by the side of his cot when he died. He drew his last breath
with a smile on his manly face, whispering, "I got my Indian."
The soldiers was busy one day, bringing in first the
wounded, next the dead, after Wright and his company had
been fired on or rather waylaid. I cannot give the number
that was killed or the number wounded. 2 The Indians did not
fire on the soldiers while they was working with their wounded
or dead. The Indians did not do much fighting for a few
days after the Col. Wright fight, as the troops did not move
against them in force. The Warmspring Indian scouts and
some cavalrymen would go out every day and have a brush
with the Modocs. Just a few Modocs would take part in
these little fights.
2There were 76 officer's and men and also Donald McKay and his Warm Spring Scouts; Lieut. T. F. Wright, Lieut. A. B. Howe and First Lieut. Ar- thur Cranston. Captain Evan Thomas was also killed. Lieut. George M. Harris, dangerously wounded, died three days later on. Surgeon Semig, seriously wounded, leg amputated. A total of 27 killed and 17 wounded. These officers were killed on April 26th.
Lieut. Harris belonged to the Fourth Artillery, whose Battery K per- fectly idolized him. Capt. Evan Thomas was the son of Lorrenzo Thomas, formerly Adjutant General of the U. S. Army. He was appointed second lieutenant of the Fourth Artillery April 9, 1861, in the District of Columbia. Was promoted to first lieutenant on the 14th of May, 1861, and made Cap- tain, August, 1864, though brevetted Captain in Dec., 1862, and brevetted Major in July, 1863. Honors won on the battlefield. He left a widow and two children at San Francisco. After receiving his death wound he buried his gold watch and chain in the hope it might escape discovery by the Mo- docs and be recovered by friends, but the watchful foe did not permit the souvenir to reach them.
Telegram to General Scofield, San Francisco, California.
Headquarters in the Field, Tule Lake, Cal., May 8, 1873. I sent two friendly squaws into the Lava Beds day before yesterday. They returned yesterday, having found the bodies of Lieut. Cranston and other parties, but no Modocs. Last night I sent the Warm Spring Indian Scouts out. They found that the Modocs have gone in a southeasterly direc- tion. This is also confirmed by the attack and capture of a train of four wagons and fifteen animals yesterday P. M. near the supply camp on the east side of Tule Lake. The Modocs in this party reported to be fifteen or twenty in number, escort the train about the same. Escort whipped with three wounded. No Modocs known to have been killed. I will put the troops in search of the Modocs with five days' rations. JEFF. C. DAVIS,
Colonel 23rd Infantry, Commanding Dept.
