Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1884-01-19
The Work OF CavaEynen.

Colonel A. Ct. Bracket, Third Cav
airy, read a paper before tho Military
Service Institute ON "Our Cavalry: Its
Duties, Hardships and Necessities at
Our Frontier Posts" 'This arm Of the
service" he said, had grown spsce OF
late years, and though it is very costly.
may be safely said to have paid for itself
over and over again in the safety it has
furnished to the frontier settlers and tho
immense benefit it has been to the
nation in opening the highways and by.
ways of the interior of the Nerth Ameri-
can continent. The duties are some-
what changed of late, in that the trooper
! is called upon to shield the red men
from the cnpidity of the border settlers.
instead Of crowding him, as formerly,
to the wall and it is, after ell, only a
question of time when the wavo Of civil
lzation will swell over the boundary lines
and occupy the lands which the red men
now call their own. As a general thing
our soldiers wear their fatigue uniform
and work at almost anything except sol
diering. They build houses, make
roads. cut wood, burn brush, clear up
land, and, in fact, do pretty much every
I thing except attend to the duties they
f, are supposed to have enlisted to perform.
The trooper often steals food for his
horse, and in many cases shares his
scant ration of bread with him..
There are very few cavalry men Who
have served any considerable length Of
time on the frontier who have not been
turned out by an alarm Of Indiana
i Usually some farmer comes riding in on
horseback in his shirt sleeves, laboring
under the greatest excitement, hallooin9
Indians Indians I and. after he has
become sufficiently cooled down TO toll
his story, unfolds q sickening tale ol the
manner in which some OF his relatives
have been butchered in cold blood by
the savages, or his horses and COWS
killed 80 as to leave him completely i'm.
poverished. Then there il hurTying 70
and fro in the little fort--rasions have to
be drawn and pnt mp in bundles. the
pack mules saddled and loaded, and then
the cavalry horses themselves have tc
he saddled and made ready for the neld
Just at nightfall, perhApa, the motley
cavalcade moves out over hill and dale
in search OF the traIf n the sAvagcs
After scouting from seven TO ten day
no enemy is seen, no trail discovered
and the Indians themselves have van
ished like the verieat phantoms oi u,
mountains. Not ono scouting party il
twenty finds Indians. the greatss num
Der Of scouts rendering unaatisfsctor!
results.
There is An ever increasing desire Oh
the part Of young ofio<u 70 carry sh'
lu1uriea Of the age 70 tho frontier pest
aud this gives rise to many so-caIe'
hardshipe. We see tho most incoogTu
Gus things at times. aud many . youn,
bride has been taken 10 . frontier Ios
who pines for the beautiful things sh
left in her fathers homo in the EAs.
Still she holds on TO sons thing, and
Turkish rug frequently covers . di,
q door and . grand piano beoemes soiie
by the mud Of sun. dried xisks.s pr
sumo mos. old offic4rs have seen . ma
pnt On \ good MANY sin beeAuse be "a
the fortunate poasessos Of cabbage q
4 mess OF potatoes, while others had non
al theAA tooshsone comAs4lbieA.
. does not take much to 1aAh a azist<
cyat"