The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1883-05-30

for those to follow. 1t is believed mat
the date chosen will ensure a large at
tendance, and all that will be necessary
to make the meeting success is plenty
of horses to compete for the prizes.
the LATEST NEWS.
Col. George H. Butler, ex-consul gen.
eral to Egypt, and nephew ofthe Gov. has
written characteristic letter to Quarter
master General Rufus ingalls,, resigning
his position as forage master at Fort
Keogh. He says the reasons are that it
is still cold in Dakota, Montana and Ore
gon, and by blunder made at the head
quarters of Brig. Gen. Terry there is no
money to buy wood, and the supplies at
the posts in his department are exhaust
| ed. At Keogh they are burning barrels,
boxes and fence palings. On May 18th
| it was found absolutely necessary to send
out companies A, B, c, F and H to re-
mote timber land to cut wood, a summers
work. Hay for the cavalry is to be OBJ
tanned in the same manner later in the
season. This bringing of soldier labor
into competition with self-supporting in
| dustry is taking thousands Of dollars out
of the Yellowstone valley, besides leav-
| ing SO important a post as Keogh garri-
soned by only four companies, and with
Crow King off his reservation. He
charges that assertions are frequent
under Gen. Terry, and that even nom
commissioned officers are going, and this
adding of the ak and scythe to the sold
iers equipment will increase them.
Owing to blunder of Gen. Terry the
employees of the quartermaster depart
ment at Keogh have not been paid for
April, causing serious Inconvenience
where the cash system prevails In
order that his resignation and statement
of facts will not fall into the hands of the
"brigands of the press" as did recent
document alleged to have been signed by
Terry, he passes this document over the
head Of Gen. Terry and addresses it di-
rect to the war department. That is to
say, he returned his rank and emolu-
ments to the source from which he re-
ceived them. Gen. Terry won't mind
not being considered in the matter.
Col. Geo. H. Butler, of Fl. Keogh, the
irrepressible newspaper correspondent,
addresses the following savage letter to
Gen. Terry''s staff:
II don't know that so distinguished
and so gentlemanly soldier as Gen.
Terry reads paper Of very large but ut
terly promiscuous circulation such as the
New York Sun, so l sent one. 1t will,
however, do what Gen. Terry has never
done, make it's own way successfully
through the Northwest. Gen. Terry ex-
hibits high courage, but exceedingly bad
judgment in selecting his fights. Sitting
Bull and myself are the most recent ex-
amples. We know the result of his cOlli-
sion with the Sioux chief where his POGO
tempo flank movement and tardy, if not
lazy marching, in the opinion of distin-
guished officers who were with him,
caused the death of 80 gallant a soldier as
Custer and the $50 men with him. Gen.
Terry, of course, could not be expected
to fight Indians, as he never saw war
rior in paint, but he had officers with
him of ample frontier experience and
men enough with him to have sent Sit
ting Bull and his Sioux flying over the
border if the head of Gen. Terry's column
had ever appeared above the horizon.
That they did not get up in time, as
agreed upon, is now a matter of mourn
full history to the Custer family and sor-
row to the American people. Having
held Gen. Terry off at arms length
while on the prairie of Montana, and
contemplated his struggles to prove that
he commanded his own department with
amused curiosity, / accept the opportu-
nifty his friends have made by rushing
him into print, at my expense, and shall
do my best to let the country know what
is known to every officer in the depart
ment of Dakota, viz: Gen. Terry's pro-
verbal laundering neglect Of his COM
mand, which has frequently frozen and
starved under him; and this. too, all I'M
necessarily and inexcusably, for rich
and generous government places at the
call of commanding officers more than
enough to make the soldiers life COM
Portable, even . happy one. l address
this to the gentlemen of Gen. Terry's
staff, as tits pretty we'll understood that
his staff run the department and do as
they please. do not, like Gen. Terry,
throw brick at man behind his back
without warning, so therefore l notify
him, through you, that shall put this
in print"
Butler, who is now in Washington, al
lowed himself to helnterviewed, and has
the following to say relative to the con-
dition of army affairs in Montana:
"When the grass grows every spring
long enough for the Indians to Craze
their ponies, they either hunt or fight
perhaps both. OF the Piegans of North
ern Montana, every buck has left the re-
servation, and nothing but the old Indi-
ans and squaws remain, claiming that
they are starved by the Indian agents.
They will kill cattle wherever they find
them. A half dozen war parties have
been met by the stages over the British
line and on our side, in Montana, and
travellers robbed of what food and valu-
ables they possessed. These war parties
then went on, declaring their intention
| to kill cattle when they wanted meat and
to fight the Crees, who had stole their
ponies. These are the British Indians.
The present embarrassment of Col. Ilges,
Eighteenth infantry, causes an unusually
tardy movement in pursuit Of the Pie
gans. Col. Ilges ranks among the best
Indian fighters of the army. First, Of
course, is Paddy Miles, as the settlers
call him. Gen. Mackenzie is certainly
second, and then comes Crook and Ilges.
The Piegans have always been bad In
L