As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter........
When one is a darling of the regime and a darling of the profiteers of the regime, then it makes sense why a General George Armstrong Custer is berated to this day and another General in George Crook, has been left untouched, when Crook was as much an Indian fighter as anyone.
I have written of General Crook previously and have concluded he had a hand in knowingly allowing the George Custer command to be slaughtered, as Crook retired from the field after a disasterous fight with the Sioux at the Rosebud and "went hunting" and the Department of the Missouri knew he had retired to hunt before the bodies were buried at the Little Big Horn.
In this failure to carry out orders to assist George Custer and abanding the field of battle, General Crook was never questioned or face court martial.
The Indians respected General Crook as much as his troopers did, as he was an Indian fighter, but his Indian fights were really stalemates or disasters. There were not any Washitas for General Crook, but there were in both of his main campaigns, follow up by General Nelson Appleton Miles who actually defeated the Sioux and later captured Geronimo in the Apache.
That is what is perplexing in all of this in the southwest campaign in the Black Canyon Massacre, and it was not the Apache who were massacred, but US Soldiers.
To explain Black Canyon, Black Canyon was Apache country. It was an immense canyon with cover, and verticle sides. There was only one way in, and it was a drop off.
The approach to the inner canyon was over a mile, before one engaged what was Indian country where they waited in ambush.
In knowing all of that, General Crook overed in Cavalry regiments and one infantry. His second, tried to persuade the General to send in the infantry first to feel the way, but the General sent in the Cavalry.
In what took place, 42 men were killed, 60 horses killed and 21 men were wounded. If it had not been for the Infantry skirmishing to extricate the Cavalry, no horses would have come out of that canyon alive, as well as most of the Troopers.
The first time I read of Black Canyon and it's difficulties, the tactics seemed evident enough to me, and that was to seal the canyon off in it's entrance with an adobe fort, thorn brush and cannons.
Having sealed the area off, the next attraction would have been to find a way to incorporate cannon fire into the canyon. It would have been worth the preparation to bring in large cannons to the rim, and to slowly advance Napoleon types with canister and grape up the canyon from the sides.
It would have been a simple month long operation in clearing, burning, bursting and advancing. Pickets could have held all points on the rim easily, and the Apache terrorists starving and receiving grape shot, would have surrendered or died.
An operation like this, would not have cost a dozen Soldier lives.
Having the season of dryness, and fire could have been employed in burning up most of the cover and burning out the Indians.
It would be General Nelson Appleton Miles of the later Philippines campaign, who would employ using signaling mirrors on hill tops to coordinate Cavalry against Apache attacks. His method became so effective, that it literally drove Geronimo into Mexico, where the General followed him into another hells canyon and made the terror leader surrender.
In examination, I probably would have enjoyed the company of General Crook. He was a gentleman and he thoroughly enjoyed hunting. The parts not likeable were his being one of the Grant regime insiders and therefore connected to the Indian Ring profiteers which were the advance of the cartel in America.
His Indian campaigns cost a great deal of money and netted nothing in return for conquest.
To explain this a bit more, in the Southwest campaign, which has never been written of in examination, the fighting method employed successfully was the Kit Carson method, which was taught to his adopted son, William Drannan. It was pure American Ranger in context, as literally, the Scouts would crawl up to an Indian camp they discovered by always using field glasses to watch from the high ground, and then rushing in, in the darkness in hand to hand combat with the terrorists.
In every case where this method was utilized, the Indians were killed to the last terrorist, and in most instances the Soldiers were wounded with very few dead.
The figures were constantly twenty to 60 Indians killed with the US Army only being wounded. No one has written of this American Ranger type of combat which started in the east during the French and Indian War, moved into the Ohio in the Indian Wars, and then was lost until it was reborn on the Great Plains with great effect.
When the Indians were surprised, being pushed and attacked, the Indians were slaughtered. When the Indians were afforded to surprise the Americans, then the Americans got the worst of it.
Indians could be most stealthy, but any American could employ that same stealth on an Indian camp, and when it was accomplished, then the Indians were not allowed to have time to stalk about camps murdering Americans and stealing horses.
It was all about precautions of riding around a camp to find Indian sign, securing the animals, positioning wagons or breastworks for defense, and doing that the Indians did not surprise any camp.
The Indians attacked when inside their raiding camps, the raids were stopped before they started.
So General George Crook like General Alfred Terry wasted a great deal of resources, never accomplished a great deal, got their men killed, and were never brought to terms for this, because they were of the old guard and protected by them.
In factual examination, the American Indian terrorist, when allowed to terrorize on their own terms, where the miltary literally blinded themselves and fought to advantage the terrorists, then the military was murdered as the Mormons intended as they taught the Utes to try and fight the US Army. In that instance, the US Army brought cannons under General O'Connor and destroyed the terrorists in their canyon.
It is a fact that the Army Scouts did not employ cannons, but only sabers, knives and pistols as back up, and they were devastatingly effective as the Kentucky Riflemen in their raids on eastern terrorists.
General Crook's only real successes came at the hands of superior Scouts and subordinate Officers, who if the General would have listened to would have given better chances at victory.
The problem with all of this history is most have bias, most have absolutely no combat knowledge, and those that do, are that full auto spraying bullets or the abnormal snake eaters, so a complete examination is ever witnessed.
I have more to compose on other subjects, so this ends the Black Canyon examination.
agtG
