r ?ssS5 2!i33w f ?& ib7v-tk H5 sgrcp? 5 J THE PITTSBURG- DISPATCH, SUNDAY APRIL 3, 1892. IT UNTAUGHT FIGHTERS lord "Wolseley Finds One "Worthy Type Among the Generals of Our War. HE WAS &. B. FOBREST. Never Saw West Point, but flis Methods Satisfy Stndents. NATUBE WAS HIS INSTRUCTOR. A Slave Dealer, Frontiersman and Master oftheEoirie Knife. FACTS ABOUT THE CATALET SERVICE rwRrrTrjr tor the dispatcii. It is a remarkable fact that, in the Sects sion "War of 1861-5, almost all the best known Generals of both contending armies had been educated at the "West Point Mili tary Academy. Those who desire to em phasize the necessity of close military stndy for all ambitious soldiers otten point to this fact in support of their contention. During the progress of that prolonged war a few civilians, however, were given high mili tary rank. Borne obtained it through per sonal influence, but still more through party interest, and a few by the gallantry and natural military ability they had displayed in battle. Bat none of these political Generals are known to fame, and though one lawyer Gen eral from the 2forth became for the time notorious, the names of very few among them will be remembered in history. Of that few one of the most remarkable was General Forrest, a great organiser aud leader of what used to be known in Europe as dragoons, but now called mounted rifles or mounted infantry, though still spoken of and written about as cavalry in the United States of America. "When any English writer refers to General Sheridan's men as "mounted infantry." a host of gallant American cavalry officers spriDg up to de fend the title by which his command was, and still is, universally known in America. They seem to regard the designation of "mounted infantry" as derogatory, and as doing some injustice to the gallant soldiers who followed that able infantry soldier, General Sheridan. A Soldier's Opinion of EHmself. In all epochs the horse have very natural ly thought vhemselves superior to the foot. A name has often much to dowith the fight ing value of soldiers; and if a man is proud of the official designation given to his arm of tbe service no one but an idiot who had to get hard work out of that arm would use any other, no matter how technically wrong such a title might be. You cannot make the cavalry soldier or the mounted soldier, whatever "may be his functions in war, think too highly of himself. His training teaches him "that he belongs, as it were, to tbe aristocracy of the army, and that his nork, always "in the tront," is the most im portant, and places him iu a position far above that of -what the Indian sowar terms the "Peidal "Wallah." This feeling was given full vent to in a cavalry song of the period when Forrest, Fitzhugh Lee, Mor gan, Sheridan, Stewart and other leaders of mounted troops were justly the popular heroes of the day. I can only remember the refrain, which ran thus: "If you want to smell hell, just jine the cavalry jine the cavalry 1" In deference to this prejudice on the part of many gallant American soldiers, for whose deeds and Talor I entertain the great est admiration, I shall, in the course of the following article, usually refer to their mounted troops as cavalry. But it is essen tial that others should understand it was in reality what we now term mounted infantry, and what was in the seventeenth century, and early in the eighteenth, known as dragoons. In those far-off days, all regular armies were officially described as consisting of horse, foot and dragoons. The Utter were armed as infantry; with long muskets and bayonets, the former carried in a sort of Namaqua bucket like that now used by our mounted infantry They Did Not E;e the Saber. The generals in the Secession war have taught us that, although a country may be entirely nnsuited for purely cavalry opera tions, and where the shock of charring masses of horsemen is a physical Impossi bility, still, mounted troops are more val uable than ever; bnt they must be men taught as the mounted troop's of both Koth and South were that their great mission is to fight on foot In a letter written a few years after the end of this war, the cavalry '5- General IT. J3. Vorrext. T General, S. D. Lee, says: "If early all the cavaly used by the Confederate -States, and, in fact, by both sides, was nothing more than mounted riflemen. The saber was done away with by the Confederate States' cavalry pretty well, and rarely used in action by either party." And again: 'In every in stance under my observation the revolvers replaced the saber," etc. One of the most distinguished cavalry leaders in that war, Major General T. L. Bosser. in a letter of about the same date, writes: "Neither the Yankees nor Confederates employed cavalry in the late war, it was all mounted rifles." After these expressions of opinion from well-known American calvary leaders I hope I may be forgiven if I say that in neither of the contending armies was there ever a brigade or division that would have been regarded as regular cavalrv in Europe. The cavalrv made use of by Ijotb. belligerents did spiendid