Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-11-11
,p,vArE SNYDER, AGED 73.
Tho Oldest United States Soldier
Going Fast.
Fran, thu Ye3o YORK Sun.

t,,pT LARAMIE, ", OcU' -o'--I lIf1'e
SNYDER. the oldest soldier IN the
-,.;t.d states army, who has been sta
t.-,,ad at this post Tor more than thirty
IN wears. has Just left for the East.
D,,r,nr the greater part of his career as
YI5,or ba never manifested desire to
-o bis location. but of late be has
cuneived the idea that there are fewer
Coue",,;tops AT the East. that oysters may
hn6a6 there. and that codhsh Is better
Ue ''s one gets to salt water. With
ne thoughts old Leo, who Is now IS
aars Of age, turns his back upon the
scsnps of his long and active lie ana goes
nr0ng strangers. 'If / don't like 1t
9uv ,,o tharp.D he said as he was leaving,
uuT can come back TO Laramie. If
Nv mosquitoes are bad l shall not stay
long" ala ootivo
Woe Int he has IesOlutely refused to
/ Ta retired, and, as consequence, ne mas
boon kept here as Ordnance Sergeant,
! tokinp care Of the guns and making hlm-
4 soIf generally useful. Through the lnfu-
onna Of friends he hasn secured SINH
Ior INST at Clark's Point, near New Bed
tord where, he says, he VIII have nothing
~ do INT raise the colOrs every morning
/ and lower them every night. This strikes
S1n, AZ a lob that he is fully equal to and
ba insists on doing something of the KIND
as long as there Is lite 10 his body. SNYDER
enlisted as a private i'll Plttsburg IN 1881,
ond came to this post in 1919, when it was
nna of tpe most advanced of government
Corts In the then Indian country. During
oil tho wears that have elapsed since then
no has never been away from the tort eX-
cent on Indian campaigns and the Journey
which be is now to take will be his first
ride on a railroad. "lhave seen this here
railroad a good many times" he said as
be WAS setting out, "but can't say as L
like it. 1t goes too fast. | remember
i when il came through and / did not have
avery good opinion of it then, neither
M Won remember when the Northern
Cbeyepnes broke loose few years ag0F
Wall that was the first time that ever
saw 'em try to use the railroad for the
4 army, They had US down the road wait
ing for the redskins TO cross the track,
q but nobody knew just where they would
come We were picketed all along tor
miles and pretty soon word was received
hat the Iniuns had CROSSED at about Sid
ppy somewhere. Then there was the devil
10 nav. They had several trains of cars
u for us. and of course they were not any
u VIII. re near where the Injuns were. So,
after while, they picked up some of the
"a troops and carried them down to Sidney,
II but great smoke, Young man. there wasn't
now that would come out all the time.
You can't fight Injuns with the railroad.
Wewent on after them on foot and over
I'll hauled them alter while. You can most
II always find an Injun when you want to.
The iuiun don't understand the railroad.
either. Nor the TELEGRAPH. Isaw 'em root
up about fifty miles of telegraft poles and
wires once, but they didn't know what a
devil OF atrIck they were playing"
Although Old Leo has seen az much hard
service as any man who ever wore the
blue, it is a singular fact that he was
never W0uude d. Speaking on this bject
one day he bluntly refused to give any OF
his experiences in battle with the Indians,
but sald "No, | never got hit in any of
the fights that | was in. Perhaps some
folks after looking me over and finding
no scars on me, might say that was no
soldier, but l can tell you that that isn't
always necessary. The sold ers who get
killed are not the ones who do the fight
ing. It's the men who 60 in and belt
out OF 'em and don't get killed who win
great victories every time. That's fact
that Sheridan, Crook and the rest of 'em
don't dwell heavy enough on. in my opn-
Ion No, sir. | never got bullet or an
arrer in my life aud l was always in
where the7 was a-fyng, TOO"
When Leo was told that be would not
know the country at the East he unused a
While and said be supposed not. But"
be continued. 81 can imagine something
about 1t. When | went into the army
there want nOsuch town asChicago. All
lne teamlng was done on the old national
PIKE Down where you fellows say that
Omaha and Kansas City are there want
nothing when | came through here. But
you don't have no such fun out here now
as we mad then. 10 those days Laramie
was nVe-regiment post and it was dun
week mat we didn't have to go out aud
maui somebody. / know about what it is
Gown East. was there IN 1887, and I've
heard from there since. There has been
agreat change, though, of course. W ben
Ola bucK was elected President wedidn't
know anything about it till the next April.
1uce lhen I've seen 'em call us up from
hoo1usNn and Fetterman in five minutes
Siler the lnluns made their appearance.
kno" one time that didn't believe that
tuey hau any word from Robinson. They
we're hurryng around getting ready to
mo'e ana l asked somebody to tell me
nuo IL was that brought the message, be-
cause wanted to ask him a question or
TWO put one Of the bows said they had a
teesfait and ! said | didn't believe anv.
suing oil the Kind. Well, he said, you'll
II psn9Pe IL when we get over there. And
u'u' too. W hen we got there found all
we Dghtlng 1 wanted, and after that
%"aye oeIIeVed just what the TELEGRAPH
salu' You can't make an Iniun see
through 1t, though. | remember one time
nleh lot OF redskins got away from us
anu went skedaddlinQ Oft toward Fetter.
, ulau WIN US after them. 1t was co Id and
,,nesnoW was up TO your neck. The General
iuoI sent TELEGRAPH to Fetterman and the
SSons mere went out and headed off the
SSe es 3D. ana when we got up to them they
L Lau mem rounded up. You ought to ave
Eau vaI9 them cuss when we came up and
tSoI "a them prisoners. They swore until
que ue General sent back for the chaplain,
On EN-" "'eO 'ne gran
ooMe one asked Leo If he did not enioy
t l5usell more when the country was new
and he said: ''' 0''-iio'
mn vel in one sense we had plenty OF
woe :. gu must remember that Laramie
npa ,ueh thousand miles from nowhere.
stasas before they put on any overland
,bes ana there want nobody out here
soma t Dut redskins. OF course we had
POI e1' g. lun with ourselves, but il used to
1ayo nonotonous once in while. In those
so9n oaough, the Injuns would lust as
wba, atlack fort as not. Generally.
NNN