It was a fortunate matter that the savages were armed principally with bows and arrows, there being very few rifles among them.  Had it been otherwise, had the Indians been armed with repeating rifles, as were the whites, it is probable that not a single soldier would have been left to tell the story.  The Indians filled the air with flights of arrows, but woe to the Indian who came within range of the deadly rifles!  Many shafts with spent force fell harmlessly among the soldiers.  Many inflicted slight wounds, and some were fatal.  Some of the whites were killed by bullets, some by arrows.

Re-enforcements from the fort finally opened an avenue of escape for the remaining whites, and eighteen of the forty men who went out in the morning came back; the rest were killed, scalped, and mutilated by the savages!  Their bodies, however, were recovered and buried on the side of the bluff just south of the fort, and headboards with appropriate inscriptions mark the final resting-place of each.

When they found that a part of their prey would escape, the Indians began to turn their attention to pillaging at the stage station.  One house contained a general assortment of groceries and outfitting goods.  These they loaded upon their ponies and carried over the river.  They then disappeared among the hills, leaving all the buildings on fire.

The stage company had a large amount of grain and supplies stored at the station.  These were burned, and a treasure-coach with fifty thousand dollars in money was captured.

As soon as Captain O’Brien reached the fort, he ordered out the field-pieces and commenced shelling the enemy.  Being a very expert gunner, he directed the fire of the guns so effectively as to kill a large number of savages.  A crowd of redskins had gathered round some open boxes of raisins and barrels of sugar, when a shell burst in the midst of them, killing thirteen, as was afterward admitted by some of the Indians present.  They also admitted the loss of more than a hundred warriors during the fight.

In January, 1867, Mr. J. F. Coad, now of Omaha, had a contract with the United States army to supply all the government military posts between Julesburg and Laramie with wood.  He left home about the 17th of the month, and was escorted by a company of soldiers, who were en route to Fort Laramie, as far as forty miles beyond Julesburg, where he left them, and proceeded up Pole Creek, thence to Lawrence’s Fork, where his men and wagons were, to commence work on his contract.

On the morning after his arrival at his wagon-camp, Mr. Coad and three of his employees, while loading wood about a mile and a half from camp, were attacked by about forty Indians, who came charging down the valley and prevented their retreat to the ranch.  Seeing that they were entirely cut off and without any hope of assistance, they immediately concluded that their only escape from death was to run for their lives, and get back into the hills, if possible, believing that on account of the steep and rugged trail the savages could not pursue them.