They had an abundance of ammunition, plenty of water, under ground only a short distance, and for food they had their horses and mules.

At night two of the scouts, Tradeau and Stillwell, stole through the lines of the Indians, and started swiftly for Fort Wallace to obtain relief.

It was a dangerous undertaking, but they were brave and experienced scouts.

Stillwell was only nineteen or twenty years old, but he was, in every sense of the word, a thoroughbred frontiersman.
During the night the besieged scouts threw up their breastworks considerably higher and piled the dead animals on top.

They dug down to water, and also stored away a lot of horse and mule meat in the sand to keep it fresh as long as possible.