Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-04-30
ANorHRR sLAuaHrRR.


The LEDoRR dispatches Of yesterda
brought the FIRST intelligence here Of al
other battle" with the Modocs. Tn
homogeneous tumble of details received
reveals the fact that it was no battle a
all, but a shameful sacrifice Of life To-
no good purpose whatever General
Gillem, who has been surrounding
the Modoes for several weeks, It seemi
detailed sixty men from the artillery
and infantry, but none from the cavalry
last Saturday, the 26th inst, and Sent
them out to make a reconnaissance. The
public is left to conjecture whether the
artillerymen took any OF their pieceI
along. for the dispatches are singu
larry deficient on that point and sew
erAl others necessary to clear under
standing Of the affair. II is presumable
that they took no artillery with them
If they did, however, a proper support
should have been sent along. The move
ment must have been a piece OF utter
folly. The men were sent out at seven
o'clock in the morning to find the In
dams, but the Indians found them, kill
ing twenty and wounding nineteen, be-
sides lieutenant and four men who are
missing. This left eighteen to escape to
camp unhurt. Captain Thomas, Of the
Fourth Artillery, in command of the
force, was killed; also Lieutenants Wright
aHd Howe. The little command seems
to have walked deliberately into a gap,
guarded on each side by the Indians,
who opened FIRE on them with terrific
effect, and the men we're panic-stricken
and routed without scarcely firing a
shot. The dispatches are not clear, but
enough is known to establish the fact
that shameful blunder was committed.
A commanding officer who sends out
artillery or srtillerymen doing the duty
of infantry on such perilous service
without support ought to be cashiered.
These men were sent forward on march
of three hours into the very jaws of the
Indian stronghold, and entirely beyond
the support of the main force. The
camp was several miles in their rear
when the slaughter began, and as far as
immediate assistance was concerned
might as well have been a thousand
miles away. The infantry was deployed
as skirmishers for the first time when
fred upon, but was routed almost in
stantly by the foe, who, as usual, was
unseen. The artillerymen, however
gallant, could make no use of their guns,
If they had any, and were of course
armed with nothing available but their
pistols. They stood their ground, and
were shot down like cattle by the Indi-
ans, who were all armed with the finest
breech-loading rifles. Thus far the ex
termination has all been on one side.
The killed were, OF COURSE, all scalped,
although the dispatches are worded SO
as to spare the feelings of the public as
much as possible, but the bodies recov-
cred we're horribly mutilated, and many
of them unacceptable except by pieces
Of clothing left about them. The Indi-
ans held the ground as long as they
wanted to and retired with their scalps
and perhaps few prisoners for the stake.
Great apprehensions are felt of gen
eral Indian war, calamity Of serious
national consequences. If forty or fifty
Modocs can out mapeuVer, battle and cut
up ten or twenty times their own num-
Der of troops sent out against them,
what would be the result if ten or &c
teen thousand warriors we're to take the
feld2