HENRY W. LAWTON, A VETERAN OF

THREE WARS

GENERAL LAWTON, the old soldier who met his fate in a Philippine bullet, after passing unscathed through so many battles that he thought himself invulnerable, was one of the most interesting characters in our recent military history. Not trained for war at West Point, like all those of the Civil War period whose stories we have told, he began his career in the ranks, and worked his way upwards by dint of courage and ability, till he ended as one of the chief leaders in the Philippine war. As one of those who climbed from the bottom to the top, and who was one of our bravest and most skilful Indian fighters, his story justly belongs here.

Henry Ware Lawton was born in Manhattan, now a suburb of Toledo, Ohio, March 17, 1843. He was sent to a Methodist college at Fort Wayne, Ind., in 1854, and was still a student there in 1861, when the Civil War began. A boy of eighteen at that time, he hastened to enlist, entering a regiment in the three months' service on April 18, three days after the President's call for troops. His position in his company was that of first sergeant, but on his reënlistment at the end of the three months' term, his good conduct had won a standing that brought him the rank of first lieutenant in the Thirtieth Indiana regiment, the organization with which he remained connected until the end of the war.

Lawton passed through the war unharmed, though

his regiment fought in over twenty battles, and only a small percentage of its original members lived to see their homes again. At Shiloh it suffered very severely, and it saw heavy fighting at Stone River and Chickamauga and in the battles of Sherman's advance upon Atlanta. Lawton was now captain of his company, having been promoted on May 17, 1862. His most notable service was during the battles before Atlanta, where, on August 31, 1864, he led a charge of skirmishers against the enemy's rifle-pits, captured them, and repulsed three desperate attempts to recapture them. For this gallant service he was awarded by Congress a medal of honor.

Taking part in the expedition sent to Nashville to oppose Hood in his march against Sherman's communications, he fought bravely under Schofield at the battle of Franklin and under Thomas at the battle of Nashville. In the latter he commanded his regiment, though ranking still as captain. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel on February 10, 1865, and on March 13 was given the brevet rank of colonel, as a reward for gallant service during the war.

The war over, Lawton left the army for a time, studying law at Fort Wayne and Harvard, but the old war spirit was too strong in him to be kept down, and in 1867 he left Harvard to enter the regular army, being commissioned second lieutenant in the Fortyfirst Infantry, a regiment of colored troops. Shortly afterwards he was made first lieutenant, and was gradually advanced during later years, not reaching the grade of colonel until 1898.

Lawton's field of activity was largely in the far West, where he took part in some of the most arduous and successful Indian wars of the period, serving under

General R. S. Mackenzie, and later under Crook in Arizona. But his most distinguished service was in 1886 under Miles, who had succeeded General Crook in the campaign against Geronimo.

We have told the story of how Crook pursued and captured Geronimo, and how the wily Apache chief escaped. This famous chief was accounted the most dangerous man in his ferocious tribe, and strenuous efforts were made to run him down and capture him. It was a task of the greatest difficulty, and would have been hopeless except in the hands of men trained in every device of the Indians themselves and hardened to the perils and hardships of desert life. Chato, a cousin of Geronimo, and like him a leading chief, came to the aid of the whites in their efforts to overtake the blood-thirsty fugitive, whom he professed to hate. Later events indicated, however, that the two were allies, and that Chato, by means only known to themselves, signalled Geronimo and helped him to avoid his pursuers.

Geronimo met his fate at last, when Miles put Lawton on his track. A giant in strength and stature, absolutely fearless, and with all the endurance of an Apache, Lawton vowed to run down the daring fugitive, even if he had to pursue him to the City of Mexico. He did chase him and his band for a distance of thirteen hundred miles, over the Sierra Madre Mountains and far into Mexico, there being an agreement between the United States and Mexico which permitted the despatch of troops over the frontier when on the track of marauding Indians.

There is nothing in the history of Indian warfare more marked by daring, endurance, and persistence than Lawton's pursuit of the raiding Apaches. The

only mate to it is in the similar exploits of General Crook. At the head of a detachment of the Fourth Cavalry, Lawton put himself on the track of Geronimo's death-dealing band, followed it untiringly and persistently, now overtaking and killing a number of the murderous warriors, now losing them again, until in desperation Geronimo crossed the Rio Grande and headed for the arid depths of the Sierra Madre. No men ever lived more capable of enduring the extremes of hunger and thirst and the horrors of a desert life than the Apache Indians, and none were more alert in the exigencies of Indian warfare. But they had met their match in Lawton and his picked horsemen. For two hundred miles the chase was kept up, without a day's cessation, until at length the Apaches were brought to bay and a brisk fight took place. This was within the confines of Mexico, to which the Indians had often fled for safety, knowing that their pursuers would not cross the border. To their dismay they found that this wall of refuge no longer served, and that when they took to flight again the weariless pursuers were after them with the same sleuth-hound persistence.

For three hundred miles farther the troops kept up the chase, riding deep into Mexico, following the trail as it wound in and out of the mountains and cañons of Sonora. It crossed and doubled upon Itself, winding through almost inaccessible wilds and up and down terrifying slopes, but the pursuers never gave up, and at length the dusky fugitives, worn out, utterly exhausted and in a starving condition, ceased their efforts to escape and surrendered to their indefatigable pursuers.

Lawton had brought Geronimo's career of murder

and outrage to an end. The daring chief had been captured before, but only to escape and renew his bloody work. The settlers felt unsafe while he remained in their vicinity, and for security he and his leading chiefs were now sent to Fort Pickens, Florida, the others of the band being confined in Fort Marion, St. Augustine. But as their health suffered here they were removed to Mount Vernon, Alabama, where schools were opened for their children. Some of the brightest pupils in the Indian School at Carlisle. have been the boys and girls of those merciless raiders whom Lawton brought to bay in the mountains of Sonora.

On the 4th of March, 1898, when war with Spain was imminent, Lawton was commissioned brigadiergeneral, and was among those sent to Cuba after war was declared. In the operations against Santiago he commanded a division of the army on the extreme right, five miles from the sea. The remainder of the troops were stretched out in a long line until the extreme left rested upon the coast. On the hilly ground. before them were the strongly intrenched positions of the Spaniards, General Wheeler facing the steep hill of San Juan, Lawton the picturesque old town of El Caney. These were the two chief localities of the battle of July 1, 1898.

While Wheeler and his men were advancing upon San Juan, Lawton was similarly engaged at El Caney. He had a difficult task before him. There was a fort near the town and in front a covered way, filled with Spanish sharp-shooters, while the houses of the town, some of them with walls several feet thick, served as subsidiary forts. A battery of artillery shelled this position, while the infantry slowly made their way