- ennes—a Winter Campaign in Wyoming") the curious reader
is referred; but at the present time, as the country operated in was precisely the same as that gone over during the preceding winter and herein described—as the Indians in hostility were the same, with the same habits and peculiarities, I can condense this section to a recapitulation of the forces engaged, the fights fought, and the results thereof, as well as a notice of the invaluable services rendered by the Indian scouts, of whom Crook was now able to enlist all that he desired, the obstructive element—the Indian agent—having been displaced. Although this command met with severe weather, as its predecessor had done, yet it was so well provided and had such a competent force of Indian scouts that the work to be done by the soldiers was reduced to the zero point; had Crook's efforts to enlist some of the Indians at Red Cloud Agency not been frustrated by the agent and others in the spring, the war with the hostile Sioux and Cheyennes would have been over by the 4th of July, instead of dragging its unsatisfactory length along until the second winter and entailing untold hardships and privations upon officers and men and swelling the death roll of the settlers.
The organization with which Crook entered upon his second winter campaign was superb in equipment; nothing was lacking that money could provide or previous experience suggest. There were eleven companies of cavalry, of which only one—"K," of the Second (Egan's)—had been engaged in previous movements, but all were under excellent discipline and had seen much service in other sections.
Besides Egan's there were "H" and "K," of the Third, "B," "D," "E," "F," "I," and "M," of the Fourth, and "H" and "L," of the Fifth Cavalry. These were placed under the command of Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, of the Fourth Cavalry.
Colonel R. I. Dodge, Twenty-third Infantry, commanded the infantry and artillery companies, the latter serving as foot troops; his force included Batteries "C," "F," "H," and "K," of the Fourth Artillery; Companies "A," "B," "C," "F," "I," and "K," of the Ninth Infantry; "D" and "G," of the Fourteenth Infantry; and "C," "G," and "I," of the Twenty-third Infantry.
General Crook's personal staff was composed of myself as
