SURVIVORS OF INDIAN WARS KNOW WHAT DUCE'S ARMY FACES IN WILD ETHIOPIA

By Don Russell
The Chicago Daily News

Who remembers the war books of ten years ago, when all the generals, colonels, second lieutenants and privates were writing reams about their experiences in world war trenches - and the more gory the tale the better? Fighting authors whose battling was done on the eastern front or in one of the "sideshows" got their work published in the general scramble for complete coverage on the great war, but were considered very much in the bush league class. As for other wars - they were just sand-lot affairs, hardly worth recording even for local circulation.

It is all changed now. Since the Italian legions invaded the hitherto forgotten Ethiopia, minor warfare has come into its own among book publishers. Abyssinian atrocity stories are recalling the days of "Civilize "Em with a Kraig" and Ras Seymour's raids have reminded military experts of certain difficulties in the "winning of the west" in the not-so-long-ago Indian Wars.

Chicago's Indian Fighters
Chicago has a few old soldiers - thirty-six in fact - who could give the Italian general staff some pointers on warfare against savage races. They are members of General O. O. Howard Camp No. 20 of the National Indian War Veterans, of which Frank R. Houle of 4730 Warwick avenue is commander. And a recently published book, "On the Border with Mackenzie," by Capt. R. G. Carter, tells something of the trials and suffering undergone by soldiers such as these in winning west Texas from the Comanches.

Capt. Carter is the last survivor of the officers who served with Mackenzie in the campaigns of 1871 to 1876. His book of reminiscences of those far-off days has been in preparation many years and it is probable that interest in the Ethiopian war and in the Texas Centennial of next year has had much to do with his finding a publisher in the Enyon Printing Co. of Washington, D. C. The Chicago camp has one member, Patrick J. Sweney of 4715 Flournoy street, who is a veteran of the 4^th United States cavalry and recalls when that organization was known as "Mackenzie's regiment" and had a reputation of being one of the best collections of Indian fighters in the United States army.

Army's Youngest Colonel
Mackenzie is less remembered than some of the other famous Indian fighters of his day. He was the youngest colonel in the army and died at the age of 49, in 1889, from "overstrain upon his mental faculties and physical strength," as Capt. Carter says, "With little or no sleep for weeks and neglect of his food and rest, his restless energy soon wore out his brave spirit."

His last fight, when he destroyed Dull Knife's band of Cheyennes the winter after the Custer massacre, in which they had a leading part, has often been mentioned, but little has been said of his exploit in invading Mexico and capturing the villiage of Kickapoos who had been raiding across the border. Capt. Carter claims this march of 160 miles in thirty-two marching hours - the total elapsed time being forty-nine hours - as the greatest long-distance ride ever made by a United States cavalry command. The speed was necessary because Mackenzie had no authority for the invasion, although Gen. Philip H. Sheridan had suggested it. But he could afford no fight with angered Mexicans.

Capt. Carter has many another stirring story to tell of frontier days. At one time "Jack" Stilwell was under his command - the daring scout who was said to have spit tobacco juice in a rattlesnake's face when they were both hiding from Indians in the same buffalo wallow. There is much about Sgt. John B. Charlton, whose deeds rival those of the heroes of western thrillers.