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Show Bravery in 1868 Is Mow Rewarded by Uncle Sam LKANDER HERRON of St. Paul, Neb., has just won a congressional gold medal for bravery in' 1SG8. The Indians along the Santa Fe trail were on the warpath, several thousand from a dozen different tribes having decided to run the pale face out of the country. They had put the stage lines out of business -and pony express riding had to be done at night. Herron, now seventy sev-enty years old, was a corporal of Com-. Com-. pany A, Third United States infantry. On the night of September 2, 1S08, Herron and Trooper Paddy Boyle were carrying government dispatches from Fort Dodge to Fort Larned, 75 miles , to the east. They came upon a United States wagon train being attacked by Indians. Taking the Indians by sur- prise from behind the two troopers cut their way through to the train. The train proved to have only four soldiers with it; the horses had been killed, and the soldiers were all wounded. Before Herron and Boyle had been five minutes at the wagons the Indians made another charge, which was repulsed with difficulty. Trooper Boyle volunteered volun-teered to break through the line under cover of darkness. -' Another band of what the soldiers thought to be Indians, dressed in white, came up as dawn broke. The rest of the story is told in Herron's own words: "Before we could fire, we heard a call in English : 'Don't five!' To our delight we recognized Paddy Boyle. The savages had now broken and were fleeing across the prairie. "'What kind of a uniform do you call this?' I asked Paddy. " 'Well, the boys were asleep when I reached the fort,' he answered. 'They didn't take tune to dress. They haven't got anything on but their underclothes.' under-clothes.' " |