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Show my ELMO SCOTT WATSON tmmiiii - - aril r"-i 'L ---i"- i. r Saved From Apache Tortures TJAD It not been for the fearless 1 devotion of one of those typical old army sergeants, the career of a distinguished cavalryman and Indian fighter might have been ended at the outset and American literature might never have been enriched by the stir ring romances of the old army days In the West which came from his pen. For Gen. Charles King, at the age of eighty-seven one of the few remaining links today between the present and the past when there was a frontier, owes his life to Sergeant Bernard Taylor Tay-lor of the "Fighting Fifth" cavalry. In 1874, King, then a lieutenant, with a small detachment of the Fifth, was pursuing a band of Apache raiders in the Mogollon mountains of Arizona. Near Sunset pass King, accompanied by Sergeant Taylor, scouting ahead of the detachment, uncovered the ambush which the Indians had laid for the soldiers. sol-diers. The first sign of the presence of the enemy was an arrow which whizzed past his bead and buried Itself It-self deep into a tree. A moment later he felt a burning sensation as another dart tore through the outer corner of his left eye. Jumping quickly behind a rock, King waited for the enemy to show themselves them-selves and as two dusky forms glided Into the open a quick shot from his carbine brought one of them down. Before he could reload a volley from the other warriors spattered on the rock. A bullet pierced his right arm and his carbine dropped from his hand. Realizing instantly that the savages would be upon him before the detachment detach-ment could come up, King sprang to his feet and started to dash down the slope. But n tough clinging vine tripped him up and a head-long plunge of ten feet left him lying bruised and almost senseless among the rocks. As he fumbled for his revolver, for he was resolved not to let them take him alive, he heard a voice calling "Lieutenant! "Lieu-tenant! Where are ye?" "Here, Sergeant," replied the wounded wound-ed officer, and a second later Taylqf" was at his side, had lifted him In his arms and started down the slope. When King fell, the Apaches lost his trail for a few moments but they caught sight of him again as Taylor reached him. Now began a thrilling race for life with the savages gaining on the sergeant with his heavy load. Every few yards he stopped to send a shot from his carbine to delay his pursuers pur-suers and twice an Apache dropped In his tracks. Taylor was tiring fast and King begged the sergeant to drop him and save his own life. But the sergeant ser-geant knew what that would mean for the young lieutenant. He staggered on and Just as he was about to collapse col-lapse he heard the welcome sound .rf the othei soldiers crashing through the bushes. They were saved. F. F. V. and Indian Scout TN HIS veins flowed some of the proudest blood in all America. Bis father was Col. Richard Garnett ot Virginia, a classmate of Sheridan at West Point, who was commanding otfi cer at Fort Laramie, Wyo.. before the Civil war and who as a brigadier general gen-eral of Virginia troops in the Confederate Confed-erate army lost his life early in the war. His mother was an Indian woman wom-an of the great Chief Red Cloud's Ogallala Sioux. So Billy Garnett could claim that he belonged to the "first families of Virginia and the Dakotas. During the Sioux war of 1876-77 he served under General Crook as a scout and Interpreter and It was largely through his energy, influence and work In the field that Chief Crazy Horse, leader of the hostiles who over whelmed Custer on the Little Big Horn, surrendered at Fort Robinson In the spring of 1877. Then when the war was over and some 9,000 turbulent red men were placed on the Pine Ridge reservation with Dr. V. T. McGillycud dy, a former army surgeon, as agent, Garnett wis made chief Interpreter. And this is Doctor McGillycuddy's tribute to him: "During seven years of service, It was largely through Gar-nett's Gar-nett's help and influence that 1 was able, with the assistance of only ten white men and a force of 50 Indian policemen to hold those 9.000 Indians in check. Many a time during my incumbency in-cumbency as agent, Billy stood by my side in hostile councils, aligned on the Llde of the Great White Father, when our prospects were good for 'a buffalo hunt on Ghost Creek,' but he never weakened. "During the Ghost Dance outbreak of ISOO-bi Garnett was as usual to the front serving between his people and the whites. He Is the last survivor of the old scouts and interpreters; he had few equals and no superiors. He helped open up the West to civilization and he helped make history on the frontier." Those last words were uttered when only a few years ago. Billy Garnett. old and decrepit from arduous service and exposure during campaigns where She temperature ranged from 110 In the summer to 65 below In the winter, was trying vainly to get a pension of S50 a month from the government tie had served so well. At last the grateful grate-ful republic which he served did grant him m pension, but they cut It flown to 520 a month! And until his death In 1928 that was the only recognition which this forgotten hero of the old frontier had ever received. (. 1031. Western Newspaper Union.) |
