As it will not be out of place in this connection, I will here give a brief history of that memorable event.
[Illustration: GENERAL PHIL.

SHERIDAN.] The Indians had become quite troublesome, and General Sheridan had selected General George A.Forsyth to go out on an expedition, and punish them for their recent depredations.

There was a scarcity of troops at Fort Hays at that time, so General Forsyth recruited a company of frontiersmen who could move rapidly, as they were to carry no luggage, and were to travel without the ordinary transportation.

Thirty of these frontiersmen came from Fort Harker, and twenty from Fort Hays.

It was certainly a small body of men, but nearly every one of them was an experienced hunter, guide, scout and Indian-fighter, and they could fight the red-skins in their own way.
In four days they were prepared to take the field, and on the morning of the 29th of August, 1868, they rode out of Fort Hays to meet the Indians.
Lieutenant F.H.Beecher, of the Third Infantry, nephew of Henry Ward Beecher, was second in command; Brevet Major-General W.H.H.McCall, who had been in the volunteer army, acted as first sergeant; Dr.John Mowers, of Hays City, who had been a volunteer army surgeon, was the surgeon of the expedition; and Sharpe Grover was the chief guide.
Resting at Fort Wallace, they started September 10th, for the town of Sheridan, thirteen miles distant, where a band of Indians had attacked a train, killed two teamsters, and stolen some cattle.