The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-01-20
A Graduate of West Point and a
Cavalry Lieutenant.
BELlrTLED BY The BRITISH PRESS
Up in Tactics and Strategy of
Guerrilla Warfare.

The military genius who has been di-
recting the Boer forces in South Africa,
and who has inflicted blow after blow
upon British arms, is an American army
officer, graduate of West Point,
schooled in many a campaign against
the Apaches and Indians of the South
west. y
Military experts in this country who
have watched closely the operations in
Natal borders, says the New York Jour
nal, have recognized in the tactics dis
played by the Beers duplication of the
Indian style of warfare and have sur
missed that some one familiar with cam
paigning in the West has been advising
or directing the sturdy Beers.
Lieut.. John Y. Fillmore Blake, U. S.
A., recently resigned, long-limbed,
sturdy son of Arkansas, is the American
officer who has been winning battles for
the Beers. -....
If you look in the army register you
will find nothing but this:
John Y. Fillmore Blake, born in
Missouri, appointed to the Military
academy from Arkansas, became ca
det Sept. I, 1876, received his commits
sion as second lieutenant June 12, 1880,
and was assigned to the Sixth cavalry;
made first lieutenant Oct. S, 1887, and
resigned from the service Aug. 10,
1885,"
But that brief period says nothing of
nine years of the hardest kind of service
which the "Galloping Sixth put in
whipping hostile Apaches- into submis-
sion. Nor is there the slightest men
ton of campaign that covered Ari-
zona, New Mexico, the Panhandle, the
southern part of the Indian territory
and far into the land OF the Mexicans.
If you will refer back to the news dis
patches about the South African war,
you will find a great similarity in the
details of the fight. One day you will
read that the British forces attacked a
strongly intrenched Boer position from
which the Dutchmen were compelled to
retire. Sometimes you will see the
phrase used ''the enemy had vanished
completely" And then the next day
you will read about how the English
troops had pressed on, had unexpect-
edly stumbled upon the Beers in even
greater force, occupying almost impreg-
nable positions, and the English had
gallantly made assault and had been re-
pulsed with great loss.
It's the old Apache trick over again.
The willy Indian of the Southwest years
ago, when there was trouble with the
United States army, had favorite GUS
tom OF sending out small detachment
of braves. These would await the COM
ing of the cavalrymen. There would be
little fight, the Indians would turn,
apparently panic stricken, and head di-
rectly for some spot where ten times
their number would be secreted. The
cavalrymen, until they had been taught
many lesson, would pursue until a
sudden voley and few score empty
saddles told them that they had been,
not anlbushed, exactly, but led into a
horrible trap. That is exactly what the
Beers have done. The English have
not yet learned their lesson.
1t was so at Glencoe, Nicholson Mex,
Modder river, Elandslaagte, Mayors
fontein, Colenso and Stromberg. The
British in each case, confident that the
Beers had retired, went on only to run
up against the enemy strongly fortified
in inaccessible places, which at the same
time gave them a sweeping range OH
the Englishmen exposed in front OF
them.
The English know Col. Blake. Cor
respondents there have referred to him
in their home papers as "an American
adventurer." That will make members
of the Sixth cavalry, U. S. A., grin SYM
pathetically He is an adventurer, but
not in the way the English correspond
ents mean.
In the issue of the London Graphic,
bearing the date OF Nov. 18, there ap-
peared half-tone reproduction of a
photograph showing body of men
marching in column across street in
johannesburg. No. 8 of the first set of
four carried partially furled flag; the
men kept perfect line and distance. As
q matter of fact there was nothing in