I do not know just how many soldiers were sent to recover the dead
bodies, but that day there was a general attack made on Captain
Jack, which was kept up from day to day almost as long as the war
lasted.
When it was foggy, as it was nearly all the time, the Indians
almost invariably got the best of the soldiers, from the fact that
they would come out without any clothing on their bodies with a
bunch of sage-brush tied on their heads, and their skins being so
similar in color to that of the lava rocks, that when the fog was
thick, at a distance of thirty or forty yards, it was impossible
to distinguish an Indian from a rock. There were more or less
soldiers killed and wounded every day until the end of the war.
One day only a short time after the assassination of Gen. Canby and
Col. Thomas, the soldiers were attacked in Dry Lake canyon by the
Modocs and were getting badly butchered up.
As I rode along Gen. Wheaton dashed up by my side and said: "Where
can those Indians be and what kind of guns have they? I have been
losing men all day and there has not been an Indian seen." I told
the General I would try and locate them and let him know just
where they were. Taking George Jones and another man by the name
of Owens with me, I rode around on the opposite ridge, dismounted,
and leaving my horse with the other boys, I crawled down among the
rocks.
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