Volume 1

THE TONGUE RIVER MASSACRE. 261
island of wood on Tongue river, about a mile distant, and
on a direct line toward the fort. The men took their arms
and made off also, keeping in the rear of their women and
children, whom they urged on. The four surviving men
a mile when they saw
had not gone more than a quarter of
the main body of the war party on horseback rushing down
upon them. Crossing Tongue river, and in a few moments
coming up with them, the Sioux began to fire. The four
men by expert manoeuvres and incessant fire prevented the
enemy from closing in on them, while the women and children
continued to fly, and the men followed. They were
within about 200 paces of the wood, and some of the most
active had actually entered it, when the enemy surrounded
and fell upon them. Three of the Saulteurs fled in different
directions ; Grande Gueule escaped before they were completely
surrounded, but the other two were killed. The
one who remained to protect the
women and children was
a brave fellow—Aceguemanche, or Little Chief ; he waited
deliberately until the enemy came very near, when he fired
at one who appeared to be the chief, and knocked the
Sioux from his horse. Three young girls and a boy were
taken prisoners
; the remainder were all murdered, and
mutilated in a horrible manner. Several women and children
had escaped in the woods, where the enemy chased
them on horseback ;
but the willows and brush were so
intricate that every one of these escaped. A boy about 12
years old, whom a Sioux pursued, crawled into a hollow
under a bunch of willows, which the horseman leaped over
without perceiving him. One of the little girls who escaped
tells a pitiful story of her mother, who was killed. This
woman, having two young children that could not walk fast
enough, had taken one of them on her back and prevailed
upon her sister-in-law to carry the other. But when they
got near the woods and the
enemy rushed upon them with
hideous yells and war whoops, the young woman was so
frightened that she threw down the child, and soon overtook
the mother ; who, observing that the child was missing,