"In 1860 on the South Alternate Route of the Oregon Trail in the Snake River Country of present day Idaho and Oregon. A rare instance when Indians not only attempted but maintained a successful attack on encircled emigrant wagons. Attacks on the Utter wagon train and then on the survivors resulted in the greatest loss of life to an emigrant train and to the attacking Indians, of any such encounters. Survivors' starvation camp on the Owyhee River and eventual rescue by an army expedition commanded by Captain Frederick T. Dent (his sister married U.S. Grant). Discovery of the Van Ornum massacre -- the bodies "gleaming in the moonlight"--By a fast-moving dragoon force led by Lieutenant Marcus A. Reno (later with Custer at the Little Big Horn). Two-year attempt to rescue children held captive by the Shoshoni as the US Army disintegrated at the onset of the Civil War."--Cover