Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-08-16
INDIANS TACTICS.
How the Redskins. do Ba,tlc--Gcn
CROOKS Recent Campaign Discussed
by Veteran.


by Veteran.
Gen Hatch, the well-known Indian
fighter, said to ST. Louis reporter
The first Indian fighter in the army
is George Crook. Now he is an In
dian fighter and there never was a
better one What are the qualitica
tons of am Indian fighter. Well III
tell YOU; Pluck and endurance.
He's got TO know how TO starve, \
white man can starve an Indian
every time He can outlast him
in everything. 1t is the man who
can Starve, who can do without meat
and drink, that can fight Indians.
Take that country that Crooks been
over. The lava beds that were made
famous during the Modoc campaign
are lawns compared TO it. The
Apaches were III country that the
word rough doesn't give faint idea
of IL is nothing but craters the
crestS of which are on porphyry
Now, there's nothing SO easy as to
stick a gun through crevice IN the
porphyry and fire away at anybody
of men that is approaching. | crossed
over the crest of one of these craters
once, and closed in with body Of
Indians two thousand feet below No
Crook took things easy He went
along slowly and rested at places with
the idea of taking the Indians in with
out any fighting. and he accomplish
ed it, He had great many of my
old scouts with him It's a mistaken
idea that Indians are treacherous
They are soldiers born soldiers,
and are loyal To whoever they fight
for When the Indians enlist with
YOU they'll fight for you to the death.
I've seen them kill their own people,
not because they had any bitter feel
ings for them, but because they We're
ON my side. When their six months
are out though, then look out-they
are with you no longer
Asked about Indian tactics the gen
era( said
"They do not scatter and fight in
/ dividually, ms is generally supposed
They fight like soldiers, in "A body,
under commander and are military
in every sense. They advance and
retire, execute flank movements, and
are up in all the cvouhons. I'll new
or forget, said the general, with II
laugh, when / had handful of sol
ders with me, just after the war, in
Texas believe it was in 1866, A
large body Of Indians came down on
us, and from the appearance of things
it was all up with us, We were armed
with magazine guns Spencer rifles,
which the Indians had never seen or
heard of. They had the common muz
zle-loading guns, and when we massed
ourselves together we could see that
they were coming the old Indian dodge
on us, circling around, coming nearer
and nearer firing arrows at us, aud,
4 as they got closer, waiting the time
when we should fire into them, when
4 they would dash down upon MS and
get away with MS before we could re
| load. | knew what their tactics We're,
and | waited the result with the great
| est enjoyment. When they got
close up | gave my men the word to
/ fire, and bang went the rifles.
Then the Indians came at us as
swift as their horses could carry them
| knew they were unconscious of the
fact that we had nine loads in each
gun, and when at the word my boys
fired again they were thunderstricken
/ They were still on the charge when
we pumped into them again. Atevery
fire their men dropped. Then, when
VIC fired into them again without NOV
ing our rifles, they turned and ran and
we put after them still firing. Well,
you never saw anything like the de
moralization among them, They must
have thought the devil was after them
We chased them as far as we could,
but they were too fast for us, and we
gave il up. But 10 return to Crooks
Indians. In the fall Of 1876 the Chi
ricahua and Hot Springs Indians went
on the war-path followed them in
to the country, and, after a big fight,
defeated them The next year the
same Indians broke out again, and we
whipped them once more. They have
been fighting about once year since.
Every year we kill so many, and a
process of determination goes on
which will finally wipe them out.
They'll fight again, and their numbers
will be again lessened. You can't pre-
vent them from fighting, and the only
thing you can do with them is 10 wipe
them out.