54^ The Book of Woodcraft 



On the twentieth, Captain Wessells's command was joined 

 by Lieutenant Dodd and a large band of Sioux scouts. 



Tuesday, the twenty-first (January, 1879), saw the finish. 



At a point on the Hat Creek Bluffs, near the head of War 

 Bonnet Creek, forty-four miles a Httle to the south of west 

 of Fort Robinson, the Cheyennes lay at bay in their last 

 entrenchment, worn out with travel and fighting, and with 

 scarcely any ammunition left. 



They were in a washout about fifty feet long, twelve feet 

 wide, and five feet deep; near the edge of the bluffs. 



Skirmishers were thrown out beneath them on the slope 

 of the bluff to prevent their escape in that direction, and 

 then Captain Wessells advanced on the washout, with his 

 men formed in open skirmish order. 



A summons through the interpreter to surrender was 

 answered by a few scattering shots from the washout. 



Converging on the washout in this charge, the troopers 

 soon were advancing in such a dense body that nothing 

 saved them from terrible slaughter but the exhaustion of the 

 Cheyennes' ammunition. 



Charging to the edge of the pit, the troopers emptied their 

 carbines into it, sprang back to reload, and then came on 

 again, while above the crash of the rifles arose the hoarse 

 death chants of the expiring band. 



The last three warriors alive — and God knows they de- 

 serve the name of warriors if ever men deserved it — sprang 

 out of their defences, one armed with an empty pistol and 

 two with knives, and madly charged the troops! 



Three men charged three hundred ! 



They fell, shot to pieces like men fallen under platoon fire. 



And then the fight was over. 



The little washout was a shambles, whence the troops 

 removed twenty- two dead and nine living, and of the living 

 all but two (women) were badly wounded ! 



