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Show A HARD LOOKING GANG. The Exterminators Arc Full of Fight Yet and Still Declare Their Hatred of the Kustlers. Cheyenne, Wyo., April 25. Major Wol-cott Wol-cott aud his forty-five men, comprising the band that invaded Johnson county to kill and burn out cattle thieves, art; at Fort Russell Rus-sell three miles from town. They left here nineteen days ago by special train, full of tight and confidence. Some of the fight lives, but the confidence is badly shattered. "We only figured on fighting rustlers," said a leader, "aud were willing to take all the chances of a war with them. Their ability abil-ity to enlist aid amazed and stunned us. By actual count their force at the surrender was 320 able-bodied and well-armed men, who could lie intelligently and effectively handled by Arapahoe Brown, who developed iuto a great general. We did not count upon the fact that the citizens, without the least sympathy sym-pathy with the known thieves, recent the interference in-terference of an outside force in their affair. "The whole country turned out to whip us, and almost did it. We couid have managed man-aged very well without the rescuing cavalry for a week, and we only wanted a dark night to make a break. We were 111 an almost impenetrable position. The r ustlcrs had forts on wheels, and it was a great scheme, but they could not get men to move it on us. A charge by them would have been a great mistake. We had a trench from the fort to the house, and the last stand on our part would have been determined. Wre saved our ammunition for it, and, I believe, would have killed 200 men. "They were unable to devise any means to reach us with fire brands or giant powder. Robert Foote, the merchant who backs the rustlers, offered $50J0 for a cannon at Fort McKinney, and they tried to bribe the soldiers sol-diers to steal a Hotchkiss gun from the fort. If they had succeeded in either case, but few of us would have escaped. "On the first day of the siege they fired 2000 shots at us, but we kept out of range. We held our fire, only shooting occasionally with the heaviest rifles. There were fifteen men in our fort, whieh guarded the only approach. There was a keen rivalry to be in the fort squad, for we had only brave pen iu the party Woleott, Tisdale, Canton, Ford, Irvine, Hesse, Elliott, the two Clarks, Whiteomb, Captain Tom Smith, and several Texans were wonderful men under fire. Denver, April 25. A R publican special spe-cial from Cheyenne say : Major Egbert, in-cemmand in-cemmand of the Seventeenth Infantry troops, which relieved the three companies of the Sixth Cavalry from Fort McKinney as guards of the captured stockmen, stnrted from Fort Fetterman yesterday morning. The train was preceded by a pilot engine and caboose, the latter filled with a construction con-struction crew and toois to repair possible damage to the tracks. At 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon the train pulled into Fort Russell depot. Sev-ral hundred people awaited its arrival. T'vo long lines of soldiers were drawn up at the depot. One was stationed along the length of the train and the other a shoi I distance toward the fort. Major Egbert here received re-ceived orders to hold the men in charge until un-til iurther orders. The baggage was first unloaded; then the t 1 uty Texans come forth upon the platform plat-form andjstood in a group, guarded by the soldiers and awaiting orders. They were all young looking, but looked very tough, their recent experience giving them the appearance appear-ance of a hard gang of citizens. The last to appear were the twenty-two cattlemen, who looked tired and worn. The Texans were first marched away, guarded on every side by soldiers. Several hundred yards behind were the cattlemen, closely guarded. The men were not disposed to talk much, except about the journey. Considering Con-sidering everything, they were in exceedingly exceed-ingly good spirits, the presence and words of their friends having a good deal to do with their feelings. "Would you have surrendered to the sheriff's posse?" was asked one of the stockmen. stock-men. "No, we would not." was the reply. "Every man had made up his mind to die where he was rather than surrender, and we would have sold our lives dearly." |
