Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/281

 the troops of the United States, and was pretty well understood and fairly well mapped; north of that stream was a terra incognita, of which no accurate charts existed, and of which extremely little information could be obtained. Every half-breed at Red Cloud or Spotted Tail Agency who could be secured was employed as a scout, and placed under the command of Colonel Thaddeus H. Stanton, of the Pay Department, who was announced as Chief of Scouts.

The Sioux and Cheyennes whom we were soon to face were "horse" Indians, who marched and fought on horseback; they kept together in large bodies, and attacked by charging and attempting to stampede the herds of the troops. They were well armed with the newest patterns of magazine arms, and were reported to be possessed of an abundance of metallic cartridges. Their formidable numbers, estimated by many authorities at as many as fifty thousand for the entire nation, had given them an overweening confidence in themselves and a contempt for the small bodies of troops that could be thrown out against them, and it was generally believed by those pretending to know that we should have all the fighting we wanted. These were the points upon which the pessimists most strongly insisted. The cloud certainly looked black enough to satisfy any one, but there was a silver lining to it which was not perceptible at first inspection. If a single one of these large villages could be surprised and destroyed in the depth of winter, the resulting loss of property would be so great that the enemy would suffer for years; their exposure to the bitter cold of the blizzards would break down any spirit, no matter how brave; their ponies would be so weak that they could not escape from an energetic pursuit, and the advantages would seem to be on the side of the troops.

Crook took up his quarters in Cheyenne for a few days to push forward the preparations for the departure of the column of cavalry which was to compose the major part of the contemplated expedition. Cheyenne was then wild with excitement concerning the Indian war, which all the old frontiersmen felt was approaching, and the settlement of the Black Hills, in which gold in unheard-of sums was alleged to be hidden. No story was too wild, too absurd, to be swallowed with eagerness and published as a fact in the papers of the town. Along the streets were camped long trains of wagons loading for the Black Hills; every