Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-05-08

time newspaper man, turned as I'M
responsive and impenetrable a face on
reporters as any army officer l ever
knew. But on one occasion he helped
me to the greatest piece of news /
ever handled and enabled me to make
clear 500 by one days work. This
was In 1876, when | was a reporter on
a Chicago evening newspaper. l was
In the habit of calling at Drums office
every day for army news. If / was
lucky enough to meet General Sheridan
or Fred Grant or Colonel Corbin, I
came away with all the news that was
accessible, If | came face to face with
Drum / got just what he thought it
was proper to give me, which was new
err very much.
Tn the latter part Of June, 1876,
| there came to the office early in the
day a bulletin from Cheyenne, saying:
There is a runor here that General
Custer and his entire command have
been slaughtered by the Indians.
There was great excitement in the Office,
and / went at Cnce with the dispatch
| to army headquarters l handed 1t to
General Drum, who for once dropped
his mask. He was as excited as / was
He became at once oblivious so far as
1 was concerned. He went into an
inner room and General Sheridan and
Colonies Corbin and Forsyth came out
Drum pulled down some large mill
tary maps that were on rollers and the
four officers forgot all about me and
proceeded to fix the location on the
maps Of the scene Of the massacre, and
to theorize as to Clusters plan of at
tack and his preliminary movements.
"All were familiar with the terri
tory, particularly General Sheridan,
who took the lead in the discussion.
He described wildly the scene of the
| battle and showed how Custer prob
ably made the attack and how he was
caught in a trap. The others expressed
their opinions and each one gave some
information as to the strength Of Gus
ter's command, the probable strength
of the hostile Indians. and the char
acter Of the country. I stood and list
| dShlllS liz AuSSlAOhk>, say AANo AloI
one word, but when I left the room
had more information as to the battle
of the Little Big Horn than any other
newspaper man in this country. In
fact, | had all that the General COM
handing the department and his Adju-
-tant General and aids could give.
II went at once to the Office, wrote
up an account for my own newspaper,
! communicated with the papers in New
! York St Louis and other cities and
sent long specials to several Of them.
Sheridan's hypothesis as to the battle
was correct and my dispatch read like
| an account written on inside informa-
tion. General Drum was probably at
| a loss to understand how arv reporter
came to be so thoroughly posted. He
| forgot that for once his own tongue
was lOosened. and that under the eX-
| element of the hour he gave the full
est possible information to newspaper
man."
Newspaper men of the Civil War
period" said the Major. were deposi-
| tories, as it were, of secrets, govern
ment and personal In all the inves-
tigation leading to the exposure Of the
! Knights Of the Golden Circle Sons Of
| Liberty and other organizations Of the
| kind newspaper men were active, but
for the most part reticent. In that day
there was a little schoolhouse a few
| miles from Newcastle, Ind, In which
the Knights of the Golden Circle held
| their secret meetings. AS q rule the
meetings were held between II and /
| O'clock at night, and there was never
| light in the schoolhouse. One night
Julins BenbOw of Newcastle a stanch
| Republican and bitter opponent Of the
copperheads and knights, suspected that
a meeting was TO be held at the school
| house mentioned.
"Benbow rode out to the schoolhouse,
tied his horse at a safe distance crawl
ed under the schoolhouse floor. recOg-
nized the voices Of those present, heard
their plans, which contemplated the
taking of a certain train Oh the Belle
fontaine road for indianapolis. the kill
ing of Governor Morton and other off
cials the capture OF the arsenal. and
the release of the rebel prisoners held
in camp there. Benbow went at once
to persons who notified the authorities
at Indianapolis, and United States
troops were drawn up under the shed
at the station ready for the knights
when they came in.
Another detachment of troops guard
ing a section of artillery moved out
! mile or so from the city. A cannon was
placed In the middle Of the track and
the train at the order of the commander
Of the troops came to a standstill Ev
cry suspected person was taken out and
put under arrest, and all except one
were taken to Indianapolis. Through
the influence Of e. B. Martindale, Mr..
Benbow's brother in-law and law
partner of Governor Morton, one of. the
most prominent of the men arrested
was struggled through the lines, was
given horse and his escape conniyed
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