The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-04-07
TO LEAVE CHICAGO
Gen. Miles Soon to Be Transferred
to New York.
y 0ghting General Whose Name 10 .
oynonym for BrAvery-His Famous
Campaign Against the Mes
Perez Indians.

The American people know Gen.
Miles pretty we'll The soldier boys
know him better. He is the greatest
Indian fighter on record, and he will
bucceed Gen. Howard as commander of
Ehe department of the east. with head
Auarters on Governors island. In 1861
he entered the army as the first lieu
tenAnt of q Massachusetts, company,
being then twenty-five years of age.
Four years later he was the possessor
pr . brevet msjor-generaPs commission
bnd three bullet wounds.
He is not West Pointer. His book
knowledge of war, says the New York
World, wa. gained in his tent by the
light of candle after the other officers
were in bed. The rest he learned at
The lannon's mouth.
While his opinions of the Indian
HAN fighter who said that the only
rood Indian is dead one. he has never
Fiven the American aborigine the
eredit of having Quakerish virtues.
6he Cheyennes and the Arapahoes in
1870 were the first to meet him, and,
with the exception of one or two in
consequential outbreaks. they have
been q well-behaved lot ever since.
After the massacre of Custer, Crook
Ind Terry retreated from the triumph
mt Sitting Bull and left Gen. Miles to
remain quiet and keep lookout. But
instead Gen. Miles started in pursuit
pf Sitting Bull and in two feet of snow
met the willy old warrior and scattered
bis band. Because of his hardihood
The Indians dubbed Gen. Miles Bear
Coat" and by this name he has since
been known among the Sioux.
When he overlook and captured Jo-
beph and the Nez Perces he had to
march 1000 miles to do it, but his
troops followed him willingly. Joseph
WAS the smartest of modern Indians.
He complimented Gen. Miles at their
first meeting by saying no one else
could have conquered him. In that
campaign 1900 redskins were subju-
gated or killed.
Everybody remembers how Gen.
Miles cooped up the Apache, Geronimo.
He led his men for weeks over rocky
mountain sides and across barren
stretches of sand, under broiling hot
sun, clad in nothing but their under
clothes. Veterans of the English wars
In Africa and India have declared that
they had never seen the equal of that
experience. In the southwest Gen.
&c b,~ox
What Gen. Ward Roberts, of the
East Indian army, is to England, Gen.
Miles is to that of the United States.
What "Bobs" is to Tommy Atkins,
s'Bear Coat" is to our "Sojer Flynn" of
khe frontier posts. They are the two
great fighting" generals of to-day.
And while lighting" is not necessary
Tor q parade, it is in time OF war.
This little incident in itself is char
acter sketch of Nelson A. Miles: The
Cheyennes murdered settler and his
wife and carried their two little girls
away into captivity. Bear Coat res
cued them. He wrote to the war de-
partment asking that sufficient money
be taken from the annuities of the
MIC W lCAA oLo OSoSuNS ehhS A."
HE ones. The war department put him
OF, but he wrote again, and kept writ
Ing with that persistency which is the
predominating feature Of his nature.
He told them he would not let up until
the wrong was righted, and finally the
war department woke up and he gained
his point.
One of his soldiers, now in New
York city. said when he heard that he
was coming east: The boys out west'n
ibe sorry He want none of your dudes,
and he made us come up to the scratch.
We knowed when old Bear Coat was
aeadin' somethin' had got to give away.
Just say his name to a red devil and
he'll be as good as a Sunday school
meetin' in q minute. He never asked
DIS to go anywhere he wouldn't go him
pelf, and we'd follow him through hell.
We did, purity near, I'm thinkin', when
I'VE was after old Geronimo"
Gen. Miles is handsome man. He
looks and carries himself like gen.
sral. Deep lines on his rugged face
are left him as reminders of what he
has passed through. He has a charm
Ing wife and a beautiful daughter,
who will grace New York society.