The two messengers were not over four hundred yards from us, and the Indians were only about two hundred yards behind them.  We instantly dashed over the bluffs, and advanced on a gallop towards the Indians.  A running fight lasted several minutes, during which we drove the enemy some little distance and killed three of their number.  The rest of them rode off towards the main body, which had come into plain sight, and halted, upon seeing the skirmish that was going on.  We were about half a mile from General Merritt, and the Indians whom we were chasing suddenly turned upon us, and another lively skirmish took place.  One of the Indians, who was handsomely decorated with all the ornaments usually worn by a war chief when engaged in a fight, sang out to me, in his own tongue: 

“I know you, Pa-he-haska; if you want to fight, come ahead and fight me.”

The chief was riding his horse back and forth in front of his men, as if to banter me, and I concluded to accept the challenge.  I galloped towards him for fifty yards and he advanced towards me about the same distance, both of us riding at full speed, and then, when we were only about thirty yards apart, I raised my rifle and fired; his horse fell to the ground, having been killed by my bullet.

Almost at the same instant my own horse went down, he having stepped into a hole.  The fall did not hurt me much, and I instantly sprang to my feet.  The Indian had also recovered himself, and we were now both on foot, and not more than twenty paces apart.  We fired at each other simultaneously.  My usual luck did not desert me on this occasion, for his bullet missed me, while mine struck him in the breast.  He reeled and fell, but before he had fairly touched the ground I was upon him, knife in hand, and had driven the keen-edged weapon to its hilt in his heart.  Jerking his war-bonnet off, I scientifically scalped him in about five seconds.

The whole affair from beginning to end occupied but little time, and the Indians, seeing that I was some little distance from my company, now came charging down upon me from a hill, in hopes of cutting me off.  General Merritt had witnessed the duel, and realizing the danger I was in, ordered Colonel Mason with Company K to hurry to my rescue.  The order came none too soon, for had it been given one minute later I would have had not less than two hundred Indians upon me.  As the soldiers came up I swung the Indian chieftain’s top-knot and bonnet in the air, and shouted:  “The first scalp for Custer.”

General Merritt, seeing that he could not now ambush the Indians, ordered the whole regiment to charge upon them.  They made a stubborn resistance for a little while, but it was of no use for any eight hundred, or even sixteen hundred Indians to try and check a charge of the gallant old Fifth Cavalry, and they soon came to that conclusion and began a running retreat towards Red Cloud Agency.  For thirty-five