A month after Jack Stillwell's 18th birthday, he volunteered for a suicide mission.

Jack and 48 civilian scouts, under the command of Major George Forsyth, came under attack by an

overwhelming force of Cheyenne dog soldiers, led by the legendary Roman nose.

The frontiersmen fought their way to a little sandbar on the Rickerah River and hunkered down

to make a stand of it.

Digging in and firing from behind dead horses, still well and the others repelled charge after charge from the determined warriors,

giving and sustaining their fair share of casualties in the process.

When the smoke finally cleared after that first day's battle and the sun sank into the horizon,

four scouts were dead along with 15 wounded, including Major Forsyth.

Things were looking dire to say the least, and sometime around midnight, young Jack offered to go fetch help.

Of course, in order to do that, he'd have to somehow slip past several hundred warriors keenly intent on making sure he didn't see his 19th year.

Be that as it may still well in another scout by the name of Trudeau departed under the cover of Dark.

The pair removed their boots so as not to leave clear tracks and crawled on their bellies until they made it through the thick of the Cheyenne.

And onward they journeyed, 85 barefoot miles traveling at night, subsiding off a rancid

horse flesh, and on one occasion, concealing themselves within the carcasses of dead bison.

Finally, against all odds, still well and his companion stumbled into into Fort Wallace and delivered Major Forsyth's dispatch for help.

And despite Jack being thoroughly exhausted and his feet mangled from the thistles and cactus needles,

the young man insisted on joining the relief party that rode out to rescue his beleaguered comrades.

A fellow scout would later describe Stilwell as one of the

bravest, nerviest, and coolest men in the command. That skirmish I just described, known today as the

Battle of Beecher Island, occurred in late September of 1868. And believe it or not, as young as Jack

Stillwell was, that was not his first rodeo.

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