Days Without End

The soldiers search the camp looking for clues about what happened. They find a man named Caleb Booth still alive. Caleb reports that the lieutenant and his troop had ridden in that morning. The lieutenant asked the Sioux chief if he’d killed the emigrants; the chief admitted to it, as the emigrants were on land forbidden by the treaty. The lieutenant began shouting and shot the man next to the chief and a dozen Sioux ran out and started shooting. Caleb pretended to be dead in the grass; he was shot through the cheek, but the bullet went out the other side.

The soldiers dig graves for the dead and burn the remnants of the village. Lige wants to chase the fleeing Sioux, but Thomas knows this will be ineffectual, even without injured Caleb to consider. Starling, who has a fearsome reputation, digs efficiently despite sweating heavily. Wellington mutilates the corpses of the two dead Sioux because he doesn’t want them to find peace in the afterlife and retrieves traveling Bibles and letters to family members from the bodies of the dead white men. They say a few words as they bury the soldiers, then leave.

At camp, the Sioux (including the group of Oglala who fed the soldiers the previous winter and their leader, Caught-His-Horse-First) are “pinned up in barracks as the number one criminal” (70). After a long absence supposedly looking for the Sioux group, two Pawnee scouts return to camp, but the colonel orders them shot as deserters. Major is upset at this, arguing that scouts are not soldiers. None of the soldiers speak Pawnee and are unable to communicate why the supposedly guilty scouts are being killed. Caleb slowly recovers from his injury. Thomas recalls placing a poisonous purple flower in Nathan Noland’s grave to beautify it, and he and John laughingly argue over its name despite their sorrow for their dead friend.

The soldiers hunker down in the fort for winter, growing hungry as rations wane. Thomas hopes the Sioux are just as hungry. Wellington’s stomach swells with some sort of illness and so many soldiers have children with Native women that Major opens a school. Anyone who can leave the area does; Major leaves for Boston to be married. Emigrants heading back east after failing to find fortune in California or Oregon crowd the fort, putting further strain on rations. Thomas, Lige, Caleb, Starling, and “Handsome John Cole” have an ongoing card game that sees them passing their little money back and forth. Caleb earns a reputation for being lucky, due to recovering from his injury, which makes him popular among the soldiers.

In late spring, Major returns with his new wife who is wearing “proper ladies’ britches” (74). The entire company is pleased for Major (who Thomas learns is named “Tilson Neale”), who is very happy. Thomas admires the new Mrs. Neale’s wardrobe and reflects on his days as a “one-time professional girl” (75). He finds himself watching her closely, attempting to understand her “feminine mystery.” Narrator Thomas reflects that he remembers little from the three years that followed except that Major and Mrs. Neale had twin girls, Hephzibah and Angel. A report arrives that Caught-His-Horse-First has been spotted near Laramie which pleases Wellington, who has already requisitioned a field gun.

Wellington assembles a group comprised mainly of the men who discovered the village with the dead troops years prior. Since then, Wellington has become coarser in manner and appearance. Thomas considers him a cruel man but a capable commander. The group follows two Crow scouts towards Yellowstone. The terrain becomes too rocky to transport the field gun, so a Black man named Boethius Dilward is left, with a dozen soldiers, to drive mules to haul the gun, and to carry it by hand when the mules can’t continue. Wellington apologies to Boethius for the “stupidity” of the Crow scouts.

They come across a view so beautiful the men stop to admire it. They approach the Sioux village as darkness falls, and the soldiers attempt to be perfectly silent so as not to alert the Sioux to their presence. Though the soldiers have not slept in two days, Wellington sends them to carry the gun at four in the morning. Even as the soldiers aim for silence, the Sioux make abundant noise, which unsettles the men. As they get in position, they recall coming across the village full of their dead comrades. Morning comes and they fire the field gun from high ground, which creates a large explosion in camp. The soldiers fire their muskets at the fleeing survivors, including women holding children. Many of the Sioux are hit but not immediately killed, and Wellington calls for many rounds of fire. The men shoot with the intent of wiping out the village, feeling a mixture of sadness and bloodthirstiness. The soldiers advance to kill anyone who is still alive with their bayonets. Thomas describes a feeling of intimacy between two enemies who fight to kill one another.

The soldiers vastly outnumber the Sioux and once the men have all been killed, Wellington orders two men to go “round up” the women, who attack when they see the soldiers approaching and are quickly killed. They find 13 children huddled in a ravine. The Crow scouts report that Caught-His-Horse-First is not among the dead, but that his family has been killed, except for his daughter. Wellington wants to kill the children, but Lige and John convince him to take them to the fort. The soldiers know Wellington will be in trouble with Major and Mrs. Neale for killing the women and don’t want to exacerbate this by killing the children as well. All the adult Sioux are dead as well as four or five of the soldiers, including Caleb.

Wellington’s digestive illness grows worse, and he becomes confined to the infirmary. Wellington’s personality remains angry and thoughtlessly cruel even as his body is transformed by illness. He grows reflective about his life and family before dying. Soon after Wellington’s death, the camp receives a visit request from Caught-His-Horse-First; the colonel agrees, hoping to establish more peaceful relations. The meeting makes everyone nervous but Major’s desire for justice and Mrs. Neale’s compassion lead them to behave. When the Sioux arrive, an interpreter named Mr. Graham rides out to parlay. Caught-His-Horse-First arrives, wasted by famine. Caught-His-Horse-First wants his daughter back. Major agrees, but as father and girl are departing, Starling stabs him, getting shot in the foot in the process. Caught-His-Horse-First and his daughter escape. Lige aims at them as they ride away, hitting the little girl. The next day, Lige claims the shot was in vengeance for Caleb, which everyone understands. A few nights later, John asks Starling why he stabbed the Sioux chief, and Starling gives a contradictory answer about jealousy over the man’s gun, then alleges that the Sioux shot first. John and Thomas suddenly can’t remember the order of events. Starling accuses John of having sympathy for Native Americans due to his heritage, then insists there is no bad feeling between them. John agrees with apparent reluctance.