The Officers Say That The Negroes Make Good Soldiers And Fight Like
Fiends.
They certainly manage to stick on their horses like monkeys.
The Indians call them "buffalo soldiers," because their woolly heads
are so much like the matted cushion that is between the horns of the
buffalo.
We had letters from dear old Fort Lyon yesterday, and the
news about Lieutenant Baldwin is not encouraging. He is not improving
and Doctor Wilder is most anxious about him. But a man as big and
strong as he was must certainly get well in time.
CAMP SUPPLY, INDIAN TERRITORY,
June, 1872.
IT seems as if I had to write constantly of unpleasant occurrences,
but what else can I do since unpleasant occurrences are ever coming
along? This time I must tell you that Faye has been turned out of
quarters - "ranked out," as it is spoken of in the Army. But it all
amounts to the same thing, and means that we have been driven out of
our house and home, bag and baggage, because a captain wanted that one
set of quarters! Call it what one chooses, the experience was not
pleasant and will be long remembered. Being turned out was bad enough
in itself, but the manner in which it was done was humiliating in the
extreme. We had been in the house only three weeks and had worked so
hard during that time to make it at all comfortable. Findlay wanted to
tear down the canvas partition in the dining room when we left the
house, and I was sorry later on that I had not consented to his doing
so.
One morning at ten o'clock I received a note from Faye, written at the
guard house, saying that his set of quarters had been selected by a
cavalry officer who had just arrived at the post, and that every
article of ours must be out of the house that day by one o'clock! Also
that, as he was officer of the guard, it would be impossible for him
to assist me in the least, except to send some enlisted men to move
the things. At first I was dazed and wholly incapable of comprehending
the situation - it seemed so preposterous to expect anyone to move
everything out of a house in three hours. But as soon as I recovered
my senses I saw at once that not one second of the precious time must
be wasted, and that the superintendence of the whole thing had fallen
upon me.
So I gathered my forces, and the four men started to work in a way
that showed they would do everything in their power to help me. All
that was possible for us to do, however, was almost to throw things
out in a side yard, for remember, please, we had only three short
hours in which to move everything - and this without, warning or
preparation of any kind. All things, big and small, were out by one
o'clock, and just in time, too, to avoid a collision with the colored
soldiers of the incoming cavalry officer, who commenced taking
furniture and boxes in the house at precisely that hour.
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