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Major-General John F. Weston (M. H.) U. S. A., Commanding Department of California, Seventh U. S. Cavalry until November, 1875

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No. 3

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HE DEPREDATIONS of the Indians in the great Southwest had become so virulent and persistent that a punitive force was organized to scout through the Panhandle of Texas and southern Kansas. Pursuant to a request of Colonel Nelson A. Miles, Fifth Infantry, to General William T. Sherman (Colonel Miles being a nephew of General Sherman by marriage) he was placed in command of the expedition, which comprised eight companies of the Sixth Cavalry-organized into two battalions commanded by Majors Charles C. E. Compton and James Biddle respectively-four companies of the Fifth Infantry, from which an artillery detachment was made under command of Second Lieutenant James Worden Pope, Fifth Infantry, and a detachment of thirty-nine guides and trailers, commanded by First Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin, Fifth Infantry, the Indians of this latter detachment being under the leadership of Fall Leaf, a Delaware Indian.

The various troops were assembled at Fort Dodge, Kansas, a post near Dodge City, which was at that time the Western terminus of the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. There the numerous details of preparation and outfitting were made, and in the early part of August, 1874, the start was made; Major Compton with his battalion, one company of

Infantry, and the guides departing on August 11th, and the remainder of the command on August 14th.

On the first day's march of the second command an untoward incident occurred, owing to the defective knowledge of the guides about the natural resources of the country to be traversed. Always on the march, the canteens are filled and luncheon rations distributed. The day was imperturbably hot, and the trail sandy and drought inducing. The officers inquired of the guides if there was plenty of water at Mulberry Creek, the first halting place, and on an affirmative reply being received, they told the troops that they need not husband their water, as there would be ample to replenish the canteens at Mulberry Creek. But on arriving there, the water holes were as dry as a lime-kiln, and the thirsty soldiers instantly went raving mad. The famishment of hunger is a desperate condition; the unquenchable longing for a chew of tobacco is an unenviable predicament; the craving for a cocktail after a night off is an unpleasant aridity, but the insatiate and demoralizing state of a thirsty man is a species of dementia. Wherefore, soldiers gashed their veins and sucked the blood, and did all sorts of other abhorrent things in a vain attempt to assuage their frightful and uncontrollable ravenousness for water. General Miles (he was then a Major-General by brevet), when he apprehended the predicament, unloaded a couple of wagons and put barrels on them, and sent them and an ambulance ahead to

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