Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 540 pages of information about Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains.

Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 540 pages of information about Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains.

We counted the dead braves and found them to be forty-eight in number.

In this engagement Capt.  Mills did not lose a man, and only one was wounded.  This was the result of making the attack so early in the morning.  Had it been later, after the Indians were all up, they would have made a harder fight.

The battle being over we all started for headquarters, feeling jubilant over the victory.

We reached headquarters at ten o’clock in the morning, after which Capt.  Mills told us we had done enough for one day, and that all could take it easy for the rest of the day.  The next morning I struck out east on the emigrant trail, sending one man north and one south of the trail, each taking three days’ rations, our object being to meet emigrants, if there were any, and guard them through to Capt.  Mills’ quarters, as it was now time for the emigrants to come stringing along; a time that heretofore among the Indians had been considered a harvest in this section of the country.

The first day in the afternoon I rode to a high hill, took my glasses, and looking east I saw a train of emigrants stringing along.  This was the first train of the season.  The scout from the north and also the one from the south had got sight of them, and were pulling for the trail.  We pushed on and met the train just as it was pulling into camp.  I called for the captain and he came forth.  I told him we were scouts for Capt.  Mills, and were out for the purpose of protecting emigrants.  The captain, as well as the people in the train, were very much pleased to know that they were going to have protection after that through the hostile country.  They had been troubled more or less by Indians all the way through Utah, having a great deal of stock, both horses and cattle, stolen by the Indians, as they supposed, but among men who were better informed it was the supposition that they were stolen by white men, for in those days there was a set of white men in Utah much worse than Indians.

On learning that I had been in California they had many questions to ask about the gold fields of that noted country.  They were expecting to find gold by the bushel when once there.

This was a large train, there being one hundred and twenty wagons all told.  The next morning I sent out one of my scouts north of the train, the other one ahead, with instructions to keep from one to two miles in front, and I went south of the trail that day.  This was done so that if the scouts should see a large band of Indians they could notify the emigrants and give them a chance to prepare for the battle, but we experienced no trouble on this trip.

We were two days traveling from where we met the train to Capt.  Mills’ quarters, and from here the Captain sent a sergeant and twenty men to guide the emigrants through to Col.  Elliott’s headquarters.

This kind of work was kept up for about a month, every week, and sometimes two or three trains of emigrants would pass by, but we experienced no serious trouble the remainder of the season with Indians.

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Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.