Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-09-08
lndian Tactics.

Gen. Hatch the well-known Indian
fighter, said to a St. Louis reporter,
'sThe finest Indian fighter in the army
is George Crook. Now, he is an Indian
fighter, and there never was a better
one. What are the qualifications Of an
Indian fighterP Well. III tell you:
Pluck and endurance. He's got to know
how to starve. A white man can starve
an Indian every time. He can out last
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 in a
country that the word rough doesn't
give a faint idea of. 1t is nothing but
c~raters, the crests of which are on
porphyry. Now, there's nothing so
easy as to stick a gun through a crevice
in the prophyry and fire away at any
body Of men that is approaching. I
crossed over the crest Of one of those
craters once, and closed in with a 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 fighting, and he accomplished it.
He had a 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 In
dams 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 feelings for them, but because
they were o my side. When their six
months are out, though, then look out
they are with you no longer"
Asked about Indian tactics, the gen.
eral said:
"They do not scatter and fight indi-
vidually, as is generally supposed. They
commander, and are military in every
sense. They advance and retire, execute
flank movements, and are up in all the
evolutions. I'll never forget" said the
general, with a laugh, "when Ihad a
handful Of soldiers with me, just after
the war, in Texas-I 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
YER armed with magazine guns
Spencer rifles, which the Indians had
never seen or heard of. They had the
common muzzle-loading guns. and when
we massed ourselves together we could
see that they were coming the old In
dian dodge on us, circling around, COM
ing nearer and nearer, firing arrows at
us, but, as they got closer, waiting the
time when we should fire into them,
when they would dash down upon us
before we could reload. 1 knew what
their tactics were, and I waited the re-
suit with the greatest enjoyment. When
they got close up 1 gave my men word
to fire, and bang went the rifles. Then
the Indians came at us as swift as their
horses could carry them. I 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 plunged into
them again. At every fire their men
dropped. Then, when we fired into
them again without moving our rifles,
| they turned and ran and we put after
them, still firing. Well, you never saw
anything like the decentralization among
them. They must have thought the
devil was after them. We chased them
IS far as we could, but they were too
fast for us and we gave it up. But to
| return to Crooks Indians: In the fall
Of 1876 the Chiricahua and Hot Springs
Indians went on the war-path. I fol
lowed them into the country, and, after
q big fight, defeated them. The next
year the same Indians broke out again,
and we whipped them onc 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 number
will be again lessened. You can't
prevent them from fighting, and the
only thing you can do with them is to
wipe them out.
~ - a