Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/406

 The couriers added that Lieutenant Von Leuttewitz had been severely wounded in the knee, one soldier had been killed, and five wounded; the loss of the enemy could not then be ascertained. Crook gave orders for the cavalry to push on with all possible haste, the infantry to follow more at leisure; but these directions did not suit the dismounted battalions at all, and they forgot all about hunger, cold, wet, and fatigue, and tramped through the mud to such good purpose that the first infantry company was overlapping the last one of the mounted troops when the cavalry entered the ravine in which Mills was awaiting them. Then we learned that the previous evening Frank Gruard had discovered a band of ponies grazing on a hill-side and reported to Mills, who, thinking that the village was inconsiderable, thought himself strong enough to attack and carry it unaided.

He waited until the first flush of daylight, and then left his pack-train in the shelter of a convenient ravine, under command of Bubb, while he moved forward with the greater part of his command on foot in two columns, under Crawford and Von Leuttewitz respectively, intending with them to surround the lodges, while Schwatka, with a party of twenty-five mounted men, was to charge through, firing into the "tepis." The enemy's herd stampeded through the village, awakening the inmates, and discovering the presence of our forces. Schwatka made his charge in good style, and the other detachments moved in as directed, but the escape of nearly all the bucks and squaws could not be prevented, some taking shelter in high bluffs surrounding the village, and others running into a ravine where they still were at the moment of our arrival—eleven

The village numbered more than Mills had imagined: we counted thirty-seven lodges, not including four upon which the covers had not yet been stretched. Several of the lodges were of unusual dimensions: one, probably that occupied by the guard called by Gruard and "Big Bat" the "Brave Night Hearts," contained thirty saddles and equipments. Great quantities of furs—almost exclusively untanned buffalo robes, antelope, and other skins—wrapped up in bundles, and several tons of meat, dried after the Indian manner, formed the main part of the spoil, although mention should be made of the almost innumerable tin dishes, blankets, cooking utensils, boxes of caps, ammunition, saddles, horse equipments, and other supplies that would