Page:Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains.djvu/580

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ON THE MARCH.

I would like to say that while Gen. Crook bore the name of being a great Indian fighter, I know for a fact that Lieut. Jackson planned more victories two to one than Gen. Crook did himself, and had it been in the Lieutenant's power to have kept those soldiers out of Black canyon, they never would have entered it.

That morning after we had ridden a short distance he mentioned the fight and said: "Cap, that was a horrible affair." I said: "Lieutenant it was not half as bad as I thought it would be, for when I saw you go down there I did not expect to see half of the boys come back." He said: "Had it not been for the infantry coming to our rescue just when it did not a horse would have come out of the canyon, and but very few soldiers."

I asked him where the next move would be and he said that Gen. Crook was going to return to

He mentioned the fight.

the fort and we would go farther out on the road to protect the emigrants, who would soon begin to move to-