The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1876-08-23
GENERAL CROOKS RECORD.

A correspondent of the Cincinnati
Commercial, writing from General
Crooks army, gives the following rem.
iniscences Of its. commander: General
George Crook is soldier of whom his
native State (Ohio) can well be proud.
Born in Dayton, he was nominated at
an early age to be a cadet from that
district in the Military Academy at
West Point. Graduating from that
institution a quarter of century ago,
in the same class with Sheridan, Slo-
cum, Stanley and others, his military
career has since presented a strange
and constant succession of onerous
and dangerous duties, which have, as
his friends believe, fully qualified him
for the task now imposed upon him.
The details of his numerous conflicts
with the savages of the Far West, his
hairbreadth escapes and the trying
scenes in which he has figured as hero
would read like a romance. It is
enough to say that if he is not yet
well known to the people of the East
ern States, on the Pacific slopes his
name is household word among the
miners and ranchmen who owe to
him the protection from Indian dep.
relations they now enjoy. There is
scarcely a tribe on the Western coast
that has not felt the power of his mil
itary talent, from the Klamaths,
Snakes and Pi Utes of the North, to
the Yayapais and Apaches of Arizo-
ma.
The General has been severely
wounded twice, which is an evidence
of his excellent record. When the
war broke out he was commissioned
Colonel of the Thirty-sixth Ohio Vol
unteers, and soon found himself in
command of the famous Kanawha
Division" mostly composed of picked
men from the Buckeye State, and hav-
ing under him as subordinates, officers
of the type of Rutherford B. Hayes.
What the "Kanawha Division" per-
formed under the command of Crook
and Hayes is known to every school
boy in Ohio who has listened with
bated breath and kindling eye to the
thrilling story told by his veteran
brother, by the cracking winter fire.
The close of the war found Crook a
Major General of Volunteers, in COM
mand of the entire cavalry force of
the Army of the Potomac. He had
figured conspicuously in the operations
conducted under General Sheridan,
which led to the destruction of the last
remnant of Lees army of Northern
Virginia; he was then assigned to the
command of the Department of North
Carolina, but had scarcely entered
upon his new duties when the threat
ened storm cloud of the Indian war
upon the feeble settlements of Idaho
summoned him to the distant ranges
of the Pacific Coast. There the Pi-
Utes and Shoshonees had "broken out"
and for while had high carnival of
robbery and death. Eighty six unfor-
tunate Cinnamon were massacred in
one place on the same day. Crook
assembled his small forces, moved up
on the enemy in the middle of Sc.
we're winter, when most of his men
and animals came near freezing to
death, surprised the Pi- Uutes in their
stronghold of the "Infernal Caverns, !"
which he stormed. He lost one off.
Ger killed and thirty eight men killed
and wounded. Inflicted upon these
Indians blow from which they never
recovered. The General next turned
his attention to the Shonshonees, whose
country lay more than five hundred
miles from Crooks base of supplies.
After waiting until thoroughly pre-
pared for the campaign, he commenced
operations, which he continued with
out cessation for eighteen months,
whipping those once terrible Indians
so thoroughly that they have complete
ly disappeared as a disturbing element
from Idaho, Nevada, and Washing
ton Territory. The subjugation of
this tribe, which had been pronounced
by experts an "impossibility," natur-
ally brought Crook prominently before
the Government as the most available
officer for the pacifcation of the Apa-
ches Of Arizona, another tribe whose
reduction to a state of peace cost a
mint of money. During this cam
paign, which lasted nearly two years,
the Apaches were driven from rock to
rock, their chief and bravest warriors
slain, their women and children led
into captivity. Finally the last of the
hostiles surrendered Internationally y
in the open field.
The terms Of peace granted them
by General Crook were simply that
they should lay down their arms and
cease from numbering and plundering.