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Show INDIAN DEPREDATIONS 267 MAJOR VANCE AND SOT. HOUTZ KILLED AT TWELVE MILE CREEK. On the 2nd of June, 1867, Major John W. Vance ( of Alpine, Utah County) Brigade Adjutant on Gen-eral William B. Pace's staff, was returning with Captain Orson P. Miles, Sergeant Heber Houtz, and Nathan Tanner, Jr., of the Hiles Company from a military drill at Manti to headquarters at Gun-nison, at dusk, while halting at Twelve Mile Creek to let their horses drink, they were fired on by ambushed Indians at close range; at the first shot Major Vance and his horse fell dead, and Sergeant Houtz with a groan also fell from his steed as the animal wheeled suddenly out of the creek. Believ-ing their companions both dead, Captain Miles and young Tanner rode rapidly back to Manti, where a detachment under Lieutenant M. H. Davis of Salt Lake County was ordered to recover the bodies of the dead men. Vance was found pierced with two bullets and lying where he fell within a few feet of the creek; Houtz had evidently recovered himself a moment after the first fire, for his body shot with two bul-lets and several arrows lay about ifive hundred yards from the scene of the ambush. The remains of the deceased were reverently conveyed to their respective homes, where obsequies were conducted over Major Vance on the 5th and Sergeant Houtz on the 6th of June, 1867. The services closed with military honors. |