Show arc 0 ava an 41 endurance to determan Det ermAe best of mount W w aa ml N Z A og J V 1140 A ia 2 im na 7 Y N V 1 k by ELMO SCOTT WATSON 1111 aut GEN NATHAN BEDFORD FORREST 0 L S A was pronounced by gen W T sherman the roost most remarkable man our aw civil war produced on either side anyway he was a natural genius as a cavalry leader and hla his motto was git fust with the montest men 7 this means that cavalry horses must be fast enduring nud of 0 uniform quality and this Is the why and wherefore of the activities of the 0 united states remount service which Is to the improvement of the cavalry horse through the stu of thoroughbred sires throughout the nation for it Is now pretty generally admitted that the thoroughbred Is tho the best horse to bo be used in the production of the army horse while arabs have won some of the endurance tests teats arranged to determine the best breeds it Is contended that more care cap was used in selecting them than in choosing the thoroughbreds these rides are val tests of both horse and nian for they are required to cover a total of miles in live five I 1 days regardless of weather conditions they must do their CO 60 miles L da dar in id not less than nine hours and not noi more than eleven hours the final scoring allows CO 60 points for condition and 40 for speed the colorado endurance durance ride for 1023 la Is over the eastern endurance in now new york state comes in october i in the colorado ride tt a thoroughbred norfolk star an eight your old chestnut gelding by vat tim payne Cher cheridah Cherid idali nh ridden eldden by capt herbert E H watking of fort D A russell wyo repeated 1022 victory with a score of in 1022 it was the winner of pie the 1022 eastern ride was also a thoroughbred ough ugh bred before that two arabs won on an outstanding horse in tho the 1022 colorado ride was fox an aged cowpony entered by E A pring and ridden by george a sixty two year old cowboy fox finished third with a score of 56 00 general Merrl ta fame ll 11 such contests as these held with the approval of the efm department and watched with keen interest by cavalrymen recall to veterans in the mounted service some of the tents tenta of long distad riding in the indian fighting days of tho old eld frontier front lerIt it was different in the old days when uncle sams troopers were colled called out to io pursue a band of raiding indians or to ride to the ithe relief of beleaguered beleaguer ed comrades the chase led them over barren plains or rugged tas nc the soldier carried a meager ration or of hardtack bacon and coffee and his PH low at M night was his saddle ile he had nt if scanty grain ration for hla his horse horae death lurked along tho the trail and if ho was put afoot death came nearer still when the final list of brilliant amer amei jlynn scan cavalrymen la Is compiled high up on n the record will bo be the name of gen eral wesley Al Merrl erritt tt twice while ho he avas was colonel of the fifth cavalry the fighting fifth he proved his right to greatness as a leader the first time was during the sioux war of 1876 band thel the second during the he uto ute cupris jing ang in colorado in 1870 on july 15 1876 merritt Merrl tt who had started d with the lie fifth ardth to join general crooks croci js expedition was Ta camped on the port rt trail et ct rawhide creek n wyoming at noon he received a j dispatch from the red cloud agency in nebraska stating that Cheyenne warriors would leave the reser reservation vailon the next morning and take the war path here was a desperate derpera to it if he continued hla his march to fort laramie as he be had been ordered to do this force of warriors would be allowed to join the hosts of sitting bull and crazy horse unmolested an event which might moan mean another custer disaster if he matched for the reservation 05 miles away it would simp simply ly drive the Ind laris lafis out and hasten basten their going there was but one thing to do and that was to throw his force across their path and drive them back to do this ho he must march over three sides of it a square while the aliey y were covering the distance of the fourth ready to fight merritt acted with tia usual promptness leaving a small guard with his wagon train and orders that it was to follow ns as rapidly as possible the commander and seven troops of the fifth swung into their saddles and started up rawhide crook creek their objective was the point polut where the great indian trail from the sioux reservation crossed war bonnet creek in the southwestern corner of what Is now south dakota dalcoma and it was so 85 miles away after a marchoff march of 34 miles the troopers halted to water their horses then pushed on until 10 that night bivouacked bivouac ked under the buttes of the water they had already covered 85 miles of