The other detachment of wagon were to follow a day later.

The three were some distance in the rear of the first wagons, after they had passed over the big hill east of Ash Hollow, which, having been gone several hours, were out of sight. The guards were riding mules, and the J Indians were of such superior numbers, they concluded their only means of defense was continued resistance until the following day, when the second detachment would overtake them. Even this seemed hopeless.

Cody said they shot their mules and dragged them into the form of a triangle, and behind this barricade kept the Indians at bay for the entire day and night and a part of the next day. With the butcher knives they dug in the soil and made a pit deep enough for them to rest comfortably and the dirt was piled between the dead mules and over their dead bodies.

At noon the following day, the Indians were observed moving away to the south over the hills from which they had come, and soon the blessed sight of the coming wagons relieved

them from the tension that for over forty hours had deprived them of rest and with but little food.

The war of the Rebellion had a bad effect upon the Indians, for in 1864 at a council at Camp Cottonwood, one of the Indian orators asked the embarrassing question, how the Great Father expected the Indians to keep peace, when he was unable to keep his own children from quarreling. It showed they had a pretty clear understanding of the situation.