service and had a role of its own, but that was not the role of regular cavalry. Forrest Early Beamed to Tight. General Forrest was born in 1821 of very humble parents. He was, therefore, just 40 when he first donned the soldier's garb as a private in the Tennessee Mounted Rifles. In the wild borderland of civilization, where he had been reared, he had, however, been accustomed to the use of arms from earliest boyhood. There life was held cheap, and even the peace-loving citizen went about his ordinary avocations duly j annea wua pisioi ana Dowie ciiie. Jixany were the wounds Forrest received, and many were the hairbreadth escapes in the personal encounters he had to engage in as & young man. "Lynch law" was often re sorted to by the community in whichhe lived, and In the rode and reckless' society of his early surroundings, the first lesson he learned was that of self-preservation, and persenal defense of one's own property with steel and bullet was the first great and roost important law of nature.' ' ' His father died when the future general was a boy of only 16. The 'eldest son of 11 children, upon him,then devolved the care and' maintenance of his mother and his many brothers and sisters. They lived on a little, rented farm, lately cleared from the wilderness, and it, was only by the hardest manual labor he was 'at first able to provide with food those who were dependent upon him. The locality was unhealthy, and fever carried off several of the family, and very nearly killed him also. .But his naturally robust constitution enabled him to pull through, tnougn it was several montns be fore he fully regained his wonted strength. His education was most meager, and what he learned as a boy was picked up at odd times from casual schoolmasters. He could just read and write and do some very simple sums in arithmetic: Indeed, it may be as sumed that during all his career as general his orders and dispatches were written for him by the educated men he collected round him as stafl'officers. Plenty or Adventure In Bis Career. His many adventures with pistol and bowie kniie on shore and ot boiler explo sions on the' Mississippi river would alone form an .interesting article. , Bnt I must hurry on -to his military career, which be gan at tHe opening of the secession war in the summer of 1881. He was in the prime of life and vigor, erect in figure, and over six ieet in height, with broad chest and shoulders. He required good horses to carry him, for he already .weighed over 13 stone. Like many of the American offioers of that time, he allowed his dark, straight hair to grow long and wore it combed back irom ms iorneaa; Dut, wnue ne snared nis cheeks, no razor ever touched his lips Or chin. Several prominent Confederate officers affected the style and bearing of their cavalier forefathers, and seemed especially to despise the roundhead "crop" ot the regular army. Their broad-brimmed, wide-awake hats,' often adorned with a long, graceful ostrich feather, lent additional coloring to, the resemblance. Successful as a farmer, -he afterward took to horse dealing. An excellent judge of that noble animal, he was very fortunate at this business. By' thrifty management of his gains, he was soon able to embark in the still more remunerative but most de testable occupation of slave dealing. Even among the planters who used the services of those who bought and sold their fellow man, those engaged in this nefarious traffic were held in very general contempt By all who then knew .Forrest, however, he was regarded as a humane man. Early in July the Governor of Tennessee sent for Forrest and gave him a commission to raise a'regiment of volunteer cavalrv. Before many months had passed a whole battery of eight companies of mounted men had been enlisted, equipped, and duly armed, and they elected Forrest to be their Lieutenant Colonel. For the first 18 months of the war the officers in all the Confederate regiments were elected by the men, a system which Jed to such extremely bad results that it had to be altered to one of selection by the Secretary of War upon the recommendation of the general officers commanding in the field. The Learning or the Unlearned, Forrest, the backwoodsman, the farmer, and the slate dealer, knew nothing of "grand strategy," but he was at once a shrewd, able man ot business, and at the same time thoroughly acquainted with the common-sense tactics of the. hunter and the "Western pioneer. But if his operations be carefully examined by the most pedantic military critic, they will seem as ii designed by a military professor, so thoroughly are the principles of tactics, when broadly inter, preted by a liberal understanding. In accordance with common sense and business principles. The art of war was an instinct in him; its objects must necessarily be evident to most men, but the ways and methods by which those objects could and should be secured came of themselves into the untaught brain of this fearless soldier, this General by intuition His favorite maxim was: "War means fighting, and fighting means killing." Heneeitwas his track was