by the hostiles, numbering, it is believed, between two hundred and fifty and three hundred warriors, who had been lying in ambush.

The scene of the attack was peculiarly fitted for the Indian method of warfare.  When Thornburgh’s command entered the ravine or canyon they found themselves between two bluffs thirteen hundred yards apart.  Those on the north were two hundred feet high, those on the south one hundred feet.  The road to the agency ran through the ravine in a southeasterly direction, following the bend of the Milk River, at a distance of five hundred yards.  Milk River is a narrow, shallow stream, which here flows in a southwesterly direction, passing through a narrow canyon.  Through this canyon, after making a detour to avoid some very difficult ground, the wagon-road passes for three or four miles.  Along the stream is a growth of cottonwood trees; but its great advantage as an ambuscade lies in the narrowness of the canyon.  On the top of the two ranges of bluffs the Indians had intrenched themselves in a series of pits, so that when the troops halted at the first volley, they stood between two fires at a range of only six hundred and fifty yards from either bluff.

The battle took place on the morning of September 29.  The locality of the ambush had been known as Bad Canyon, but it will hereafter be described as Thornburgh’s Pass.  Lieutenant Cherry discovered the ambush, and was ordered by Major Thornburgh to hail the Indians.  He took fifteen men of E Company for this work.  Major Thornburgh’s orders were not to make the first fire on the Indians, but to wait an attack from them.  After the Indians and Cherry’s hailing party had faced each other for about ten minutes, Mr. Rankin, the scout, who was an old Indian fighter, seeing the danger in which the command was placed, hurried direct to Major Thornburgh’s side and requested him to open fire on the enemy, saying at the same time that that was their only hope.  Major Thornburgh replied:—­

“My God!  I dare not; my orders are positive, and if I violate them and survive, a court-martial and ignominious dismissal may follow.  I feel as though myself and men were to be murdered.”

Major Thornburgh, with Captain Payne, was riding at the head of the column; Company F, Fifth Cavalry, in advance; Lieutenant Lawson commanding next; and D Company, Fifth Cavalry, Lieutenant Paddock commanding, about a mile and a half to the rear, in charge of the wagon-train.

Cherry had moved out at a gallop with his men from the right flank, and noticed a like movement of about twenty Indians from the left of the Indians’ position.  He approached to within two hundred yards of the Indians and took off his hat and waved it, but the response was a shot fired at him, wounding a man of the party and killing his horse.  This was the first shot, and was instantly followed by a volley from the Indians.  The work