Omaha daily bee., 1909-01-22
RECORD RIDES on HORSEBACK
President ROosevslt's Feat a Good
One, but Not a Beat.
NOTABLE RIDES BY OFFICERS
One-Hundred-MiIe Trips Nothing I'm
usual for CavaIrymen--Fast and
RsfPIaEA hides on the
@..RSky Express"
NOTABLE RIDES BY OFFICERS

back, a distance of ninety-eight miles. in
seventeen hours, is considered a notably
food one for a man OF. so years. 1t was not
20 much a try for a record as a reply 20
army officers who criticised the presidents
order requiring officers to cover fifty miles
in three days. 8. y =
There are on record many rides by army
officers. Which oyerahadows that OF Presi-
dent Roosevelt. Five years ago. last July,
Genera9 Miles rode horseback from Fort
Keno TO #ort Sill. ninety miles away. in
nine hUirsta and ten minutes. The trip was
made.lto prove that General Miles at the
age Of retirement, So years, was still in
good physical condition. On the trip the
general had nine mounts. Captain Sayres
Of the Eighth cavalry made the trip with
him. Forty minutes after reaching Fort
Sill, General Miles reviewed the troops
there. and shovel no signs Of being tired.
Here are a few of the notable distance
rides by American horsemen, mostly army
men, takenSAt random fFom the list COM
piled by Lieutenant Colonel Theodore
Ayrault Dodge:
In 1879 several single oouriers rode from
ThornbuEEis rat hole" with news Of that
officers danger to General Merritt
column, a distance Of 40 miles, which each
courier covered in less than twenty-four
hours. a.. ..s. o..
Colonel L-awton rode from Red Cloud
agency. Nebraska. to Sidney Station, Ne
braska, with dispatches for General Crook
in twenty-sfx hours. The distance was l25
miles. That was in 1876. Zoo
Captain FountaIn's Feat.
In 1891. Captain Fountain Of the Eighth
cavalry rode ~sigbty-four, miles in eight
hours and ITO miles in twenty.three hours,
- a. A-LNh AaRfna
dispatches, covered 10 miles in twenty
hours. b., -,.g t.. -
Rides of from 100 to $50 miles within the
day and the night. sage, Colonel Dodge,
have been made repeatedly by ordinary
United States troop horses, when not spe-
cislly prepared for the work, and over very
bad ground. and. as a rule, the animals
have not been injured by the test.
Thirty-six years ago Colonel Mackenzie
rode his command into Mexico after Lepan
and Kickapoo Indians, defeated them in a
sharp light. and returned across the border,
making las miles and winning a battle, all
within twenty-eight hours. The following
year Colonel Mackenzie rode into Mexico
again, this time in pursuit of a band of
horse thieves and covered eighty-five miles
in fifteen hours. In averaging these rides
of regiments or troops, the fact must not
be lost sight of that a large body of horse
men,. carrying equipments and in column
formation cannot begin TO get over the
ground so rapidly as a, group OF three or
four riders without luggage of any sort.
Four men of Company II, First cavalry,
carried dispatches from Fort Harvey to
Fort Warner in. 1870. Their time was eigh-
teen and a half hours, and the distance
was 40 miles, twenty Of 1t through deep
sand. But the horses were IN such good
condition ; that. latter nanA days rrests the
troopers started back and made the return
trim at the rate OF sixty miles a day.
Lieutenant Wood, with a troop OF the
same regiment, did seventy miles In twelve
hours in 1879, and Captain Dodge, that same
year, rode his troop eighty miles in sixteen
hours. ~
Captain Fechet, in command Of Troops F
and @ of the Eighth cavalry. left Fort
Yates on a December midnight in 1890 and
reached Sitting Bulls camp, forty-rve miles
away, at T:0 O'Clock in the morning. Then
the troopers dispersed the Indians in q
skirmish, rescued the survivors of the band
which had killed Sitting Bull. secuted the
country a distance Of ten, miles beyond. and
then rode to. camp at Oak creek, covering
all told, a distance, of elghty-five miles, be
sides fighting the Indians, IN fourteen hours
General Merritt, in 1873, with four troops
OF cavalry, and hampered, by. a battalion OF
infantry in wagons, rode I'D miles to the
relief Of Payne. in .sixtyssix and one-hali
hours and reached his. destination in prime
condition and ready to go at once into q
fight. - .- gr..s
Fear Troops, les Mnes.
General Guy v. Henry rode 1S miles lr
20 hours with four troops in, 1850. fh'
actual riding time Was twenty-five hours
There were between 800 and 400 men In tina
column, and with the exception Of one horse
that fell dead at the end Of the journey
troopers and animals were fit TO lake the
return ride after a days rest. -',
There are numerous cases on record o.
entire regiments of cavalry making Ions
continuous marches at the rate. of sixty
miles a day. Colonel Henry. an expert OF
distance riding, used to say that after &
months hardening OF men and horses by
daily rides of from fifteen, TO twenty miles
a day, a cavalry ommand could easily
cover, from ,fifty. to sixty miles a day foi
an indefinite period, and could. in an emer
Sency, do 100 miles without hardship.
For the purpose of seasoning the men anS
their mounts. General Miles once organized
a system OF pursuits on the plains. A raid
ing party, so-called, consisting of abou
twenty men, was sent out from a fort o.
camp, ahQ CiHuNcGh hoNAS oNN ala Npud
number OF troopers we're sept out to catci
them. GA so e SEQ.
one OF the rules was that the fugitivei
should rest six hours after riding eighteen
and 10 halt again for twelve hours, aftel
riding twelve. Pursuens could ride "g,
as YOU please but were ordered not 10 in
lure their horses by too hard a pace. ThIi
wac. in one sense only. play. That is
there was no spur OF oompulsion to say,
life or turn tue tide OF a battle. Neverthe
less, the results were crsdtable to men ans
animals. One OF these pursuits began OF
September II. 1877, when Lieutenant Scot
OF the Sixth cavalry, with twenty-five
troopers, RODE away from Fort stanton al
a fleeing bard OF raiders. Eighteen hour
later tweutSssevs en- pursaers, under Lieu
tenant PhfshiuE, set out on the trail. ant
captured the first detachment after rid
ing 100 miles in thirty-six hours. o.
another pursuit twenty-five men covere'
1E3 miles in forty-two hours.
Colonel Dodge seems to take the abilit!
OF the United States cavalrymen TO spen'
many consecutive hours in the saddle an'
10 riae many miles without a halt as
matter of course. He cites most OF hi
cases principally to show the remarksbl
endurance or the very ordinary sort o
horses the EovsFaPs4t provides for 1t
A description lOg one hard rsae in pur