The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-10-06
The Savage in Ambush.

/
/ soldier before rim, walked into an am
| bush and been gobDled UP. body and
| creecheS, canteea ana haversack. h.
| civil Zed soldier has been trying for soma
| centuries to learn from the savage the
| secret OF the successful aT7buscade. he
| has had experience enough wiki the hot
end Of the thing TO have taugat hin the
lesson twenty times over. bur yet he
| is not beyond A in the ambush alpha
| bet. If Captain Devereaux Shields ami
| any of his command turn up alive after
| this unpleasant encounter with our dusky
| oriental brothers they need not hang
| their heads and begin one and al 70
make excuse, for there are plenty of pre-
cedents where soldiers who had thrice
| the training of this volunteer captain
We're entrapped just as neatly and by
people whom anthropoiogists place lower
| in the scale OF intelligence than the
Filipino, with the partial training he has
| had in the ways of civilization.
At the head of the tree-shadowed path
| way which leads to Filtration Walk at
West Point stands marble shaft erect
| ed 70 the memory Of brave Dade and his
followers, who were ambushed and slain
by the Seminoles amid the palmettos and
the southern pines of Florida. How many
people are there today who ever heard
OF the old Fourth infantry and his COM
mand has but one parallel in American
history-that of the humiliation of Gus
ter and his troopers of the Seventh Cav
airy by Sitting Bull and his Sioux fol-
lowers. One man survived the battle
Dade fought with Micanoby and his Sem
mole warriors. This man tcld the story
of the fight. 1he heroism displayed on
that occasion reflected luster on the
deeds of the American soldier that re-
mains bright until today. Major Francs
L. Dade of the famous Fourth infantry,
left Tampa Bay, Florida with one COM
pany of his own regiment and with the
men of two batteries of artillery, to
march to Fort King, Fla. Mitary
critics and civilians as well of that day
asked how it was that a trained soldier
could be led into an ambush. The same
question has been asked since that day
every time that a soldier has undergone
the same experience. Dade's command
was guided by a negro named Lewis. 1t
was afterward discovered that the negro
had told the Seminoles the route by
which he was to lead the whites. Dade
had covered about 100 miles of the dis
lance and had reached an open pine
country skirted by palmettos. Behind
every palmetto, prone on his face. mo-
tionless and silent, lay a painted Semin-
ole. Inc troops were IN open OrQeF,
marching carelessly along. There wee
Indians to right of them and Indians TO
left of them, and each brave had selected
and covered with his rifle the man that
he was TO kill. The firing distance was
less than forty yards when Micanopy
gave a shouting signal and every Indian
rife spoke. At that first discharge one
half of the unsuspecdng and unprepared
troopers fell. Dade was dead and SO
were Captains Gardner and Frazier.
Lieutenant j. /. Reals was shot through
both arms, but with his voice he aided
in rallying the survivors. The soldiers
had light field piece with them, and by
the use of canister they scattered the In
dams and managed to build slight bar
ricade of pine logs. The Seminoles
circled to the rear and picked off the
whites one by one. The men fell with
their faces to the foe and their bodies
were found lying just as they were shot,
in parallel rows When the last man
had fallen the Indians closed in and &C.
spoiled the dead One man, sorely
wounded, awoke to consciousness after
the departure of the Seminoles and found
himself the sole survivor of the three
companies of regulars He managed to
reach Fort King with the story of what
has passed into history as Dades massa-
Gre.
When IN the fall of 1879 Major Thorn
burg on his way to the rescue of DR..
Meeker walked into a Ute ambush he
lost his life. Otherwise il is certain
that there would have been aharp criti-
cism of a commanding officer who would
march his men through the very heart OF
a hostile country without taking the or
binary precautions against surprise and
ambuscade. Certain 1t is that all of
Thornburgs junior officers felt that there
was a laxity in the exercise of ord nary
precaution and feared the result. Thorn
burgs command consisted of Captain
Lawson's troop of the Third cavalry and
F and D troops of the Fifth cavalry,
commanded respectively by Captain
Payne and Lieutenant Paddock. Thorn
burg and his command had reached a
point about 165 miles from the point of
departure Rawlins, Wyo., and were
in the vicinity of the White river. The
commanding officer with Lawson and
Payne and two cavalry troops was ahead
while on that day Lieutenant James V
ing the wagon train. Thornburg led the
the way, absolutely unsuspectingly, into
a canyon. When the troops were well
within the rocky walls fire leaped from
behind every rock as the rifles of 500
Utes were emptied at the little bluecoat
band Thornburg was killed outright
and the saddles OF a score Of his follow
ers weer empted. The troops fell back
being formed into some sort of order by
their own training and the GOODNESS OF
their officers. The instant the Utes had
fired the first volley hundreds of them
circed the troopers and made straight /
for the wagon train and the command OF
Paddock. That officer. now Colonel /
Paddock of Chicago, at the first intima- /
ton Of trouble with keen solGierls in
stinct had parked his wagons on little /
peninsula tutting into a stream. and, /
disposing OF his men properly. awaite 7
the assault He broke the charge of the I
Indians, his men making a magnificent I
defense. Paddock himself was shot FIVE /
times, but he managed to live ana TO 4
fight through five days siege and stl /
have stamina enough left to recover /
eventually from his wounds. The sur
Yivors of the two advance troops man I
aged by the aid OF the men with the +
wagons to make their way 10 the side Of 4
their comrades. There on the little pea 4
Ursula from Monday until Saturday the /
devoted little band stood off FIVE times /
their number OF bowling redskins. Volun-
teers left the shelter of the wagons 10 /
run a gantlet Of fire to get water from /
the stream. The surgeon, shot through +
and through, crawled about min steriny
20 the wounded. One night Corporal Mur-
ply, now q prosperous hat manufactures
OF Philadelphia, accompanied ~ a scout,
stole through the lines Of the beSieging
braves and made his way 70 the railroad
Murphy was a corporal IN Paddock's
command and IS today on the war ce
psrtment records as worthy a being
classed with the bravest. once - the
railro ad telegram started Colonel y o.
RITZ with the cavalry TO the r. saae
on the most famous cavalry rescue ride
in history. When the little band wac
relieved the casualty list numbered sfty-
six-mcra man than CaptsIn DevsreauK