They then tore up the floors and constructed rifle pits in the enclosure, to command all the windows. About ten o'clock at night, on the night of January 9th, they killed two sentinels, took their guns and made good their escape. As they fled over the snow in the valley of Soldier creek, the alarm was given and hundreds of shots were exchanged with not many casualties, after which a tense quietness settled on the Pine Ridge hills.

There was a ranchman, named Bronson, who had located about five miles south of the fort, the first actual settler in the present limits of Dawes county, and he and his man heard the noise of battle. Knowing the danger if the Indians had broken out, and especially if they should happen to make their break to the southward. Bronson and man mounted their horses and rode toward the fort, keeping a sharp lookout. As they topped the Pine Ridges south of the valley, they could see it laying white with snow under the full moon, and not a sign of life. The fort was absolutely dark, save for one feeble needle of light. In the silence, they moved forward, and came upon tracks in the snow, indicating, the route taken by the fugitives. There was a dark spot upon the snow, that as they approached proved to be Buffalo Hump, a relative of Dull Knife, and he was near unto death. So near, that his only movement thereafter was a futile attempt to kill Bronson, which effort took his last ounce of vitality, and he fell back in the snow, dead.