The daily gazette., 1878-01-16
A LETTER FROM JEFF. DAVIS.
WHAT HE THOUGHT OF GEN W. s. HAIR
NEY, HIS CoMRADE AND FRIEND

WHAT HE THOUGHT OF GEN. W. s. HAIR
NEY, HIS coMRADE AND FRIEND
OF MANY YEARS AGO.
Mr.. l.. u. Beavis, of st. Louis, il en-
gagged in collecting material for q life of
General Harney. He has just received
the following letter from Jefferson Davis
MIssIssIPPI CITY, Jan, 10, 1878.
SIR 1T gives me pleasure to comply
with your request, Of the 30th ult., for
some "reminiscences in connection with
my old friend, Gen. w. s. Harney. l
In the spring of 1899 L reported as a
Brevet Second Lieutenant to the COM
manding officer at Fort Winnebago.@
Gen. Harney was then stationed at that
post, and Captain of Company X, First
United States Infantry. At that period
| of his life he was, physically, the finest
specimen of man 1 ever saw. Tall,
straight, muscular, broad-chested and
gnat-waisted, he was one of the class
noblemen," against whom the plague in
the East "never made an attack" Had
he lived in the time of Homer he would
have robbed Achilles of his sobriquet of
the "swift footed" for he would run
faster than q white man, further than an
Indian, and in both showed that man was
organized to be master of the beast.
To elucidate the last clause of the pre-
ceding paragraph requires the recital Of
an anecdote. Captain Harney carefully
attended to his company garden, which
on the frontier was necessary for the
comfort as well as the health of the men
The beds had been carefully spaded and
raked, when one of his numerals dogs
a half grown mongrel hound-came
walking across the carefully prepared
ground, and the Captain, storming al
him in tones and in language not suited
) to the pupil, frightened the dog so that
instead of going out by the walk, he rar
across the bed toward the gap in the
fence. The Captain started In full run
, after the dog, which had to jump on the
fence and off it-fatal disparity of the
dog, for the Captain cleared the fence a
: a bound, which brought him jumI
= even run up the long slope which led t.
the fort, before reaching which Harne,
mastered the dog, and Rosa suffered ii
: proportion to the length of the chase.
l Capt. Harney was also bold horse
q man, fond of the chase, q good boatman
and 'sldllful in the use of the spear as
3 fisherman. Neither drinking nor gam
!; ing, he was clear of the rocks and shoal
t of life in frontier garrison, and Is n
+ doubt indebted to this abstinence 70
y much of the vigor he has possessed to hi
:, present advanced age. By long servic
t on the Indian frontier, together with tina
q practical sense which tests all theories b.
actual observation, he had acquired tina
knowledge of Indian character whic
s was often conspicuously exhibited in hi
O military career. OF the incidents thu
: generally referred to, you have so man
II other sources of information that it woul
9 be needless for me to enter into detail, ,bu
It / should do injustice to the subject of thi
N letter if did not call your attention
the project of treaty he made with til
!" Sioux in 1856 or 1856. i think it const
It tuted the best basis for an arrangemer
@ between the United States Governmer
\ and an Indian tribe that has ever bee
l devised, and if carried out would impres
the Indians with their responsibilities
d and bind them to q more faithful obse
n vance of it than ever did any those We
~ bose, miscalled treaties which are to, /
i found spread over the records of the I'm
% ted States. Yours respectfully,
eI ,TFFFERsON Davis