usually marked with blood, and the dead bodies of his enemies were the records he left of fierce 'charges down roads and of Federal camps or bivouacs taken, by surprise. It may be asserted without contradiction that no man on either side killed so many adversaries with his own hand as he did during that long war. Forrest's first real fight did not come off until the last week of 186L Up to that time he had practiced his men in long marches and accustomed them to life in the open air during cold and very trying weather. He thus tempered and hardened his young volunteers to the hardships and rough life of a soldier in the Held, ana he had time to shake down himself into the, to him, novel position of commanding officer. On the 28th of December, 1861, Forrest had marched his regiment, then 800 strong, about 20 miles over execrable roads, either deep with mud or rendered barely passable from frost In the neighborhood of Bumsey, Ky., he came upon a fresh trail of the enemy, who he learned from the inhabitants were about 450 in number. A gallop of ten miles brought him into contaet with the Federal rear guard near the Tillage of Sacramento. Be Charged With HalT Bis Men. Not more than half of his men had been able to keep paoe with him, but with them be charged down the road and drove in the rear guard upon the main body, He ordered his men to fall back, in the hope of drawing the enemy after him, and in this way of bringing them nearer to the remainder of his regiment, the men of which kept drop ping in by fives and sixes. In this he suc ceeded. Dismounting about half his men, he directed them to fall upon the enemy's flank, while with the remainder on horse back he bore down' along the road upon his center. The rifle fire in flank from these dismounted detachments was too much for the Federal cavalry, who, in spite of their officers' gallant efforts to make tbem stand, broke and bolted to the rear. Many were the hand-to-hand encounters and" hair breadth escapes of the Southern-leader that day, but his loss was small, while the Fed erals suffered very severely. ' It was notnso much the defeat of the en emy he rejoiced at as the confidence this in significant success gave his men in their own strength and prowess. His second in command," Colonel Kelly, who before the war had been a clergyman or, in Southern language, "a preacher" was as gallant a soldier under fire, as ever smelled powder in any war. In a note written soon after this action, Kelly refers to his leader in the fol lowing terms: "It was the first time I had ever seen the Colonel in the face of the enemy, and when he rode up to me in the thick ot the action I could scarcely believe him to be the man I had known for several months. His face flushed till it bore a striking resemblance to a painted Indian warrior's, and his eyes, usually mild in their expression, were blaz ing with the intense glare of a panther's springing upon its prey. In fact, he looked as little like the Forrest of our mess table as the storm of 'December resembles the quiet of June." Although I cannot pretend to follow this great leader of mounted troops through his many hard-fought battles,I have dwelt upon this, his first engagement, because it fairlv illustrates his mode of fighting npon all occasions. Gabnet Joseph "Wolseley. The canal is an ancient institution, ii coexists with tbe remotest periods of hu man history, since the primitive man dis covered the value of an artificial waterway across a peninsula, or Irom one remote stream to tbe navigable waters of another. Historians allude to these artificial channels as existinc in Eepyt and elsewhere in the far-away centuries preceding the Christian era. . - I hn Ml ruiTT TWT1 ' ABidh:1'-0 thelPbfe-0 JXwi ! w&m IE -- i--- I" ..f!S . -r j.t ir- . t-., mi AN IMAGINATIVE. ROMANCE OF ARCTIC EXPLORATIO WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH BY HERBERT D. WARD, The Inventor. CHAPTER I. "I tell you that was the closest call I ever iad." A tall, ruddy young fellow of abont 22 held the attention of the smoking compart ment as he thus fin ished recounting the greatest experience of his life. He looked from one to another of his five companions, shaking back his blonde locks and awaiting the applause due to prowess and adventure. "Did you ever see the bear again?" asked his vis-avis, not knowing what else to say. This person was of an entirely different type,middle sized in breadth and heighth. He had straight hair, barelr inclined to crispnesi. and dark eyes, with a look common enough in the "West, but rare in the East, of con centrated, well-reined daring. He was of the stock of men who have made the Great "West what it is to-day- "Talking about sport," interrupted the elder member ot the party, "I remember when partridges used to be shot where Lin coln Park is to-day. " "What a change is that, my countrymen I" ejaculated the ruddy young gentleman. He delivered this stock quotation with a self satisfied air of of originality. The Chicago merchant said: "Very neat! Very well put," with the . -i , . t, . . -1, - inauigent smiie oi a xmaiv would