Show STORY OF RISE EISE FROM RANKS Kansas City Star About the middle of July 1861 a ayoung ayoung young man 19 years old with a pleas pleasant pleasant ant face freckled and bronzed from laboring In the harvest field wanted walked into the recruiting office In Warren O 0 and told the recruiting officer that h desired to enlist In the army An hour after that he was a private In troop K Sixth United cavalry This young man was Adna R Chaffee The president pre sent to the senate recently among the nominations for the high highest highest est places in the army the name of Adna R Chaffee to be a n major general In the regular army It was the tha name of the private soldier of forty years ye rs ago He may be commanding general of the army aimy before he leaves the ser Cr service vice General Chaffee Is now In China in command d of the American troops He ha baa risen to his present position by the constant cen tant display of soldierly qualities blended with rare good fortune When congress adjourned In 1898 it moved General Chaff Chaffee e up from the grade of a brigadier general of ot volunteers to a major general of volunteers volu That was for gallant conduct on the field of bat battle battie tie tle General Chaffee received hi his commis commission commission sion as a brigadier from President Mc McKInley KInley at the outbreak of ot the war He Heas as then lieutenant colonel In the Third United States cavalry General Chat Chaffee fee has been in active octive and continuous us army service ervice for forty years including the entire period of the civil war and numerous Indian campaigns His pro promotions promotions motions from Crom rank to rank up to present one were all earned by gallant conduct on the field of battle At El ElCaney 11 Caney July 1 I General Chaffee com commanded a n brigade consisting of the Seventeenth Seventh and Twelfth in infantry infantry fantry which opened this fight and ore bore 1 the brunt of it and to his leadership the v ic tory won that day da vv was as chiefly due His force moved on the heights very early In the morning encountering a heavy y fire from the enemy and losing many men An eye witness of the struggle sa sas b that when the fighting r i ct c v c L was w hottest and American men were falling fast t General Chaffee dashed bout about with his hat on the ba k of his I head ead Jt e a magnificent cowboy the men and aJ d crying to them to get in inand i I and help their country to win a vic victory tory It was as at El Ei Caney that Gen General eral etal Chaffee leading the charges from j i i block house hou to k house bouse was dubbed I by the Spaniards The Man in Shirt ShirtSleeve Sleeve name was given be because cause he be wore no coat during the fight beI H Hw was wounded at Santiago A bul bullet let pierced his lIs foot He was also wounded wO at Gettysburg and n Chicka a I For his daring work m in the Indian war Wan he was four times bie bre by co c y 0 Chaffee won his first lieutenancy on the battlefield of Gettysburg and vas wa moved move up to the grad of captain for gallant service at Dinwiddie Court Courthouse Courthouse house Subsequent promotions to the rank of major and of lieutenant colonel I successively were earned earn d in engage engagements I ments with Uh Indians in Texas and Ari Arizona Arizona zona zona He also served at one time Ume as inspector general with General McCook and later sun still as of the cavalry school at Fort tiley lyan lyans an s v 0 2 General Chaffee is the idol of his men one ne of ot his favorite commands when in a hot chase after Indians Indiana used I to be Follow me men and every everyman eve 1 man Ill make a corporal W t 0 i In the fight at El EI Caney several com t ani s were eje detailed to dig trenches and tile the Spanish sharpshooters t were ere potting at them from tree tops and clumps of bushes on the hillsides Pres Presently I the firing Bring became so severe that the men were ordered to drop their I i tools and return it About this time I General came along on foot t i I looking over OYeI the situation n In the bot bottom tom of or one of the he saw aw a soldier lying flat on his face tace while e the j I i iman man next to him kicked him In the In Intervals I Is of firing As the t h e general en era I walked walk ed over he heard the address the I prostrate ate soldier in a savage ge whisper I j Get up you fool Here comet comes old I I Chaffee If he sees you youre done I Ifor 1 for the matter with JUi that man asked aked General Chaffee of or the speaker I 1 he e wounded No sir fr said the saluting The made maae motion prostrate man no I Iun un then asked toe t e general for j the re were many ea collapse from irom i heat under the bitter of the Cu Cuban rr ban afternoons I r dont know w sir the sol soldier dier in embarrassment All An this time the th bullets were re whist whistling I ling around the soldier who had from his crouched posture and was as 1 standing at salute j I Dont stand there arid expose your yourself I I self my man said General kindly although he himself had been standing in full range r all the time Now he walked over to the groveling soldier took him by collar and hauled haul him to a sitting posture 1 What do you mean by lying there he said sternly Get up and fight with your company eO 1 I No I cant nt whined Ithe the fellow Cant e nt said the general general Well youre a fine soldier the mat matter matter ter with you OU any way Im afraid the matter with me said the theS soldier doggedly trying to wrest his collar from the I grasp g sp of tile tiie other and trying frying in vain for General G e nera 1 Chaffee has muscles of I steel Beg pardon sir said Mid the mans neighbor nel r saluting again I r think the kids been sick sir a charitable thought said tIDe the genera genel grimly I He twisted hla hios captive about to get a good look at and his face which had grown set v and angry softened