The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1907-01-24
FIGHTING" ED M'CO0K FIGHTING HIS
LAST HARD BATTLEAT THE ACE OF "a
Special Correspondent to The Fress

" '"S"hio'i~hi anu COuTdSc, G6U-
eral Edward M. McCook, perhaps
the most famous of the Fighting
McCooks,'' is in the Chicago Bap-
fist hospital. After "a years, in
which have been crowded work
such as comes within the power
of few men, General McCook was
taken with a hard attack of rheu-
matism in the Auditorium annex,
and after six weeks of growing
physical helplessness, was growing
physical helplessness, was taken
to the hospital.
Still, with his son in business in
Denver, the two brothers remaining
OF the five who went into the civil
war now in Philadelphia and Hart
ford and a few friends within easy
striking distance. General Nc
Cook is not flinching in his hard
struggle against disease.
Said the general, in his little
room on the second floor of the
hospital: There is just one mans
size ailment known in the modern
materia medica, they tell me, am
not afflicted with. However, that
one isn't rheumatism. / am band
aged pretty we'll over my whole
area, and direct or flank move
ment is not the easiest thing, l can
tell you, with all these impedi-
menta and the hospital corps al
ways in evidence"
General McCook is not a large
man in stature, but his snow white
mustache, shaggy eyebrows and
strongly lined face would command
attention anywhere.
us there anything interesting I
can tell about the war? he contin-
uel. Il think there is one piece of
history have never read about. 1t
is the first armed force in Washing
ton. 1t was shortly after the in
auguration of Lincoln. Those were
troublous days in Washington; up
| rising within was feared as much
| at first as attack from without. So,
| two companies of home guards
were hastily organized and armed
| under the command of Cassius N.
Clay and Senator Jim Lane, of
Kansas. | happened to be in Wash
ington at the time, concerned with
the organization of the territory of
Colorado, then Arapahoe county,
Kansas. We guarded the White
! House, watching and sleeping in
the east room by turns. There may
have been close ito 200 of us. Any
way, we tried to make up in quality
what We may have lacked in num-
bers. We were not uniformed, but
we carried the first arms in Wash
| ington; all there was between the
| government and possible trouble.
| While we had to do no fighting we
were ready, at any rate. Our police
guard over Washington lasted until
the first troops arrived-a Pennsyl-
vania regiment, | believe. l. am
reasonably certain no record has
been made of this stalwart band"
The general was interrupted by
nurse, bearing cup of consomme.
us this a Yankee or Southern
drink, please?' queried the general;
and, after an appreciative sip, "it's
as torrid as the authorities will al
low, I'll be bound Thank you"
After the noiseless exit of the
nurse General McCook continued:
Il find it helps a little to joke
with the nurses, though, goodness
knows, some of them act as If they
never had run across one before.
Somehow the days have doubled in
length. But Sundays are easier;
there are always few G. A. R.
men who drop in. And then there
are some visitors who come and
sing. 1t is much pleasanter singing
than We heard Sundays in the COS,
when it was the bullets that
caroled
About my active campaigning /?
Well, there isn't much to say that
you don't see in the histories.
After the war and my provision
al governorship of Florida was over
| resigned. Since then | have con-
tinued to do my best to contract
rheumatism. President Grant ap-
pointed me territorial governor of
Colorado, then country of rough
men, with the first flush of the gold
fever upon them. fear | am one
of the last of them left, and the far
west still has an appeal to me that
nothing else really equals now.
yes, was bred an Ohioan, and
once furnished copy for Columbus
and Cleveland papers, but for some
time before the war and most of
| the time since, it has been Colora-
do, California and Mexico, where l
once was part owner of the famous
Bato Pilas mine. Add a number of
| pinches of Europe, nine trips across
the isthmus, two before the rail
road was built, good deal of law