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The following instructions and suggestions for troops that served in the Indian country were prepared by an old Army officer as the result of actual experiences of thirty years of frontier service. They were published by General Reynolds, in General Orders No.77, Headquarters, Department of Texas, with reference to the fact that “so many of the officers now serving in the Indian country have not had handed down to them the usages of the old Army in Indian matters and in traveling over the great plains. We publish them now, when most of our Army are serving in the Indian country and are likely to have abundant occasion to make use of all their Indian lore.”

Treatment of Wounds and Diseases

Small detachments of troops, escorts and trains, about to march without a doctor through a country infested with hostile Indians, should be furnished with such medicines and appliances as will meet ordinary casualties and emergencies, and suffice temporarily, until assistance can be rendered by a medical officer. For example: a few dozen pills of opium and of quinine; some cathartic pills; an ounce or two of tincture of opium; a few doses of salts; a bottle of volatile liniment; a pocket case; a set of splints; a few roller bandages; a fine sponge; some patent lint; a few square inches of oiled silk; a yard of adhesive plaster; a package of tow; and a few bottles of whiskey or brandy.

In the event of a gun-shot wound the proper dressing is two layers of lint, say an inch and a half square, saturated with cold water and placed on each orifice of the wound. A piece of oiled silk, twice as large, is laid on that; and all retained in place, say, by a pocket handkerchief. This dressing should be kept on until the parts become stiff and painful---two to six days, according to the season---when the dressing should be removed, and either a similar dressing or warm water, or a bread-and-water poultice, should be applied and renewed once or twice daily. The less a wounded man eats the first five or six days, the better. After that he requires nourishment. If the wound is a simple punctured wound, and if at any time it becomes severely painful, the pledget of lint wetted with the tincture of opium instead of water will be applied, and water should be instituted at the next dressing if the pain has been relieved. If a bone has been fractured by the ball in transit, the first mentioned dressing must be used as directed; than a roller bandage will be applied to the limb, commencing at the fingers or the toes according to the limb wounded; a splint is then applied to two or four sides of the limb to steady the bone, and is retained by another roller bandage. Care should be taken not to apply the bandage too tight at first, lest the swelling of limb should occasion much pain. An incised wound---that is, a wound made by a sharp cutting instrument---should be drawn together closely, the surface of the skin about the wound should be wrapped dry and strips of adhesive plaster, half an inch wide and several inches long, should be applied across it so as to keep the parts in contact, and cold water, lint, oiled silk, and handkerchief employed as directed above.

Should the blood be jetting from an incised wound, the wound must be pressed open, the mouth of the vessel at the point where the blood jets out must be seized by a pair of tweezers of forceps, and turned around once or twice, and the wound be then closed and dressed as above directed. A simple contused wound does best without any application. A limb bitten by a snake should be tied by a band above the place bitten, volatile liniment kept upon the wound and constantly applied to the whole limb, the patient at the same time sustained by draughts of whiskey or brandy sufficient to stimulate but not intoxicate. Scouts that visit the settlements of Mexicans along the Rio Grande should learn from that people how to employ in snake bites the golondrineria or swallowwort. It is said to be a prompt specific for the rattlesnake bite. It may be bruised, leaves , stem and root, the juice expressed and drunk by the spoonful, and also be applied to the wound. Wounds made by Indian arrows may be treated as incised or punctured wounds. If suspected of being poisoned, they should be treated as snake bites. Stretchers, if necessary, may be extemporized by poles and pieces cut in the woods, or by using tent poles and a blanket lashed to them. In the event of heatstroke, if the patient have a pale face and feeble pulse, apply the cold douche by pailfuls of cold water dashed over his head and body, and whiskey or brandy toddy constantly given until he revives or his pulse becomes natural.

If, when marching or in camp, by day or night, the Indians set fire to the grass to the windward, to burn your train or camp you must at once set the grass on fire to the leeward, and keep it from burning up toward your train or camp, by the men beating it out with their blankets. Then move on to burnt place far enough to the leeward to be out of danger of the approaching flames.

It will be well for soldiers always to remember this simple rule when traveling in a country infested with hostile Indians: If you think there are no Indians near, then is the time to be especially on your guard. The Indians are wily and very patient. They will hover about and watch you sometimes for days and days, to find you relaxing your vigilance and at length off your guard. They see and know full well when you think they are not near. That is just the time when, as a panther which has patiently watched its prey, they make their spring. It is better to be prudent all the time---and even more than cautious---than to be left on foot or to lose life.