The Prairie Fire Panic
liers, “smart and active woodsmen,” eager for revenge, sniffing the battle from afar—4,000 mounted frontiersmen rode, furiously, upon what developed into the wittiest campaign of any war—if brevity be the soul of wit. Their whirlwind campaign lasted five days. Once on the march the ardor of the troops began to cool, and the leaven of mutiny wrought disintegration. On the fourth day a prairie fire was mistaken for some cunning ruse of the enemy. Panic-stricken and totally ignoring the authority of their officers, the disorderly rabble abandoned their journey. Incredible as it may sound, it is yet the sober truth, that 4,000 hardy pioneers scurried back again to their mountains, hysterically frightened by an anonymous and serenely innocent prairie fire. Their officers ordered and pleaded and raved and swore; nothing could stop such an unreasoning and undisciplined rabble.
Every fellow for himself, and the devil take the hindmost, they scattered to their homes, each with a gory and imaginative tale to tell.
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