ing of military power in the hands of
men who are not real soldiers. They are quite sure to abuse it in
one way or the others, by cruelty to their own men, or else to
others. The same disregard for human life which induces an ignorant
man to take command of troops and send them to useless slaughter
may well manifest itself in barbarity toward prisoners of war or
non-combatants; but a real soldier is never guilty of either of
those crimes, which seem to me alike among the greatest in military
experience.

TROUBLE WITH THE MODOC INDIANS

The Modoc Indians were a brave people, and had always been friends
of the whites; but their old home in southern Oregon was rich
grazing-land, and was much coveted by the ranchmen of that region.
Hence the Modocs were induced in some way to leave their homes and
go upon the Klamath reservation. There they were starved and
generally abused until they could stand it no longer. They went
back to their old place, and declared they would die rather than
go to live with the Klamaths again. Repeated requests were made
by the Indian Bureau to the War Department to force the Modocs to
go back to the Klamaths; but this was firmly opposed by General
Canby, commanding the department; by me, who then commanded the
Division of the Pacific; and by General Sherman, commanding the
army. No such order could be obtained in the regular way. Resort
was had to an innocent old army regulation which directed department
commanders to render such military assistance as might be necessary
to enable the Indian superintendents to carry out their orders from
Washington. Without the knowledge of the President, or the Secretary
of War, or the general of the army, an order was sent from the
Indian Bureau in Washington to send the Modocs back to the Klamath
reservation, and to call on the department commander for troops to
enforce the order. General Canby, honorable and simple-hearted
man that he was, never imagined that such an order could come from
Washington, after all that had been said about it, unless with the
sanction of the highest authority and the knowledge of the War
Department. He did not even think it necessary to report to the
division commander the requisition which had been made upon him
for troops, but loyally obeyed the old regulation. The first
information that came to me was that the troops had been beaten
with heavy loss, and that many of the