. I then requested that the money be
charged to me and the whole matter referred to Congress, in reply
to which request I was informed that the accounts had been settled.
In another case I requested that my appeal from adverse action be
submitted to President Grant, who had had occasion to know something
about me. I was requested by telegraph, in cipher, to withdraw
that appeal, as it was liable to cause trouble. Being a lover of
peace rather than war, I complied. In that perhaps I made a mistake.
If I had adhered to my appeal, it might have saved a public
impeachment. Again, I was called upon by one of the Treasury
bureaus to refund some money which had been paid me for mileage by
the Secretary of War, on the alleged ground that the Secretary
could not lawfully give me such an order. I referred the matter
to the Secretary, as one that did not concern me personally, but
which involved the dignity of the head of the War Department as
compared with that of a subordinate bureau of another department.
The Treasury official soon notified me that the account had been
allowed. To illustrate the application of the same principle under
opposite conditions, I must relate the story told of President
Grant. When informed by a Treasury officer that he could not find
any law to justify what the President had desired to be done, he
replied, "Then I will see if I can find a Treasury officer who can
find that law." Of course no change in the incumbent of that office
proved to be necessary. I have thought in several cases in later
years that Grant's military method might have been tried to
advantage.

"Be ye wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove" is the only rule
of action I have ever heard of that can steer a soldier clear of
trouble with the civil powers of this great republic. Yet he must
sometimes, when his honor or the rights of his subordinates are
involved, make the fight, though he knows he must be beaten. A
soldier must then stand by his guns as long as he can, and it has
happened that such a fight, apparently hopeless at the time, has
given victory to a future generation.

[( 1) Sherman's "Memoirs," second edition, Vol. II, p. 422.]

CHAPTER XXVII
President of the New Board of Ordnance and Fortifications--Usefulness
of the Board--Troubles with the Sioux Indians in 1890-1891--Success
of the Plan to Employ Indians as Soldiers--Marriage to Miss
Kilbourne--The Difficulty with Chili in 1892.

Even as late as