean to permit them 
 to think that our people were not ready for them. 
 
 Sometimes on these scouts the officers and men kill- 
 ed enough game to give us all a treat on their return. 
 Of all the scouting parties that summer, our brother 
 Tom and another officer had the best shooting score. 
 On the return to camp they harrowed the rest by de- 
 scribing their success. They had had deer, antelope, 
 elk, and wild turkey every day; while we had been 
 blessed with little besides buffalo-meat, as the cars had 
 frightened away the more timid game. They saw two 
 different herds of elks which numbered about a hun- 
 dred each. They brought in the splendid antlers of 
 one, which were six feet in height, and so wide that we 
 seemed to have no place large enough to put them. 
 Tom said, prosaically, when we w^ere hunting for 
 words grand enough to describe them, "Oh, the ani- 
 
216 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 mal looked as if he had a chair-factorj on his head !" 
 Tom was alone when he saw the owner of those branch- 
 ing horns. Three elks were approaching him. Jmnp- 
 ing from his horse, he tied him to a bush, and shot 
 the leader of the three, a noble buck ; the other two 
 stopped to look at him, and without changing his posi- 
 tion he shot the second. The elks, like the deer and 
 antelopes, occasionally make themselves easy prey for 
 the hunter, because of their curiosity. I know that 
 Colonel Tom let the elks he shot approach, gazing at 
 him, till within seventy yards before he took aim. 
 
 In one of General Custer's letters to a friend, whom 
 he was trying to persuade to join him in camp, he de- 
 scribes some of his own successes : 
 
 I wish that you could have been with me on some of my 
 elk-hunts. I killed three in one run of four miles. A party 
 of us killed sixteen in one day. At another time, without 
 even stirring out of my tracks, I shot, off-hand, three ante- 
 lopes the nearest of which was three hundred and twenty 
 yards. I aimed each time at a single animal and not at a herd. 
 Day before yesterday I saw a fine buck antelope standing 
 full front towards me ; I could see only his head and part of 
 his neck above the grass. I fired, and dropped him ; the dis- 
 tance was two hundred and sixty-seven yards, and the ball 
 entered his neck as accurately as if I had been close enough 
 to touch it with the muzzle of the gun. You should have 
 been with me the day I shot the big buck elsewhere referred 
 to in my letter to you. 
 
 After wounding him badly, and having a fine chase after 
 him mounted and with the stag-hounds, he took to the river, 
 and the dos^s after him. Talk about Landseer's eno^ravino: ! 
 I would not give the sight I witnessed that day for all the 
 
HUNTING KECOEDS. 217 
 
 engravings ever framed. The buck could stand on the bot- 
 tom, but the dogs had to swim. One seized him by the ear, 
 another by the nose, others were catching at his sides and 
 neck, while he was striking right and left, sometimes catch- 
 ing a dog and keeping him in the water until I lost all hope 
 of ever seeing him alive again. The marks of the dogs' teeth 
 are in the buck's ears and along his sides, where they endeav- 
 ored to jump up and seize him as he ran. All this time I 
 was on the river-bank, within twenty yards of the conflict, 
 rifle in hand, and vainly watching an opportunity to put a 
 ball in and end the battle and save the lives of my dogs ; but 
 so active and mixed up were elk and dogs that for a long 
 time I was unable to aim at the elk without at the same 
 time covering a dog, until finally all the dogs concentrated 
 at and about his head, when I quickly sent a rifle-ball through 
 his loins, and thus terminated one of the most excitino^ hunt- 
 ing scenes I ever witnessed. I sent back for a wagon, and 
 had him carried to camp entire. His photograph was taken 
 as he lay in front of my tent, I, in my buckskins, seated on 
 the ground near his head. He was about fifteen hands high, 
 and his estimated weight, dressed, was eight hundred pounds. 
 Fortunately I have learned the principles of taxidermy, and 
 I have preserved in splendid order not only the antlers, head, 
 and neck, but the skin and hoofs of the entire animal, so that 
 it can be mounted as " natural as life." The zoologists ac- 
 companying us think it is the finest specimen of the elk any- 
 where in the United States. 
 
 On many of General Custer's hunts lie took an Ind- 
 ian scont — one of those who came from a friendly tribe 
 — to accompany the expeditions, and run a trail, or 
 carry despatches back to the posts, or from one offi- 
 cer in the field to another commanding an expedi- 
 tion. These Indians were sometimes very faithful, and 
 
218 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 every kindness was shown them. They were like chil- 
 dren, full of humors, often sulking for days over im- 
 aginary injuries ; but, with patience, much valuable 
 service could be had from them. They knew the 
 country so well, and were so acquainted with its to- 
 pography, that they could take a pointed stick and 
 draw an intelligible map in the sand when they tried to 
 explain the route our troops wished to take, or the en- 
 campment of the hostile Indians. In the picture in 
 the frontispiece, a copy of a photograph, General Cus- 
 ter is represented holding a map which his celebrated 
 scout Bloody Knife is studying, while another scout 
 and the half-breed interpreter stand near. It was stu- 
 pid work for Bloody Knife to remain about garrison 
 when there was no expedition in progress, and he be- 
 came as nearly animated as he ever allowed himself 
 to be if word were sent for him to go on the hunt, if he 
 wished to do so. The good shots of our officers did 
 not go unnoticed ; and I remember that Bloody Knife 
 entreated General Custer to be cautious when he shot 
 his first grizzly bear in the Yellowstone. 
 
 The elks were so much larger than other game that 
 the officers often lost their first shots from buck-fever. 
 I could readily understand it, for the first one I ever 
 saw so startled me that it seemed as if some old fossil 
 of the Megatherium period had sprung out of the pet- 
 rified earth and taken up life again. The huge animal 
 was lying down very near the place selected for our 
 camp ; and hearing our voices as we sat on the ground 
 waiting for our tents to be pitched, he leaped into the 
 
HUNTING RECOEDS, 219 
 
 air, and bounded off like a gazelle instead of a beast 
 of such proportions. His antlers rose, seemingly, as 
 far above his head as his head was from the ground. 
 Colonel Tom said it was as large as a large-sized mule. 
 With almost as quick a leap as the game, General Cus- 
 ter sprang for his rifle, flung himself on an unsaddled 
 horse, and sped over the ground after the splendid 
 game, but it had too much the start of him, and we 
 lost the elk-steak that, in his brief absence, our men 
 had begun to count on for their dinner. Elks were rare 
 along any route that was travelled ; so that it was an 
 immense privilege if, when the officers went off for a 
 distance on a scout, or a hunt was planned that took 
 us away twenty miles or so, we had the good-fortune 
 to include that animal in the game killed. 
 
 It was not an e very-day affair to go hunting, howev- 
 er; for, to find buffaloes ift abundance, we were obliged 
 to travel some miles, and the knowledge that the north- 
 ern Indians were hovering near much of the time 
 made it a risk to ride without an escort. Our dogs 
 sometimes hunted by themselves when tired of wait- 
 ing to be taken out. In one of General Custer's letters 
 to the same friend mentioned before, he speaks with 
 pride of the ambition which took the hounds off by 
 themselves : 
 
 My dogs hunt up and down the creek every day. Last 
 night a man living eight miles below here came to camp 
 and told rae that four of my dogs — Lufra, Juno, Blucher, and 
 Maida — had driven a large buffalo near his ranch, and that he 
 had gone to them when he found the buffalo about used up 
 
220 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 and unable to get away, and that tliey would have killed it 
 alone but he finished it with his rifle. They had probably 
 been running it for several miles. I call that pretty good 
 work for green dogs. I took them with me the other 
 day, and it was sport. Juno sprang right at the nose the 
 first time she ever saw a buffalo. Lufra took the ear, and 
 Blucher got hold of the side. Juno is as savage as a tiger, 
 and so is Lufra. 
 
 I do not know that I remember a man with more 
 temerity than the ranchman to whom General Custer 
 refers. He lived alone, and seemed perfectly insensible 
 to fear. His place was a sort of a Mecca to ns. The 
 nearest ranch besides his was eighty miles distant, ad- 
 joining the town of Ellsworth. To see growing things 
 that had been planted and were allowed to advance 
 without either being comj^elled to move and leave 
 them, as we usually were, or to hear of their destruction 
 by the Indians while the first shoots were starting, as 
 in the case of hundreds of ranchmen at that time, was 
 an event in life ; and I remember how ^' homey " the 
 rows of potatoes, the hills of corn, and the climbing 
 beans seemed after years without the sight of a garden. 
 The man had made himself very comfortable in his dug- 
 out in the side of a bank ; and even that I envied, for 
 the wind could not toy with his habitation and blow it 
 away as it did our " rag houses." I confess to great 
 curiosity as to what circumstances in the States had 
 been so disastrous as to make him willing to leave every 
 one and risk his life down on that lonely creek. Our 
 men, with one voice, attributed it to some woman's 
 
HUNTING RECORDS. 221 
 
 work. "Depend upon it," they said, "lie prefers the 
 wilderness to being nagged to death in the States." 
 If I suggested tliat he might be a fugitive from jus- 
 tice I was silenced by a laughing, teasing retort to 
 the effect that some men were more fortunate than 
 others: a desert like ours would frighten most wom- 
 en, but there were others who could penetrate any 
 wilderness and pursue a man into the extremest soli- 
 tude. 
 
 One night we were trying to entertain an officer 
 from another station, and a ride was our only resource, 
 as it was impossible to get up a hunt for some reason, 
 I have forgotten what. We started off, a gay, rollick- 
 ing party, three women, with perhaps twenty officers, 
 and a few orderlies. All the dogs of the regiment 
 were with us, apparently — from the lofty and high- 
 born stag-hounds down to the little "feist," or mon- 
 grel, of the trooper, whose plebeian tail, that usually 
 curled over his back, was now drooping, and his sides 
 panting with the speed he had to keep up. We laugh- 
 ed and sang as we let our horses out, and the college 
 choruses or West Point songs rang on the air as clear- 
 ly and joyously as if we had been riding down a safe 
 country glade at home. Of course, with the unusual 
 spectacle of a garden within eight miles of the camp to 
 show, we followed the creek, and enjoyed the surprise 
 of our guest's face when the domestic turnip and the 
 thrifty beet of civilization greeted his sight. This was 
 our last ride so far without an escort, for the next day 
 news came that the Indians had crossed the stream the 
 
222 FOLLOWING THE GTHDON. 
 
 night before, burned tlie first stage-station, and killed 
 the men in charge. 
 
 Tlie red man has exhibited great awe of telegraph 
 lines, believing that there was something supernatural 
 in their workings, and for this fortunate reason, in our 
 worst border troubles, many a warning was flashed 
 along the wires when an attack was even so much as 
 anticipated ; but in this instance the lawless band, set- 
 ting at defiance superstitious fears, had cut the wire, 
 and in torturing the men bits of it had been stuck in 
 their flesh beside the arrow that every Indian leaves in 
 a dead body, whether it be sent from the bow before 
 or after the fatal shot. 
 
 There was one caution that the officers dinned in our 
 ears day after day — namely, that we women should nev- 
 er leave camp alone even for a stroll. We were usual- 
 ly obedient about this, for we felt always that we had 
 been brought out on sufferance, as it were. Great trou- 
 ble had been taken to prepare for us, and all had been 
 done with the understanding that we should not allow 
 ourselves to be in the way. These warnings about tlie 
 Indians were "line upon line" with General Custer, 
 and he had only to refer to the captives I had seen 
 soon after their release to elicit promises of caution 
 from me. It was due to events like the capture of the 
 Box family that the winter's campaign in the Washita 
 country had been undertaken. While we were at Fort 
 Riley the mother and three daughters were brought to 
 the post. Their release had been effected by the tact 
 of our oflScers, and by the payment of a large ransom. 
 
HUNTING RECOEDS. 
 
 At tlie time of tlieir capture a year 23reviouSj tlie 
 father aiad one babe were killed at once. The mother 
 and her daughters — one a girl of eighteen, another ten, 
 and the third three years old — were bound on ponies 
 and started on the march. The mother was allowed to 
 carry the child still younger, but the infant's crying 
 angered the savages, and they dashed its little brains 
 out against a tree before the anguished mother's eyes. 
 When the division of spoils and prisoners was made, 
 the three children and the mother were separated, and 
 assigned to different bands of the same tribe. I could 
 not find any language to repeat what the poor mother 
 and eldest daughter told me of their horrible sufferings 
 during the year of their captivity. Their melancholy 
 w^as most heart-rending, for even their release from 
 captivity would not bring them back to the husband 
 and father so dear to them, or put in the maternal 
 arms the two little innocent infants that had been 
 murdered. 
 
 The little girl of ten, when separated from her moth- 
 er, grieved and mourned so that, to stifle her sobs and 
 prevent her repeating them, the Indians had burned 
 the soles of her feet. She turned them up to show me 
 the scars as I sat in the midst of this pitiful group. 
 The girl, then nineteen years old, in the captivity which 
 was w^orse than death, had lost all trace of girlhood. 
 Had she been retained as the property of one chief her 
 fate would have been more deplorable than any that a 
 w^oman ever endures, but even this misery was inten- 
 sified, for she was traded from one chief to another in • 
 
224 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the everlasting dickering that the Indians keep up. 
 The suffering of these poor captives made a Lasting 
 impression on me. I had not been long away from a 
 home where my parents not only shielded me from all 
 sorrow and trouble, but guarded me from even tales of 
 misery which would have made a spot on the sun of a 
 most radiant girlhood. 
 
 Still, this story of suffering was not considered 
 enough by General Custer to warn me against taking 
 any risks wljere Indians roamed. He came to me after 
 that, while we were stopping a day or two at the hotel 
 in Leavenworth, to ask me to see a distracted man with 
 whom he had been talking. When I found that the 
 man was almost wild with grief over the capture of 
 his wife by Indians, and the murder of his children, I 
 begged to be spared witnessing such a painful sight 
 when I could do no good. The reply was that sym- 
 pathy was something every one needed, and I made 
 no further resistance. The man was as nearly a mad- 
 man as can be. His eyes wild, frenzied, and sunken 
 with grief, his voice weak with suffering, his tear- 
 stained, haggard face — all told a terrible tale of what 
 he had been and was enduring. He wildly waved his 
 arms as he paced the floor like some caged thing, and 
 implored General Custer to use his influence to organ- 
 ize an expedition to secure the release of his wife. He 
 turned to me with trembling tones, describing the re- 
 turn to his desolated cabin. As he came from the 
 field where he was at work, full of pleasure at ap- 
 . preaching the rude hut where he had left his little 
 
HUNTING RECORDS. 225 
 
 ones playing about the door, he saw no sign of life, no 
 movement of any kind ; no little feet ran out to meet 
 him, no piping voice called a welcome to him. With 
 the darkest forebodings — for those were troublous days 
 to the early settler — he began to run, and, near some 
 logs, he almost fell upon the dead and mutilated body 
 of one child. Not far off was a little shoe, and some 
 light liair, evidently torn from the downy head of an- 
 other child, and a few steps from the door the two 
 younger children lay in pools of blood, their little 
 heads scalped, their soft flesh still pierced with arrows. 
 Worse by far was the further discovery that awaited 
 him. The silence in the cabin told its awful tale, and 
 he knew, without entering, that the mother of the lit- 
 tle ones had met with the horrible fate which every 
 woman in those days considered worse than death. 
 General Custer was so moved by this story that he 
 could not speak, and I became so unnerved that it was 
 many a night before I could shut my eyes without see- 
 ing the little yellow heads of those innocent children 
 clotted with blood, and their sightless blue eyes turned 
 to heaven as if for redress. The lesson was effectual 
 for a time, for not only was I moved to deepest pity 
 for the bereaved man, but I became so terrified that I 
 could not even ride out of camp with an escort with- 
 out inward quakings, and every strange or unaccount- 
 able speck on the horizon meant to me a lurking foe. 
 15 
 
/iBess. 
 
 -^:z^^=M^^^^;^^^^^^^^W: 
 
 V yi LI 'yi 
 
 Soup - y, eoup - y, soup - y 
 
 
 Cof - fee, cof - fee, cof - fee 
 
 ^ — 
 
 Pork-y, pork-y, pork - y, not a., 
 
 streak of lean. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI, 
 
 ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING. 
 
 I HAVE often been asked questions about house-keep- 
 ing on the frontier — how we furnished our quarters, 
 what occupations we had, and other similar matters. 
 There were no conveniences for house-keeping ; we 
 had little furniture, and we women occupied ourselves 
 mostly in finding amusement for the men, who looked 
 to us for diversion in their leisure hours. In the sum- 
 mer, while the regiment was absent on a campaign, our 
 lives w^ere occupied with reading and domestic detail 
 in order to fill up the time and make it go faster. In 
 the winter we tried to vary the monotony of the table 
 with all the ingenuity we were capable of, in order to 
 make up to our men for the deprivations of the sum- 
 mer, when they were on the march. 
 
 Government wastes no money in ornamenting army 
 
AKMY HOUSE-KEEPING. 227 
 
 quarters. They are severely plain, with plastered walls, 
 wood-work that was once painted, perhaps, but bears 
 little trace of the brush now. On the plains they were 
 usually disfigured by huge stoves, unless one fought, 
 as we did, for one room with an open fire. It was very 
 hard to give a cosey, home-like look to a sitting-room 
 without blinds, with plastered walls, and without an 
 open fire. 
 
 The kitchen was the exasperating place. It often 
 lacked the simplest contrivances to make work easy. 
 I remember an army friend who began her frontier life 
 during the Mexican war. She was fearless in stating 
 her opinions, and was dreaded by the quartermaster be- 
 cause of the determined manner in which she went at 
 him when it was necessary to have her house repaired 
 or painted. People used to say that he habitually 
 went round by the rear of the quarters, trying to avoid 
 her, as she often came out on the piazza to intercept 
 him. Once, however, I heard him receiving a very 
 pronounced expression of her views, and the last word 
 sent after him, as he pleaded " pressing business," was, 
 "Next time you build army quarters do, in pity's name, 
 ask your wife how a kitchen ouglit to be built." 
 
 It really did seem as if whoever planned our kitch- 
 ens had never considered for a moment that the 
 " women who work from sun to sun, and whose work 
 is never done," would be blessed by even the smallest 
 effort to lighten their labors. Fortunately our cooks 
 were colored women. Army people like the negroes, 
 and find a quality of devotion in them that is most 
 
228 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 grateful wlien one is so dependent on servants, as every 
 one is in military life. As the Southern cook is taught 
 to live in kitchens built outside, and to cook by a fire- 
 place with few modern utensils, we were not distressed 
 by "warnings," as we should undoubtedly have been 
 had a servant accustomed to an Eastern kitchen been 
 consigned to ours. 
 
 The quartermaster's own house was something to 
 turn us all green with envy, for he had all the work- 
 men at his disposal. It was painted, had closets, with 
 little shelves here and there, that women dote on, and 
 many trifles that seemed to us the sum and substance 
 of domestic elegance, for everything was comparative 
 there in those days of deprivation. We women called 
 on his pretty, fascinating wife, and loved her in spite 
 of her superior environments ; but our roaming eyes 
 took in every improvement, and we went out to say, at 
 a safe distance, " I don't blame lieVy but I would like 
 to read him a lesson on equal distribution." 
 
 There was joy in garrison one morning when a little 
 tale of what we considered a case of justice meted out 
 came travelling along from one woman to another. It 
 was Christmas morning, and though there were no 
 chimes to ring us up, no carols to delight our ears, w^e 
 felt convivial even over the extra nap with which we 
 celebrated the day. The quartermaster, sleeping in his 
 comfortable bed, was called out in the gray of early 
 dawn, that coldest chill, just before daybreak, striking 
 him as he went barefooted through his hall, while his 
 heart was beating with alarm for fear of disaster or 
 
ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING. 229 
 
 fire, as lie answered tlie bell. " Glad he was punished 
 for having a bell when we had none," we said, savagely, 
 when we heard this. On opening the door a dishev- 
 elled tipsy Jezebel of a camp-woman, bracing herself 
 against the wood-work as best she could, said to him, 
 " It's cold, and my nose bleeds," and with this infor- 
 mation she departed. The woman who clamored for 
 paint, another who appealed in vain for necessary re- 
 pairs, had no compunctions in laughing at this case of 
 woman's inhumanity to man, and if we suffered for 
 anything after that, we summed up every misery with 
 the words, " It's cold, and my nose bleeds." 
 
 There was no sink in the kitchen or outside. The 
 cook opened the door and flung the contents of the 
 dishpan or garbage bucket as far to one side as the 
 vigorous force of her arms would send it. This always 
 left an unsightly spot, to which we were compelled to 
 shut our eyes, as there was no remedy. The prisoners 
 of a post have as their punishment the duty of cutting 
 wood and policing the garrison, which means an attempt 
 to keep it clean. If they lingered in our yard longer 
 than in another, a careful study of the scene revealed the 
 fact that the sergeant who guarded them was being re- 
 galed with coffee, with the unusual luxury to them of 
 condensed milk ; and after the ranking officer (for rank 
 tells even that far down in the scale) had feasted, came 
 the appeal of the soldiers under him turning hungry 
 eyes towards the kitchen, and saying, in a voice that 
 was so modulated as to " carry " no farther than was 
 necessary, "Say, you wouldn't see a fellow starve?" or 
 
230 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 " You liain't got none of those fine white biscuit, have 
 you?" 
 
 Generally after these healthful, able-bodied men had 
 cut a few sticks they wearily sat down and eyed the 
 house, waiting for the door to open. They resorted to 
 any subterfuge to prolong their stay out of the guard- 
 house. There was nothing like it except the crescent 
 of dogs that replaced them about the kitchen door, 
 whining, and uttering short suggestive barks until our 
 Eliza, exasperated beyond control, burst open the door 
 and hurled any convenient missile at them, always 
 accompanied by invectives anything but flattering to 
 their character. 
 
 I ought not to leave the impression that Uncle Sam 
 neglected his wards. The prisoners were abundantly 
 fed at the guard-house. The army ration is so large 
 that few instances have been known where one man 
 was able to consume it. Our dogs also were especially 
 provided for by us. A huge kettle of mush was boiled 
 with meat, bones, and grease ; but they, like the sol- 
 diers, preferred what they considered dainties from the 
 family table. As for water, it was kept in barrels out- 
 side the door. Over the one especially for drinking 
 and culinary purposes there was an effort made to keep 
 a cover securely fastened down with a convenient stone, 
 and this was emptied every day ; but the others were 
 open to the winds of heaven, as a board to cover any- 
 thing was hardly to be had at all. We had enough 
 cotton-wood timber sawed at the Government mill near 
 the river ; but should that be used it would warp into 
 
ARMY HOUSE-KEEflNG. 231 
 
 a curve almost in a day, and the dogs tilting and jog- 
 gling it could dislodge such a cover easily. As the 
 plains winds are never lulled, all the floating grass, 
 leaves, and dust found a resting-place in the water. 
 These foreign substances soon offered a home for " wig- 
 glers," which in an incredible time were transformed 
 into mosquitoes. 
 
