CHAPTER XXX.
CROOK’S CLOSING YEARS—HE AVERTS A WAR WITH THE UTES—A MEMBER OF THE COMMISSION WHICH SECURED A CESSION OF ELEVEN MILLIONS OF ACRES FROM THE SIOUX—HIS INTEREST IN GAME LAWS—HIS DEATH—WHAT THE APACHES DID—WHAT “RED CLOUD” SAID—HIS FUNERAL IN CHICAGO—BURIAL IN OAKLAND, MARYLAND—RE-INTERMENT IN ARLINGTON CEMETERY, VIRGINIA.
The last years of General Crook’s eventful career were spent in Omaha, Nebraska, as Commanding General of the Department of the Platte, and, after being promoted to the rank of Major-General by President Cleveland, in Chicago, Illinois, as Commanding General of the Military Division of the Missouri. During that time he averted the hostilities with the Utes of Colorado, for which the cowboys of the western section of that State were clamoring, and satisfied the Indians that our people were not all unjust, rapacious, and mendacious. As a member of the Sioux Commission to negotiate for the cession of lands occupied by the Sioux in excess of their actual needs, he—in conjunction with his associates: ex-Governor Charles Foster, of Ohio, and Hon. William Warner, of Missouri—effected the relinquishment of eleven millions of acres, an area equal to one-third of the State of Pennsylvania.
The failure of Congress to ratify some of the provisions of this conference and to make the appropriations needed to carry them into effect, has been alleged among the numerous causes of the recent Sioux outbreak. In this connection the words of the Sioux chief “Red Cloud,” as spoken to the Catholic missionary—Father Craft—are worthy of remembrance: “Then General Crook came; he, at least, had never lied to us. His words gave the people hope. He died. Their hope died again. Despair came again.” General Crook also exerted all the influence he could bring to bear to induce a rectification of the wrong inflictedupon the faithful Chiricahua Apaches, in confounding them in the same punishment meted out to those who had followed “Geronimo” back to the war-path. He manifested all through his life the liveliest interest in the preservation of the larger game of the Rocky Mountain country, and, if I mistake not, had some instrumentality, through his old friend Judge Carey, of Cheyenne, now United States Senator, in bringing about the game laws adopted by the present State of Wyoming.
General Crook’s death occurred at the Grand Pacific Hotel, his residence in Chicago, on the 21st of March, 1890; the cause of his death, according to Surgeon McClellan, his attending physician, was heart failure or some other form of heart disease; the real cause was the wear and tear of a naturally powerful constitution, brought on by the severe mental and physical strain of incessant work under the most trying circumstances.
It would be unjust to select for insertion here any of the thousands of telegrams, letters, resolutions of condolence, and other expressions of profound sympathy received by Mrs. Crook from old comrades and friends of her illustrious husband in all sections of our country: besides the official tribute from the War Department, there were eloquent manifestations from such associations as the Alumni of the Military Academy, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Pioneers of Arizona, the citizens of Omaha, Nebraska, Prescott, Arizona, Chicago, Illinois, Dayton, Ohio, and other places in which he had served during the thirty-eight years of his connection with the regular army, and feeling expressions uttered in the United States Senate by Manderson and Paddock of Nebraska, Gorman of Maryland, and Mitchell of Oregon; and a kind tribute from the lips of Governor James E. Boyd of Nebraska. When the news of Crook’s death reached the Apache Reservation, the members of the tribe who had been his scouts during so many years were stupefied: those near Camp Apache sat down in a great circle, let down their hair, bent their heads forward on their bosoms, and wept and wailed like children. Probably no city in the country could better appreciate the importance of Crook’s military work against the savages than Omaha, which through the suppression of hostilities by General Crook had bounded from the dimensions of a straggling town to those of a metropolis of 150,000 people. The resolutions adopted in conventionrepresent the opinions of a committee composed of the oldest citizens of that community—men who knew and respected Crook in life and revered him in death. Among these were to be seen the names of old settlers of the stamp of the Wakeleys, Paxtons, Pritchetts, Doanes, Millers, Cowins, Clarkes, Markels, Wymans, Horbachs, Hanscoms, Collins, Lakes, Millards, Poppletons, Caldwells, Broatches, Mauls, Murphys, Rustins, Woods, Davis, Laceys, Turners, Ogdens, Moores, Cushings, Kitchens, Kimballs, Yates, Wallaces, Richardsons, McShanes, and Kountzes—men perfectly familiar with all the intricacies of the problem which Crook had to solve and the masterly manner in which he had solved it.
