When all that was put down on paper, the major followed the code of an officer and a gentleman. He took his revolver, jammed it to his temple, and blew his brains out.
~*~
Elmer Wright and Dick Eastman were each given thirty-year sentences in the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. Their former boss Bill Stucker was given ten years less for revealing the truth about Major Dewey’s part in the robbery. Wright and Eastman howled in protest about the sentencing since they had no knowledge of the army officer’s participation. Also, their complaints of Indian torture were ignored by the court.
~*~
When the full story reached the newspapers in the east, it proved to be a bonus for the United States Scouts. This heretofore unknown branch of the Army was the subject of numerous complimentary and appreciative articles that revealed the full extent of their missions and the men who served in the detachments.
~*~
Captain Mack Hawkins and Miss Kristina Halverson were married in the post chapel at Fort Lone Wolf, Indian Territory in August of 1892. The best man was Second Lieutenant Ludlow Dooley. After the ceremony, Captain and Mrs. Mack Hawkins, along with Lieutenant Ludlow Dooley, changed from their ceremonial attire to informal garments for the wedding dinner. The meal was held at the U.S. Scout bivouac at the Kiowa-Comanche Indian Agency and was prepared by the wives of the scouts in the traditional way of their people. Beef, squash and wild prairie onions along with apple pies cooked by the bride rounded out the menu. Everyone sat down on blankets spread on the ground to partake of the feast.
The newlyweds were provided a home on officers’ row at Fort Lone Wolf, and Kristina began her new life of being a captain’s wife in the garrison society. She was heartbroken about leaving her students, but was consoled greatly when she found the new teacher, a young woman from Wichita, Kansas, shared her open-minded attitudes toward Indian customs and tradition.
~*~
The Kiowa-Comanche Detachment remained in their bivouac for another month, before they were transferred to the Fort Lone Wolf garrison. This meant Ludlow Dooley could leave his tent home and moved into quarters that were established at the western edge of the post. The Indians and their families were allowed to set up lodges in their new camp.
Some minor patrolling duties and guarding local shipments of army goods occupied their time between periods of relentless drill supervised by Captain Mack Hawkins. That winter the detachment tracked down and rescued some lost school children who had wandered off from an excursion out on the prairie and were caught in a blizzard.
Things finally heated up in the spring of the following year when bandits and revolutionaries out of Mexico made forays into Texas. The scout detachment was ordered into action for what would be a long summer of fighting against the marauding bands in the border country.
This was to be the first of several years of campaigning when Captain Mack Hawkins, Lieutenant Ludlow Dooley and Sergeant Eagle Heart led Corporal Running Cougar, Scout Tall Bear, Scout Swift Horse and Scout Red Moon into action. These missions were all situations that Captain Hawkins always described as: “Outgunned, outnumbered and out of luck!”
~*~
The decades passed and Captain Mack Hawkins remained with the U.S. Scouts for the remainder of his army career. After more than thirty years of service, he retired with the rank of major in 1907. He and his wife Kristina moved to her family’s farm in Minnesota. Hawkins didn’t fit in well in the little town, and was not too happy with the situation. But things picked up when the opportunity arose for him to run for county sheriff. He won the election, and served the community well for thirty years. He single-handedly broke up an attempt to rob the local bank by an out-of-state gang in the 1920s. During Prohibition, a law Hawkins considered unwise and stupid, he was known to look the other way from time to time when citizens imbibed illegally. The old major passed away in 1942 at the age of 83, and Kristina joined him in eternity a decade later.
~*~
Ludlow Dooley was transferred from the U.S. Scouts into a regular cavalry regiment at the start of the Spanish-American war in 1898. This embarked him on a career that kept him on foreign service for the next nineteen years. He rose steadily in rank as he continued his army career in Panama, the Philippines, and China. His experience in fighting with Kiowa and Comanche Indians came in handy during constant conflicts with various insurgent groups in those countries. When America declared war on Germany in 1917, Colonel Dooley was one of the officers chosen to establish an armored force of tanks. The unit saw action on the Western Front during the campaigns to break the stalemate of years of stagnant trench warfare. Ludlow retired from the Army in 1922 with the rank of major general, and was deputy chief of staff for operations at the War Department in Washington. The general died at his home in Alexandria, Virginia in 1959. He was predeceased by his wife who was the daughter of a State Department diplomat Ludlow met while stationed in the Philippines. They had four children, ten grandchildren and twenty-seven great-grandchildren.
~*~
Sergeant Eagle Heart retired from the U.S. Scouts with the rank of first sergeant in 1922. He moved to Hobart, Oklahoma to live with a daughter who taught school in that town. Corporal Running Cougar, who attained the rank of staff sergeant, also retired from the Army and lived in the Anadarko area as did Sergeants Tall Bear and Swift Horse. All enjoyed the company of numerous children and grandchildren. Corporal Red Moon, unfortunately, was killed in a hunting accident in 1912 while acting as a guide for some visiting British officers at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. His old comrades lived to old age and were able to see many of their descendants successfully move into modern American life.
Historical Note
In August of 1947 at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the final formation of the United States Scouts was held to honor the retirement of the last four members of the Apache Detachment posted at that garrison.
The crossed arrows insignia was retired but enjoyed a return to the uniform when it was authorized as the emblem for the United States Army’s Special Forces in the 1960s. It is still worn by today’s Green Berets with the same fierce pride as the brave Indian scouts of the past.
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Crossed Arrows (A Long-Knives Western Book 1) Page 24