As it would be tedious to a stranger to follow
the movements of the whole campaign, I will merely mention that part of
it in which I assisted[13].
[Footnote 13: The system of prairie warfare is so different from ours,
that the campaign I have just related will not be easily understood by
those acquainted only with European military tactics.
When a European army starts upon an expedition, it is always accompanied
by waggons, carrying stores of provisions and ammunition of all kinds.
There is a commissariat appointed for the purpose of feeding the troops.
Among the Indians there is no such thing, and except a few pieces of
dried venison, a pound weight of powder, and a corresponding quantity of
lead, if he has a rifle, but if not, with his lance, bow, arrows, and
tomahawk, the warrior enters the war-path. In the closer country, for
water and fuel, he trusts to the streams and to the trees of the forests
or mountains; when in the prairie, to the mud holes and chasms for
water, and to the buffalo-dung for his fire. His rifle and arrows will
always give him enough of food.
But these supplies would not, of course, be sufficient for a great
number of men; ten thousand for example. A water-hole would be drained
by the first two or three hundred men that might arrive, and the
remainder would be obliged to go without any.
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