The two sides exchanged fire, the Indians shooting from brush amid the ravine, the surveyors shooting from nooks along the ravine. Survey captain Neal soon fell wounded and unable to command. Euclid M. Cox stepped up, posting himself behind a lone cottonwood tree. From this exposed position, he was able to hit a few Indian targets, but hours into the fight took a bullet in the spine. Hearing Cox’s cries for help, Lane dropped his gun, ran to the tree and dragged the wounded man by the shoulders to safety. But Cox would not survive the night.

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After repulsing several Indian charges, the surveyors decided to wait until dark and then slip away. Much to their disappointment, a full moon rose in the clear sky, lighting up the ravine. Still, they were desperate, not liking their chances if they stayed put overnight. Close to midnight they loaded up the two surviving horses with wounded men and made a break for it. The Indians were ready, forming a half circle around the party and opening fire. “We retreated in a walk,” Lane recalled, “wheeling and firing as we went, and keeping them at bay.”

Still, many surveyors fell dead. Lane himself was wounded. “I was shot through the calf of the leg, splintering the bone and severing the ‘leaders’ that connected with my toes,” he said. “I fell forward as I made a step, but found I could support myself on my heel.” Lane was one of the lucky few who made it to the mouth of the ravine. There, he collapsed and called for help, realizing he would bleed to death if he didn’t get treatment. Henderson answered the call, cutting off the top of Lane’s boot and bandaging the wound.

Henderson and John Burton, who were uninjured, helped Lane and another wounded surveyor, John Violet, get moving again. Before long, though, Violet, whose thighbone had been shattered by a bullet, could only crawl. The other three, vowing to return with help, left him beside a muddy pool and resumed their forced march. As dawn approached, the men “cooned” across a log to hide amid an island of tall grass in the ravine. They spent the next day listening as warriors rode up and down the creek bed searching for them. If the Kickapoos were to succeed in blaming the Ionies for the attack, they had to eliminate all witnesses.

At dusk, Lane, Henderson and Burton decided to leave their hiding place and head for the Tehuacana Hills. But when Lane rose after lying in the thicket all day, the pain from his splintered leg was so severe that he fainted. He came to in the midst of an argument, with Burton wanting to abandon him and Henderson refusing. In Lane’s words: “Henderson said we were friends and had slept on the same blanket together, and he would stick to me to the last! I rose to my feet and cursed Burton, both loud and deep, telling him he was a white-livered plebian, and, in spite of his 180 pounds, I would lead him to the settlements—which I did.”

On the third day after the fight, as they approached Tehuacana Springs, the men encountered 10 Kickapoos from another camp. When these Kickapoos, unaware of the past days’ events, asked what they were doing, the quick-thinking surveyors told them they had been attacked by the Ionies and become separated from their comrades. Convinced, the Kickapoos took the trio to their camp and turned them over to the care of their women. The surveyors received good treatment and much-needed food—a soup of dried buffalo, corn and pumpkin served in a wooden bowl. “I have never tasted anything more delicious,” Lane said.

The three left on foot the next morning, not wanting to risk discovery. They had covered barely a few miles when a party of six Indians galloped up to them, wanting to swap an old, dilapidated rifle for their one good one. It became clear the surveyors would either have to make the trade or put up a fight, and they were in no condition to fight. Anyway, the rifle was a small price to pay for safe passage, and there was a bonus: One of the Indians agreed to carry the wounded Lane on horseback and guide the men to Fort Parker, 25 miles distant. He did so and returned to his people while the surveyors continued toward Franklin.

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