Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-03-25
GOLD HILL, NEVADA:
nturday Evening. March rs, 1865.
THE NAPoLEoNS OF TIE GREAT
BASIN,

"WaS 1t q massacre That Is now
the question which agitates our Virginia
contemporaries. The question has arisen
out of the recent killing of twenty-nine
Indians, more or less, by party of
soldiers under the command of Captain
Wells, of the Nevada Volunteers. The
onion and the Carson Post hint that it
eas massacre, neither very brave. nor
very necessary. The Enterprise defends the
doughty Captain, and denies the charge Of
massacre" We know nothing about it,
and care less. We have no love for the
savages, and long since came to the con-
clusion that their determination Is mill
tsry necessity" and that the blood guilti-
ness of the slaughter might as well be on
our heads as the heads of our children.
We consequently answer the question
WAS it a massacre: :" in the same man.
ner as the student of Yale did the Ques-
ton about Greek poetry" We don't
know, and we don't care -" The
official dispatch of the commander of the
expedition appears in this mornings Viz
GINA Unioa-as does, also, The Official
Report of Captain Wallace's Expedition
10 Walker River As, in these latter
days of war, the public mind is engrossed
by military affairs, and as military genius
is the idol before which we all bow in
humble alteration; and as these two off,
cial dispatches, the one of which chron-
icles the slaughter of twenty-nine Piutes,
and the other the capture of two Indians,
occupy rather more room than all Of
Grants and Sherman's official dispatches
combined, we. as one of the chroniclers of
passing events are forced to give them
passing review. As Captain Wells re-
port is less than half a column in length,
we are forced 10 look upon him as a mill
tary chieftain of less merit than Wallace,
who occupies nearly two columns. Di-
vested of uninteresting details, Captain
Wells report may be all summedup in
the following paragraph:
"The next morning, the l+th inst, at
o'clock, left the camp with twenty-nine OF
my men, and two citizens, MeSsrs. L. w.
Murch and W. II. Wilson, who volunteered
their services as guides, for the purpose of
arresting the guilty Indians. We came IN
sight Of their encampment about half-past
o'clock N. / divided my command into
three SQUADS, under SergtS. Wadleigh and
Besat, ten men remaining with me. | then
~ s,gl NtTlHV 10,
arrest them, but when within about one hun
dred and fifty yards, they commenced firing
upon me. The first shot took effect in Cor
poral Dolans shoulder, wounding him
slightly; the second passed through the cape
OF my overcOat. / then ordered charge
with sabres. The Indians fell back to the
bushes on both sides OF the slough. By this
time the men under Sergeants Wadlelgh and
Besat came up, and a general engagement
ensued. The Indians fought like veterans
I killed twenty-nine in all but one escaped.
I destroyed several guns, quantity OF pow
der, fresh beef, etc. pursued and fought
them for about two miles up into the noun
tains. Some Of my men had hand to hand
conflicts with them several were beaten 90
the arms with the Indians guns. l also
captured nine horses, but as they were very
poor | did not deem il necessary to bring
them in. Throughout the battle nv men be-
haved with a valor and fortitude rarely
eoualed. Without exception, they were rs
cool and collected as though on an ordinary
skirmish drill.
This story, being still further boiled
down, amounts to just this {: Capt. Wells,
with his twenty-nine men, killed exactly
twenty-nine Indians, not one of the bold
cavaliers having received q scratch except
Corporal Dolan, who. for thus marring
the symmetry OF the story, should be
drumued out Of the service. The num-
Der Of Indians killed was extremely judi
cious, allowing as it did precisely one
Indian for breakfast TO each OF the dra-
goons; not counting the Captain, who, OF
course, messes BY himself. The Captain
saws: "I.killed twenty-niue Indians IN
all :" but this is iguratiye, meaning, OF
course, that his men killed that number Of
Indians just as Marcus Antonius says OF
Cesar: That day he overcame the
Nervii." The glory OF the victory is
further enhanced By the announcement
that The Indians fought like veterans.
The result would seem to establish the
fact that they had fought about ike sur
viying veterans" of the revolutionary
war, and with guns plowed up from the
battle-ground Of Bunker Hill. Veterans
blind and palsied with age, and armed
with Queen Anne's mu>kets, destitute OF
lock, stock or barrel, would have been
about as formidable as these twenty-nlne
Piutes seem to have been. The dragons
"behaved with 4 vafor and forutude
rarely equalled! !" The Captain has I'M
doubtedly read of the terrible charges
through the fiery hells of Fredericksburg
and Lookout Mountain, even though he
was not there to see. Those affairs. were
triAing probably, compared with the ter
rife rampage of the twenty-nine men.
His men were "cool and collected "a
fact which malicious traducers might at
tribute equally TO the ehilliness of the at
mosphere and the total absence of the
slightest danger. Well; the glorious
twenty-nine have achieved glory enough
for lifetime. Their brows are bound
round with victorious wreaths: their
bruised arms hung up for monuments,
and they caper nimbly in the lager beer
cellar to the lascivious pleasing of the
hurdy-gurdy. .
We now pass from the rude clash of re-
sounding arms, and come TO tale Of
crafty and cunning strategy; from the
strong arm to the long head: from muscle