Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/506

488 command from the hill, the Indians sustained a loss of nine killed, among whom were a brother-in-law of chief Vincent and another head man. Victor, an influential chief of the Cœur d'Alenes was mortally, and many others more or less severely wounded. This heavy loss greatly enraged the Cœur d'Alenes, who now fought like demons. As the troops pressed on slowly towards the water, Captain Oliver H. P. Taylor and Lieutenant William Gaston, to whom had been assigned the difficult duty of flanking the column, were killed. The loss of their commanders threw the men into confusion, but they defended the bodies of the dead officers and brought them off the field under a rain of bullets.

It was now apparent that the Palouse, the nearest water, could not be reached by daylight, and although it was now but little past noon, Steptoe was forced to remain on the summit of the hill now known as "Steptoe's Butte," near the town of Colfax, where the troops dismounted and picketed their animals. They were ordered to lay flat upon the ground, and defend, as well as they could, this position from the charges of the Indians. "To move from one point to another," wrote Lieutenant Gregg, "we had to crawl on our hands and knees, amid the howling of the Indians, the groans of the dying, and the whistling of balls and arrows." Towards evening the ammunition, of which there was an insufficient supply, began to give out, and the men who were chiefly recent recruits, overcome with fatigue and thirst, became so indifferent to fate that the three remaining officers could with difficulty inspire them to defend themselves. Six of their number were dead or dying, and eleven others wounded.

The escape of the whole command now depended entirely upon a successful flight. The dead were hastily interred, and with the best horses, and a small supply of provisions, the force which had set out to show volunteers how to treat Indians, and to impress upon Indians the great superiority of the regular troops over civilians, crept