Hazard Stevens

“ In the struggle which ensued, it was soon apparent that the Indian was the superior in weight and strength, and Ford had to put forth all his skill and agility to prevent being forced to the ground. At last, while all the spectators, both red and white, were breathlessly watching the straining, panting wrestlers, the whites especially with great anxiety and apprehension, Ford gave a sudden and mighty heave, the huge Indian’s bare legs and moccasined feet whirled in the air, and the next instant he struck the ground with a heavy and sickening thud, and lay senseless as the dead. ”

“ The whole vast region occupied by these numerous, brave, and manly Indians was still free from the intrusion of white settlers, save a handful in the Walla Walla valley and about Colville. But year after year they saw the long trains of emigrants pass through their country and settle, like swarming bees, upon the fertile plains of the Wallamet. They saw the Indians there dispossessed of their hunting grounds, and rapidly dying off the face of the earth. ”

“ I verily believe that our little army of twelve thousand men is able to defeat any body of Mexicans, however large.
You know the papers have been full of the complaints of the sappers and miners, or engineer soldiers. These men I am on duty with every day. They are the pride of the whole army, confessedly the best soldiers in the army. I never saw so superior a company of soldiers, Americans all, young men, having character, zeal, and intelligence, proud of their duties and of their position, perfectly subordinate, and cheerful in their obedience. ”

“ A terrific musketry is poured upon the advancing column, while a storm of shell and shrapnel smite its flank with most deadly fire from the batteries on the ridge to the left front. With hearty cheers, the advancing troops desperately charge the embankment and railroad cut on the right of it, and when repulsed, charge again, and then cling to their ground and open steady musketry. All in vain. Longstreet throws two more batteries forward on the ridge, and fatally enfilades the struggling troops. “Butterfield’s troops are torn to pieces,” says Sykes. ”

“ His iron will and great soul planted Castilian civilization and enterprise in the midst of a contracted and superstitious people; and cities of fine proportions, magnificent works of art, cathedrals to the worship of the Most High, gardens in the arid plain and the dense chapparal and the wild forest field soon greeted the eyes of men in attestation of his genius. But with the decline of Castilian grandeur, Mexico ceased to be governed by a race of heroes, and her governors and her priests have degenerated into mere cumberers of the earth, having zeal only for their own aggrandizement. ”

“ When I heard, governor, what you had said at the Walla Walla ground, I thought you had done well. But one thing you said was not right. You alone arranged the Indian’s land. The Indians did not speak. Then you struck the Indians to the heart. You thought they were only Indians. That is why you did it. I am not a big chief, but I will not hide my mind. I will not talk low. I wish you to hear what I am saying. That is the reason, governor; it is all your fault the Indians are at war. It is your fault, because you have said that the Cuyuses and Walla Wallas will be moved to the Yakima land. ”

“ My dearest Wife,—The great battle of Mexico has been fought, and our arms have achieved a glorious triumph. Commissions are now sitting to treat of an armistice that will terminate, as we all trust, in a permanent and honorable peace to both countries. Mexico is again without an army, and the gates of the capital are open to us. Terrible was the conflict, severe our loss, particularly in efficient and gallant officers; the whole army was engaged, and the whole public force of Mexico struck down, large numbers of prisoners and a great amount of material of war falling into our hands. ”

“ Not a laggard, not a fugitive,—all the regiment in line,—all by their colors and in order of battle, but many dead and wounded men. I am profoundly affected by the circumstance that you have seized such an occasion to show your regard for me. Yes, beloved comrades, we are ready to expose and, if need be, to lay down our lives for our country. We will keep steadfastly to the work till this sad, terrible war is ended, and peace smiles again upon the land. My friends, I shall endeavor to be deserving of your magnificent testimonial of respect and affection. ”

