Evening star., 1898-08-27
LOVED BY HIS MEN

| In ten-year stretch in the regular army
of the United States. This thought came
| to me yesterday afternoon when read In
The Star of the gradual recovery of a field
officer who was badly wounded in the fight
| ing before the heights of Santiago 1 shall
not mention his name. for reasons that will
| be obvious when I tell you story of him.
| I'll wager that there's not buck soldier
| alive today that ever served under this Of
| ficer who's not eagerly reading the dis
patches every day to find out how he Is
getting on with his wound, for he surely is
loved and honoTed by the enlisted men OF
| the regular army! And the love and honor
they bear him is all traceable to single
| Incident of note. aside, of course, from the
| squareness, manliness and the tender-heart-
edness he always exhibited toward his men.
I'll tell you the incident.
Il was a buck private in an infantry COM
pany stationed in three-company outfit
| way down in Arizona, of which this officer
was the first lieutenant. He was fine sol
! der, with a heart in him to match his giant
frame, and I'm forced to confess that he
| had often to almost lie for some of US fell
| lows IN his outfit to keep us out of trouble
with the old man. The old man. other
wise the commanding officer of the post,
was a major and a man of very violent
unreasonable and eccentric temperament.
His sanity was frequently In question dur
| ing the latter years of his service, and he
was finally compusorily retired. The COM
manding officer was a disciplinarian and Il
| martinez of the first water. and he surely
did Cruel US almost unbearably. Our first
lieutenant stood between us and the old
man as sort of bumper, and he finally
gained the cordial ill-wll of the command
ing officer on account of the humane and
generous way he had of treating US. He
was In command Of our company, the cap
| tain being on special service attached to a
foreign court, and he certainly got us into
| a high state of efficiency, without using any
buiidozing tactics whatsoever, but through
| the exercise of squareness and seatleness.
But he gained the ill-will of the command
ing officer, and the old man made life
pretty uncomfortable for him. He perse-
| cuted him in all sorts Of petty ways, with
the idea of forcing him to ask for a trans
rer, and from disliking the first lieutenant
Ihe commanding officer grew to dislike the
nrst leutenant's company-ourselves, that
| is-and he put it onto us in any number of
| mean old ways. He'd refuse to give us
permission to pass the limits of the post
sometimse for weeks together-against all
reSulatlons OF course-and he never failed
20 aVall hiInseif OF an opportunity to show
ms preference for the other two companies
III the post over our outfit. l think we
grew to be pretty mutlnous in spirit under
tnls gaining treatment, but no man in the
company thought of deserting, on account
OF the first lieutenant We didn't want to
give MIN any cause to feel ashamed of the
outfit "a 'iAe
| One afternoon. when the temperature of
~ o,te posi- was ABOUT 1lo degrees in the shade
OF the quarters and about 125 degrees out
on the sandy parade ground the Command
ing officer sent for the first lieutenant am,
otHefea i MN 10 take US out and drill US in
| der. A'A' o''A''s VI
ST., said the first lieutenant to the COM
~niahdihg ~ officer when he received this order
| you know the tempera ture of tba ,a,..It,
ground" (The commanding officers orderI
| ~ toid US about the conversation)
| 10 wen as you do, replied the COM
s''u,1s eee xnHr olaeer. You are TO Immediately
your company into heavy marching
ofuer ana drill them on the parade prornI
a. uIrect. L shall be on hand
Ihe first lieutenant saluted and left
st',o,s 11 oii,ee in we could see that the thing
STUCK IN our company commanders throat
"hen ne appeared at the quarters with the
oioer: we lay on hunks painting for
Il Dlsath put at his word we hoped into
our heaVy gear-regular field order blanket
haVersack, knapsack, etc. the paranher,
malta seeming to weigh a ton on each Of
us-and assembled in front of the quarters.
there was a bit Of fiery light in the first
heotehant eye when he appeared himself
IN heaYy marching order to lead us ont to
the parade ground He took US out, got
US into extended formation and began on
u.s. We knew the drill by heart and could
| beat any other outfit in the regiment at it
yet we didn't shirk it on this occasion. for
| the first Heutenant's sake. but honned
| through it as If we were at Fort Assini-
| bcine in zero weather instead of broilin1
and btistering on the sand under a terrifo
! sem-tropical sun. After while the COM
Eandlng officer strobe out of his quarters
70 the parade ground. where he got under
the shelter of scrub tree and watched
our movements with somewhat sardonic
| look upon his countenance. Then the post
| surgeon saw us from his quarters window
ana came out to the parade ground on a
| lope. Post surgeons have authority in the
/ matter of temperatures at which soldiers
snail drill or work, and he fatty told the
commanding officer that 1t was an outrage
| FOR him to have us drilled when we stood
in momentary danger of being sunstruck
! the whole lot of u.s. He practically de-
| manded the commanding officer to have rs
sent in, under penalty of having the mat
| ter called to the attention of the War De-
partment, and he was practically told to go
| to the devil for his pains The post sur
| geon went to his quarters fuming Then
half a dozen of our fellows keeled over
| from the heat. and had to be carried off
| Still the commanding officer didn't let up
| on US. Instead, he rose from his seat un-
der the tree and walked over to our first
| lieutenant.
| Lieutenant said he, drawlingly drill
1 the men for while at the double time
| Double time, you know, is cantering
! THE lieutenant raised his head and look
ed the commanding officer fair and square
| in the face. Then he walked over to him.
Sir said he. disgust and rage and de-
| fance choking his voice, so long as the
| amy OF the United States Is burdened and
disgraced by such blackguards, and
towards as you are, as you always have
| been, and as you always will be, just so
| long will it be an unfit service for a gen
| tleman.'
Then he quickly drew off his dogskin
| gauntlets and threw them on the ground.
| and, pulling his sword from it's scabbard
| he raised it horizontally, bent and broke it
| squarely in the middle with a snap, and
| threw the two pieces at the commanding
| officers feet. The commanding officer was
yellow to the soul. He flushed, and in
| weak voice ordered the lieutenant to his
quarters in arrest. The lieutenant
telegraphed his resignation to the
| President ten minutes later. His reslgna-
/ ton was not accepted. Instead, there was
| an investigation, and, the commanding Off
| Ger having far the worst of it according to
| regulations, the whole thing was hushed
up. The lieutenant was transferred to an
| other regiment. There wasn't man of US
| that wouldn't have gone to hi and back
| for the soldier and gentleman who took
such q desperate chance of losing his COM
| mission in taking a stand for our benefit,
| and You can wager that the boys of the
regiment he went to, and the men of the
| whole army in fact, heard of the incident
| through And they stand for him to
! the finish down to the present day for it,
| Paiied From a Telegraph Pole.
! From the Chicago Journal.
| Eldridge Mcfarland was at the top of