 The water was very hard, and it was difficult to make 
 a successful Monday without a labor of preparation, 
 for there were straining, settling, and softening with 
 alum to be done. White of eggs is advised by the 
 cook-books ; but, considering that we were not likely 
 to get either the yolk or white of an egg to eat for 
 months at a time, we were not very likely to waste 
 them (when we had them) on the water-barrels. When 
 the clothes were finally on the line, then came the 
 struggles to keep them there. The wind blew them 
 over the prairie if they were not most securely fastened, 
 and rarely did Eliza return from the line without talk- 
 ing to herself in an ominous way, as the corners of the 
 strong table-covers and sheets were whipped into fringe, 
 while articles that were becoming tender with age were 
 frequently in ribbons. 
 
 On the awful Mondays that we called "black Fri- 
 days " we took turns in giving our cook an order, if it 
 was absolutely necessary to give her any. It was very 
 odd to hear a grown person, the head of the house, per- 
 liaps, say, " You tackle Eliza this time, I did the last 
 time." 
 
 Once we were stationed in the States for a short 
 
FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 time, and had great difficulty in getting a house, as there 
 were none to rent in the small town, and naturally the 
 citizens were averse to moving out in order to lease 
 us theirs. Finally an officer on General Custer's staff 
 found a place, and as our cook was absent at the time, 
 we decided to try co-operative house-keeping, I taking 
 charge one week, and the wife of the officer the next. 
 "We tried to have every dainty of the market on our 
 table. After our long season of enforced frugality on 
 the plains, we felt ourselves entitled to all the season 
 afforded. We sat round the open fire at night and 
 planned new dishes for the next day. We revelled in 
 a house fully furnished, for so we had rented it, and 
 drew comparisons between it and our army quarters, 
 where there were often vacant spaces and yawning gaps 
 in place of furniture, to which we never could attain. 
 The closets bewildered us, so long had we suffered for 
 such conveniences. We lost our things, having so much 
 space, and the men said that they owed a debt of grati- 
 tude to their government for the privilege of quickly 
 finding their coats and pantaloons, which heretofore 
 had been hidden under a mass of dresses and petticoats. 
 Our friend's cook had lived long on the frontier, for 
 she was a soldier's wife, and being out at service with 
 the officers, she was accustomed to husband all supplies 
 most carefully, not knowing when they would be re- 
 placed ; there was in consequence a distressing meagre- 
 ness about her dishes, and hardly a suspicion of butter 
 in anything she prepared. We requested her to use 
 more material, adding that while we had the opportu- 
 
ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING. 233 
 
 nity we desired to live well, as we never knew at what 
 hour we might be ordered out to the frontier, where 
 deprivations were the order of the day. The cook, 
 quite devoted to our interests, was inclined to protest. 
 She replied, "But oh, ma'am, iggs is twenty cints a 
 dozen," forgetting that when we did have them in the 
 West they cost us seventy-five cents or a dollar. She 
 began the new week the same way with both of us, 
 and with a doleful countenance exclaimed, after receiv- 
 ing her orders, "And have you any idee, ma'am, what 
 your mate bill will be this month ?" 
 
 The question of cake and pastry was a momentous 
 one. Here we were in a land that seemed to run over 
 with milk and honey, or better still for us, where but- 
 ter, eggs, and cream were in abundance for delicacies, 
 and yet we were very stupid in their use. Living for 
 years without these luxuries had either dulled our 
 memories as to the method of concocting nice dishes, 
 or, beginning our married life so young as we did on 
 the plains, we had never known how. Armed with a 
 cook-book, we tried experiments, and the men courage- 
 ously partook of the results. Being in perfect health, 
 they survived the experiments, and, as is usual with 
 officers, overrated all we did. At the time of the 
 church festivals of the different denominations we 
 fared well, and our table was supplied with delicious 
 cake made by zealous churchwomen. We all bought 
 so much that I remember one occasion when the wom- 
 en who were getting up a festival postponed it until 
 General Custer returned from duty out of town. 
 
234: FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 There never seemed to be any way of preparing for 
 unexpected guests on the frontier, and yet it was a land 
 of surprises. If we were near the railroad we could 
 usually count on six trains out of seven bringing us com- 
 pany, and if our visitors were thoughtful enough to 
 telegraph, some sort of preparation could be made ; but 
 were we stationed at a post or encamped in the field 
 where the only access to us was by overland travel, 
 there could be no warning note. People rode in on 
 horseback or drove by wagon at all hours of the day 
 and night. Should they prove to be officers who came 
 on duty, or en route to some other station, we felt little 
 solicitude, for they knew the usages so far away from 
 a base of supplies, and could joke about a meagre lar- 
 der with us as merrily as if they were not hungry — 
 could even quote the old story of an officer who was 
 out of supplies but not deficient in hospitality, and 
 who invited a friend to a dinner of two dishes ; when 
 one, the rice, was declined, he was asked to help him- 
 self to the mustard. 
 
 The commissary was nearly always accessible when 
 we halted at night on the march, or daily in camp ; but 
 there was but one issue of meat for the day, and hav- 
 ing eaten the steak for breakfast, it was somewhat em- 
 barrassing to have guests arrive, perhaps an hour after- 
 wards, and the awful fact pressed upon us that if we 
 gave them meat from the roast there would be nothing 
 left for their dinner. Even the commanding officer 
 had sometimes to be called into the kitchen tent for 
 consultation in emergencies, and he fortunately never 
 
ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING. 235 
 
 felt embarrassed over what was a serious question to 
 both Eliza and me. He offered to take the people off to 
 see the horses, the camp, the stream on which we lived, 
 the bluff beyond, to view the vastness of the plains. 
 Then, left to ourselves, we sent round at once to the 
 other messes to find if any one had meat, game, eggs, 
 or anything cookable. If they failed us, as they gen- 
 erally did, for no one had any better facilities for keep- 
 ing food than we had, then the commissary ham or 
 bacon, often inexpressibly salty and dry, became the 
 piece de resistance for the hurried breakfast-table. 
 But the undaunted head of the house came back with 
 his people in fine humor, and managed to whisper to 
 me, in a roguish manner, " I've got them good and hun- 
 gry ; they won't mind what they eat now." 
 
 Occasionally, when we were alone, all the breakfast 
 was not eaten, and enough meat went off on the plat- 
 ter for croquettes or hash, or a savory stew, but it was 
 never Eliza's plan to attempt to save anything for the 
 unexpected guest. If I expostulated with her, and 
 said I wondered if everybody's cupboard was always 
 as bare as ours, she protested in reply, " Miss Libbie, 
 you don't spect to keep anything, do you, without no 
 'frigerator, no cellah ? — why, things would spile." If I 
 went out to the kitchen tent hungry, between meals, 
 it was a very different affair ; she instantly said, " Miss 
 Libbie, there ain't no bread, but it won't take me no 
 time at all to beat you up some biscuit or poach you 
 an egg.''^ 
 
 If we were in a permanent camp — that is, if our tents 
 
236 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 were pitched for a stay of some weeks or months — we 
 often had all the canvas we needed. Sometimes the 
 kitchen and dining tent were put opposite each other, 
 with a fly covering the space between. If we had the 
 good-fortune to have a table at all, it was usually of 
 rough boards spread on two carpenter's horses ; those 
 sitting at one end could not lean on the table or em- 
 phasize an after-dinner story by coming down with 
 their fists on the boards. If they did, the table came 
 too. The time appointed for other people's " walnuts 
 and wine " was to us the hour for the officers' pipe and 
 cup of coffee, and at many merrymakings the sudden 
 coming down of expressively gesturing hands on the 
 unreliable table set the dishes joining in the concert. 
 We sometimes had stout camp-stools made of oak, for 
 which we sent into the States, and the soldier who 
 made them knew all that would be expected of them ; 
 but even oak, leather, or the strongest canvas used 
 would get rickety after being tumbled round in the 
 baggage-Avagon in its descents into a canon, or in its 
 plunges and jerks through heavy mud. There was a 
 degree of uncertainty and insecurity about the legs of 
 tables, stools, and camp-beds in those days that made us 
 all sit down at first very gently. 
 
 In the kitchen tent we found it well to leave the 
 field completely to Eliza when dinner was in course 
 of jDreparation. If we rejoiced in a cook-stove, it was 
 battered and broken after our journeys; the utensils 
 were pretty well wrecked also, while often a vicious 
 change in the ever-varying wind drove the smoke into 
 
ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING. 237 
 
 poor Eliza's eyes. The wood was frequently damp, 
 and usually soft cotton-wood, wliicli would not burn at 
 all if it was wet, and burned out quickly if it was dry. 
 There was no kitchen-table. The mess chest was large, 
 but its lid could not be utilized with safety. Filled as 
 it was with dozens of slides for plates, saucers, platters, 
 vegetable dishes, with holes cut for bowls and cups, 
 compartments for sugar, flour, tea, coffee, rice, etc., it 
 could not be used conveniently for a table, as, once its 
 lid was down and in use, there was sure to be a little 
 baking powder or a pinch of salt needed, and they 
 were usually in the very depths of its centre. Eliza, 
 knowing this, put her pans, skillets, and kettles on the 
 ground, mixed her baking-powder biscuit on a board 
 on the grass, peeled her potatoes kneeling, and ground 
 her coffee sitting a la Turqiie. 
 
 If the wind did not blow her tent quite down, she 
 had to fight its continual bursts through the insecure 
 fastenings at the front. Mingled with everything was 
 the fine dust which the gusts of wind blew in, or 
 which the continual flapping of the tent-wall on the 
 ground sifted into every dish or cooking utensil. The 
 tea blew away while being put into the teapot, the 
 flour rose in little puffs while being moulded. No one 
 ever gets quite used to the wind of the plains. "We 
 studied in vain to outwit its persistent intermeddling. 
 I have seen poor Eliza ironing on the ground, the gar- 
 ment over which she worked held down by stones for 
 weights, while she swiftly and vigorously plied her 
 iron, holding down the other part with her free hand. 
 
238 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 I 
 
 Under all these vexatious circumstances it was a mar- 
 vel how she kept her temper at all. At times when it 
 was raining, the wind opening the entrance, or blow- 
 ing up from underneath the tent -walls, or sending 
 puffs of smoke out of the damper, or around the hole 
 cut in the canvas for the pipe, no one approached the 
 poor woman. If we heard the things rattle ominously, 
 or wood being pitched about recklessly among the tins 
 and kettles, or sounds of a voice deep and emphatic, or, 
 more significant still, if the soldier who was our striker, 
 and usually w^aited on the cook assiduously, slid quiet- 
 ly out into the rain and wandered about aimlessly, we 
 knew that it was the better part of valor to let Eliza 
 work out her own salvation. She certainly had a right 
 to be in a fury, and why she did not set the tent on 
 fire, or take a skillet and brain those who brought her 
 out there, was, and is, an unsolved problem. 
 
 I have quoted one of her sayings before, but must 
 beg the liberty of repeating it here. When the day 
 was over, and twilight came, there was nothing to do. 
 She sometimes grew lonely, and if I went to sit beside 
 her, seeing that she had gone off by herself, and needed 
 consoling, there was no answer to be made when she 
 said, " Miss Libbie, you's always got the ginnel, but I 
 hain't got nobody, and there ain't no picnics nor church 
 sociables nor no buryings out here." Her whole heart 
 w^as wrapped up in our interests, and many a device 
 she resorted to in concocting some new dish with 
 which to surprise us. I remember, when we were very 
 far out in the wilderness, having tomato catsup to add 
 
ARMY HOUSE-KEEPING. 
 
 to tlie flavor of the ever -recurring beef, Eliza's face 
 shone with pleasure when we called her in and found 
 that she had used canned tomatoes, which the commis- 
 sary always has, to get up this treat for us. 
 
 Once I had what seemed to me old-fashioned peach 
 preserves, carrying me back in memory from the very 
 heart of the great American desert to my mother's 
 table in the East when I was a child. Again it was 
 one of Eliza's surprises with canned peaches — which, 
 like tomatoes, are always good at the commissary. If 
 our butter melted on the march, and we prepared to 
 eat dry bread all summer, she would say, "Don't none 
 of you fret, it ain't spoiled, it's biled, and now it won't 
 get rancid no matter what comes." 
 
 Sometimes we saw no eggs all summer long, after 
 the supply that we had brought from the last town 
 we had passed through on our way to camp was ex- 
 hausted. The cook-books were maddening to us, for 
 a casual glance at any of them proves how necessary 
 eggs, butter, and cream are to every recipe. In those 
 days, when the army lived beyond the railroad, it would 
 have been a boon if some clever army woman could 
 have prepared a little manual for the use of house-keep- 
 ers stranded on the frontier, and if she had also real- 
 ized that we had no mothers to ask, and consequently 
 had omitted the tormenting advice to ^^use your own 
 judgment." 
 
 Eliza knew that her master was extremely fond of 
 apples, and when the supply sent out began to decay, 
 she took the utmost pains to put them up in glass jars ; 
 
240 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 and when spring came, and there was dearth of every- 
 thing in our snow-bound home, and we were aggra- 
 vated by reading of strawberries, etc., in the States, 
 Eliza brought the jars out from their conceahnent, 
 and setting the apples before the head of the house, 
 she said, " Ginnel, these is your strawberries." 
 
irntantrg DfnncrscalL 
 
 [Called "Pease upon a Trencher."] 
 110 = J Allegro. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 
 
 Sometimes I have been asked, when speaking of the 
 monotony of our fare, why we did not rely on game 
 to vary the inevitable beef that Uncle Sam allowed 
 us to buy. The Indians were about us a great deal 
 of the time, and though perhaps unseen — for they 
 are very wary — we had proof that they lurked in our 
 vicinity. In Dakota we were never able to go on 
 hunting parties without an escort, unless in the depths 
 of winter. The danger of men getting so excited with 
 the pursuit of game as to separate themselves from 
 the others made the commanding officer dread sending 
 hunting parties out to any distance. In the dead of 
 winter, when the Indian was buried in his tepee, our 
 officers and soldiers went often, and were able to bring 
 back enough deer for many tables. 
 
 It was a charming sight, the return of the hunters. 
 16 
 
2i2 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 If Eliza ran to the door, her frugal eye took in the 
 game before anything picturesque made an impression ; 
 and she used to say : " Lord-a-massey's sake, Miss Lib- 
 bie, ain't I glad that the ginnel's got a deer ! I've eat 
 so much beef since I come to live with you tliat I 
 spects to bellow and grow horns foh' I get back to 
 God's land." 
 
 The deer was taken into the wood-house, where the 
 hunters cut it up, and sent, with their compliments, 
 portions to the different families. If any one had been 
 fortunate enougli to have bull or buffalo berries, gath- 
 ered in the autumn, the jar of jelly added the tart 
 flavor that game needs. These berries were red, and 
 grew along the stem very thickly, so that gathering 
 consisted in shaking the bush, under which a sol- 
 dier's poncho was spread, to save the ripe fruit from 
 being lost in the close buffalo-grass. I^aturally there 
 were not so many berries gathered as might have been, 
 had not our foe been watching to steal stray horses in 
 the canons or bottom-land, where the fruit grew. The 
 commanding oflScer was somewhat embarrassed one 
 day when he sat visiting in the quarters of our neigh- 
 bor, to whom he had sent a quarter of venison a few 
 moments before. There was a tremendous scuflle and 
 growling heard in the half-story (or attic) above, where 
 the meat had been hung; and the host going up to 
 see the meaning of the fracas, found nine of our dogs, 
 that had followed their master in, and chased upstairs 
 when no one was looking, busy eating the venison as 
 fast as their powerful jaws could tear it apart. Of 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 243 
 
 course the hunters could do nothing else than go out 
 next day for another deer to replace the stolen meat. 
 
 In Kansas we had buffalo most of the time, and that 
 was a great change for us. The rump-steak is juicy, 
 and requires little basting, while buffalo tongues, which 
 were such a rare treat in the market of the Eastern 
 cities, were then to be had in abundance with us. It 
 is remarkable how luxuries that are unheeded in the 
 midst of plenty will impress themselves on our minds 
 for years and years if they come to us in the midst of 
 deprivations. We rarely had small game, except the 
 few ducks that came to the pools formed by heavy 
 rains on the prairie in the autumn ; but I remem- 
 ber those, and the prairie-chickens of Kansas, and the 
 plover of Dakota, that were shot on the march up the 
 Missouri Eiver, as if I had never tasted birds before 
 or since. I also recollect a little butter I once made, 
 as seemingly the first and last occasion of my ever eat- 
 ing any, so good did it seem. An officer made me a 
 miniature churn with a bottle, and a little wooden 
 dasher put through a cork. We were at the time 
 marching each day farther and farther into the wilder- 
 ness, but occasionally came to a ranch where some 
 venturesome frontiersman had established himself, and 
 located his claim to Government land. Of course our 
 people galloped on in advance, and soon bought out 
 the madam. There was a little cream among other 
 things, and as I sat under the tent-fly after we made 
 camp, it was soon transformed into butter in the toy 
 churn. 
 
244 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 In £:arrison the head of our household was ahnost 
 inconsolable without soup. On the inarch he could 
 do without almost everything; but once in a house, 
 there were certain articles on the bill of fare he made 
 every effort to obtain. Ox-tail soup was, of course, 
 easy to have when the beef was killed daily at a post ; 
 but if it failed, the following dialogue between the 
 master and cook took jDlace : " Wliere's my soup ?" like 
 some small boy demanding his supper. Eliza, with 
 maternal look, and protesting : '' Ginnel, what you 
 e'pose I'se gwine to make soup of? I ain't got noth- 
 ing." He : " Go out and get some stones, and boil 
 them up with something; only I want soup." Exit 
 Eliza, perplexed, but set to thinking how to concoct 
 something out of nothing. 
 
 Eliza really needed few suggestions, for her mind 
 was intent on inventions, and ready to improve every 
 opportunity that presented itself. While we were en- 
 camped near Fort Hays, General Miles offered us many 
 civilities, and among other kindnesses we received 
 ice occasionally from the post ice-house. Eliza, in or- 
 der to celebrate the arrival of some Eastern guest 
 whom she wished to impress with our resources, served 
 as a surprise one day peach ice-cream. Investigation 
 revealed that it was made of condensed milk, with 
 canned peaches, and frozen in a bucket which her will- 
 ing "Man Friday " manipulated, no one knows for how 
 long a time, during the freezing process. 
 
 One day the cook of one of my friends offered to 
 make her some vinegar-pies, and declared, in appetiz- 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 245 
 
 ing description, that " lemon-pies was nothing to them." 
 So, carefully following the direction of her soldier- 
 lover, she made the pastry, and for the pie part pre- 
 pared a paste more like tliat used by the paper-hang- 
 er than anything else, and flavored this with vinegar. 
 The poor mistress, divided between the desire to thank 
 the cook for trying to do something for her, and her 
 repugnance to the odious pie, was in a state of extreme 
 perplexity, but was able to decline with thanks when 
 soldier pies were suggested again. 
 
 One officer, coming from Bismarck one day, brought 
 butter, and as the commissary had been out of that 
 article for some time, all the messes sent over to the 
 town to get some. Shortly after we learned that the 
 commissary butter, at seventy -five cents, which had 
 been condemned and sold to the grocer in town, had 
 been put by him through some process that tempo- 
 rarily helped it, placed in jars, and resold to us for one 
 dollar a pound. 
 
 Sometimes the tiresome bill of fare to which we had 
 to submit when far from the railroad, or in a country 
 where it was dangerous to hunt, was a sore trial if a 
 woman chanced to be ailing and craved dainty food. 
 Nearly every one was well, and our plain dishes were 
 flavored by that inexhaustible " sauce," good appetite ; 
 but w^hen any one was ill, and the appetite had to 
 be tempted, it was hard. One of my friends had lis- 
 tened with eager pleasure to the bill of fare that an- 
 other friend had described as having been served at a 
 luncheon she had attended in the States ; and if the 
 
24:6 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 less fortunate woman, wJio had not been on leave of 
 absence, and who could not eat the food healthful peo- 
 ple enjoyed, became desperate, she used to say, ^' Come, 
 
 M , let us go to Mrs. So-and-So's to luncheon;" 
 
 and her eyes brightened at the recapitulation of every 
 dainty, as she let her powerful imagination deceive her 
 into thinking she was actually a participant. 
 
 It was constantly a wonder to me that officers who 
 were leading a rough existence on the campaigns so 
 much of the year, could take up all the amenities of 
 life so readily when living in garrison again. We 
 could rarely find any subject for criticism in their con- 
 duct. Once General Custer forgot himself when he 
 came home to his mother, after a long summer in the 
 field. He took up his plate as he talked, and brushed 
 it off with his napkin, as on the march it was almost 
 a necessity to do, on account of the wind blowing the 
 dust over everything. His sensitive old mother, always 
 hovering around him, slipped to his place and critically 
 examined the plate, saying, "My son, is there any- 
 thing wrong with it ?" He blushed furiously, as blond 
 people are apt to do if they redden at all, tossed back 
 his hair, as he was wont to do in embarrassment, apol- 
 ogized, and at once turned to tell me that I must break 
 
 him of that habit, or he would do so at Judge S 's, 
 
 or the Honorable Mr. M 's, where we were accus- 
 tomed to dine sumptuously while on leave in New 
 York. 
 
 Every one in camp or garrison pounced upon the 
 slightest chance for a joke, and a certain ofiicer would 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 247 
 
 blush now if reminded of the time we all let him, in 
 an absent-minded way, sit down to our table in garri- 
 son, on the day he returned from a march, with his hat 
 on, just on purpose to laugh at him afterwards. Of 
 course, with the persistent fatality of things, he was the 
 most punctilious of us all, which made his slip all the 
 funnier. Our officers ate out-of-doors six and eight 
 months of the year, and necessarily dined with their 
 heads covered ; consequently, it was little wonder that 
 it took a day or two to get accustomed to in-door life. 
 On a similar occasion, after months in the field. General 
 Custer found Eliza transfixed with 'surprise, her face 
 full of reproof, saying, as if he had been a spoiled boy, 
 while she pointed to the fioor, " What you s'pose your 
 mother goin' to think of you if you do them careless 
 tricks when you get home ?" Accustomed in camp to 
 toss the remnant of water in his tumbler on the grass 
 before having it refilled, he had forgotten that he was 
 not on a campaign until the splash on the bare floor of 
 our dining-room was pointed out to him. Two or three 
 trifles like these, occurring directly after their return 
 from an expedition, were all that I ever saw of the 
 gaucheries that many expected from men who lived 
 almost constantly in the open air. 
 
