The Montana courier. [volume] (Shelby, Mont.) 1922-192?, 1922-09-13

Here are interesting excerpts from Mr. Little's
address:
Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, the greatest cavalry
chief the world ever saw, and one of the greatest
Indian fighters we ever had on the border, said
in his report of November J, 1869, that in the
last six years the Indians along the border had
murdered more than eight hundred men, women
and children. The Seventh United States cavalry
and the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Kansas regi-
ments carried on the campaign against the south
western Indians-the Cheyennes, Apaches, Kio-
was and the Comanches. The Eighteenth Kansas
cavalry was organized under a circular of June
q, 1867, from military headquarters for the Di-
vision of Missouri, and was mustered in at Fort
Harker, Kan, from July ID to Is, 1867, and mus
tered out there November Is, 1867. An epidemic
of cholera attacked the Eighteenth Immediately
at Fort Harker and twenty of them died.
Companies B and G fought the Cheyenne In
dams on Prairie Dog creek on August q and %.
Major Armes of the Tenth United States cavalry
commended the officers and men in the highest
terms. They preserved the state of Kansas from
further Indian depredations at that time. On Au-
gust 80 Maj. H. l.. Moore of the Eighteenth and
his men fought the same Indians again. This
gentleman was one of my predecessors in the
congress of the United States, having served in
the Fifty-third congress, and he afterwards served
as commanding officer of the Nineteenth Kansas,
being lieutenant colonel, l believe. The lieuten-
ant colonels of both the Nineteenth and TWEEN
tieth Kansas have served in these halls. The
campaign made by The Eighteenth Kansas in 1867
drove the Indians to winter quarters and left the
frontier settlements of Kansas in comparative
peace.
The following year the Nineteenth Kansas was
mustered in by companies from October 20 to 70,
1868. at Topeka, and mustered out at Fort Hays,
Kans. April 18, 1S69-organized under authority
of a telegram from the secretary of war to Lieut..
Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, dated October
6, 1868. On November 8, 1868, the regiment
$50 A. #-t--
crossing at Wichita, marched southwest, and joined
the Seventh United States cavalry near the junction
of Beaver creek and North Canadian, 112 miles
south Of Fort Dodge, at the Camp Supply canton
ment. Owing to severe snowstorms and the en-
tanglements of the Cimarron canyons, the regi-
ment reached Camp Supply at the end of the
month. General Sheridan says:
"The regiment lost it's way, and, becoming en-
tangled in the canyons of the Cimarron and in
the deep snow, 1t could not make its way out and
was in q bad fix. 1t had been SubsiSting
on buffalo for eight or nine days. Officers
and men behaved admirably in the trying condi-
ton in which they were placed"
General Sheridan tells of their march down the
Washita, and says:
weather very cold, but the officers and men were
very cheerful, although the men had only shelter
tents. We moved due south until we struck the
Washita, near Clusters fight of November 81, hav-
ing crossed the main Canadian, with the Their
about IS degrees below zero. On the
next day we started down the Washita, following
the Indian trail but finding so many deep ravines
and canyons / thought we would move out on the
divide, but a binding snowstorm coming on, and
fearing to get lost with a large command and
trains of wagons on a treeless prairie without
we were forced back to the banks of the
Washita, where we at least could get wood and
water.
TIo rocr1It of tbic oornpoiUp uyoc tbof Coptorfo
Lone Wolf, chiefs of the Kiowas. were taken