was a puzzle for me. But the mystery was soon solved. Looking down the road I saw, within a mile, a troop of cavalry on the march from Fort Kearny to Cottonwood Springs. The purpose of the detachment was to establish an outpost near where the trouble was expected. I don't think we would have been disturbed by these Indians at that time only in a badgering way; and my reason for this belief will be given farther on.

From this camp we drove on a day and a half and then camped at what was called the Deserted Ranch, which was situated on a dry gulch where some one had started a ranch and gave it up before completion. Soon after our encampment a mule train, consisting of ten four-mule teams, came from the east and went into camp on the north side of the road about one hundred yards from us. This was August 7, 1864. This train, of which I shall speak again, further on, belonged to Frank Morton, of Sidney, Iowa. Early in the next morning we broke camp and made what was called a "breakfast drive", a very common thing in those days. We drove to the twenty-one-mile point and went into camp, about ten o'clock, for our breakfast. We had been there but a short time when the east-bound stagecoach passed us at double-quick, and the driver shouted that we had better get out of that as there were ten or twelve dead men lying in the road a little way above. I could hardly believe that there was anything unusual, so I drove four miles to the seventeen-mile point-seventeen miles from Kearny. While there in camp, about ten o'clock, a troop of cavalry came up from the fort on double-quick. The captain halted and asked where I camped last night, and when I told him at the old soddy he asked if I saw any Indians. I told him I did not. "Well," he said, "it's damn strange, for just where you say you camped last night it was reported that ten or twelve people were killed and one woman taken prisoner and their mules run off and wagons burned."

3 The site of this famous tragedy was half a mile east of Plum Crook station, which was situated on the California road, about a mile

And now, my friends, comes that part of my story, that if there is such a thing as providence interfering or assisting any one it certainly showed its full hand in our case from the time we turned around at Cottonwood Springs until we passed on and escaped the Plum Creek massacre. For it is a fact that the people killed in that raid were the same that we camped so near the night before; and the fact that we made an early drive that morning was the only reason that we escaped. Again, when I tell you that Mrs. Morton, who accompanied her husband on this trip, was an old schoolmate and chum of my wife, and the further fact that they failed to recognize each other in our respective camps, must be another act credited to providence. The people slain consisted of Frank Morton, owner of the outfit, ten men, drivers, and a colored cook. Mrs. Morton was taken prisoner and I believe remained with these Inwest of the mouth of the creek, and thirty-five miles west of Fort Kearny. The place is now in the northwest corner of Phelps county. See Nebraska State Historical Society, Collections, XVII, 256 note; Watkins, History of Nebraska, II, 177; Executive Documents, 1864-5, V, 398. Perhaps Mr. Green correctly accounts for twelve killed, but eleven is the number commonly agreed to. Lieutenant Thomas Flanagan, Sixteenth Kansas Cavalry, reports that on September 1, 1864, he counted eleven graves of victims at the place of the massacre. Official Records, first series, XLI, pt. I, p. 244.

On the other hand, The Omaha Nebraskian of August 17, 1864, contains a letter from Lieutenant Charles F. Porter, dated Fort Kearny, August 9, in which he says that in the morning of that day Colonel Summers and Lieutenant Comstock, of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, made a thorough search of the locality where the train was captured and found the bodies of thirteen men killed-several scalped and horribly mutilated, nearly all stripped of clothing. Five men were supposed to be still missing, also three women and several children it was thought had been carried away prisoners, one of them a Mrs. Baker of Council Bluffs, Iowa. At eleven o'clock the same morning sixteen Indians attacked Fred Smith's ranch, nine miles below Plum Creek, killed the hired man, burned the store, and drove off all the stock but five head. Smith and his wife had left for Kearny City two hours before the attack.

Lieutenant Bowen, Seventh Iowa Cavalary, "and others" were at the Thomas ranch, three-quarters of a mile west of the place of the Plum Creek massacre. They saw a hundred Indians attack the train,

dians for about five months when she was rescued through some friendly Indians, carried to Denver and was finally restored to her friends.

Another remarkable escape occurred at this time. About four miles east of our camp was a new ranch owned by a German called "Dutch Smith." As we passed the Smith place on our drive that morning he was seated in a buggy at the door, and his wife was pleading with him to go along, to Kearny; but he seemed to be quite anxious for her to remain home. However, she prevailed, for within half a mile they passed us on the road to Kearny, and the Indians that committed the murders at the Morton camp followed down the road as far as Smith's place, killed his hired man, ran off his stock and burned his

completely encircling it. Very little resistance was made by the men of the train. Apparently revolvers were the only weapons they had. Lieutenant Bowen could not find a soul left to tell the story. All the wagons but three were burned. The train was well loaded with dry goods, clothing, and household goods, apparently the outfit of some well-to-do settlers going west.

Under date of August 15, Fort Kearny, Lieutenant Porter writes that James and Baker of Council Bluffs were not killed at Plum Creek. The names of those certainly killed were Charles Iliff, Mable and boy, Smith and his partner, all of Council Bluffs, William Fletcher, of Colorado, and five others not known. "Six wagons loaded with corn and machinery from St. Joe belonging to Michael Kelly, and the outfit belonging to E. F. Morton, from Sidney, were destroyed." General Mitchell had brought this information from Cottonwood.

