Hat Creek Dateline: 1876/05/15

Cavalry rescues freighters
by Ed Cook, Contributing Writer

Captain "Teddy" Egan and his "Grays", some of the best men in General Crook's cavalry, came to the rescue of the freight outfits of Scott Davis, May, Parrot and S.R. Gwinn east of here today. Davis who was taking a twenty-mule team outfit loaded with supplies for the Stage company and the other freighters had been fighting off the Indians at Indian Creek for about three hours when the cavalry troops arrived. One man in Gwinn's party was wounded and 14 head of stock were wounded or killed. The troops who had been summoned from Rawhide Buttes probably saved the men and the eight outfits from being completely destroyed.

Captain James "Teddy" Egan and his command known as the "Grays" are the pick and pride of General Crook's cavalry. They had been ordered to patrol the Cheyenne, Black Hills route through the efforts of the Stage Line Superintendent Luke Voorhees and Wyoming's territorial Governor John Thayer.

After "Stuttering" Brown's death Voorhees had telegraphed from Fort Laramie to the governor for guns and ammunition to use to protest the route. The governor also promptly traveled to Omaha to personally confer with General Crook. He asked for military protection especially for the stations at Reed Canyon and Hat Creek (on Sage Creek). General Crook then made a hurried visit to Cheyenne and Fort Laramie and ordered Egan and his men to protect the route from Fort Laramie to Custer City.

Since Brown's death the Stage Company had not attempted to send regular coaches through to Custer city. However they kept their freight wagons moving with supplies, in large trains, with other freighters and outfitters, and accommodated as many passengers as practical in the wagons.

Among the passengers carried by the Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage Company around May 1st was M.V. Boughton, cattleman of Cheyenne, who with five others, went into the hills on a stage freight wagon. Boughton's herders preceded him with the first herd of cattle to reach the vicinity of Custer Valley.

(Information source: The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Routes by Agnes Wright Spring)

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