CHAPTER XXIX. The Battle of Wounded Knee.

“If there is anything I do despise it is to wait on an Indian until he gets ready to do anything,” said Carl, after they had waited three or four days to receive the Sioux who had gone into the Bad Lands. “An Indian has no idea of the value of time, and he thinks that a month or six weeks from now will do the same as though he came in to-morrow. All they want is a dance to make up their minds whether to come in and surrender or not.”

Lieutenant Parker was getting sadly impatient also, and he began to think that the Indians would not come in at all, that they would be alarmed at so many troops coming to surround them, and that they would decide to stay in the Bad Lands and fight it out; but one day they were electrified by the arrival of a courier who rode at once to Colonel Forsyth’s tent.

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“Something is going to happen now,” said Carl. “That man has brought news of some kind.”

“Go over there, Carl,” said Parker. “Our colonel is there. You are not an enlisted man, and you can go and come when you please.”

Carl mounted his horse, which he always kept saddled and ready for instant use, and rode over to Colonel Forsyth’s headquarters. He loafed around there for a spell, waiting to hear what was going on, and a few moments later his colonel came out.

“Can you tell me what’s up, sir?” said Carl.

“Oh, nothing, only the Indians are coming in at last,” answered the officer.

“How many of them are there?”

“About four hundred; but we have eight hundred men here, so I guess they will not attempt any tricks.”

Carl rode back to his camp in company with the colonel, who summoned his officers and held a short consultation with them. Parker and the rest of the young officers, who Page 356 had never seen a hostile camp before, listened to what Carl had to tell them, and then turned their attention to the pass through which the courier had come out. But it was a long time before the Indians arrived. Just as the sun was setting they came into view, and there were so many of them that Parker grew alarmed.

“Have those Indians all got guns?” he asked. “I don’t see anything to indicate the fact.”

“They have guns, for you never saw an Indian go on the warpath without one; but they have them hidden where we can’t find them,” said Carl. “When the order is given to disarm them, you will see what sort of weapons we are going to get—old, worthless things that you wouldn’t pick up in the street.”

“Then the soldiers will search their tepees for them,” said a young officer decidedly.

“Of course; and that is what is going to bring on the fight.”

“Are we really going to have a brush with them?”

“I think so, and you may make up your Page 357 mind to hear how a bullet whistles as it goes by your head.”

“Well, why don’t they begin it, if that is what they are up to?”

“It is too late to do anything to-day, but it will keep. You wait until to-morrow and you will wish that you were back at the fort.”

“Not much, I won’t,” said Parker indignantly. “If my men have come out here to fight Indians, I am going in, too.”

“I see a big tepee off there, sir,” said one of the officers to his captain, who at that moment came up, “and they are carrying somebody into it. Who is that, sir?”

“That is Big Foot, who is ill with pneumonia,” answered the captain; “and the doctor who has just gone in to attend to him is Colonel Forsyth’s surgeon.”

“And there are some soldiers taking in a stove,” added the officer. “They are going to warm him up. I supposed that when an Indian became sick he would kick out all the white surgeons and depend entirely on his medicine man.”

“So he does, generally,” said the captain, Page 358 “but old Big Foot is so bad now that he can’t attend to anything. I hope you boys will get a good sleep to-night, for we are going to have fun in the morning.”

But the boys did not get a good sleep, for they were busy thinking of what was going to happen when daylight came—that is, all except Carl, who would have found rest if he had known that the Indians were powerful enough to massacre their whole command. When morning came he was as bright as a lark, while Parker and the other young officers were pale and nervous, and kept looking forward to that order to disarm the Indians which would transform their peaceable camp into a scene that they did not like to think of.

It was the morning of December 29th, and as soon as breakfast was eaten the cavalry mounted their horses and stretched themselves out in a single line far beyond the ground occupied by the Indian encampment, and the infantry moved up within ten yards of their position. The Indians evidently did not like this, for they congregated in little groups, and talked violently, and made motions which Page 359 Lieutenant Parker thought meant war and nothing else. Finally an interpreter went among them, and after a long wait the warriors all moved out in a body and seated themselves on the ground. Then Colonel Forsyth took a hand in the matter, and, with the interpreter at his side, told the Indians that he had come out there for the purpose of disarming them, and ordered them back to their tepees to bring out their weapons. A part of the Indians went, and after a long wait they brought out two guns, which they handed to the soldiers.

“That won’t do,” said the colonel in a loud voice. “I want each one of you to bring out the weapons that you use in fighting us. If you don’t do it, my men will go in there and search your houses.”

“Now it is coming,” said Carl in a low tone to his friend, and he got down and buckled up his saddle. “When the soldiers go in there, you can make up your mind to advance.”

The Indians did not move, and all the while Yellow Bird, a medicine man, was walking about among them, blowing on a whistle made Page 360 of an eagle bone and talking to them in the Sioux language. He was telling them that they need not be afraid, for their ghost shirts would render the soldiers weak and powerless, and that their bullets would fall harmlessly to the ground.

“If I was Colonel Forsyth I would arrest that Indian the first thing,” said Carl, who was rendered awfully impatient by the Sioux actions. “Why don’t he make that man talk English.”

“What is he doing?” asked Parker.

“I don’t catch the words very distinctly, but he is urging them on to fight,” said Carl. “I wonder if those Indians have ghost shirts on? If they have, that is what he is depending on.”