As a mark of respect to the memory of his former friend and commander, General John R. Brooke, commanding the Department of the Platte, has protected and fed in honorable retirement the aged mule, “Apache,” which for so many years had borne General Crook in all his campaigns, from British America to Mexico.
Could old “Apache” but talk or write, he might relate adventures and perils to which the happy and prosperous dwellers in the now peaceful Great West would listen with joy and delight.
General Crook had not yet attained great age, being scarcely sixty-one years old when the final summons came, but he had gained more than a complement of laurels, and may therefore be said to have died in the fulness of years. He was born at Dayton, Ohio, on the 23d day of September, 1829; graduated from the United States Military Academy in the class of 1852; was immediately assigned to the Fourth Infantry; was engaged without cessation in service against hostile Indians, in the present States of Oregon and Washington, until the outbreak of the Rebellion, and was once wounded by an arrow which was never extracted. His first assignment during the War of the Rebellion was to the colonelcy of the Thirty-sixth Ohio, which he drilled to such a condition of efficiency that the other regiments in the same division nick named it the “Thirty-sixth Regulars.” Before the war ended he had risen to the rank of brigadier and of major-general of volunteers, and was wounded in the battle of Lewisburgh, West Virginia.
He commanded the Army of West Virginia, and later on wasassigned to the command of cavalry under Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan. His services during the war were of the most gallant and important nature, not at all inferior to his campaigns against the western tribes, but it was of the latter only that this treatise was intended to speak and to these it has been restricted.
The funeral services were held at the Grand Pacific Hotel, where the remains had lain in state. The Rev. Dr. MacPherson conducted the services, assisted by Doctors Clinton Locke, Fallows, Thomas, and Swing. The honorary pall-bearers were Colonel James F. Wade, Fifth Cavalry, Colonel Thaddeus H. Stanton, Pay Department, John Collins, Omaha, General W. Sooy Smith, Potter Palmer, ex-President R. B. Hayes, Marshall Field, W. C. De Grannis, Wirt Dexter, Colonel J. B. Sexton, Judge R. S. Tuthill, Mayor D. C. Cregier, John B. Drake, General M. R. Morgan, General Robert Williams, P. E. Studebaker, J. Frank Lawrence, George Dunlap, Judge W. Q. Gresham, John B. Carson, General W. E. Strong, John M. Clark, W. Penn Nixon, H. J. MacFarland, and C. D. Roys. The casket was escorted to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot by a brigade of the Illinois National Guard, commanded by Brigadier-General Fitzsimmons and by the members of the Illinois Club in a body.
The interment, which took place at Oakland, Maryland, March 24, 1891, was at first intended to be strictly private, but thousands of people had gathered from the surrounding country, and each train added to the throng which blocked the streets and lanes of the little town.
Among those who stood about the bereaved wife, who had so devotedly followed the fortunes of her illustrious husband, were her sister, Mrs. Reed, Colonel Corbin, Colonel Heyl, Colonel Stanton, Major Randall, Major Roberts, Lieutenant Kennon, Mr. John S. Collins, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Hancock, Mr. Webb C. Hayes, Andrew Peisen, who had been the General’s faithful servant for a quarter of a century, and Dr. E. H. Bartlett, who had been present at the wedding of General and Mrs. Crook.
