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Show r I HE FOOLED THE ...SIQUXj I i Harney's Indian Killing That Shocked the J j People of the East. '1 . : 1 I He was an old cavalryman who had , teen service on the plains in the way- i fcack, when Indians had their war paint j . rn. But no one suspected it, because I ' for years past he followed the inactive I end monotonous life of a real estate j 1 spent in Kansas City. The recent criti- I 1 of the army in the Philippines 1 I B roused his fighting: and his recollec- ! L lions of Indian warfare, and he filed a f is ff "' kit ks in tnis style, in' the Kansas I I City Star: a '1 oughtn't to have said anything I shout those days," he said, "but this II lalU about the war in Samar and the rourtmartial of old General Smith for j j ' trying- to end hostilities brought some- 1 thin? hack to me. I knew Smith when j ),o was captain, and then as now he I was Jake Smith with his men when he i was out of hearing.. But Smjth has , nothing to do with this tale,' except that his case is nearly a parallel with the one I have in mind. He's fighting jlohammedan savages in Samar, while my man fought the painted A-ariety on II the American plains. From what I I! hear about, the Samar people they're j 1 about as bad. as the Sioux were when 1 1 thev were in control west of here. If $ j I "None of you remember Harney, old I ill General William S. Harney? He was a I r.iiffhty big man in his day and hasn't j j l en dead so long died a major gen-J gen-J eral, I believe. Harney was a Ten-I Ten-I jiessee product Tennessee grows the I runtiest and the biggest men on earth I 6 feet 3 Inches. When he was 17 he I pot his commission and from that time j until he was retired he fought when lif wasn't sleeping. He helped to rlcar 'ii' Florida of Indians and was brevet-ted and courtmartialed with equal regularity. regular-ity. Through" the Black Hawk war, through Mexico, back to Florida and then to the west. Along in 18r5 or 1S56 t the old man had an ambition to be- come acquainted with his family and asked for a leave. He got it, you bet, and was just trimming himself into shape for civilization when President pierce sent for him. ' "General, I don't like to ask you to eo west, after all the service you have 1 had,' he said, 'but I would be glad if you'd whip the Sioux bands that are I threatening.' I Harney saw his leave gone and was soon in the Sioux country. As I re-:. re-:. member the story, he established his ! headquarters at Fort Leavenworthr. Little Thunder was at the head of the Sioux, and sent word that he was will- !ing either to fight or shake hands with the white soldier. Harney replied that if the Indian was without choice - in the matter It might as well be fight; besides, as h remembered his orders, he was to whip someone. So Harney met Little Thunder and about 1,000 war ; men on the North Platte in Nebraska. f He whipped them and some of the In-? In-? dians' friends back east tried to make trouble for Harney because he had not had a long preliminary confab with Little Thunder. .' That Sioux band was a mild-mannered set long after Har-. Har-. ney went back to Leavenworth. "It was after this fight that Harney threw the Society for the Protection of Western Savage into a particular frenzy. The wagon trail for Oregon and California led from Fort Leavenworth Leaven-worth to Fort Kearney, : Neb.; then to Julesburg, in Colorado; from there to Fort Laramie, through old South Pass to Badger- and. then, to Salt Lake. The trip by ox train took about 100 days with good luck. I know of a party that as on the road 200. days, delayed by Indians and ' then snowbound. ' -That wasn't a pleasant winter for a boy of 16. "Every now and then a band of Sioux would ride up to an ox train, kill if they felt like it and always drive away the stock. Soldiers would be sent , out and have the pleasure of following - the Indians', trail until the .'.weather would make winterquarters necessary. Harney started from Leavenworth after one band, taking about 400 cav alrymen, or dragoons. The Indians loafed along -ahead of him till they i leached . the. mountains, and then Har- !f ney, turned back. It was the old story, the Sioux said, and their scouts followed fol-lowed the soldiers until they were weir into Kansas. Then the Sioux knew the country was clear for new operations. "Harney stopped on the Blue river in northern Kansas near where Marys-vine Marys-vine now stands. A wagon train reached there from Leavenworth and Harney had all the freight unloaded simply seized the train then he put 400 soldiers into those wagons and in two were mountain guns. The great tovers were pulled close, and, leaving a guard over the abandoned freight and horses, Harney started on his journey as a bull-whacker. Not a sol-n sol-n dier or officer was permitted to put his head from under a cover in the daytime day-time and only at night a few got leave to stretch their legs. All day they sat in those wagon beds, hot and dusty, jilaying cards, fighting and chewing tobacco to-bacco fot pastime. . "There were twenty-six of those ? wagons, and they trailed along as if they were carrying dead freight; no faster nor slower than the ordinary freighters, and making camp at the visual places, forming the usual corral of wagons an1 herding stock at night. The train reached Fort Kearney and elowly went across the South Piatte to Julesburg. Occasional Indian signs made Harney have hope. "The outfit was seventy miles on the way to Laramie when the big day came, and it came quick. Behind them on the trail the men on the outside saw a war party some say there were 500 Indians in it. Even if they hadn't been painted the fact that they were without women or children would have lold the story. The train made the usual preparations for an Indian at- ' tack, throwing the wagons into a cir cle, or more of an ellipse, and unhooking unhook-ing the five lead yokes to each wagon. A front wheel of each wagon touched a hind wheel of the one in front and the tongues were turned to the out-Hide. out-Hide. At the front end of the corral an opening about fifteen feet wide was left, but at the rear the opening into the corral was about fifty feet wide. That, also, was according to the freighters' methods; after a night camp the cattle would be driven into the corral cor-ral through the big end to be yoked for the day. "Harney didn't have time to drive his oxen into the ccral, or else he didn't i ant to. Only the five yokes of leaders were unhooked, and they were tfie.il chained to the front wheel of their wagon. The space in the corral was ail iar for the Indians, whose method of attacking a wagon train was to rush into the corral and do their shooting. They were a happy lot of braves this day the war band started for the train When the corral was forming; they fpread out like a fan and then came together again and started for the b!? opening as hard as their war ponies could carry them. A whooping, varie-Kated varie-Kated mob with no more clothes than 7 the paint gave, it fell into the corral and then real fun began. "Those soldiers, who had been sweating sweat-ing under canvas for a few weeks, wanted excitement and revenge. The " tarpaulins went up and they shot down into that mess of braves as fast as they . could load." The-two mountain guns completed the surprise and the bucKs hardlv fired a shot before their ponies were "climbing over one another to get out the way they came. It was the only real Indian panic. When the last Sioux brave able to ride disappeared across the prairie there was a big mess to clean up. I've heard all kinds of stories from men who said they were there giving Harney's bag of dead Indians In-dians as ranging from 100 to 400. Nobody No-body seemed to know the exact number, num-ber, but it was enough to cause the eastern friends of the poor Indian to demand Harney's court-martial. I think ; there was a court of inquiry, but it : was held that the method used was not only one with results, but was instruo- , the to the Sioux as well." "Did it put an end to attacks on wagon trains?" "Yes, for about three months may- i be less. In those days the Indians needed school all the year around. - However, one old buck, a little chief, , seemed to be impressed. He was near a mountain gun -when the fire opened. j 'Harney is the man vho shot wagDns at us,' is the way he told about it : years later. j "Harney stayed on the plains for : some years and was in command of Missouri in the early years of the ivil j war. As usual he got into trouble and j got out of it. They said he was too ; friendly to the southern element and he was relieved from command. Later he , was retired as a major general. The I old man died about ten years ago; must have been somewhere near DO I years old." |