THE TIMES, SUNDANCE, WYOMING, DECEMBER 24, 1931
I
FINNEY OF THE FORCE 0,,. ..... ,.,,,,, Plain lish.
]
Tried for an Eight bui
a Seven
L. CROSBY
(
"E~'ES
ELMO SCOTT WATSON
Disaster at Phil Kearney!"
(-~IIlHS'I'51AS EVIl; al ohl Fort Lar-
amie on lhe Oregon Trail in Wyo-
nfiag, hi "l~edlaul," the building
wlmro all lhe sot'tel fun{'th}ns of the
post were hehl, a great hull was go-
hie oil alld ullnlin(lful of the hitter
w{~{llllPr Olltsille the little garrison was
forgelling for awhile l:he perils and
hardshil}s of life on tile frollt|er.
hPl'OS~ 111o Sllowy [)llrade grollnd u
ilorse ph}(hh,d wearily, wavered and
drolq}ed to the ground (lead. Its
rhler reeh~d from his saddle as it
foil aml sluml)led toward tile door of
the huihlhlg.
A momenl later the music stopped
with a crush as hls gigantic figure,
wral)pod from head to fool In buffalo
(}ver(.(}at, leggh]gs and cap, staggered
into lhe liltle ballroom. "Dlsasler at
I'hll Keurney," lie gasped, "Cap(ale
I~'etlel'man and 81 men nnlssacred. The
Indians are all around the post. Col.
onel Currington must [lave llelp." Then
lie fell unconscious from over-expos-
ure all(] exhuus|Jon.
Imn~edlalely after the destruction
of l{~ellermun's commund hy Red
Ch~ud's Sioux. Colonel Carrlngton
culled for volunteers to go to Fort
I,aramie for help. Outside a frightful
blizzard was ruglng and lhe thermoln-
eter shred at 25 degrees beh)w zero.
To go meunt a ride of 236 miles
th roligl~ that hitter weather and
through a country swarming with
hoslile Indians" bh)od-luad from their
recent success. None of the soldiers
would offer It} make the trip. then a
fr(mllersman, nanled John l'hllllps,
niekzlametl "Portugee" because of Ills
nulhmulily, stel)ped forward and said
he weald go if given the swiftest
horse In tile conlnland
Tiffs was done and at midnight oI
Decemher 22, 1866. wlth only a few
eruckers for hhnself anti a small
amount of feed for his horse, Phillips
slipped out a shle gate In the stock-
ude and rode awuy Into the stprm.
Although the sohllera had predleted
that tile messenger would he caught
hefore I~e had goue a hlmdred yards,
he managed to avoid the Indians and
set oul for I~'orl 6aramle. After 48
hours of cold, hunger and fatigue he
reached that post as previously re-
luted. On New Year's day a cry of
thanksgiving went up from the he-
leaguered garrison at Fort ! hll Kear-
hey as a line of soldiers appeared over
the hlils. "Saved! Saved I Phillips got
through to I, aramleP'
It • What We re Here For l
~"~ FVICI~]It and gentleman"--such
,~/ Is the tradition in the Amer-
Ican army and none better exempli-
fied il than Guy V. Henry, who has
also, and Justly, been called "the typ-
Ical kntghHy American soldier." A
West l'ointer, and 1i~e son of another,
he was horn Into the service In which
he was to have such a distinguished
career. Ite suw four years of tile
hurdest fighting In the Civil war, was
thrh.e mentioned In dlsputehes and
brevetted five times for gallantry in
at'lion. At the desperate fighting at
Old Cold Harbor lie won the army's
Idghesl dlstlncthm, thu medal of
honor.
lie was a brilliant Indian fighter
from 1865 to 1S90 and during the
Spanlsh-Am{.riean war he aecomp-
fished wonders as military ruler of
l'orto Rico and there he died because
he would ~,ot ask to be relieved of his
eomamml although he knew thai by
staying he was doomed. "tlere i was
sent and here I will stay until my
duty Is done," he said. Yet. for all
of his services, lie is bul little known,
as compared to other officers whoso
more speclaeular careers brought them
to public notice.
"Thin as a shoestring and as brave
as a Ibm." the soldiers who served un-
der hlm and alnmst worsldpped him,
sald. What he lacked In physique, he
more than nmde up for In will power.
During the whiter of 1874 he was or-
dered from I*~ort Robinson with a
troop of soldiers to expel millers from
the Black IllUs. The march, which
Is a classtc In old army traditions,
took them over 300 miles ot the rough-
est country In America and was made
In weather ranging from 20 to 40 de-
grees helow zero. Only the Indomit-
able perseverance of the cou|nnlnder
kept the reed from lying down and be-
Ing frozen to death. HIs plight was
the worst of all. They had to cut the
brhlle reins from his frozen hands
when he returned to the fort, and slit
his gloves into strips. Eael~ strip
brought with It a piece of flesh and
to the day of his death he could not
close the fingers on his left hand.
In ,the Buttle of the Rosebud dur-
Ing the Sioux War of 1876 Henry was
shot through the face and fell to the
grou~(l. A desperate hand-to-hand con-
flict raged over his body but he was
rescued and carried to the rear. "Fix
hie Up 8,0 that 1 can go back" were
the words mumbled through bleeding
lips to the surgeon, but there was no
going back for him. There he lay
through the h}ng hot day while the
battle raged, ahnost unattended, for
not a man could be spared from the
firing lln~. To a fellow officer who
once came and bent over him com-
mlseratingly, Henry murmured, "It's
all right. Jack. It's what we're here
for," And a few moments later to a
war correspondent who came to See
hhn. Henry recommended that he Join
the army l
W st lrn Newspaper Unlon.)
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