A Man Called Sunday Read Free Page A

and ravines. By the time they had gained secure footing at the base of a deep ravine that stood between them and the Cheyenne camp, the Indians had been alerted to their presence, although with little or no time to prepare a defense. Consequently, they were forced to flee in the face of a cavalry charge through their village. Grabbing their rifles and ammunition, the Indians hurried their women and children to the ridge behind the camp to take cover. This was what Reynolds had anticipated. However, the battalion charged with the responsibility to cut off the hostiles’ escape was unable to negotiate the rough terrain in time to be in place. As a result, the warriors were able to move up into the gullies and take command of the ridge. Soon they were able to lay a heavy barrage of rifle fire down upon the troopers who had now taken control of their village. The momentum of the battle changed at once as the Cheyenne snipers began to pick off the troopers from their vantage points above the village. Before very long, Colonel Reynolds was forced to withdraw his troops from the village to prevent further casualties. He ordered the village burned, including all supplies and weapons.
    A disgusted witness to what the colonel would call a victorious battle when his column had retreated to report to General Crook, Luke Sunday had taken no part in the fighting. To his way of thinking, he had signed on to help fight hostile Sioux and had no cause to fire upon people he had once lived with, who had done him no harm, and had received him cordially in their village on several occasions in recent months. In his opinion, the Indians had taken the day, forcing Reynolds to retreat, and would now be emboldened to join their Sioux friends in their war against the army. The Cheyenne had not escaped without loss, however. Their tipis had been destroyed, and large stores of food and ammunition had been lost, as well as about eight hundred horses the soldiers had captured.
Well, Two Moons,
Luke thought as he took one last look at the destroyed village,
you mighta thought you were at peace, but you’re at war now
. Disgusted by the army’s attack on the peaceful village, he turned the paint’s head away from the burning camp and followed the retreating troops.

Chapter 2
    Colonel Reynolds ordered his weary command to withdraw twenty miles back to Lodge Pole Creek to rendezvous with General Crook. Already suffering from a night march before their attack on the village, as well as freezing temperatures, the likes of which Luke compared to the coldest in his memory, Reynolds’s troopers were fortunate that the Indians had not come after them. By the time they reached the mouth of Lodge Pole Creek, horses and men were totally exhausted. It was close to nine o’clock that night before the troop went into camp. All food supplies were gone, the soldiers having been issued only one day’s rations the day before, and there was precious little coffee left. Luke found it difficult to understand why the soldiers had destroyed great quantities of food in the Cheyenne village, without taking some to eat. He was baffled by a commanding officer who ordered all food, supplies, guns, and ammunition destroyed when his men sorely needed all four. They had managed to capture about eight hundred horses from the village. The ponies were left practically unguarded as weary sentries slept at their posts, causing Luke to speculate on how long they’d hold on to them.
    Fires were built and what little coffee could be found was put on to boil. Luke paused to share a fire with some men in Captain Egan’s company. They were involved in a most earnest conversation regarding the fight behind them, and the fact that all of the dead had not been recovered. “I don’t like it worth a damn,” a skinny corporal with a heavy black mustache complained. “I know of three men that’s still a-lyin’ back there in that camp, and