“ No nation on the face of the earth is a stronger exemplification of the strong governing the weak. Wherever our army has gone, the people have been benefited. You can hardly realize how conciliatory has been the deportment of our people throughout. All along the road from Vera Cruz to Puebla, beautiful fields of corn and grain were left untouched, when our horses were suffering for food. Any aggression on the property of the people is promptly punished and redressed. The Mexican army ravage their own people, and leave a sad wreck behind them. ”

“ Then came charging on at full gallop in single file the cavalcade of braves, breaking successively from one flank of the line, firing their guns, brandishing their shields, beating their drums, and yelling their war-whoops, and dashed in a wide circle around the little party on the knoll, now charging up as though to overwhelm it, now wheeling back, redoubling their wild action and fierce yells in frenzied excitement. At length they also dismounted, and took their stations in rear of the chiefs. ”

“ Let no man be enlisted who cannot in due course of time be made a non-commissioned officer. Let there be in no case transfers from other branches of the service. Let the whole strength of the officers of the company be applied to discipline and instruct the men, so that in time of need we shall have a band of splendid non-commissioned officers, the peers of Everett and Hastings and Starr,—men who have received commissions for their gallant services in Mexico, and each of whom, had Smith and McClellan and Foster fallen, could have gloriously led on the company to its duty. ”

“ It would seem to be more appropriate that you should first control and reform the conduct of your own people, before going out of your way to instruct and rebuke another branch of the public service,—a service, too, which, both from its experience and the success which has attended its labors, is entitled to the presumption that it is as much interested in, and as much devoted to, the peace of the country as yourself, and as well qualified, to say the least, to consider dispassionately and to judge wisely of affairs at the present juncture. ”

“ We know not when the time may come,—probably in our lifetime, and perhaps to-morrow. We feel no despondency, but are filled with joy and hope. When our beloved nation, “a power on earth,” shall determine to measure its strength with other powers in the maintenance of right, and in vindication of violated law and outraged humanity, the army and navy will carry their country’s flag in triumph over all seas and through all lands.
Congress was disposed then as now to starve the coast defenses, appropriating scarcely enough to maintain the works already built. ”

“ Standing at Rosefield, the eye of the observer sweeps westward or frontward over a broad expanse of open country, descending to the lower ground crossed by the Groveton road, and beyond it, over the rising slopes and summit of a bare, high ridge two miles and a half distant, a ridge much higher than the one on which he stands, and the dominating feature of the landscape. ”

“ I should much prefer working on a farm for two or three months to the life I now lead. It is now thirteen months since I have done any work to which I have hitherto been accustomed, and I shall probably soon get my hand out. Many of the cadets, chiefly those who come from the slavery States, have a great contempt for our Yankee farmers, and even pretend to compare them with their slaves. They have the greatest contempt for all those who gain a subsistence by the sweat of their brows. ”

“ All looked, and there, at the edge of the woods, was a line of troops in blue uniforms just forming. General Reno turned to General Stevens, as if in doubt; but Captain Stevens, knowing that the enemy’s skirmishers held the edge of the woods ever since ours were drawn in, impulsively called out to the battery, “Fire! They are rebels! Fire!” The guns instantly fired upon them, and as quickly they disappeared, melted, into the woods. The sergeant, too, had disappeared, when we turned to find him, having made good use of his long legs to rejoin his companions when his bold ruse failed. ”

“ I have come four times as far as you go to hunt buffalo, and have come with directions from the Great Father to see you, to talk to you, and do all I can for your welfare. I see cultivated fields, a church, houses, cattle, and the fruits of the earth, the work of your own hands. The Great Father will be delighted to hear this, and will certainly assist you. Go on, and every family will have a house and a patch of ground, and every one will be well clothed. I have had talks with the Blackfeet, who promise to make peace with all the Indian tribes. ”

“ Sno-ho-mish, a chief of the lower Spokanes, near the Columbia: “When you went away to the Blackfoot country, and the Yakimas commenced fighting, my heart was broken. Ever since my heart is very small. Ever since I have been thinking, How will the governor speak to us? And yesterday he did speak, and said to the Indians, ‘You must keep peace;’ and I have been thinking what God would say if we should spill blood on our land. I never loved bad Indians, nor war; I never believed in making war against Americans. I wish they would stop all the whites and Indians from fighting. ”

