Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-02-27
The Gallant Confederate as He Appeared When Livin
Among Indians on the Frontier

AANLiANth ~ All the NOIlu II2I ne OlNIl
believe in fooling away time with basis
or supply or lines Of retreat" Yet see
I how Jackson deceived him. striking him
IN the rear; destroying him; 50 twisting
him up that he couldn't identify his own
headquarters. Were Indians ever guilty
of treachery more gross than that?
And see how he treated Shields, and
Banks, and Hunter, and Milroy. and Ere
mont. He was everywhere except where
those generals had right to expect him.
HOW HE CAUGHT MCCLELLAN.
Think of the trick he played on Nc
Clellan. When that able soldier had ad-
vanced his parallels to the very walls
or this devoted city, just as the mailed
hand of war was being stretched forth TO
clutch her, there was sudden tumult yon-
der, six miles away, at Cold HarbOr.
stan officers, in hot haste, were dashing
to McClellan's quarters, with news that
the works We're assailed; that the flank
was turned: that the rebels were carry
ing all before them. Who stormed those
rarnparts? Who burst those barriers and
hewed out the path TO victory? 1t was
that arch dissembler, Stonewall Jackson
What right had ne on McClellan's flank
when Mcclellan and Lincoln and Stanton
and all the world believed him to be be-
yOnd the Blue Ridge mountains yonder
playing bo-peep with a trio of generals
who were reporting two or three times a
week that they had him surrounded at
last, and would bag him on the morrow?
An he was fearfully treacherOus There
was no dependence to be placed in him
by the Federal commanders. What was
his conduct toward Hooker at Chancel-
lorsville? Deceiving that General by
pretended oblique to the rear, he stealtni-
ly crept around his flank, and hurled such
battle or the head Of Fighting Joe as has
no parallel in the annals of war The
Eleventh Corps 10000 strong passed from
history on that fateful day A fateful
day, alasi for US, too, in the loss Of that
single life. But his fame is with the ages,
now; his glory is the heritage of our
race.
HAVE ONE WEIGHT AND MEASURE.
Let us have one weight and one mea-
sure. Let us be ashamed to call the same
thing by different and contradictory
names. Let the science of war. and its
highest attribute, strategy, have the
same name and the same honor whether
exercised by the white man or the red
man. We see how incongruous is the
charge of 'treachery" when we impute
1t to the stainless soldier whose fame has
filled the world. Why then should we
apply the dishonoring word to a Lacotah
chief, for the very acts and deeds, in
spired by the self-same motives, which
filled the heart and nerved the arm of
Stonewall Jackson. Both alike fought
for hearth and home, for ancient right,
for the freedom which they had inherited
from their fathers for the freedom which
they were bound, by every patriotic or
tribal bond, to transmit unimpaired to
people, better that we had done it with
open hand, like the robbers we are. than
stain our souls by paltering with the
truth-imputing to them the treachery
which we ourselves have practiced. And
what are we that we should presume TO
draw an impossible line between our
victims and ourselvesi Were not our own
ancestors mere savages, but lately tanned?
When civilization not less splendid
than our own adorned all the coasts OF
the hadfTprra p--xyhap learning
arts, and philosophers extended from the
far Orient 10 the western sea-were not
our fathers naked saVages, living in caves
and dens, devouring raw flesh, fighting
for wives, and measuring strength with
wild beasts? Are we not sprung from the
loins of barbaric Britain, and marauding
Dane, and free-booting Saxon? Does not
the fierce blood of the old Morse sea kings
flow in our veins ?-that pirate brood who
sailed the northern coasts scattering in
pale dismay the peaceful peoples, and
raVaging every port where industry had
made a footbold or commerce had estab-
lished mart2 Are we not proud 10 claim
descent from the Norman robber, meaguer
the bar-sinister across his 'scutcheOn
thus conceding that we yield our homage
to nothing but the mailed hand Of force?
NECKS WILL NOT BEND.
Would you have more recent exam
pie? Turn back, then, for the brief period
OF two human lives, and you see a kim
dred people who were as wild, as untamed |
as resentful Of what we call civilizing in |
fuences as ever were the Lacotahs OF the |
western plains. Mark the dying words |
of the typical Scottish Highlander, when /
he blessed his son and babe him remain |
true 10 the traditions OF his fathers: |
plant no tree; build no house; dig not |
the SOIL Keep thy refuge in the noun |
tains. Spoil the invader who crosses thy |
border. Wear not the collar OF the |
stranger. BE true to thy clansmen, and |
live the free life which thy fathers lived" |
There are some tribes, some peoples. |
who can pass under the yoke; who can |
accept master. There are others who /
cannot-whose necks will not bend; whose |
souls cannot yield. There must be time:
time. and change of circumstance. lit
tie win suffice-a generation or two. II was |
enough for the Scot: II might have been |
enough for the Lacotah. The world cam
not afford TO spill that adventurous. that 1
unconquerable blood. The grandson OF the |
old borderer has thrown aside the claw
more. and to-day is leading the van OF
progress I'm all lands. from the equator
TO the temperate zones. To the Lacotah
we gave no chance. We hunted him for
our sport until we had dashed him into |
fury, and then turned loose upon him ali
the fell strength Of civilization, without
It's mercy"
FATE OF SITTING BULL
A final word on the fato of Sitting Bull
the gentle. kindly lad. who nads his homo