CHAPTER XXVIII.
WHO HAD BEEN THERE—WHO HAD NOT.
Let us change the scene, and transfer ourselves to the marquee of Gen. Gilliam. Gen. Canby is sitting on a camp-chair, and near him Col. Barnard. On the camp-bedstead sits Gen. Gilliam, and by his side Col. Mason; the chairman of the Peace Commission on a box almost between the parties. The talk is of Modocs, peace, treachery, Ben Wright, battle of 17th January, the stronghold. Gen. Gilliam remarks, addressing Gen. Canby: “Well, general, whenever you are through trying to make peace with those fellows, I think I can take them out of their stronghold with the loss of half-a-dozen men.” Canby sat still, and said nothing. Gilliam continued: “Oh, we may have some casualties in wounded men, of course; but I can take them out whenever you give the order.” Silence followed for a few moments.
Gen. Canby, fixing his cigar in his mouth and his eye on Col. Mason, sat looking the question he did not wish to ask in words.
Col. Mason, seeming to understand the meaning of the look, said: “With due deference to the opinion of Gen. Gilliam, I think if we take them out with the loss of one-third of the entire command, it is doing as well as I expect.”
The portly form of Col. Barnard moved slowly forward and back, thereby saying, “I agree with you,
Col. Mason.” Col. John Green came in, and, to an inquiry about how many men it would cost, he replied evasively, saying, “I don’t know; only we got licked on the 17th of January like ——. Beg your pardon, general.” Canby continued smoking his cigar, without fire in it. Here were four men giving opinions. One of them had fought rebels in Tennessee, and was a success there; the other three fought rebels also successfully, and Modocs in the Lava Beds unsuccessfully. They knew whereof they were talking. The opinions of these men doubtless made a deep impression on the mind of the commanding general, and, knowing him as I did, I can well understand how anxious he was for peace when he had the judgment of soldiers like Green, Mason, and Barnard, that, if war followed, about one in three of the boys who idolized him must die to accomplish peace through blood.
Move over one hundred yards to another marquee; the sounds betoken a discussion there also. Young, brave, ambitious officers are denouncing the Peace Commission, complaining that the army is subjected to disgrace by being held in abeyance by it.