Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-08-28
REAL ZERO OF FL CANEY.
He Is Henry w. Lawton, Who Was In the
Thickest of the Fight.

ne ID denry w. Lawton, Who Was In the
Tnickest of the right.
Rochester Express.
The papers have crowded their col
umns with biographies and anecdotes
OF Miles, Shafter, Roosevelt and Others
more or less prominent vho played
spectacular part in the siege of Santi-
ago. inc name of Henry w. Lawton,
MAJOR general of volunteers, has sell
dom appeared, save in the official dis
patches from the front, in all of which
he was mentioned for conspicuous gal
lantry. The public knows little of
LaWton, except that he led the desper-
ate assault on Ell Caney, and has been
in the thickest of the fights around
Santiago. The public also knows, or
ought to know, that he was promoted
by President Mckinley from brigadier
to major general in recognition of his
superb charge at Ell Caney In the far
West, where Lawton 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 gen.
eral down to private.
General Lawton is the ideal soldier,
stern, grim, unbending. He is SCOTS
Norman baron, Front de Boeuf, in the
flesh, though, of course, with better
morals. He is primal man, if gigan-
tic size, phenomenal strength, abnor-
NAL endurance, and utter fearlessIess
count for anything. Like all such men
who have lived strong life, he has a
well developed sense of justice. He is
not gentle, but he can be kind. He re-
quires of his subordinates the utmost
endeavor; but he asks none of them to
perform what he is not able and willing
to do himself. The epitaph of famous
Confederate cavalry leader will do for
Lawton: He never told his men to
60 on" What more could soldier de-
sire?
Lawton is an indian fighter, the best
this country has ever produced. GEN
eral Sherman said that the twenty years
of almost constant LIGHTING with ~
indians after the civil war was the
"war of civilization" In this stirring
drama Lawton played an Important
part. He hunted indians as ferrets
hunt rabbits. He himself, was the abb
original instinct, which, combined with
the fearlessness, sagacity and common
sense of the AngloSaxon, made him
the master of the red man. He drove
the willy Apaches under the yoke and
he tanned the spirit of the great Geronl-
mo. General Miles got the credit, but
it was Lawton who captured Geronimo
band and instilled the fear of the white
man in the whole Apache nation. 1t
was Lawton, at the head of company
of cavalry, who followed the Indians for
months over a country that was made
in wrath. They toiled through noun
tains with volcanic crests, and the
flint of the lava and tore the leather
from their feet, and they breathed air
that was like a furnace blast. They
struggled 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, We'll walk
them down." And he did walk them
down. When he found Geronimo and
his band they were living skeletons, al
most unable to stand, and it was many
DAYS before they were able to follow the
white man back to the San Carlos res
ervation. The pride of the Apaches
was broken, their spirit subdueT Tor
ever and since that time the settlers
of Arizona and New Mexico have lived
free from the han of dread and fear.
Such is Major General Henry w.
Lavton. the man who made men Won
der at Ell Caney, as fine type of hight
or as this nation of fighters can boast.
He will be heard from again before the
| war is closed.