Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/405

 despised, was now welcomed whenever it made its appearance, as it began to do from this on; it at least supplied the means of making a small fire, and provided the one thing which under all circumstances the soldier should have, if possible. Exhausted by fatiguing marches through mud and rain, without sufficient or proper food, our soldiers reached bivouac each night, to find only a rivulet of doubtful water to quench their thirst, and then went supperless to bed.

In all the hardships, in all the privations of the humblest soldier, General Crook freely shared; with precisely the same allowance of food and bedding, he made the weary campaign of the summer of 1876; criticism was silenced in the presence of a general who would reduce himself to the level of the most lowly, and even though there might be dissatisfaction and grumbling, as there always will be in so large a command, which is certain to have a percentage of the men who want to wear uniform without being soldiers, the reflective and observing saw that their sufferings were fully shared by their leader and honored him accordingly. There was no mess in the whole column which suffered as much as did that of which General Crook was a member; for four days before any other mess had been so reduced we had been eating the meat of played-out cavalry horses, and at the date of which I am now writing all the food within reach was horse-meat, water, and enough bacon to grease the pan in which the former was to be fried. Crackers, sugar, and coffee had been exhausted, and we had no addition to our bill of fare beyond an occasional plateful of wild onions gathered alongside of the trail. An antelope had been killed by one of the orderlies attached to the headquarters, and the remains of this were hoarded with care for emergencies.

On the morning of September 9th, as we were passing a little watercourse which we were unable to determine correctly, some insisting that it was the South Fork of the Grand, others calling it the North Fork of Owl Creek—the maps were not accurate, and it was hard to say anything about that region—couriers from Mills's advance-guard came galloping to General Crook with the request that he hurry on to the aid of Mills, who had surprised and attacked an Indian village of uncertain size, estimated at twenty-five lodges, and had driven the enemy into the bluffs near him, but was able to hold his own until Crook could reach him.