Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1900-08-10
BLUE AND THE GRAY
GRAVE MEN WHO MET ON THE
FIELD Of BATTLE

OUSve VsesN WIZ WE Wv sgV6
FIELD Of BATTLE.
Ola soldie.s aud Sailors Relate RENT.
niscences Of Life In Camp and ON
the Field-Incidente of the Was.
LOG %shouldering used to be a regular |
guardhouse punishment when l was in
the regular outfit" said an old soldier
of the regular army. "a man sentenced
to ten days in the guardhouse would
either be sent out to work in the morn
Ing, policing around the post, or he
would be given his two-hours-on-and-
four-hours-off tours of lpg-humping.
He'd have to carry his log just as the
men on guard carried their rifles, in SO
except that he was permitted to sleep
in ut night. The logs weighed from
so to 100 pounds when the punishment
was first employed in the regular army,
but this was finally considered too
much of Il good thing. and when the log
humping punishment was abandoned
the chunks of trees only weighed some
thing like fifty pounds. But it was no
soft snap 10 pack even a t~ifty-pound
log up and down in front of Il guard
house, in the hot sun especially, for TWO
hours at Il stretch, as l happen to know,
In truth, the punishment was calling,
and not so many men drank and fought
themselves into summary courts mar
tial when the log punishment was in
vogue as is the case now, when policing
around posts is the %guardhouse punish
ment OF military offenders Oh Il minor
scale.
"When l was stationed at Fort
Lcavenworth in 10, Chief Douglas. one
Of the high muck-a-mucks of the frac-
tious Nez Perez tribe that had recently
been rounded up, was put in the guard
tribe Of Nez Perces was corraled and
under a strong chain guard back of the.
post, and at first Douglas was permit
ted to remain with 6le tribe. But he
was an Indian of the agitating kind,
was Douglas, and he caused so much
mutiny among the pent-up bucks that
the commanding otficosAhousht it wiser
to put him away from the tribe. So he
locked him up in the guardhouse. Doug
las was n magnificent specimen of n
brave, and after lie had been in his
guardllouse cell for n week or so the
officer Of the day recommended to the
commanding officer that the Indian be
given some log exercise to keep him
from pining away. The commanding
officer agreed, and Douglas was led out
of his cell to the porch running around
the second story of the guardhouse and
shown the log he was to carry. Four
or five soldiers, serving guardhousc sen
fences, were humping their logs some
distance away, under the eye Of a SEN
try. Douglas looked at the log with
m expression of contempt, grunted as
officer Of the day, seeing that the chief
didn't want any exercise, had him taken
back to his cell.
after thinking it over, however,
Douglas sent for the officer of the day
and told him that he was not only will
ing to pack a log up and down the
porch, but that he was anxious to do
so. So he wa given an e~ighty-pound
log, and began his march up and down.
The sentry patrolling No. / post, in
front of the guardhouse, was told to
watch the Indian, but the sentry didn't
anticipate any treachery, and so he
didn't pay much attention to tire strap
ping chief walking up and down the
porch above with the log on his shout
der. But about ten minutes after
Douglas had begun his long patrol the
sentry saw a dusky figure flying
through the air from the porch above,
and by the time he had got his wits and
saw that the dusky figure was Douglas,
the Indian had picked himself up, and
was off for the woods, only 100 yards
or SO away, like a deer. The sentry
gave a whoop, and he yelled after the
\ flying Indian to halt. There wasn't any
halt in Douglas, however, and he kept
right on like q racehorse. The sentry
fred after him twice, but the Indian
chief disappeared in the bush. Fort
Leavenworth was n big post at that
time, for 1t was the national school of
implication, and there was over 1000
troops there. They were all turned out
within six minutes after Douglas made
his leap, cavalry and infantry, but it
was no go, although the sun shone
brightly for six hours after the chief
made his escape. They got Douglas
Just four months later in Oregon, a
good $500 miles from Fort Leayen-
Torth."-Washington Star.
The captain's Story.
81 met the other day." said the Ma.
jor, "a man whose rank and record in