The Epic of the Nez Perce - Page 10

The following data is extracted from Northwestern Fights and Fighters.

up and the Indian camp was shelled with fearful effect. Miles sent word to Howard that he had Joseph corralled at last and that gallant officer dashed off with a few men and joined Miles on the 3rd of October. The weather was very cold and snowy and both sides suffered severely.

Joseph afterward stated that he could have escaped if he had abandoned his women, children, and wounded. Unwilling to do this there was nothing left him but surrender. He gave up the unequal game on the 4th of October. Surely he had fought a good fight! In the battle Miles had lost twenty-four killed and fifty wounded, or over twenty per cent of his force. Joseph had lost seventeen killed. He surrendered eighty-seven warriors, of whom forty were wounded, one hundred and eighty-four squaws, and one hundred and forty-seven children. This was his pathetic message to General Howard:

Tell General Howard that I know his heart. What he told me before - I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Too-hul-hul-suit is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men now, who say "yes" or "no" [that is, vote in council. He who led the young men [Joseph's brother Ollicut] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people - some of them - have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are-perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and to see how many of them I can find; maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs, my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.

Colonel Wood thus describes the scene and pictures the great chieftain:

"It was nearly sunset when Joseph came to deliver himself up. He rode from his camp in the little hollow. His hands were clasped over the pommel of his saddle and his rifle lay across his knees; his head was bowed down. Pressing around him walked five of his warriors; their faces were upturned and earnest as they murmured to him; but he looked neither to the right nor to the left, yet seemed to listen intently. So the little group came slowly up the hill to where General Howard, with an aide-de-camp, and General Miles waited to receive the surrender. As he neared them, Joseph sat erect in the saddle, then gracefully and with dignity swung himself down from his horse, and with an impulsive gesture threw his arm to its full length and offered his rifle to General Howard. The latter motioned him toward General Miles, who received the token of submission.

Those present shook hands with Joseph, whose worn and anxious face lighted with a sad smile as silently he took each offered hand. Then, turning away, he walked to the tent provided for him.

" His scalp-lock was tied with otter fur. The rest of his hair hung in a thick plait on each side of his head. He wore buckskin leggings and a gray woolen shawl, through which were the marks of four or five bullets received in this last conflict. His head and wrist were also scratched with bullets."

Perhaps one of the truest tests of greatness is ability to bear worthily defeat. By any standard Joseph acquitted himself well in this his most trying hour.

Joseph, whose force never amounted to three hundred fighting men, had engaged at different times some two thousand soldiers. Of these one hundred and twenty six had been killed and one hundred and forty wounded. During the long retreat and the hard fighting Joseph had lost one hundred and fifty-one killed and eighty eight wounded. He had fought eleven engagements, five being pitched battles, of which he had won three,

Source: Northwestern Fights and Fighters

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