In one of the many engagements with the hostile Indians Captain Frank D. Baldwin (now Major General) a very gallant officer, recaptured two little captive white girls, Julia and Adelaide Germaine, seven and nine years old, whose father, mother, brother, and older sister had been massacred. From the children we learned of their two sisters, still in the hands of the savages, and we made it a condition that they should be brought in safely and surrendered with the whole tribe, which was done immediately on receipt of my demand. The other two girls had been brought by order of Chief Stone Calf to a tent next his own, where they were treated with marked care and consideration until formally surrendered to us.
That campaign, lasting for many months, closed after most difficult and laborious efforts on the part of the troops, with the satisfactory result that the vast southwestern country has been free from the terrifying and devastating presence of hostile Indians, and the citizens of the States of Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico have enjoyed an era of peace. Scarcely a hostile shot has been heard in that country since that year.
In a report to Lieutenant-General P. H. Sheridan, Commanding General of the U. S. Army, November 23, 1874, which was published in report of Secretary of War, Vol. I, 1875, I said:
"It would have been better for the Indians had they been considered a part of the population of the United States and dealt with generously; and when forced on reservations—which is always the case—let reservations be reasonable in size, subject to special rule and government until the Indians are fitted to obey the ordinary laws of the country which have been made to control educated and intelligent white people.
"If the Indians had always been humanely and honestly dealt with, there would have been but few of the troubles which have occurred in the many years gone by."
Nelson A. Miles Lieut.-General US Army
July 21, 1922
Washington, D. C.