Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-09-26
DAILY STORY
BUGLER DICK.

Copyright 1907, by p. c. Eastment.l
Having year yet to serve, we of
the Michigan Cavalry brigade We're
sent to the Indian country after the
grand review in Washington. Just
where we picked up little Dick no one
seemed to know.
We had lot of hangers-On when we
left for the march across the plains,
and strict orders We're issued to weed
them out and leave them behind. Dick
was one of them, but we had fixed
things. Three days later he joined us
under cover of night, mounted on 4
government mule, and from thence on
he was one of US. In his idle hours at
the fort he had learned to blow a bugle
and give most of the calls, but there
was no place for him. 1t was In the
Indian heyday. Almost every tribe in
the west was hostile and out on the
warpath, and when once we had left
the frontier behind us all the talk was
OF the red man and his way of fighting
and his fiendish cruelties. There would
be no such thing as fear with the old
veterans of the Army of the Potomac.
but we often wondered how our boy
would take it. He was no boaster. He
never said whether he would run or
fight, but he fought.
One day the Sixth was ordered out
to follow broad trail and hang to ii
until we had come up with the war
party and punished it. At Il certain
point we divided into three columns.
Half an hour later the first column
walked into an ambush with its eyes
wide open. We were greenhornS al
Indian fighting. Half dozen men
had fallen when the colonel looked
| around for his bugler. The lad had
been one of the first to fall. The other
| columns must come to our relief Oh
we should be wiped out. We could
| neither advance nor retreat, and the
| hidden redskins offered us no target
| 1t was then that little Dick dropped
| the carbine he had taken from Il dead
| troopers hands. and. running forward
| he seized the bugle from the grip OF
| the dying lad and shouted:
"All right, colonel; know what yor
want"
The other columns had heard the
| sound of the firing but had made NJ
move. 1t was only when they heart
the notes of the bugle telling that we
were in sore straits that they came
| galloping down and helped us win {
victory.
| l don't know how they fixed it. bu
| from that day on little Dick was ont
of the regular buglers. 1t took hin
away from us much of his time. bu
when he had half an hour to spare
he was back home with us. 1t wa;
in the early summer when we heade,
out on the plains. For months w
fought the red man whenever ant
wherever we could bring him to bay
As autumn came we pressed him far
! Their and farther toward his winter re
treat, and one clustering day the com
mand was divided to deal him stag
gering blow. The chiefs staked all OF
ae,big fight and lost. We routed ant
pursued them, and 1t was after TIL
pursuit ended that Bugler Dick wa
found to be among the missing. Hi
bugle calls had been heard all through
the fight. and men had seen him smil
ing and laughing under hot fire. bu
as we went into camp and-the roll wa
called there was no one to answer t
} the name.
. Many good men had fallen that day
Comrade had lost comrade, and In a
least three cases brother had los
brother, but as the night came dow
1t seemed that In losing little Dick W
had lost the one most beloved in tn
whole command. In the bright moon
light half hundred of us forgot gu
WEAKNESS and hunger and hunted TO