378 The Winning of the West 



the position held by the white riflemen. In one in 

 stance fifty men under Major Geo. H. Forsyth beat 

 back nine hundred warriors, killing or wounding 

 double their own number. In the other a still more 

 remarkable defence was made by thirty-one men 

 under Major James Powell against an even larger 

 force which charged again and again, and did not 

 accept their repulse as final until they had lost three 

 hundred of their foremost braves. For years the 

 Sioux spoke with bated breath of this battle as the 

 "medicine fight," the defeat so overwhelming that 

 it could be accounted for only by supernatural 

 interference. 2 



But no such victory was ever gained over moun 

 tain or forest Indians who had become accustomed 

 to fighting the white men. Every officer who has 

 ever faced these foes has had to spend years in learn 

 ing his work, and has then been forced to see a bit 

 terly inadequate reward for his labors. The officers 

 of the regular army who served in the forests north 

 of the Ohio just after the Revolution had to undergo 

 a strange and painful training; and were obliged to 

 content themselves with scanty and hard-won tri 

 umphs even after this training had been undergone. 



The officers took some time to learn their duties 

 as Indian fighters, but the case was much worse with 

 the rank and file who served under them. From the 

 beginning of our history it often proved difficult 

 to get the best type of native American to go into the 

 regular army save in time of war with a powerful 



* For all this see Dodge's admirable "Our Wild Indians." 