 If company came, there was recourse to borrowing. 
 Our friends deprived themselves of everything, except, 
 perhaps, a spoon or knife and fork and plate apiece, to 
 supply our table. We had only six of everything in 
 the mess chest, and it was no unusual thing to have 
 a dozen people come unexpectedly ; then there was 
 
248 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 scurrying about to the different messes to borrow 
 everything that could be spared. The term mess is 
 applied either to a family or a number of officers who 
 for convenience live together, engaging one cook, and 
 each of the mess taking his turn in the domestic details 
 and providing the supplies. At the end of the month 
 the expenses are equally divided. I find that it is the 
 impression among civilians tliat officers have their food 
 provided as the soldiers do their rations. Officers buy 
 everything for themselves, but Government makes no 
 extra charge for the transportation. The commissary 
 sells in Arizona, or any equally remote place, at the 
 same rate at which the articles were bought in the East. 
 Tliere are commissioners who examine everything sub- 
 mitted to the Commissary Department, so that what 
 we bought was, as a rule, of the best quality. There 
 was always this drawback, however, that the supplies 
 might have been on hand so long as to have lost fresh- 
 ness, and sometimes the Government warehouses were 
 far from suitable for the storing of groceries and pro- 
 visions. 
 
 We thought no more of borrowing for any company 
 or unusual festivity that we had, than if all had been 
 making these demands on our mothers or sisters living 
 near. We lent our houses and everytliing in them for 
 months at a time. It was surprising how little was 
 lost living in that careless way. We had no locks on 
 our doors, nor was ever a key turned in a trunk or on a 
 closet, if we happened ever to have the latter luxury. I 
 never remember losing anything except some valuable 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 249 
 
 lace, and that was taken by a woman to whom we 
 gave a home while she was trying to get a place as 
 cook. We slept always with unlocked doors. The 
 sentinel was at some distance from us, but we did not 
 look to him for the protection of our property. It was 
 to the honor and kindly feeling towards us that we 
 trusted. As I have said, our soldiers sometimes took 
 things to replace our worn-out outfit, but made what 
 they thought very trifling exchanges, and they were in 
 turn so zealous in guarding our effects that we never 
 lost anything. We were careless enough — so much so 
 that if any trifling addition was made to our equip- 
 ments we did not know enough about our belongings 
 to notice it. Once I remember seeing a chest of car- 
 penter's tools in the stable. That did surprise me, but 
 the story told was plausible, and it was impossible to 
 get at the exact truth. Soon afterwards we suddenly 
 moved, on imperative orders, and the chest could not 
 be transported, so I always hoped that it finally reached 
 its rightful owner. The servants knew that every one 
 was welcome to our things, so they did not even ask 
 us; and if I recognized anything at a friend's house 
 when the refreshments were served in the evening, 
 there was a significant smile from the hostess as I ate 
 with ray own spoon and used a napkin with a big C in 
 the corner. 
 
 There was in the family a mania for auctions. A red 
 flag out of a house in a city through which we were 
 rushing to catch a train set us in a perfect flutter, and 
 was a sad disquieter of the domestic peace, so hard did 
 
250 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 it seem to pass it by. "While stationed at Leavenworth 
 there was wide scope for the exercise of this family 
 predilection. Sometimes the queerest imaginable arti- 
 cles came home, and if one of the family of two had 
 not had a hand in the excitement of bidding and pur- 
 chasing, there was very apt to follow an inquiry com- 
 mon in domestic circles — "What on earth do you 
 suppose one can ever do with thatT'^ — some scorn 
 underlying the emphasized " that " Once a huge bowl 
 — too big for any ordinary occasion — made its entree 
 with just such a welcome. But a great "find" it 
 proved eventually ; there came to be no festive occa- 
 sion complete without it. My dish was a belle ; it was 
 invited to more dinners than any one in garrison, and 
 it was too hard that it could not have caught and re- 
 tained in its deep bowl some of the wit and honho- 
 mie that surrounded it, for officers are the best of 
 diners. In the short half-hour allowed for dressing, a 
 business man must shake off the cares and perplexities 
 that have consumed him all day, and put himself into 
 visiting trim. Our officers have not that to do. They 
 have hard duty in the day, but much of it is routine 
 work, and is not accompanied with carking care, conse- 
 quently it can be thrown off the moment it no longer 
 requires attention. But then it is their nature, and 
 the life encourages them to work very hard when work 
 is before them to do, but to set aside the burdens 
 quickly. Indeed, take out of every man's life the ne- 
 cessity for anxiety about food and clothes, give him a 
 house to live in and for those he loves, secure these 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 251 
 
 permanently, and the wrinkles would be smoothed out 
 of many a fast-furrowing face. The Government gives 
 one a house free of rent — ofttimes not much more than 
 a barrack, but still a shelter — wood to warm you, forage 
 for two horses ; and the pay, small as it is, enables at 
 least two people to have what they need to eat and to 
 wear. There was very little competition in the way of 
 living out on our border. Take that out of life and 
 see what a difference it makes. It was no wonder, 
 then, that men came to dinner full to the brim of 
 capacity for enjoyment. 
 
 When there is an invalid wife to send into the 
 States for treatment, or there are children to educate, 
 the perplexities begin, for the pay account soon evapo- 
 rates ; but there is no life from which care can be en- 
 tirely excluded, and even under these circumstances I 
 have rarely known men and women inflict their anxi- 
 eties upon others on any social occasion. I knew a 
 major-general whom New York's choicest people often 
 dined. He was something superb to look at physical- 
 ly, and, besides his wide experience in life and his 
 splendid military record, he was full of the delicate 
 niceties of a courteous gentleman, apparently free from 
 anxieties, in perfect health, faultlessly dressed, and his 
 smooth and handsome face bore no trace of care ; still 
 his pockets were often nearly empty if it happened to 
 be the latter part of the month, and once, I know, 
 when he was visiting some of our friends, he had but 
 forty-five cents and no bank account. His pay was 
 not small, but he was generous and hospitable, and if a 
 
252 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 major-general is expected to live as he ought to live, 
 the pay is hardly adequate. 
 
 If in the autumn we left camp and came into garri- 
 son for a few winter months, "we seemed to have noth- 
 ing. The rooms of our quarters, only of ordinary size, 
 made the few pieces of furniture look isolated, with 
 such awful distances between them. A woman's in- 
 genuity came then into play. The companies had all 
 sorts of artisans as enlisted men, and we first borrowed 
 a carpenter. With rough boards he made us inexpen- 
 sive loimge-frames that we felt no hesitancy in throw- 
 ing away when we left again in the spring. For these 
 we bought single mattresses, and then made covers of 
 cretonne or common calico. As the covers were boxed, 
 the frill fully pleated on, and the pillows also boxed, it 
 looked like a lounge, and did not have a '' beddy " look, 
 as we used to say. The pillows were stuffed with hay, 
 perhaps, for it was a long time before we attained to all 
 the feather-pillows we needed. We could have several 
 of these lounges, and after we had learned to accumu- 
 late bright Mexican or gay striped blankets, and things 
 that fold up, we could soon make ourselves comfortable. 
 
 A roll of anything can almost always be stuffed in a 
 closely packed wagon, while actual furniture is a prob- 
 lem. So we became very expert in choosing stuffs that 
 would cover furniture and curtain windows. Some of 
 the old curtain-covers of those far-away days are still 
 in use. - With a lounge in every room and curtains 
 at the windows, there was a great step made towards 
 furnishing. We had low boxes with lids to fit in the 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 253 
 
 windows, and these we covered and stuffed for seats. 
 Sometimes two of our packing-cliests were made just 
 the right height and size, so that when put side by 
 side they would make a good foundation for a lounge. 
 Our camp-chairs were freshly covered, and stools made 
 of boxes again covered. The few books we were able 
 to take with us the carpenter arranged shelves for, or 
 by good-fortune the little parlor had a wide cupboard 
 beside the fireplace, with shelves above. 
 
 We tried to keep one carpet intact ; but in our own 
 chamber four gray Government blankets, bought at a 
 sale of condemned goods, were darned, sewed together, 
 and spread in the centre of the room. Our bureaus 
 were always called bureaus ; but they were in part 
 packing boxes, shelved inside, and covered with the 
 calico which did much to hide angularities and ugliness. 
 The wash-stands were similarly constructed. How 
 often we Bedouins, who came in so late in the autumn 
 and left so early in the spring, wished that Uncle Sam 
 would put in the quarters the roughest sort of furniture 
 as a permanency ! These makeshifts were resorted to 
 only when we were to stay a short time. If we were 
 able to remain long enough in one place to call a post 
 our regimental headquarters, we could accumulate a 
 few really good articles, and leave them stored in gar- 
 rison in our absence in the field. 
 
 There are not many quarters that do not have a few 
 pictures. Even in those days if we had chromos we 
 were glad, for the walls of army quarters were not pa- 
 pered and a poor picture even took away a little of 
 
254 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the bare look. Occasionally some one who painted in 
 oils or water colors would triumph over the obstacles 
 of our life, and their walls were our envy. The sol- 
 dier carpenter made clumsy frames, which were painted 
 or ebonized at home, and such a relief to the eye were 
 these pictures that the artist bade fair to have his or 
 her head so effectually turned that he would consider 
 further artistic effort unnecessary. 
 
 We rarely had flowers to brighten our houses. Some- 
 times in tlie underbrush, where the sole trees we had — 
 the cotton-woods — grew, we found clematis, and the joy 
 of draping our pictures or mantles with this graceful 
 vine, covered with its soft tufts of fluffy gray, was some- 
 thing to be remembered. For a brief time in the early 
 summer the plains were aflame with wild flowers of 
 the most brilliant dyes ; but the hot summer scorched 
 them, as well as the grass, out of existence. As ferns 
 only grew in rather damp and shady places, it can be 
 imagined that we never saw them. I had given me 
 some pressed ferns in the States once, and pasted them 
 on one of our windows when we reached the arid sun- 
 baked plains. They seemed like a bit of fairy-land, 
 and looking at them while they lasted transported us 
 to cool nooks on a pretty brook overhung with thick 
 foliage. Flowers are in such common use nowadays 
 that few tables are without them. Perhaps only a 
 cheap little basket of ferns and foliage plants, or a 
 bowl of wild daisies, but that flowerless land seems 
 like the desert of Sahara as I look back at it as it was 
 after early summer was past. 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 255 
 
 During our stay at a post wlien the hot sun had 
 dried all vegetation, and we were surrounded with prai- 
 ries burned with the heat, one of our number planted 
 some Madeira bulbs in boxes on each side of the man- 
 tle, and we laughed at her credulity when she looked 
 for results. But one day she was able to laugh back, 
 as tiny shoots appeared. When her soldier husband 
 came home from the campaign, the vines had stretched 
 on up to the chimney, and were following a lattice of 
 scarlet strings that were stretched across above the 
 mantel, making a verdant side to the bare room. This 
 same friend left us to go with her husband on detached 
 duty, and they found tliat they must spend the winter 
 in huts in an isolated part of unsettled Kansas. To 
 keep the cold from coming through the nnplastered 
 walls, she papered them with Army and Navy Jour- 
 nals^ and ornamented them with illustrations from Har- 
 jpei^'s Weekly^ finishing with a few poems as a dado. 
 The soldiers sometimes gave us " pointers " as we rode 
 by their quarters. One had a box for a dressing-table, 
 and covering it a gunny sack, such as the grain came 
 in, fringed all around as a cover. For liis wash-stand 
 he had driven a pole into the ground of the proper 
 height, and nailed to this a board to hold his tin basin. 
 Sometimes the soldiers made mats similar to those the 
 sailors fashion, and it is diflScult to realize how effective 
 rags hooked through burlaps can be made when so 
 few colors are available. Old blue army cloth, both 
 light and dark, bits of white muslin and red flannel^ 
 were everything the men had, and their home-made 
 
256 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 hooks, made of a bit of wire, seemed to do just as 
 good work as the loom. People are mistaken if they 
 imagine for a moment that happiness arises from their 
 accessaries or surroundings. These certainly add, but 
 the most contented people I ever knew lived in the 
 very heart of the great American desert. 
 
 Tliose women who cared for fancy-work would beau- 
 tify their quarters, and there was much leisure for nee- 
 dle-work. Military people are very social. They sat 
 on the gallery a great deal, and officers going about the 
 garrison on duty stopped for a chat coming from the 
 stables, or spent an hour waiting for drill call, or in 
 helmet and spurs smoked a cigarette while the orderly 
 brought their horses for parade. Each woman coming 
 from leave of absence was prepared to teach a new 
 stitch, lend her fresh designs, or send back to have those 
 she had brought reproduced. 
 
 During the long summers, when we women were 
 left alone, and had nothing to fill up our time except 
 work that we purposely made to occupy the lonely 
 hours, there came to be great improvement in our 
 stitchery. We sat on the galleries at work while one 
 read, and the delicate fingers of some fashioned the 
 bullion shoulder-straps, or ripped a military cap to 
 copy it, or even had the courage to attempt shirt-mak- 
 ing. Others painted, or drew, or learned new guitar 
 accompaniments. One of our number was so indus- 
 trious that she could not sit with idle hands in camp, 
 but resorted to knitting, and was soon dubbed " the 
 little grandmother." 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 257 
 
 Harper'^s Bazar was as thoronghlj read out there 
 as at any point in its wide wanderings. The question 
 of clothes was not a serious one, for we dared, when so 
 far beyond the raih'oad, to wear things out of date. It 
 was rather difficult to teach ourselves to be dress-makers, 
 and things looked pretty botchy and home-made for a 
 long time after we had begun to do such work; but 
 there was much goodness in helping and teaching, and 
 sometimes, if one of us was plunged into difficulties — 
 for instance, coming from a long march literally in tat- 
 ters — the rest came in for a " bee," and made light work 
 about the sewing-machine. We could get cotton gowns 
 at the sutler's (the one store allowed in a garrison) or 
 in the little town that is often located on the edge of a 
 reservation. We sent into the States by every avail- 
 able opportunity for anything so serious as a stuff 
 gown or outer garment. We all carried lists into the 
 States to fill for others. It was amusing to see a bach- 
 elor officer go into a shop in the East with his lists, 
 where the superciliousness of the smart young woman 
 who waited on him almost made him beat a hasty re- 
 treat. The shop-girl is often a superior order of being 
 even with experienced shoppers, and sometimes loftily 
 undertakes to prove that she knows what you want 
 much better than you do yourself ; but take a blushing 
 youth, with all sorts of articles that he has talked calm- 
 ly over with the women in garrison, where all are like 
 one family, these very articles seem very formidable 
 when he attempts to utter them in the presence of a 
 city saleswoman. The girl does not help him in his 
 17 
 
258 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 embarrassment, you may be sure, and a red and uncom- 
 fortable time is perhaps his while selecting even stock- 
 ings. The oflScers' devotion to women was so great 
 that they did not hesitate to make exhibitions of them- 
 selves in front of many a counter. I remember a bride- 
 groom sent out on his wedding journey to buy a neck 
 ruche. Before starting he was well drilled, and said 
 his lesson quite fluently ; but he was no sooner on the 
 crowded street than the " ruche of illusion footing " 
 became so jumbled in his mind that he could not 
 straighten out the words in the order in which they 
 should go. He described himself on his return as pass- 
 ing shop after shop in trying to get courage to enter 
 and utter the strange jumble of sounds into which 
 the commission had got itself tangled. It was war- 
 time, and officers w^ore their uniforms in the cities, so 
 that a very youthful and violently red brigadier-general 
 presented himself before the surprised shop-girl, and 
 excitedly blurted out his request for a " foot of Russian 
 illusion." The smile of the shop-girl seemed sardonic 
 to him ; but he bravely stood his ground, and after many 
 labored explanations he succeeded in returning to the 
 hotel, triumphantly carrying a brown-paper parcel. 
 
 Sometimes boots or shoes were ordered by mail and 
 sent separately, on account of bulk or postage. Any 
 one anxiously looking for his second shoe in two or 
 three successive mails was told, in a teasing and fore- 
 boding way, that the other shoe would never come, and 
 that there was nothing left for him but to " put his 
 best foot forward " from that time on. 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 259 
 
 If we went on leave of absence we borrowed each 
 other's clothes — or, rather, they were offered before we 
 could ask. Our neighbors stepped in with a mysteri- 
 ous bundle, which meant the one choice article in their 
 wardrobe. It used to seem to me that if I was once 
 complete, it would be a gala-day. If I had a gown, 
 there was no appropriate outer garment ; if I possessed 
 a charming bonnet, it made my gown look as if it had 
 belonged to a Mayflower ancestor. This was all be- 
 cause we stayed so short a time in the States that we 
 considered it foolish to make any permanent prepara- 
 tions ; besides, there were so many useful things for 
 our quarters on which we wished to expend our money. 
 I recall our once starting suddenly for a large city for 
 a few days' pleasure. I had a lovely gown that was a 
 surprise to me, having been sent for by General Custer 
 perhaps fifteen hundred miles. My bonnet was admis- 
 sible, but I had no wrap of any sort except a winter 
 cloak. I had no idea of having my pleasure destroy- 
 ed by such a need, so I inwardly prayed that no early 
 autumn cold snap would visit us and necessitate a warm 
 outer garment. As I left the house, a generous friend 
 ran up the steps with an heirloom — a camel's -hair 
 shawl. I protested, the carriage was waiting, impatient 
 feet beat a tattoo; I laid the beautiful shawl back on my 
 friend's arm reluctantly, I confess, but as we rushed 
 down the steps she flung it on my shoulder. I w^onder 
 if a borrowed baby makes any more anxiety than an 
 heirloom loaned ? In the many mirrors of a hotel I 
 surveyed myself with serenity ; but oh, what inward 
 
2 GO FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 consciousness of responsibility ! If I took the sliawl 
 with me when driving, I feared that it would be lost, 
 if I left it at the hotel, I was wild about thieves. To 
 crown all this I met a friend from my girlhood's home 
 whose eyes fastened on this bit of elegance I was wear- 
 ing, and who, I knew, would report me as parading in 
 purjDle and fine linen, whereupon our towns -people, 
 knowing that we were too poor to buy India shawls, 
 would extract a confession that my " fine feathers " be- 
 longed to another bird. This little tale I leave with- 
 out a moral ; I have only told it to prove that people 
 in that life had nothing so choice that it could not be 
 shared with others. 
 
 I rather think our " get up " for a garrison hop was 
 our greatest failure in the way of dress, for we tried to 
 do something then, and it sometimes ended in a lam- 
 entable failure. We fished out from the little finery 
 in the bottom of our trunks some frivolities in the 
 way of ribbons or fiowers or trimmings that had served 
 their time, and were ready for retirement even be- 
 fore coming West. But in our efforts to emphasize 
 the occasion, a white or a black gown was decorated 
 with trimmings, perhaps crushed, wrinkled, or out of 
 date. Fortunately we had no city toilets to compete 
 with, and it took a good deal to disfigure fresh, health- 
 ful, happy women in the eyes of men who always gave 
 them their meed of praise. I tremble to make the 
 statement, but there is a familiar look in the windows 
 of second-hand establishments in the cities as I pass 
 them, and the flounces and plaits out of date, the rib- 
 
NECESSITY THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. 261 
 
 bons and trimmings quite jpasse^ do remind me a little 
 of evenings when we all tried to look smart out there 
 beyond the pale of civilization. 1 do remember a 
 French gown, the box containing which we saw on its 
 way to a post hundreds of miles beyond us. The officer 
 dared not crush it into his small trunk, so he had car- 
 ried it in the cars on his lap, in a stage, in an ambulance, 
 and still had another stage ride before him when Ave 
 entertained him; but our men were not often put to 
 such a test of good-nature, for there were few women 
 who did not try to make the wardrobe they brought 
 out last two or three years with simple additions, easily 
 obtained. 
 
 At one time we all came in from the plains when 
 our regiment was ordered South on duty. The wom- 
 en hurriedly retreated to their rooms at the hotel to 
 escape curious eyes, for it w^as written all over us that 
 w^e were, in Western terms, " waybacks from way back." 
 The retreat was not so quickly made that one pair of 
 observing eyes did not take in a few women on the 
 way, and discover that basques were worn instead of 
 round waists. The scissors were soon snippnig, the 
 needle flying, and the result was a basque ready for 
 dinner. Meanwhile a charge of our brave men was 
 made through the town hunting for back hair to re- 
 model the antique coiffures of their better halves. It 
 was no easy task, for the sun fades and streaks the 
 glossiest locks out there, and the wind breaks and dries 
 the silkiest mane. Fashion had dictated a chignon 
 of heavy braids and curls during our long absence on 
 
262 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the plains, and the poor martyred men made many a 
 sally before a perfect match could be obtained. At 
 last we made our appearance, revelling in all the glory 
 of a protuberance of regulation size, and the little com- 
 pany of blue-coats marshalled their forces and advanced 
 on the dinner-table, and then had the heartlessness to 
 laugh at the unusual dignity with which the overbur- 
 dened heads were carried. 
 
Bre06 iparaDe. 
 
 ^^m^^^^M^ 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 General Custer was delighted to hear at last that 
 his friend, the Hon, K. C. Barker, was about to accept 
 one of the many invitations we had sent him, and come 
 to our camp for a hunt. Several other Detroiters, ea- 
 ger sportsmen, also, were to accompany him. They 
 had hardly been our guests in camp long enough to 
 dispose of luncheon before all were asked to don the 
 hunting-garb and prepare for the setting out ; as the 
 good buffalo ground was twelve miles distant, it was 
 necessary to reach it before dark. Already had the 
 troopers who were to go as escort received their or- 
 ders, and saddles, girths, bridles, and lariats were put in 
 order, carbines and pistols cleaned and loaded, horses 
 fed and groomed to the last degree of shine. The band 
 also put their instruments into a brighter condition, to 
 add to the general glitter of the column. 
 
