In the valley of the Lou-Lou they were confronted by a hastily built fort, held by Captain Rawn with a few regulars and some volunteers. Looking-Glass said to them, "We will not fight the settlers if they do not fight us. We are going by you to the buffalo country. Will you let us go in peace?" Rawn replied, "you can not go by us." To this the Indian answered, "We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow."
The volunteers now interfered, and told the commander the Nez Perces had always been "good Indians." The settlers on the Bitter Root had no grounds for complaint in their conduct, as they passed each year to and from the buffalo country. Besides, in the expressive frontier phrase, "they had not lost any Indians," and consequently were not hunting for any. The Indians might pass, and God speed them out of the country.
The Nez Perces not only passed by in peace, but they stopped at the villages of Stevensville and Corvallis and traded with the whites. They also left a spy at Corvallis, who stopped until Howard had come up and passed on, and then sped away to Joseph with full particulars.
Meantime General Gibbon, with about two hundred cavalry, had hastened from Helena across to Fort Missoula, on the Bitter Root, but arrived too late to intercept Joseph. Gibbon followed the Indian trail, and overtook them August 8. Waiting through the night for "that dark still hour which is just before the dawn," he swept through the camp in a furious charge, completely surprising the Indians. It seems that Joseph and his men supposed the war was over, and having started to the buffalo country, were careless about posting sentinels. Though taken by surprise, General Joseph rallied his warriors and recaptured the camp. He also drove the soldiers back to a grove of timber, where they erected rude barricades, and made a stand.
Joseph said of General Gibbon: "Finding that he was not able to capture us, he sent to his camp for his big guns (cannon), but my men had captured them and all the ammunition. We damaged the big guns all we could and carried away the powder and lead." At eleven o'clock that night the Indians withdrew, leaving Gibbon wounded and his command so crippled that it could not pursue. Joseph had fought and won his third battle.
The Nez Perces remained long enough to bury their dead, but when General Howard joined Gibbon at this place, his Bannock scouts, ghoul-like, dug up the bodies, and in the presence of officers and men, scalped and mutilated them. The body of Looking-Glass, their ablest diplomat, who fell here, was abused in this manner, although the Nez Perces, being neither civilized nor the allies of civilization, neither took scalps nor mutilated. It is also their proud boast that they never made war on women and children while the war lasted. Joseph said "We would feel ashamed to do so cowardly an act."
Continuing the retreat, Joseph and his band crossed the continental divide again into Idaho, and camped on the great Camas prairie, on the Yellowstone, west of the National Park. He had replenished his supplies, captured two hundred and fifty good horses, and his forces were in excellent condition. General Howard's troops also camped in the prairie a day's march behind. Lieutenant Bacon had been dispatched with a squad of men to hold Tacher's Pass, the most accessible roadway over the divide into the park. The pickets and sentinels were posted, and the weary troopers were soon sleeping, unconscious of war's alarms.
In the faint starlight dark forms might have been seen creeping through the tall grass. Halter ropes and hobbles were cut and bells removed from the necks of the bell-mares. Creeping away in the same manner, but with less caution, a slight noise was made. "What was that?" asked a picket of a comrade. "Nothing but a prowling wolf," was the reply. For some time nothing could be heard in the camp but the regular foot falls of the sentinel. Suddenly a troop of horsemen came in sight, riding back over the trail of the Indians. They rode in column of fours, regularly and without haste. "It must be Bacon's men returning," said the pickets. On came the troopers to the very lines of the camp, but when they were challenged by the sentinel they answered with a war-whoop. At once pandemonium was let loose. A wild yell arose, followed by a fusillade of small arms, which startled the soldiers and stampeded the horses and mules, which were seen scampering away, with heads in the air, nostrils spread, snorting with excitement, followed by the Indians, yelling like demons. We must credit the great chieftain with a successful surprise.
The Nez Perces next eluded Bacon and retreated through Tacher's Pass into the beautiful National Park. In the region of the hot springs and geysers, they met a party of travelers. It consisted of Mr. Cowan, his wife, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and two guides. Three of the men were left for dead, but the other, together with the two ladies, were carried into captivity. Horrible fate! General Howard said they were "afterward rescued." But Joseph said, "On the way we captured one white man and two white women. We released them at the end of three days. They were kindly treated."
On September 9 word was brought that General Sturgis was coming from the Powder River country with three hundred and fifty cavalry and some friendly Crows. Joseph was now between the two forces. Can the Indian chieftain again escape? Yes, this savage, with a genius for war which would have made him famous among the military heroes of any age or country, made a feint toward the West, fooling Sturgis, and sending him on a wild-goose chase to guard the trail down the Stinking Water. At the same time Joseph and his people, under cover of a dense forest, made their way into a narrow and slippery cañon. This was immensely deep, but the almost perpendicular walls were but twenty feet apart. Through this dark chasm slipped and floundered the cavalry and infantry. It must have been a strange sight as the column moved slowly along the bottom of the defile, men, horses, pack-mules and artillery, with only a narrow ribbon of sky high above them. All in vain, Joseph again escaped.