“ I have seen a good deal of my old friend Hunt the last few days. He is attached to Colonel Duncan’s battery, and is now in my room talking with Mason. He is a man I esteem very much, and he is as worthy of it as ever. Colonel Duncan has just come in. He is a noble fellow, not in the least elated by the enviable position he occupied in the army and before the whole country. He is a man of extraordinary energy of character, great decision, and great sagacity. His name and his battery are a terror to the Mexicans, and he is emphatically thus far the great man of the young officers. ”

“ The speech of Narkarty, one of the Chinook chiefs, will convey the idea they all had. ‘When you first began to speak,’ said he to the governor, ‘we did not understand you; it was all dark to us as the night; but now our hearts are enlightened, and what you say is clear to us as the sun. We are proud that our Great Father in Washington thinks of us. We are poor, and can see how much better off the white men are than we are. We are willing to sell our land, but we do not want to go away from our homes. ”

“ The burden of the day came with great weight on the officers of engineers. It is the universal sentiment of the army that they did their duty. We see it in the individual deportment of every officer with whom we are associated on duty. We had exciting times. Friends whom I had not seen since I left West Point, I shook for the first time warmly by the hand under the heavy fire of the enemy’s batteries. I met Haskin and Callender in such a conjuncture. There was not the least shrinking from duty, but each one stood up manfully to his task and did his whole duty; we all worked hard. ”

“ Only seventy miles back to the eastward stretched north and south the great Cascade Range, affording innumerable safe and hidden retreats; and many trails across it, well known to the Indians, but unknown to the whites, gave access to the Yakima emissaries and reinforcements to join the hostiles on the Sound, and furnished the latter the ready means of retreat to the Yakima country when hard pressed. In the dense forests and swamps the savages lurked at the very doors of the settlements, and no man ventured out, for fear of ambush by the wily and omnipresent foe. ”

“ At all events, General Scott will find no difficulty in entering the City of Mexico. Our own troops, regulars and volunteers, are in a high state of discipline, and pant for an opportunity to signalize themselves. The Mexican troops have been demoralized by many successive defeats, and cannot, man to man, cope with our own. They are decidedly inferior, both in the men and the organization. In such cases numbers are of little account. All experience shows that resolution, courage, and enterprise, qualities possessed by our troops in an eminent degree, will overcome any tumultuous rabble. ”

“ That not an Indian in the whole course of the war has been killed by the whites except in battle? That where a military commission, composed of a majority of volunteer officers, tried some months since eight Indians, only one was convicted, and that the sentence of death passed upon him has not yet been executed? It is the good conduct of our people, sir, that has so strengthened the hands of the authorities as to enable them to control these friendly Indians, and to prevent any considerable accessions to the ranks of the hostiles. ”

“ I never worked so hard in my life. It was our first experience in the field, and I think we have fulfilled the expectations of the general and of our immediate chief (Colonel Totten) .
I have already written you in relation to the city. We all long to leave so much moonlight magnificence and sunlight squalidity, and breathe the pure mountain air of Jalapa and Perote. Our troops are yet comparatively healthy. The sickly season will not come upon us for a month. Up in the mountains it is the most salubrious and delightful climate of the New World. ”

“ At daylight the next morning, with Craig, Pearson, and the four Nez Perce chiefs, Looking Glass, Spotted Eagle, Three Feathers, and Captain John, the governor pushed on, leaving directions for the train to follow and come in next day. The evening sun was just sinking behind the mountains when the seven well-armed horsemen dashed up in front of the Cœur d’Alene village, rifles in hand and presented ready to fire, and in peremptory tones demanded of the astonished Indians, as they poured out of their lodges, “Are you friends or enemies? Do you want peace or war?” ”

