The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-22
THE HERO OF Ell CANEY.
Henry w. LawtOn, Who Was in the
Thickest of the Fight.

Rochester On. W Express.
The papers have crowded their columns
Shafter. Wheeler. Roosevelt and others
more or less prominent who played a spec
tacular part in the siege of Santiago. The
name of Henry w. Lawton, major general
of volunteers, has seldom appeared. save
in the official dispatches from the front
in all of which he was mentioned for con-
of Lawton, except that he led the desperate
assault on Ell Caney, and has been In the
thtckest of the fights around Santiago. The
public also knows, or ought to know, that
ne was promoted by President Mckinley
from brigadier to major general in recogni-
ton of his superb charge at Ell Caney. In
the far West. where Lawtofl has Served
most of his life they say there is not his
equal in the army. His record is the pride
OF every regular, from major general down
to private.
General Lawton is the ideal soldier, stern,
grim. unbe lding. He is SCOTS Norman
baron Front de Boef in the flesh, though,
of course, with better morals He is a
primal man, If gigantic size, phenomenal
strength, abnormal endurance and utter
such men who have lived strong life he
has well-developed sense of justice. He is
not gentle but he can be kind He re-
quires of his subordinates the utmost en-
deavor; but he asks none of them to per-
form what he is not able and willing to do
himself The epitaph of q fSmous Con-
ton: He never told his men to go on"
What more could soldier desire?
Lawton is an Indian fighter, the best this
country has produced General Sherman
said that the twenty years of almost con-
slant fighting with the Indians after the
civil war was the war of civiizati ton" In
this stirring drama Lawton played an inn
portant part. He hunted Indians as a fer
ret hunts rabbits. He himself has the alb
original instinct. which. combined with the
fearlessness, sagacity and common sense of
the Anglo-Saxon, made him the master of
the red man. He drove the willy Naches
the great Geronimo General Niles got the
credit but it was LAWton who
captured Geronimo's bard and in
stilled the fear of the white man in the
whole Apache nation. 1t was Lawton.
at the head of a company of cavalry, who
followed the Indians for months over
country that was made in wrath. They
crests and the flint and lava tore the
leather from their feet, They. stumbled
beneath their feet, and they breathed air
that was like a furnace blast. They strug-
gled through canyons while from the
mountain tops above the swarthy renegades
hurled great rocks and poured down a
whitening fire. When the last horse had
fallen this Lawton only set his teeth and
said: "Well walk them down.. And he did
walk them down. When he found Geronimo
and his band they were living skeletons.
almost unable to stand, and ii was many
days before they were able to follow the
white men back to the San Carlos reserva-
ton The pride of the Apaches was broken,
their spirit subdued forever. and since that
time the settlers of Arizona and New
Mexico have lived free from the ban of
dread and fear.
Such is Major General Henry w. Lawton.
the man who made men wonder at El Caney.
as fine type Of fighter as this Nation of
fighters can boast He will be heard from
again before the war is ended.
1T may be added that Major General Law
toms name first appears in the army regis
ter as sergeant Company E, Ninth Indiana
Infantry, April IS, 1861. next as first lien
tenant in Thirtieth Indiana Infantry Sept.
"a. 1861; captain May II, 1852, Lieutenant
colonel Feb. 10, 1865 brevet colonel March 1S.
1865. He entered the regular army July 2S,
1866 appointed from Indiana.