Army Life on the Pacific: A Journal of the Expedition Against the Northern Indians, the Tries of the Coeur D'alenes, Spokans, and Pelouzes, in the Summer of 1858 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Army Life on the Pacific: A Journal of the Expedition Against the Northern Indians, the Tries of the CÅ“ur D'alenes, Spokans, and Pelouzes, in the Summer of 1858

The following pages are merely a journal kept during the expedition it attempts to describe, and afterwards prepared for the press. It is an attempt to show the manner in which such an expedition is conducted, and to picture some phases of "Army Life."

It is the tendency in this country to decry the services of the army and of its officers; and yet, most of the latter spend the greater part of their lives on the frontiers and in the Indian country. Weeks at a time are passed in scouting against their treacherous foe, enduring every hardship, and daily risking life itself, to open the way for the pioneer and settler. Yet, what is their reward? When the papers come to them from the regions of civilization, they find themselves stigmatized in editorials, and even in speeches on the floor of Congress, as the drones of society, living on the government, yet a useless encumbrance and expense.

But, one by one, how many lay down their lives in this cause! Without counting those who sink into the grave from sickness produced by unwholesome climates, exposure and hardships, how many more actually meet their deaths on the battle field! During the last season alone, Taylor, Gaston, Allen and Van Camp have thus shed their blood, and every year the list increases. Yet they fall in battle with an obscure enemy, and little are their sufferings appreciated by the

- "gentlemen
Who live at home at ease."

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