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"Attempting to ascend the bluffs at one point, Maj. [Joel H.] Elliott was fearful that we were to close to the Indian village, and that the Indians would either hear our horses crushing through the snow or else see us outlined against the sky, and so he countermarched the column (no orders were given, exceot by signs or in a low tone) and ascended the bluffs at a point more remote from the village. We now moved on until we were behind a towering bluff, which rose on our right, about, as we supposed, opposite the point on the stream where the village was located. Here Major Elliott halted the command and requested me to go with him to the summit to make observations; we dismounted, and leaving our horses with an orderly, climbed to the top of the bluff and lying down on the snow, looked down into the valley below and endeavored to make out the location of the village (which, as we afterwards found, was directly in front of us on the stream below, and no more than half a mile distant), but the night was so dark that we could see nothing except the dark outline of the timber along the stream."
1. Richard G. Hardorff, Washita Memories, pg. 112. |
Last updated: February 24, 2015