thornburg recognize the development and deploy troops to avoid the encirclement. he thought, we can handle the situation. soon afterwards he was failed by a fatal slug to the skull. the whites with true with their dead and wounded intel and -- in up a primitive defense put together with whatever they could make in a makeshift way to defend themselves from the onslaught. rained down on the troopers, the entire fight continued to worsen. , back at theeker agency with 8 other agency workers and 2 teamsters who had been unfortunate enough to deliver supplies to the agency at that time, were caught in this crossfire. meeker and these individuals were killed. meeker's wife, their daughter, another woman and her two daughters were taken captive. amidst the chaos, the survivors of the command, now under the next highest ranking officer, managed to send a courier with a plea that help that simply read "thornburg killed. his people in peril. rush to their assistance." miraculously, was found on the trail by captain god and the men of company -- e and the men of company 9. t