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287 Series I Volume XLVIII-I Serial 101 - Powder River Expedition Part I

Page 287 Chapter LX. SKIRMISH AT VALLEY MINES, MO.

Lieutenant S. Bodwell and eighty-five men, I started for the scene of action, forty miles distant. At Split Rock I found the telegraph line down, fifty feet gone. Reached Three Crossings at 8 p. m. and found that the Indians had done no injury further than stealing one horse from the station. They withdrew and crossed the Sweetwater River at 4 p. m. and immediately left the vicinity. My command rested till daylight the 21st, when with twenty men I crossed the river and followed the trail fifteen miles across an extensive plain, satisfying myself from their movements-first, by their withdrawing fro the station at so early an hour and apparent hurried manner, as reported by the garrison, and their having not camped the ensuing night-that they had information of my pursuit. I saw none, but estimate them at 200. Their trail went directly toward Wind River, where I think they now are and where their families may be found. I arrived in return at this station on the 22nd instant at 8 p. m. Whole distance traveled, 110 miles.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

JAS. E. GREER,

Captain, Commanding Station.

Lieutenant I. I. TABER,

Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.

MAY 20-22, 1865. -Scout from Camp Plumb, Dak. Ter.

Report of Lieutenant Jacob Van Antwerp, Eleventh Kansas Cavalry.

CAMP PLUMB, MUD CREEK, DAK. TER., May 22, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to make the following report of a scout made in pursuance of verbal orders from Colonel P. B. Plumb:

I started with a detachment of twenty-four men from Second Battalion, Eleventh Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, on the evening of the 20th of May, 1865, moving in a southeast direction to the Red Buttes, on Deer Creek, thence east to Box Elder Canon, thence north to the North Platte River, at which place I saw a party of about 100 Indians upon the opposite bank of the river. The water being too high to ford I could avail nothing attacking the party, so I returned to these headquarters May 22, having marched a distance of over eighty miles. I saw nothing of Indians or Indian signs near Red Buttes or Box Elder Canon.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

JACOB VAN ANTWERP,

First Lieutenant Company L, Eleventh Kansas Cavalry.

Major N. A. ADAMS,

Commanding Second Battalion, Eleventh Kansas Cav. Vols.

MAY 22, 1865. -Skirmish at Valley Mines, Mo.

Report of Captain Henry Bailey, Fifty-first Wisconsin Infantry.

DE SOTO, Mo., May 22, 1865.

This morning at 7. 30 o'clock Sam Hilderbrand and four men were attacked at Valley Mines, while robbing a store, by the U. S. troops stationed at Big River Mills, and one man killed by our troops, a large, black-haired man, said to live when at home south of Farmington; also


Page 287 Chapter LX. SKIRMISH AT VALLEY MINES, MO.