Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains / An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West

by William F. Drannan

The soldiers followed until after dark, but did not find any more dead Indians. We remained in this camp until the Lieutenant came up with his command. He regretted that he did not come on himself ahead of the command, thinking that had he been there the result would have been quite different.

On his arrival he made a detail of eight men to assist in scouting, informing them that they were relieved of all guard duties while serving in that capacity, which is a great relief to a soldier, especially when in an Indian country. I was appointed captain or chief of scouts and George my first assistant The Lieutenant selected what he thought to be the best men he had in his command and they afterwards proved themselves to be just what he had expected. On starting out I did not make any reserve of scouts, but sent four with George and took the other four with me.

The fourth day after starting, about noon, I saw a band of Indians in camp ten miles from the Lieutenant's quarters. I knew this to be a new camp, as I had been over the same ground only two days previous. The Indians were camped in a valley nearly a mile wide that had not a stick of timber on it, except the few small willows that grew along the little rill that ran through the valley, consequently I could not get close enough to ascertain the number of the Indians until after dark. In the meantime I telegraphed the Lieutenant to hold his men in readiness or to move on at once as he thought best.

As soon as he received my message he mounted two companies of cavalry and pushed on to the place where I had told the messenger to meet me on his return.

While the messenger went to headquarters, in company with one of my scouts I went down near the Indian camp to try to ascertain if possible their number, leaving the other two scouts in charge of the horses. The only way we could get at the number was to count the fires and make an estimate in that way. The Indians seemed to be nervous and much disturbed that night from some cause; continually little squads of them would walk from one fire to another. After we had crawled around something like two hours and made our estimate, we returned to our horses and comrades, and I never was more surprised in my life than when I got back and met Lieut. Jackson there with his command, for I did not think sufficient time had passed for him to come that distance. I sat down and explained the lay of the ground as best I could, nothing being in the way except the little creek that carried the water across the valley, and I told him that about one hundred and fifty yards below the Indian camp the horses would be able to jump it. I also told them that I estimated their number at two hundred.

The Lieutenant said: "I think I will attack them at once," and asked me if I had their horses located. I told him I had. He then gave orders for all of the men to muffle their spurs, and he asked me to take my four men and as soon as the charge was made to make a dash for the horses, cut them off and stampede them. So we made the start, my scouts and I on the extreme right of their entire command. The Lieutenant had explained to the command that he would give the word in an undertone, each corporal to take it up, and they also had orders to hold their sabres up in a way that they could not make any noise. Being good starlight that night, one could see fairly well. We rode within less than one hundred yards of the Indian camp before the word was given to charge. When we were in sight of the horses we raised the yell and they all started, and we did not let them stop until at headquarters the next morning at daybreak. At this haul we got one hundred and eighty-two horses.

The Lieutenant returned with his command at ten o'clock the same morning, and he told me that he didn't think a dozen Indians escaped.

In this engagement he did not lose a man, and only a few were wounded, but five horses were hurt, and those he had killed after returning to headquarters, claiming that in this warm climate, where the flies were so bad, it took too much attention to cure them.

The two days following were days of rest with us, very little being done in the way of scouting. On the morning of the third day after the battle, George and his force went out to make a tour around the camp, and Lieut. Jackson, myself and four scouts went out to try to kill some deer, as we were getting very hungry for fresh meat, having been so long on bacon that we were all sick and tired of it. That day we killed four deer, and that night we camped six miles from our quarters. The next morning the Lieutenant sent to headquarters for ten pack animals, and we remained to hunt. In two days we killed all the game we could pack to camp on the ten animals. On our return the Lieutenant said to me: "This part we will have to keep to ourselves, for if we tell the General that we were out hunting and spent three days on the trip he would swear until everything around would turn blue."

After this we made two and three day scouting trips. While out on one of these, I found where the Apache stronghold was; down in a deep canyon, which since then has been known as Black canyon. From all appearance the greater part of the tribe was there. This canyon was tributary to the Colorado, and the hardest place to get into I have ever seen in the Rocky Mountains.