Cheyennes were camped on the Solomon river. Several war parties started
from this village to make raids on trains. Most of these parties went to
Platte river. The Sioux joined these war parties that went to Platte
river. 'Little Robe,' now dead, was head of this party that your trains
had fight with. There were twenty or thirty warriors in this party. The
man you speak of riding the yellow horse in the lead was 'Bear Man.' He
was no chief; only grand warrior in battles. I was in the Cheyenne
village when these war parties started out and I knew this young man
well. He died at Darlington agency several years ago from an old wound
he got fighting Utes. He was about twenty-five years old when he led
that charge through between the trains. The war party did not drive the
cattle very far out when they left them. Just before this fight, in
July, I think, the Kiowas and Comanches attacked a train or two at
Walnut creek. They killed several teamsters. Brother Charles was at
Charley Rath's ranch on Walnut creek at the time. He told me about it
when he came to the village on Solomon river. The whites started this
war in 1864. As I was with the Cheyennes at the time I knew what took
place. The Kansas Historical Society ought to get the Indian side of the
history of all these wars between the whites and Indians.

"Respectfully yours,

"GEORGE BENT."

[Footnote 1: NOTE.--Colonel Milton Moore, the signer of this Preface, is
a man of unusual legal ability. The confidence reposed in the old
commander of the Fifth Missouri infantry is clearly set forth by the
fact that for more than a quarter of a century he has been a member of
the police and election boards and has served for a long time as school
commissioner and is one of the most prominent practitioners at the