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Show THE NOBLE RED MAN. 547 circumference of a circle about three hundred miles wide, to concen-trate near the center where the hostiles were supposed to be. Crook first found the enemy. On the 8th of June, his force had a skirmish with the Sioux, and repulsed them. A week later his Indian scouts reported that they had seen Gibbon's command on the other side of. the hostile Sioux, on the Tongue River. On the 16th Crook pushed rapidly forward towards the hostiles. Next morning Sitting Bull attacked his camp in great force and with astonishing vigor. It was not exactly a surprise, but all must agree that Crook gained no advantage, and that Sitting Bull handled his forces admirably. Twice during the action he succeeded in getting his warriors into positions where they poured an enfilading fire into Crook's command. Mean-while Generals Terry and Gibbon had communicated, and the latter had shown, by thorough scouting, that the hostiles were as yet all south of the Yellowstone. A glance at the map will show that the Powder, Tongue, Rosebud, and Big Horn run north into the Yellowstone, and the Little Horn into the Big Horn ; and that, after these various scouts, it was certain the hostiles were somewhere on those streams. Accord-ingly Terry commenced scouting for them in that direction. So far the general plan had worked well ; its defect now appeared to be that Gibbon and Terry were separated from Crook by at least a hundred miles of mountainous country, and that in that region somewhere were the hostiles, in good position to move either way. The whole object of this plan was to prevent the Indians getting away without a fight, and as to that it was a perfect success. The contingency of the In-dians being well prepared for a fight had apparently not been consid-ered. Careful scouting narrowed the field, and finally it was decided that the Indians were either on the head of the Rosebud or on the Little Horn, a ridge about fifteen miles wide separating the two streams. Terry and Gibbon, on the Yellowstone, near the mouth of Tongue River, then held a council, and decided that Glister's column should be pushed forward to strike the first blow. Crook was too far south to be considered in this arrangement at all. The general plan is briefly stated in Terry's dispatch to General Sheridan, from the for-mer's camp at the mouth of Rosebud, just before the final movement, as follows: Traces of a large and recent camp of Indians have been discovered twenty or thirty miles up the Rosebud. Gibbon's column will move this morning on the north side of the Yellowstone ( see map), where it will be ferried across by the supply steamer, and Vhence it will proceed to the mouth of the Little Horn, and so on. Ciister will go up |