The details I have here given of this battle, while they sufficiently demonstrate the skill and bravery of the officers and men by whom it was fought, would be wanting in justice to them did I fail to mention other incidental facts connected with it, which entitle them to additional claims upon our gratitude and admiration. Few people who have never experienced a winter in the Rocky Mountains know how to appreciate the elemental difficulties attending the march of such an expedition as this one of General Connor’s. The sudden storms, the deep snows, the trackless wastes, the rapid, half-frozen mountain torrents, the lofty divides, the keen blasts, and the pinching nights, coupled with all the unavoidable demands which must encumber the movements of troops and artillery through a country that for most of the distance is entirely desolate, should give this expedition a conspicuous place among the remarkable events of our country’s history. Seventy-four of the number engaged in it had their feet frozen by exposure. The night rides of the cavalry to overtake the infantry would furnish as thrilling a theme for song as any of the rides during our National struggle, which have been thus immortalized. The transportation of munitions, camp equipage, and heavy artillery through eighty miles of snow, which for most of the distance was unmarked by a road, over mountains, through cañons, and across unbridged streams, furnishes a chapter that can find no parallel in our former military experience. I mention them, that my readers may form some idea of the amount of labor and care necessary to carry such an enterprise through with success, and give the proper credit to those who accomplished it.
Through the kindness of General Connor I am enabled to give the names and rank of those who were killed and wounded. All the officers and men fought with great bravery. General Connor himself, during the entire four hours the battle was in progress, was always in the thickest of it, and seldom out of range of the deadly rifles of the Indians. The historian of the battle says:
“General Connor exhibited high qualities of command, and his perfect coolness and bravery are the universal theme of praise. Possibly some might have been better pleased with less exposure of their commander, but I have the best authority for saying it was the call of duty, and not indifference.”