News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-09-14


wounded safely housed under the roof
of the hospital at old Pawnee, many
severely shattered or suffering great
pain. Many will bear to their dying
day mementos of that savage Decem-
ber battle. Some of the twoscore are
doing very we'll; others perhaps have
done better, and are sleeping under the
flag. A busy man is Holden, and very
proud one, as he has the right to be, for
one and all the troopers love to speak Of
him as their Fighting sawbones." He
was in the thick of it all when the rush
of the rearward mounted troops swept
into and through those fire splitting
lodges, and the Indians-warriors
olAiSS-~1-z>s~>.I~
fighting fiercely all tire way to the
shelter of the ravines among the bluffs.
Tireless as ever he and his assistants are
constantly at the bedsiCes of the wound
ed. So is the chaplain, one of the church
militant, whose "soul's in arms and
eager for the fray" for his friends of the
Twelfth are under two fires.
Calamity and well have they with
stood that which, with sudden treachery
at the hands of their savage foes, flashed
in their very faces. But they have no
redress rs against this-this civilized
lashing at their very backs. The par
sons sermon Sunday morning in answer
to the driveling sentimentality of GER.
tain misguided ecclesiastics far from the
scene of conflict almost lifted old Ken
yon and his comrades out of their seats.
The major hugged his chaplain after
service and stopped to shake hands will,
him every time he met him during the
afternoon. In many a pulpit east of the
Missouri with fearful fervor was the
picture drawn of those helpless, plead
ing Indian mothers, those shrieking, ter
rified little Indian babes, ruthlessly
slaughtered by brutal and infuriated
soldiery. Nor were the clergy without
warrant for their "bottom facts" since
in some mysterious way the representa-
tives of the press, lowering about that
impersonal section of military anatomy
known as headquarters, were flooding
the columns of their journals with para
graphs about the wanton killing of wo.
men and children in the fight in front of
the Twelfth.
''Holy Joe," as the parson had been
termed, knew well the day when, in the
seclusion and simplicity of his seminary
life, he would have swallowed who'll
just such statements and turned up the
whites of his eyes i'll sympathetic horror
at the recital. But the man of God on
the banks of the Merrimac and his
brother in the cross on the upper Mis-
souri, see very different sides of the vex-
ing Indian question. "Holy Joe" at
Pawnee this sparkling month of Janu-
airy was mad clear through at the indig-
mites and aspersions cast upon his blue
coated comrades. He wrestled with the
brethren of his cloth and downed them.
He even dared to establish u censorship
of the press and to keep from the hands
Of his precious wounded those journals
which had assailed the Twelfth.
He had had his hands full, poor fell
low, long before the wounded came, for
those were dire days and nights after tho
news was flashed to the post and the
widowed and fatherless in their affiic-
ton were thrown upon his hands. Poor
Mrs. Thorpe! All, she was only one of
several. There was wailing among the
wives and little ones down where once
the soldiers families were SO thickly
clustered. There were other households
in dread anxiety. There were wemen
broken down with grief and sleepless
watching. There was one so i'll she
could not even now be told she would
never look upon the face of her gallant
soldier again. But draw the veil. 1t
was ON such bleeding hearts and on the
ten who bore the brunt of the fiercest
fighting of the campaign that the lash
of press and pulpit fell.
But old Kenyon was in his element,
To the best and kindliest of men there is
in being able to say Didn't l tell you
so?" a joy that surpasses the sweets of
religious consolation. 1t was something
to hear him declaiming among the artil-
lery and infantry officers during the
days that followed the announcement of
official investigation at the expense of
the Pawnee battalions. "Why, gentle
men" said he, II 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. lcOuld
have got one of those cavalry vacancies
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 Id swap out or quit for good.
From tho 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