Page images
PDF
EPUB

and of on well water, which, it is believed, can be obtained in abundance good quality, but it will require the expenditure of quite a sum of money. I proceeded to Fort Brown from Ringgold by boat. The river was low and the navigation of it difficult, but we made the distance of 300 miles by the river in three days. The distance between the two posts by wagon road is 110 miles, but in the season of rains this road is almost impassable for wagons and in the dry season is very hot and extremely dusty. In an ordinary stage of water the steamboat makes the trip from Brown to Ringgold in about five days.. There is but one boat on the river, and, owing to the high charges of the Mexican authorities, it does not land on the Mexican side, except occasionally when there is enough freight at a landing to warrant the payment of $100 for the privilege.

There is a fine Mexican regiment of cavalry at Reynosa, Mexico, opposite Edinburg, and the commanding officer, Colonel Mainero, has been extremely courteous to our officers passing through his district, and has rendered valuable assistance when required. Between Ringgold and Brown the river has made a cut-off, leaving quite a large tract of land that was formerly on the south side of the river now on the north. This is Mexican territory, and over it the Mexican flag floats. This changing of the course of the river, and consequently of the international boundary, putting perhaps a Mexican ranch on the north side of the river or an American one on the south side, may lead to unpleasant complications in regard to smugglers and other violators of law. The barracks and quarters at Fort Brown are in rather poor condition and need repairs. It is garrisoned by two troops of the Fifth Cavalry. The troops seemed in good condition and satisfied with their station. The hospital is a fine building. One set of barracks is used as a commissary storehouse, two are occupied by troops, and the others vacant. This fort is almost directly opposite Matamoras, which is the terminus of the narrow-gauge railroad that extends from Matamoras to San Miguel, Mexico, about 25 miles below Fort Ringgold. It is an important point, and the garrison should never be below its present strength, but, on the contrary, should be increased.

The Rio Grande has gradually encroached on the city of Brownsville and on the military reservation, until the administration building at Fort Brown is only 4 or 5 feet from the water, and unless some remedy is soon applied the building, a very fine one, will fall into the river; it is expected to do so at the next high water. Several efforts have been made by the United States Government to prevent the encroachment of the river on the American side, but so far without success. The subject has received careful attention from the International Water Boundary Commission, who have carefully inspected the river and banks, and I believe the wing dams and jetties proposed by them, if carefully put in and guarded, will prevent any further damage. There is a large lagoon on the military reservation, a former channel of the river. This lagoon is only about 50 yards from the river, which is gradu ally approaching it. Should it cut its way into this lagoon it would do great damage to the reservation and perhaps destroy the national cemetery. I was told by the mayor of the city of Brownsville and some of its prominent citizens that they would make no objections to any works the Government saw fit to put in in front of the city or along the bank for 3 miles above the city. The boundary commission has made its report on this part of the river, and I believe the works proposed will solve the question, and if soon erected and kept in repair they will prevent any further encroachments of the river at that point. The

United States has at last acquired title to the land at Fort Brown and owns a large reservation there. Fort Brown controls the navigable portion of the Rio Grande, and is the only point on the coast in that vicinity where supplies can be landed by ships. There is a railroad from Brownsville to Point Isabel, and one on the Mexican side of the river from Matamoras to San Miguel, Mexico. Though the strategic importance of this point has been diminished by the construction of railroads into Mexico at Laredo, Eagle Pass, and El Paso, it is still of very great importance and should be properly garrisoned. The buildings are old and not comfortable. In view of these facts, I would respectfully recommend that a post be built there, on a proper location, for four companies, two of infantry and two of cavalry. The post will be occupied as long as the present boundary exists, and the troops there should be placed in durable and comfortable quarters.

Although there were no complaints by officers or men at the posts on the lower Rio Grande, I believe, in view of the great and long-continued heat of that section of country, that the same troops should not be kept there more than two years without a change of station.

I returned to San Antonio, Tex., July 12.

On July 25 I proceeded by rail to Fort Clark and inspected that post, and found it in excellent condition. On the 26th I proceeded by rail to Fort Bliss, arriving on the 27th, and inspected. The buildings of the post, which were badly cracked and damaged generally by the storm of April last, are undergoing repairs and will soon be ready for occupancy. The garrison should then be increased to four companies. The post is in excellent condition, is on a high and dry platean, and has an abundant supply of pure water, obtained from wells near the post; one well is 280 feet deep, and one 320. The quarters are very fine. The post is situated at an important point on the boundary, and should be a very desirable station. The storm, with wind at nearly 90 miles an hour, which damaged the buildings, was a very unusual one, and now that the walls have been strengthened it is believed that no further trouble will be experienced.

