Chapter 3

Missouri, late August, 1866

The wagon train was a little closer to Kansas City, but Cletus still doubted that they could make it to Nebraska before the weather got too cold to travel. He had seen snow, but he still thought people were teasing him when they talked about big snow drifts and a snow fall as much as 12-inches in one day. He had to see it to believe it. He wouldn't worry about it until then.

Cletus was still acting as scout for the wagon train, and the guards were beginning to think of him more as a man and less as a "nigger." He wasn't accorded social equality, but they listened when he talked about the job of guarding the wagons. Cletus figured that was the best he was going to get and let it ride.

On his ride out this morning, Cletus had seen some sign of human activity, but he couldn't pin down how recent it was. He and Hal thought that activity this close to the road, but not on it, was a suspicious sign. Ordinary people would not spend time traveling in the woods when there was a perfectly good road 100 yards away.

Today's route was going to take them over a small river. They had forded many small streams, but nothing as big as this river. This was going to take so much time that they would be spending the night at the ford. They might even have to spend part of tomorrow getting the last of the wagons across. Nevertheless, Cletus went the full 15 miles before he turned around to return to the wagons.

He was just completing his turn around when he spotted a group of men camped among the trees. As soon as he saw into the camp, he knew that his wagon train was in for trouble from this gang. He could tell because he could see some remnant of Confederate uniforms. This might well be what was left of a rebel guerrilla group. If so, these men could have had some military training and be more dangerous thereby.

They were far enough away from the current location of the wagon train that Cletus figured that they would not attack before tonight or tomorrow morning. Therefore, he continued his regular scouting routine until he reached the wagons. He had seen nothing else dangerous, so Cletus rode up to Hal with no show of excitement—no point in alarming the Mormons at this time.

Cletus asked for a meeting with Hal and Jeff as soon as possible. The first of the train would reach the river about noon, so Jeff had scheduled the noon break at the river bank. Hal suggested the noon break for the meeting time and Cletus agreed. Jeff, Hal, and Cletus took their food and coffee to a quiet spot away from the wagons and ate lunch. They often did this, so it did not attract attention.

After they had eaten, Cletus told of seeing a gang of possibly 25 to 30 men who looked like they were capable of attacking the wagons and might well do so. The best time for an attack, in Cletus' opinion, was while the train was crossing the river or just after they had done so. At either time, the men would be tired and distracted and not able to put up a good fight. An attack by 25-30 men would surely overwhelm the few available guards and the attackers must know that. Fortunately, Jeff had found 9 Mormon men who had been in the army and were willing to fight alongside the guards. There was the minor problem that they would not take orders from Cletus, though they would from Hal. This problem could be overcome by having Hal relay Cletus' orders. All three men felt that they could live with that. With the Mormons added, there would be 17 defenders to repel an attack.

Cletus believed that the bandits would not attack as long as the wagons were all on the east side of the river since this was the only ford for miles either up or down river. The bandits would have to wait until a substantial number of wagons were across the river before attacking. Cletus proposed to make use of this fact. His plan was to stay on this side of the river for the rest of the day and start crossing at first light tomorrow. The guards and the Mormons who were to be part of the defensive force would cross first and line up their wagons as breastworks as soon as they crossed the ford. The draft animals could be taken back across the river to protect them from bullets. Cletus wanted to keep all of the animals on the eastern side of the river until the battle was over. If and when the fighting started, Jeff could join in and that would make the 17 defenders. Of course, anybody else who wanted to join the defenders was welcome.

Cletus wanted to build more breastworks than would be supplied by 9 wagons. He thought that the men could cut trees and arrange them this afternoon so that they would be ready tomorrow. The breastworks would consist of the 9 wagons in the middle of a 150-foot arc with trees filling out the arc to the river on each side. The remaining wagons would be arranged in an arc as a second line of defense behind the first arc, keeping about 20 feet of separation between the two arcs. This would leave plenty of fighting room for the defenders but not much room for any riders who might break through the first arc.

Jeff and Hal approved of the plan, so a meeting was called of all of the members of the wagon train for immediately after lunch. The plan would be explained then and specific jobs assigned. There was some grumbling among the Mormons, but that could be expected. They did not seem to want to do anything until after a meeting of the elders. Jeff explained that there was no time for such a meeting. He and Hal were doing what the Mormons had paid them to do and if they didn't agree with this plan, he and Hal would just leave and he expected that most of the guards would go with them. This threat got the work done, but it didn't stop the grumbling.

Cletus really didn't expect an attack to take place. He figured that any sensible bandit captain would see that a raid was expected and just call it off. Therefore, Cletus was more surprised than anyone else in the wagon train when the attack actually happened. Everything went as Cletus had predicted: the attack started when 15 of the 22 wagons had been moved over the ford.

The initial attack was fierce, with a massed cavalry charge at the center of the defensive arc. Again, Cletus thought, "How dumb can they be?" The horses could not jump the breastworks, so the charge was useless. Everybody was ordered to shoot at the horses, not the riders, but who knows how many actually did that? Cletus counted 8 dead horses out of 28 attackers, so at least part of his plan worked. He didn't expect to kill, or even wound, most of the attackers; he just wanted them to decide to attack somewhere else.

Even though there were 8 dead horses, there were 11 dead attackers. Either some people had not followed orders or they were lousy shots. It didn't make any difference, the results were still good.

When the first attack broke, Cletus asked Jeff to resume moving wagons over the ford. He hoped for the best, but wanted that second line of defense just in case they needed it.

The defenders had been lucky, nobody had been seriously wounded. There were a few bullet scratches among the Mormons without battle experience, but they soon learned to keep their heads down when bullets were coming their way. Cletus was surprised that none of the defenders were shot in the leg. Either the attackers did not find legs an attractive target or else the angle was wrong and they could not get a decent shot from horseback. Cletus planned to check on this at his first opportunity.

Four of the non-veteran Mormons had joined the fight, which pleased Jeff, Hal, and Cletus. A few more shooters never hurt a defense and one of them might get lucky. Maybe they could have some regular target practice for the Mormons and convert them into useful shooters. Cletus had a feeling that they might be needed before this bunch got to Deseret. Maybe Jeff could cook up a contest among the Mormons to get them to practice shooting; Cletus would bring it up.

Two more wagons were across the ford before the next attack. This time, the bandits were a little smarter: the didn't charge in one big bunch. They started at the south end of the breastwork arc and rode along it firing into the defenders. Two of the attackers were wounded and one of the defenders received a wound in the upper arm much like the one Cletus got a little while back. If this kept up, they could bring wagons over the ford during an attack.

Apparently, Jeff thought so. It wasn't much later when Jeff announced that the last wagon was across the ford. It was nearly noon, so Jeff told the women to start fixing lunch.

The attacks had been reduced to nuisance level by now. The attackers were not accomplishing anything, but neither were the defenders. Cletus began to cogitate on some way to permanently discourage the attackers. Then he had an idea. He suggested to Jeff and Hal that they each take two pistols and all three squat under a wagon. When a horse came by, they all fire both of their pistols at once into the horses belly. If they fired on command, they would all fire together and some of their shots were bound to hit the horse. Once the bandits start losing horses, they might rethink the value of attacking this wagon train.