w
ASHING TO X—Fo r
two consecutive
sessions a bill has
been before con
gress to give to
Brig.-Gen. Frank
D. Baldwin, Uni
ted States army (retired) the rank of major
general. Some day perhaps ihe bill will be
come a law, for it is worthy* of passage, as
Baldwin is worthy of honor. The home of this
retired officer as present is in Colorado, though
he comes to Washington occasionally to live
over old days with comrade veterans, many
of whom have chosen the nation’s capital for
their homes.
it is rarely that one can get. Gen. Baldwin to
speak of his services in the army, but his
friends are not slow in speaking for him and
every word that they say in praise is borne
out by the records which are hidden away in
the war department.
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Frank D. Baldwin has been in so many fights
for his country that the counting of them as
sumes the proportion of a mathematical problem.
For years upon years after the civil war in which
be distinguished himself time and again, he fought
nearly every form of Indian that the plains of
the United States has produced. There was one
fight in which Baldwin was engaged which de
serves a place in song and story, if'some song
or story writer could be found equal to the oe
■casion. In the days of. the campaign5 of which
this fight was a feature there was only one bar
'on Baldwin's shoulder, for lie was a junior first
lieutenant of infantry. The campaign was a long
one and the fights followed fast and followed
faster.
While on detached service in Newport, Ky„ in
June, 1874, Baldwin heard that his regiment was
to be ordered, under Col. Nelson A. Miles, to make
an expedition into the Indian territory. The lieu,
tenant went to the front as fast as a train and a
horse could carry him. When he reported for
duty Miles, who knew Baldwin's record in the
civil war, put him in command of the
scouts of the expedition, a command that
was composed partly of whites and partly
of Indians.
With his scouts back of him Lieut. Baldwin
had a dozen engagements, one after another,
with the confederated bands of Cheyennes, Kio
■was, Arapahoes .and the southern Comanches.
The one fight, however, which for picturesque
ness stands out most prominently in the battlo
list, did not take place until after Baldwin had
been in the field for many months. It was the
fight of his life, not in the engagement’s size nor
yet. perhaps, in its importance, but in
what an officer who saw it declares
to have been “its howliugly funny fea
tures.”
!(. was picturesque and it was funny all right,
but it was dangerous as well, and-Baldwin lost
some of his rnen, and took his own life in his
hands 20 times before he won his splendid victory
against tremendous odds. The daring of the
thing was recognized by Col. Miles, by the gen
eral commanding the department, and by the
congress of the United States, which ga\e Bald
win his second medal of honor for his work on
that day.
By one of the military freaks of for
tune, Baldwin, ahough only a lieutenant,
found himself in November, 1874. in com
mand of D company of the Fifth infantry,
D troop of the Sixth cavalry, and of
12 of the scouts of the organization with
which he had originally taken the field.
He had about 100 men all told when
he reached the banks of McClellan s Creek,
Tex. There he found in front of him
fully 500 Indian warriors splendidly armed
and apparently lusting for a fight. Every
army officer wito afterwards learned the circum
k
stances of
the situ
ation de
clared that
B a 1 d -
win would
have been
j it s t i -
fied in wait
liiB ior reinforcements,
but Baldwin believed
that he should strike at
once, and strike hard.
The Indians, a mixed
command of the finest
fighting sav
ages on the
plains, were
led by Chief.
Gray Beard, a
noted warrior.
Baldwin
learned that
the Indians
had with them
two white
girl captives and his
desire to rescue them
reinforced his desire
for a fight on general
principles.
The lieutenant
looked his men over
and saw that they had
a stomach for the com
ing scrimmage. With
the command of four
six-mule teams, Bald
win feared that a de
tachment of the reds
might flank him when
he was making his
charge and kill his
mules and destroy his
field necessities. He
knew he could not leave a, detachment to guard
the wagons because it would weaken his force to
a point which would make victory over the reds
practically impossible.
Baldwin went to the teamsters and said: "I
can't leave a force with you as a guard, and
you've got to charge with us. I want you to put
your teams in the center of the charging line
and make those mules fly straight into the mid
dle of things.”
It probably was the first time in history that
mule drivers, mules and wagons had been ordered
to participate as an offensive part of a cavalry
charge. The infantry on this occasion was mount
ed. The mule drivers lost all sense of the danger
in the fun of the thing. They told the lieutenant
that with “good cussing,” and with good lashing,
they could lead the cavalry a mile.
The 500 Indians were on a plateau with sides
shelving gradually down to the plains. Baldwin's
plan was nothing less than the seemingly reckless
one of crossing the open with his men and
wagons, sweeping up the incline and driving the
enemy, if he could, or fighting him hand to hand,
if he must.
The horsemen rode up in line with the four
mule teams abreast at the line's center. There
was a word of command, a trumpet note or two,
and the line swept across the plain with the
mules on a keen jump, with black snake whips
cracking and the drivers saying things which a
mule understands.
The reds turned loose at the advancing hun
dred. Men and horses on the right and left went
down here and there, br» the mules in the center
with their huge wagons racking and clattering
behind them swept on with never a scratch. The
reds on the plateau kept up their fusillade. Up
up, up the incline, the mules leading by yards
all the way, swept the blue detachment. The
regulars were daring and fighting as American
regulars always dare and fight.