One of the General’s brothers—Walter Crook, of Dayton, Ohio—came on with the funeral train from Chicago, but another brother was unable to leave Chicago on account of a sudden fit of illness.
Three of the soldiers of the Confederacy who had formed part of the detachment—of which Mrs. Crook’s own brother, James Daily, was another—that had captured General Crook during the closing years of the Civil War and sent him down to Libby prison, requested permission to attend the funeral services as a mark of respect for their late foe. While the Rev. Dr. Moffatt was reciting prayer, two of them whispered their names, May and Johnson, but the third I could not learn at the moment. I have since heard it was Ira Mason.
Among those who attended from Washington were General Samuel Breck, Captain George S. Anderson, Captain Schofield, Hon. George W. Dorsey, M. C. from Nebraska, Hon. Nathan Goff, ex-Secretary of the Navy, and Hon. William McKinley, M. C. from Ohio, who during the Civil War had served as one of General Crook’s confidential staff officers, and who through life had been his earnest admirer and stanch friend.
As the earth closed over the remains of a man whom I had known and loved for many years, and of whose distinguished services I had intimate personal knowledge, the thought flitted through my mind that there lay an exemplification of the restless energy of the American people. Ohio had given him birth, the banks of the Hudson had heard his recitations as a cadet, Oregon, Washington, California, and Nevada witnessed his first feats of arms, West Virginia welcomed him as the intelligent and energetic leader of the army which bore her name, and Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, both Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah owed him a debt of gratitude for his operations against the hostile tribes which infested their borders and rendered life and property insecure.
No man could attempt to write a fair description of General Crook’s great services and his noble traits of character unless he set out to prepare a sketch of the history of the progress of civilization west of the Missouri. I have here done nothing but lay before the reader an outline, and a very meagre outline, of all he had to oppose, and all he achieved, feeling a natural distrust of my own powers, and yet knowing of no one whose association with my great chief had been so intimate during so many years as mine had been.
Crook’s modesty was so great, and his aversion to pomp andcircumstance so painfully prominent a feature of his character and disposition, that much which has been here related would never be known from other sources.
Shakespeare’s lines have been present in my mind:
“Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtuesWe write in water.”
“Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtuesWe write in water.”
“Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtuesWe write in water.”
“Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water.”
On the 11th of November, 1890, General Crook’s body was transferred to Arlington Cemetery, Virginia, opposite Washington, those present being Major-General Schofield, commanding the army, and his aide, Lieutenant Andrews, Colonel H. C. Corbin, Lieutenant Kennon, Colonel T. H. Stanton, Captain John G. Bourke, Mr. Webb C. Hayes, and Mr. George H. Harries.
The escort consisted of two companies of cavalry, commanded by Major Carpenter, Captain George S. Anderson, Captain Parker, and Lieutenant Baird.
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Transcriber’s NoteThe author mentions a band of Utes call the ‘Timpanoags’. The currently accepted name is ‘Timpanogos’, but we defer to the author on the point.Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.ix.16THE GRAND CA[N/Ñ]ON—THE CATARACT CA[N/Ñ]ONReplaced.43.18the ranch of Archie Mac[ ]IntoshRemoved.121.34the salient features of a [strategetical] combinationsic165.25the band of Utes called the [Timpanoags]sic210.1Crawford,[ford,]> Cushing,Removed.335.24and like the wind were away[.]Added.441.19without test[it]imonyRemoved.a1.13and that much good.[”]Added.a1.46perception of his meaning.[”]Added.a2.39ethnology, and philology.[”]Added.a2.45is rare and very inviting.[”]Added.a3.37[“]The work has been singularly well done.Added.a3.47has attracted wider attention.[”]Added.
Transcriber’s Note
Transcriber’s Note
Transcriber’s Note
The author mentions a band of Utes call the ‘Timpanoags’. The currently accepted name is ‘Timpanogos’, but we defer to the author on the point.
Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original. The following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.