Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/355

 that even if any of the enemy did succeed in slipping inside, the stock could not be run out. Furey had not allowed his little garrison to remain inside the intrenchments: he had insisted upon some of them going out daily to scrutinize the country and to hunt for fresh meat; the carcasses of six buffaloes and three elk attested the execution of his orders. Furey's force consisted of no less than eighty packers and one hundred and ten teamsters, besides sick and disabled left behind. One of his assistants was Mr. John Mott MacMahon, the same man who as a sergeant in the Third Cavalry had been by the side of Lieutenant Cushing at the moment he was killed by the Chiricahua Apaches in Arizona. After caring for the wounded and the animals, every one splashed in the refreshing current; the heat of the afternoon became almost unbearable, the thermometer indicating 103° Fahrenheit. Lemons, limes, lime juice, and citric acid, of each of which there was a small supply, were hunted up and used for making a glass of lemonade for the people in the rustic hospital.

June 21, Crook sent the wounded back to Fort Fetterman, placing them in wagons spread with fresh grass; Major Furey was sent back to obtain additional supplies; the escort, consisting of one company from the Ninth and one from the Fourth Infantry, was commanded by Colonel Chambers, with whom were the following officers: Munson and Capron of the Ninth, Luhn and Seton of the Fourth. Mr. MacMillan, the correspondent of the Inter-Ocean of Chicago, also accompanied the party; he had been especially energetic in obtaining all data referring to the campaign, and had shown that he had as much pluck as any officer or soldier in the column, but his strength was not equal to the hard marching and climbing, coupled with the violent alternations of heat and cold, rain and shine, to which we were subjected. The Shoshones also left for their own country, going across the Big Horn range due west; after having a big scalp dance with their own people they would return; for the same reason, the Crows had rejoined their tribe. Five of the Shoshones remained in camp, to act in any needed capacity until the return of their warriors. The care taken of the Shoshone wounded pleased me very much, and I saw that the "medicine men" knew how to make a fair article of splint from the twigs of the willow, and that they depended upon such appliances in cases of fracture fully as much as they did upon the singing