The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-20
GEN. CHAFFEE's CAREER.
tPittsburg Dispatch.)

been able to explain satisfactorily, q
halo of romance has been thrown
around General Chaffee, almost from
the time he wore shoulder straps. 1t
is said that he has been the. hero of
more romantic tales than any other Of
ficer in the regular service since the
civil war. The general, perhaps, knows
better than anybody else whether the
majority of these stories are true. and
in speaking of two or three of them
one day not long ago he said:
Those yarns, like a lot of others
have heard told about me, are just
plain everyday lies. They /ound pretty
enough, but they're all rot. I'm no
hero and, il the plain, hard truth were
always told, there would be mighty few
haios stuck around the heads of us
army officers. We just go ahead and
attend to our business like any other
places to succeed. If we do succeed.
there is no particular sense in telling a
lot of heroic lies about US, and if we
fail-well, God help u.s."
But as many stories as have been
told about General Chaffee's valor it is
somewhat strange that, so far as he or
his intimate friends have ever heard.
no plain, ordinary biography of him has
ever been written or printed. So little
is known, even in the service, about his
private life that one of his most init
mate friends was unable to tell the
other day whether he had any children.
To sketch General Chaffee's life, minus
its incidents, is not a difficult task, or
a CT 10 h1PT in
GAINESVILLE, Ohio. in 1913. His father
was farmer and the son had the or
binary advantages of farmers sons of
the time. He went to the district
school, then he went to an academy
and then he went to war. He was %
years old when the report of the firing
on Fort Sumter reached GAINESVILLE, and
without consulting anybody he just de-
termined that the country needed his
| services and he started off for the near
est recruiting station and enlisted, not
in volunteer regiment, but in the
Sixth United States cavalry, with which
most of his service in the army has
been connected and which sailed on the
same transport with him for China.
He Joined the regiment as a private:
he will lead it in China as a major gen.
4 eral of volunteers.
| Almost Immediately after the war
| Chaffee was sent to Texas with his
regiment to put down some bush
| whackers and border thieves who were
| committing depredatiOns in Texas and
| Mexico. AS an illustration of how sue
| cessful he did his work, he has in his
| collection of trophies two large revolv-
ers which belonged to the two leaders
| of the gang, which were taken from
them just before they were hanged
/ After that he remained on the frontier
| fighting Indians, whenever they needed
! fighting, until 1876. Then he was sent
| to New York for a year on recruiting
| duty. Then he joined the regiment in
| Arizona, fought the battle of Big Dry
Wash canyon against the Apaches.
While he was fighting these inter
mittent campaigns on the frontier
Chaffee had occasion to go to Junction
| City, Kan, now and again on bust
ness. On one of these visits he met
| Miss Annie Rockwell. the second
daughter of Major George Rockwell, q
merchant and banker. In 1874 Miss
Rockwell and CAPTAIN Chaffee were
married. 'e usual life of the young
army offio On the frontier was the
life which CT flee led, including the In
dian fighting, until 1885, when Briga-
der General Cook was ordered to III
out an expedition to capture the
Apache chief Geronimo. Chaffee'.
troop was detailed to go with the ex-
petition. The work continued for ar
entire year, the willy Geronimo leading
his pursuer~ a merry chase through
Texas and INFO Mexico, back into TeXa!
again and again into Mexico. Genera
Crook didn't succeed in capturing thu
Apache, but he kept him mighty busy
Chaffee served with the Sixth cavalr!
until July, 1888, more than quarter o
a century, when he was made maJo
and assigned to the Ninth (colOred
| cavalry. He was with the Ninth TO
the next nine years, when he was again
promoted and became the lieutenan
colonel of the Third cavalry on June
1897. He was serving with the Thirt
when the war with Spain began. Gen
eral officers were needed and L.euten
ant Colonel Chaffee was one of the frs
to be appointed a brigadier general o
volunteers He was commissioned OF
May 4, 1898, and commanded brigad
from Las Guasimas to FL Caney. l
was at FL Caney that the genera
fought his latest fight and won new
laurels.
Just why he was selected to command
our forces in China General Chaffe'
never quite knew. He hSd prepared
after having been ordered from Cub;
to Washington, TO spend the most OF hi
summer in Maine. He came on to New
York with Mrs. Chaffee to visit hi
brother-in-law, DIR. Thomas H. Rock
well, one of the medical staff OF tn
Equitable Life Insurance society, at DI
Rockwells home at Bay Ridge. The,
were at dinner one evening in the lat
ter part of June when a telegram wa
brought in to the general There wa
some curiosity on the part of those a
the table to know what it was all about
1t conveyed no other information thaI
that he was TO report at once in perso
to the secretary Of war at Clinton, \
Y, where Mr.. Root was attending tn
commencement exercises Of Hamilton
college, of which he is a trustee, an
from where he was graduated. Genera
Chaffee surmiSed that the Telegram
, meant that he was to return 10 Cubs
When he got to Clinton he found on
that he was going on much longe
journey.