Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-12

OiOSS AAiSiSN.'
first sight nnety-nine out of hundred
good and loyal republicans could not
distinguish the coveted gold star from the we'll
known insignia of the Grand Army of the Republic.
A mistake of this nature on my part led eventually
to the following account of the last raid of Chief
Spotted Horse and the action which gained for
my friend Marcus M. Robbins, late private of the
Sixth United States Cavalry, the unusual distinction
of Meda1-of- Honor
On the evening of April IL, 1876, the telegraph
operator at Las Annas, Colorado, on the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe, sat outside the station smoking
his pipe Suddenly his wing glance was caught
by an unfamiliar blot the landscape down at
Cimarron Crossing, where the shadows permitted
fording. He dashed into the office caught up
field glass and 1eveed it on the ford He turned
white sheet at what he saw-a big war party
OF Southern Cheyennes swarming northward, and
in those wild days that meant massacre and worse.
Las Animas stirred up many sleepy operator
and kept the wire hot until he got the OF depart
ment headquarters in PARKWAY St. Paul Head
quarters brbed and buled railroad officials into
the proper frame of mind for special trains, inter
viewed officers who knew the threatened district,
and out of the seeming tange OF red tape and endless
hustle despatched a concise message to the COM
handing officer at Fort Lyons, Colorado.
About eight o'clock Private Matt Blinnery, post
operator at Lyons, heard the sounder vciously
swapping his call, and the message he took
startling that he could scarcely wait for the official
signature of the assistant adJutant general to click
along before rushing bareheaded to the post adJu-
tants quarters with the orders. Within two min
of their reception the post stood still for second
as Boots and Saddles!" rang out and then every
thing busting activity The Cheyennes were up!
Starting for the Attack
FORTY picked men, mostly from Company H,
Sixth Cavalry, trotting out of old Fort
Lyons with light field kits ten days rations, and
ammunition for a big campaign. Lieutenant Henely
was in command, Captain Wallace being away on
recruiting duty. The Sixth had been at Lyons for
only month after almost year of hard work in
company with the Fifth Infantry, chasing the red
skins and giving General Miles his first taste of
rough and-ready frontier work. The men were
hard as nails.
There amt no fresh fish in the outfit" declared
one enthusiastic private Every mothers son is
saddle tanned rawhide and good for pasear from
Canady to the Sonora country two minutes
notice and bottle of 'gordenty.
1t was twenty-mile sprint to Las Animas, and
while we were entrainng Our mounts the operator
told what he had seen down at Cimarron Cross
ing. There fully three hundred war-painted
and war bonneted braves in the party together
with nearly four hundred horses and mules-plun-
der from the unprotected ranches to the south.
About ten o'clock we began hundred mile jaunt
to Kit Carson, where to be transferred to
the Kansas Pacific for the to Fort Wallace.
Did you ride hundred miles on top of freight
car? Well that's what did, and nobody
ever half so glad to the Fort Wallace station
that detachment about four-thirty the next