Part 29 (1/2)

These maneuvers I witnessed fro the cohtened After I had enjoyed the situation tomy hat When I ithin a hundred yards of the troops, Colonel Wier of the Seventh Cavalry rode out to nizedto the soldiers:

”Boys, here's Buffalo Bill!” Thereupon three rousing cheers ran all the way down the line

Colonel Wier presented me to General Terry The latter questioned lad to learn that the alarm had been a false one I found that I was not entitled alone to the credit of having frightened the whole Seventh Cavalry The Indian scouts had also seen far behind me the dust raised by Crook's troops, and were fully satisfied that a very large force of Sioux was in the vicinity andto the attack

At General Terry's request I accoht both comon-train with hi to make life as comfortable as it can be on an Indian trail

The officers had large wall-tents, with portable beds to stow inside the-rooms

Terry's camp looked very comfortable and homelike It presented a sharp contrast to the camp of Crook, who had for his headquarters only one s utensils consisted of a quart cup in which he brewed his own coffee, and a sharp stick on which he broiled his bacon When I compared these two cahter He had plainly learned that to follow Indians a soldier e or equip General Terry ordered General Miles, with the Fifth Infantry, to return by a forced march to the Yellowstone, and to proceed by steamboat down that stream to the mouth of the Powder River, where the Indians could be intercepted in case they iht of thirty-five ih a mountainous country

Generals Crook and Terry spent the evening and the next day in council

The followingboth coh Terry was the senior officer, he did not assume command of both expeditions Crook was left in coether We crossed the Tongue River anddown that stream to a point twenty miles from its junction with the Yellowstone There the Indian trail turned to the southeast, in the direction of the Black Hills

The two commands were now nearly out of supplies The trail was abandoned, and the troops kept on down the Powder River to its confluence with the Yellowstone There we remained for several days

General Nelson A Miles, as at the head of the Fifth Infantry, and who had been scouting in the vicinity, reported that no Indians had as yet crossed the Yellowstone Several steae quantities of supplies, and the soldiers, who had been a little too close to famine to please them, were once ht co arise

One evening while ere in camp on the Yellowstone at the mouth of the Powder River I was informed that Louis Richard, a half-breed scout, and myself, had been selected to accompany General Miles on a reconnaisance We were to take the steamer _Far West_ down the Yellowstone as far as Glendive Creek We were to ride in the pilot-house and keep a sharp look-out for Indians on both banks of the river The idea of scouting froether novel one, and I was iht the nextwe reported on the steamer to General Miles, who had with hiiment We were soht our horses

We were at a loss to see hoe could employ horses in the pilothouse of a river steaot back, so we sent for theht on board

In a fewdown the river, the swift current enabling the little steamer to make a speed of twenty miles an hour

The commander of the _Far West_ was Captain Grant March, a fine chap of whom I had often heard For many years he was one of the most famous sater river captains in the country It was on his stea Horn had been transported to Fort Abraham Lincoln, on the Missouri River On that trip he made the fastest steamboat time on record He was an excellent pilot, and handled his boat in those swift and dangerous waters with remarkable dexterity

With Richard and me at our station in the pilothouse the little stea down-stream past islands, around bends, and over sandbars at a rate that was exhilarating, but so toon the deck of a Western pony Presently, far away inland, I thought I could see horses grazing, and reported this belief to General Miles The general pointed out a large tree on the bank, and asked the captain if he could land the boat there

”I can not only land her there; I can make her climb the tree if you think it would be any use,” returned March

He brought the boat skillfully alongside the tree, and let it go at that, as the general could see no particular advantage in sending the steamboat up the tree

Richard and I were ordered to take our horses and push out as rapidly as possible to see if there were any Indians in the vicinity

Meanwhile, General Miles kept his soldiers in readiness to march instantly if we reported any work for the out:

”Boys, if there was only a heavy dew on the grass, I could send the old craft right along after you”

It was a false alarraves, with only good Indians in the at Glendive Creek we found that Colonel Rice and his company of the Fifth Infantry which had been sent on ahead by General Miles had built a good little fort with their trowel bayonets Colonel Rice was the inventor of this weapon, and it proved very useful in Indian warfare It is just as deadly in a charge as the regular bayonet, and can also be used al rifle-pits and throwing up intrenchht General Miles wanted a scout to go at once with es for General Terry, and I was selected for the job That night I rode seventy-five h the Bad Lands of the Yellowstone I reached General Terry's ca nearly broken my neck a dozen times or more