A correspondent in the Nebraska Republican of August 19, 1864, said that there were about twelve wagons in the Plum Creek train, that one hundred Indians attacked it and that thirteen men were shot and mutilated. The Republican savagely assailed Colonel Summers on the basis of a report that the operator at Plum Creek, in full view of the massacre, telegraphed Fort Kearny about it at seven o'clock in the morning, soon after its occurrence. Summers did not start until eleven o'clock and was on the road until ten o'clock at night-eleven hours for a march of thirty-two miles. He stopped two hours for dinner on the way. His command was cavalry with fresh horses.

On August 7, 1864, there were concerted attacks by Indians on settlers, travelers, and stations along the California road between the Little Blue River and the mountains.-ED.

buildings. Whether these different escapes all just happened or whether the hand of providence was guiding us are things that to me are not comprehensible.

In referring back to the episode at Gilman's Ranch with the nine Indians, I have come to the conclusion that they would not have harmed us at that time; for I consider it a premeditated attack. There were depredations committed all along the line for a distance of two hundred miles, and thus this little squad would not have dared to start the scrap before the time arrived.

On our arrival at the old home and starting point we concluded that Nebraska was good enough for us, and we have rounded out a full half century within her confines. We have two sons, thirteen grandchildren and five greatgrandchildren, all born in Nebraska and all living in the state to-day, without a death in the family for forty-six years.

It is marvelous to stop for a moment to consider what has taken place in this great America of ours in half a century. Every mile of railroad west of Minneapolis, Fort Des Moines and St. Joseph has been constructed since I settled in the territory. Fort Des Moines, Iowa, was the nearest to a railroad at the time of my settling in Butler county.

THE MASSACRE AT OAK GROVE RANCH
FROM MEMOranda of CaPTAIN EDWARD B. MURPHY*

Reports came to Fort Kearny that every ranch and stage station between Fort Kearny and Big Sandy Creek was burned. The commandant was ordered by his superior officer to investigate this report. He ordered me to go east on the Overland stage road to Big Sandy Creek,

'Edward B. Murphy was captain of Company A, Seventh Iowa Cavalry. Companies A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H of this regiment were detached to Nebraska on account of Indian hostilities, and they arrived at Omaha on September 19, 1863. The other four companies of the regiment had been sent northward and camped at Sioux City, Iowa. Ware, The Indian War of 1864, p. 8; Official Records, first series,

if necessary, find out what there was in the report, and fight the Indians if compelled to do so. I was to take ten days' rations, one hundred rounds of ammunition for the carbines and the same for the pistols. We were also to take two pieces of artillery, the chests of each to be filled with spherical case grape and canister. We had but one

XLI, pt. II, p. 30. On July 30, 1864, Company A was at Dakota City, C and F at Fort Cottonwood, B and D at Fort Kearny, E at the Pawnee agency, Nebraska, G at Topeka, and H at Fort Riley. Company I was at Sioux City and K, L, and M in Dakota with General Sully's "northwestern Indian expedition." Companies A and D First Battalion Nebraska Cavalry were at Omaha; Company B at Dakota City; Company C, under Captain Henry Kuhl, on the march to the Pawnee agency. Ibid., XXXIV, pt. IV, pp. 620, 621, 628.

On July 19 General Robert B. Mitchell, in command of the military district of Nebraska, and then at Fort Cottonwood, was urging General Samuel R. Curtis, commander of the department of Kansas, which included Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Indian Territory, to send reënforcements. On that day the acting assistant adjutant general at Omaha issued the following order:

Captain E. B. Murphy, Company A, Seventh Iowa Cavalry, is relieved from command at Dakota City, Nebr. Ter., and will march his company to Fort Kearny, Nebr. Ter., via Omaha, without a moment's delay.

On the 25th the same officer telegraphed to Colonel Samuel W. Summers, of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry, in command at Fort Kearny, that Company A left Omaha for the fort on the 24th. Ibid., XLI, pt. II, pp. 276, 277, 347, 399. On May 3, 1864, General Mitchell ordered Captain Murphy to establish the headquarters of his company at "Dakota Post", Nebraska. Ibid., XXXIV, pt. III, p. 425.

On August 12 Colonel Summers sent word to Captain John Willans, assistant adjutant general at Fort Leavenworth, department headquarters, that all the mounted men at the fort-only fifty in number because a part of the command were at Plum Creek-"started for the Blue this morning." Ibid., XLI, pt. II, p. 673.

In a dispatch to General Curtis, dated at Fort Kearny, August 18, 1864, General Mitchell described the battle of August 15, on Elk Creek, between Captain Murphy's command and the Indians as follows:

Captain Murphy has just returned from the Blue. Undertook to go from the Blue to the Republican. Got as far as Elk Creek. Met 500 well-armed Indians; had a fight; killed 10 Indians and lost 2 soldiers. Was compelled to fall back after driving Indians ten miles. Indians followed him thirty miles on his retreat. Things look blue all around this morning. Ibid., p. 765.

Captain Murphy enlisted from Ottumwa, Iowa, September 12, 1862; mustered in April 27, 1863; promoted to captaincy July 8, 1863; after