Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-10-04

bad management. Troops At frontier
posts should be kept occupied in the
work ofpreparation to pursue and pun
ish hostile Indians. They should be
required to familiarize themselves with
the country lying within at least
100 miles Of their post, and the
officers should be detailed to make re-
connoissances and itineraries, from
which maps should be prepared show
ing every trail, stream, spring, and
other details that would be Of service
to moving column. II the troops
were employed in this manner men and
animals would always be prepared to
successfully operate against hostiles,
and it would be impossible, with the
aid Of the telegraph connecting the sew
eral forts, for a band Of less than 100
Indians to keep three full regiments of
United States cavalry continually en-
ployed in hunting for them.
The officer further said that the
younger officers are anxious to relieve
the painful monotony Of life at from
tier post by performing field service
but the elders refuse their applications,
and seem to prefer to keep the men en-.
gagged in grubbing about the post to
scouting over the country to familiarize
themselves with its topography. Every
frontier post should be school Of in
struction, and the commanding officer
should be required to send out details
TO survey and map the country, and
reports Of these should form the
basis for further surveys until
the entire country would be even
better known to the troops than it is
now known to the Indians. 1t is not
the fault of the men and subaltern of
ficers Of the army who are sent out to
fight and capture the Indians that they
are not successful. They do all they
can, and yet the officers who are hunt
ing the Indians are given the blame for
failures upon the belief that they have
been fully prepared by education and
experience for the work assigned them.
1t rarely happens that field officer
is called upon for active service,
and therefore these gentlemen con-
slider it more important that the
post at which they are sery-
ing should be comfortable than that the
men should be fully prepared to fight
Indians. sit is folly" he concluded,
Ito expect green troops to successfully
hunt these mountain Indians. The
present humiliating condition of affairs
will continue until it is made the duty
of officers commanding frontier posts
to make the officers and men of their
command familiar with the country
about them, and this can only be done
by marching over it. You will be sur
prised when | inform you that while
operating against hostiles | was once
compelled, in order to be sure Of a
proper camping-ground, to 60 back six
miles to obtain water when plenty
of water could have been obtained
about one mile in my front, but o.
which fact was Of course ignorant
II we had the knowledge we should
have Of the country such things would
not occur, nor would it be necessary
for the army to employ Indian guide
and scouts, who can rarely be relied
upon, and whose sympathies naturally
lie with their own people. More active
military duty in the field and the aban
donment of the system which compel
soldiers to perform mechanical labo
about the post would not only promot
the efficiency Of the army, but woul'
incl ease its morale and remove one o
the most fruitful causes for dcser.ion.