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In the Land of Burnt Out Fires - Page 6
The following data is extracted from Northwestern Fights and Fighters.
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rocks, each with his arms full of guns. At this Jack stepped from behind Dyer's horse, pistol in hand. He spoke one guttural word, "At-tux!" (All ready!) and as he did so snapped the pistol in Canby's face. The revolver missed fire. The General started toward the Modoc, but Jack recocked the pistol with the barrel almost touching the old soldier and pulled the trigger. The bullet struck Canby under the eye. Dazed, he staggered back.
Dr. Thomas had been kneeling on one knee, his hand on Meacham's shoulder. He had just made an eloquent plea for peace. Boston Charley deliberately shot him through the breast. Schonchin shot Meacham while the others opened fire upon Dyer and Riddle. To each Indian had been apportioned a victim. Dyer had risen and was standing some few feet away from the fire. He and Riddle ran for their lives, hotly pursued by the Indians. Bullets cut the air about them. One grazed Dyer. Hooker Jim drew near to him. His pursuit was checked by a shot from Dyer's derringer. He and Riddle succeeded in escaping. Meacham snapped his pistol at Schonchin, wounding him slightly. He was instantly shot by half a dozen Indians, receiving five wounds.
Canby was shot twice more, once by Ellen's Man. Toby was knocked over by the butt of Sloluck's rifle and would have been killed had it not been for a threat of Scar-faced Charley, who said that he would shoot the first man who touched her. He was attached to Toby for some reason and was watching the scene from a hiding-place in easy range. General Canby had gone but a short distance when he was shot dead. Dr. Thomas, unable to move, raised himself on one arm, and put out his hand in faint protest, exclaiming:
"Don't shoot again, Charley. I am a dead man already."
"Damn ye," returned the Indian, who spoke English, "may be you believe next time what squaw tell you." He shot the dying man again and again until life was gone.
The Indians stripped Canby, Thomas, and Meacham, and Boston Charley started to scalp the latter who was thought to be dead. He had made a long cut in the head and prepared to tear away the scalp when Toby, to whom Mr. Meacham had been very kind, raised herself from the ground where she had been lying tremblingly awaiting her doom, and shouted with quick wit, "Soldiers are coming!" The murderers fled instantly to the lava-beds. The tragedy was over.1
While all this was going on another band of Indians had approached the camp of Colonel Mason on the east side and had requested a parley with him. The officer of the day, Lieut. Walter Sherwood, met them with Lieut. W. H. Boyle. The Indians opened fire upon them at once. Sherwood was mortally wounded and Boyle escaped by the skin of his teeth. The plan had been for the Indians to kill all the commissioners and ranking officers in the belief that by so doing the soldiers would withdraw and their freedom would be achieved.
The cowardly attack on Lieutenant Sherwood was signaled from Mason's camp to the station on the bluff. Scarcely had the message been received when the officers there discovered that the peace commissioners had been attacked. Scrambling down the bluffs they burst into Colonel Gillem's tent with the dire news. The sound of the firing had been heard throughout the camp. The soldiers, without orders, sprang to arms, yet there were moments of unaccountable delay. The advance was not made promptly. There was some question as to Gillem's course later on. Finally, the several companies and troops went forward on the double quick. Sergeant Wooten, with twenty men of K Troop, First Cavalry, led the advance without orders. They arrived too late, of course. There was nothing to be done but bring back the dead bodies and the wounded Meacham. His life was despaired of, but he finally recovered.
It was plain now to every one that the Modocs must be subdued at whatever cost. Colonel Gillem and Major Mason attacked the lava-beds on the 14th. There were three days of fierce fighting exactly of the character of Wheaton's battle. This time the soldiers were reinforced by several mortars, which finally got the range of Jack's Stronghold and threw shell after shell into it. One of the shells did not explode. The Indians seized it and, their curiosity excited, tried to open it and find out what it was. One Indian attempted to draw the plug
1 In writing about the Modoc War I hope you will not get the two Thomases mixed. The other Thomas was Dr. Thomas, the Methodist preacher from Petaluma, who had been appointed a member of the Peace Commission of which Meacham was chairman, and who was butchered at the council tent. He made the mistake, in the absence of the chairman, of promising a committee of Modocs that the commission would go out and hold a talk with them the neat day. Toby Riddle, the Modoc wife of Frank Riddle, warned them that they were to be killed, and from what I have heard from soldiers I should judge that Meacham did all he could to prevent the commission going out. When Meacham was superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon and Washington, he issued an order compelling all white men living on reservations with squaws either legally to marry them or get off the reserves. This resulted in Toby being made a legal wife and she always felt grateful to Meacham for it. Everybody said she made a good wife. She saved Meacham from being completely killed.
They used to illustrate the strength of commissary whisky in the army by telling that when Dr. Cabiness, contract surgeon and a very brave man, was reviving Meacham with the whisky, the latter refused to take it and said that he was a teetotaler and had taken the pledge. Cabiness replied, "Damn it, if that's the case, pry his teeth apart and pour canteen and all down him," which was done as nearly as possible. That kind of whisky is said to have had sufficiently strong reviving qualities to set equestrian statues of General Jackson cavorting around single-footed on their Pedestals. Note By J. W. Redington.
Source: Northwestern Fights and Fighters
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