b'Forty Miles A DayOn Beans and HayPART 1 By Alan RockmanThey came from all over. There were Irish and German immigrants who had sought employment in post - Civil War America, only to find themselves caught up and at the low end of the pole during the Panic of 1873. The typical hard -drinking, hard - swearing Irish Sergeant became a mainstay in the Old Army and would be immortalized by Victor McLaglen( ironically an Englishman born in the East End of London )in those John Ford Cavalry Trilogy movies. There were young Germans like E.A. Bode, Charles Windolph, and Christian Barthelmess, three of the German immigrants who signed up, all under different circumstances. There were Jews like Sigmund Schlesinger, one of the heroes of the Beecher Island fight. And it is said that there was another Russian Jew who served in the 7th Cavalry and supposedly died near Custer.T here was rancher Homer Wheeler, who after a tastewho had a much more mundane Army career stringingThese were among the thousands of men who enlisted of scouting for the army during the Red River Wartelegraph wire across the plains in Texas would later- all volunteers by the way - in the Old Army. The of 1874 decided to sign up to wear the blue a yearachieve fame due to their exploits in Arctic exploration.men who served on the plains, the desert and in the later, and was immediately assigned to Colonel Ranald S.Schwatka leading an expedition from the Yukon Rivermountains. Their service, whether courageous or Mackenzie\'s 4th Cavalry. Wheeler would eventually leaveto the Bering Sea, in 1883, Greely leading a far moremundane would be written about by writers like James the Army over 35 years later as a colonel. ambitious one the following year, in search of the ships ofWarner Bellah and Charles King, himself a former Army the doomed Arctic British explorer Franklin northwardslieutenant who fought Apaches in Arizona and the Sioux There were former Union and Confederate soldiers whofrom Ellesmere Island across Greenland. Greeley and hisin Montana under Crook, until the lingering effects of had a taste of Army life during the Civil War, liked it25 men became lost in the blizzards and freezing winda wound suffered at the hands of the Apache caused his and decided to stay on. Most of the commissioned andof the Arctic, and 19 of them died from the elementsearly retirement from the Army (though he would later non-commissioned officers were Civil War veterans,and starvation before two of the men on their last legs,re-enlist and serve as a major general in the Philippines). and it really wouldn\'t be surprising if the enlisted menthinking they had heard the whistle of a steamer in theHe was later immortalized, first in dramatic art by found themselves serving under their old commanders,near distance, crawled out of their shelter to hail it. AFrederic Remington and Charles Schreyvogel, then on men like Phil Sheridan, George Crook, Nelson Miles,rescue party from the steamer found Greely and thethe silver screen by John Ford and John Wayne in Ford\'s Wesley Merritt, the aforementioned Custer, andrest, very close to death. If that ship had arrived a day"Cavalry Trilogy" comprised of Fort Apache, She Wore a Mackenzie. There were also young West Pointers tooor two later, there would have been no survivors. GreelyYellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande. They were the heroes of like Hugh Scott, Sam Sturgis, and James Parker, whosurvived, was restored to health, and would cap out hisearly 20th century America and of the Buffalo Bill (who upon graduation were sent west as commissionedcareer as major general commanding the Signal Corpsserved as a scout alongside them) "Wild West" shows lieutenants to fight Indians. Scott and Parker stayed on(Major General John K. Herr, U.S. Army (retired) anduntil societal changes sparked in great part by a 1971 and established notable careers in the U.S. Army, ScottEdward S. Wallace, The Story of the U.S. Cavalry 1776- book by historian Dee Brown entitled Bury My Heart retiring as Army chief of staff after World War I, but Sam1942, Bonanza Books, New York, 1984, pp. 214-217). at Wounded Knee that symbolized the plight of Native Sturgis young life was tragically cut short, falling in theAmericans tarnished their heroic reputation and caused greasy grass on a Montana slope near a river called theAs Major General John K. Herr and Edward S. Wallacethem to be removed from our textbooks and even from Little Big Horn much to the sorrow of his father, whowould later say of Greely: "It was a far cry from the Texasour popular literature in great.was the commander of his regiment, the 7th Cavalry. plains to the Arctic Circle but a cavalryman rose to the opportunity" (Ibid., p. 217). The Frontier Army experience will not be found in a There was even an Italian revolutionary, Charles DeRudio,U.S. high school history textbook of today, nor will it be who narrowly escaped the guillotine when his attemptfound in the movies or recent literature except perhaps on the life of French Emperor Napoleon II went awry.to shed light on the wrongs done to Native Americans. DeRudio was sent to Devil\'s Island, escaped, and withinYet it is a story that must be told. For not only did it have a year or so was serving as a lieutenant under Custer.a direct impact on the eventual settlement of the Old His Irish soldier-of-fortune messmate, a captain by theWest, but regrettably it has also been largely forgotten name of Myles Keogh, who fought in nearly all of thein the "politically correct" America of the 21st century major Civil War battles in Virginia, was John Buford\'swhere all soldiers did wrong and all Indians were aide in the opening shots of the battle of Gettysburg, theninnocent (not true on both counts).subsequently captured during Stoneman\'s aborted raid to free the Andersonville prisoners. While a full examination of the frontier Army would require two or three books on the scale of Don Rickey Keogh got through the Civil War with nary a scratch, butThe typical hard-drinking, hard-swearingJr.\'s classic Forty Miles A Day on Beans and Hay, which his luck o\' the Irish ran out 11 years later as a companyis something that cannot be accomplished within the commander under Custer. Irish Sergeant was immortalized byframework of a couple of thousand-word articles, I hope Victor McLaglen in those John Fordto present the bare bones - with some flesh attached - to Two of them, Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, who led thethe experience and saga of the U.S. frontier Army from charge of the 3rd Cavalry against the Sioux at Slim Buttes,Cavalry Trilogy movies. 1865-1890, and at least mention briefly subsequent and Lieutenant Adolphus Greely of the 5th Cavalry,continued on page 46ArizonaRealCountry.com April 2020 45'