Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1878 — Death of a Gallant Officer. [ARTICLE]

Death of a Gallant Officer.

The news of the death of Col. Lewis, of the Nineteenth Infantry, killed by the Cheyennes at Monument Station, Kansas, was received here at military headquarters and among old officers of this department with deep sorrow. He had fought the Cheyennes, Dog Soldiers, the Sioux and the worst savages of the plains in many battles, and with marked resolution and bravery. Old settlers who remember the days when he was Adjutant of the Fifth Infantry, and when, also, he went out in the expedition of 1866 in the Mormon troubles, joined in the sorrow. In the face of numerous strong bands of hostile Indians he marched across the plains with a column of the Eighteenth Infantry from Fort Leavenworth to Utah, a distance of 1,100 miles,, requiring over two months in the march. A question rising during that famous march' through the American desert as to which route should be taken, he unhesitatingly chose the Pole creek, then an unknown and in some places almost invisible track, through an unknown country, where old guides were unknown. In many hardships and untold dangers the command accomplished that wonderful undertaking, which stands almost without a parallel in history, reaching Utah without the loss of a man or an animal. In his command at Camp Douglas his promptness and energy at a time when Brigham Young was at the height of his power saved the lives of many Gentiles and did much to sap the strength of the Mormon power, notwithstanding the lack of the Government’s support. He went thence to Gen. Terry’s department, Montana, afterward serving with his usual cool judgment and daring on that officer’s staff. Himself the commanding officer, he was at the head of his soldiers, pursuing a hot trail, struck the Indians unexpectedly, and with three men was shot down before relief could come. No officer of his rank, long service and reputation has been killed since the Custer massacre.— Omaha Bee.