the 85 at 5 the next morning they were on their way again they were now BO 50 miles from war bonnet creek and the were only 28 miles from it from now on it would be a race to seo see which would arrive there first all that day with only a brief stop at noon for rest the fifth pushed on at 0 that night the seven companies pa ales went into camp along the war bonnet the hostiles host ho stiles lles were nowhere in sight eight merritt and the fifth by marching 85 miles in 81 hours had won the race more than that the cavalry leader had brought every man und and every horse through safely and fit for fight the light the next morning with its thrilling incident of buffalo bills duel with chief yellow hand vas was a brilliant victory but the result of it tho the scattering of these reinforcements for sitting bull and crazy horse and sending them back to lo the reservation pell poll mell wa was oven even more important for it probably saved crook certainly it won for merritt and the fifth the recognition which their magnificent ent dash deserved three years later came another indian campaign sept 80 1870 merritt and ancl part of the fifth was stationed at fort D A russell wyo when a message arrived from rawlins rawlans telling of a tragedy away up in the northwestern comer of colorado the utes had gone on the warpath karpath war path killed agent N X 0 meeker and burned the agency then they had ambushed a body of troops under the command of maj T T thornburgh marching toward the agency thornburgh had been killed and leadership hod had devolved devolve ded d upon captain payne of the fifth cavalry who with five troops of the fifth had bad accompanied the expedition off to the rescue the message had been brought to cawlina by joseph B U rankin a who had broken through the ho hostiles stiles around paynes beleaguered beleaguer ed soldiers and had ridden from the ho ambush at S 41 milk river miles in 24 hours ran kins kalns message was a 0 plea for help to save paynes men again merritt acted instantly within nn an hour tour four troops of the fifth had left fort russell and were speeding tor for rawlins in a special train on tho the morning of october 2 merritt and lits ills cavalrymen de trained at rawlins howling and after a five hour rest they were marching away to the southwest guided by rankin with four com panics of the fourth except for occasional cas ional stops of five or ten minutes they pushed on until midnight and then went into bivouac on cow creek with 40 miles of their journey behind them at 8 the next morning they took up tho trail again and that day they covered 50 miles before they went into camp on fortification creek in colorado the morning of october 4 found them with nearly half of their journey ahead eighty miles away payne and his men were ivere lying in the trenches tren chea they had dug although merritt realized the necessity of haste there was no hurrying or worrying of horse or man beyond a pace which they could sustain so all day they jogged bogged along the narrow trail which was now taking thern them over some of the roughest mountain country in america the men often walking beside their mounts bugle blows officers call in the meantime payne had been reinforced by buffalo soldiers negro troopers of the ninth cavalry led by capt F S dodge who had been following Thorn burghs trail and had been warned of the ambush by teamsters fleeing over the back trail dodge true to his soldierly training had hastened to the sound of the guns covered 80 miles in 18 hours and ridden into paynes little fortress with every man and horse ready to fight but the hordes had been soon shot down by the utes dodge as well as payne was facing death before dawn on the morning of october 5 merritts troopers reached a valley in which rankin said the remnants of paynes command lay besieged it had been abben a custom in the fifth for one troop to guide another into camp by sounding officers cers call payne believing it just possible that merritt would reach him on the morning of october 5 lay behind breastworks straining his ears to catch the slightest sound which might indicate the arrival of a relief column just as the sun began to streak the east there floated down to the entrenched troopers the notes of the officers call A few moments later paynes men crazy with joy saw the utes retreating sullenly before the steady advance of merritt I 1 s dusi duse covered tro troopers oVers again had the greot great cavalty cavalry leader proved p oved his greatness from noon of october 2 to dawn of october 5 he had led his troops of oc cavalry oyer over some of the most difficult mountain trails on the continent a distance of no miles and he had brought them themi to their objective with only three thre 0 men dismounted on account of ix exhausted haustedt haus tedi horses |