The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-04-22
The Inglorious War Of tho Lava beds
Tho Escape OF Captain jack and HIS


The King OF France, with forty thousand men.
Marched up the hill, and then marched down again.
And this is substantially the story OF the
deplorable .fasco of the war upon Captain
Jack in his lava beds, so far as we
can gather it from the accounts already
received. Was there ever more deplor-
able military failure than this2 Here we
have band of some seventy-fve Modoc
warriors to begin with, encountered with
their women and children, poor, miserable,
half-naked savages without supplies of any
kind, and armed with such weapons as they
were enabled to get from time to time from
our Indian agents or from captured and plum
dered emigrant trains, defeating the United
States troops, ten against one Indian, in
regular battle, battling them in their peace
conferences, treacherously numbering whole
detachment Of our Peace Commissioners, ex-
cepting one man, and them after three days
fighting against twenty times their force,
mysteriously disappearing from their strong
hold and for parts unknown. This is the
summing up, of six months campaign
against seventy-fve half-naked and half
starved Digger Indians in the lava beds OF
Northern California.
Now we recoil from the thought Of injustice
to General Gillem or towards his officers or
his soldiers, regulars or volunteers, whites or
Indians. They fought bravely and exposed
themselves courageously against their unseen
enemy in his almost impregnable strong
hold of volcanic ruins. And yet, from the
battle Of January II to the disappearance
of Captain Jack and his band, excepting some
ten or fifteen killed in their last three days
! fighting, the whole campaign appears
budget Of blunders. On the morning of that
battle of January, as the United States troops
were moving to the attack upon the Indians
in their volcanic stronghold, dense fog from
the neighboring lakes enveloped them, just as
the fog in o somewhat similar situation en-
veloped that Roman army which Hannibal
had marked for destruction, and which he
destroyed. General Wheaton from that fog
his assault for at least the equal advantages of
q clear view around them. But, like General
Braddock on the Monongahela, he advanced
against his invisible enemies only to be igno-
miniously repulsed. This was great blum
der when he had the choice of the time for his
attack entirely ct his discretion, and was in no
danger Of any loss in a timely retreat from an
untenable position
Next there were those peace conferences
with Captain Jack from day to day, for which
General Gillem is not responsible and these
were stupid blunders, for they doubtless served
the purposes of Captain Jack in giving him
information as to the strength, positions,
movements and designs of his besiegers.
There was method even in his madness Of
numbering General Candy and his attending
peacemakers, for it was no doubt the idea of
Captain Jack that the killing of the General.
and his party would so demoralize the besieg-
ing troops as to result in their withdrawal for
a time, and thus make an opening through
which the besieged party might conveniently
escape. In his desperate situation Captain
Jack with his savage ideas of war, no doubt
felt himself justified in adopting not only the
most desperate, but the most treacherous
means offering any chance of escape.
Finally, in the last three days fighting for
the capture of his volcanic fortress and til
destruction Of Captain Jack and his band, we
think, from our published reports, we can
detect several points in which the Modocs
completely fooled their assailants in their tao
tics and strategy. For instance the cunning
Modocs made q large fire inside their lines,
which was vigorously shelled by our mortars
and howitzers, under the presumption,
perhaps that the free and easy saw
ages were gathered round that fire eating their
supper. But they had made the flame on
purpose to draw the fire of their enemys can
non, while Captain Jack and his main body Of
warriors were making their escape Again,
those Modocs who appeared fitting from rock
to rock, as if not knowing which way to fly,
and the others who, with the explosion Of
every shell in their neighborhood, set up and
maintained such terrible yelling, did all this
for purposes of deception. Their object was
to convey the impression to our troops that
the Modocs were all there, when probably all
this clamor came from the rear guard Of
dozen warriors, simply operating to cover the
retreat of Captain Jack and his main body and
to gain an invaluable hour or two of time.
General Sherman, it now appears, thinks it
will be somewhat difficult to exterminate Cap
tain Jack and his escaping band, now that
they are at large in vast, uninhabited region
Of sage brush, salt lakes swamps, rivers vol
canic rocks and difficult mountains for cavalry.
And so, from the peace policy, upon which
this inglorious Modoc campaign has been con-
Quoted we see the folly of pampering and
temporizing with these savages while fighting
them, and are confirmed in the wisdom of
the policy of Sherman and Sheridan and
Crook, the policy of active war against oil
these peace breakers till they are destroyed or
/ radncad To cnmnlata submission General