d the bourgeois (the commandant of the fort).
  At last a numerous deputation appeared at our door but found no
  encouragement to remain.... Having at length satisfied their
  curiosity, they next proceeded to business.

On the 19th of August, 1854, a Mormon train was encamped about ten
miles below the fort on the Platte River. The Indians having killed
a cow or ox belonging to the train had been complained of by the
Mormons to the commanding officer, who sent Lieutenant Grattan,
of the Sixth United States Infantry, with thirty men of Company
G and two howitzers, to recover the cow and bring the thieves to
the garrison. They met a large number of Indians (Sioux) under the
leadership of a chief named Mattoioway about eight miles from the
fort and a conflict ensued in which Lieutenant Grattan’s command,
with the exception of one man, was annihilated. The survivor was
hidden in some bushes by a friendly Indian and brought to the fort
that night where he died two days afterward. The bodies of the
slain were buried in one grave where they fell and a pile of stones
marks their resting place.




THE ALAMO AND FORT SAM HOUSTON

SAN ANTONIO--TEXAS


The Alamo, which is famous for its heroic defence against the
Mexicans by Travis and his men, is situated in San Antonio, Texas,
and is the point of pilgrimage annually for many hundreds of the
visitors to the southwestern United States. On the outskirts of San
Antonio is the modern great military plant, Fort Sam Houston, the
Alamo’s lusty successor.

The Alamo, as late as 1870, was used for military purposes by the
United States government, but of recent years it has been preserved
purely as a monument to those brave men who lost their lives in
it fighting bravely to the last a battle which they knew to be
hopeless from the first. Upon the front of the building has been
placed an inscription which reads, “Thermopylæ had its messenger
of defeat. The Alamo had none.” The building, itself, is a low
structure of the familiar Spanish mission type, and its main walls,
th