Your husband's regiment, and if
anything turns up for those fine men you have told me about, they
will hear from me." And I knew they were the words of a man, who
meant what he said.
In the course of our conversation he had asked, "Who are these
men? Do they ever come to Washington? I rarely have these things
explained to me and I have little time to interfere with the
decisions of the Adjutant General's office."
I replied: "No, Mr. President, they are not the men you see
around Washington. Our regiment stays on the frontier, and these
men are the ones who do the fighting, and you people here in
Washington are apt to forget all about them."
"What have they ever done? Were they in the Civil War?" he asked.
"Their records stand in black and white in the War Department," I
replied, "if you have the interest to learn more about them."
"Women's opinions are influenced by their feelings," he said.
"Mine are based upon what I know, and I am prepared to stand by
my convictions," I replied.
Soon after this interview, I returned to New York and I did not
give the matter very much further thought, but my impression of
the greatness of Mr. Cleveland and of his powerful personality
has remained with me to this day.
A vacancy occurred about this time in the Quartermaster's
Department, and the appointment was eagerly sought for by many
Lieutenants of the army. President Cleveland saw fit to give the
appointment to Lieutenant Summerhayes, making him a Captain and
Quartermaster, and then, another vacancy occurring shortly after,
he appointed Lieutenant John McEwen Hyde to be also a Captain and
Quartermaster.
Lieutenant Hyde stood next in rank to my husband and had grown
grey in the old Eighth Infantry. So the regiment came in for its
honor at last, and General Kautz, when the news of the second
appointment reached him, exclaimed, "Well! well! does the
President think my regiment a nursery for the Staff?"
The Eighth Foot and the Ninth Horse at Niobrara gave the new
Captain and Quartermaster a rousing farewell, for now my husband
was leaving his old regiment forever; and, while he appreciated
fully the honor of his new staff position, he felt a sadness at
breaking off the associations of so many years - a sadness which
can scarcely be understood by the young officers of the present
day, who are promoted from one regiment to another, and rarely
remain long enough with one organization to know even the men of
their own Company.
There were many champagne suppers, dinners and card-parties given
for him, to make the good-bye something to be remembered, and at
the end of a week's festivities, he departed by a night train
from Valentine, thus eluding the hospitality of those generous
but wild frontiersmen, who were waiting to give him what they
call out there a "send-off."
For Valentine was like all frontier towns; a row of stores and
saloons.
