one horse which fell down a precipice, breaking his neck), that there were no Indians in that section, nor had there been for weeks; that the statements of the Mormons in regard to the Indians were premeditated lies, gotten up for the purpose of misleading me, and giving the latter time either to get away or prepare for battle. In coming out of Provo Canon I went across some points of mountains to the southward, discovering the Indian trail at last where they had concentrated and traveled in force toward the celebrated impregnable (so-called) Spanish Fork. I immediately proceeded to and through the town of Provo, it being in the direction and the best road to Spanish Fork, intending to pursue the enemy rapidly; but at this town fifteen miles from Spanish Fork, I received reliable information by means of a soldier dressed as a citizen and passing himself off as Mormon, that one Potter, a Mormon, had gone into the canon to notify the Indians of my approach, of the number of men I had, &c., and that there were other Mormons watching around to give the Indians notice of my every movement. Under the circumstances I found that it was necessary for me to practice a little deception on the Mormon if I expected to accomplish anything in the way of catching and particularly of surprising the Indians. So I encamped on the south side of the town of Provo, far enough away from the town to be able to slip off in the night without their knowledge, and giving out the impression that I should stay all night and in the morning send scouts up to Spanish Fork to ascertain whether the Indians were really there and what their number was, &c. ; and to completely allay any suspicions regarding my moving during the night I made verbal arrangements and contracts to have hay and grain delivered for the command in the morning, and in fact the themselves believed they were to remain until morning. But at midnight I had them awakened noiselessly, without the sound of a bugle note, saddled up and slipped of which the intention of reaching the mouth of the canon before daylight, and making my arrangements to advance up the canon as soon as it was light enough for the men to see to walk and climb the mountains.

I reached the mouth of the canon just as day was breaking on the 15th of April; had my one wagon with provisions and the ambulance driven up parallel to each other and thirty paces apart, and, taking the lariat ropes off the horses' necks, tied them together, making a picket rope, and stretched it from one vehicle to the other. I then dismouce's company (sixty men), and twenty men of Company H, leaving Lieutenant Finnerty with twenty men to guard the eighty horses, which were tied up to the picket rope; directed Captain Price to take Lieutenant Weed and forty men across the river to deploy as flankers and skirmishers on the south side of the canon, and Lieutenant Clark to take Lieutenant Bradley and forty men to deploy as flankers and skirmishers on the left, or north, side of the canon, myself taking Lieutenant Ethier, Adjutant Harris, and Lieutenant Peel, with about fifty men, and Lieutenant Honeyman, with the howitzer and accompanying gunners, up the center of the canon. By the time these preliminaries were arranged it had reached the hour of 4. 30 a. m and would have been quite light but for the heavy rain that was falling. After moving up in this order, my flankers having almost insurmountable mountain spurs to cross that were running down into the Spanish Fork, necessarily making their movements very slow, at 5 a. m., and after getting into the canon about a mile, the enemy, from his chosen positions on the right, left, and front, opened fire. The howitzer having been run up on the spur of a mountain, Lieutenant Honeyman, in charge of it,