The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-03

will be the record OF AQna IL. ChaHee !
when he succeeds Lieut.. Gen. Young |
on Jan. 8. 1t will have taken him |
forty-three years to complete this rec
ord, but it stands alone in the military |
annals of the country, as no private |
soldier in the regular army ever before |
rose to such distinction.
When the Civil War broke out Gen. |
Chaffee was a young man of 10, |
born and bred in the Western Reserve |
IN Ohio. He was an Ohio Yankee, |
brimful of patriotism and love of his !
country. He realized that the preser-
vation of that country meant fighting, |
and when he made up his mind to |
help in that fighting, he declared:
II am going into the war and am |
not going there as a Sunday soldier,
or because my neighbors and friends |
are going, but I am going to fight for I
the flag. I intend to join the regular |
army"
He enlisted as a private in Com
pany K of the Sixth Cavalry. He |
chose that branch of the service be-
cause he was fond of horses and |
thought he could fight better on horse
Cavalry because he believed it was |
fighting regiment, and it suited his |
estimate so well that it was virtually |
his military alma matter for twenty |
seven years. He entered it as a pri-
vate in 1861 and left it when advanced |
to his majority in 1888.
Several of Gen. Chaffee's prede- |
cessors in the highest position in the |
army came from the ranks, but they |
were in the volunteer service, and were |
advanced rapidly during the four
years of the Civil War. Chaffee |
stuck to the regular service: his pro- |
motion came slowly, but surely. Two |
years elapsed before he wore Shout |
der strap and in that period he had |
served through the various grades of |
a non-commissioned officer. He did |
not reach a first lieutenancy until Feb
ruary, 1865, and became captain in
October 1867.
In those years he had fighting to |
his hearts content, and realized the |
purpose he declared when he devoted |
his life to his country, That logged !
purpose is not hard to read in the
grim, angular face and heavy set jaw |
of this grizzled veteran who spent two
decades in the saddle. 1t is the face
Of a fighter, but not of a quarrelsome |
man. There is not one line of cruelty
in his warlike visage, but there is
deathlke determination and unaltera-
bic purpose in the moulding of his |
brow, the line of his lip and the set
Of his jaw.
II am ordered to go to the relief of
the United States legation at Pekln.
! leave with my troops for that city
at once. If the allied troops do not
move I will go alone with my United
States soldiers"
This was the declaration made by
Gen. Chaffee at the conference of the
commanders of the allied troops IN
Tien-Tsin in the summer of 1899, when
the Chinese Boxers were threatening
the destruction Of the foreign legations
in the capital of the Celestial empire
Russia did not want to move France
and Germany were Indifferent, and at
the conference all sorts of obstacles
were raised to an immediate advance
upon the Chinese capital. 1t was un-
wise to dash into the strange ana I'M
known country, there were diplomatic
complications threatening, there was
the question of precedence in the move
ment of allied troops, and score or
more OF other dilatory arguments were
produced.
Gen. Chaffee. junior to most OF the
commanding officers there, hsteneo'
and then in his enthusiastically brlef,
almost hrusque style delivered his
ultimatum. He took the short cut out
Of the difficulty, recognized only one
pressing object the deliverance of the
beleaguered legations. The record OF
that advance from Tien-Tsin to Pekin
is one of the thrilling chapters of the
history of the American army.
"On what side of the city is our
legation?" was the demand of Gen.
Chaffee when the walls of Pekin ap-
peared. When told the quarter IN
which Minister Conger and his suite
were beleaguered he cried: "There
where we strike for"
He swerved his column of United
States troops direct for the nearest
entrance TO the foreign compound.
The man, who thirty-eight years be-
fore had taken the most direct course
TO fight for his country, was just the
man to take this direct course to fight
Tor his countrymen and rescue his
nag. Chaffee had not changed a whit
IN all those years. He was the simple
hard-jawed fighter he was when he
buckled on his saber and mounted his
morse as private in Company X of
the old Sixth Cavalry.
The old boys who went to the from
uer after the Civil War; and for near
generation campaigned against the
INDIANS from the Mexican border to
he canadian line, will need no intro
n auction to Chafee For twenty-one
lars ne chased Indians over the alkali
p,alls and into the mountain fast
asses OF the Southwest, managed In
e on5 reservations, prevented outbreaks,
osu IN general acted as a guardian
w. we civilization that spread west
% Io from the Missouri after the
W. the Civil War. During those
"a one years he was captain of
81 CAV l of his beloved old Sixth
to- mere HI We're no soft snaps" cut out
kno, Charlee He was a regular" He
ing NOT the subtle art of wire pull
SELF a. Washington; so contented him
Tho YIN mis- plain duty of fighting.
ooraValry had plenty to do on the
no r and frontiers, and there was
thar W active officer in the saddle
@Cb 11Iha R. Chaffee.
the ss5s,e was regular daredevil in
servoS remarked an officer who
cam1siWith him in many Western
part os the other day. HE was
cavolr,t MS horse, and the toughest
leathsSS man that ever straddled pig
man Il, could not wear out the old
Rive an Indian chase. In the Red
chafao's upaign of "a remember
Pursuit. :. daring rides and sleepless
a broS.eof the hostile Indian. Through
one ~ country, that would appall
ChaNea your Eastern fox hunters
hrougb isa his men over bluffs and