to
the brakes of the Powder River, he discovered many signs of Indians. This
is a very rough country, and he had great difficulty in getting his long
trains through it; however, he dropped into the valley about fifty miles
above the mouth of Powder River and sent a detachment with his best guide
fifty miles across to Tongue River and Panther Mountains and discovered
nothing of Connor. In Cole's instructions he was told that there would be
a supply-depot at Panther or Wolf Mountains, but General Connor had
changed this and made the supply-depot at what was known as Camp Connor,
on Powder River, and he did not notify either Cole or Walker of this
change, which he should have done, as had he done so it would have avoided
all the trouble that these two columns encountered. Cole's detachment of
cavalry discovered no signs of Connor on Tongue River and so followed down
the river, while they should have gone up; and failing to find any sign of
any depot at Panther Mountains, reported back to Cole. Cole's rations were
now exhausted, or nearly so, as he had not been as careful of them as he
should have been, expecting as he did to find a depot where he could get
plenty at the end of his sixty days' march. It shows that he was not up to
the woodcraft of the country. In examining Powder River towards its mouth
he found it destitute of grass and full of canyons. He, therefore, made
up his mind to move south up the Powder River valley, with a view to
either meeting Connor or making for Fort Laramie. The Indians, seeing this
retreat, became very bold. There were at least 2,000 of them, Cheyennes
and Sioux, and without making an attack they simply harassed him,
sometimes forcing a fight; but very few were hurt. Colonel Cole should
have parked his train, placed it in a defensive position under a good
guard, and then mobilized the rest of his force, and, with what rations he
had, gone after the Indians, giving them battle and forcing the fight with
them. He had plenty of men.

Cole had not advanced very far towards Port Connor when, on September 6th,
Colonel Walker and his command joined him. Then he had plenty of men to
meet all the Indians in the country, if his force was properly handled.
When this fighting commenced he was not over thirty miles from where
Connor fought his battle, and Captain Palmer states that they heard a
cannon, but could not tell which direction the noise came from. Connor,
hearing nothing from Cole, sent out Maj