Conservatives rebelled in Colombia over the Liberal government's attempts to secularize education.
This is a little hard to grasp in a modern context, but European Liberals at the time were deeply hostile to the Catholic Church and that attitude carried on into liberals in Latin America. Therefore, the liberals in charge in Colombia were hostile to the Church, and many Colombians were opposed to them.
Gen. Terry determined to coordinate his forces with Crooks and authored a letter to that effect. Three soldiers volunteered to carry the message, Irish born Pvt. James Bell, Irish born William Evans, and Benjamin F. Stewart. All three men would receive the Medal of Honor for their efforts, which were successful and which took three days.
They traveled mostly by night.
Bell was a carrier soldier, married in 1888, and spent his retirement in Chicago where he died in 1901. Stewart was remarkably suffering from injuries at the time and was discharged from the Army later that month for medical reasons. Evans was also a career soldier and apparently died while still in the service in 1881.
That two out of the three of the men were Irish was fairly typical for the Army at the time.
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