Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-24

6KMA HlaLbe. ne 1elt bne
IN NJ Apaches completely
subjugated, practically
disarmed and the en-
tire tribe with all its
ramifcations, except one, "herded" at the
reservations, where every man could be
watched and accounted fot. The excepted
band was the Chiricahua, which the Indian
Bureau saw fit to consider in the light of
special proteges of its own; gave them un-
usual facilities for supplying themselves
with magazine rifles and ammunition. and
putting on airs at the expense Of the less
favored Indians.
That the Chiricahuas should speedily
take advantage of the situation and become
the toughest tribe in Arizona, and do more
numbering and pillaging in proportion to
their numbers than all the others put to-
gether was all grievous surprise to the
Bureau, but not to the soldiers who had
made acquaintance with them. However,
except these fellows whom he was forbidden
to touch, General Crook had whipped and
brought to terms the whole Apache nation,
and now the general Government sent for
him to try his hand on the Sioux and their
brothers in outlawry-the Cheyennes.
OFF TO THE FRONT.
He had fierce grapple with them in
March, '76, far up beyond Fort Fetterman
where the mercury stood at 800 below, and
found them scientific fighters, and the finest
light cavalry in the world. His advance
guard fought Crazy Horse on "Patrick's
Day in the morning" among the snow drifts
OF the dry fork of the Powder river and
found him far too strong and skillful. But
Crook persevered, pushed away until he had
located the array of the hostiles along the
foothills on the upper side of the Big Horn
range, and then found that under Sitting
Bull, Gall, Two Moons, Crazy Horse and
others there were probably 10000 Indians
encamped in the lovely valley of the Rose
bud, and that ogallallas, Boutes, Uncapa-
pas, Blaekfeet, Sans Arcs and Northern,
Cheyennesw were out in force, and constantly
receiving supplies and reinforcements from
the great reservations of Red Cloud and
Spotted Tail down on the White river, in
the northeastern corner Of Nebraska.
1t was then that General Sheridan, who
commanded the whole division of the Mis-
souri,, ordered the Fifth Cavalry to 90 up
and reinforce the field army of their old
Arizona chief and comrade. We had
marched in overland from Arizona to
Kansas the summer of rs, and were gar
risoned along the Kansas Pacific Railway.
The order came by telegraph early in June.
We were off by rail for Cheyenne the very
next day, the Lieutenant Colonel COM
manding going ahead and taking me with
him as adjutant. We were dining at the
Railroad House. at Cheyenne depot, after
having selected a camp ground for the COM
panies that were to arrive that night, when
telegram was handed him. He broke it
open, read it, and almost shouted with de-
light "Hurrah! Bill Cody's comingv' and
tossed it over to me.
3 BUFFALO BILL.
'Bufalo Bilp' had long been the chief
scout of the Fifth Cavalry, and was we'll
known and thoroughly liked and trusted
by every officer and man. 1t was he who
took me on my first deer hunt, and with him
had had my first long gallop on the buff
falo trail, and when the regiment was Or
dered to Arizona with General Crook in the
fall of II, it parted most reluctantly from
Cody, who had married and settled near old
Fort Mcpherson, and whose family could
not bear the idea of his going to "Apache
land" Yielding to the entreaties of East
ern show managers after his old comrades
left him, Cody took to the footlights, and
when '76 came around, he had a company
of his own, and was doing a thriving bust
ness. He was billed to play at Whining
ton, Del, on the night of the 9TH of June,
'76, when he read in the paper that his old
chums, the Fifth Cavalry, were ordered up
to Wyoming, to take a hand in the Sioux
war. Bill lost not moment; telegraphing
for his old place as chief of scouts, he can
celled his engagements at the close of the
performance. bade goodbye to the audience
with the words that in four days he would
be in saddle and on the actual warpath
again; paid off his company, and took the
midnight train. Four days afterward met
him at the Cheyenne railway station with
the order establishing him chief of scouts
of the Black Hills column.
The next week we were marching north
ward, and the end of June found us lurking
among the willows and cottonwoods down in
the valley of the South Cheyenne river to
the west and in three easy days ride of the
Black Hills of Dakota-just west of the
broad Indian trail leading from the reserva-
tion on White river up to Sitting Bull.
Making wide circuit we had marched
thither by General Sheridan's orders to cut
off the constant communication and traffic
between the hostiles at the front and the
traders and blanket Indians at the rear.
as well as to prevent further reinforcements
joining the war chiefs by that route.
IN CAMP.
We were just eight companies strong.
Our new Colonel, General Wesley Merritt.
of the old cavalry corps of the Army of the
Potomac, had reached us and assumed COM
mand. We picketed our horses among the
trees, in the deep valley; kept strong out
posts on watch in every direction and were
only praying that the Indians might come.
1t was the 1st of July when Merritt Joined
us, and though we had full particulars of
General Cooks hard fight of June II with
the Sioux along the Rosebud, not word
had come to US of the tragedy of Sunday,
the 25th, in which Custer and his five pet
companies had been wiped out of existence
on the banks of the Little Big Horn. But
the Indians knew it at the reservation, and
the tidings fired the veriest laggard among
them with longing to join Sitting Bull, and
share IN the glories and plunder and scalps
of the war, and swarms of them loaded up
with provisions and ammunition at the
agency, and, in the darkness of night, lead
ing their spare ponies, they would slip
away.
Just at dawn on the morning of the Sd of
July, rolled out of my blankets to super
intend the grooming of the horses of "K''
troop. Here were the same men who went
Apache hunting with me in Arizona two
years before, but we left our California
horses at the border line, swapping with the
Sixth Cavalry and taking their taller,
longer and "rangy" Americans. These
horses, mainly from Missouri, Iowa and
Illinois, could not climb mountains like the