The Army And Navy Journal
Volume IX, Number 29
Saturday, March 2nd, 1872
To the Editor of the Army and Navy Journal.
Sir:
My attention has been called to a letter addressed to William C.
Peckham, Esq., Trinity Building, New York and signed by William
Kruger, chief clerk to Captain C.W. Foster, assistant quarterm
aster U.S. Army, pretending to give an account of the massacre
near Wickenburg, in which Mr. Fred Loring and others were killed.
Were I to consult my own inclinations and disregard the wishes of
my friends, I would pass this letter by with the contempt it
deserves. It is charitable to suppose that Mr. Kruger must be
insane, for it is only on this theory that one can account for
the falsehoods which his letter contains.
Without going into details I positively assert that every
statement Mr. Kruger has made in that letter as regards my
treatment of him and “Miss Sheppard” and my conduct in the
investigation of the sad affair, is false in every particular,
and that no one is better aware of this than Mr. Kruger.
The report of the attack on the stage reached me some twenty-
two hours after its occurrence. I immediately ordered Captain
Meinhold and Lieutenant Simpson, with a detachment of Troop B,
Third Cavalry, to proceed to the point of attack, to pursue the
assassins, and if not successful in overtaking them, to find out
if possible from whence they came. I also sent the post surgeon
to attend to the wounded.
Captain Meinhold in his report states that the tracks, which he
followed some twenty-five miles from where the stage was
attacked, after leading for some distance towards this post,
turned off in an opposite direction. There is not one particle of
evidence to show that the Indians on the Date Creek Reservation
had anything to do with the massacre. The statement that two
Indians died from gunshot wounds on this reservation shortly
after the sad occurrence is false; indeed I am informed by an
officer who examined Mr. Kruger’s revolver on his arrival at this
post that there was not one shot fired out of it.
With regard to the charge of inhumanity towards Mr. Kruger and
“Miss Sheppard,” I prefer to let others speak, and forward you
herewith, statements from Lieutenant Ebstein, Twenty-first
Infantry, and Dr. Evans, the surgeon of the post, which show
conclusively that every comfort and attention that could readily
be shown them was freely extended.
I am loath to add, but simple justice compels me to statew
ith the view of showing the character and standing of Mr.
Kruger, that “Miss Sheppard” who was travelling under his
To the Editor of the Army and Navy Journal- Continued.
protection and to whom he so feelingly alludes, is a notorious
prostitute (not—withstanding, I believe her to be much the better
character of the two) who has for a long time, I am informed,
enjoyed the questionable care and patronage of Mr. Kruger.
With great respect,
Your obedient servant,
R.F. O’Beirne,
Captain Twenty-first Infantry.
CAMP DATE CREEK, ARIZONA, January 27th, 1872.
