The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-01-06

As he turned to give an order TO his ser
geant. one of the Indian scouts i'm our
own camp fired and shot Capt Hentig IN
the back. The scouts then ran down the
! bank Of the creek. firing. and il is a
miracle to me that every officer in the
command was not killed at once. M
troops charged through the bushes and
drove off the Indians. Besides Capt
Heutig, there were six soldiers killed and
several wounded"
That is the simple narrative Of the
fight. It stirred the nation, because the
news came back 10 civilization that Gen.
Carr, with his whole command, had been
wiped out by the Apaches. and the pa
pers were filed with obituary notices Of
The general After the night the general
made a report. telling Of the fight and
adding. Il am confident we could have
stood off all the Indians in the country.
and We had ten days rations. but had
nothing more 70 do there. and there was
great alarm. so after burying the dead
and caring for the wounded l starte
back"
A correspondent who was with the
troops in this engagement wrote at the
time; His conduct at Cibicu has won
him the lasting respect and admiration
Of his soldiers. He was even before this
called Papa Carr by the men who liked
him best During the fight he ordered
all his corlmand 20 take cover but for
himself he never took bit of shelter, and
when a sergeant called out TO him. For
heavens sake, general, youn be killed
he replied. Lay low. boys; they can't hit
me- This same sergeant said afterward
1 don't know how they missed him The
general waltzed around there in the open
and the bullets seemed 10 shun him. |
expected to see him fall every minute but
devil fall had he. He issued his orders
just as If he were on parade, only a d
sight cooler
In this fight Gen. Cars young son. a
lad of sixteen, took part, and gladdened
his fathers heart by acqUitting himself
bravely and worthily.
The recent Brownsville trouble recalls
another service Of Gen. Carr that was per
formed prior to his famous fight with the
Apaches. In 1865 he was on duty in Bal
timore, where the negroes had organized
and We're drilled as troops. The white
people could not, Of course, prevent them
from parading, but the feeling ran high
against them, as Confederate sentiment
was by no means dead. When Gen. Carr
got TO the scene he found that white
citizens had formed a troop and were
ready to take issue with the colored
troops. Gen. Carr went TO see Bowermau,
the commander Of the negroes, and he 50
represented matters that he persuaded
the negroes not 10 attempt TO parade. He
argued that bloodshed was bound to fol-
low. and by his fair dealing and good
sense he aVerted what would have been a
terrible disaster for Baltimore.
With the glorious Inconsistency with
which the army has treated some of its
heroes, Gen. Carr was placed under arrest
for his fight on the Cibicu. But the order,
made by Gen. Wilcox, was countermanded
BY President Arthur. and the honor that
was due the man who had saved his sol
diers from massacre. and who had duelled
an Apache uprising that would have had
grave consequences was honored as he
deserved.
For years thereafter he continued to
serve, and tried, of course. to live I'D TO
the glory Of the obituary notices that had
been written of him. On the frontier or
in the departments, he continued to do his
duty until 1893. when, by the operation Of
the law, he was retired. But few men
have seen more varied or more brilliant
service, have won greater honor or seen
more actual fighting. 1t is over now. and
the grizzled veteran, at peace with all the
world, is content with his hard-won
trophies end his memories of the glorious
past.