Clir llfiilU'lii llioiiiit.iiiDi ir,.,,! iiK llirdiiiiir V.l'iift.s jii (Lit. 



Figure 5. — The Wichita Mountains horn Mctlicine Bluffs, Indian Tcrritorv. 

 {USNM 284188; Smithsonian pholo 42880.) 



ennc, and Aiapahoes in October. This historic 

 meeting Stieffel witnessed and depicted with con- 

 siderable color and attention to detail (figs. 3, 4j. 



After another period of hospital duty at Fort Harker 

 (figs. 6, 7), Stieffel went in the field, for what appears 

 to have been the last time, as a member of a wagon- 

 train escort to Medicine Bluff, Indian Territory 

 (present day Oklahoma), where General Sheridan 

 was establishing Fort Sill on the southern edge of the 

 Wichita Mountains.''' This picturesque overhang of 

 Medicine Bluff Creek, a small tributary of the Red 

 River, was the subject of one of Stieffel's landscapes 

 and perhaps his finest single work (fig. 5). 



After this brief interlude in the wilderness, Stieffel 

 went back to his hospital work. Then in September 



" lbid.,iuw 30, 1868; February 28, 1869; .\pril 30, 1869. 



1873, following a change of station lor C^ompany K 

 from Harker to Fort Leavenworth, he went in deser- 

 tion until the following May, being restored to dtUy 

 upon his return, rather strangely, without trial but 

 with loss of pay for the period of his absence."* The 

 only po.ssible e.xplanation for this leniency in a period 

 when court-martial sentences tended to severity 

 could be that since e.xtra-duty men had to be fin'- 

 nished, Stieffel was worth more to the company out 

 of the stockade than in. With Indian unrest increas- 

 ing every man counted.'-' 



'X ft/f/., December 31, 1869; .September 30, 1873; June 30, 

 1874. 



" Company K was almost at full strength at the time, muster- 

 ing 58 enli.sted men of the 60 authorized. Ibid., .September 30, 

 1873; Official Army Register Jor January 1874, Washington, 

 Adjutant General's Office, 1874, p. 260k. 



BULLETIN 22 j: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



