Page:The Indian History of the Modoc War.djvu/107



hounds will not last long when I get after them. Begorra, I can whip any ten of them anywhere. I know it, and begorra, I'll prove it to you boys before this war is over with." Pat was a very brave man and a crack shot, to hear him talk; but in a few days, after Pat's company was called or was going to be sent to the front again at roll-call, Pat did not answer to his name. He had deserted; no one knew where he went to. I met the brave Indian fighter seven or eight months after he killed the old squaw. He was chopping wood for Frank Sloniker, near Hawkinsville, California, at two dollars per cord. I presume he thought it was better to chop wood for small pay, than to fight and- slaughter Modocs for a great name.

We will now go back to the evening of April 17. After dusk the soldiers commenced shelling the Indian camp. They were trying to locate their breastworks by the flash of the Indians' firearms, when they would discharge their guns. The Modocs soon quit firing. They saw that every time one of them fired, it would draw a heavy rifle fire from their enemy; also the mortars were trained on the Indians' fire, so the In- dians quit firing altogether. The soldiers kept up rifle firing, off and on all night. The next morning, when the sun threw its bright rays over the country, the few Modoc braves still held their position. Battle raged all day. The Modocs were pressed on all sides. They could not shoot as true as they did in their first three days' firing; being pressed, they had to shoot in a hurry. Quite a few soldiers were brought to Gen- eral Gillem's camp wounded, some dead. One company after another charged the Indians' breastworks and natural fortifi- cations, but were repulsed. Just as often as they charged, the reds held their ground in good order, day after day. Their women and children were all in a long cave about the center of their camp ground. The deadly mortar shell and Spring- field rifle bullets was harmless to them. They was all safe for the time being. The mortar shells and rifle bullets could not penetrate the rock walls and craggy rocks that protected the long cave that the women and children occupied. Never an Indian could the boys in blue see. All they could d