The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-04-19

Hills.
The special dispatches of the HERALD cor
respondent at the lava beds enable us to lay
before our readers to-day full and graphic
account of the operations against the Modoc
Indians, which, it was hoped, would have
ended before now with the extermina-
ton Of Captain jacks treacherous and
murderous band. It will be seen
that the Indian policy of the administration,
to which we owe the murder of General
Candy, Lieutenant Sherwood and DR.. Thomas,
is likely to cost us, besides, the life of many
brave soldier in the field, and probably of
many families of settlers, before the end Of
this miserable affair is reached. According
to our latest dispatches, the savages, after
two days fighting in the almost impregnable
position they had been suffered to take up
while the peace negotiations were pending,
had escaped and fed to the hills. BY that
fatal laundering which has marked every step
in this Modoc business the force engaged
in the attack upon the cave appears
not to have been sufficient to hold the
small band Of Indians in the trap,
man had paid the penalty of their crimes
with his life. When General Candy was MUIR
dered we were told that the delay in the attack
upon the lava beds had been occasioned by the
fear that the Indians might escape,
and, spreading over the country, COM
nit depredations and cruelties upon the
inhabitants. Ample time has been afforded
since that calamity to reinforce the troops to
O sufficient number to render such result
impossible; yet now we see the very event
occur which then caused fatal pro-
crastination in our military opera
tions The escape of the wretches
means the massacre of all the helpless
people, men, women and children who may be
unfortunate enough to come in their way.
While flourish may be made over the fact
that we now hold possession of the lava beds,
without any Indians in them, and over the
promised pursuit of the flying wretches by the
cavalry, there is no doubt that the military
plans have been defeated and that our work
has been miserably botched and bungled
The advance of our troops commenced on
Tuesday last, and before night they had
gained a position within two hundred and
fifty yards of the Indian camp, after feeling
their way cautiously along and capturing ridge
after ridge. Our correspondent who was with
the advance, gives graphic description of the
fighting, and his story will serve to show how
great must be the difficulties in the way of the
troops in that wild and almost impossible
country, where days tramp will destroy an
ordinary pair of shoes. The infantry and ar
tillery moved at daybreak on the morning of
Tuesday, the fifteenth, and were followed
shortly afterwards by the cavalry. They
had to fight their way through strongholds
and ambuscades of the Indians, and while we
have no occasion to doubt the statement of
our correspondent, that officers and men did
their duty CALAMITY, we find, neverthe-
less, that the advance was cautiously
and slowly made. To render the
situation the more irritating, the
red-skinned savages were everywhere behind
shelter, and while some fifteen of our own
soldiers fell on the way, dead or wounded,
scarcely single effective shot could be
brought to bear on the enemy
After the troops had gained position near
enough to the camp or cave of the Indians,
the guns were put in position and the work
of Smelling commenced. This was kept up
during the night of Tuesday, to the disgust of
the Modocs, who evidently did not relish SO
one-sided an entertainment A shell
was thrown into the midst Of
q fire during the night, occasioning scatter
ing and yelling which seemed to indicate
that the visitor had done some damage
to the council gathered around the
flames. On Wednesday a further adj
vance was ordered, and it being dis
covered that the Indians were making excur-
sions to the lake to which they then had ac-
cess, junction was effected with Colonel
Mason's forces, thus cutting off the i'm
prisoned savages from their supply
of water. This advantage was not
secured without some desperate fighting, and
although our dispatches do not seem very
clear on that head it would appear that
some of the band had then managed
to break their way through and get on the
flank and rear Of Mason's camp. Several
attacks were made on our line, but without
apparent success, only small body of
men, who had advanced SO far as to
be in danger from our own shells,
having been compelled to fall back
from their position. During the whole
time the Smelling was kept up on the cave and
its vicinity, and when it is remembered that
the squaws and pappooses were in these fast
nesses, and that they were wholly cut off
from their water supply, it can readily be
seen that their sufferings must have been too
great to have permitted them to hold out for
any length Of time. On Wednesday night,
therefore, it seemed as if the end was near,
and as if the savages we're doomed to pay the