I arrived at Fort Hancock on the 29th of July and inspected that post. This post is garrisoned by a troop of the Seventh Cavalry, Captain Jackson's. The quarters are very fine, and the garrison and post were in excellent condition. It is in the valley of the Rio Grande and subject to partial overflow from the river.

The water pipes at this post have rusted out in many places and are so covered with rust through the entire length that they prevent the free flow of water, and in case of fire the water supply would be of no practical value. They should be replaced by new ones at an early date. The large and important post of Sam Houston is in excellent condition. The disposal of sewage is an important question, and will only be satisfactorily solved when the post system of sewerage is connected with the San Antonio system. This matter is now under consideration. The increased range of the new infantry arms has rendered new or extended rifle ranges necessary at all the posts, and there is great difficulty in finding suitable grounds for them at reasonable prices and convenient to the posts. This matter is under consideration and will be reported upon as soon as anything definite has been decided.

The troops were never so well housed, clothed, or fed as they are nowthe bathing facilities, reading rooms, exchange, amusement rooms, and outdoor sports and recreations are luxuries that few of the enlisted men ever enjoyed before enlisting; the duties are not irksome, and they have greater liberty than ever before; still they desert. The number WAR 95-VOL I—11

of desertions in the year 1893-94 was 84; in last year, 1894–95, the number was 120, an increase of nearly 50 per cent, while the number of apprehensions and trials were much less last year than year before. The fault is not in the service, but must be looked for on the outside. Many young soldiers do not like the restraint of military life, and in many cases long for home and its surroundings. These things bear harder on the American-born country boy than on any other class, and are almost the only causes that lead that class to desert. Not much more in the way of food, clothing, and liberty can be given them to make them contented, and desertion will only stop when the certainty of apprehension and the certainty of severe and adequate punishment will cause them to prefer to accept the inconveniences and annoyances of the life of a soldier rather than suffer the disgrace and punishment which should be sure to follow desertion.

The following officers have been on duty at these headquarters, and attention is respectfully invited to their very full and valuable reports: Maj. Arthur MacArthur, jr., assistant adjutant-general.

Capt. Francis J. Kernan, acting judge-advocate.

Lieut. Col. Gilbert C. Smith, chief quartermaster.

Maj. John F. Weston, chief commissary of subsistence.

Col. Francis L. Town, medical director.

Col. Charles M. Terrell, chief paymaster.

Second Lieut. William J. Glasgow, First Cavalry, aid-de-camp, acting engineer officer.

Maj. Clarence E. Dutton, chief ordnance officer.

Capt. Richard E. Thompson, chief signal officer.

First Lieut. Charles Dodge, jr., Twenty-fourth Infantry, aid-de-camp, inspector of small-arms practice.

The report of the inspector of small-arms practice will be rendered when the practice is completed.

Very respectfully,

Z. R. BLISS,

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

The ADJUTANT-GENERAL UNITED STATES ARMY,

Washington, D. C.

REPORT OF BRIG. GEN. J. J. COPPINGER.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE PLATTE,

Omaha, Nebr., August 28, 1895.

SIR: I have the honor to submit this my first annual report of the Department of the Platte, the command of which Brig. Gen. John R. Brooke transferred to me by direction of the President on May 17, 1895. It is proper to premise that a recital of actual military operations and movements of troops extends to the present date in this report. The 31st of July closes the account of other departmental affairs. The accompanying reports of the officers of the department staff, which under the recent change in the inspection system of the Army no longer includes an inspector general, terminate also with the year ended on that date.

Pursuant to War Department orders, all of the Sixth Cavalry in this department, and all but 3 companies of the Seventeenth Infantry, embracing, exclusive of skeleton organizations, 7 troops and 5 companies, were transferred from the Department of the Platte to other departments during September, 1894. In accordance with instructions

from the same source, the post at Fort McKinney, Wyo., established in 1877, was abandoned on November 9, 1894, the bulk of the garrison going to Fort D. A. Russell; and the company of infantry on duty at Camp Pilot Butte, Wyo., maintained as a regular military station since the massacre of Chinese miners in September, 1885, was returned on September 30, 1894, to its proper command at Fort Logan, Colo., having been replaced by a detachment from Fort D. A. Russell, of which the camp is now a subpost.

This loss of troops is offset by gains as follows: Troop K, Ninth Cavalry, joined the headquarters of the regiment at Fort Robinson, Nebr., on October 6, 1894. During the same month all except 3 companies of the Twelfth Infantry came into the department, taking station at Fort Niobrara, Nebr. By the annexation, on the 23d ultimo, of an additional portion of South Dakota, including the post of Fort Meade to the department, its strength was further increased by the headquarters and 8 troops of the Eighth Cavalry.

