the completion of the road, Major North retired, and in company
with W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) went into the cattle business near
North Platte.

As has been stated, many of the officers and men engaged on the work
were ex-soldiers accustomed to the use of arms. The construction
trains and in fact all of the workers were liberally supplied with
arms, principally rifles, and it was the boast that ten minutes any
time was long enough to transform a gang of graders or track layers
into a battalion of infantry. Every man on the work was armed, and it
was the custom for the graders to carry their guns to and from their
work, keeping them stacked within easy distance while at actual work.

"The front" was seldom bothered. As a rule there were too many at hand
to make an attack attractive. It was the little detached parties or
single individuals that were most often molested. After the rails were
down, the trains passing to and from the front and the employees at
the isolated stations and most especially the section gangs were in
constant danger.

Among the first serious experiences was that of a construction train
near Ogallala, Neb. A party of Sioux decided to capture it and compel
it to stop; they massed their ponies on the track, with the result
that there were some twenty or more dead horses, without damage of any
consequence to the train. The trainmen used their guns and pistols to
good advantage, resulting in a number of the Indians being killed.
Later on, one of the Sioux of the party, on being interviewed, said,
"Smoke wagon, big chief, ugh, no good."

At another time, the Indians succeeded in capturing a freight train
near Plum Creek and held it and its crew in their possession.

General Dodge, the Chief Engineer, with a number of men, train crew,
discharged men, etc., was running special, returning from the front to
Omaha when the news reached them, and to quote the General's own
words:

"They (the men on his special train) were all strangers to me. The
excitement of the capture and the reports coming by telegraph brought
all of them to the platform and when I called on them to fall in and
go forward and retake the captured train, every man on the special
went into line and by his position showed he had been a soldier. We
ran down slowly until we came in sight of the train. I gave the order
to deploy as skirmishers, and at the command they went forward as
steadily and in as good order as we had seen the old so