The event of the Bald Knob tragedy being of so recent date, the women became hysterical, and began to cry and sob, but retreat meant certain disaster before they could possibly reach the fort. The party proceeded without undue haste or hesitation down the hill and through the smoky city of tepees, and as slowly and unconcernedly climbed the hill farther on. The Indians made some demonstrations of hostility, but never fired a gun, or shot an arrow. The display of courage may have made them think that it was a trap into which they were expected to be inveigled, and they were not to be thus caught. Whether they followed with spies or not was never known, but it is assured

that the party was not molested, which, considering the state of hostilities then existing, is a matter of sincere congratulation.

The Grattan Massacre was the beginning of a series of bloody affairs, which with seldom a brief respite, continued for a period of fifteen years, with tremendous loss of property, and probably more than a thousand lives.

The victims were buried where they fell, in a shallow trench and covered with earth and a pile of loose stones. This pile was about eight miles east of the fort, and unless it has been obliterated, is still there, the only monument that marks the spot of this, the really first military tragedy in the North Platte valley.

When General Harney demanded the surrender of the murderers of the Horse Creek mail party, Spotted Tail with a number of the other so-called murderers marched into the fort in full war dress, singing their death songs, and gave themselves up. It was supposed that they would be put to death, and they were sacrificing themselves for their tribe.