Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-10-15

Major Thornburg and his gallant fel-
lows, in the Ute country fell victims to
the miserly economy of a Democratic Con-
gress. 'Penny wise and pound foolish" "
is the present military system. Twenty
thousand soldiers to protect the vast from
tiers and cast-iines of the United States,
with turbulent and rising communistic
spirit in our large cities threatening us,
and two Or three Indian wars upon our
hands, are nOtoriously insufficient. So
long as we have a skeleton army, which
can do but little more than gibber and
shake its bones at audacious enemies, we
shall be obliged, each recurring season, to
chronicle just such disasters as that at
Milk River. The demand of the hour is
a standing army upon the plains, Of suffi-
cient strength to over-awe the rebellious
Indian tribes, or in case OF an uprising to
promptly and effectually apply a repres-
sive, and if need be an avenging hand.
At present, when an extra force is need
ed, to bolster up the little squads who are
expected to patrol the vast western plains,
and who frequently fall as easy prey to
an ambush, as covey OF partridges-the
garrisons of the East have to be depleted,
leaving the cities to the danger Of COM
munistic uprising, and our coasts practi-
cally defenseless. In speech at Indiana
polls, Thursday, Gen. Sherman referred to
this subject in the following vigorous SEN
tences:
The telegraph brings the sad tidings to-
day that one of our gallant officers, Major
Thornburg, together with thirteen others
of our brave boys, as gallant fellows as
any Of our old '64 veterans, had been slain
by the Indians. Now we must punish
these Indians and avenge the dead. It
will be done, Notwithstanding Congress
has given us so few men, because of hard
times, now past. They have cut our
army down now until we can hardly do
picket duty on our frontier lines, and
that's the way the Indians get the drop
on us. They always get the best of us at
first as in the case of Custer. And now,
fellow-soldiers, would ask of you that
you solicit your congressman to give us
force large enough to at least do effective
picket duty. Why, we have but 25,OOO
men in the whole United States army o.
900 of whom are clerks. They are non
combatants, hospital men, cooks, etc;
Now, what are they. good for in fight?
A voice, "They amt worth cent. J
There are not more than 10000 soldiers
scattered over Colorado, Idaho, Arizona,
Oregon and other points that need pro
lection from predatory raids from the In
dians. The other day about $50 were am
bushed by the Indians, and thirteen OF
our best troops were killed, two or three
of them being officers. The railroads are
assembling forces to go to the relief OF this
command, and they have, no doubt, been
succored by this time. If the border is to
be protected so that the public domain
may be built up like our own beautiful
city and country, then the army must be
maintained such standard that it can
cope with the hostiles. We cannot tight
these Indians without men. There are
the Utes, the Cheyennes, the Arapahoes
and other tribes that need attention; and
that is the reason [ want you, my Old
comrades, to use your influence with your
CongressmenIto Ito have the army strength
ened. Applause.