New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-27
NEWS FROM WASHINGTON.
A RUMOR OF APACHE TREACHERY.
GENERAL CROOKS COMMAND REPORTED TO HAVE
BEEN MAssACRED BY HIS sCOUrs-rHE RUMoE
DIsCREDITED.
lBY TELEGRAPH TO THE TRIB USE.

BEEN MAssACRED BY HIS sCOUrs-rHE RUMoR
DIsCREDITED.
lBY TELEGRAPH TO TRBUSE
WASHINGTON, May 26.-The report that General
Crook and the white portion of his command have
been treacherously attacked and massacred by the
Apache scouts, who outnumbered them four to one,
although discredited at the War Department,
causes visible uneasness among Army
officers and Others. The report pub
lished this morning announcing victory
by General Crook over the hostile Apaches. was
also received with general incredulity early in the
day, but later General Drum and others admitted
probability Of Its truth. 1t not expected that
the next intelligence from the expedition would be
received from point west and north of the Sierra
Madre, as Tombstone, Arz., is, but from Janos or
other MeIic town east of those mountains In
Chihuahua-possibly as far east the Mexican
Central Railroad. The report of the
massacre comes from Tombstone, Arz.,
by way of Chicago and Is to the
effect that trustworthy citizen from San jose
mine, Sonora, had reached Tombstone with news
that the Indian scouts mutinied when in the heart
of the Sierra Madre Mountains and massacred
nearly the entire command, General Crook himself
falling o victim. The trustworthy citizen" says
he obtained his information from good source.
Army officers in Arizona, the dispatch to Chicago
says, discredit the report
When Adjutaut- General Drum was in Texas some
days ago he made careful study of the situation,
and before he left FL Paso, directed the
officer in command to inform the War Department
by telegraph Immediately upon the receipt of any
reporter even rumor which mi ght bear the ap-
pearaDce of authentlcity-of General Crooks
movements. Not a word has been received from FL
Paso, and to-day General Drum reiterated his order
by telegraph for the earliest intelligence which may
haar oboI,l ctr
indication that the officers at headquarters I'M
easy, If not alarmed, account Of General Crook
and his command. Some days ago General Sherman
said he expected to hear first from General Crook
sOmew here about Janos which is in chihuahua,
fifty miles moro northeast Of the Janos pass
through the Sierra Madre.
SO far anything can be learned of
of General Crooks movements after crossing the
boundary from the south western corner Of Arizona
into the Mexican State of Sonora, he moved south
along the western flank of the Sierra Madre and on
Nay was at Barispc in northwestern Chihuahua,
sti west of the Sierra Madre range. He left there,
marching in southeasterly direction into the
mountains. Two or three later dispatches repre-
sented HIM as still west of the main range and
strong passes of tho Sierra Madre which he
designed TO y penetrate, hoping TO drive
the hostile savages eastward, where the retreat
Chihuahua, with whom General Crooks command
appeared 10 be acting in concert. The reports both
Of his success aud disaster came from place far
north and west of the supposed scene of his opera
tions-a wholly unexpected quarter. One of them
is perhaps quite credible as the other. His force
is made mp of four parts Apache scouts, one part
white cavalry and one part white packers; the lat
ter probably unarmod. There is also the possible
chance that he has picked up some renforcements
IN sonora.
The policy of ensting Indian scouts for military
service against hostile or refractory
Indians originated with General Crook,
and he has great faith in It. With the Northern
Indians he made it great success. There Is great
difference in Indians. however. The Apaches are
generally and Justly regarded the most treacher
ous and bood-thifsty of all Indians. They are
completely under the control of their medicine
men," In August. 1881, attempt by General
Carr to arrest one of their medicine resulted
in an immediate outbreak, and General Carr and
his entro white command narrowly escaped de-
struction in a mountain pass IN Arizona at the
hands Of the contingent of Apache .scouts
and their savage kinsmen. On that Occa-
sion Captain Hentig and six enlisted men
of tho 9th Cavalry were killed
by the scouts three of whom-Sergeants Deadshot
and Dandy Jim. and Corporal SkIppy-wero after
ward tried by court-martal, convicted and hanged.
General Crook, however possesses in greater
degree than any other officer In the Army. the
hdcnce of the Apaches. he does that of most Of
the savage tribes they respect and fear him while
they trust him. But while that is true, Apaches
will be Apaches" and once In their power, with
their passions aroused by the " medicine men," who
the worst foes of white men and white civiliza-
tiOn, he might easily fall victim TO their cruel
treachery.
There are rumors that the scouts, whose
pay is small became discontened soon after
the expedition set out, when they dis
covered that the white packers were to receive four
fly times as much wages as they did. In regard
to this and the probability that General Crooks
Indian scouts have turned upon him, General Drum
said: Crook has q thorough knowledge OF the
Indian character and ho, is very prudent officer.
He would be on the alert always TOR any symptom
of discomfort sign of treachery He had 200 OF
those Apache scouts. In that large number there
must have been at least one or two trnsty men who
would have warned him In time of any
medItated treachery, and i do not believe
he has been caugh: mapping. II no had
found that apy aaoS bio
"a position where 1t would have been at the mercy
of the traitors III his camp aud their allies outside
Of it," Still General Drum was evidently uneasy,
and he several times alluded to the affair at Clblou
Crock, where Captain Hentig and the Sixth Cavalry
men were slaughtered and General Cars command
put in deadly peril by these same Apache scouts
Up to midnight Adutant-General Drum had
received no reply to the telegram sent by him to-
day to FL PasO making inquiries Tor Information
relative to General Crook.
COMMENT AT sHERIDAN'5 HEADQUARTERS.
CHICAGO, May 26.-The officers at General Sheri-
dams Headquarters while In receipt of no direct
information place no credence in the sensational
kilograms intnatng mutiny in General Crooks
command and the death Of that officer. They place
less reliance upon tho report than IT 1t was to the
effect that his column had met with defeat at the
hands of tho hostiles There has been nothing upon
which to base belief in the recital from any former
act of treachery the part OF his Indian allies, and
the prescnceOf American cavalry, they deem, adds
to the unlikelihood of such an occurrence. They
also place but slight belief in the statement OF his
supposed engagement with the savages, as they
argue that General Crook would have pushed his
own couriers through rapidly in such an event