Page:Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains.djvu/577

Rh gress, Lieut. Jackson in a private conversation told me that Gen. Crook was going to move up with a portion of the command near Black canyon and try to get into it. I told him that he could get in there easy enough, but had my doubts whether or not he would be able to get out with half the men he took in.

After having completed our preparations we pulled out for the Camp on the Mountain, this being the name given the camp by some of our men when we were out before, and I am told that the springs where we camped still go by that name. We started with two companies of cavalry and one of infantry, taking a pack-train to carry the supplies.

The first night at Camp on the Mountain Gen. Crook threw out a strong picket guard, and the next morning he told me to place my men both above and below the trail that they were to travel in descending the mountain into the canyon. I had examined this part of the country and was thoroughly posted in all the ways and byways of the Black canyon, which I knew the General was not, and I told him that there was no danger from above, from the fact that it was at least six miles to the next place where the Indians could climb the bluff, but this didn't seem to satisfy him, so I placed my scouts according to his directions. This, he said, was to protect his rear.

I took my stand farthest down the hill from any of the scouts, being about half way down, and had my men scattered along on the mountain side, both above and below. This I did so that in case any of my men should