The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-01-06

of these men deeper feeling almost
akin to fanaticism. Most of them had
been born while yet the shadow OF the
Indian tomahawk hung over Kentucky.
Their baby eyes had seen the glare
of burning cabins, their young ears
had heard the savage war-whoop, and
not few of them had gazed upon the
mutilated remains of fathers, mothers,
brothers or sisters slain and scalped
at their own thresholds.
"rhey knew that all through the
dark and bloody infancy of their be-
loved State British instigation had
been at the back of the red demons
who wrought all those horrors, and
for this they held the British Govern
ment responsible. The red coats they
now saw in front of them represented
that Government. They had had many
chances at the savages whom the
British instigated, but this was the
first chance they had ever had at the
British instigators! So here they trans
ferred to the serried ranks before
them all the deadly hate, all the pitt
less revenge and all the mortal ami
mostly which had been burned into
their souls toward the Indians.
MEN TRAINED TO SHOOT.
"Now consider that men so actuated
were marksmen among whom it was
considered lnfra dig to shoot at deer
standing still who lost caste among
their fellows if they hit wild turkey
anywhere in the body or broke the
skin on squirrel in "barking" him off
limb. Consider, further, that men so
actuated and so endowed with skill in
use of deadly weapons were not mere
ly brave, but that courage was their
instinct, congenital, imbibed with
mothers milk that in their code no
allowance was made for cowardice,
even as remote possibility, and
bravery was considered a matter of
course, involving no particular merit
whatever that the imminent presence
of danger or OF death itself never shook
their tortitude, disturbed their equani,
nifty, impaired their judgment nor
affected their calm deliberation in the
slightest degree. One must take &C
count Of all these facts before fair
idea can be formed of the character
of the obstacle which stood between
the British army and its objective
point the Sth day of January, 1875.
These men were not merely soldiers.
They were not soldiers at all in the
regular or technical sense of the term.
They were not enlisted, not paid, not
clothed, not even armed, and not al
together fed or munitioned by any
Government.
"They were not organized as that
term is understood in the military
sense. The only approach to such
organization was grouping in COM
panies, independent OF each other,
composed of ofnelghbors, and command
ed by officers holding no commissions
other than the admiration and respect
of their men. There were no regula-
tions and no discipline except that of
common consent among themselves,
based upon the principles of honor
and the tenets of manhood.
THE MASTER HAND OF JACKSON.
"Yet the world never saw so order
ly and obedient body of men assem-
bed for warlike purpose. And the
world never saw, nor probably ever
will see again, such helpless and
pitiable wreck as they, in few minutes,
made of force more than double
their number; the pick and flower of
veteran army hitherto victorious in
all lands, irresistible and invincible
everywhere!'
When Jackson died Judge Ballard,
then citizen of Texas, pronounced
eulogy at Houston, of which the
peroration was as follows:
"The great commander and greater
comrade is gone. The men who stood
with him are scattered. The current
history of our new West, which he and
they defended, tells you daily where
they are. Indiana, illinois, Missouri,
Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana have
claimed many of them as their own,
for they are Of the breed that creates
States and builds empires.
"Wherever you find them you find
men high in the esteem of their neigh
bors; men whose sense of all that is
right and fair and just and true is as
unerring as their aim was when, led
by the patron saint of democratic
liberty, they laid the pride of England
low on Chalmette plain"