Omaha daily bee., 1890-03-22


While this message was gong over the wire
message from General Sheridan was trav-
telling General Crook that the
president could not assent to the
surrender accepted by General Crook, and
that his instructions were to enter into ne
gotiations for unconditional surrender, spar
ing only the Indians lives. This was fol-
lowed March 81 with dispatch from Cen
eral Sheridan saying: "Your dispatch of
disappointment. II seems strange that
Geronimo and party could have escaped
without the knowledge of the scouts" To
this General Crook replied that there vas
no question that the scouts wero thoroughly
loyal. In later message he claimed that
the Indians had been drinking mescal freely
and that "bad liquor was at the bottom OF
Geronimo and Natchez leaving" March 81,
in response to the dispatch conveying the
presidents instructions, General Crook tele-
graphed that to inform the Indians that the
terms OF their surrender had been disap
proved would make it impossible to ne
gotiate with thom further. To this General
Sheridan replied, April IL: "As the
offensive campaign against him (Geronimo)
with scouts has failed, would it not be best
TO take up the defensive and give protection
to the people and business interests of Ari-
zona and New Mexicon To this General
Crook replied in part; ut may be, how
ever, that am too much welded TO my own
views on this matter, as | have spent eight
years of the hardest work of my life in this
department. / respectfully request that
may now be relieved from its command"
II is believed here by the friends of Cen
eral Crook that the recent agitation and the
attacks that have been made upon HIM by
Miles and his friends had much to do with
shortening his life.
Captain John G.. Rourke U. S. A., an at
tache of the Pan-American congress, who
was fer fourteen years an aid-de-camp of
General Crook and with HIM in oil OF his
campaigns against savage tribes west OF the
Missouri river, said today: General
Crooks death is great shock to me, ana
yet not wholly unexpected. For number
of years past he has seemed to be on the
verge of q physical break down and
he often complained to me of what he called
heartburn, but which, in the light of today,
may have been premonitory of heart de-
generation. He was man for whom had
the warmest regard and deepest affection
General Crook was the typical Indian
fighter of America and IN some respects re-
minded one of Daniel Boone. He was tall
an ounce of supertuous flesh, and never
knew the word failure. He was dead shot
with rifle and @an expert horseman
and could read sigps on trail
with a cleverness that I have never
seen attained by any other white man,
nor excelled by an Indian. His Indian SER
vices covered almost forty years, during
which he came face to face with every tribe
in our territory from the Missouri to the Pa
cifc and from the British domlnions to be-
yond the Mexican border, He was a man of
abstemious habits, seldom drinking even tea
or coffee, and always taking milk when he
could get it, nave known him on one occa-
sion to take the saddle at q. m. in bitter
winter on the high mountains of Arizona and
ride till a. III. the next day. Every man in
his command was worn out when they
arrived at San Carlos river, where
the agency now IS, and threw themselves on
%l.~ tA hat woo
showed no signs of exhaustion, and, taking
his gun, went out and shot some birds for
breakfast. If he had any fault 1t was his
eagerness to kill bear. In hunting them he
would undergo fatigue, deprivation and
terrible risks. He was once in the Big
Horn mountains of Montana when big she
bear rushed angrily from a thicket of reeds
where she had young cubs and ap
preached with open jaws to within twelve
feet of HIM. Not a nerve trembled
as General Crook raised his rifle,
pulled the trigger and put bullet through
her open mouth into the base of her brain
and she fell dead at his feet. He was an en-.
thusiastic fisherman and probably .jlis great
est enjoyment in life was to remain for
weeks in the forests and canyons of the
mountains, subsisting chiefly on the spoils of
his gun and rod. General Crooks services
to western civilization cannot be expressed
in words nor computed in dollars and cents.
He subdued the Snakes, Piutcs and Ban
nocks of Oregon and Idaho where are no
prosperous mining regions, following
them in the depths of winter to
their lava beds and capturing their fortresses
by direct assault. Up to his assignment of
the command in Arizona in 1871 the Apaches
were lords of the land and had dehed our
government and that Of the Mexican repub-
lie, keeping the people OF New Mexico,
Arizona, western Texas and the states OF Chi
huahua and Sonora in a state of abiect terror
that cannot be understood by a person not
on the ground ut the time. General Crook
began his campaign by holding an interview
with all the chiefs who were on the fence and
could be induced to hold q council with
him. He explained to them that it rested
with themselves to say how long the war
should continue. They saw the force of his
words and agreed to furnish scouts from
among their young men to go ont after the
hostiles who were still on the war path. The
result is already part of history In less
than year he whipped every band OF Ari-
zona Apaches into submission and put 5000
at work for living. One of the fights in
that campaign which greatly broke their
spirit was known as the battle of Salt river
canyon. We were led into it by our Indian
scouts and caught the enemy at the earliest
dawn Of day. They were confident of the
impregnublity of their position and laughed
at US, but we tumbled rocks over the prec-
picc and cleaned out the whole party, killing
seventy and taking thirty five captive. The
next campaign in which Crook took dis
tinguished part was against the SiouX-C Chey-
moving against them relieving one force
with another, but staying constantly in the
field for seventeen months. His marches
were made in the depth OF winter, when the
mercury was frozen solid IN the
buIb and in the heat of summer
when the thermometer registered III
and in rains that were deluges. No officer
or man can ever forget the thrilling expert
ences. One episode will show the severity
of the campaign. His command left Goose
creek with half rations of coffee, bacon and
hard tack for fifteen days and remained out
sixty days without change of clothing. For
twenty-five days rain fell constantly. For
ten days the sun was not seen aud for eleven
days the command had nothing to eat but
the flesh of their horses. There was, how
over, plenty of rain water. During the
campaign against the Sioux General
Crock met the enemy at the head of
the Littlo Powder early in February,
1876, aud on st. Patrick's day he destroyed
the village OF Crazy Horse on the Lower
Powder, having nightly skrmishes for o
week afterward. On June he fought the
Sioux and Cheyennes on the Tongue river.
repellng their fierce attack on his camp. On
June 10 he fought the whole force of hostiles,
numbering by their own statement 5000"
THE sUcCEssoRsHIP QUESTION.
General Crook was IN his sixty second
year, and had he lived would have been re.
tired for age IN September, 1898. Although
the junior major general, ho was the senior
II a I m