 ]S"early all of the officers of the regiment engaged in 
 the hunt were mounted on their second-best horses, 
 having their trusty chargers led, in order that they 
 might be fresh next day for the run. There were all 
 the wagons necessary for supplies, and mess chests for 
 the various groups of officers who lived together ; tents 
 
264: FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 were carried, and there was also a certain amount of 
 forage, for it was necessary to prepare for several days' 
 absence of the cavalcade of seventy. A brave sight it 
 was as they started out, a column half a mile long, and 
 the eyes of our delighted guests shone with excitement 
 as they noted the dashing cavalry oflBcers sitting their 
 mettlesome steeds with such ease, the troopers riding 
 equally well and brilliant in touches, as the sun caught 
 the polished steel of their fire-arms or sent radiating 
 lines of light from the shining bit or burnished spur — 
 the band playing the regimental tune " Garryowen," as 
 their wise and steady gray horses paced their way with- 
 out guiding. The stag-hounds bounded along on their 
 cushioned feet, spurning the soft turf in their active 
 leaps. One of the guests, enthusiastically happy, and 
 fearless in expression of his joy, kept turning to take 
 in the rare sight, declaring that nothing in our prosaic 
 nineteenth century was so like the days of chivalry, 
 when some feudal lord went out to war or to the chase, 
 followed by his retainers. 
 
 There were two heavy weights in the party, and they 
 had taken the precaution to start in the ambulances, 
 knowing that the saddle would exact some terrible pen- 
 ance from them next day, when, unaccustomed to rid- 
 ing, they pounded up and down over the rough country. 
 The gay scene was too much for them, however ; the 
 merry voices of the officers, story telling, singing, laugh- 
 ing, the more subdued but none the less jubilant tones 
 of the troopers who rejoiced at this unusual holiday, 
 the quick happy bark of the dogs, the neigh of the 
 
LEADS THE HUNT. 265 
 
 horses, delighting in the fresh, exhilarating air of the 
 plains, made them feel themselves prisoners inside a 
 vehicle, so a halt was made, and the men of solid flesh 
 began at once to play cavalrymen. At the end of the 
 twelve miles, unvaried except by some jack -rabbit 
 chases, when by their speed the dogs enchanted Mr. Bar- 
 ker, who had given them to us, a camping-ground was 
 selected and the fire for supper soon sent its cheerful 
 gleam into the twilight shadows. The soldiers, with 
 the ease of practice, had put up two rows of wall-tents 
 facing each other, and near them another line of their 
 own A tents. The wagons and ambulances were so 
 placed at the rear of each line of tents that they formed 
 a temporary barricade, for, even on such a pleasuring 
 as that was, none of the usual precautions for safety 
 were neglected. 
 
 The camp named for Mr. Barker was a noisy one 
 for a time. The twelve-mile march had not tired the 
 guests sufficiently to produce quiet, while to the offi- 
 cers and troopers it was a mere bagatelle. They smoked 
 and told frontier tales, while the guests brought out 
 their choicest collection of after-dinner stories from 
 the States; it was only the consideration of the early 
 reveille that induced them to turn in on their blankets 
 and buffalo-robes for sleep. Reveille at dawn brought 
 the party out again, fresh and enthusiastic for the day's 
 sport. 
 
 After breakfast the distribution of horses began. By 
 that time all the best buffalo-horses in the regiment 
 were well known, and as this was an occasion when it 
 
266 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 was the desire of all of us to make the hunt a success, 
 the trustworthy, experienced animals had been brought 
 along. The only problem was the mounting of Mr. 
 Barker and Judge Beckwith, weighing, as they did, 
 nearly two hundred and thirty pounds each. It was 
 always difficult for the heavier men of our regiment to 
 get good mounts, and even if they found horses strong 
 enough to carry them on the march, on drill, or ordi- 
 nary garrison duty, it always remained a query whether 
 these powerful animals had enough speed to join in the 
 chase. This question was studied pretty thoroughly, 
 and the strongest horse in the regiment with any speed 
 had been selected for Mr. Barker, but by one of those 
 unfortupate accidents that thwart the best laid plans, 
 the scout sent out at daybreak to look up a buffalo 
 herd had taken the strong horse held in reserve, and 
 blown him so that there was no good work to be ex- 
 pected of him for the next twenty-four hours. 
 
 Fifty horsemen were soon in line of march, followed 
 by wagons to bring back the meat ; and, much to the 
 guests' distress, two ambulances brought up the rear to 
 carry the wounded should any one be hurt. These ve- 
 hicles seemed like birds of evil omen following slow- 
 ly along after a thoughtless, jubilant company, and no 
 one wanted to look backward if he hoped to keep the 
 gloomy side of life out of his mind. When the gay 
 cavalcade had gone a few miles the scouts sent out re- 
 turned, to report the direction of the buffalo they had 
 found. When the black specks appeared against the 
 horizon the enthusiasm of the Eastern men knew no 
 
LEADS THE HUNT. 267 
 
 bounds ; each burned with a desire to take back a 
 record to those unfortunate Detroiters who had not 
 had the good-luck to come. The officers experienced 
 in the chase made each guest their special care, so that 
 there was no lack of hints regarding tlie preparations 
 for the charge. The usual halt took place to dismount, 
 examine bits, surcingles, spurs and fire-arms, and to 
 discard coats, and secure hats with handkerchiefs or 
 strings ; for the thought was not of appearances at such 
 a moment. 
 
 Finally, at the signal the fifty horsemen vaulted into 
 saddles and were off. To the tourists the buffalo seemed 
 huge. One of the party, describing them, after their 
 return, said they had the grace of an elephant and 
 the beauty of a hippopotamus. The monsters were 
 not long in discovering the enemy coming towards 
 them ; they promptly started their cumbrous bodies into 
 a lumbering run, and, as usual, got over the country at 
 such a surprising rate that it took all the best riding of 
 the old hunters, and the very best skill of the " tender- 
 feet " to keep their poise in the saddle, and let the expe- 
 rienced horse take them down divides, up the constant- 
 ly recurring slopes, through the softened soil where the 
 gopher and prairie-dog had undermined the earth. 
 
 The buffalo pitches down any descent in a headlong, 
 reckless manner. He never spares himself. The Ind- 
 ians often drove them to a bluff, knowing that if stam- 
 peded they would leap down the steepest declivity, 
 and plunging below on their huge heads, it became an 
 easy affair to finish them with the knife if they were 
 
268 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 not killed outright. This inhumanity was not a prac- 
 tice with the white man. In any descent, therefore, 
 the buffalo gained on his pursuer, but in the ascent 
 of the divide the horse was superior, and often caught 
 up with the groaning, puffing, laboring buffalo. 
 
 The herd of thirty first seen that day was soon scat- 
 tered, the hunters starting out in all directions in pur- 
 suit of the isolated animals. After a slmvp run of a 
 few miles the riders began to return, dusty, heated, all 
 talking at once — gesticulating, explaining why such- 
 and-such a shot was missed, narrating narrow escapes, 
 chronicling successes. The count was good, for twenty- 
 four buffaloes lay scattered on all sides within a radius 
 of three miles. The accidents were told over next. 
 One of the guests had had his horse pushed into a 
 creek by a buffalo, but being an old soldier, he knew 
 how to extricate himself. The horse of a soldier had 
 been gored, another trooper's horse showed the long 
 trail of a buffalo-horn where the hair had been scraped 
 off on the side. A hole in the sleeve of one of the 
 novices in buffalo-hunting revealed the fact that the 
 aim of his pistol had not been quite what he intended 
 it to be ; another had evidently been equally unfortu- 
 nate in his aim, for the palm of his hand was black, and 
 smarting with powder, and he could not explain where 
 the ball went. The party, satisfied with their success, 
 turned back to camp, but with much anxiety regarding 
 the missing ones. Before they reached there the lost 
 came up, and General Custer's description gives some 
 idea of what a dangerous pastime buffalo-hunting was : 
 
LEADS THE HUNT. 269 
 
 Mr. Barker, mounted upon an animal that Lad justly ex- 
 cited his suspicions from the first (for he had discovered 
 an ugly cut on the knee, and a tendency to stumble), singled 
 out his buffalo on the first charge, and after separating him 
 from the main herd, began emptying his revolver into the 
 sides of the buffalo — horse, rider, and buffalo going at break- 
 neck pace. He must be a bold rider who, mounted upon a 
 strange horse, is willing to strike out at full speed over a 
 country known to be infested with prairie-dog holes, wolf 
 dens, and quicksands. The risk of a fall is always great, 
 but to a man of K. C. B.'s weight it is fearful. The horse 
 proved unsteady under fire. Barker concluded to go from 
 the right to the left side of the buffalo ; in doing so he pass- 
 ed close to the haunches* of the latter. The buffalo at this 
 moment concluded to give battle, and turned to intercept 
 the horse. "Look out for him. Barker !" was the warning cry 
 of a friend; but Barker's eyes were directed to the front. 
 Again is the warning repeated. This time it is heard, and 
 Barker glances towards the buffalo, but too late. Already 
 the horns are partly concealed by the long flowing tail of 
 the horse, while the latter, feeling the points of the enraged 
 animal's horns pressing his flanks, leaps with affrighted vig- 
 or to elude the coming blow, but in doing so unsettles the 
 rider's seat. For a moment Barker is seen attempting to 
 recover himself ; but the horse, now unmanageable from fear, 
 plunges madly forward, the rider loses his balance, and the 
 next instant goes headlong to the ground. What 1 did, or 
 what any of the half-dozen friends following closely did at 
 the time, cannot be clearly stated. That we all realized the 
 full extent of the danger that surrounded our comrade was 
 certain, but how to relieve him ? 
 
 As if by intuition, and without uttering a word, all head- 
 ed their horses towards the buffalo, who, finding himself the 
 object of so much undivided attention, allowed himself to 
 be diverted from continuing his attack on Barker, now lying 
 
270 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 perfectly helpless and insensible within three bounds of the 
 buffalo. The latter again chose to confide in the swiftness 
 of his legs rather than in the strength of his horns — a de- 
 cision which spared to Detroit one of its most estimable cit- 
 izens, and to the sporting world one of its brightest orna- 
 ments. 
 
 Seeing the buffalo well under way, our attention was next 
 directed to ascertaining the extent of the injuries received 
 by our friend. He was still lying insensible, breathing as 
 if partly suffocated. By means of restoratives and fresh 
 air — of the latter there being an abundance — we soon had 
 him on his feet ; and upon " time being called," in the course 
 of a quarter of an hour he announced himself ready to mount 
 his horse. This time a change was effected by which, al- 
 though placed astride a lighter animal, it was with the 
 assurance that he was " sure-footed, and not afraid of buffa- 
 loes." If timidity had been one of Mr. Barker's character- 
 istics, he would have been content to call it " quits " with 
 the buffalo; but no, his "dander" was up, and he sur- 
 prised his hearers by announcing that his late narrow escape 
 from a possible death was " just the thing." To use his own 
 expressions : " I know now just how to take them and how 
 to ride ;" and as for the blackened eye and bruised cheek, 
 he declared that " no money could buy them." 
 
 It would not do to leave a renowned hunter thus 
 worsted on the field, so I omit portions of the letter 
 and continue General Caster's account of his final suc- 
 cess : 
 
 Turning our faces towards camp, we had not proceeded 
 far before we discovered a fine herd off to our right. Ap- 
 proaching as near as possible without giving the alarm, a 
 very good start was effected. K. C. B. singled out his buffa- 
 lo, wliich proved to be a fine bull about five years old, and 
 
"gakryowen" leads the hunt. 271 
 
 very fleet. It required a good run to bring pursuer and pur- 
 sued within pistol range of each other ; but once accomplish- 
 ed, Mr. B. began to make his presence known by deliberately 
 emptying his large Colt's revolver, directing his shots im- 
 mediately in rear of the fore-shoulder and below the middle 
 of the body. Barrel after barrel was discharged until the 
 revolver was empty, and still the speed seemed unslackened. 
 Replacing this revolver in its holster and drawing another, 
 the firing was continued. The last shot of the second re- 
 volver had been fired, making twelve in all, and still the 
 race went on without signs of distress. An attendant handed 
 Barker a third revolver. This in turn was emptied into the 
 bufEalo, and all, apparently, to no purpose. A fourth revolv- 
 er is supplied, from which four shots are fired, when the 
 buffalo's never-failmg signal of defeat, bleeding at the nose, 
 is perceptible. Slowly decreasing his speed the buffalo soon 
 comes to a halt, the next instant he is down on his side, and 
 before his heart ceases to beat, or he to struggle, Barker is 
 out of the saddle, and with hat in hand leaps upon the buf- 
 falo and gives three hearty cheers, in which he is joined by 
 all of the party who are within hearing. The head of the 
 animal is soon removed from the carcass, and conveyed with 
 the party to camp, from which point it was expressed the 
 same day to Detroit, there to be placed in the hands of the 
 taxidermist for preservation. 
 
 After all had gathered about the camp-fire at night 
 there was the usual vehement exchange of experiences, 
 and the customar}^ recounting of ludicrous situations, 
 or occasions when danger was looked in the face. Of 
 course the tourists were much spent and very hungry, 
 and the camp supper, with their own game for the 
 principal dish, was " food fit for the gods," they said. 
 The story-telling and merriment was somewhat sub- 
 
272 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 dued on account of fatigue, and our guests were not 
 aware, in a few moments after touching the blankets, 
 that they were not sleeping on the soft beds of civili- 
 zation. 
 
 General Custer continues : 
 
 The following day was the Sabbath, and although hun- 
 dreds of miles from church or chapel, it was nevertheless 
 determined to " Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy," 
 a resolution which gave no little pleasure. At sunset the 
 band played " Old Hundred," the effect of which on our lit- 
 tle party was more powerful than if sung by a well-organized 
 choii' with all the accompaniments of church and congrega- 
 tion. 
 
 The merriest man of all these guests was a rollick- 
 ing Irishman, who, though living quietly in Canada at 
 that time, had been an extensive traveller, and in many 
 adventures by sea and by land. His stories, his songs, 
 Lis repartee were some things not to be forgotten. 
 "Without pretension or the least self -consciousness he 
 took the lead in everything, and the moment he open- 
 ed his mouth the others became silent, knowing that it 
 was "not best to miss anything that Morgan said, if 
 a fellow cared a rap for fun." As I remember him 
 and his bright comrade of a wife, a vivacious French- 
 woman, my lips involuntarily form themselves into a 
 smile, and a dozen instances of their clever wit come 
 trooping back to amuse me. The one picture I best 
 recall is of an occasion when Mr. Morgan was nearly 
 drowned in the Detroit River. I was visiting at the 
 Barkers' on Grosse Isle, and at evening we rowed over 
 
"gaeryowen" leads the hunt. 273 
 
 to the Morgans', where we first heard of the narrow 
 escape. With the merriest twinkle in his eye he gave 
 us so amusing an account of himself while he clung to 
 the boat, in peril of drowning, that we shouted over it 
 exactly as if it had been the best joke in the world, in- 
 stead of the story of a hair-breadth escape from a wa- 
 tery grave. His cries for help were heard first by his 
 wife, who ran for the boatman, and while he was get- 
 ting his oars Mrs. Morgan tore up to the house, bring- 
 ing back with her a brandy-flask and waved it to the 
 struggling man, who clung rather feebly to the upturned 
 boat, for Mr. Morgan was not strong. Even weak and 
 chilled as he was, the pluck of his wife, when she was 
 so frightened, and the fun of the whole affair, took pos- 
 session of him, and he shouted, " Thank you, Tillie, I'll 
 be there, directly !" 
 
 The brogue added to every story he told, and we all, 
 long after he had left us, repeated and laughed over his 
 quick sallies and his fresh, unhackneyed dinner and 
 camp-fire tales. Out of the fifty- three buffaloes killed 
 on the two days' hunt, Mr. Morgan had the best score, for, 
 unaided, he had despatched seven. He allows me to use 
 an extract or so from letters to his wife at that time : 
 
 The fatigue of yesterday's hunt was too much for most 
 of the visitors, many of whom were unfamiliar with eques- 
 trianism, and they were slow to respond to the reveille ; 
 when they did come forth from their tents it was with that 
 peculiar gait which a pair of compasses must adopt if com- 
 pelled to walk across a table. We were all willing to rest 
 our laurels of yesterday's running for one day, and the morn- 
 18 
 
274r FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 ing was devoted to recounting our deeds of valor and hair- 
 breadth escapes. I had a bullet-hole though the sleeve of 
 
 my coat. Mr. L 's horse shied at a polecat, his plug hat 
 
 fell of, and came in for the full phials^of the beast's wrath ; 
 the tile was subsequently recovered and made a target of. 
 
 After one of the hunts we satisfied our appetites with a 
 glorious dinner, thanks to General Custer's bountiful larder 
 and our own hunting successes, not to forget a good-sized 
 locker which we brought from the East, and which was 
 known as the " medicine - chest." One of the general's 
 guests, who seemed to enjoy the good things with a gusto 
 that only a hunter can feel, after getting up from dinner 
 hastened to take possession of a large crate which was about 
 half full of straw, and which was used for packing our earth- 
 en and glass ware. Here he stretched his aching limbs, and 
 was soon in a deep sleep, notwithstanding that the band was 
 playing but a short distance from him. I and one or two 
 others asked the general to aid us in getting up a funeral, as 
 evidently our friend had gone (in dreams) to the happy hunt- 
 ing-ground, or the land of Nod. The general, with rollick- 
 ing glee worthy of a school-boy, entered into our plans, a pro- 
 cession was formed, six stalwart troopers carried the bier, the 
 guests acted as chief mourners, the band played the " Dead 
 March in Saul," and the cortege advanced across the prairie. 
 The motion, the music, and the ringing laughter, that might 
 almost be taken for wailing, seemed to cause our sleeping 
 friend to dream ; he then awakened, and stared around in 
 bewilderment ; it would seem that he failed to immediately 
 take in the situation, for he asked, in the most serious tone : 
 " What is the matter ? What has happened ?" The general 
 and his friends congratulated him on his marvellous recovery 
 and his escape from a lonely grave. 
 
 This same crockery-crate was still to be the central 
 object in a joke, after the return of tlie party to the 
 
LEADS THE HUNT. 275 
 
 main camp. Our guests had found out by some shrewd 
 questioning that our mess chest held only six of a kind 
 for setting our camp table, so they had decided to bring 
 with them a supply of dishes. The crate had served 
 as their packing-case. One day I remember seeing the 
 empty crate the centre of a group of softly moving 
 figures, stealthily lifting and carefully carrying it a lit- 
 tle distance nearer the tents. Soon it was revealed 
 that our guests had enlisted General Custer in another 
 practical joke. One of the citizens having dined and 
 wined well, had thrown himself down on the ground to 
 take a nap. His sleep was either that of one who has 
 a light conscience, or whose senses were steeped in that 
 oblivious dream that comes from too frequent tips of 
 the flowing bowl. I haven't the faintest remembrance 
 who it was, so that if I account for his lethargy in this 
 way I hope that I may be forgiven. A number of 
 picket-pins were sharpened, and while the good diner 
 slumbered the crockery- crate was carefully placed over 
 him and tacked down to the baked earth. Then the 
 perpetrators of this joke came under our fly to watch 
 for the awakening. It was very funny, and quite worth 
 the long vigil kept up while waiting the end of his 
 sleep. The manner in which the imprisoned man par- 
 tially arose and gazed at the twisted and knotted roof 
 above him was simply convulsing to us. Then he 
 kicked wildly in impatience, and endeavored to throw 
 the light crate off him ; still it resisted. Finally, the 
 figure of this reputable and highly respected citizen 
 on his knees, scrambling and pushing and struggling 
 
276 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 to lift the crate by his bowed back, like a bucking 
 horse, sent us into screams of laughter, and it was no 
 longer possible to refuse to go to his assistance. 
 
 When an expedition reaches the bed of a stream 
 which has no water, the place is marked on the map as 
 a dry camp. There is still another application of the 
 term, and our guests in anticipation of this had brought 
 good cheer in the locker which they called the " medi- 
 cine-chest," but after that day there was pretty good 
 care taken not to visit it any oftener than would leave 
 a man in condition to leap from sound sleep into vigi- 
 lant wakefulness. This caution was necessary by way 
 of avoiding the too marked attention of those who 
 pined ever for a practical joke. 
 
 With all this merrymaking there was mingled in 
 General Custer's heart a pang of sorrow for almost an 
 irreparable loss ; but his own words will better convey 
 his feelings : 
 
 To give our visitors an opportunity to witness the great 
 speed of the antelope and American hare, or as it is best 
 known on the plains, the jack-rabbit, I took with me from 
 camp about half a dozen fine stag-hounds. Foremost among 
 all these was Maida, my favorite dog, the companion of all 
 my long and terrible marches of last winter; she who by 
 day trotted by my side, and at night shared my camp-couch. 
 In the first run after buffaloes the dogs, contrary to their 
 usual custom, became separated from me and accompanied 
 others of the party. They soon singled out a buffalo, and 
 readily brought it to bay. With little forethought or pru- 
 dence, several of the hunters opened fire upon the buffalo 
 while the latter was contendinpr with the dogs. Maida had 
 
LEADS THE HUNT. 277 
 
 seized hold of the buffalo, and while clinging to its throat 
 was instantly killed by a carbine-ball fired by some one of 
 the awkward soldiers who accompanied the party. Words 
 fail to express the grief occasioned by the untimely death 
 of so faithful a companion. 
 
 " Poor Maida, in life the firmest friend ; 
 The first to welcome, foremost to defend ; 
 Whose honest heart is still your master's own, 
 Who labors, fights, lives, breathes for him alone. 
 But who with me shall hold thy former place, 
 Thy image what new friendship can efface? 
 Best of they kind, adieu ! 
 The frantic deed which laid thee low 
 This heart shall ever rue^" 
 
Fife. 
 
 80 .- J . 
 
 •ffntantrg Call " (To tbe Color/' 
 
 -# m- 
 
 :tz=:t: 
 
 Drum. r 
 
 ;E=^le^^^ 
 
 
 T T F 
 
 *— ^— «— ^ 
 
 ■V — 1<^- 
 
 ,b=ti: 
 
 :f=l;:5: 
 
 EfcM 
 
 -i—y—'yi 
 
 ^^^jg^gi^p^i 
 
 :C=5=?: 
 
 V 
 
 
 ^ — ^ — « 
 
 lltl 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ARMY PROMOTIONS. 
 
 One of the pleasurable excitements of garrison or 
 camp life was promotion. The lucky man who had 
 long lingered and anxiously balanced himself at the 
 head of the list, when he at last made the final file was 
 instantly surrounded by his comrades, who, after con- 
 gratulating him, immediately proceeded to besiege him 
 for a " spread !" They daringly suggested how he 
 should celebrate, and news went flying about as if they 
 were a parcel of school -boys, one calling to another, 
 
 " Come on up ; • is going to have a ' lay out,' his 
 
 promotion's come." 
 
