A STORY OF GENERAL SHERMAA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9489, 11 August 1891, Page 6

A STORY OF GENERAL SHERMAA.

Lord Wolaeley, in the United Service Magazine, gives the following story. of, General Sherman" Everybody was; talking of ‘ Gold, gold,’ until it assumed,”, as Sherman says, “ the character of a fever.' We heard of men earning fifty, five hundred, and thousands of dollars a day, and’ it seemed for a time as though somebody, would reach solid gold.” Under these cir-' cumstances prices of all kinds rose to a fabulous height. Nothing less than SOOdols a month (about £720 sterling a' year) would hire a servant. Officers and men of the army had the greatest difficulty in keeping themselves alive, and could not have done so had they not been allowed to draw rations in kind, and had not the men been granted liberal furloughs, which they spent at the goldfields. The sailors of ships arriving at the port were only kept from deserting by being made, prisoners on board the men-of-war during their stay in port. For a time the rainy season put a check atoncetotbe mining and tho temptation to desert. When the fine weather set in, however, it became evident the men meant somehow or other to get to the gold mines. - Discipline could not be put to a more severe strain. It would have been hopeless, had desertion once set in, to attempt the arrest of deserters at the gold mines, because all wished to desert, and the miners a troublesome body to deal with—invariably sheltered, screened and protected deserters. The only hope lay in nipping the crime in the bud the moment it showed itself.

The story of how Sherman succeeded in doing this I now give, as characteristic of the man whom I wish to describe. One night twenty-eight men were reported as deserters from tattoo, and the open boldness of their behaviour amounted to do-'"' fiance. They deliberately slung their knapsacks, and, with their arms, started for the goldmines. Sherman saw at once it was a question of either their capture or the desertion of the whole regiment. Knowing the country, he calculated they must cross some ground known as “ Salina Plain,” so open and level that a rabbit could not cross it without being seen, and that they could not reach it before daylight. He started at 3 a.m. with seven officers, all mounted on horses he had recently purchased for the General's inspection tour. He first captured six of the deserters. He had only three officers with him at the time, but the men, not expecting to be followed, and not hearing the horses coming, were taken by surprise and easily made prisoners. The remainder of the officers had missed the track. Daylight broke as he reached the Salina Elver, where the trail of the men was plainly marked. He galloped forward to one of the places of call known as “ Adobe ranches,” and as he neared the house he could see a few soldiers about it.

He accounts for the fact that ho was now far ahead of the others and alone by saying he had much the best horse. Ha could then see two other officers in the distance. Beckoning them to close up, he went up tto the soldiers at the house and ordered them to go inside. The musket he carried with him was cooked, and the men saw the other two officers riding up behind. They did not know him personally, but after some hesitation, and inquiring looks at one another, they obeyed. He dismounted, and went into the house full of deserters, but for whom, as he quietly remarks, “ there was no escape. They naturally supposed that I had a strong party with, me, and when I ordered them to ‘fall in/ they obeyed from habit.” By the time the other two officers rode up, he had the men formed in two ranks, the front rank faced about. He had already begun to take away their bayonets, pistols, &c. The three officers, or, in reality, Sherman alone, had thus captured eighteen armed men, virtually in - a condition of open mutiny, and certain of support from the miners not very far'off. These, added to the six first captured, and three taken by the other party of officers who had missed the road, accounted for all the deserters except one. In order to appreciate the service rendered to the State by this daring act, it is necessary to realise that at this time everybody was deserting everything, breaking all contracts, all promises and all engagements, in order to get to the gold-mines. Masters of ships abandoned their vessels and cargoes, “ preachers and professors forgot their creeds and took to trade, and even to keeping gambling-houses.”