at I what wb t he saw w How old are you he asked Seventeen said the frightened sol soldier soldier dier Why VIti youre nothing lothing but a child cried General Chaffee Id JUte Jike to get hold of or the fellow that enlisted you He stood thinking for a moment while the tray boy sniffed A Spanish bullet bull t sent senta a little of dirt up from the In not two feet from where he stood I Beg pardon sir getting your range said the other soldier er you better etter he lie down sir I I The general paid no attention 19 the warning but shifted his hand lhand from the collar to the shoulder of his captive I Now see here said he kindly You I cant help being frightened I suppose I But there nearly so much danger as you thing there Is You must pickup pick pickup up your our gun and take your position and fight and Ill stand by you yuu till you get used d to it I Shaking like a leaf the boy seized his hisgun gun g n and fired a shot almost straight up I in the air a little high said aid his in r Try It lower and take a lit little little tle more time to aim Theres a Span Spaniard ird in that green thicket straight in front fl nt of you yuu I After three or four hots t the young soldier lot got his stopped trembling tr and began to shoot with some accuracy and judgment Tb t better said General Gen ral Chaffee I as he moved away Stay y here and do your best The boy fought like a veteran through the afternoon and when the order came to too withdraw he had to be obe dragged d away vay by his companions though he had I been fighting for more than an hour with a 8 bullet wound in I his hie shoulder He said that General Chaffee had told him to stay there and he was going to stay The Th wound was wasa a 0 trifling one and before was over the boy Do had the he reputation of ib beng ng one ne of the best soldiers In his I company He Is now serving In the Philippines i General Chaffee Chaffe was at one period of ot the civil war in command of the federal troops in Mississippi One da d y he was stricken down with an attack fever he and his friends were con convinced vinced would prove fatal An Episcopal j I minister the Rev Mr Carnahan was wasI as assent I sept sent for to make the dying soldiers I peace wt world The minister read several s r 1 Scriptural passages and i then knelt beside the sick officers cot cotIn In prayer er At that juncture several I Ii i i soldiers outside the tent engaged enga ed in a qU el and bec became me so boisterous rous that the ministers invocation was interrupt ed The supposedly dying soldier laie d himself on one elbow and rip ripping ping out an emphatic Demanded i of at the it v that he heI I maintain quiet the parson was as J lra The Rev Mr r Carnahan had hadt t 0 been scarcely as much astonished by bythe bythe the note noise outside as he be was by the ro bustness of oath The minis minister minister ter finished his prayer and receiving the thanks of or Chaffee left ap apparently apparently dying But t the gallant of officer officer did not die He regained re ed his health and made a host of friends among the best citizens of Mississippi ippi by the jus justice justice tice and fairness of his course 0 One of the chapters of General fees diaries deals with the fight of the Big Dry Wash an in the summer of 1882 cherished by cavalrymen as one of tile the gallant ones of oL their arm of the service About White mountain Apaches who had taken to the war warpath path where on one side of a canyon In Inthe inthe the Mogollon plateau Chaffee a major with a pursuing troop of the Sixth cavalry held Use the summit of a rocky hill commanding the entrance to the canyon The battle went on for hours One of the scouts fell feU some yards AnIs from where Chaffee was W stand standIng standIng Ing A second scout at elbow remarked that the fallen man was done for but the major saw that he was only wounded Come along said toe he and well fetch him in Then he threw himself flat fiat on the ground and crawled the wound wounded ed soldier The scout followed f Slowly and painfully Chaffee and his compan companion com pan lon ion in the face fae of a concentrated fire from all the Indians worked their way to the wounded man and half earned carried half him back within the lines The handful of troopers on the rock tin thrilled H Jed with ith the deed that had been performed forgot the task in hand stopped fighting and began to cheer This furious and he at the fhe top of ollis voice Shut up that noise and go to fu shoot shooting ing Thus recalled to the work of 41 fighting Indians men again turned their attention D to their and relieved in the nick of time by two troops of the Third cavalry slowly fought the foe to a standstill The Apaches almost to a man were W re killed or or captured Chaffee was a lieutenant I colonel for this days work and in in 1897 the brevet became a com I 0 For some reason which has never neY been explained satisfactorily a halo of romance has been thrown around Gen General General eral Chaffee almost almo t from the time he wore shoulder straps It is said that he has been the hero hel of more romantic tales than bhan any other officer in the reg regular regUlar ular service serice since the civil war The general perhaps knows better than anybody else whether the majority of these stories are true and in speaking of or two or three of them one day lie he said Those yarns arns like Uke a lot of others I Ibave have bave heard beard told about me are just plain lies Im no hero and if the plain hard truth were always told t ld there would tee be mighty few haloes truck struck around the heads beads of us army aimy of officers We just go head and attend to our business like any other business businessmen men We re put in certa certain n places to euc eed If we do succeed there is no par particular particular sense se in telling a lot of heroic lies about us and if we fail well God Gi d help ue us |