 At these celebrations we all made merry till the host 
 despaired of getting rid of us. A messenger returned 
 from the sutler wagons loaded with a heterogeneous 
 
ARMY PROMOTIONS. 279 
 
 display, and tliongh there was so little in that meagre 
 life to celebrate with, that made little difference ; it 
 was only one more occasion of the many we rejoiced 
 in for all to come together ; and if by chance no one 
 had a pair of shoulder-straps to emphasize the accession 
 to greatness, it was a chance if the host was not deco- 
 rated with the insignia of rank cut out of white cotton 
 and sewed on his fatigue jacket. 
 
 In an army of twenty-five thousand soldiers on pa- 
 per, and a much smaller number in reality, it was not 
 strange that the wail that was loudest was the conspic- 
 uous line in the old West Point song : 
 
 "Promotion's very slow." 
 
 The lieutenants referred ahnost everything, includ- 
 ing the millennium, to the time " when I'm a captain." 
 General Custer thought that the position of a captain 
 was the most enjoyable and independent of all. The 
 daily association with the company brings an officer 
 into cordial communication with his men, and a per- 
 sonal attachment is the result if the officer be just, and 
 his men the better sort of soldiers. By constant ex- 
 changing, or by court - martial, the company can be 
 weeded of the absolutely worthless men, and by watch- 
 fulness there can be all sorts of craftsmen brought into 
 the troop, so that the company barracks, and the cap- 
 tain's and subalterns' quarters, can be made habitable, 
 no matter how dilapidated they may be, by the car- 
 penter, blacksmith, painter, saddler, etc. After a high- 
 er grade is reached there is very little personal com- 
 
280 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 munication with the enlisted man, and that hearty 
 sympathy Avhich is so prized is ahnost entirely lost. 
 When a man becomes a general he is removed so far 
 that nearly all his intercourse with the ranks is at an 
 end ; besides, he really belongs then to no one body of 
 men. The esprit de corps of the regiment is at an 
 end ; he really has around him only his staff and a few 
 soldiers detailed from their companies for headquarters 
 duty. 
 
 Our military women, who have been proud of the 
 regiment, and who have shared its marches, dangers, 
 deprivations, etc., as if it were a privilege, entering into 
 the domestic life of its officers and enlisted men as if 
 they were all akin, are completely at sea when re- 
 moved, after years, from such association. I saw Mrs. 
 Miles soon after her husband's promotion to be a brig- 
 adier-general. She was in Southern California, sur- 
 rounded with the vineyards, rose trellises, the bloom 
 and verdure of that American Italy ; but her heart was 
 still longing for the women with whom she had kept 
 vigil when the men were on a campaign on the bleak 
 wastes of Dakota. She could not forget those men and 
 women with whom she had suffered in the blizzards, 
 siroccos, hurricanes, and above all the unceasing fear and 
 anxiety about hostile Indians. At their last station in 
 Dakota the post was built on a dreary flat plain, with 
 no trees, no anything to look at but one of those curi- 
 ous buttes rising directly out of the ground, the result 
 of the cracking of the earth's heated surface during 
 the upheavals of the far-away ages. Nothing could be 
 
ARMY PROMOTIONS. 281 
 
 more hideous than this bare, uninteresting, sharp eleva- 
 tion ; it was a blot upon the face of the earth ; but Mrs. 
 Miles told me that instead of luxuriating among the 
 flowers surrounding her, her eyes were turning back 
 to those she loved, and to the spot where, though she 
 had been so anxious, she still had been so happy, and 
 she added, " Beiir Butte seems now the most beautiful 
 thing I ever saw." 
 
 Another woman, torn (as is the army's cruel fate) 
 from those associates she valued, was asked if, after 
 all those years of dearth, she did not enjoy the won- 
 derful climbing roses that cover the quarters at the 
 Presidio in San Francisco. Petulantly, and almost tear- 
 fully, she replied, " I hate roses." And so it goes. I 
 believe that military people come as near getting hap- 
 piness independent of surroundings as any class of peo- 
 ple I know ; but then domestic happiness is the rule in 
 army life, and if there are no storms inside the quar- 
 ters, what boisterous wind or rain outside is going to 
 make much difference ? 
 
 A bright woman whom I know, born in the purple, 
 was courageous enough to marry out of a fashionable 
 New York life into the simplicity and poverty of the 
 army. It was a decade since, when Indians roamed at 
 will where now a web of ^nq. Pacific Eailroads, with 
 their collateral branches, spreads over the rapidly fill- 
 ing plains. It took months of marching to reach the 
 Pocky Mountains. Hardships could not be avoided ; 
 scarcely anything but the barest necessities could be 
 taken along, with the limited transportation. Still this 
 
282 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 belle in Gotham looked all tliis life in the face, and 
 set over against her sheltered, luxurious existence the 
 privilege of marrying the man of her choice, and taking 
 up a career full of sacrifices. After she had experi- 
 mented for a time in tliis new life, and knew its trials 
 as well as its compensations, she heard some one say 
 that a certain woman whom she knew had married into 
 the army, and married for love. " Good heavens !" 
 she exclaimed in her excitement, "what else could she 
 marry for ?" 
 
 One of the edicts which this woman could not quiet- 
 ly accept was the manner in which the Government 
 saw fit to arrange promotion. Until after a colonelcy 
 is reached everything advances by grade. Death, dis- 
 missal, resignation, and retiring from illness or from 
 age are the causes that make vacancies. The bride 
 tenderly reared could not reconcile herself to the calm 
 calculation of officers who sat down to go over the 
 list of those who ranked them, and to estimate how 
 many years it would take for those in the way to 
 be removed, either by Divine Providence or by dis- 
 missal. With finger on the Army Register they dis- 
 posed of one after another in something after this fash- 
 ion: Such a one "will *hand in his chips' soon if he 
 don't leave John Barleycorn alone." Such and such 
 a one " is going under from disease contracted during 
 the war, or from an old wound." A third " has had a 
 fortune left him, and he will ' light out ' for civil life 
 soon." Still another " beo^ins to totter with as^e and im- 
 becility, and can't sit a horse any longer ; he will be re- 
 
ARMY PROMOTIONS. 283 
 
 tired shortly." Of another who was constantly being 
 tried it was said, " Some court-martial will get him yet 
 and send him flying." 
 
 The new-comer listened to all this calculating of 
 chances as to vacancies and promotions with outraged 
 feelings ; but her horror culminated when her own hus- 
 band, a lieutenant, rushed into the quarters one day per- 
 forming a can-can, swinging his cap, and calling out to 
 her in glee, " Fan, such and such a ship has gone down 
 at sea, so and so is lost, and I'm a captain." I laughed 
 till the tears came, to see her face as she told me of this 
 shock to her sensibilities, and of her astonishment to 
 think that her own husband could manifest such ap- 
 parent heartlessness ; and even though all this occurred 
 years ago, she became rigid with indignation at the rec- 
 ollection. 
 
 I felt with her most keenly, and could not become 
 accustomed to the manner in which news of the death 
 of an officer at some other post was met. The officers 
 said, if they liked him, " Poor fellow ! I'm sorry he's 
 gone " ; but the inevitable question that followed was, 
 " Whom will it promote ?" The Army Register was at 
 once in requisition, and the file looked up. Still I think 
 that apparent momentary want of feeling is no worse 
 than the manner in which civilians receive the news of 
 a man's demise by asking, " Did he leave any money ?'* 
 
 A law that has gone into effect within the last few 
 years, retiring an officer at sixty-two years of age, does 
 away with the somewhat unseemly haste with which 
 the rank of an officer dying was looked up, for the 
 
284 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 reckoning is all made out long before the period of re- 
 tirement approaches ; and a very good estimate in many- 
 instances can be obtained by a man waiting for his pro- 
 motion, by summing up the length of service or age of 
 officers who are near or at the head of the list. Even 
 now there occurs a calculation that verges on cruelty, 
 for one of my friends, who was recovering from the 
 lingering fever that invaded our ranks at the South, 
 nearly went into a relapse at sight of the pencil-marks 
 of a brother officer — fortunately a man of a type that 
 is not common among our warm-hearted military men. 
 The doors of the quarters of most military posts stand 
 invitingly open, and an entrance, if closed, is rarely 
 locked, so the invalid feebly made his way into adjoin- 
 ing quarters, and sat down by the table to rest and 
 await the return of the occupant. The open Army 
 Register^ always more fascinating to an officer than a 
 novel, attracted him. Name after name was either 
 marked out or had annotations explaining causes why 
 there was uncertainty about the person remaining in 
 service ; but, to his anger and disgust, there was no 
 query-mark opposite his ; the neighbor, calculating on 
 his death, had already drawn a line through the entire 
 name. Slamming the book shut, he left with far more 
 vigor than he had entered, and from that time on he 
 determined to get well. 
 
 During our war officers were often overslaughed, 
 and this setting aside of the old rule of promotion by 
 file rankled in the heart of an officer whom we knew. 
 He was irreproachable on duty, but once inside his quar- 
 
AKMY PROMOTIONS. 285 
 
 ters lie brooded over liis wrongs until he was almost 
 frenzied with anger, and wild sounds of an upraised 
 voice, and the clatter and thumps of disturbed furni- 
 ture, slamming doors, etc., penetrated the walls ; in gar- 
 rison, where the houses are so near each other, it w^as 
 impossible to ignore the turmoil. An officer entering 
 to inform himself regarding the disturbance found a 
 farce going on, that he quietly witnessed, and after- 
 wards as quietly withdrew from, for the subject that 
 brought on the fracas was one that produced too lively 
 sympathy in a brother officer to induce him to inter- 
 fere. The overslaughed man had called a number of 
 chairs by the name of each of the officers who had 
 jumped him in promotion. Addressing them individ- 
 ually by their old title, and calling himself by the rank 
 he should have had if promotion had gone on regular- 
 ly, he said : " You will rank Colonel So-and-so " (calling 
 his own name), " will you ? Well, I'll see," and imme- 
 diately kicked the chair out of the room. Each chair 
 suffered the same fate, and when the room was empty 
 the incensed man banged the door, and sat down, with 
 a sigh of satisfaction, to get back his breath and to 
 cool off. 
 
 I still think, as I have said before, that there is no 
 profession with such drawbacks to ambition as the 
 army. 'No amount of merit, not even years of constant 
 successful achievement, can give an officer the slightest 
 promotion. In other professions the winner leaps over 
 the heads of his contestants. In military life the way 
 of an ambitious man is often clogged by an officer just 
 
286 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 above him who has ciphered out the problem of do- 
 ing only the barest necessary duties, and lie frequent- 
 ly gets himself into such a beaten path that he goes 
 through the form loaded with liquor, which leaves his 
 knees a little uncertain and wobbly, but he preserves 
 sufficient intellect, befogged as it is, to pass muster. I 
 believe in belonging to a profession where every one 
 knows that in striving for mastery there is no impedi- 
 ment to gaining the reward of success, and where, if 
 one is gifted or persevering, he can leap over the dull 
 or indifferent to a higher rung in the ladder. 
 
 Another excitement besides the promotion of an offi- 
 cer w\as the advent of the paymaster. If the country 
 over which he had to travel would admit of it, he came 
 every two months ; and money, even out there in that 
 desert, where there was little chance to use it except 
 for the prosaic necessities of life, had much the same 
 effect on every one as it has in the States. The officers 
 often found roll-call a farce for a day or two, as the 
 soldiers drew their pay and slid off around the quarters 
 to the sutler's store, or waited till nightfall and went in 
 groups to the little collection of gin-shops usually just 
 outside the confines of the reservation, and invariably 
 called a city, even if there were but six huts. If their 
 comrades brought the drunkest of them home they hid 
 them until the next day, and a sorrier sight than those 
 bruised, pallid, broken-up men after a tipsy brawl can- 
 not be imagined. I know that citizens will ask why 
 is not drunkenness abolished in the service, but they 
 must go out to our posts, and see the material of which 
 
ARMY PKOMOTIONS. 287 
 
 our army is composed, before they judge the question. 
 Certainly the best efforts of the most earnest and hon- 
 orable men I have ever known were brought to bear 
 on this question, and it is still an unsolved problem. 
 
 I should be the last to say our ranks were filled up 
 with failures — I who am so indebted to the enlisted 
 men for protection and a hundred kindnesses ; and be- 
 sides, do I not know well w^hat superb soldiers they 
 were in time of battle or in the hour of peril and 
 emergency — even these very ones who celebrated pay- 
 day with a brawl ? If there could be a country where 
 no whiskey was ever imported, and to which the pay- 
 master never came, there would not be the difficulty 
 that exists ; but fortunately all the money in the pos- 
 session of the easily tempted men changed hands soon, 
 and peace reigned until the two months were up. 
 
 The paymasters of our army get little honorable 
 mention of their service, Avhich, in the Territories, is 
 often very perilous. They have for many years trav- 
 elled with comparatively small escorts through the 
 most hotly contested of the Indian country, and as the 
 railroads were being built and the towns laid out, a 
 class of outlaws were the first to populate them. These 
 desperadoes followed and robbod the paymaster unless 
 the utmost vigilance was observed. On the open plain 
 the escort could guard against an attack, but where a 
 mountain defile was entered, or a canon was being 
 crossed, or the way lay through the Bad Lands, behind 
 whose columnar buttes many Indians might hide or 
 desperadoes lie in wait, the danger was often very 
 
288 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 o-reat. Part of the escort dismounted and were de- 
 ployed in advance of the ambuLances containing the 
 paymaster and his travelling outfit, and the drivers and 
 officer himself rode over these dangerous routes with 
 rifles in hand. 
 
 We often entertained the paymaster, and on one oc- 
 casion I remember that he was going to luncheon with 
 General Custer and me. Suddenly the innocent little 
 valise that he carried attracted our attention, and Gen- 
 eral Custer asked me if I would mind staying in our 
 room with it until the paymaster was through with his 
 luncheon. Certainly I did not mind, but I was curious, 
 of course. What daughter of Eve would not be ? How- 
 ever, I shut myself in, and after a little I divined what 
 this mysterious seclusion meant. One woman out of 
 all those hundreds of men was sitting up there on 
 guard over from fifty to seventy thousand dollars in 
 bills, for it took fully that to pay officers, soldiers, and 
 quartermaster's employes. 
 
IRctreat. 
 
 ^^iiii^igi^^^t^l 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 A FLOOD ON BIG CREEK. 
 
 Bright and joyous as were tliose summer days on 
 Big Creek, it was not all sunshine as to weather. The 
 rainy season in the spring and early summer kept us 
 in a damp, moist, unpleasant state, but after that was 
 ended we had few showers. Whatever Kansas did was 
 with a rush ; the lightning was more terrific than light- 
 ning elsewhere, the rain poured down in floods, and 
 the wind blew hurricanes. In the years that have since 
 elapsed, the breaking of the soil into farms, and the 
 planting of crops and trees, have materially changed 
 the order of things. Our experience was in the tem- 
 pestuous times, and we were always expecting some 
 sudden announcement of Mother Kature, who did not 
 propose to treat us to anything like a gentle shower, 
 or a soft south wind that might be trying to " blow up 
 19 
 
290 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 rain." Everything came with a mighty "whew !" and 
 we knew enough to rush our j)roperty into the tents, 
 and begin to fortify, when that ominous vibrating of 
 the upper branches of the cotton -wood trees began. 
 The soldiers in charge of headquarters came witli axes 
 to drive down the picket-pins ; the ropes were tighten- 
 ed, and the straps that secured tlie opening all tightly 
 buckled. 
 
 I remember being thus strapped in one day, and 
 thanking the sergeant, telHng him that he need not 
 stay as I was "all right"; but I was, in fact, anything 
 but all right, for I was speechless with fear wlien the 
 storm began. I would not call to Eliza, for she would 
 get wet coming to me ; General Custer w^as in another 
 part of the camp, and I saw my fate was to brave the 
 hurricane alone. I concluded to take up as secure a 
 place as I could, and await the catastro^^he wdiich seem- 
 ed inevitable. The lightning on the plains is omni- 
 present; it is such a continuous glare that the whole 
 heavens seem a vast sheet of flame. I could not accus- 
 tom myself to it, and as long as we lived out there 
 each storm was a new terror to me. In a tent it is im- 
 possible to hide one's eyes from the flashes. To add 
 to my terrors, immense hailstones pelted down on the 
 cotton roof with such savage force that I believed 
 no canvas could withstand their fury. My last look 
 through the opening was at a deserted camp, the whole 
 command, having gone out of sight into their tents. 
 When I believed myself condemned to meet fate alone, 
 a quick tugging at the straps began, and General Cus- 
 
A FLOOD ON BIG CREEK. 291 
 
 ter leaped into the aperture, drenched with the storm. 
 I came out from under the bed, where I had laken up 
 what I tliought a safe position, and began, woman-like, 
 to question why he had ventured into such danger. 
 He had remembered my terror of lightning, and had 
 made a rush over the unprotected parade-ground, with 
 the hailstones pounding down on him like a shower of 
 lead. Such hail no one out there had ever seen be- 
 fore. The Smithies measured many of the hailstones 
 that day, and the average was from an inch to an inch 
 and a half through. Captain Smith made a dash for 
 home from the grazing-ground, his horse running at 
 a fearful pace, with a little dog yelping with pain from 
 the pelting he got following at his heels. Lumps which 
 were tender to the touch for days afterwards were 
 raised on the captain's head. 
 
 The pitiful part of it was the unprotected condi- 
 tion of the horses ; they had to endure all the violence 
 of the elements, with no shelter. It was strange how 
 wonderfully sleek, fat, and well they kept if there 
 w^ere no hard marches to wear them down. The pro- 
 longed storms of the rainy season did not appear to 
 reduce them. They seemed to think their home, the 
 picket rope, gave them every luxury. We were often 
 amused to see the whole number out grazing volun- 
 tarily start home when a few drops of rain fell. They 
 either ran up to the picket rope, or made those teeter- 
 ing and awkward leaps that a hobbled animal makes ; 
 and when the rope was reached they seemed to feel 
 themselves as secure as if within the driest of stables. 
 
292 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 There was one especial storm that I have cause to 
 remember, for it came near being as serious as the 
 one described in Tenting on the Plains the summer be- 
 fore, when lives were lost. One lovely day, with an 
 azure sky and soft velvety wind that seemed to blow 
 from the Arcady of the poets, I sat under the fly of 
 our tent, reading, or living that dolce far niente ex- 
 istence which camp-life induces, when tlie air sudden- 
 ly chilled, and I felt sure the change was some sort of 
 a weather precursor. It was one of the vagaries of the 
 Kansas climate that delighted in sudden alternations 
 from summer to winter. After I had put on a wrap 
 I sat down to await the next change. It was not long 
 before the sky dulled, and an ominous roar came rum- 
 bling over the plains — " a voice of the noise of rain." 
 Then I ran off to find Henry, and tell him that I fear- 
 ed a freshet. He confirmed my fears by telhng me 
 the water had "been on the rise right smart of time 
 already." I left him^ to go to the headquarters ser- 
 geant, and ask him quietly to prepare for what I be- 
 lieved would be a terrible storm, and come to me if it 
 began to rain. He was so accustomed to these fright- 
 ened confidences of mine when terror overtook me that 
 he was willing to come even if he himself thought it 
 was only a " woman's notion." If in the military rec- 
 ommendation that General Custer wrote out for him 
 I had been permitted to add a line, it would not have 
 been official ; it would only have been my testimony to 
 his capability of making a good husband, he was such 
 a patient man with a woman's fears. 
 
A FLOOD ON BIG CREEK. 293 
 
 When I came back to the fly General Custer looked 
 up from his absorption in his book, and asked me where 
 I had been. I temporized, for I did not like to admit 
 that I was already scared before a drop of rain had 
 fallen. He persisted, and finding out my agitation, as- 
 sured me that I was foolish, that we were a good dis- 
 tance from the creek, that I need not be disturbed yet. 
 I argued that our camp being on such a loop of land, 
 the stream might cut a channel across the narrow part, 
 and leave us on an island exactly as the little knot of 
 men were cut off the summer before. Time enough 
 to prepare for that, he replied ; and not realizing the 
 genuineness of my trepidation, he strolled off across the 
 parade-ground to practise shots on the billiard -table 
 that the sutler had put in the hall the soldiers built 
 for their amusement. With the remembrance of what 
 Big Creek could do in the way of a rise — for measure- 
 ments the summer before proved that it went up an 
 inch a minute — I prepared for what might come, and 
 threw our few camp garments into the trunk, heaped 
 the chairs, etc., on the table, tied down the window- 
 flap at the rear, and sat down to watch the clouds. It 
 seemed but a few moments before the sky darkened, 
 and the shriek and whistle of the keen wind came over 
 the prairie, and twisted the leaves and branches of our 
 few protecting trees, cracking the dry twigs and break- 
 ing the exposed branches. Meanwhile the stream was 
 beginning to tear along, carrying with it underbrush, 
 logs, and saplings attached to great clumps of earth still 
 held together by the net-work of roots. The sergeant 
 
294 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 and his men were soon all activity, and Henry ran 
 hither and tliither, intent on the horses' safety. 
 
 With the roar of the storm coming over the track- 
 less waste beyond ns at sixty miles an hour came big 
 drops of rain and great clouds of dust. How I wished 
 that we had a " dugout " in the side of tlie bank ! 
 Finally a wall of rain advanced towards us, cutting as 
 clear a swath as it came as if it had marked out the 
 path in advance. Whether it was due to water-spouts 
 or to cloud-bursts we did not know; but there was 
 some mighty power behind all that sudden change 
 from sunshine to storm. No ordinary progress of 
 nature's laws produced the startling transformation. 
 
