Campaigning with Crook and Stories of Army Life
CAMPAIGNING WITH CROOK
AND STORIES OF ARMY LIFE
BY
CAPTAIN CHARLES KING, U.S.A.
AUTHOR OF "BETWEEN THE LINES" "A WAR-TIME WOOING"
ETC., ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1890
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by
CHARLES KING,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Copyright, 1890, by Harper & Brothers.
PREFACE.
Ten years ago, at the request of the editor of a paper at my old home,these sketches of the Sioux Campaign of 1876 were written and, findingfavor with comrades to whom a few were sent, were published in pamphletform. Now, reinforced by certain other sketches which have sinceappeared, they are given a new framework.
They were the first-fruits, so to speak, of a pen that has since beenseldom idle. They were rough sketches, to be sure, but no rougher thanthe campaign; and in the early days of a divorce from associations thatwere very dear, and of a return to surroundings once familiar, yet,after twenty years of absence, so changed that a cat in a strange garretcould hardly have felt less at home, I laid their faint tribute ofrespect and honor at the feet of the soldier who had been our commanderin the wild days in Arizona, our leader from the Platte to theYellowstone and our comrade in every hardship andprivation—Brigadier-General George Crook, United States Army.
Only enough of these pamphlets were printed to reach the few hundredcomrades who rode the grim circuit of "The Bad Lands" in that eventfulcentennial year. The little edition was long ago exhausted. The yearsthat followed only served to strengthen the ties that bound me to therevered commander of old cavalry days. Many a name recorded in thesepages no longer graces our muster-rolls. Mason, our soldier major,gallant Emmet Crawford, brave old Munson, daring Philo Clark; Rodgersand Price, Egan and Dewees, Bache and Hunter, have been called from theranks in which they won such honor, and, only a few short months ago,the leader whom they so faithfully served rejoined them on the farthershore of the dark and silent river. The mountains and prairies overwhich we marched and fought know no longer the war-cry of painted savageor the din of thrilling combat. Herds of browsing cattle crowd thelovely valleys through w