Norton, with his wife and boy, Joseph Moore, Miss Bowers, Mr. and Mrs. Chamberlain and their child and Lew Day all got into the wagon and started for town, the Indians following and firing on them. Four miles the other side of Grangeville the Indians succeeded in killing the horses and they were forced to abandon the wagon. Hill Norton and Miss Bowers made their escape and came into Grangeville, bringing the first information of the attack. Norton was killed, Joseph Moore was hit twice, Mrs. Norton was shot through both legs, Mr. Chamberlain and their child were killed, the child's head being split open with a hatchet, and Mrs. Chamberlain was shot in the breast with an arrow. Theodore Schwartz, another settler, was wounded.

At 6 o'clock that evening we started back to camp and arrived there at 9 o'clock. On Monday, June 25th, we left our camp on the Cottonwood and continued our march to Johnson's camp or ranch, where we again made camp. On the road we passed the place where, before the outbreak, about one hundred lodges of Indians had been set at the lakes, on the rocks, in the canyons and on the prairie. Also we passed over the ground of Colonel Perry's retreat. Captain Page picked up some twenty cartridge shells within a distance of fifty yards. At Johnson's we were given a camping ground to the right of the main column, about half a mile from wood and water. The boys were dissatisfied and we secured permission to camp within the enclosure at Johnson's house. H. E. Holmes, Ike Abbott and C. S. Robinson were put on guard.

After breakfast on Tuesday morning, June 26th, we left camp to reconnoiter. We were in advance of the command that day. In our reconnoitering we came across the body of a dead soldier about two miles from camp. We were compelled to rest at times to allow the infantry an opportunity to dig trenches which we might use in case of need. About 12 o'clock we reached the summit looking down on White Bird Creek. During the morning's ride most of the soldiers killed in Colonel Perry's fight with the Indians were buried. For several miles we kept coming upon their dead bodies.

In the afternoon, with Chapman as guide, we rode along the top of the divide between Salmon River and White Bird. It was rough and tiresome riding. We saw fresh tracks and Chapman told us that we were liable to meet Indians at any time. Soon we discovered three Indian scouts across the river and shortly after that we discovered the whole band moving farther up the mountain. We fired a number of shots toward them but they were too far away and we were only wasting our cartridges.

We then left the ridge and went down on the bottom at Manuel's on White Bird. We went inside the gate and looked at the remains of the buildings which the Indians had burned. A few of the volunteers strayed down to the creek and what was their surprise to see, sitting in a little shed which the Indians had spared, a white man whom we all soon found to be Jack Manuel, and whom we had previously reported as among the killed. He had been wounded in the back of the neck by an arrow and had also been shot in the hips.

Our next task was to get Manuel out and away to safety. We soon fixed a pole in a broken buggy that was standing near and by fastening what spare ropes we had to the buggy and to the pommels of our saddles we succeeded in getting him away. Finding that we were not making headway fast enough, our captain sent to Captain Miller for two pack mules which were soon at hand. Then, making the pole into shafts, we soon arrived at camp where we turned Mr. Manuel over to his friends, who were to care for his wounds and take him to Mount Idaho the following day. It had rained all that day and we had had a hard day's work.

On June 27th we broke camp and marched to White Bird, the soldiers burying the dead soldiers we found which they had not had time to bury the preceding day. It was there on the White Bird side of the divide that the terrible battle had taken place. That night we camped within a short distance of the Salmon River which we expected to cross the following day. It seemed likely that, on crossing the river, we would have a fight with the Indians for we could see them for hours that afternoon riding their horses about and swinging themselves from side to side in all kinds of capers.

After we had made camp we received instructions to escort the pack train back to Lewiston where they were going for supplies. On reaching Lewiston the eight days for which we had engaged were up and, believing that the army of General Howard was fully able to conquer Chief Joseph and his braves, we returned to our homes.

On the afternoon after our return came word of the ambushing of Lieutenant Rains and a dozen volunteers and regulars, and the killing of Blewett and Foster near Cottonwood. The troops there had known that the Indians were in the vicinity and the lieutenant called for volunteers to go and hunt for Blewett and Foster, who had gone out earlier in the day and had failed to return as they had been ordered to do. The lieutenant and his men had not been gone long before a volley was heard and, on other troops tracing them up, they found that they had all been killed from ambush at the one volley. Foster had been killed earlier in the day near the road at the entrance to the prairie. Blewett had been killed a little later, around the mountain, undoubtedly after a run for his life.

This Charley Blewett was my next-door neighbor and had been for ten years prior to his death. We were students together at the school in district number one and also at Whitman Seminary. We had all regretted very much leaving Charley but he wanted to stay and Colonel Whipple said that he would look after him. This he did, taking him into his own mess. As soon as conditions would permit we had his remains brought home and he was given a military funeral.