40 THE PLAINS. 



The cold itself is not intolerable. The danger is from the 

 sharp wind, which drives the cold like icy daggers through 

 the body. Great suffering can always be avoided, if it be 

 possible to get out of the wind. A day which would be 

 death on the high plain, may scarcely be uncomfortably 

 cold in a thicket at the bottom of a deep narrow canon. 

 Indians and old plainsmen understand this perfectly, and 

 nothing but absolute necessity will force either to encounter 

 the risks of a journey on the plain during a storm. At 

 the first symptom of its approach, all speed is made for 

 the nearest deep-wooded canon, where they lie still until 

 the storm is over. 



The army frequently suffers greatly from these storms. 

 It sometimes happens that a marauding and murdering 

 band of Indians escapes during the summer the punish- 

 ment which it deserves. It cannot travel in winter, not 

 only because the Indian is more susceptible to cold than 

 the white, but because his ponies are too poor and weak 

 to carry him. A winter campaign is determined upon. 

 Encumbered with trains, limited in rations, and most 

 especially in forage, it is not always practicable for the 

 troops to halt until the storm expends itself, even did a 

 perfect knowledge of the country enable the officer in 

 command to find a suitable place. At other times some 

 military necessity, arising either from the Indians or 

 from complications of the Indian Department, requires 

 the movement of troops in mid-winter. The amount of 

 suffering in all such cases can hardly be exaggerated. 



While in command of Fort Sedgwick, in 1867, I was 

 required to send a company of the 2nd Cavalry to the 

 Eepublican Eiver in February. It had been gone but a 

 few days when a most violent storm set in. At the proper 

 time the company returned without the loss of a man, but 

 this result was due entirely to the indomitable will and 

 pluck of the captain in command. The company had to 

 march for thirty miles in the teeth of the most terrific 

 gale and blinding snow-storm, and in at least eighteen 



