Posts
Soon
commenced the rattle of rifle fire, and bullets began to whistle about us. I
remember that I ducked my head and tried to dodge bullets which I could hear
whizzing through the air. This was my first experience under fire. I know that
for a time I was frightened, and far more so when I got my first glimpse of the
Indians riding about in all directions, firing at us and yelling and whooping
like incarnate fiends, all seemingly as naked as the day they were born, and
painted from head to foot in the most hideous manner imaginable.
We were soon across the stream,
through a strip of timber and out into the open, where our captain ordered us
to dismount and prepare to fight on foot. Number Fours were ordered to hold the
horses, while Numbers One, Two and Three started for the firing line.
Our horses were scenting danger before we dismounted, and several at this
point became unmanageable and started straight for the open among the Indians,
carrying their helpless riders with them. One of the boys, a young fellow
named Smith, of Boston, we never saw again, either dead or alive.
In forming the firing
line we deployed to the left. By this time the Indians were coming in closer
and in increasing numbers, circling about and raising such a dust that a great
many of them had a chance to get in our rear under cover of it -- where we
found them on our retreat!
It was on this line that I saw the first
one of my own company comrades fall. This was Sergeant O'Hara. Then I observed another, and yet another. Strange
to say, I had recovered from my first fright, and had no further thought of
fear, although conscious that I was in great peril and standing a mighty good
chance of never getting out of it alive.
The Indians
were now increasing in such hordes and pouring such a hot fire into our small
command, that it was getting to be a decidedly unhealthy neighborhood for Reno's
command. In a short time word came to retreat back to the horses in the timber.
We got back there about as quickly as we knew how. In this excitement, some of
the horseholders released their animals before the riders arrived, and
consequently they were "placed afoot" which made it exceedingly
critical for them. It was said that before Reno gave the order to
mount and retreat, he rode up to Capt. French and shouted,
"Well, Tom, what do you think of this?" Capt. French replied,
"I think we had better get out of here." Reno thereupon gave
the order, although I did not hear it. Neither did I hear any bugle calls or other orders or
commands of any sort. I could hear nothing but the continual roar of Indian
rifles and the sharp, resonant bang-bang of cavalry carbines, mingled with the
whoops of the savages and the shouts ' of my comrades.