One of the teamsters afterwards swore that he
could see• Chief Gray Beard's eyes popping with
fear at the sight of the oharging mules. The
level of the plateau was reached and horses,
men, mules and wagons went hurtling forward.
The teamsters were standing, cracking their
whips and howling. Infantrymen and cavalrymen
caught the spirit of the thing and howled in uni
son.
Those four mule teams went straight through
the heart of the big band of Gray Beard’s Kio
was and Araphaoes. Meantime every carbine and
every Bong Tom was cracking, and with one last
volley the warriors of the allied tribes fled, leav
ing their dead and wounded and their white cap
tives on the field.
Lieut. Baldwin found that the two white girl
prisoners were uuinjured, and not long after the
fight they were restored to their parents. For
this charge and for this victory Lieut. Baldwin
was breveted a captain and was given a medal
of honor, but ho al
ways has maintained
that the medal
should have gone to
the mules.
On the retired list
of the army with
(ien. Baldwin is
Brig.-Gen. John B.
Babcock, a close
friend of the man
who led the mule team
charge and a frequent visi
tor to Washington. It is
doubtful if Gen. Babcock's
nearest neighbors in his lit
tle country home in Sarato
ga county, X. V., suspect
anything ot the fire eating possi
bilities that lie hidden in the per
son of this grav-haired peaceful
looking and reticent man.
Gen. Babcock left the service not
long ago and at once departed for
the little place in the foothills of
the Adirondack mountains where
he might gratify his love of coun
try life. If the general refuses to
talk of his army achievements to
his neighbors and if they are curi
record, which, though only five lines long, con
tains in it the nub of the story of one of the most
gallant feats ever performed by an officer of the
United States army.
The glory reaped from the achievement consists
of a little bronze medal voted to the soldier by
congress, the consciousness of duty well done and
five lines in the war department record which few
people ever see. John 11. Ilabcock went into the
army at the outbreak of the civil war as an en
listed man. He attracted attention by his gallant
ry as a volunteer, and the year 1S6S found him a
first lieutenant of the Fifth Regular cavalry.
In the spring of the fourth year of peace after the
civil war—that is to say peace between white men—
the Kiowas, the Arapahocs and the Cheyennes made
western Nebraska, western Kansas and eastern
Colorado a section of what John Hay might have
called “gilt-edged hell." Lieut. Babcock, in the
absence of his captain, was ordered to the command
of a troop of cavalry and to take the field.
With his trooper followers Babcock was far in
advance of the main command on the frontier of
Nebraska. They reached the bank of Spring creek
on the morning of May 1C. 1S69. While there a
band of 250 of the best warriors of the plains ap
peared in front of the cavalry troops as though the
savages had come from the ground. Lieut. Babcock
caught sight of the reds in time to give him a mo
ment or two for preparation. He would not run
and he could not attack, for he was completely sur
rounded and the savages outnumbered his force
more than six to one.
Babcock gave a quick order and with his men
dashed for a bit of high ground, a plateau-like
formation with its flat surface occupying a little
more than an acre. The instant he reached the
place selected he ordered his troopers to dismount
and to intrench themselves as well as they could.
The men lost no time in throwing up earth enough
to give them some slight protection from the bul
lets which were pouring in.
Babcock would not get off his horse, although his
men begged him to do so. and they were kept
from dragging their commanding officer to the
ground and to place of partial safety only by in
stilled discipline and by Babcock's peremptory com
mands to leave him alone.
The Indians advanced within range and protect
ed themselves in the hollows of the prairie. They
sent volley after volley up the incline to the hilltop
and man after man behind the poor earthwork
protection was stricken. Babcock continued his
ride up and down the line. His blouse was cut
twice by bullets but his men did not know it.
“Boys, they can t hit a thing.” said Babcock.
“They’ve been shooting at me and no bullet has
come nearer than the north pole. Give it to ’em.
Hold ’em off and relief will be here in no time.”
The shots from the Spencers and Henrys of the
savages, or from most of them, ceased hitting the
extemporized earthworks. The men lying prone
knew that nearly all the projectiles were passing
over their heads and they knew also that every
painted warrior antagonist was turning loose at
the figure of the commanding officer riding back
and forth on his horse as indifferently as if there
were not an Indian on the frontier.
No one in that troop ever knew why Babcock
was not killed. The Indians said afterwards that
he had some “big medicine” with him that turned
away the bullets. Finally a shot cut Babcock's
boot and wounded his horse. He turned the animal
about quickly so that its other flank was toward
the men, to whom he serenely said: “Those fellows
can't hit a barn door.”
The commanding officer continued to ride up and
down the line and the bullets continued to cut
the air all about him.
Suddenly every savage head showed at once.
The troopers slammed in a volley that claimed
some victims. The showing heads were followed by
showing bodies and in another instant the warriors
were erect and running to the far rear for their
ponies. They made off, leaving their dead and
wounded behind them. Far over the plains, Lieut.
Babcock, from his horse, saw the main column ad
vancing. Relief was in sight.
The enlisted men told the story of Babcock's
bravery, and congress gave him a medal of honor.
Later the officer, who is now living in retirement,
distinguished himself twice in action against the
Apaches at Tonto Creek and at the Four Peaks in
Arizona. There he won the brevet rana. of lieu
tenant-colonel to add to the honor conferred by his
congressional medal of bronze.
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