University of Virginia Library

INTRODUCTORY.

The summer of 1864 marked a period of unusual
peril to the daring pioneers seeking homes in the far
West. Following upon the horrible massacres in Minnesota
in 1862, and the subsequent chastisements inflicted
by the expeditions under Generals Sully and
Sibley in 1863, whereby the Indians were driven
from the then western borders of civilization, in
Iowa, Minnesota, and the white settlements of Dakota,
in the Missouri Valley, the great emigrant trails to
Idaho and Montana became the scene of fresh outrages;
and, from the wild, almost inaccessible nature
of the country, pursuit and punishment were impossible.

I was a member of a small company of emigrants,
who were attacked by an overwhelming force of hostile
Sioux, which resulted in the death of a large proportion

of the party, in my own capture, and a horrible
captivity of five months' duration.

Of my thrilling adventures and experience during
this season of terror and privation, I propose to give
a plain, unvarnished narrative, hoping the reader will
be more interested in facts concerning the habits, manners,
and customs of the Indians, and their treatment
of prisoners, than in theoretical speculations and fine-wrought
sentences.

Some explanation is due the public for the delay in
publishing this my narrative. From memoranda, kept
during the period of my captivity, I had completed
the work for publication, when the manuscript was
purloined and published; but the work was suppressed
before it could be placed before the public. After surmounting
many obstacles, I have at last succeeded in
gathering the scattered fragments; and, by the aid of
memory, impressed as I pray no mortal's may ever be
again, am enabled to place the results before, I trust, a
kind-judging, appreciative public.