The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-06-26

We have had occasion to send troops
thousands OF miles from our shores.
General Merritt goes to responsible
Ties ana difficulties such as no soldier
Of the United States army has ever be-
fore been called upon To meet. II is
true We had military governors during
the civil war, but their burdens were
trifiing compared with those he has
gone To take up I'm "A strange land and
amongst a strange people. having Gus
toms language and habits widely diff
ferent from our own The nature of
ms position renders 1t unique and strik-
ing No other military governor APP
pointed by the United States has ever
hac anything like the power he will
WELD I'm the Philippines. 1t will be alb
solute and final. No civil authority will
exist TO question his acts. Ii will be
as he sees fit and as necessity demands.
General Merritt was born in New
York city, in 1886. While he was yer n
mere child his parents moved To mi
nois, where the bovhood of our mill
tary governor i'm the Philippines was
spent on a farm. Young Merritt en-
tered West Point at Il years of age
just prior to the breaking
OUT OF the clNl war. He was one of
the boy geuerals" of that tragic strup-
gle, a captain of cavalry i'm 1862. inst
one year later ne was serving as "A
brigadier-general OF volunteers. II was
his gallant fight at Beverly Ford that
won him his rapid promotion. The
newspapers of the period TEEN with |
accounts of his bravery and courage on
that occasion.
He was I'm the Richmond campaign
of 1864, serving with Sheridan az the
latter's chief officer. and with thar |
dnshing leader he did plenty of hard
lighting for the union.
He was present with Grant and Sher-
ldar when Lee surrendered. and he was
n or the three commissioners an
pointed by the government to carry out
the terms OF the treaty.
Al the close OF the war he was mus
tered out of the volunteer service and
transferred tn the permanent estab-
lisEment ms leutcnant-colonel Of the
81 cavalry
In the West Colonel Merritt soon
made "A name for himself as an Indian
fighter. II was Merritt who rescued
Thornburg's command at the time OF
IN" White river agency massacre. when
the troops were being slowly but none
the less surely starved To death and
shot To pieces by the Ute Indians. who
hemmed them In on all sides.
one of the soldiers succeeded i'm es-
Gaping the vigilance Of the savages and
made his way To Rawlins station on
the Union Pacific.
A telegram was sent to Colonel Mer-
ritz, then in command of the 9th cavaI-
ry, stationed at Fort Russell. He hur-
ried down to Rawlins with his men
am then there began one of the great
cavalry marches ON record. For
days and nights the soldiers rode
almost without pause. led by their tire
less colonel.
when they reached the white river
agency IL was To find poor Thoruburg
and his command i'm a pitiahle
plight from hunger and wounds. In
APRIL OF 1887 Colonel Merritt was made
a brigadier-general, and in 1897 a ma
joI general. ,
Next in point of interest to General .
and his division is the 9Th
otherwise the army Of cuban I
and its commander. I
General Shafter was "A farmers boy !
pus IN county. Michigan. [
the civil war came. He enlisted q
n the eth regiment of Michigan infan- q
~ In 1851. and was made a frs. lieu I
enant OF volunteers. He d~istinguished I
himself at the battle of Nashville. and a
'eceived promotion for gallant and y
services" in the battle of l
Fair Oaks. and was awarded a medal
~ congress for heroic conduct at Piney I
Ridge. When the war ended he be- q
"A part Of the estab- a
and did no end OF rough work v
.nd hard lighting In the various Indian e
vars i'm the West and Southwest as 5
Ieutenant-colonel of the cath infantry. p
n 1897 he was given his commission as "
rigadier-geneTal. n
Perhaps OF all the presidents APP
none nave been quite so n
with the public at large as a
of FitzhuGh Lee. y
General Lee comes of a fighting fam J @
His great-grandfather was that Il
celebrated Light Horse Harry Lee. e
no led the Nirginian cavalry during
revolution. Robert r.. Lee was his n
ncle, and his father, Sidney :. Lee. Ia
iw some 50 years of service in the a
.nited States naV.. In
He was born ina Fairfax county. Nir- q,
nia-famOus as the home OF the ci
'-ashingtons. Masons and Lees-in as
Entering West ON before he pl
az l. years Of age, he graduated in Of
sc. I'll