The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-07
Copyright.
GOOD DISTANCE RIDING.
Remarkable Journeys Made by the
United States Cavalry.

Some Remarkable Journeys Made by the
United States Cavalry.
General Merritt in 1879 rode with a batta-
lion of the Fifth cavalry to the relief of
Payne, and covered one hundred and sew
enty miles from IL a. m, October 3, to $50
p. M, October 1.-TWO days and six hours
accompanied by a battalion of infantry in
wagons, which much retarded the march.
He arrived on the scene in good order and
ready for a fight. Single couriers had rid
den in over the same distance from Thorn
burg's command during the previous two
or three days in less than twenty-four
hours. Captain +. S. Dodge marched his
command on the same occasion eighty miles
in sixteen hours. Lieutenant Wood, of the
Fourth cavalry, marched his troops seventy
miles in twelve hours-6 a. nj. to 6 p. m
and came in fresh; and double that dis
lance has been made from 10 a. m. till S p.
m. next day. In 1870 four men of compan
Il, First cavalry, bore dispatches from Fort
Harvey to Fort Warner, 40 miles. over a
bad road-twenty of it ~sand-with little
and bad water. in twenty-five hours, eighteen
and a half of which actual marching time.
The horses were in such good condition at
the end of the ride that after one days rest
the men started back and made the home
trip at the rate of sixty miles a day. In
1880, Lieut.. Roberts, First cavalry, rode
from Fort Lapwal to Fort Walla Walla, 1912
miles over the snow. deep in places, in
twenty-three and a kali hours; and starting
next morning, rode back in two days. These
are but n few out of the scores of equal per-
formances. The keen appreciation of pace
and of the ability of the animals ridden in
such feats is marked. Men who can do
work like this and come in fresh must be-
c onsumate horsemen.
Our frontier cavalryman ia the beau ideal
OF an irregular. The irregular horselnen of
all ages was recruited from among rowing,
unintelllgent classes, and had, except in his
" peculiar provinces, as tlentifula lack of
good as he had a sup~erabundance of bad
qualities. Gu trooper is Intelligent, and
trained III the hardest of %scnools, Few
civilians, who find it SO easy to criticise the
operations of the army in the west, would
make much of a success in hunting a band
of Il few hundred Indians in a painless
wilderness or Il waterless desert bigger than
New York and New England combined.
And vet. thus handicapped, what splendid
WORK our cavalry has done. While
one civil department. of the govern
ment has for years been busy SOW
ing the seeds of strife and furnishing
the rel men with arms of precision, the
best of cartridges and plenty ..of them, how
ably our handful of bluecoats, under or
ders of another. have manage to quell the
Indian uprisiuss. A force of $4,000 men
too great to do justice to our Indian prob
lem since the war; the actual force has been
less than q third of this number. Let whose
is tempted to %crlticiSe thearluv make him
self familiar with some of the deeds OF
heroism of the past twenty years by our
soldiers on the plains. Criticism blenches
before their recital. But the soldier is no
boaster. You must seek his story from
other lips than his.-Col. L. A. Dodge, in
Harper's Magazine.