Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-05-05
COWBOY REGIMENTS
Colonel Woods Indian Fighting Rec.
ord--After Geronimo and the
Apache Kid.
TENDE'POOT TED ROOSEVELT
Regiments to Serve in Ouba-Kind Of Men
Wanted-Ride Hard, Shoot Straight,
Fight and Obey.
From the New York Tribune,)


Washington, April 30.-Reports were
received at the War department today
from various points of the west, show
ing the rapidity with which the three
Rocky Mountain regiments of riiemen
are being recruited, and the indications
are that at least one of them, that to be
commanded by DR.. Leonard Wood, with
Theodore Roosevelt as lieutenant col
oncl. will rendezvous at San Antonio,
Tex. within the next ten days, ready
May Is. Dr.. Wood, as well as Jay l..
Torrey, who will command the second
regiment, have established headquarters
in the War department, where several
clerks are constantly sending and re-
ceiving kilograms to the enlisting of1l-
GERS from the Rio Grande north, while
Attorney General Griggsby of South
Dakota, who has been designated to
command the third regiment, has start
ed for the northwest to concentrate his
forces there.
Interest here centres chiefly in Woods
command, on account of the intense
individuality, energy and aggressiveness
of its two leaders, Wood and Roosevelt.
Every one of the 1000 men who will
follow them in the Cuban campaign is
personally known to them, and every
man, they are certain, will come up to
the four essential requirements-ability
to ride hard, shoot straight, fight and
obey. Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt said
today that every man would be enlisted
strictly for business.
DIR. WOOD AS A FIGHTER.
DR.. Wood has excited the admiration
of every one in Washington, and is
easily the lion of the day. During the
last year his principal fame has been
made as the presidents family physi-
clan, Mrs. McKinley's health having
undergone a remarkable improvement
through his professional skill. He is a
quiet, unassuming man, and apparently
devoted to peaceful pursuits; but from
the moment war became inevitable his
whole demeanor changed, and although
he has said little of what he expects to
do, being particularly ayerse to advertis-
ing, he has developed into the remark
able soldier he had already shown him
self to be in the far west before he
came to Washington. His career there
was a continuous succession of military
exploits of daring. The congressional
medal of honor he holds testifies to his
courage and devotion to duty.
In 1886 he vas a surgeon in the
regular army, ranking as captain, and
connected with the sth infantry.
Geronimo, the Apache, was making a
track across the southwest marked with
the blood of women and children and
the horrible murders Of unprotected
settlers. The 9Th infantry was with
ont officers of rank, but Wood took
command of ready detachments of the
peerless 9Th and took up the Indians
trail. For 2,4OO miles he hung on it
through the worst country on the face of
the earth. Hunger, thirst, miseries
untold, were the lot of that gallant
band, and Wood shared all, like any
private in the ranks. The trials and
tribulations of that 2,4OO miles were
forgotten in the triumph at the end Of
it, when Geronimo and his band of
renegades were captured.
Wood took the band into Texas and
had barely placed it in custody when he
was called upon to carry his men OH
another awful journey. 1t was after
Apaches again. A band Of them equally
as murderous at Ceremonies, and own
ing him, too, as chief, was the prey pur-
sued. Wood drove them far into Old
Mexico, through country civilized feet
had never trod before, until they disap-
peared in the mysterious mountains
south of the Yaqui river. For years
they never dared to come back into
United States territory, but the recent
killing of settlers on the Mexican border
is attributed to them.
CAPTURE OF APACHE KID.
In 1883 Wood was again called on to
exercise his courage and unyielding de-
termination in relieving the west of
another terror. This time the notorious
Apache Kid, worse ever than Geronimo,
was the object of pursuit. Wood and
his meM captured the Kid and the govern
ment s~entimentally, which had spared
Geronimo's worthless life, again came to
the rescue Of as Internal a scoundrel as
ever murdered women and children,
and Apache Kid was sent to a Cali.
fornia island. OF course he escaped,
and at intervals since then he has fol-
lowed his old custom Of numbering limo
cent people wherever he found them.