The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-01-17
FROM ROOKIE TO
CHIEF OF STAFF
Brilliant Career of Lieutenant
General Adna R. chaffse.
F0RTY-THREe YEARS IN ARMY
STORY OF MANS LIFE BRIEFLY
TOLD.

eEal and chlef OF stan is the record OF
Adna r. Chafee. who succeeded Lieu
tenant General Yonng a week ago. It
took him forty three years to complete
this record. but it stands alone in the
military annals of the country. No
private soldier in the regular army
ever before rose to such distinction.
When the civil war broke out Gen
eral Chanee was 10. He was born and
bred in the western reserve in Ohio.
He was an Ohio Yankee, brimful Of pa
triOtism and love Of his country.
He realized that the preservation of
that country meant fighting, and when
he made up his mind to help in that
fighting he said:
81 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
the flag. I intend to join the regular
army"
He enlisted as g private in company
( 4 OF the Sixth cavalry He chose that
branch Of the service because he was
fond of horses and thought he could
fight better on horseback than afoot.
He entered the regiment as a private
in 1851 and left it when advanced to
his majority in 1888
Several of General Chaffee's prede-
cessors in the highest position in the
army came from the ranks. but they
were advanced rapidly during the four
years Of the civil war. Chaffee stuck
to the regular service; his promotion
came SLOWLY.
Became Officer In 1865.
Two years elapsed before he wore
shoulder straps. He did not reach a
first lieutenancy until February, 1855,
and became a captain in October, 1861
In those years he had fighting to his
hearts content and fulfilled the pur-
pose with which he enlisted. That
logged purpose is rot hard TO read in
the grim. angular face and heavy set
Jaw of this grizzled veteran, who spent
two decades in the saddle.
It is the face OF a fighter, but not
Of n QuaTrelsOme man. There is not
one line of cruelty in his warIike Wis
age, but there are determination and
unalterable purpose in the molding OF
his brow, the line OF his lip and the
set Of his jaw.
'I am ordered to go to the relief Of
the United States legation at Picking.
I leave with my troops for that city
at once If the allied troops do not
move I viii go alone with my United
States soldiers"
This was the declaration made By
General Chaffee at the conference Of
the commanders OF the allied troops in
Tientsin in the summer Of 1899, when
the Chinese Boxers we're 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 Il was un-
wise 20 dash into the strange and IN
known country: there were diplomatic
complications threatening. there was
the question of precedence in the move
ment Of allied troops. and a score Of
other dilatory arguments were pro-
duced.
Went Direct to Duty.
General Chanee, junior to most OF
the commanding officers there, listened.
and then in mis- CharacterfsticaIIy
brief, almost brUsqUe, style. delivered
his ultimatum. He took the short cut
out of the difficulty. recognizing only
one pressing object. the deliverance OF
the beleaguered legations
The record Of that advance from
Tientsin to Pekin is one Of the thrill
ing chapters in The history Of the
American army.
on what side Of the city IS our Ie-
gatiOnF was the demand of General
Chaffee when the walls of Peking ap-
feared. When tolG the quarter in
which Minister Conger and his suite
were beleaguereG. he cried: There's
where we strike for
He sweryed his column Of United
States troops direct for the nearest en-
trance 10 the foreign compound. The
man who thirty-eisht years before had
taken the most diiect course to fight
for his country was just the man to
take this direct course to rescue his
cOuntrymen and his flag
Chaffee had not changed a whit in All
those years. He was the simple. hard
jaWed fighter he was when he buekTed
on his saber and mounted his horse as
a private in company K Of the old
Sixth cavalry
Chased Indians Twenty Years.
The old boys who went to the frontier
after the civil war, and for nearly a
generation campaigned against the IN
cians from the Mexican border 10 the
Canadian line. win need no Introduction
To Chdnee. For twenty-one wears no
chased Indians over the alkali plains
and into the mountain Businesses IF
the southwest, managed Indian reser-
vations. prevented outbreaks and in
general acted as guardian of the
civilization that spread westward from
the Missouri after the close of the
civil war
During those .twenty-One years he
was captain Of company I OF his old
sixth cavalry. There were no soft ,
snaps cut out for Chaffee. The cav
airy had plenty to do on the borders
ana frontiers, and there was no more
active officer in the saddle than he
Chaffee was a regular daredevil in
the saddle remarked an officer who
served with him in many western cam
paigTs. He was part Of his horse. and |
the toughest cavalryman that ever
straddled pig leather could not wear
out the old man in an Indian chase
In the Red river campaign Of 1874 I |
remember Chahee's daring rides and
sleepless pursuit of the hostile Indians |
Through a broken country that would
appal one Of your eastern fox hunters |
Chafee led his men over bluffs and
through gorges to reach the hiding red
devils.
That was a chase long to be remem-
bered."
For his exploits in that campaign /
Chaffee received honorable mention and /
the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel.
the order reading that this was con /
ferred for distinguished services in !
successfully leading a cavalry charge /
over rough and precipitcus bluffs held /
by hostile Indians"
He was further commended in de- 4
partment orders for the part he took in I
the engagement with renegade White /
mountain Indians in the Big Dry Wash +
in Arizona in 1882. He served against /
the Comanche Indians in Texas and 1
was with General Miles in the Iatter's /