twenty. The enemy's loss, thought to be quite severe, was not ascertained. While the combat was not a sanguinary one, it was decidedly picturesque, and as the twilight fell the skirmish line could be distinctly traced around the entire circle by the flashes from the muskets and carbines as they were discharged. The capture of the village at day-break was a Third Cavalry success, but the entire command participated in the afternoon skirmish with Crazy Horse. A Seventh Cavalry guidon, Captain Keogh's gauntlets, cavalry saddles, uniforms, and three horses belonging to the Seventh Cavalry were found in the village, which seemed to prove that Roman Nose and his followers had participated in Custer's last battle on the Little Big Horn. A quantity of dried meat and four hundred ponies were captured, which afforded a happy change from the horse meat upon which the officers and men had been subsisting for several days. The command resumed the march next morning, leaving the first battalion of the regiment, under Major Upham, to destroy the village. The enemy renewed the attack with great vigor before the rear of the main column was out of sight; but after receiving a severe punishment they withdrew, and nothing more was seen of them. On the night of the 10th Captain Mills was again sent forward with fifty men who were mounted on the strongest of the captured ponies. He arrived at Crook City without accident or detention, and on the 13th started supplies to meet the command. The march of the 12th of September a day never to be forgotten from Owl Creek to Crook City, is known as "the mud march," during which scores of horses were abandoned, and starving and exhausted men despairingly gave up and were with the utmost difficulty persuaded to proceed. It was not until after midnight that the rear guard (Company I) arrived at the bivouac on Crow creek. On the morning of the 12th, Major Upham, several officers, and one hundred and fifty men of the regiment were detached, with two ponies for rations, to examine the country east of the command. They rejoined on Belle Fourche on the 14th, having lost one man killed by the enemies. On the 13th of September, the weary and well-nigh exhausted command forded the Belle Fourche and encamped in a beautiful grove. Pluck had won the race against starvation, for over the Hills came a herd of beef-cattle, and a few minutes later, a number of supply wagons sent by the citizens of Deadwood, were seen approaching the camp. The command rested several days in Whitewood valley, where Crook City now stands, and Gen. Crook and command visited Deadwood. The officers were entertained by the citizens in the most hospitable manner. On September the 27th, Gen. Crook sent the following letter to Deadwood: "HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PLATTE, OMAHA, September the 27th, 1876. GENTLEMEN: At this the earliest moment I desire to acknowledge the courtesy of the resolution passed by your honorable body; inviting me to accept the hospitality of your city and likewise to express in behalf of myself and staff, a most grateful appreciation of kindness bestowed upon us while with you. To your Mayor, Hon. E. B. Farnum aud Messrs. Kurtz, Philbrook and Dawson, for the thorough manner in which their duties as a committee were carried out, I desire to make known our feeling of lasting indebtedYour obedient servant, ness. GEO. CROOK, Brigadier-General. To the Mayor and Council of Deadwood." From Whitewood valley, Crook's command moved by easy marches to Custer City and encamped in that vicinity until the 14th of October, when the regiment, with detachments of the Second and Third Cavalry, aggregating about eight hundred officers and men under Colonel Merritt, made a reconnoissance down the south fork of the Cheyenne river to the mouth of Rapid creek, and then returned to the Custer City and Red Cloud road, near Buffalo-Gap, and proceeded thence to Fort Niobrara, Neb., where the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition was disbanded on the 14th of October, and in a farewell address, Gen. Crook addressed himself to the officers and men as follows: "In the campaign now closed I have been obliged to call upon you for much hard service and many sacrifices of personal comfort. At times you have been out of reach of your base of supplies in most inclement weather, and have marched without food or sleep - without shelter. In your engagements you have evinced a high order of discipline and courage; in your marches wonderful powers of endurance; and in your deprivations and hardships, patience and fortitude. "Indian warfare is of all warfares the most dangerous, the most trying and the most thankless. Not recognized by the high authority of the United States Congress as war, it still possesses for you all the disadvantages of civilized