The only disturbance in the department since the rendition of the last annual report which has necessitated the use of troops for its suppression occurred last month in the part of northwestern Wyoming known as the Jackson's Hole country. Although a detailed account of the nature of the trouble and of the movements and services of troops in connection therewith will soon be submitted, a résumé of the principal facts may not be out of place here.

Upon the representations of the governor of Wyoming and of the United States Indian agent at Fort Hall, Idaho, that a conflict was imminent in that country between the settlers there and a large body of Indians, of whom the bulk was reported to be Bannocks from the Fort Hall Reservation, an expedition consisting of a squadron of cavalry and a battalion of infantry, drawn from the posts of Forts Robinson and D. A. Russell, respectively, was sent by rail to Market Lake, Idaho, and thence marched to the scene of the difficulty for the purpose of preventing the threatened collision. The intervention of the troops had been expressly authorized by the War Department. The department commander accompanied the expedition.

When, on July 31, the troops arrived at Jackson's Hole the excitement promptly subsided. Upon their approach the most of the Indian hunting parties returned quietly and by the most direct route to the Fort Hall Reservation, not, however, without unwittingly causing some uneasiness to the settlers along the line of march. A number of peaceable hunters from the Lemhi Agency were started back to their reservation on August 11, by a scouting party under Lieutenant-Colonel Randall, Eighth Infantry. The troops are still in the field.

It appears that the refusal of the Indians to desist from hunting in Jackson's Hole and the adjacent country, the right to which is given them by a treaty provision paramount to any State law, on the one hand, and that on the other hand, the persistent action of the State and local authorities in arresting and punishing Indians for violating the game laws of Wyoming, aggravated by what I believe to have been the wholly unwarranted shooting, on the 12th of July, of some Indians who, with other male Indian prisoners, were trying to escape from their captors (a constable and a body of deputies) produced a feeling of mutual resentment in the Indians and whites and of general alarm, which gave rise to reports of bloody conflicts extensively published in the press. None of these, except the one of the shooting just mentioned, were afterwards verified.

The distribution of troops of the department is, on the whole, thought to be a judicious one. Of the five principal posts which it embraces, two are located near the Union Pacific Railway, crossing the country from east to west, and at points where the garrisons can also be quickly transported either to the north or south. The situation of the other posts is equally favorable, besides being within easy reach of the two reservations where the uprising of the Sioux in 1890-91 centered, they abut upon railways which connect two of the transcontinental systems. The troops at these posts may thus be said to be well placed for any service within or without the departmental lines that may be required of them. In order, however, that cavalry may be nearer the scene of the late difficulty in Jackson's Hole, as well as to increase the feeling of security in the settlements bordering the Wind River Reservation, some of the Indians living on which are said to manifest at times a restless spirit, I have detained two of the troops which formed part of the expedition to the Hole, at Fort Washakie, Wyo., a post situated about 147 miles from the Union Pacific Railway, and since last fall garrisoned by but one company of infantry. At least these two troops should, I think, be added to this garrison.

Since my accession to the command of the department I have had the opportunity not only of inspecting each of the several garrisons (though as regards Fort Meade the inspection was not an official one) but of observing for some weeks the marches and bivouacs of the squadron Ninth Cavalry under Major Chaffee. As the result of these personal observations, and from the reports of the War Department inspector so far received, I feel warranted in saying that as a rule the troops are well instructed, and otherwise in good condition for active service. To minor defects that were discovered the necessary remedies have been at once applied.

The regular drills have been pursued systematically and, so far as the size of each particular command would warrant, progressively up to the evolutions of the regiment. Though the battle exercises, which form a prominent feature of the present drill book, may be faulty in some respects, or fall short of a practicable representation of actual combats, they have without question served to stimulate interest in drill, and are in this particular superior to a system which was in the main limited to close order movements and to ceremonials. It has been hitherto the custom at most posts to distribute several drills of not as a rule more than one hour's duration, and other military exercises, over different parts of the day, involving frequent and vexatious changes in dress and occupation, and withal tending to perfunctory performance. Experience has shown that better results are attainable by allotting the entire or major portion of the forenoon to purely military work, including gymnastics and field training, leaving the afternoon free for administrative duties and giving to those off duty a chance to engage in hunting, bicycling, and other sports calculated to make officers and soldiers more fit for their arduous vocation. Steps have therefore been taken to bring about such a division of labor in this department.

But exercises within the post limits, however comprehensive and well sustained, need to be supplemented by marching under conditions rendered necessary by war, for in war the march is the basis of all operations, and their success depends upon its prompt and complete performance. Accordingly, preparations had begun, prior to the commencement of the Jackson's Hole trouble, for practicing the troops in this all-important work, the extent of which was to be regulated by the size, composition, and location of the several garrisons. The projected

« PreviousContinue »