 Word of the attack at Spafford 's farm spread quickly to Fort Defiance , about five miles southeast of Mineral Point . A small volunteer force of 13 men was assembled at Fort Defiance and they set off to hunt down the band of Native Americans responsible for the massacre . The group reached Fort Hamilton at around midnight on June 15 . On the morning of June 15 survivor , Bennett Million guided the militia volunteers back to the site of the massacre ; one of the volunteers was Alexander Higgenbotham , a survivor of the St. Vrain massacre . The bodies of the dead were badly mutilated and Spafford 's corpse was headless ; his head was found scalped and tossed into the grass along the river bank . The volunteers buried the mangled bodies of the fallen and searched in vain for Spencer , whom they also assumed dead . 