warfare with all the horrible accompaniments that barbarism can invent and savages execute. In it you are required to serve without the incentive of promotion or recognition, in truth without favor or the hope of reward. The people of our sparsely settled frontier in whose defense you have labored have but little influence with the powerful communities in the East; their representatives have little voice in our national councils; while your savage foes are not only the wards of the Government and supported in idleness by the nation, but objects of sympathy with large numbers of people otherwise well-informed and discerning. You may therefore congratulate yourselves that in the performance of your military duty you have been on the side of the weak against the strong, and that the few people on the frontier will remember your efforts with gratitude. "GENERAL GEORGE CROOK." Indian depredations continued in the valleys along the foot-hills till February, 1877, when Major Vroom and a battalion of the Third Cavalry was ordered out from Fort Belle Fourche on the 14th, having lost one man killed by the enemies. On the 13th of September, the weary and well-nigh exhausted command forded the Belle Fourche and encamped in a beautiful grove. Pluck had won the race against starvation, for over the Hills came a herd of beef-cattle, and a few minutes later, a number of supply wagons sent by the citizens of Deadwood, were seen approaching the camp. The command rested several days in Whitewood valley, where Crook City now stands, and Gen. Crook and command visited Deadwood. The officers were entertained by the citizens in the most hospitable manner. On September the 27th, Gen. Crook sent the following letter to Deadwood: "HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PLATTE, OMAHA, September the 27th, 1876. GENTLEMEN: At this the earliest moment I desire to acknowledge the courtesy of the resolution passed by your honorable body; inviting me to accept the hospitality of your city and likewise to express in behalf of myself and staff, a most grateful appreciation of kindness bestowed upon us while with you. To your Mayor, Hon. E. B. Farnum and Messrs. Kurtz, Philbrook and Dawson, for the thorough manner in which their duties as a committee were carried out, I desire to make known our feeling of lasting indebtedYour obedient servant, ness. GEO. CROOK, Brigadier-General. To the Mayor and Council of Deadwood." From Whitewood valley, Crook's command moved by easy marches to Custer City and encamped in that vicinity until the 14th of October, when the regiment, with detachments of the Second and Third Cavalry, aggregating about eight hundred officers and men under Colonel Merritt, made a reconnoissance down the south fork of the Cheyenne river to the mouth of Rapid creek, and then returned to the Custer City and Red Cloud road, near Buffalo-Gap, and proceeded thence to Fort Niobrara, Neb., where the Big Horn and Yellowstone Expedition was disbanded on the 14th of October, and in a farewell address, Gen. Crook addressed himself to the officers and men as follows: "In the campaign now closed I have been obliged to call upon you for much hard service and many sacrifices of personal comfort. At times you have been out of reach of your base of supplies in most inclement weather, and have marched without food or sleep-- without shelter. In your engagements you have evinced a high order of discipline and courage; in your marches wonderful powers of endurance; and in your deprivations and hardships, patience and fortitude. "Indian warfare is of all warfares the most dangerous, the most trying and the most thankless. Not recognized by the high authority of the United States Congress as war, it still possesses for you all the disadvantages of civilized warfare with all the horrible accompaniments that barbarism can invent and savages execute. In it you are required to serve without the incentive of promotion or recognition, in truth without favor or the hope of reward. The people of our sparsely settled frontier in whose defense you have labored have but little influence with the powerful communities in the East; their representatives have little voice in our national councils; while your savage foes are not only the wards of the Government and supported in idleness by the nation, but objects of sympathy with large numbers of people otherwise well-informed and discerning. You may therefore congratulate yourselves that in the performance of your military duty you have been on the side of the weak against the strong, and that the few people on the frontier will remember your efforts with gratitude. "GENERAL GEORGE CROOK." Indian depredations continued in the valleys along the foot-hills till February, 1877, when Major Vroom and a battalion of the Third Cavalry was ordered out from Fort |