Lawson and company, the retreat being covered by Lieutenant Cherry’s command.  Hemmed in at both outlets of the pass and subjected to a steady deathly fire from the heights on either side, the troops were melting down under the savage massacre.

Major Thornburgh, seeing the terrible danger in which his command was placed from the position of the Indians, at once mounted about twenty men, and at the head of them he dashed forward with a valour unsurpassed by Napoleon at the Bridge of Lodi, and made a charge on the savages between the command and the train.

It was in this valorous dash that Thornburgh met his fate, thirteen of his bold followers also being killed, the gallant leader falling within four hundred yards of the wagons.  The remainder of the command, then in retreat for the train corral, followed the path led by Thornburgh and his men.  As Captain Payne’s company was about to start, or had started, his saddle-girth broke and he got a fearful fall.  One of his men dismounted and assisted him on his horse, the captain’s horse having run away.  F Company, Fifth, followed by the captain, he being badly bruised, reached the wagon-train to find it being packed, and Lieutenant Paddock wounded, and fighting the Indians.  Lieutenants Lawson and Cherry fell back slowly with their companies dismounted and fighting all the way, every man doing his duty.

The stubborn resistance of Lieutenant Cherry in covering the retreat gave time for the troops at the train to form temporary breastworks of men’s bundles, flour, sacks of corn, wagons, and dead horses.  When the last detachment had reached the Paddock corral the soldiers fought intrenched, horses being shot down rapidly and the foe settling into position on all the high points about them.  Captain Payne, who by Thornburgh’s death came into command, drew up eight of the wagons and ranged them as a sort of a breastwork along the northern and eastern sides of an oval, at the same time cutting transverse trenches on the western and southern points of the oval, along the line of which the men posted themselves.  Inside the oval eight more wagons were drawn up for the purpose of corralling the animals, and there was also a pit provided for sheltering the wounded.  Behind the pits ran a path to the nearest bend of Milk River, which was used for obtaining water.  The command held its position until 8:30 o’clock that night, when the Indians withdrew.

In the engagement there were twelve soldiers killed and forty-two wounded.  Every officer in the command was shot with the exception of Lieutenant Cherry, of the Fifth Cavalry.  The Indians killed from one hundred and fifty to two hundred mules belonging to the government.  Surgeon Grimes was wounded but was able for duty.  The troops had about six days’ supplies.[57]

One of the greatest chiefs of the Ute Nation was Ouray.  His character was marked by its keen perception,