The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-04-30


Sheridan.
A accommodating column OF the United
States troops on Saturday last suffered
another and most disastrous repulse from the
invisible Modocs in the lava beds. The
details of this bloody affair, which we give this
morning from our special correspondent on
the ground, are more thrillingly interesting
than the fullest reports Of many battles in
which thousands Of men on both sides were
engaged. The extraordinary character Of the
scene of combat, which lies inside an area of
hundred square miles and more of volcanic
ruins, resulting from gigantic up
heaval Of a. deep rocky formation, fractured
and tumbled about in endless confusion, the
vast field Of these lava beds Astounding in
holes, chasms, caves and underground pas
sages, difficult for hostile force to enter
and more difficult to escape from, surrounded
by the invisible sharpshooters of cunning
and desperate enemy give to this unequal
fight of Saturday last. a terrible fascination
which we find in no other conflict Of all our
Indian wars.
In military application this unexpected
misfortune may be briefly stated. In the
morning, at seven o'clock, the weather bright
and pleasant Captain Evan Thomas and q
force Of sixty-nine men-infantry and artillery
men, but all acting as infantry-were detailed
by General Gillem to reconnoitre O certain
position in the lava beds where it was
supposed the willy savages were secreted. The
instructions to Captain Thomas were to recon-
noitre this position in order to ascertain if the
Indians were really there; but, if there, he was
to avoid bringing on general engagement, as
it was the purpose of General Gillem to send
up battery or two of his mortars and to shell
the position before entering it. After march
of two hours along the south flank of the lava
field the recommending party, in approaching
lava butte, or little mountain of volcanic
rocks, discovering no signs of Indians, signalled
back accordingly, only the next instant to find
| themselves under destructive fire and envel-
oped by the deadly Modocs. The death of
Captain Thomas, Lieutenant Howe and
other officers, the killing and wound
ing Of more than half the little COM
mand and the precipitate fight Of the
remainder, the approach Of reinforcements
and the removal of our dead and wounded
under night Of rain and darkness, were the
closing scenes of this bloody drama
Captain Thomas, it thus appears must
have committed dreadful mistake in getting
his command into a cat-de-sac, and in To-
cality where he had expected to find the
Modocs. He seems to have discovered that he
had marched into the trap set for him by the
Indians only on discovering that they had
closed the door against his escape. The bat
tie Of the 18th of January was q blunder and q
waste of heroism in being fought all day in
a thick fog against the unseen savages when,
at the very outset, our troops, as they could
have been, should have been quietly with
drawn. But in this dreadful affair of Saturday
last the skies were bright and the Indians
were suspected to be where they were found;
and we are irresistibly drawn to the conclu-
sion that, while Captain Thomas died bravely
as soldier, his life and the lives of his COM
rades slain with him were sacrificed to an
excess of confidence or to negligence in his re-
connoissance, or to a lack of knowledge in the
peculiar strategy and tactics Of Indian war
fare But, again, while the orders of General
Gillem, that in the event of discovery of the
position Of the Indians, general engagement
was to be avoided, in order that the mortars
| might first be brought forward to shell the
place, were good, and, if strictly carried out,
| would have saved the command of Captain
Thomas, the question still recurs, why was not
a mortar or two detailed to accompany his ex-
| VII -, 10 horo
command into the trap to shell the position
where it was expected the Indians were lying
in waltz The answer will probably be that the
difficulty Of moving artillery over those
masses Of volcanic rocks is the reason that
not even light howitzer was sent with the
expedition But time and labor in war are as
nothing when they will secure the means to
accomplish the particular end desired.
In the three days fighting which followed
shortly after the murder Of General Candy and
his companions on their last and most melan-
choly peace mission, the best service, and per-
haps the only effective service, rendered was by
the artillery, in Smelling the hooks and assures
in the rocks where the Modocs had established
their headquarters. Against those destruc-
tive shells the Indians are hardly safe, even in
their caves and now it would appear that an
exhaustive Smelling in all our approaches over
those lava beds is the only method for avoid
ing disastrous reconnaissance. But what do
those Indians among those rocks live upon?
They must have something in the nature of a
base of supplies besides the scanty rations Of
the rabbits and lizards of those lava beds,
and some ways and means Of CON-
munication with allies outside. If these
Modocs, then, cannot be hunted out
or shelled out Of their volcanic fortress,
surely they can be starved in these hiding
places by securing the country around them.