 Not long since Eliza, the dear, faithful friend of 
 those days, came to pay me a visit from her Oliio 
 home, and in talking over the happy past she recalled 
 the storm ; the description was so characteristic that 
 I shall give it : '' The first notion that I had of the 
 creek risin' was a crash, and things come tumblin' and 
 knockin' against my tent. It had a wood floor, and it 
 began to ride up and down, and out floated the things, 
 and I dragged my trunk and all the cookin' utensils I 
 could get hold of up on the hill-side. Then my tent 
 cut loose from the moorin's. Big trees and roots and 
 parts of cabins and a wash-stand and a bed-tick from a 
 settler's place up near the fort came a-tearin' down by. 
 It was all in a minute. My shoes and stockin's was 
 off, and I was a-wadin' around catchin' hold of my 
 cookin' things and holdin' in a long pole to gather in 
 the half -drowned chickens. I was a heap more con- 
 
A FLOOD ON BIG CREEK. 295 
 
 cerried about mj kitchen things than I was about my 
 clothes. Those wind-storms come so sudden ! They 
 w^ould just tear up everything, and while we was 
 a-strivin' to save the beddin' and tins from the water 
 the wind w^as twistin' the tent and whirlin' all sorts of 
 things around our head. Well, the ginnel he come 
 a-fiyin' home then, and I says to him, ' There is goin' to 
 be a big storm ;' and he says ' Yes,' and sent right off for 
 the men to drive the picket-pins in and tighten the 
 ropes. My tent was so nice ; but dear me ! I heard the 
 tins and the iron tilings a-rattlin', and the ginnel said, 
 *You needn't be afraid; there's no danger of your tent 
 a-goin'.' It was down under the hill a bit, and I tell 
 you it did go, though. Tin pans, buckets, fryin'-pans, 
 all tumbled and pitched about in a heap, and the 
 tent was lifted on high and blown away off on the 
 parade-ground for good. Such a gatherin' ! — such a 
 gatherin' as I had of the things ; and then the ginnel 
 w^ould stand and holler to me while I was a-pickin' 
 them up and say, 'How long before dinner?' when 1 
 hadn't one thing to get dinner with, nor even a sliver 
 of dry wood. I jest raised my head wdiile I was 
 a-clutchin' for the things knee-deep in water, and said, 
 * Ginnel, don't you say dinner to me !' " 
 
 Meanwhile Henry was not idle ; his horses were his 
 anxiety. He told me when I saw him last that the 
 night succeeding the storm which I have described, 
 after the tempest had subsided a little and we had 
 gathered our scattered belongings together and set 
 Eliza up in another tent on dry land, he was awakened 
 
296 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 by a great rumbling in the brush and trees. His tent 
 was only fifty feet from the water : " I sprang from 
 my bed, which was on four-foot stakes, right out into 
 three feet of water. The night was very dark, and I 
 raised the alarm ; the general was as quick as a flash 
 out of his tent and had the whole regiment standing 
 ready for duty to remove camp in case the water 
 broke over the banks. When I got to my horses they 
 were almost ready to strike a swim, as the water only 
 had to rise six inches more to break all over the camp. 
 All the plunder was loaded on the wagons, and it had 
 to stay loaded for over twelve hours before the water 
 began to fall, and after it did fall the bridge at the fort 
 fell, and there was no way to get supplies." Henry, 
 after all this excitement, was completely disgusted with 
 the Kansas climate. When I talked with him as he 
 stayed by the water taking measurements on a stick to 
 watch the rising of the stream, he acknowledged that 
 he was tired of roughing it. " You see. Miss Libbie," 
 he said, "Manda — that's the yellow girl that used to 
 take care of Mrs. Card's baby — and me is going to be 
 married, and she couldn't no more stand what you 
 does than anything, so I must go ; and I think as you 
 have relatives in Topeka, like as not you and the gen- 
 eral would be a-coming there and I should see you, so 
 I am thinking of living there. Why, Miss Libbie, the 
 times I've been washed out here this summer I can't 
 count, but if you and the general can manage to pitch 
 my tent on a boat I can stay." 
 
 Our tent had three feet of water in it during the 
 
A FLOOD ON BIG CREEK. 297 
 
 next day, and I sat a long time in the travelling wagon, 
 in the midst of a collection of household possessions 
 that almost buried me. The horses were harnessed, 
 ready to be put to the wagon at the first intimation 
 that the water had risen above the danger line. The 
 hens, becoming almost human from intimate associa- 
 tion and sharing hardships, were roosting on the tongue, 
 or pecked at the grass under the wagon, while the dogs 
 leaped in and out over me, and over the traps, all day. 
 It was an unending day, for we could do nothing but 
 wait and watch, but fortunately the rain had ceased. 
 In the afternoon, fearing another cloud-burst, tents 
 were sent out of camp to the divide that sloped gradu- 
 ally from the stream, and we slept there. Eliza had 
 found a little wood, and putting it under her blankets 
 at night to keep it dry, was able to make our breakfast 
 for us. 
 
 The Smithies meanwhile were in equal dilemma, for 
 their tent was also near the stream, though not so close 
 to it as ours. They rose in the morning and found the 
 water was rising very fast, but thought they might 
 get breakfast before it rose higher. The stream had 
 then reached to within a foot of the tent. When they 
 came out from breakfast they were obliged to jump 
 across a stream that had flowed over the grass during 
 breakfast. Then they began to pack their traps. A 
 detail from the company went down to the dining- 
 tent, and lifted the table, just as it stood, with all the 
 dishes onto the higher ground. The water increased 
 so rapidly that the tent was in danger of being swept 
 
298 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 away, and Tiittle, their man, swam out to loosen the 
 ropes. After this the luggage was bundled into the 
 wagon, and the Smithies went to higher ground. 
 
 When the water subsided we Avere all anxious to get 
 back to our tents and begin home life again. Every- 
 thing in our place was soaked. My trunk had stood 
 almost entirely under water during the storm, and the 
 bedding w^as musty and moist. A bright sun helped 
 us, and soon all we had was flying in the Kansas 
 breeze. The whole camp became a perfect sea of float- 
 ing pennants, while horse - blankets waved from the 
 picket line like a brown cloud. The same wind that 
 had blown itself into a hurricane now turned about 
 and atoned for its rage by drying our clothes. In my 
 eagerness to possess our home again I went back to 
 the damp tent too soon, and soon fell ill with a fever, 
 which continued long enough to prove that the oldest 
 veteran, who may be proof against the active drench- 
 ing of a storm, is likely to succumb if careless enough 
 to sleep in a thoroughly soaked bed. 
 
tattoo. 
 
 
 _J^4-,'-^' — #. 
 
 ^=*-3: 
 
 :p=t:: 
 
 3=S3^: 
 
 -0 • i-€ 
 
 «- 
 
 :t=^ 
 
 ~I-H ^--^-r 
 
 -# # 0-\-\ \- F— ^- 
 
 iiitjtzzl=:i-zt:p=f=t=f=^: 
 
 g^S3=33^^^ 
 
 * — #-v-#- 
 
 
 
 
 W^zjrrf-w- 
 
 =^SEE^i 
 
 ^_^-l-*_^_ 
 
 ^i.^_ 
 
 :t=P±*^: 
 
 :ti^ 
 
 -# — #-^-* — # — i — I 1 — ^1 — 
 
 ==1=4 
 
 # #-,-# 
 
 E^ES 
 
 
 iSilzzi—iiJ: 
 
 
 :t:-f=: 
 
 -^-^ 
 
 
 '^f^^m^^^^ m f^'^^ 
 
 3 
 
 ■f9-T~ >^~-f9 
 
 3= 
 
 H — 
 
 ^iigi^i^ll 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 RATTLESNAKES AS NEIGHBOES. 
 
 Before I close the story of our summer I would 
 like to write of some of the neighbors about us whom 
 we thought altogether too neighborly. The rattle- 
 
300 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 snakes of the plains have been much written about by 
 Western editors, but they can scarcely have too elabo- 
 rate English expended on them ; they were every- 
 where, and it was almost impossible to exaggerate the 
 numbers of them that surrounded us. Our camp soon 
 became too much of a thoroughfare to make it safe for 
 a snake to dispute the territory, and the soldiers going 
 back and forth on duty, the dogs constantly racing over 
 every inch of the ground, the servants perpetually trav- 
 elling to and fro from the cook tent to ours, protected 
 us in the immediate vicinity of our habitation ; but 
 the moment we rode out of camp over the plains 
 the reptiles appeared, sometimes gliding away, often 
 coiled for a spring, occasionally torpid, and gorged 
 with a toad or a bird which they had swallowed whole, 
 and which went down slowly, distending and distorting 
 their sides. There was no trouble with our horses in 
 the matter of ceding to the snakes the right of way, 
 but it was surprising that they showed so little fear of 
 them. 
 
 It seems to need the support of the commanding 
 general of all the United States forces to fortify any 
 one who begins to talk about this subject. Snake 
 stories, like the tales of fishermen, must always, on the 
 part of the listener, be heard with a spirit of combative- 
 ness. People square themselves for a fight, and are 
 ready to dispute step by step the progress of a stor3\ 
 It was, therefore, with genuine pleasure at the privi- 
 lege of listening to so good a talker, but with an atom 
 of exultation, that I heard General Sherman hold forth 
 
RATTLESNAKES AS NEIGHBORS. 301 
 
 on our plains rattlesnakes. To begin with, the wild- 
 est spinner of yarns can scarcely say too much on the 
 subject. The snakes swarmed over the route of our 
 march ; they lined the way when we went for a hunt or 
 a pleasure ride. General Sherman, replying to a wom- 
 an's question, "And were not the soldiers often bit- 
 ten ?" replied that they were seldom fatally injured, as 
 they were instructed as recruits by their officers, the 
 surgeons, and the veteran soldiers how to protect them- 
 selves in case of the fatal sting. It is found that the 
 snake throws itself about tliree times its own length 
 from where it is coiled for a spring. 'Not being able, 
 therefore, to strike its fangs in higher than the calf of 
 the leg, the trousers often absorb a portion of the poi- 
 son. If the surgeon is near, he applies ammonia to the 
 wound, and stupefies the injured man with liquor. The 
 whiskey is poured down as fast as the man can swallow ; 
 this, retarding the circulation, prevents the blood-vessels 
 from carrying the poison to the vitals. 
 
 The part of General Sherman's conversation that 
 touched me was his tribute to the affection and devo- 
 tion of the j)rivate soldier. If the surgeon is too far 
 away to be reached, the soldier resorts to his homely 
 devices to save his comrade's life. A bit of buffalo 
 bone is used to scrape and irritate the flesh about the 
 wound, and cause a flow of blood outwardly. One of 
 the men, if he happens not to have an abrasion on the 
 lips, stoops instantly to draw the poison from the places 
 where the fangs have entered. There is never a lack 
 of offers among those fearless devoted men to suck 
 
302 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 into their own moiitlis the deadly fluid. If ammonia 
 is not to be had, they seek the black mud which forms 
 the baked surface of a sun-dried buffalo wallow. Wet- 
 ting it, and applying this to the wound, enough am- 
 monia is extracted to aid the cure. Then — ah ! I know 
 all this myself, because I have been among our self-sac- 
 rificing soldiers out there, and have been taught many 
 a lesson of generosity and devotion ; they either watch 
 over their wounded comrade till he is restored, or if he 
 be sunk into drunken lethargy, they lift him into an 
 army wagon as carefully as the experienced surgeon 
 and hospital nurse remove an injured man from our 
 city pavement to the ambulance. 
 
 This reminds me of one of our surgeons. Dr. B. J. D. 
 Irwin, of our army, General Custer's warm personal 
 friend. I remember the pleasure with which he dis- 
 covered, at our first post at Fort Riley, a weed that he 
 had not supposed grew there, which was an antidote for 
 a snake bite. He held tliis little ugly scrap of vegeta- 
 tion in his hand as if he had in his possession a rare 
 work of art, and breaking the stem, from which exuded 
 the thick white sap, he gave me so animated a descrip- 
 tion of what cures it would effect, and of what benefit 
 this discovery was to suffering humanity, that I was as 
 pervaded with his spirit as if I knew the blessed art of 
 the healer. It was to him that I was indebted for ray 
 first insight into the fervor and enthusiasm of his pro- 
 fession, and the generous manner in which their dis- 
 coveries are given to the world. He had written a pa- 
 per, after making this successful investigation on a tour 
 
KATIXESNAKES AS NEIGHBORS. 303 
 
 of duty in l^ew Mexico, tliat there might be no delay 
 in the use of this life-saving weed. 
 
 Our army surgeons have contributed a good deal to 
 the learning of their profession, and yet how quietly ! 
 When the civilian doctor makes his successful experi- 
 ments, he rarely is without rewards, often of a financial 
 character, and he always receives the tribute of admira- 
 tion from his professional brethren, from whom he hears 
 personal acknowledgments on the street, at conven- 
 tions, clubs, and the city hospitals. Our army surgeons 
 experiment, study, practice in their distant hospitals, or 
 in the field, and when they give some valuable discov- 
 ery in science to their fellow -workers over the world 
 they add nothing to their limited incomes, and the voice 
 of applause is very faint when it reaches the isolated 
 post where they live out their valuable lives. 
 
 My admiration of them — working as they must with- 
 out the reward of wealth or the sound, sweet to every 
 one, of deserved praise — must be my apology for leaving 
 General Sherman and the snakes. His sense of humor 
 made him stop in his descriptions, which are the result 
 of his many years' experience, to tell one of his Eastern 
 hearers that the Seventh Cavalry had to move out of a 
 dugout on account of the snakes. The dugout, he ex- 
 plained, is a hole in the side of a gulch or slough ; 
 around the four sides the men lay a low wall of turf, 
 leaving an entrance framed by a hardtack box ; over 
 the piled-up sods the boughs of trees are laid as a roof, 
 and on this dirt is heaped until it can hardly be dis- 
 tinguished from the ground around it. In this fortress 
 
304 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 made of such materials as are snjDplied by mother-earth 
 (barring the cracker-box door) he had known four men 
 defend themselves against hundreds of Indians, as they 
 stood on the dirt floor, only lifting themselves to the 
 loop-hole in order to fire. But, he continued, when the 
 Indians failed to dislodge them, and rode away dis- 
 couraged, the rattlesnake succeeded. It was easy for 
 them to crawl into the loop-holes, which were on a level 
 with the surface of the plain, and short work to go on 
 down into the blankets of the troopers. The general 
 says they dearly love warmth. Finally, he added, the 
 Seventh Cavalry grew discouraged, and made a bargain 
 with the snakes, giving them the original dugout, while 
 they went to work, patientl}^, to burrow themselves into 
 another, and it was no easy thing, with few and jDoor 
 tools, to get a hole excavated large enough to give shel- 
 ter and safety to even a handful of soldiers. 
 
 When General Sherman began to speak of the sol- 
 diers utilizing the rattlesnake as food, his semicircle of 
 women-listeners raised their hands in protest. I re- 
 joiced to hear him speak of it, feeling sure he would 
 fortify me in what I have already said, or intend to, 
 about General Custer's experiments in that gastronom- 
 ic feat. He says that when the rattlesnake pokes his 
 head out of the prairie-dog hole, where he has invited 
 himself to live, without giving the architect of his home 
 a voice in the matter, the watching, hungry soldier clips 
 the snake's head oli with his sabre, and, skinning him, 
 gets as good a dinner by broiling him over the coals of a 
 camp-fire as if he had an eel. I know that they often 
 
RATTLESNAKES AS NEIGIIBOKS. 305 
 
 did tliis ; and, after all, what difference does it make 
 to that d evil-ma j-care trooper how he possesses himself 
 of that which will vary his salt pork and hardtack? 
 Besides, do we not remember our child-stories of the 
 giants and hobgoblins, and how, when they encounter- 
 ed any one they hated, they were made to say, " I'll eat 
 you?" Surely it is a most effectual way of disposing 
 of an enemy, especially a reptile that retains life in 
 portions of his wriggling body when one part is cleft 
 entirely from the other. 
 
 General Custer was the first among our officers to 
 experiment on the rattlesnake as an entree. A scout 
 told him how fine, juicy, and white the meat was, and 
 straightway he tried it. The first difficulty was with 
 the soldier cook. He was absolutely devoted to Gen- 
 eral Coster, and not only obedient to orders, but stud- 
 ied or anticipated what he might wish ; but when his 
 chief took a fine fat rattlesnake to his cook-tent, and 
 gave directions to serve it, the man, really believing 
 some mistake had been made, ventured to reply, " But 
 it's a rattlesnake !" When answered in the affirmative, 
 the obedient soldier accepted the situation, but was 
 sure that the light of reason had fled forever from his 
 chief. Still, sure that it was his duty to serve a crazy 
 master as he would a sane one, lie prepared the dish 
 that had been ordered. While General Custer was eat- 
 ing the meat, which, he said, separated from the bones 
 readily, and was as white and delicate as that of a 
 young quail, he saw the distended eyes of the alarmed 
 cook cautiously peering in through a crack of the 
 20 
 
306 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 tent, doubtless expecting that lie would drop down in 
 a fit. 
 
 Once, when General Custer was dining in Xew York 
 with that epicu]-e Mr. Sam Ward, the conversation 
 turned on rare dishes, and Mr. Ward, having dined in 
 all countries, and being able probably to giv^e an ex- 
 pert opinion on a greater variety of food than is known 
 to any other gourmet of our day, offered it as his be- 
 lief that our natures partake of the characteristics of 
 whatever fish, flesh, or fowl we eat. General Custer's 
 eyes twinkled when he told me that he thought he 
 gave a poser when he asked him, '' What effect would 
 the rattlesnake have on a fellow ?" Strange to say, 
 Mr. Ward had never known that these reptiles were 
 eaten either by Christian or savage. 
 
 One of our officers, to whom I have before referred, 
 was terribly afraid of snakes. When a child one had 
 wrapped itself about his body, and so unnerved him 
 that he never regained his courage. Every one laugh- 
 ed at him, no one lost an opportunity to tease him ; 
 but, being a fearless rider, hunter, and fighter, he could 
 afford to endure the taunts of his comrades. He had 
 the advantage of a record for dauntless courage to back 
 him. 
 
 Among our collection of pets was a strange little 
 owl that had been dug out of a hole, where it and the 
 rattlesnake and prairie-dog lived in a kind of co-oper- 
 ative house -keeping. Katuralists insist that there is 
 no "happy-family" arrangement in this; that the rat- 
 tlesnake is an intruder, and that he returns hospitality 
 
KATTLESNAKES AS NEIGHBORS. 307 
 
 by eating a young prairie-dog for breakfast occasion- 
 ally. But tlie fact of their living together our soldiers 
 proved over and over again. The soldier who gave the 
 owl to General Custer showed him this family group, 
 after he had dug down to the hole the prairie-dog had 
 prepared. It was a wonder to me how the strange 
 partnership came about. The prairie-dog always made 
 the home ; but whether the snake came in and possess- 
 ed the land, or why the owl was rash enough to creep 
 into this deep excavation, were questions that no one 
 had been able to answer satisfactorily. The owl which 
 we had made a sound so like the noise of the rattle- 
 snake that no one could distinguish between them. 
 The water-bucket, as a protection against the obtru- 
 siveness of the dogs, had a cover fitted upon it. But 
 for this precaution not a drop of water w^ould have been 
 left for the toilet. As there was no box convenient, the 
 owl was placed in the empty bucket. A favorite trick 
 was purposely to occupy every seat, the bed and chairs, 
 etc., as the officer who so hated snakes approached the 
 tent. Then he was welcomed effusively, which alone 
 ought to have warned him of mischief. The bucket 
 being the only seat vacant, and he not knowing of this 
 trick of the owl, of course took it ; but the way in 
 which he bounded into space when the disturbed little 
 bird began to make the sound of the snake called forth 
 shrieks of laughter. He was one of the athletes of the 
 regiment, and the involuntary leap into the air was 
 far better jumping than he did when he tried to ac- 
 complish some competitive feat at our famous trials 
 
308 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 of agility, strengtli, and speed at Foiirtli-of-July and 
 other holiday celebrations, in which most of the officers 
 joined. 
 
 But all this continual joking was drawing to a close ; 
 for though in winter -quarters the merriment contin- 
 ues, there is a degree of privacy attainable when one 
 has walls to one's house, while in camp there is none. 
 Through the thin cotton walls of a camp habitation 
 men called out to each other very pointed remarks 
 about snoring, or too much " chinning," as they said, 
 when they wanted to slee]). From the intimate com- 
 panionship there was no escape, and so the smallest 
 fragment of a joke was apt to be worked up into some- 
 thing really amusing. 
 
 We could not but regret, when October came, that 
 our happy summer was coming to an end ; it had been 
 such a peaceful time for our tired-out regiment. It is 
 true the Indians had hovered round us to threaten, but 
 they belonged to another department north ; the south- 
 ern tribes were only too glad to stay at home that year 
 after their severe whipping the winter before. The 
 plains were dear to us because of the happy hours 
 spent there. Sometimes we sighed for hills, and occa- 
 sionally for rocks, but our next thought was one of grat- 
 itude that the monotonous surface prevented us from 
 being reminded by quack advertisements that we had 
 livers. Indeed, out there, with the pure air and active 
 life, we might be obliged to admit that we had the or- 
 gan for the cure of which a nostrum was recommend- 
 ed, but it was a silent partner. Every one was well, 
 
KATTLESNAKES AS NEIGHBORS. 309 
 
 except when ill in consequence of some actual trifling 
 with splendid health. The orioles that sang in the trees 
 above our tents were not more contented than we. It 
 was absolutely a trial to pack and start for garrison at 
 Fort Leavenworth, where we must abandon our un- 
 conventional life, dress for dinner, struggle with back 
 hair, and try to get our complexions into condition 
 again. 
 
 Some of our officers had one bright outlook — they 
 would at last have quarters for their families, and could 
 begin domestic life again. The men with sweethearts 
 were going home on leave. The fathers talked of their 
 children, and wondered if they would recognize the 
 bronzed and bearded "paternal." We heard the oft- 
 repeated tales of their brightness, and even now, think- 
 ing over those youngsters, they seem to have been very 
 clever and precocious. Two tiny little urchins were 
 fighters from the start. Coming into the world with 
 their fists doubled up, they kept them closed most of 
 the time when circumstances threw them with each 
 other. The officers, in a spirit of mischief, incited the 
 elder to " go for " the younger. They were too young 
 to do each other harm. I can now see Davie coming 
 down in front of the quarters, his legs full of swagger, 
 his tiny face red with rage. Jumping on my godson, 
 George Yates, he pounded and pommelled the two-year- 
 and-a-half boy for a few brief moments ; but the smaller 
 of the two rolling uppermost, kept the top place, and 
 returned the civilities offered. Then the young offi- 
 cers — who, not being fathers, did not look upon this fisti- 
 
310 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 cuff as serious — applauded the winner. The under boy 
 in the fight crawled out, and while he ran bawling to his 
 mother this little son of a very brave father shrieked 
 threateningly, in the borrowed language of the fron- 
 tiersman, " Got a pistol in my boot !" His little fat legs 
 with *' low-necked stockings" (as another bright dot 
 dubbed his socks) and the small kid shoes looked any- 
 thing but warlike. This same George, when he went 
 into the States, and was teased by the children, knew no 
 better threat in retaliation than to say, " I'll put you 
 in the guard-house, I will," which was Choctaw to the 
 civilian children, as they did not know a prison was 
 ever called a guard-house. 
 
 The son of one of my friends came in to his mother 
 one day, and said that he had been beaten and kicked 
 by another boy. "Well, what are you going to do 
 about it?" said his military mother; " you are not going 
 to let him get the better of you, are you ?" The little 
 son, possibly six years old, not more, replied, energet- 
 ically, "No, you bet I'm not." " Well, then, after sup- 
 per go out and find him, and I don't expect you to 
 come in with any story of being worsted in this af- 
 fair." 
 