“ My dear wife, since I have been an observer in this country, I have been more and more convinced that the hero age has not yet gone. This country, so highly favored by nature, a land emphatically of sun and flowers, so abject in the slavishness and brutality of its people, needs a hero spirit for its regeneration. ”

“ On this day’s march, as the division was halting for a noon rest, and the soldiers were reclining on the ground in groups, or making their cups of coffee over little fires of fence rails, a party of rebel cavalry with a section of artillery appeared on a cross-road a mile distant and near the river, and a lively shower of shells suddenly fell over and among the resting troops. ”

“ As you pass through the street you every moment get glimpses of fountains and shrubbery. Jalapa is more than Capua of old. It is Capua with all its beauty and serenity, but without its abandon. The people are refined, courteous, intelligent, and upright. Here we shall remain for some ten days or a fortnight, to organize the campaign, and prepare for the march to Mexico. Jalapa will be the great base of operations.
We left the Plano del Rio on Monday. I rode on a wagon, and reached Encerro, the hacienda of Santa Anna, a distance of fourteen miles, the same evening. ”

“ But since the war has broken out, whilst they have made every exertion to protect individuals, and to prevent other tribes joining in the war, they have occupied a position which cannot be filled on earth,—a position between the hostiles and the Americans. So great has been their desire for peace that they have overlooked all right, propriety, justice, necessity, siding with the Indians, siding with the Americans, but advising the latter particularly to agree to all the demands of the former,—murderers to go free, treaties to be abrogated, whites to retire to the settlements. ”

“ The energy and capacity for effective work displayed by Governor Stevens during this time astonished his friends. His labors with the pen alone were enough to fully occupy any man. Besides this, he was incessantly engaged in consultations, conferences, and interviews with the subordinates and others, and was embracing every opportunity of talking with men who had experience on the plains or the Pacific coast. George Stevens declared that no human being could stand such a strain, and on another occasion exclaimed, “The major is crazy, actually crazy, or he never could work as he does!” ”

“ Every evening, as the young men would linger around the camp-fires, reluctant to start out upon the cold and dreary night work, one or more of the chiefs would exhort them to their duty, bemoan the degeneracy of the present race, and relate instances of the superior bravery and fortitude of young men in former times. The young fellows were not slow to retort to these harangues with many a sarcastic gibe and jest, but finally they would go forth to spend the cold winter night upon the exposed prairie on horseback, posted around the band of animals. ”

“ For the dear-bought experience of our four great wars is entirely unheeded, indeed almost unknown to the mass of the people; and the army to-day, in organization as in numbers, in its influence upon the military ideas and aptitudes of the nation in peace as in its capacity for expansion in time of war, is inadequate to our needs as a great nation. ”

“ The last four miles across the prairie was made at a round trot, and within thirty minutes after first sighting the rapidly approaching column, the astonished Indians beheld thirty well-armed men gallop boldly up, range themselves in front of their lodges ready to open fire, and heard the peremptory summons to decide instantly for peace or war. Needless to say that they, too, were friendly and for peace. They were taken completely by surprise, and had no alternative but to choose the olive branch. Only three hours before they had heard that Governor Stevens had gone down the Missouri. ”

“ The enemy may treat at this time. They stickle on points of honor, and will have the greatest repugnance to the occupation of their capital. They see our force daily increasing. They have felt our prowess at the Cerro Gordo. They know we desire peace. Our terms are not hard. If we advance and enter the City of Mexico, their government will be in a measure dissolved, and the favorable moment for negotiations have gone. All these considerations must incline the candid and intelligent portion of the nation to arrange all matters in dispute before we advance from Puebla. ”

“ Seldom has our history shown a more shameful betrayal of duty than this veteran officer and his subordinates making a quasi-peace by surrendering to the demands of the hostile Indians for the abrogation of the treaties they had accepted, and the exclusion of white settlers from their country, and seeking to lighten “the protective duties of the army” by abandoning the defense and protection of their own race. ”