But perhaps recruiting officers would not accept them.
FORT SHAW, MONTANA TERRITORY,
October, 1878.
MY stay at the little town of Sun River Crossing was short, for when I
arrived there the other day in the stage from Benton, I found a note
awaiting me from Mrs. Bourke, saying that I must come right on to Fort
Shaw, so I got back in the stage and came to the post, a distance of
five miles, where General Bourke was on the lookout for me. He is in
command of the regiment as well as the post, as Colonel Fitz-James is
still in Europe. Of course regimental headquarters and the band are
here, which makes the garrison seem very lively to me. The band is out
at guard mounting every pleasant morning, and each Friday evening
there is a fine concert in the hall by the orchestra, after which we
have a little dance. The sun shines every day, but the air is cool and
crisp and one feels that ice and snow are not very far off.
The order for the two companies on the Marias to return to the Milk
River country was most unexpected. That old villain Sitting Bull,
chief of the Sioux Indians, made an official complaint to the "Great
Father" that the half-breeds were on land that belonged to his people,
and were killing buffalo that were theirs also. So the companies have
been sent up to arrest the half-breeds and conduct them to Fort
Belknap, and to break up their villages and burn their cabins. The
officers disliked the prospect of doing all this very much, for there
must be many women and little children among them. Just how long it
will take no one can tell, but probably three or four weeks.
And while Faye is away I am staying with General and Mrs. Bourke. I
cannot have a house until he comes, for quarters cannot be assigned to
an officer until he has reported for duty at a post. There are two
companies of the old garrison here still, and this has caused much
doubling up among the lieutenants - that is, assigning one set of
quarters to two officers - but it has been arranged so we can be by
ourselves. Four rooms at one end of the hospital have been cut off
from the hospital proper by a heavy partition that has been put up at
the end of the long corridor, and these rooms are now being calcimined
and painted. They were originally intended for the contract surgeon.
We will have our own little porch and entrance hall and a nice yard
back of the kitchen. It will all be so much more private and
comfortable in every way than it could possibly have been in quarters
with another family.
