porcupine fled northward from custer with a companion, red wolf. by the time they reached the union pacific railroad near north platte, nebraska, they had joined a band of cheyenne led by turkey leg and spotted wolf. porcupine had the idea of attempting to stop or damage a train. on 6 august 1867 porcupine and red wolf placed a railroad tie across the track at a point three miles west of plum creek (now lexington) and tied it down with wire removed from the lineside telegraph line. they lit a fire at sunset. two men, pat handerhan and william thompson, were sent out on a handcar to investigate the failed telegraph line. distracted by the fire, they let the handcar hit the obstruction. porcupine and red wolf drove off the men with rifle fire but they were pursued and handerhan was killed. thompson was wounded but played dead, even as he was being scalped, and survived. porcupine and red wolf found two spencer carbines in the handcar. these were breech-loading weapons which they did not understand, being familiar only with muzzle-loading rifles. on discovering that the rifles would swivel apart they discarded them as broken.