When on a march it was my custom to ride ahead of the
army, so the morning that we were ready to start back I had given
my orders to the scouts, had mounted, and was just ready to start,
when Lieut. Jackson said: "Wait a minute, Captain, and I will ride
with you."
The reader will understand that by this time the Lieutenant and I
were as intimate friends as though we were brothers, and when he
told me anything I could rely upon it, and I had always made it a
rule to be punctual with him. If he would ask me a question I
would always answer it the best I could, and if I asked him for
any information, if he knew he would tell me. And here I would
like to say that while Gen. Crook bore the name of being a great
Indian fighter, I know for a fact that Lieut. Jackson planned more
victories two to one than Gen. Crook did himself, and had it been
in the Lieutenant's power to have kept those soldiers out of Black
canyon, they never would have entered it.
That morning after we had ridden a short distance he mentioned the
fight and said: "Cap, that was a horrible affair." I said:
"Lieutenant it was not half as bad as I thought it would be, for
when I saw you go down there I did not expect to see half of the
boys come back." He said: "Had it not been for the infantry coming
to our rescue just when it did not a horse would have come out of
the canyon, and but very few soldiers.
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