not make a boy uncomfortable for a trifle. In that smoking compartment of the sleeper the party had become very well ac quainted that is, in a general sort of a way. Five davs in a study box produces its peculiar intimacy. They had told eaoh other almost everything about them selves. The ruddy young fellow, who looked tor all the world like a young Englishman, with checked suit and travel ing cap to match, was Boyal Sterne, a Maine boy, with six months more in the Institute" of Technoloirv. in Boston. :s. .. tie was the radiant mem- ZV" Tech. student. ber of the party; always -up to tricks or man, wiw feflirotsF BSjUtjiBBfT practical jokes; always enlivening in his boyish, honest way the dullest hours; al ways manly in his most mischievous moods; always liked. He had gone out to inspect a mine in tbe far Northwest, preparatory to going into it next fall. On this trip, as the reader will surmise, he had struck up an intimate acquaintance with a grizzly. Jaok Hardy was a representative scion of the "West For three years lie had been a clerk in a Kansas City real estate office; had seen fortunes made in a day, and melt away in a weec, ana was now aoout to meet in Chicago his future partner, a young fellow like himself in the same line ot business. "We shall set up some time in the sum mer," said Jack Hardy in confidence to Mr. Yanderlyn, a well-known grain millionaire, and one of the most influential and public spirited men in Chicago. "I believe you will succeed, Mr. Hardy," said this good-hearted capitalist with a smile of encouragement, that, coming from sucn lips, seemed to mean everything to the young man. "What do you think about the Patagon ian war cloud?" asked the third young man of this party, Mr. Frederick Bail, a young astronomical tutor. "It all seems to lie in the difference be tween South American" "Peep! peep!" interrupted Boyal Sterne, imitating a young chicken with rare talent, "and North Amer ican coclfc-a-doodle-doo-oo!" Sterne thusgayly tossed off the astronomi cal tutor's sober questions much to the mer riment of the inventor, who had sat dream ing, talking little, and observing less, dur ing the whole of the long cross-continent trip. Even the icicle of the party smiled the sixth man, whose name no one knew, nor his business nor his destination; who had refused to talk and be drawn out during the five days', imprisonment on the train. None of the good natured, albeit some what impertinent innuendoes, traps and tricks of the Tech. student had found this traveler off his guard. His ,eyes, which seemed a trifle weak in the glare of the sun, would flash, however, at any open disre spect Finally he was let alone. It was winter, and on one occasion when the steam gave out, and the car almost froze up, this man became radiant He had evidently suffered from the closeness of the car, and this arctic atmosphere affected him like a bottle of champagne. No one had learned his name or his business. The train was due in Chicago now and was two hours late. In despair the young astronomer took up a paper and glanced at it for the sixth time. The rest puffed gloomily at their cigars. "Here's another fool I" he said contempt uously. "Here's a Norwegian idiot who is going to tramp it across Greenland to the North Pole. I, for one, am dead tired of relief expeditions. His friends, for the sake of sympathizing humanity, ought to lock him up in an insane asylum and keep him there 1" "Who is he ?" asked the real estate man ndifierentlT. "It's that Nansen, Mr. Hardy. I be lieve he has done np Greenland before." "You never can tell," said Boval Sterne. "He might immortalize himself by going up a little higher than anybody else before him."- "He can't I" interrupted a gruff, decisive voice. They all turned with surprise toward the speaker. It was the first exhibition of interest the silent traveler had shown since they left San Francisco. ''Well, why not?" asked Boyal, with a wink at the tutor, as if to say: "At last, we've brought him out" , "Because he will first starve and then freeze to death. He must have a chain of depots in his rear." The stranger spoke so authoritatively that the student was si lenced. ' "You are right," said the tutor, with a halfjigh. "He can't The North Pole Is an absolute impossibility. Only fools try It". iThe millionaire, the inventor, Jack Hardy and Boyal Steme nodded approval, as if they considered the subject disposed of. But the silent man- flushed, as if he had been struck, caught his breath hur riedly, and then replied with obvious re straint: "I bet? to differ from von. Nansen can't But the North Pole is possible. It only needs to be reached at intelligently. If Stanley can traverse Equatorial Africa, somebody can get to the North Pole, it requires faith, endurance and gumption, but I believe it will be accomplished before the end of this century and by an Ameri can. "Bravo!" cried the inventor. "Let me in troduce myself to you formally. I am Professor "Wilder. Here's my card and my hand." "Spoken like a patriot!" said the Chicago merchant smiling at the silent traveler. "And Chicago ought to