CHAPTER XIV.
A WINTER EXPEDITION--HERDS OF BUFFALO--WOLVES--BLIZZARDS--A TERRIBLE NIGHT--FINDING THE BODIES OF ELLIOTT'S PARTY--THE ABANDONED INDIAN CAMPS--PUSHING DOWN THE WASHITA--THE CAPTURED CHIEFS--EVANS'S SUCCESSFUL FIGHT--ESTABLISHING FORT SILL--"CALIFORNIA JOE"-- DUPLICITY OF THE CHEYENNES--ORDERED TO REPAIR TO WASHINGTON.
A few days were necessarily lost setting up and refitting the Kansas regiment after its rude experience in the Cimarron canyons.

This through with, the expedition, supplied with thirty days' rations, moved out to the south on the 7th of December, under my personal command.

We headed for the Witchita Mountains, toward which rough region all the villages along the Washita River had fled after Custer's fight with Black Kettle.

My line of march was by way of Custer's battle-field, and thence down the Washita, and if the Indians could not sooner be brought to terms, I intended to follow them into the Witchita Mountains from near old Fort Cobb.

The snow was still deep everywhere, and when we started the thermometer was below zero, but the sky being clear and the day very bright, the command was in excellent spirits.