The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-29
THE ARMY IN KANSAS.

If / might suggest any corner in the
vineyard of Kansas history that might
be further titled to advantage, it would
be the connection of the ''old army
with the ante-state and pre-territorial
period. BY ''old army" Is meant the
small but select regular army of the
United States as it existed before the
| great civil war, when its presiding
| genius was ''Old Scott" when the muffin
cap. such as you see IN Mexican wal
pictures, was the head-cOvering OF
| heroes who knew all about the last
war; with England and whose evidences
| of services We're three or four arrow
heads in different parts of their martial
frames and an ability to swear exceed
ing that Of a more ancient army in
| Flanders.
Until the organization of Kansas as a
territory, the country may have been
said to have been in care of the ''old
army" The officers Of that army were
its discoveries, explorers, ambassadors
| and even scientists. All that was known
not only of Kansas but of the vast
country between the Missouri and the
mountains was the property OF the
army. The war department was the
|
| civilian amounted TO but little in Kansas;
| the soldier was all in all.
Two soldiers. Captain Lewis and Lieu
| tenant Clark, conducted the first of those
| Kansas excursions" which have since
| been SO numerous. Line officers O 1.-The
old army"-captains and lieutenants-
were in those days sent everywhere to
cover immense distances and perform
| the most important functions. 1t may
not be generally remembered that there
were two of the Clarks. General George
Rogers Clark saved Illinois TO the Ameri-
can Union in the Revolution, and his pic
ture adorns the state capitol at Spring
field. Kansas has no picture as yet of
Lieutenant William Clark, who discover
ed Leavenworth, Atchison and Independ-
ence creek. After Captain Lewis and
Lieutenant Clark came Lieutenant Zebu-
lon Montgomery Pike, the discoverer of
the Arkansas valley. All three of these
friends of Kansas were army men. Lewis
died by his own hand in Tennessee; Pike
was killed in the hour of victory at York,
Canada, but Clark lived prosperously.
was territorial governor of Missouri and
for years superintendent of Indian affairs
at st. Louis. He took an interest in
transmississippi weather, and you may
see his diary and meteorological record
in the rooms of the Kansas State HistOri-
cal society, place theIe by Prof. James
II. Garfield.
The ''old army" built forts in Kansas
and showed rare good taste In selecting
sites; the bluff at LeavenwOrth, the old
picturesque cliff looking down on the
MarmatOn at Fort Scott, and the high
prairie ridge termination where the wa
tiers of the Smoky Hill and Republican
mingle and where Colonel FauntlerOy
located Fort Riley. These posts have
preserved the names of good old soldiers:
Winfield Scott, Henry Leavenworth and
Bennett Riley, the last a hardy soldier
who kept guard for some time over the
Santa Fe road from WestpOrt to the
Cimarron, then the American boundary.
With the establishment of the posts in
the territory, the ''old army may be
said to have come to Kansas TO live.
Nearly every officer from the grade of
colonel down at one time or another
served in Kansas. You never run across
a grizzled old military gentleman on
the retired list W . will not ask you
something about Kansas, which, it
may be, he saw last in the sos.
From Kansas the sOldiery started out
after the Indians, and occasionally the
Indians reversed the operation. Then
Kansas was, as now, on the main road
across the continent from the Atlantic TO
the Pacific; the only road that does not
choke up with sand or snow; and it was
the mission of the military to keep the
great commerce moving.
In the TROUBLES" there was much Use
for the ''Old army" The old soldier was
supposed to have no politics, very VIC
lent suppositiOn to entertain about an
American citizen, and his only duty was
to maintain order" If you read orig
inal documents of the period you will
have little trouble in seeing opinions
cropping out through the blue coats;
how Colonel Sumner hated to dispense
the Topeka legislature, and how Captain
This or That would have gladly made it
warm for the free state fellows. But
they all had their opportunity to show
their hands afterward.
At Fort Riley there was a young cav
airy officer who took considerable inter
est in civil and local affairs, who assisted
in establishing the first Masonic lodge in
Junction City, and Is said to have read |
law and been admitted to the Davis |
county bar. He was then an enterprjs-
ing cavalryman, though one of his old
troopers has told me some curious stories !
of his deficiency in the art of equation,
and his tendency to sail through the
clear atmosphere and over his horses !
head. This was afterwards the famous
General J. E. b. Stuart
And there was an infantry officer at Fort
Riley, with a taste for law and political
who wrote articles for a
newspaper in the presidential
campaign of 1860: Woodworking, iron
faced sort of a man. This captain came
TO be known to fame afterwards as Gen
eral Nathaniel Lyon, who died at Wilson |
Greek.
''On the 18th Of May" and old book
tells US, Major Sedgwick, with a strong
body of troops. started for Fort Riley for
a summer campaign against the Indians
Captain Lyon was left in command Of
the post, which position he held till the
arrival Of Major Vessels, the 18th OF
the following November.
The three officers mentioned in this
brief paragraph as being on duty IN Kan
sas came 10 high estate; all rose TO be
generals, Major Vessels on his road 10
a major generalship. taking IN the colo
nelcy of the Eighth Kansas, IN which he
was succeeded by John A. Martin.
Kansas. in naming her counties. has
Thomas, Sheridan. Grant
and Sherman Lr1t has named LYON and