I answered, “All right, load your pistol and try again, and I will ride by your side and perhaps that will quiet your horse.”

This time he did fine for a green hand at that way of shooting.  The next man I called on fired his pistol before he got near the tree, and his horse commenced to jump, and he dropped his gun.  At that moment Gen. Kerney rode up to us and said to the man, “That is one time, young man, when if you had been in an Indian fight you might have lost your scalp and you surely would have lost your gun.  You must do better than that.  You must all take an interest in what Mr. Drannan is trying to teach you to do, for you will need all the knowledge you can get to protect not only your selves but the whole train before you get to California.  The Indians are all on the war path and you are liable to have a brush with them any day after you leave Fort Kerney, and Mr. Drannan is fully competent to teach you how to meet them, if you will follow his instructions.”

After talking a little longer to the men the Gen. rode away; and I was glad to see that his advice had a good effect on the men; they all seemed anxious to try their hand at shooting instead of being backward as they had been before, and I heard one of them remark to another, “Say, man, we have got to learn to shoot from our horses for that General knows what he is talking about, and now let’s get in and learn as quick as we can.”

After they had all had a try single handed at the mark on the tree I said, “Now men, we will take a shot all together.”

I then made a mark on the ground, about twenty steps from the tree we had been shooting at.  I then said to them, “We will go back to our starting place,” which was about two hundred yards, “then we will form in, line, and we will make a dash as fast as our horses can carry us.  When we reach this mark I have made on the ground I will shout, “Fire!” and every man must be ready to fire together, and be careful that you keep in line together; for if you break your ranks in an Indian fight you are almost sure to lose the battle; this drill will train your horses at the same time it is training you.”

We rode back, formed in line, and made the charge, and I was very much surprised at the way the men all acquitted them selves.  When I gave the word “fire,” the report was almost as one sound, so close were their shots together.  I went up to the tree and I found that every man had the mark.  I told them that they had done exceptionally well.

“It is getting near night, so we will go back to camp and after supper we will practice signaling for one to use in case of danger to the others.”

When we got back to camp Bridger had just finished corralling the whole train, and I was surprised to see how neatly it was done considering the short time they had been drilling; I asked Jim when he would be ready to pull out.  He answered, “I am going to order an early breakfast for tomorrow morning; and we will pull out as soon as we can after we have eaten it.  I want to make it to the crossing of the Platte tomorrow, and it will take us all of the next day to cross the river, and as the river has commenced to rise, the quicker we get across it, the better it will be for us; after we cross the Platte we will have no more trouble with high water until we get to Green river.”