 All this had gone from the mother's mind until after 
 dinner, when, without explanation, he came to her 
 again, and asked if he should change his clothes. 
 "Why?" she queried. "Because these might get all 
 bloody ;" and then she remembered that it was the 
 time appointed for the thrashing of his tormentor. 
 
 One of the officers, in pride over his four-year-old. 
 
KATTLESNAKES AS NEIGHBORS. 311 
 
 gave me a description of the tales of the war his son 
 demanded. He had repeated and repeated the same 
 stories time and time again, not being permitted a varia- 
 tion by the exacting child, who knew them all by heart. 
 He said : " The story is a little rough on me ; but if any 
 one knows a child, he knows that he wants a plentiful 
 sprinkling of I's, and nothing told in the third person. 
 So I kept on as he demanded, until one day he looked 
 up in my face and said, * And, father, couldn't you get 
 any one to help you put down the rebellion ?' " Instead 
 of tiring of the cunning speeches of the little fel- 
 lows, we usually asked, as each officer received a let- 
 ter, ''Well, what has ' Guy,' or ' Davie,' or ' George,' or 
 ' Freddie ' been getting off now ?" And then the mis- 
 sives that devoted husbands carried in their inside 
 pockets were brought out, and some clever speech of 
 the child, written by the fond mother, was read aloud 
 to us. 
 
 Before " Taps" sounds I must not neglect to explain 
 one of the calls that fortunately is rarely used. It is 
 the " Kogue's March :" 
 
 "Poor old soldier, poor old soldier, 
 Tarred and feathered and sent to " — 
 
 something that rhymes with 
 
 "Because be would not soldier well." 
 
 Court-martial is the usual mode of settling all irreg- 
 ularities, and sentence is pronounced, such as imprison- 
 ment, loss of pay, reducing a non-commissioned officer 
 
312 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 to the ranks, etc. Sometimes, however^ the soldier is 
 so absolutely incorrigible and worthless that he is sen- 
 tenced to lose his hair, and is drummed out of camp. 
 While I was at Leavenworth I saw the execution of 
 this order. The soldier's head was as blue and bald as 
 close shaving could make it, and he marched bareheaded 
 in front of a corps of drummers and fifers before the 
 garrison assembled for parade. I should like to say 
 that be hung his head in shame, but the truth is the 
 audacious fellow, when at the limits of the garrison, 
 leaped into a carriage at the hack stand, pulled on a 
 wig, and waved a hat, which his waiting friend handed 
 him, as he drove out of his military life into that of a 
 civilian. 
 
 Occasionally the soldiers of a company rise in wratli 
 over the obstinate determination of a soldier not to be 
 clean, and ask leave to punish him themselves. When 
 men ask permission, and the better men too, the offi- 
 cers know that they will not carry the affair too far. 
 A double line of men is formed to the stream, each one 
 having a switch. The offender is prepared for his 
 compulsory bath, and started down the line. It is an 
 effectual cure for the slovenly. He returns clean, and 
 convinced that it is best to keep so. 
 
 But soldiers, clean or otherwise, camp women, offi- 
 cers and their wives, the dogs, the pets, and even the in- 
 telligent horses, soon were in a tremor of excitement, for 
 orders had come to break camp, and march to Leaven- 
 worth for the winter. Preparations went steadily on. In 
 a few hours we were packed. The wagons were drawn 
 
RATTLESNAKES AS NEIGHBORS. 313 
 
 up ready for tlie tents, and those the soldiers took down 
 and stored away for the march. I sat at some distance 
 from the row of tents, awaiting the bugle-call, " Boots 
 and Saddles," while the eager and excited dogs raced 
 hither and thither among the troopers, and the horses 
 neighed and sniffed the fresh air. Looking back upon 
 a deserted camp is not cheerful : the grass where the 
 tents have stood is trampled, the trenches dug about 
 them to let the water run off from the tent cut the 
 ground into squares ; hay and rubbish are strewn where 
 once it was so trim. Our little arbor in the tree looked 
 lonely enough, and the heap of stones which had form- 
 ed the foundation was bare and forlorn. The noises 
 that had disturbed me all summer under these rocks 
 were now about to be explained. I had attributed 
 them to rats, to weasels, and, as the night advanced 
 and fears increased, to almost supernatural causes, the 
 sounds were so uncanny ; but no, it was only that a 
 family, seeing something of domestic life above the 
 floor, and being satisfied therewith, had established a 
 hearth-stone of their own below ; but when the floor 
 was removed, and daylight, with prospective storms, let 
 in, a procession, consisting of a mother and seven little 
 soft- furred children, walked out from underneath, to 
 seek other quarters. How it happened that Mrs. Pole- 
 cat and her progeny had not been discovered by our 
 dogs remains a mystery. It is needless to say that no 
 one disturbed them, or failed to give them permission 
 to do as they wished, and one triumphant woman said : 
 " There ! what did I tell you all the time ? There was 
 
314 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 something gnawing, rooting, squirming under our tent 
 all summer." That was I. 
 
 The officers who served with us that summer have 
 had their service chronicled by a government that keeps 
 records of brave men, but the courageous EUza and the 
 faithful Henry ought to have a word. Eliza still looks 
 as young as when we ate her good dinners on Big Creek, 
 and though the wife of a colored lawyer in Ohio, she 
 refers to our life out there as among her happiest 
 hours. Henry is janitor in one of the public schools 
 of Topeka, and I hear that his big, tender heart is open 
 still to even the smallest child, for if he sees one run- 
 ning down the street as the bell rings, and knows that 
 he or she is likely to be marked late, he keeps on ring- 
 ing till the delinquent has reached the door. He final- 
 ly married his " Mandy," but the following account of 
 his love passages with Eliza I venture to insert, to prove 
 that Big Creek had a romance that summer, though 
 neither the stream nor the romance '^ran smooth": 
 
 " Miss Libbie, me and Eliza was mighty fond of each 
 other, and off and on we was sparking ; but I couldn't 
 say as w^e was always happy. When she went off down 
 to Leavenworth that time, I begun to hear things she 
 had said 'gainst me, and I got mad. The more I 
 thought about it the madder I got. I concluded I'd 
 go and kill her. I took an ole pistol of the ginnel's, 
 and set to work to oil it, and get the rust off. It took 
 me a right smart time; but I didn't get no ways cool 
 a-doin' it. Then I says to Bishop " (the general's soldier), 
 ^'off-hand like, would he take keer of my horses. He 
 
RATTLESNAKES AS NEIGHBORS. 315 
 
 said yes, and I started. When I got to Fort Harker 
 I heerd more of Eliza's stories, and I biled right over. 
 On the way down I heerd more and more, and when I 
 reached the city of Leavenworth, thar I saw some col- 
 ored folks we both knew, and such a pack of lies as 
 she had told made me jest jiimpin' mad again. I went 
 on out to whar she was staying, bound I'd kill her, and, 
 Miss Libbie, if you'd believe it, the minute I sot eyes 
 on her I forgot it all. I jest melted right down ; but 
 pretty soon I fired up again, and I says, ' Miss Eliza 
 Brown, I've cum pretty nigh onto two hundred miles 
 purpose for to kill you.' She flared up, and asked, 
 ' Why V Then I tole her; but. Miss Libbie, you know 
 how 'tis, I forgot again, and then we kissed and we fought 
 and we loved and we fought and we loved and we kissed, 
 and I jest put up the ol' horse-pistol for keeps." 
 
 Eliza and Henry never married. This may be explain- 
 ed on Henry's side by that old Virginia story of a colored 
 swain who said, "Miss Loisa Cheers, I love you a heap, 
 but I don't love you to marry." On Eliza's part it was 
 possibly a case of " were t'other dear charmer away." 
 
 As the bugles sent out the last notes of "Boots and 
 Saddles," we guided our horses out of the bend that 
 had sheltered us, and nearly drowned us besides, and 
 looking back to the bit of land almost surrounded with 
 trees, we felt as Henry did towards his Eliza — with all 
 its faults we loved it still. We joined with the band 
 in the regimental song, of return and many a brave 
 heart leaped with joy and said, silently^ ^* Soon I shall 
 be with the girl I left behind me." 
 
316 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 
 
 The hour was sad I left the maid, 
 
 A ling'ring farewell taking ; 
 Her siglis and tears my steps delay'd — 
 
 I thought her heart was breaking. 
 In hurried words her name I bless'd, 
 
 I breathed the vows that bind me, 
 And to my heart in anguish press'd 
 
 The girl I left behind me. 
 
 Then to the East we bore away. 
 
 To win a name in story, 
 And there, where dawns the sun of day, 
 
 There dawn'd our sun of glory : 
 Both blaz'd in noon on Alma's height, 
 
 When in the post assign'd me 
 I shar'd the glory of that fight. 
 
 Sweet girl I left behind me. 
 
 Full many a name our banners bore 
 
 Of former deeds of daring, 
 But they were of the days of j^ore, 
 
 la which we had no sharing ; 
 But now our laurels freshly won 
 
 With the old ones shall entwin'd be, 
 Still worthy of our sires each son, 
 
 Sweet girl I left behind me. 
 
 The hope of final victory 
 
 Within my bosom burning, 
 Is mingling with sweet thoughts of thee 
 
 And of my fond returning. 
 But should I ne'er return again. 
 
 Still worth thy love thou'lt find me ; 
 Dishonor's breath shall never stain 
 
 The name I'll leave behind me. 
 
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 
 
 317 
 
 Zbc 0frl ir Xett ifQchin^ /lfte» 
 
 Moderato. 
 
 4> 
 
 :C5- 
 
 i=3=^ 
 
 ii=: 
 
 m 
 
 B:rii:=-L3z:Jz:i=H 
 
 P 
 
 Si 
 
 The 
 
 
 ?=?: 
 
 -^— ^- 
 
 
 
 hour was sad I left the maid, A ling'ring fare-well 
 
 
 -^—-a 
 
 -*■ i;^: * 
 
 fL—t—ji- 
 
 §i«^ 
 
 -^ ^ 
 
 |E^3^: 
 
318 
 
 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 I 
 
 
 ^' 0- 
 
 =S- 
 
 
 tak-ing; Her sighs and tears my steps de - lay'd — I 
 
 ;^=3= 
 
 g^fEE^E^^^^j^! 
 
 t=ifc5: 
 
 i^f^-^* 
 
 §i|-ES=e=? 
 
 -tJ- 
 
 fc.- 
 
 3^=p; 
 
 -n— j-n- 
 
 ;^==a 
 
 3^="^^^=^=^^"^-^^ 
 
 thought her heart was break-ing. In hur-ried words her 
 
 '^-- 
 
 -7- 
 
 — H — I 1 a — ^ 
 
 
 f — 
 
 
 name I bless'd, I breath'd the vows that bind me, And 
 
 ^ 
 
 iEi^^^ES 
 
 iigilil 
 
 /T2 ^\IJL _^i3._^_ 
 
 
THE GIRL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 
 
 319 
 
 l^=g^-^1^.^^p^fe^r^ 
 
 to my heart in an-g'iiish press'd The girl 1 loft be- 
 
 ^7\ 
 
 ^iE:=r 
 
 ^^- 
 
 '—■i- — *- 
 
 i— Jf— i 
 
 ^-f 
 
 j-|^r 7 
 
 ^"9-%- 
 
 Ik-tz. 
 
 P^3 
 
 -+ -a^ -^ -+ ■^- +- 
 
 5 ? * 
 
 ;^=^:#?^ 
 
 — -"-^ 
 
 hind me. 
 
 
 Then to the East we 
 
 I i I 
 
 
 =^=5= 
 
 I ^-^:' 
 
 
 ;Bi 
 
 -H^ ^-S K-f-H^' H^ ^^r^—d-0-\-P-'-'0—§ F*.; 
 
 bore a - way, To win a name in sto - ry, And 
 
FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 espress 
 
 con spirito.^ 
 
 
 :^=:^-=?: 
 
 there,where dawns the sun of day, There dawn'd our sun of 
 
 
 -N- 
 
 :^=^ 
 
 
 -n—A—n— 
 
 ^zqizrjz^vz^izg. 
 
 I^ZZ^ZIM 
 
 cow exultazione. 
 
 -^ — 1 h — — y- 
 
 :t^: 
 
 '-K- 
 
 -~s~ 
 
 glo - ry : Bothblaz'd in noon on Al - raa's heig]it,When 
 
 :^ 
 
 ^-^f^> 
 
 j -^— i, — ^-F^ — ^ — ^— «,-p-g— 
 
 in the post as - sign'd me I shar'd the glo - ry 
 
 S 
 
 
 ii^il^^^ 
 
 ■m 
 
 ■I ij- 
 
THE GIKL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 
 
 -_ con temrezza. 
 
 321 
 
 '^^^^^^^ 
 
 of . . . that fight, Sweet girl I left be - hind me. 
 
 ii^^ 
 
 ■a^ -•■ -5- , -t -*• -h 
 
 +-^' 
 
 =1::]^ 
 
 3E^; 
 
 -jtll 
 
 I 
 
 |i 
 
 The hope of fi - nal vie - to-ry With- 
 
 1^^ Sc r . V . 
 
 :?zz:5.-:^: 
 
 — # — ^- 
 
 :^ 
 
 
 ■J^ 
 
 "nv> 
 
 Full man-y a name our banners bore Of 
 
 
 ^=r 
 
 
 'm 
 
 ifp^^^p^_^ 
 
 t^*- 
 
 M — F» • — «*— 1 
 
 in my bo - som burn-ing, Is mingling with sweet 
 
 
 for - mer deeds of dar - ing, But they were of the 
 
 T\ • 9 P ^ s" 
 
 
 21 
 
322 
 
 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 thoughts of thee And of my fond re - turn - ing. But 
 
 IS 
 
 T=^^^ 
 
 :^- 
 
 :tjzr 
 
 » 
 
 
 days of yore, In which we had no shar - ing ; But 
 
 
 should I ne'er re-turn a - gain, Still worth thy love thou'lt 
 
 now, our lau-rels fresh-ly won With the old ones shall en- 
 
 find me ; Dis - hon- or's breath shall never stain The 
 
 ■^=^Sir. 
 
 -M-0. 
 
 ^E^- 
 
 twin'd be, Still wor - thy of our sires each son. Sweet 
 
 3i — li! 
 
 rz3 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^^* 5 
 
 
 -4^*- 
 
 --> — 
 
THE GIKL I LEFT BEHIND ME. 
 
 name I'll leave behind me. 
 
 323 
 
 
 mi] 
 
 girl 1 left be -hind me. 
 
 :«: 
 
 TTri "^ ^ T r *^ 
 
 1 1 1 1 1 
 
 ggl 
 
•♦^ap6/' or Bjtingulsb Xfgbte. 
 
 Slow. 
 
 :ffr-r3±==*zrE5E 
 
 Love, good night, must thou go, When the 
 
 i 
 
 -^— 
 
 :t= 
 
 day 
 
 _5?_ 
 
 and the night need thee so ? 
 
 All 
 
 
 well; Speed - eth 
 
 all 
 
 to 
 
 their rest. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 DANDY. 
 
 There is still one character in mj story of our sum- 
 mer camp who deserves a word, as, since the last chap- 
 ter was written, he has gone to the heaven which we 
 people who love animals believe is reserved for them. 
 It is of our blithe, faithful, undaunted Dandy that I 
 should like to tell you. 
 
 IXiring the Wichita campaign in Kansas and the 
 Indian Territory, in the winter of 1868 and 1869, five 
 hundred horses were sent to the Seventh Cavalry to 
 mount a portion of the regiment. General Custer was 
 in command of the expedition, and the horses were 
 passed in review in front of his tent. Among them 
 he noticed a spirited bay, which he ordered detained at 
 his tent, and, after trying him, decided that he would 
 avail himself of the privilege given to officers, and buy 
 him from the Government. The horse, he discovered, 
 had good blood, though not perfectly proportioned, 
 
DANDY. 
 
 325 
 
 being too small. He was just within the height re- 
 quired by the quartermaster's requisition ; but his fire, 
 his promising powers of endurance, his sound condi- 
 tion, made General Custer think that he would prove 
 equal to the terrible marches, the exposure, and the in- 
 sufficient forage to which a cavalry horse had to submit. 
 He was given the name of " Dandy " on the spot, 
 because of his spirited manner, and the little proud 
 peacock airs he never forgot except when he slept. 
 
 DANDY. 
 
 Dandy had not been long in service before he was sub- 
 jected to the roughest and hardest life. The soldiers' 
 rations gave out at one time, and the troops lived on the 
 flesh of mules and horses that had died from exhaustion. 
 But Dandy's untiring nerve carried him through. He 
 
S26 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 grew tliiD from want of forage, but learned, with the 
 otlier horses, to scrape the snow from the ground in the 
 river valleys, to find little tufts of dried grass, and, fail- 
 ing in this, gnawed the bark from the cottonwood-trees. 
 IsTothing seemed to tire him : no day was so cold or so 
 wet that it did not find Dandy full of good cheer. 
 
 Test after test was tried on the plucky horse, and he 
 never flagged. An all day's march in the winter, with 
 the blinding snow and tiny particles of ice cutting his 
 face, toiling through depressions in the ground where 
 drifts had accumulated, tugging up declivities to be 
 met on the summit with a keen icy wind that had 
 swept unchecked over hundreds of miles of prairie — 
 all this never took the dance out of his heels, or made 
 his head droop with fatigue. It was this indomitable 
 will that so endeared him to his master. He had a hard 
 gait for a steady march. He never walked, but went 
 on, year in and year out, with a little dancing trot that 
 was most fatiguing. Still, this uncomfortable motion 
 was made up for to General Custer by marvellous pow- 
 ers of endurance and by exceeding good-humor through 
 all vicissitudes. 
 
 Our horses were such intimate companions on the 
 plains that we found ourselves as anxious to be en rap- 
 jpoH with them, and understand their humor, as with 
 those of our friends beside whom we rode. Sometimes 
 w^e divined as soon as we mounted that the animal under 
 us was sulky or wilful or stubborn, and either we pos- 
 sessed our souls in patience till the ill -humor passed 
 away, or one, more irritable or nervous, fretted at the 
 
DANDY. 327 
 
 exhibition of temper, took Lis horse out of the ranks, 
 and the rest, watching him, said, "Kow So-and-so is 
 going to have another ' waltz ' with that brute of his, 
 but it's no good fighting anything so fi^endish." One 
 can realize, then, what it was to know that there was 
 no variation in the temper of an animal. Imagine any 
 one awakening in the gray dawn to the sound of reveille 
 in a cavalry camp, and, after an ice-cold bath, a luke- 
 warm breakfast, stepping shrinkingly forth into chilly 
 drizzle that the troopers declared had " come to stay." 
 "What if all about were silent, or dulled by the cold 
 and damp ? Was it not everything to be met by the 
 dancing, joyous motion of a pair of nimble heels, and the 
 softest, most affectionate eyes, while the head turned to 
 rub itself against the arm or shoulder of one the animal 
 loved? Let the elements do their worst — and they 
 attempt every vagary on the plains — that indomitable 
 will and sunshiny disposition of Dandy's triumiDhed 
 over everything. It was therefore worth while to 
 endure the little choppy motion, which would have 
 been immensely tiresome to many, for the sake of 
 knowing that no day's march could be so long, no 
 storm so violent, as either to fatigue or depress the 
 willing animal. There were those who said that no 
 man, except one with the wonderful powers of endur- 
 ance of General Custer, could have stood the gait. 
 
 One of our best riders used to say that th^re was no 
 worse suffering for a man than to ride a horse that re- 
 fused to come down to a walk. Occasionally it fell to 
 the lot of a soldier to draw from the Government a 
 
828 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 Lorse that had this fault. There was no appeaL The 
 horse was purchased ; he was sound. J^o horse-trade 
 could be effected with a citizen, because of the deep 
 " U. S." branded on the thigh. Sometimes, after a 
 campaign, an officer can enter a complaint, and ask 
 to turn in some brute with an irredeemable fault to 
 the Quartermaster's Department, to be condemned and 
 sold ; but after a campaign was started, it meant a 
 whole season of jogging misery to the unfortunate 
 trooper who had fallen heir to such an animal. A 
 cavalry column marches at the rate of four miles an 
 hour, and the length of a day's journey varies from 
 twenty-five to forty miles. After such torture going 
 on month after month, the troopers would sometimes 
 cry out in desperation, '' For God's sake shoot me, and 
 leave me behind !" 
 
 It was well that Dandy belonged to the command- 
 ing officer of his regiment, for he could brook no 
 horses going before him. If it was unavoidable, he 
 was flecked with foam and quivering with impatience 
 in a few moments. It was difficult to keep him be- 
 side a horse ; he champed his bit, tossed his liead, and 
 pulled furiously on the rein unless he was permitted 
 to stretch his neck in advance of everything. Then 
 he became quiet with conquest, and ambled on like a 
 graceful Andalusian palfrey. 
 
 'No greater test of Dandy's endurance could liave 
 occurred than a winter's campaign. It was the first 
 that the regiment had ever attempted at that season of 
 the year. The success of the expedition reconciled 
 
DANDY. 329 
 
 the men to the liardships ; but it was a fearful trial to 
 the whole regiment, man and beast. After tltfe win- 
 ter was ended, the Seventh Cavalry marched from the 
 Indian Territory to Fort Hays, Kansas, to estabhsh a 
 summer camp. The regiment, from that on, went up 
 and down tlie State, as well as the adjoining Territories, 
 for several seasons. On one of these marches, a num- 
 ber of years after, when they were traversing a more 
 settled portion of the State, a farmer met, and was 
 about to pass, the column, when General Custer accost- 
 ed him, asking him about the crops, the ravages of the 
 grasshoppers, then such a pest, and of the growth of 
 the country, in which he was genuinely interested. 
 The farmer turned to ride with him a while, and finally, 
 after eying Dandy sharply, he said : 
 
 " Stranger, I'd like to en-quire, if it ain't no offence, 
 where you got your boss ? It's a good un, no mistake." 
 
 " You are right," replied the general. " He is as 
 tough as a pine-knot, as willing and spirited as any 
 horse I ever saw," And then he went on to tell him 
 that he thought that he discovered some of these traits 
 when he picked him out of hundreds of animals bought 
 by the quartermaster for the regiment. 
 
 *'"Well, sir," said the frontiersman, "that air boss 
 once belonged to me. He's got good blood in him. 
 I've got the name of some of his sires at home. I can 
 never get over the selling of him ; but, you see, I got 
 hard up, the grasshoppers ate my crops, and, while I was 
 in a tight place, along cum a contractor, and I sold him 
 for $140, the Government price. He was wuth a heap 
 
330 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 sight more ; but tlie ready money had to be got some- 
 how, so I let him go." 
 
