The crowded troop train on its way to relieve Fort Humboldt wound through the desolate snowscape of Nevada, among the sombre pines, precipitous ravines and taxing gradients of one of the loneliest stretches of railroad in the West. But this was no ordinary mission, for in the year 1873 the Fort was not beset by an enemy who could be met in battle. This was a different and more dangerous enemy...