102 THE RED INDIAN AS A WARRIOR. 



subject. Colonel Dodge for example, thus speaks of 

 his Indian adversary " Red Cloud, " head chief of the 

 Ogallalla Sioux; against whom he served in Montana, 

 and who with conspicuous skill 



" avoiding any general or even serious engagement, so harassed 

 all trains and expeditions that the few troops then in the 

 country could scarcely be said to hold even the ground they 

 stood upon. Several forts were established, and they protected 

 only what was inside the palisades. A load of fuel could 

 not be cut outside without a conflict. This at last culminated 

 in the terrible massacre of Fort Phil Kearney, in which half 

 the garrison perished to a man."* 



Now Colonel Dodge with his long experience among 

 the Indians of the Great West, we regard as an un- 

 impeachable witness in such matters. No authority 

 stands before his, and surely it would be difficult for 

 one warrior to speak of another in higher terms 

 of praise (in a military sense) than these. The poor 

 Indian, fighting for the hunting grounds of his 

 fathers, it must be remembered, had neither forts 

 nor arsenals, nor hospitals, nor magazines to fall 

 back upon. His basis of operations was the desert, 

 and his scanty supplies were drawn from the stores 

 which the Great Spirit above had liberally granted 

 everywhere for the use of man and beast; but beyond 

 that he had nothing but what he could carry with 

 him upon his own person. That being so, he never 

 had supplies sufficient to maintain any considerable 

 force together for any length of time in one place. 

 Savage warfare is therefore necessarily reduced to a 

 war of outposts and detachments, operating independ- 



* The Plains of the Great West, by Lt.-Col. Richard J. Dodge, 

 U.S.A., 1877, p. 269- 



