The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-01-28

mand at sight OF Indians, and hlmSelf
ride forward to reconnoiter. He
would ride up so near them that they
would fire on him, and then he would
turn in his saddle, swing his hat for the
troops to come on, and, without wait
ing for them to come up with him, put
spurs to his horse and dash down
upon the Indians with the bullets fairly
raining around him.
"Now, such fighting as that wins
for an officer the name of beng very
brave, but l call it foolhardiness.
When he made such charge as that
he knew absolutely nothing of what
danger menaced him: There might
be fifty Indians in ambush in front of
him, or there might be 500, and for
aught he knew he might be leading his
command to certain destruction. 1t is
all very we'll for a man to go out and
make target of himself for Indians to
shoot at, but it is sheer recklessness.
Anybody who thinks the Indians are
not good marksmen are mistaken.
They are continually practicing, and
they have the best of arms, most of
them having repeating rifles. Custer
seemed to think he bore a charmed
life. l have heard that he said that
the Indian didn't live who could hit
him.
"Now, my idea of brave man and
good Indian fighter, is one who first
ascertalns the strength of the enemy,
and then, if he thinks he can win,
makes the attack with GOODNESS and
judgment. Then let him show his
bravery by fighting like mad. In my
opinion it is poor generalshlp for the
commanding officer to needlessly put
himself in a position to be shot at the
very outset of, an engagement, and
thus take a chance of leaving his COM
mand without leader. If to be afraid
of nothing is to be brave, Custer was
the bravest of the brave. Harvey was
the best military leader for the plains I
ever met. He was cool and deliberate
in his braveness, but he was lion in
in fight"
"When were you with him. Tell
me about it."
81 was with him at the time of the
Mountain Meadow massacre. When
he heard about it he sent out scouts
to find out who the murderers were,
and when they reported to him that
they were Mormons, off he went with
his entire command for Salt Lake City,
swearing every rod of the way that he
would hang the murderers if he had to
hang every Mormon in Utah. He in
tended to give Brigham Young twenty
four hours to surrender the murdererS,
and, unless that was done, latter-day
saints would be mighty scarce around
there Before we reached Salt Lake
a messenger overlook us with orders
from the war department to return to
camp; that the civil authorities would
attend to the massacre business.
"He thought the matter over for
little while, and then declared that he
had started for Salt Lake City, and he
would 60 there if he was court-mar-
tailed and shot for it. And he went,
too, and if the war department ever
heard of it no action was taken. We
camped a short distance out of the city,
and staid a few days to give the ami
mails rest, and they needed it sadly, for
we had travelled fast. The morning
we started back to Yuma young girl,
about II or IS years old, came out to
the camp and applied to Brady, the
train master, to help her escape. Her
parents were English, who had joined
the Mormons not long before, and one
of the elders wanted TO marry her. Her
parents were trying to force her to this
polygamous marriage, and she could
only avoid it by running away. She
had an uncle and aunt in San Francis
co. and to them she wanted to 60.
BRADY wasn't the man to say mo-
under such circumstances, but he
slowed her away in the flour wagon by
piling the barrels around her in such a
way that she couldn't be seen from
either end. We hadn't gone far before
a dozen Mormons overlook us, the
girls father being along with them, and
they went through that train until they