Miles was about to leave for the Pine Ridge Agency, and take command of
the campaign to put down the Indians.
I was thoroughly familiar with the Bad Lands, and spent an hour or more
in discussing the coming campaign with the general. We both agreed that
the Indians had selected a particularly good country for their
uprising, and an especially good season, as in winter, with the hills
covered with snow, and blizzards of almost daily occurrence, it would
be far harder to hunt them out than in summer, when the troops could
travel easily.
Miles said that Sitting Bull had his camp somewhere within forty or
fifty miles of the Standing Rock Agency, and was haranguing the Indians
thereabout, spreading the Messiah talk and getting them to join him. He
asked me if I could go immediately to Standing Rock and Fort Yates, and
thence to Sitting Bull's camp.
He knew that I was an old friend of the chief, and he believed that if
any one could induce the old fox to abandon his plans for a general war
I could. If I could not dissuade him from the warpath the general was
of the opinion that I might be able to delay him in taking it, so that
troops could be sent into the country in time to prevent a horrible
massacre of the defenseless white settlers, who were already in terror
of their lives.
I knew that this would be the most dangerous undertaking of my career.
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