Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/398



CROOK AND TERRY SEPARATE—THE PICTURESQUE LITTLE MISSOURI—THE "HORSE MEAT MARCH" FROM THE HEAD OF THE HEART RIVER TO DEADWOOD—ON THE SIOUX TRAIL—MAKING COFFEE UNDER DIFFICULTIES—SLAUGHTERING WORN-OUT CAVALRY HORSES FOR FOOD—THE FIGHT AT SLIM BUTTES—LIEUTENANT VON LEUTTEWITZ LOSES A LEG—THE DYING CHIEF, "AMERICAN HORSE," SURRENDERS—RELICS OF THE CUSTER MASSACRE—"CRAZY HORSE" ATTACKS OUR LINES—SUNSHINE AND RATIONS.

On the 23d of August we were beset by another violent storm, worse, if such a thing were possible, than any yet experienced. All through the night we lay in from three to four inches of water, unable to shelter ourselves against the strong wind and pelting Niagara which inundated the country. Sleep was out of the question, and when morning came it threw its cold gray light upon a brigade of drowned rats, of disgusted and grumbling soldiers. It was with difficulty we got the fires to burn, but a cup of strong coffee was ready in time, and with the drinking of that the spirits revived, and with a hearty good-will all hands pulled out from the valley of the Yellowstone, and plodded slowly through the plastic mud which lay ankle deep along the course of the Powder. There was a new acquisition to the column—a fine Newfoundland dog, which attached itself to the command, or was reported to have done so, although I have always had doubts upon that subject. Soldiers will steal dogs, and "Jack," as he was known to our men, may have been an unwilling captive, for all I know to the contrary.

There was no trouble in finding the big Sioux trail, or in following it east to O'Fallon's Creek, finding plenty of water and getting out of "the burnt district." The grass was as nutritive as it ought to have been in Wyoming and Montana, and as it would have been had not the red men destroyed it all. Another