Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/358

341 OSAGES IN THE CaVIL WAB 341 tattle when the Fi-each and Indians defeated Brad- dock. Just contemplate the nerve of a native Kansan to travel all that way. Again, at the breaking out of the last Civil War in 1861, a regiment of Osages as- sisted the United States faithfully to the end. And finally, here is an incident which is. not usually printed in histories, and is taken from an address de- livered before the Kansas State Historical Society by W. L. Bartles, who was a member of the 9th Kansas Cavalry, who vouches for the truth of the following narrative: "Scouting was the main duty deyol'ving upon the garrison at Humboldt, Allen county, Kansas. One afternoon just after dinner, two Indians rode up to the camp in the public square and reported to Cap- tain Doudna that their band had had a fight with some white men and that the white, men were aU dead. The captain hastened to the Osage camp. It must be ■borne in mind that at this time the identity of the dead men were unknown. They might be a strong scouting party of our own or the enemy, etc. On a rise near the bivouac were the bodies of two warriors slain in the fight; painted and bedecked for the long journey to the happy hunting ground, they had been placed in a sitting posture, with their backs to a tree. In front of each warrior was a squaw sitting flat upon the ground, her hair hanging over her face, and at in- tervals her low mournful cries were soul rending. The Indians were exceedingly anxious as to the out- come of the investigation. Next morning, escorted by UK) mounted Indians, we rode out to the scene of the first encounter. Here it is best to tell the story