The Templeton Massacre: Arrow and Saber Book 4 by Robert Vaughan

Author:Robert Vaughan [Vaughan, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781641194686
Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing
Published: 2018-11-13T23:00:00+00:00

9

Instead of sending out a rescue column each day, Colonel Cavanaugh decided to beef up the woodcutting detail’s guard by deploying twenty-five infantry and twenty-five cavalry. For three days, the Sioux did not attack.

“They know we’re there in force and they don’t dare show their shiny, red asses!” Major Templeton asserted, after the wood detail had returned to the fort for the sixth day in a row with no attacks by the hostiles.

The snow had melted down, and travel was getting easier, but there were still three-foot drifts deep in the parts of the forest too dense for the sun to reach.

The logs came in. Crews worked half the day sawing them into eighteen-inch chunks and then splitting them into firewood. Gradually they inched ahead to a thirty-one- and then a thirty-two-day supply of wood. The warmer weather helped a little, but the temperature still dipped well below freezing every night.

On the tenth day, Colonel Cavanaugh began to wonder if the Sioux had holed up in their winter camps. He cut back the work force to four wagons, sixteen choppers, and a dozen mounted guards. At approximately ten-thirty that morning, a signal flashed from the heliograph on Sullivant Hills. The Sioux were attacking with a hundred warriors.

This time it was a scramble. Lieutenant Oberholtzer led the relief party of fifty men, half of them mounted, the rest infantry. He received permission to lead out with the cavalry, leaving Lieutenant Ihander to follow with the troops. The cavalry would be at the scene in thirty minutes. It would take the walking troops an hour to make the three miles.

“Splitting his force,” Major Templeton growled as the men left.

“This way the relief column should get there before the wood party is wiped out,” Colonel Cavanaugh rasped. “That seems a timely consideration.”

Lieutenant Oberholtzer had the best of the cavalry behind him as he cantered, trotted, and cantered again over the well-worn trail, keeping his troops two abreast to take advantage of the beaten track. He pushed the horses, knowing the trip was only three miles. They were within sight of the wagons in twenty-four minutes by Oberholtzer’s watch, and he ordered the attack bugle call sounded. The cavalry guard that had accompanied the woodcutters were inside the encircled wagons. The soldiers fired at several dozen attacking Indians, using the logs which had been loaded on the wagons as cover.

“Charge!” Lieutenant Oberholtzer bellowed. His men tramped through the snow directly at the hostiles. The first volley dislodged a dozen Sioux, who charged away to the north along the edge of the hills. The twelve cavalry men inside the circle of wagons mounted and joined the pursuit.

The hostiles edged away from the confrontation more reluctantly this time, fighting from tree to tree. They fell back toward the trail over the ridge. Three troopers pounded around a pair of pine trees and charged three Sioux who seemed unsure of their direction. One produced a rifle and fired. The middle cavalryman screamed and flew out of his saddle.

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