fit out a party that would do it" The unapproachable stranger had thawed out He took the inventor's outstretched hand cordially, and smiled upon the rest of the party for the first time. It was noticeable that his smile showed the downward curves of hopeless sadness, rawer tnan tne up ward lines of joy. "Whether it were the indomitable spirit of discovery that stirs the Anglo-Saxon blood at a breath, or whether it were the thought of the su preme hardships and terrible disasters which inevitably come to the mind whenever Arctic dis covery is mentioned, or whether it were the electric excite ment of the stranger's bold words, or all three combined at any rate the six men moved their seats closer together. "Well," said Mr. Frederick Ball, the tutor, "I do not like to differ from you, sir," bowing politely to the stranger, "for you seem to Know all about these things. But I have read a little on Arctic discov ery, and have noticed that from Cabot to McClintock there have been no less than 130 Polar expeditions, not one of which has attained to within 300 miles of the North Pole. Millions of dollars have been spent to reach it! Hun ereds of lives have been starved and frozen out Think of Franklin and the utter an nihilation of his expedition! Bemember the best equipped party that ever left our shore! Bemember the Jeanette! Think of the fruitless reliefs! Call to mind the Greely expedition!" At this point the stranger's eyes flashed. His teeth bit nervously into his cigar, and his hands clinched each other powerfully. "What was obtained?" proceeded the tutor, growing more eager. "A paltry 83 and 21 seconds the highest latitude trod by man, it is true; four minutes higher than the ffBS 1 w The M.eul Ettatc Agent. 15F k r 4 W j ' m ssW wtb ifm, if The Scrjjetxnt. sledges ofMarkham, higher than Nares. backed by a million of pounds. Did it pay? "Where is the gallant Lockwood?" More and more excited, he would haveje sumed his eager argument had not the stranger laid his hand upon the young man's knee, and bade him stop. "I cannot suffer you to go on," he said with trembling voice. "You touch my own experience, my own life. The North Pole has not vet been reached, because God has so willed it But has not all knowledge her imperative claim upon paltry human life? Shall not the uttermost part of the earth. call for her heroes until she is subdued?"' The stranger stopped for a moment, Dreath ing heavily. He was profoundly moved, and he moved his hearers. "Gentlemen," he went on, very sIowlj"i and reverently, "1 was with Greely. I was with Lieutenant LiOck wood when that immortal American attained the highest altitude. I would turn to the Pole again to day, as a privilege and a post of honor if the op portunity offered." He tried to say more, but the tutor at this point rushed upon him. man, "then youareSer-' eeant 'Willtwig." The I otmncrnr nodded slowly. I as if the mention of his own name overwhelmed him with its tragical asso ciations. For a few mo ments there was an un usual silence in that stuffy smoking compart ment "Tf von went again." said the tutor solemnly, "you would lose) your own life. ' "Perhaps!" answered Sergeant "Willtwig, with a superb shrug. "What'9 that? The next time I should find the Pole." "Well, how? asked the practical mer chant, joining for the first time in the dis cussion. "Depots must be advanced from Franz Joseph Land," answered the Sergeant "The preparation before tbe final dash might take five years. The getting to thai Pole is not the difficult thing. Itis the get ting back!" . "That's too long," said Boyal Sterne with, the careless confidence of youth. "I'd do it by balloon; not depots!" He looks around as is he had given vent to an origi nal idea. At this word, Prot "Wilder, the inventor, gave a sharp start It was so noticeable that Mr. "Vanderlyn looked at him inquir ingly. "The balloon," answered the Arctic trav eler quietly, "is not the means of access to the Pole." "Sat on!" whispered JacS Hardy to BoyaL "But isn't it possible by airship?" asked the inventor quietly. To the surprise of all the Sergeant did not immediately annihilate the inventor. For a moment he sat immersed in thought 'If the airship were built," said Boyal Sterne, shaking his curly head with irre-' sistible confidence, "I'd start in it to the Pole as quick as a wink diploma or no diploma. My guardian wouldn't care a rap." This was said of! hand, and the others seemed to take up the idea to kill time. "By gracious! I would go for the adver tisement to the new firm," said Jack Hardy laughing. "I would go for the love of science,"', said the tutor slowly. 'It really has been the dream of my life that some time or other I should see the North Pole reached." "For the glory of Chicago and science I "would pay for the trip for the rest of you," said tne merchant, nail iaugning. During the conversation the inventor sat back in his seat, gasping for breath, silent No one noticed him. "Well," said Sergeant Willtwig gravely, "probably the scheme is possible in the right kind ot an airship. 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