The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1906-07-19
FOUGHT THE SIOUX
OLD INDIAN FIGHTERS WILL
AGAIN SERVE TOGETHER.


Gen. Bubb and Major Sibley Were
With Crook in the Big Horn and
Yellowstone Expeditions-The Sib-
ley Scouts Narrow Escape From
Capture as He Tells of 1t.
Brigadier General ]. w. Bubb, who
has been ordered to st. Paul to assume
command of the Department of Dako-
ia, and Major Frederick w. Sibley, the
commanding officer of the Third Squad
ron of the Second Cavalry, now sta
ton at Fort Smelling, saw service to-
gether against the Indians during the
campaign of 1876 against the Sioux.
Both were at the time young lieute-
nants. General Bubb had been pro-
NOTED from the ranks during his SER
vice in the civil war, while Major Slb-
ley was then a young officer just out
Of West Point. They served through
out General Crooks Big Horn and
Yellowstone expeditions, and General
Miles's campaign through Montana
General Bubb with the Fourth lnfan-
try and Major Sibley, then, as now,
with the Second Cavalry, says the st.
Paul Pioneer Press.
One little incident of Lieutenant
Bulbs bravery is related by the IA
nous war correspondent, afterWard
Congressman John F. Finerty, in his
book, "Warpath and Bivouac, or the
Conquest of the Sioux" The incident
occurred in Wyoming in May, 1876. 1t
is thus described by Mr.. Finerty:
Some officers informed us that the
ferry between the camp and Fort Fet-
terman had broken down, and that we
could not get u mail or send dis
patches. The river at that point is so
rapid and so full of whirlpools that
few men care to swim it and most
horses refuse to do so. A wagon
driver, together with a sergeant and
two private soldiers of the Second
Cavalry tried the experiment of swim
ming their horses over a few days be-
fore and all were drowned. 1t was
absolutely necessary for US to cross
the river.
when we reached the ferry we
found that it had been patched up in a
temporary manner and concluded to
go across. When near the Fetterman
bank the rope broke, and we should
have been swept down the stream at
the imminent risk of drowning but for
the heroism of Lieutenant and Com
missary Bubb, who plunged into the
river or horseback, caught a cable
which somebody threw toward him
and towed us in safety to shore amid
the plaudits of the spectators"
Gen. Bubb was engaged in nearly all
Of the celebrated engagements of that
war.
The "Sibley Scout" is famous among
Indian fighters as having n of the
narrowest escapes from savages on
"ecCrd. 1t was in 1876 at the time of
the Custer massacre, when Lieutenant
Sibley was ordered out with twenty
five mounted men to look about the
country and see what was going on.
Frank Grouard, a half breed and chief
of United States scouts, accompanied
Sibley. The young officer vas fresh
from West Point and rather inexpe-
rienced in frontier warfare, so cautious
General Crook bade him heed the
scouts advice should emergency arise,
and off the trooper started almost at
the same hour when Custer, a hundred
miles away, was being cut to pieces
by the cutthroats of Sitting Bull.
Mr.. Finerty was also on this expe-
dition. He tells first in his book of
his meeting with Lieutenant Sibley
and later has a page portrait of Lieu
tenant Sibley and devotes a chapter
to "The Sibley Scout-A Close Call"
In describing his introduction to
Lieutenant Sibley he says:
Capt. Sutorius introduced me to
two officers of the Second Cavalry,
Captain Wells and Lieutenant Sibley.
Lieutenant Sibley, with whose career
l was destined to be linked under cir
cumstances which subsequently at
the attention of the Continent,
and which will long live in the tales
and traditions of u regular army,
was a young West Pointer, who had
distinguished himself under General
Reynolds in the attack upon and cap
ture of Crazy Horse on March II of
that eventful year" Joe De Barthe in
his Life and Adventures of Frank
Grouard, Chief of Scouts" also has a
full page portrait of Lieutenant Sibley
and a chapter called ga Miraculous Es-
CAPE" describing the incident of which
Major Sibley was the hero.
The incident was as follows: The
scouting party travelled two days
without incident. AS they neared the
Grouard, who always travel
led ahead of the soldiers, suddenly
signalled to halt. Signs of Indians
seen. From an eminence COM
handing a vast area of rolling coun-
try little specks could be seen here and
there. The glass proved that each
speck was a squad of several Sioux in
war costume. The specks began to
concentrate. They moved toward the
trail made by the troops, but without
discovering it for a long time. They
were entirely ignorant of the presence
of the soldiers. After holding a pow
WOW, one of the Indians CHANGED to
ride toward the telltale trail. He found
it and returned to the other braves,
his blanket and gesticulating.
1t then seemed to the young cavalry
as though the Indians fairly