Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/291

 several buffaloes by the guides in front—old bulls which would pull all the teeth out of one's head were they to be chewed; better success with antelope, whose meat was tender and palatable; the sight of a column of dust in the remote distance, occasioned, probably, by the movement of an Indian village, and the flashing of looking-glass signals by hostiles on our right flank, made the sum total of events worthy of insertion in the journals kept at the time. Lodge-pole trails and pony tracks increased in numbers, and a signal smoke curled upwards from one of the distant buttes in our front. On our left, the snow-clad masses of the "Big Horn" range rose slowly above the horizon, and on the right the sullen, inhospitable outline of the "Pumpkin Buttes." General Crook ordered that the greatest care should be taken in the manner of posting sentinels, and in enjoining vigilance upon them; he directed that no attempt should be made to catch any of the small parties of the enemy's videttes, which began to show themselves and to retreat when followed; he explained that all they wanted was to entice us into a pursuit which could have no effect beyond breaking down twenty or thirty of our horses each time.

We were out of camp, and following the old Montana road by daylight of the 5th of March, 1876, going down the "Dry Fork" of the Powder. There was no delay on any account, and affairs began to move like clock-work. The scenery was dreary; the weather bitter cold; the bluffs on either side bare and sombre prominences of yellow clay, slate, and sandstone. The leaden sky overhead promised no respite from the storm of cold snow and wind beating into our faces from the northwest. A stranger would not have suspected at first glance that the command passing along the defile of this miserable little sand-bed had any connection with the military organization of the United States; shrouded from head to foot in huge wrappings of wool and fur, what small amount of uniform officers or men wore was almost entirely concealed from sight; but a keener inspection would have convinced the observer that it was an expedition of soldiers, and good ones at that. The promptness, ease, and lack of noise with which all evolutions were performed, the compactness of the columns, the good condition of arms and horses, and the care displayed in looking after the trains, betokened the discipline of veteran soldiery.