MEMORIES OF OLD FORT PHIL KEARNEY

By Comrade Phineas Towne
National Standard Bearer
National Indian War Veterans U.S.A Washington, D.C.

Sitting in the solitude of the night, with not a sound to break the stillness, a picture appears before me upon the cavass of the past, and there comes to me in memory 'Old Fort Phil Kearney,' nestling in the shadow of the Big Horn mountains.

What memories cling to that name and to its short and honored record, now recorded in the annals of the past. Could the ground but speak, what tales it could tell. Tales of sadness, tales of privation, and deeds of bravery and of heroism.

There it stood a shield of protection to the faithful garrison of officers and men, who were a part of the little Army of the United States.

It was also a refuge to the weary travelers who were seeking a home in the land of the Golden West, but were threatened with annihilation by the savage hordes of Indians who swarmed those western plains so desolate.

There it stood like a sentinel of the plains, and in that little post of "Old Fort Phil Kearney," where the soldiers and their officers lived and fought and died and withstood the dangers of Indian warfare with fortitude and bravery, and surrounded by the desolation of a vast solitude, and threatened by the most merciless of foes, they remained loyal to their trust with a deep devotion to their duty.

But the old Fort is gone now. It has fallen in decay. No more will the hills re-echo the sound of the morning gun. No more will the flag proudly unfurl itself to meet the golden rays of the rising sun. All has passed into the deep archives of time.

As memory dwells on the distant past there comes to us the honored names of Miles, Crook, Custer, Carrington, and many others.

The memory of those old frontier days will never fade, and the sight of the crossed sabers and rifles, the magic numbers of the regiments of those who followed the guidon and the Indian trail across the Western Plains, will always remain a cherished memory n the hearts of the Veterans of Indian Wars.