Little Pills, An Army Story

tion was called to some military procession on the street. It turned out to be only General Sherman and his staff, the general riding alone in front, his orderly a few yards b

my impression regarding him somewhat at the battle of Bentonville. We had marched all night to reach the battlefield in time to take part in the engagement, and arrived on the ground early in the afternoon. As it happened, we stopped near the general's headquarters. The battle was in progress and as we could not go into the trenches until night, I had a good opportunity of observing him during the afternoon. He was walking back and forth along a space of ground a hundred feet or more in extent and when there was a lu

e evening, mostly dancing, with zest, and after supper went with the officers to the front porch to smoke and talk. He ridiculed the idea of being a candidate for the presidency, saying he did not possess the temperament or disposition that seemed necessary to qualify one for holding an office where there were so many adverse interests to consider, and where they were so frequently presented from questionable moti

ered the remaining officers into the new post which was being built. It fell to our lot to be quartered with Mr. Spencer and wi

sounded by the buglers and the signal gun fired "just as the sun went down," the band struck up and gave us very delightful music for an hour or so. At such

ospital for treatment. Maybe a so-called bilious condition or a scratch on the hand, or if a colored soldier a "misery," or he was "powerful weak." There were not many maligners, and they were soon detected. In the cavalry drill there are many bugle calls for the different evolutions. The bugler rides near the commanding officer and receives the orders and transmits them by bugle to the command. Of all the bugle calls in the service "Taps" the last call at night, affected me most. It has all the quality of our good-bye or goodnight,

nd post, and I was ordered to accompany the command to Kansas. My recollection is that there were three companies. In this command were two young officers, lieutenants, not long out of West Point, who proved ver

ght, and had driven all day hoping to find our camp somewhere, but he did not know where. I took him to my tent and insisted on him lying down on my cot, which he did under protest, and I brought him some brandy which he drank with seeming relish, and by the time dinner was ready he was ready to join us. I asked him how he came to take such chances alone. He said it was part of his work and that there was a higher power (pointing his finger upwards) that would take care of those who were doing God's service. He was past middle age and had spent most of his life since taking orders as a missionary among the Indians. He had a benign faith-abiding expression of face, such as I have never seen on any other man, and his voice was low and musical, and his manner most winning. I had some difficulty in getting him to take my cot for the night, he insisting that he was used to sleeping on the ground and did not mind it. I finally told him that I was boss of the ranch, and he must do as I told him. To

his pillow in the morning and he became quite nervous about it. He referred to his loss several times before the command came up with, "Well, if I am mistaken and Andy (his old negro servant whom he had brought from Kentucky) got it I am all right, and I will quit talking about it." But he was ill at ease and went out to meet the command

s called so, and are strict vegetarians, we killed a young one and had it for dinner. I was quite pleased with the experiment before trying it, and was not particularly enthusiastic about it afterwards. It was not very bad but was not very good. It tasted something

as the first house in what is now known as Caldwell, Kansas, now the county seat of one of the famous wheat counties of Kansas, and a thriving city. The contrast between the two sides of the land separating Kansas

think they called it Douglas avenue. The houses were small but neat, and being the first town I had seen for a year or two it looked very attractive. We were there over the Fourth of July and I remember a delightfully clean, attractive little place where they sold ice

would be tributary to their town and they were going to vote bonds the following Monday for a railroad from Newton, then the terminus of the Santa Fe. If not the terminus it was the great cattle shipping point for the immense herds that came up the Chisholm trail from Texas, the trail we had followed some distance from Fort Sill. Everything would eventually come to Wichita and it would be a second Chica

he three of us could have invested a little money if we had known enough. After we had again started on the march I stopped and talked with a man standing by the roadside and he told me each

rt Harker for a day or two during which time the paymaster came and paid us for June. Captain Kerin was a typical Irishman and his company, almost without exception were Irish, and they were very much devoted to each other. The captain looked on his men very much I thought, as a fa

mforts of their men. The trip back to my post was east by rail to Junction City and thence on the M., K. and T. to its terminus in the territory. The railway was then under construction and the terminus was changed every month or so. From the railroad I went by stage to Fort Sill. Nothing of interest occurred on the way until we arrived at the last stage station east of the fort. We had breakfast there and were told we had better get in the stage as they were about ready to start. We found a bunch of men hitching up a pair of mules to a light stage-like vehicle, and were told that they were just breaking them in and that it was better to get in the stage first. The driver was already up in his seat and Mr. Stearns, a very large man and owner of the ranch where we had breakfast, was up beside the driver, and was going with us some three or four miles to where they had made a cut-off that took us by a large spring of water, the last we could get before reaching Cache creek, some eighteen miles away. When all was ready and the driver had the lines well in hand the word "Go" was given, and away we went at full speed, much like a horse race. The driver's efforts being wholly devoted to keeping

When the colonel was a young officer in the service and had been sent out to make talks to the Indians, the story ran that the young officer had a pow-wow day appointed with the Kiowas and Comanches, and when they had assembled and gone through the preliminaries of such an occasion Captain Marcey told them of the great benefits the great father at Washington wished to confer on them, and wound up by saying: "We wish to put up poles across the country and string a wire on them and then you can talk over that wire to the Great Father in Washington and not have to wait until some of your people travel such a great way to see him." When he had finished he waited for Black Beaver to get up and tell it to the Indians, but Black Beaver did not move but hung his head and sat ther

r Brown and his young wife were on their way to Fort Sill where he was to become post surgeon, a position I had held since Doctor Forward had been transferred to another post, and they were at the half-way camp between Fort Arbuckle and Fort Sill when the storm broke. The doctor's wife was confined there and the escort accompanying them devoted themselves night and day to making the camp as comfortable as possible, getting water, bringing wood, building fires and cooking, and this they kept up until the weather moderated and Mrs. Brown was

we left the post, intending to quit the service. S

do. I think he finally went to General Grierson and expressed a wish to try. The general promptly gave him a detachment of cavalry, some thirty or more men, and told him to stay as long as he liked, but to bring back the mules if possible. Nothing was heard of him for some time but finally word came from Fort Arbuckle that Mr. Harmon had reported there with a bunch of horsethieves and that most of the mules were then on their way back to Fort Sill. I heard Mr. Harmon himself tell some of the details of the scout. He had got on the trail of the thieves-not Indians at all-somewhere south of Red river and found two of them in a house he went to at night for information, believing he was close to their camp. He took these two prisoners and waited until morning to attack the camp. The ranchmen where they had stopped and where they had already captured two of the thieves, knew th

they tried to escape. The guard claimed that one man made a break for the brush, but the prisoners claimed that he did nothing of the kind, anyway one of them was badly wounded and was taken back to Fort Arbuckle, and as Doctor Brewer, the post surgeon was sick at that time a request for a medical officer come to Fort Arbuckle and cut a man's leg off was received at Fort S

ed to be babbled to the world" but also because they pull so hard on the heart strings. Our little boy was scalded to death at this camp. The negro servant had set a large kettle of boiling water off t