Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1877 — "Watch for Who"-A Black Hills Tragedy. [ARTICLE]

"Watch for Who"-A Black Hills Tragedy.

naus ot snow sailed in eccentric course through tbenlght air, and finally Milled down into the splattering fire or upon the There were other men on the trail before and behind Men rushed wherever the nreciOWl metal is aiscoverea< 1 ncre were broken wagons, dead horses and human skeletons alone every mile of the trail, and fierce-ryed Indlais looked out from every ravineand down upon travelers The dozen gathered closer as darkness shut down, and the snow-flakes came faster, aad by-and-by an old man with grizatytock. and piecing «ya said, as if speaking to himself: ’‘‘Custer weal into kill. It was an awful thing to do—to rash 800 men down upto 5,000 rods, but he did it, and meant to win. Ko other man will ever take such chances." And yet one was near by who meant to take greater chances. So cat-like was hl* step that he had almost entered the camp before the sentinels saw him. He was a giant in size, and as he halted where the light of the fire shone full in his face, three or four men uttered exclamations of surprise and horror. There was blood on the stranger’s face—blood on his great rough hands—blood over his clothing clear down to his boots. It was a terrible sight, and yet, as if something further was needed, the stranger turned his back to the men, and they saw that an attempt had been made to scalp him. *’ Water -food I ” he wlispered as he looked from face to face. Both were given him, and after drinkingafall quart of water, he grasped a loaf of bread and a hunk of moat, and tore them with his teeth as a wolf would have done. By-and-by, when his hunger had been appeased, he said: •‘lt happened off this way, nigh to twenty miles. I loot the trail somehow, and the red devils swooped down al noon on me to-dav. The old woman and five children were in the wagon. There were forty or fifty reds, anc it wasn’t three minutes before the hull family was dead —allbut me!” His eyes blazed with fury; beseemed to grow in height, and casting the remnants of food into the fire, he fiercely shouted: “ Think of the old woman having her brains beaten out by the fiends! Think of the children being hauled out'n the wagon and scalped and stabbed and their thrusts cut from ear to ear! Come on—come with me!’’ He leaped over the fire and bounded away into the darkness, but presently returned aid said in calmer voice: •“ 1 fit, of course. It was which for who, but they were fifty to one. I drove ’em from the corpses. I clubbed ’em off with my rifle, but they were too many. They shot and stabbed me; they run me to the hills; they have hunted me all the afternoon.” The giant trembled like a leaf, and the fresh blood ran from his wounds anil trickled down in red paths over his neck and cheeks and clothing. The leader of the party tried to soothe him, promising aid as soon as daylight came, but the ntranger waved his arms and cried out: "What can you dot The wolves are feeding on my wife and children to-night; their scalps are back in the hills with the Indian devils! Can you bring life back to them? Give me a gun and an ax.” No one moved for two or three seconds, being spellbound by his wild look and words, and the stranger picked up a cavalry carbine and its box of cartridges, seized the light ax used about the campfire. and in another minute was lost sight of m the darkness, calling back, as his step was lost to hearing: “ It is which for who!" Next day about mid-afternoon the party came upon two dead Indian ponies, lying between the trail and the foot-hills to the right A few yards further on was a great -stain of blood on the two inches of snow •covering the grass. A warrior had fallen here and been carried off by his comrades. "There was a trail of a white man on foot, 'heading for the foot-hills, but moving ■slowly, and there were plain traces that -the man halted every few rods to use his weapons. All along the trail were the hoof tracks of ponies, and an old hunter shook his head and said: “It is the man who left our camp last night Back thar is where the reds just sighted him, and he stood in his tracks and killed two ponies and one Injun. There was a gang of forty or fifty reds, and the white man moved to git among the hills and have fair play . Just look 4har!” Fifteen or twenty rods ahead were three dead ponies, lying close together. The band of redskins had made a charge upon the lone man at this point, and he had met them bravely. The snow told everything. Standing in his tracks, and not lifting a foot except to wheel around, he had whipped the whole gang! There were three dead ponies within a hundred feet of the white man’s position, and again the snow was crimsoned with two great patches of blood where the warriors had fallen. “Great God! but how he fit!” whispered the old hunter, as he saw how the snow had been trampled down; “ but they wounded him here." So they had. He had retreated slowly, seeming to have no fear, and along his trail was a track of blood. The first hills were a mile away, and straight for the hills ran the bloody path through the snow. Tb«|e were no sounds of conflict —no red demons in sight. "Which for who’-had met them early in the morning, and the tragedy had 'been played before the sun was two hours old. Again, between the three dead ponies and the first hili the white man had been charged by the fall band. They had circled around him, and then charged at a common center. One tone man, armed with a carbine and an ax, was the center. Thirty, forty, perhaps fifty, to one, and I yet he had not weakened in the least. On the right was a dead pony, on tire left two crimson spots in the now. Ahead, toward the hill, a home had fallen and struggled up? and half a dozen trails of Mood could be counted. Ths India™ hart “ You will see a sight to make your flesh crawl, over in the hills!" whispered the hunter, and the party slowly adThe lone man had not hurried his pace. The yelling, bowling, whooping redskins galloping around him, firing upon him, and, sure of his scalp, had not shaken his nerve. Over the hill, across a little valley, up ararine, and there was the end. The go no further, and there he stood at bsy»—ar . .. . “ May ti»e Lord have mercy on him!" gasped a miner, as the little band looked ever the Add of battle. There were dead

and wounded ponies; there wore blood patches on the snow, and four Indtank. start; and stiff, ware lying to one side, the survivors not haring horses enough to carry off their dead. At the bead of tba ravine the snow had scarcely a color except red. The redskins had charged in a body, and, dropping his carbine when the last cartridge was gone, the lone man had used bis ax with awful effect. They had shot him and struck him with their tomahawks, and when lift went out he had more wounds than could be counted. There he lay, the ax still clutched with giant’s grip, his eyes wide open, bis body covered with wounds, and before him was a record to prove a more terrible fight than Custer’s. He had fought fifty meh single handed. He bad driven them back again and again, and a dozen lives had been taken for his one. “ Which for who,” he had said, and “ who ” bad Won, but it was not a victory for the red men to boast over. ' When they rode out of the valley every h >ne bad a double burden of living and dead, and yet some had to be left behind. The party could not dig up the frozen ground to give the brave man burial. Fifty miles away the gaunt wolves were tearing at the bodies of wife and children. As the party turned away from the horrible sight, gaunt wolves crept down to strip these bones also. They rushed from corpse to corpse, gnashing their yellow fangs, and before the sun went down another record of the plains and hills was hidden from sight of the traveler.— Ji. Y. Hun.