 All General Custer could say was that he was sorry 
 that he had lost him, but that hardly any price could 
 tempt him to part with so good a campaigner. He was 
 then five years old. 
 
 Dandy became a great pet with his master. It was 
 a serious affair to lose a horse on the march, for they 
 could not be replaced, and consequently the utmost 
 precautions were taken to lariat or hohble the animals 
 when the march was over for the day. 
 
 Dandy was often not tethered at all. As soon as 
 the general selected camp he unsaddled and unbridled 
 him, and turned him loose to graze until the command 
 came up to pitch the tents. He took a roll or so on 
 the grass, and grazed about the tent until it was time 
 to saddle him next morning for the day's march. He 
 loved the dogs, and permitted all sorts of familiari- 
 ties from them. Sometimes the stag-hounds, that make 
 such tremendous leaps, would spring entirely over him 
 in their antics. He played with them, nipping their 
 skin to provoke a frolic, and no unexpected attack of 
 the venturesome dogs was ever met by him with any- 
 thing but the utmost good-nature. He was a picture 
 in the midst of the pack of forty, all barking, growling, 
 scuffling. The grave fox-hounds pressed about his legs 
 in affection, looking up with luminous, expressive eyes. 
 The stag-hounds made wild springs in the air, catching 
 his mane or tail, or jumping to kiss his nose. He tossed 
 his head, snorted, pranced with delight at all this atten- 
 
DANDY. 331 
 
 tion, set his feet down with excessive caution for fear 
 of hurting a puppy, and was capable of showing more 
 affection in the few mute ways left open to him than 
 people who have the human voice and expressive feat- 
 ures at their disposal. 
 
 The soldier who took care of him Was the strangest 
 contrast to the whole party — dashing cavalryman, met- 
 tlesome horse, and rollicking dogs. Indeed, he seemed 
 80 much out of place in a cavalry camp that I wanted al- 
 ways to ticket him " Lost, strayed, or stolen," He was 
 slow of speech, thought, and movement, but in affec- 
 tionate fidelity he was to be trusted even above the gayer 
 and more active trooper. The man lived in a world by 
 himself, with little in common with his comrades, go- 
 ing along a dull, beaten path at snail's pace, while all 
 the wild world of a cavalry camp, with its incessant ex- 
 citements, its exhilaration, its enthusiasm, sung, shouted, 
 and careered about him. Nothing moved him to a 
 laugh ; and if he had whistled I should have sent for 
 the surgeon, thinking he had gone daft. I have a pho- 
 tograph of him standing between and holding with each 
 hand the bridle of Yic, the general's thorough-bred — 
 which was shot in the battle of the Little Big Horn, 
 June 25, 1876 — and Dandy. The dogs stand or lie about 
 the group ; and the soldier, with his solemn face, looks 
 as if any remark England or America might make 
 about " duty " to him would be superfluous. His hori- 
 zon encompassed two horses, some dogs, and one yel- 
 low-haired officer. He may have had a past — a bald spot 
 on his no longer youthful head spoke of one — but no ref- 
 
332 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 erence was made to it ; nor did he seem to wish for a fut- 
 ure in which Dandy, Yic, Blucher, Tuck, and Cardigan 
 (his favorite dogs) and their master were not inchided. 
 
 Dandy enjoyed a hunt above everything. The gen- 
 eral could run down a deer with Yic, and for a spirited, 
 quick dash the thorough-bred was best ; but Dandy was 
 the old love, and he made such demonstrations of de- 
 light over the preparations for the chase that he grew 
 to seem almost human. The officers generally gath- 
 ered before our quarters, and the horn was sounded as 
 a signal for the kennel gate to be opened. Out swooped 
 the pack, tumbling over each other in their haste, tear- 
 ing around the house to the horses to have a few pre- 
 paratory interchanges of animal language. The order- 
 lies holding the horses let them rear and paw the earth ; 
 and in the din of the barking, whining dogs, tuning 
 their voices to the horn, the laughter and jovial voices 
 of the officers, the call from the windows and galleries 
 of the women giving a good " send off," there Avas not 
 an intelligible word. From all this wild scramble, in 
 which dogs, men, and horses seemed involved in a hope- 
 less tangle, the leader extricated himself, and Dandy 
 proudly took the advance. He curveted, danced side- 
 wise, tossed his head and mane, and evinced by every 
 motion that he was born to lead. 
 
 Then, when the real work began, he proved that if 
 he was a dandy there was good stuff in him ; for he 
 fell to the duty of the hour with a skill and determina- 
 tion that made his master, each time he returned from 
 the chase, pat his neck as he leaped to the ground, and 
 
DANDY. 333 
 
 say, "There never was such another horse created." 
 The cotton-wood timber along the Missouri Eiver was 
 in places densely embedded in underbrush, and it took 
 infinite patience to wend one's way through the thicket ; 
 but Dandy was capital at this. His nerves were in the 
 wildest state when the deer was spotted. 
 
 After the day's sport was ended the horn sounded 
 from down the valley, and soon the same exuberant 
 throng poured into the garrison, the dogs leaping and 
 barking still, the fox-hounds trotting sedately on, cov- 
 ered with burrs, porcupine quills, or cactus, their legs 
 incased in mud, their rigid tails bleeding from the 
 sharp thrashing through the thickets ; still they gave 
 tongue with the deep notes of their species. The 
 horses of the hunters were usually fagged and glad to 
 hear stable - call ; but darting wp to the gallery came 
 the undaunted Dandy, sometimes bearing on his back, 
 behind the saddle, the game, though the deer was gen- 
 erally too large to admit of using any but a led-horse 
 to transport it. 
 
 If in our rides about the post we saw a gray coyote 
 skulking along, hiding in the divides or sneaking his 
 solitary way back to his lair, Dandy spied him also, and 
 begged for a run. He trembled Avith the ardor of a 
 hunter; and it hurt him to see game disappear and he 
 not chase it. He knew how to gather himself and turn 
 like a flash when the jack-rabbit " put down its fourth 
 leg" and doubled on its pursuers. It required such 
 agile legs as Dandy's to circumvent the active hare. 
 His lope was too short to take him over the country 
 
334 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 quickly enough to overtake an antelope, but lie could be 
 almost motionless for the moment of loading and firinor. 
 
 In another chapter of this book I have described 
 Dandy's skill and enthusiasm in buffalo-hunting, and 
 need not repeat it here. 
 
 There were many obstructions to smooth going even 
 on the apparently level plains. The buffalo wallow 
 was one. Dandy, coming on these wallows full tilt, 
 learned, if he was going too violently, to veer one side, 
 to lea]) in and out like a cat. The buffalo trails to 
 water, running in four or more parallel lines, he cleared 
 with a bound. These also are deep ruts, hard and stub- 
 born to the hoof, that have been baked by the sun as 
 is the wallow. He picked his way through a prairie- 
 dog village unguided, and rarely did his hoof sink in 
 the subterraneous traps. His best leaping was over the 
 cactus -beds. Tliese he took with a bound. Dandy 
 was sometimes lent to the wife of one of our officers, 
 and she rode him out to the herd of Government cattle 
 where her husband went on duty. She writes me, " I 
 always started without my stirrup ; for it * was up and 
 away ' with Dandy, and I had to find foothold as best 
 I could afterwards." 
 
 She was an excellent horsewoman ; but her surprise 
 when Dandy took a huge cactus-bed with one leap was 
 something to remember. She said to General Custer, 
 '' He shall not catch me again napping ;" and he shook 
 and chuckled with amusement, for he had purposely 
 omitted telling her of Dandy's little caper, knowing she 
 would be equal to the situation. 
 
DANDY. 335 
 
 The winter's campaign liad been a trying begin- 
 ning to Dandy's career, but the long, hot summers that 
 followed were a fearful strain on any horse. There 
 was always much trouble about water on the plains. 
 After the rainy season passed the streams went dry, 
 the pools in the buffalo wallows and in the hollows 
 had disappeared, and the whole day of a hot march 
 was spent without so much as a look at water, with 
 possibly the tantalizing mirage floating before their 
 weary eyes all the time. The strongest animals became 
 fagged, their heads drooped with exhaustion, and some 
 dropped by the way to die; still the valiant Dandy 
 kept up. 
 
 I do not know whence came all that inexhaustible 
 spring of vitality. In the letters from old friends with 
 us on the frontier that I have received regarding Dan- 
 dy during the past week each one says, " I never saw 
 him walk." He was in all the campaigns of the regi- 
 ment for years — in the first Yellowstone campaign, 
 in the Black Hills Expedition, and in the last campaign 
 into the Yellowstone in 1876. As they were starting 
 that spring General Custer said : 
 
 " I must take an extra horse this summer in addition 
 to Yic, for Dandy must be favored a little ; he begins 
 to show a little let-down in strength." 
 
 In the battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25th, he 
 was with the led-horses and was wounded. After the 
 battle he was sent home to me in Monroe, Mich., and 
 I gave him to my father Custer. The horse, so iden- 
 tified with the three sons he had lost, seemed to be a 
 
336 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 wonderful comfort to him. I was afraid to have him 
 mount him, for he was then over seventy, and Dandy 
 required every one to be very active who attempted to 
 use him to the saddle. His journey of over fifteen hun- 
 dred miles by boat and by cars had not tamed him, 
 and I begged Father Custer to let an officer then with 
 us at least ride him round the block. At last he yield- 
 ed, and off Dandy tore through the quiet streets to the 
 amazement of the town. The old gentleman was un- 
 moved. He said, " Daughter, I can ride him ; there's 
 nothing vicious about him." And he was riglit. It 
 is my belief that he had been studying up his future 
 master. He let him mount leisurely, and seemed in- 
 stantly to tame down in gait and manner. Our father 
 Custer was rather bent in walking, but there was no 
 perceptible curve to his back in riding. He sat his 
 horse splendidly. Except for his white hair and flow- 
 ing, snowy beard, one could hardly imagine so many 
 years had elapsed since he rode after the hounds in his 
 early Virginia and Maryland days. 
 
 After leaving the army. Dandy never surprised you 
 by unexpected moves, and it was not necessary to 
 watch for sudden veering to the right and left. From 
 the life of a gay, dashing cavalry steed he dropped into 
 a steady-going family horse. The one marked evidence 
 of the old life was displaced when our father Custer 
 took him out for parades. It soon became a custom 
 for the towns-people to invite the old gentleman and 
 Dandy to head the temperance processions, the Fourth 
 of July celebrations, or any sort of parade the town 
 
DANDY. 337 
 
 might inaugurate. He and Dandy were invited to be 
 the guests of Michigan at the State Fair. The invi- 
 tation was worded, " For Father Custer and his horse 
 Dandj." They led the grand procession that was un- 
 der the guidance of the marslials of the day. Dandy 
 never for one moment forgot his part. He sidled and 
 ambled and pranced in a gentle sort of teeter, suitable 
 for his aged master, but he scorned to walk like an or- 
 dinary every-day horse. 
 
 The etiquette of the past generation was to attend 
 all funerals, and Dandy's old master believed that one's 
 friends should be just as carefully attended to the grave 
 as to the altar. Dandy therefore fell into the slow, 
 solemn line, and subdued his step to the occasion. His 
 politics never varied, owing to an unswerving quality 
 in his old master. During the last political campaign 
 his tossing head waved a bandanna through the streets 
 of our town. If it blew in his eyes and interfered with 
 his sight he never showed it, but bore the badge as if 
 it had really been what his owner wanted it to be, a 
 plume of triumph. 
 
 Whenever I went home to visit them my father Cus- 
 ter asked, as soon as the welcome was over ; " Daugh- 
 ter, would you like to see Dandy ? If you would, sit 
 by the front window, and he will be around." When 
 they appeared. Dandy did all the kittening possible in 
 the way of little starts and flourishes, affecting coltish 
 airs, and pretending timidity which was purely ficti- 
 tious. This pleased the old gentleman, and he called 
 out, as he waved his stove-pipe hat, " You see he isn't 
 22 
 
338 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 an old man's horse yet." I could not help praising 
 my father Custer's firm seat in the saddle, so remarka- 
 ble in a man between seventy and eighty. My gentle 
 mother Custer, fearing I might plant the seeds of pride 
 even in an old man, said, " Don't say too much to him, 
 daughter; old men might get foolish about their rid- 
 ing." But, nevertheless, my home-coming did not 
 seem complete without the dress parade in front of 
 the house. 
 
 During the later years my father Custer has lived on 
 a farm near Monroe, with General Custer's only broth- 
 er. Dandy, coming in and out of town every day, was 
 obliged to cross a bridge over the Kiver Raisin. Not 
 for worlds would he go over without a little panto- 
 mime of sham fright. He minced and hesitated and 
 shied the least bit in the world, arched his neck as 
 if in surprise, and with all these skippy ways looked 
 throuffh the cracks of the boards as if it was the first 
 time that he had ever seen them. Hearing Father 
 Custer's voice, he instantly came down to every-day 
 manners. All the timid girls who were afraid of other 
 horses were willing to go with Father Custer ; and 
 many a happy mile has Dandy carried them through 
 the fragrant roads and fields about the " City of 
 Flowers." 
 
 Even until tliis year it has been Father Custer's 
 custom to drive off to the home of one of General Cus- 
 ter's staff, and the thirty miles in a day seemed as noth- 
 ing to the two veterans. For weeks at a time Dandy 
 gambolled over a rich pasture, kicking up his heels like 
 
DANDY. 339 
 
 a colt when let into it, or made himself comfortable 
 without being tied in a box-stall, while his master was 
 enjoying all the hospitality the house afforded. Re- 
 turning home, they soon started for a forty-mile drive 
 in another direction. 
 
 It has been a common sight in Monroe for years 
 past to see Dandy quietly standing beside the street 
 to allow his white-headed owner to dally by the way- 
 side and carry on a hot political discussion. There 
 were too many people in the town whom our father 
 Custer thought needed to be set right in their views, 
 especially as an election drew near. He would allow 
 no one to feed or groom his horse, and in consequence 
 of too many oats the graceful proportions of youth 
 were fast losing themselves in a real aldermanic out- 
 line ; but I could not convince our father Custer that 
 it was not a line of beauty. lYlien he approached the 
 stable the horse knew his step and whinnied ; and he 
 had the same welcome as he came out to get in the 
 carriaare. The cars stand for a time on the track run- 
 ning through our town, and Father Custer once drove 
 Dandy's nose almost into the side of a car. In alarm 
 I asked if he intended to drive over or creep under ; 
 but he quietly answered that he wanted me to see that 
 the horse was not afraid of anything with him. 
 
 ^' The boys," he added, " had hard work to hold him, 
 but he knows me ; and, daughter, I don't know how I 
 could have lived without that horse. He's been a com- 
 fort to me for thirteen long years." 
 
 On a recent Sunday these two comrades went off up 
 
340 FOLLOWING THE GUIDON. 
 
 the Raisin for a little time, and all was well. Life 
 still held one joy for the two — they could go out into 
 the sunshine together, for after all the bereavement of 
 life God's beautiful world remained. 
 
 On Monday no whinny of greeting met him as he un- 
 did the stable door. For the first time in all his twenty- 
 six years Dandy was ill. All the simple remedies of 
 the farm were administered without avail. Two vet- 
 erinary surgeons failed to help the suffering beast. He 
 was still the same plucky Dandy. As he never showed 
 a sign of heat, cold, thirst, or hunger in his old soldiering 
 days, so now he met the suffering bravely, only turn- 
 ing his head around to show his appreciation of the 
 presence of the family about him. As General Cus- 
 ter's brother left the stall the poor beast walked after 
 him, rubbing his head against him in affection. The 
 children hardly left him. The mother, with all the 
 maternal tenderness of heart, begged to stay all night 
 in the stable, saying that it seemed cruel to leave him 
 alone. 
 
 All day Tuesday our father Custer never left him ; 
 and weeping with grief at his suffering, and the sorrow 
 at recalling all his past, the old man sat hour after hour 
 brushing off the flies and caring for this beloved link 
 with the past. 
 
 At night the family went out at twelve, and poor 
 Dandy followed them ; and looking over the half-door 
 of his stall, they saw for the last time his pathetic eyes, 
 dimmed but full of devotion. At four in the morning 
 they went again, and he had fallen, the straw scarcely 
 
DANDY. 341 
 
 disturbed about bim, sbowing tbat be bad remained 
 standing until tbe moment wben, tliinking be beard 
 tbe bugle-call " Taps," liis ligbt went out forever. 
 
 Tbougb tbis veteran bad no muffled sound of drum, 
 no vollej fired at bis grave, still it was a solemn bury- 
 ing. All day tbe boy wbo loved bim dug at bis grave 
 in tbe orcbard, and tbe motber and cbildren, suspend- 
 ing work and play, vibrated between tbe bouse and tbe 
 field wbere tbe "eartbly bed" of tbeir favorite was 
 being prepared. 
 
 Tbere, every year, Nature, witb all ber fidelity, will 
 bury our dear borse in a rosy sbower of blossoms wbicb 
 tbe apple-tree scatters witb tbe least breatb of tbe sum- 
 mer wind. 
 
 Tbe silvery bead of an old man of eigbty-tbree bends 
 lower tbis August day, and it is bard to take up bis 
 few remaining years witbout bis comrade, tbe comfort 
 of bis bereft life. 
 
 THE END. 
 
BOOTS AND SADDLES; 
 
 Or, Life in Dakota with General Custer. By Mrs. Eliz- 
 abeth B. Custer. With Portrait of General Custer, 
 pp. 312. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 A book of adventure is interesting reading, especially when it is all true, 
 as is the case with " Boots and Saddles." * * * She docs not obtrude the 
 fact that sunshine and solace went with her to tent and fort, but it in- 
 heres in her narrative none the less, and as a consequence " these simple 
 annals of our daily life," as she calls them, are never dull nor uninterest- 
 ing. — Evangelist, N. Y. 
 
 Mrs. Custer's book is in reality a bright and sunny sketch of the life 
 of her late husband, who fell at the battle of " Little Big Horn." * * * 
 After the war, when General Custer was sent to the Indian frontier, his 
 wife was of the party, and she is able to give the minute story of her 
 husband's varied career, since she was almost always near the scene of 
 hia adventures. — Brooklyn Union. 
 
 We have no hesitation in saying that no better or more satisfactory life 
 of General Custer could have been written. Indeed, we may as well 
 speak the thought that is in us, and say plainly that we know of no bio- 
 graphical work anywhere which we count better than this. * * * Surely the 
 record of such experiences as these will be read with that keen interest 
 which attaches only to strenuous human doings ; as surely we are right 
 in saying that such a story of truth and heroism as that here told will 
 take a deeper hold upon the popular mind and heart than any work of 
 fiction can. For the rest, the narrative is as vivacious and as lightly and 
 trippingly given as that of any novel. It is enriched in every chapter with 
 illustrative anecdotes and incidents, and here and there a little life story 
 of pathetic interest is told as an episode. — N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 It is a plain, straightforward story of the author's life on the plains of 
 Dakota. Every member of a Western garrison will want to read this 
 book ; every person in the East who is interested in Western life will 
 want to read it, too ; and every girl or boy who has a healthy appetite 
 for adventure will be sure to get it. It is bound to have an army of read- 
 ers that few authors can expect. — Philadelphia Press. 
 
 These annals of daily life in the army are simple, yet interesting, and 
 underneath all is discerned the love of a true woman ready for any sacri- 
 fice. She touches on themes little canvassed by the civilian, and makes a 
 volume equally redolent of a loving devotion to an honored husband, and 
 attractive as a picture of necessary duty by the soldier. — Commonwealth^ 
 Boston. 
 
 Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, N. Y. 
 
 fl^ nAEPEB & Beothkrs loill Send the above, work hy mail, postage prepaid, to any 
 part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price. 
 
By CAPT. CHARLES KING, 
 
 CAMPAIGNING WITH CROOK, AND STORIES OF 
 ARMY LIFE. Post 8vo, Cloth. {In Press.) 
 
 A WAR-TIME WOOING. Illustrated by R. F. Zogbaum. 
 pp. iv., 19G. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 00. 
 
 BETWEEN THE LINES. A Story of the War. Illustrated 
 by Gilbert Gaul. pp. iv., 312. Post 8vo, Cloth, $1 25. 
 
 In all of Captain King's stoiles the author holds to lofty ideals of man- 
 hood and womanhood, and inculcates the lessons of honor, generosity, 
 courage, and self-control. — Literary World, Boston. 
 
 The vivacity and charm which signally distinguish Captain King's 
 pen. ... He occupies a position in American literature entirely his own. 
 . . . His is the literature of honest sentiment, pure and tender. — X. Y. Press. 
 
 A romance by Captain King is always a pleasure, because he has so 
 complete a mastery of the subjects with which he deals. . . . Captain 
 King has few rivals in his domain. , . . The general tone of Captain King's 
 stories is highly commendable. The heroes are simple, frank, and sol- 
 dierly ; the heroines are dignified and maidenly in the most unconvention- 
 al situations. — Epoch, N. Y. 
 
 All Captain King's stories are full of spirit and with the true ring about 
 them. — Pluladelphia Item. 
 
 Captain King's stories of army life are so brilliant and intense, they 
 have such a ring of true experience, and his characters are so lifelike and 
 vivid that the announcement of a new one is always received with pleas- 
 ure. — Neio Haveii Palladium. 
 
 Captain King is a delightful story-teller. — Washington Post. 
 
 In the delineation of war scenes Captain King's style is crisp and vig. 
 orous, inspiring in the breast of the reader a thrill of genuine patriotic fer- 
 vor. — Boston Comtnonwealth. 
 
 Captain King is almost without a rival in the field he has chosen. . . . 
 His style is at once vigorous and sentimental in the best sense of that 
 word, so that his novels are pleasing to young men as well as young 
 women. — Pittsburgh Bulletin. 
 
 It is good to think that there is at least one man who believes that all 
 tlie spirit of romance and chivalry has not yet died out of the world, and 
 that there are as brave and honest hearts to-day as there were in the 
 days of knights and paladins. — Philadelphia Record. 
 
 Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 
 
 t^Bf Either of the above toorks sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the 
 United States,Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price. 
 
^ .^^ 
 
 ^^ '^'K 
 
 ^^ 
 
 '^^■■^v.V^ 
 
 ^^--^ '-^ 
 
 
 
 (^N .ON r. ,. -^^^ 
 
 
 .^^' 
 
 
°/: 
 
 *^^^c^ 
 
 
 ■^, s- 
 
 ,-i^ 
 
 .0 
 
 
 "^^ v-^^