the South Fork. Here the Cheyennes under the redoubtable Roman
Nose surrounded him on the 17th of September. The small band of
scouts took refuge on a brushy island some sixty yards from
shore, and hastily dug themselves in under fire.

They stood at bay outnumbered ten to one, with small prospect of
escape, for the little island offered no protection of itself,
and was in pointblank range from the banks of the river. All
their horses soon were shot down, and the men lay in the rifle
pits with no hope of escape. Roman Nose, enraged at the
resistance put up by Forsyth's men, led a band of some four
hundred of his warriors in the most desperate charge that has
been recorded in all our Indian fighting annals. It was rarely
that the Indian would charge at all; but these tribesmen,
stripped naked for the encounter, and led at first by that giant
warrior, who came on shouting his defiance, charged in full view
not only once but three times in one day, and got within a
hundred feet of the foot of the island where the scouts were
lying.

According to Forsyth's report, the Indians came on in regular
ranks like the cavalry of the white men, more than four hundred
strong. They were met by the fire of repeating carbines and
revolvers, and they stood for the first, second, third, fourth,
and fifth fire of repeating weapons, and still charged in! Roman
Nose was killed at last within touch of the rifle pits against
which he was leading his men. The second charge was less
desperate, for the savages lost heart after the loss of their
leader. The third one, delivered towards the evening of that same
day, was desultory. By that time the bed of the shallow stream