Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-11-28

DAYS DndJ IOI1OWoO Cno announcements OF
official Investigation at the expense of
the Pawnee battalions. 'sWhy, gentle
men" said ne, 4 have never ceased to
Thank God | didn't take the chance for
promotion that came in the reOrganiza-
ton twenty years ago. [ was one of the
senior captains of infantry then. Icould
have got one of those cavalry vacarcies
just as well as not-been yellow major
ten years before the leaves dropped on
my shoulders in the blue; but if by any
chance were ordered into the dragons
today I'd swap out or quit for good.
From the time those Bloods and Piegans
got their deserved thrashing at the
hands of Tim Bakers battalion I've
known enough to steer clear of it. You
know those facts as well as do. You
know those Indians had been numbering.
robbing, burning, pillaging, for two
years. You know how all Montana
begged and fmplored General Sheridan
to put a stop to it. There was no catch
ing them until winter, and then when
he sent those Second cavalry fellows up
there with orders to thrash sheol out of
them, what was the result? Didn't tine
papers east and west turn to and damn
him and them? Didn't they dub him
sPiegan Phil from that time forth? No,
sir, no cavalry service for me. There's
only one thing harder than the knocks
that they have been getting for the last
twenty years ON the frontier, and that's
the knocks they've had to bear at home"
But toward the end of January the old
post was beginning to pluck up heart
IL 4 - A
Berrien and Winifred their particular
major was able to drive with them,
bundled up in his furs. and lolling back
in the cushions Of Berengarias barouche,
as he termed his wife's comfortable car
rage, with that rejoicing matron by his
side distributing smiles and sunshine
and joyous mods of recognition wherever
she went, ever ybody waving hand or hat
or handkerchief as they bowled along,
and Winifred-bonny Winifred-beam~
ing upon her father from the front seat
Very, very sweet Miss Berrien was look
ing just now, said all who saw her; yet
there was shade of usefulness in her
face, q constant expression about those
deep, dark eyes that seemed to tell they
were ever on watch for one who never
Curly Brewster had scoffed at the idea
of being sent back to Pawnee.
whats the use?" he said. 81 would
be utterly alone there, while here have
all the fellows about me. What better
care do need:
In the midst of all their trials and an
noyances. in the thick of the whirl of
events that followed their sharp and
sudden fight, the officers and men of the
Twelfth found themselves more closely
drawn together even than before. Very
little was said when outsiders were by
as to the depth of feeling aroused in
their ranks by the unaccountable crit
icism of the press. Very little had to be
said in the official investigation of the
affair to clear them, one and all, of the
array of allegations lodged at their
doors. But that every man, from the
colonel down. bore away from the field
of their winters travail a sense of in
jury beyond the scar of savage missile,
who could doubt, who could blame? 1t
did not prevent their having some quiet
fun of their own, however. Gray haired
Farquhar was whimsical in his SYM
pathy with Rolfe, whose scalp had been
saved by the man of all others he had
most reviled- Sergeant Ellis Randolph
from the recesses of the hospital tent
poked no end of gibes at Ridgeway, wEo
had lost his eyeglasses in the morning
fight and had been nearly run off with
by the Sioux AS for Rolfe's plight, ..he
lost all the skin from the side instead of
the top of his head" laughed Gorham.
1t was pitiable enough to make the
boys forget the austerity of his past, for
to his dying day Rolfe would carry the
marks of his involuntary ''scrap with a
as Randolph termed it. sRolfe's
scars have come to the surface" chined
in Warren, who never could get along
with him. They all hoped that he would
go back to Pawnee with the wounded
train, and he did. So, too, did Ellis,
wearing on the arm in a sling the new
chevrons of "a first sergeant, won, as said
his colonel in presenting them. together
with the heartiest recommendation for
a medal of honor | could write, for
bravery ON the field of BATTLE" Rolfe
turned his bandaged head away when
Holden gave him all the story. He knew
not what to think, much less what to
say. Ellis had leaped through the swarm
of fighting braves and with the butt IF
his carbine dashed aside the unsexed
fend whose clutching claws were in the
captains hair, and then had fought like
a tiger over the PROSTATE body and saved
the life of the man who had maligned
him.
lone half second more and you were
gone, Rolfe," said Holden gravely.
Il never said he wasn't fine soldier"
answered Rolfe family. Perhaps !