Still the Indians did not move to go into their tepees and bring out more weapons, and Colonel Forsyth, becoming impatient, ordered the soldiers up closer and sent a party to search the tepees. After a thorough hunt these last returned with about forty rifles, most of which were old and of little value. The search had consumed considerable time, Page 361 and created a good deal of excitement among the women and children, as the soldiers found it necessary to overturn the beds and other furniture of the houses, and sometimes to drive the inmates out of doors. One of the searchers, in coming out, attempted to raise the blanket of one of the warriors, and that seemed to be all Yellow Bird was waiting for. Suddenly he stooped down and seized a handful of dust which he threw into the air, and in an instant afterward a young Cheyenne brave threw off his blanket and fired at the soldiers.

“It is come! it is come!” exclaimed Carl, who was so excited that he could hardly sit still on his horse. “That means war. Now get ready.”

The smoke of the warrior’s gun had scarcely died away when an answering volley came from the soldiers, and they were so close to the Sioux that the guns almost touched each other. After that all was confusion to Lieutenant Parker, although he tried his best to mind what he was doing. He heard the adjutant shout “Forward!” and drove his horse down the ravine, and Carl was right close behind him.

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“Shoot to kill!” said the captain. “Don’t throw away a single bullet!”

At first it was not possible for any of the cavalry to shoot, so busy were they in working their way down one side of the gully and up the other; but by the time they were on solid ground once more, the yell that went up from five hundred lungs must have added to the panic of the frightened Indians; for the Indians were frightened, there could be no doubt about that. They fought bravely for a few minutes, but their ghost shirts did not avail them. They saw their comrades fall on every side, they heard the shouts of the soldiers as they pressed them from every side, and finally they turned and sought safety in flight. Lieutenant Parker did not draw his sword from the time he started until the bugle sounded the recall. He used his revolver, and those who knew him said he was a very passable shot. The Hotchkiss guns got the range of the ravine when they saw the Indians escaping that way. They fired two-pound explosive shells at the rate of fifty a minute, cutting down everything that was Page 363 alive. In a few minutes there were two hundred men, women and children lying dead and wounded on the ground, the tepees had been torn down by shells, some of them were burning above the helpless wounded, and the surviving handful of Sioux were flying in a wild panic to the shelter of the ravine. Sixty soldiers were also lying on the ground, which shows how hard the Indians fought at the beginning of the battle.

Lieutenant Parker did not try to hold in his horse when he got fairly out of the ravine. The animal had never been in action before, but he seemed to delight in the whistling of balls and the roaring of cannon. Whenever Parker saw an Indian he pulled on him, and whenever he missed, it is sure that the boy who followed close at his side did not miss with his Winchester. They followed the Sioux for a mile or more, and then the lieutenant heard the sound of the bugle. It was the recall, and he forthwith returned his empty revolver to its holster and shouted to the men who were nearest to him.

“Cease firing!” he yelled. “Don’t you Page 364 hear the bugle sounding a recall? How did you work it, Murphy?” he added, turning to a soldier who had oftentimes told him that he would not take any prisoners. “Did you see any drop?”

“To be sure I did, sir,” said he. “I thought ‘Remember Custer’ all the time I was doing it. Halloo, there’s one. I guess I will fix him so that he won’t kill any more soldiers.”

Murphy stopped in front of a wounded Sioux, who raised on his elbow and looked at him with a countenance full of vindictive fury. He was shot through both legs, and of course he fell to the ground. The soldier felt all over his person but could not find a cartridge left.

“No matter,” said he, throwing himself off his horse. “You’ve got a knife there, and I can soon put you out of the way with that.”

“Hold on, Murphy; that won’t do,” said Parker. “Get back on your horse and let him go.”

“If I don’t kill him somebody else will,” said the soldier, very much disappointed to Page 365 hear this order. “He is good for all the men who can get around him. See that?” he added, sticking the muzzle of his carbine into the warrior’s face.

The brave proved that if his legs were shot through his hands were all right, for he seized the gun and tried to draw the soldier toward him. If he had got him within reach of the knife he held in his hand, he would have struck him down without mercy.

“Don’t you think he ought to be killed after that?” inquired Murphy.

“We are not here to make war upon crippled Indians,” said Lieutenant Parker decidedly. “Disarm him and let him go.”

Now, to Carl it seemed as if it was a matter of some importance to take away the Indian’s knife. One of his race, when he becomes frightened and can run, gets as frightened as anybody; but when he is wounded so badly that he is brought to a standstill, he becomes really a dangerous foe. He will fight as long as he has strength left to draw a weapon. The soldier advanced toward him, but his knife was raised in the most threatening manner. Page 366 But Murphy was equal to the emergency. In an instant his carbine was poised in the air; the blow descended, beating down the Indian’s guard and landing with its full force on his unprotected head. He was stretched out as dead, apparently, as any of the Indians that surrounded him. His muscles grew rigid, he sank back upon the ground, and the eyes which had gazed so ferociously at his assailant became glazed.

“Well, you have killed him now, at all events,” said the lieutenant in disgust.

“Oh no, sir,” said Murphy. “It takes more than one little whack like that to kill an Indian. He will come out all right. Here’s his knife, sir—as a present from me,” he continued, taking off his hat and giving the weapon to Parker. “Hold on a minute and I will get you his scabbard.”

The Indian was too far gone to make any resistance as he took the sheath and belt off, and presenting them to Lieutenant Parker, he mounted his horse and rode back with him to the camp.