Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/510

 headquarters in a series of crags parallel with the stronghold, and fought the Modocs as we moved.

"Hooker Jim was lying behind a wall of stone, appearing to command the Modocs on the left of the stronghold. His voice was known to the Indians with me; he was calling attention to the fact that the regulars were hopelessly separated from the volunteers, and that by moving around our right flank they could cut off our retreat. I sent Lieutenant Hizer to headquarters to report this. I then saw a signal-fire spring up behind Hooker Jim's position, and then another, three hundred yards to the west, and heard the war-cry repeated there, and knew the Modocs were making a movement to cut us off. I then went to headquarters myself and reported the situation. General Wheaton had made preparations to remain in a little cove on the shore of the lake over night, but now determined to return to the high bluff. We could not safely have remained with only a hundred men, burdened with the wounded and artillery, and after fighting the Indians all night we should have been prevented getting to the bluff, and probably all massacred.

"On getting my report. General Wheaton ordered me to withdraw from the rocks and lead the retreat, Kelly to cover the rear, and to fall back four miles. I kept out a skirmish line to the left until the men were exhausted and falling. When it became so dark it became difficult to follow the trail, I put one of my Modocs on the advance as guide, who led us out to the top of the bluff. So suddenly was the movement effected that the enemy did not discover it. We reached camp at eleven o'clock, wearied to death."

The Modocs resorted to many devices to deceive the troops, such as wearing sage-brush fastened on their heads to conceal their movements, and setting up rocks of the size of a man's head on their breastworks to draw the fire of the soldiers, who shot hundreds of bullets before they discovered the trick.