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CHAPTER XXIT.
                INVADING THE BLACK HILLS.
   The order of the lieutenant-general to General Crook,
which reached the latter on the Belle Fourche, September
14th, commanded the brigade to march southward, via the
Black Hills, and directed the brigadier to meet Sheridan
at Fort Laramie without loss of time. The command was
turned over to General Merritt, and on the night of the 15th-
the expedition being then encamped on Whitewood creek
-Crook and his staff, around a huge log fire, drank farewell
to their comrades in champagne procured from Deadwoo(]
and served in tin cups. Some Black Ilillers, of the proni-
inent type, assisted at the ceremony, General Dawvson, UInited
States inspector of internal revenue, being the principal per-
son.  Next morning Crook's party, consisting of hinmself
and his personal staff, some infantry officers going hbome
on leave, an escort of twenty men under Lieutenant Sibley,
and the newspaper correspondents, whose mission ended with
the cessation of "war's alarms," and the "lIillers,' turned
their
faces southward and, seeing that the fogs and damps had
cleared away, like the idolators of the Orient, worshiped
the sun. Crook City, the northernmost picket of the Hills,
was distant sixteen miles, and Deadwood lay about the same
distance beyond.  We met a regular caravan from the set-
tlements proceeding to the camp, bringing with them onions,-
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