Part 41 (1/2)
In this fight the Apaches showed their blood by standing their ground better than any Indians I have ever seen in a battle. They did not offer to retreat until the soldiers were right up among them, there being some sixty Indians and one hundred soldiers.
This was beyond doubt the wickedest little battle I had ever witnessed, but it did not last long. In the engagement three soldiers were killed and five wounded, and nine horses killed and nine wounded. There were twenty-seven good Indians left on the battle-field, and none of the Indian horses were captured. Those that the Indians did not drive away took fight and ran after them.
The soldiers followed until after dark, but did not find any more dead Indians. We remained in this camp until the Lieutenant came up with his command. He regretted that he did not come on himself ahead of the command, thinking that had he been there the result would have been quite different.
On his arrival he made a detail of eight men to a.s.sist in scouting, informing them that they were relieved of all guard duties while serving in that capacity, which is a great relief to a soldier, especially when in an Indian country. I was appointed captain or chief of scouts and George my first a.s.sistant The Lieutenant selected what he thought to be the best men he had in his command and they afterwards proved themselves to be just what he had expected. On starting out I did not make any reserve of scouts, but sent four with George and took the other four with me.
The fourth day after starting, about noon, I saw a band of Indians in camp ten miles from the Lieutenant's quarters. I knew this to be a new camp, as I had been over the same ground only two days previous. The Indians were camped in a valley nearly a mile wide that had not a stick of timber on it, except the few small willows that grew along the little rill that ran through the valley, consequently I could not get close enough to ascertain the number of the Indians until after dark. In the meantime I telegraphed the Lieutenant to hold his men in readiness or to move on at once as he thought best.
As soon as he received my message he mounted two companies of cavalry and pushed on to the place where I had told the messenger to meet me on his return.
While the messenger went to headquarters, in company with one of my scouts I went down near the Indian camp to try to ascertain if possible their number, leaving the other two scouts in charge of the horses. The only way we could get at the number was to count the fires and make an estimate in that way. The Indians seemed to be nervous and much disturbed that night from some cause; continually little squads of them would walk from one fire to another. After we had crawled around something like two hours and made our estimate, we returned to our horses and comrades, and I never was more surprised in my life than when I got back and met Lieut. Jackson there with his command, for I did not think sufficient time had pa.s.sed for him to come that distance. I sat down and explained the lay of the ground as best I could, nothing being in the way except the little creek that carried the water across the valley, and I told him that about one hundred and fifty yards below the Indian camp the horses would be able to jump it. I also told them that I estimated their number at two hundred.
The Lieutenant said: ”I think I will attack them at once,” and asked me if I had their horses located. I told him I had. He then gave orders for all of the men to m.u.f.fle their spurs, and he asked me to take my four men and as soon as the charge was made to make a dash for the horses, cut them off and stampede them. So we made the start, my scouts and I on the extreme right of their entire command. The Lieutenant had explained to the command that he would give the word in an undertone, each corporal to take it up, and they also had orders to hold their sabres up in a way that they could not make any noise. Being good starlight that night, one could see fairly well. We rode within less than one hundred yards of the Indian camp before the word was given to charge. When we were in sight of the horses we raised the yell and they all started, and we did not let them stop until at headquarters the next morning at daybreak. At this haul we got one hundred and eighty-two horses.
The Lieutenant returned with his command at ten o'clock the same morning, and he told me that he didn't think a dozen Indians escaped.
In this engagement he did not lose a man, and only a few were wounded, but five horses were hurt, and those he had killed after returning to headquarters, claiming that in this warm climate, where the flies were so bad, it took too much attention to cure them.
The two days following were days of rest with us, very little being done in the way of scouting. On the morning of the third day after the battle, George and his force went out to make a tour around the camp, and Lieut. Jackson, myself and four scouts went out to try to kill some deer, as we were getting very hungry for fresh meat, having been so long on bacon that we were all sick and tired of it. That day we killed four deer, and that night we camped six miles from our quarters. The next morning the Lieutenant sent to headquarters for ten pack animals, and we remained to hunt. In two days we killed all the game we could pack to camp on the ten animals. On our return the Lieutenant said to me: ”This part we will have to keep to ourselves, for if we tell the General that we were out hunting and spent three days on the trip he would swear until everything around would turn blue.”
After this we made two and three day scouting trips. While out on one of these, I found where the Apache stronghold was; down in a deep canyon, which since then has been known as Black canyon. From all appearance the greater part of the tribe was there. This canyon was tributary to the Colorado, and the hardest place to get into I have ever seen in the Rocky Mountains.
After making as good an investigation as the surroundings would permit, I returned with my scouts to the command to report. In making my report I said: ”Lieutenant, I cannot half describe that canyon to you, for it is beyond any doubt the blackest looking place I have ever seen in all my travels.” I told the Lieutenant that I would like to have him go with me and view the place before he moved his command. The canyon was fifty miles from our quarters. That same night George Jones returned with his four scouts, and the morning following we started out with the entire scout force, taking four days' rations with us. On the morning of the second day we came in sight of the canyon. The Lieutenant took a good look at it through his gla.s.ses, after which he said: ”Captain, I think you named it well when you called it a Black canyon, for it looks as if it would be impossible to enter it on horseback.” That day and the next was spent in trying to find where the Indians entered the canyon, and we at last discovered that they entered it from the east and west with horses, by descending a very abrupt mountain, and they were strung up and down the canyon for five miles. After the Lieutenant had made examinations of the location we started back to headquarters.
The Lieutenant and I fell back to the rear in order to have a private conversation relative to the situation. He said: ”To be honest with you, I don't think it safe to go in there with less than two thousand soldiers, especially at this time of the year.
If the Indians are as strong as they look to be, and have the advantage of the ground that they seem to have, it would only be sport for them to lie behind those rocks and shoot the soldiers down as fast as they could enter the canyon. This is the first time I ever went out hunting Indians, found them, and had to go away and let them alone. To tell the truth, I don't know what to do, for if I report to the General he will come at once with all his forces and accomplish nothing when here.”
The Black canyon is in the northwest corner of Arizona, where it joins on to California and Nevada. Since that time there have been more soldiers killed in that place than in all the balance of Arizona territory.
After he had thought the matter over for a day or so he decided to move the command up near Black canyon, catch small parties out from there, and try in that manner to weaken them, or he might succeed in drawing them out, and in that way be able to get a fight out of them on something like fair ground. But in this the Lieutenant was very much disappointed, for they were too smart to come out.
George Jones and myself, each with our company of scouts, started out to locate some place suitable for headquarters, with instructions that anywhere within twenty miles would be satisfactory. I was out six days but did not find what I considered a suitable location. Jones was more successful. Within about ten miles of the canyon he found what he thought to be a suitable location, but said it would be impossible to get to the place with wagons. So the wagons were corralled and left at our present location in charge of a sergeant, with thirty infantrymen.
Loading the entire pack train, we started for Howard's Point, that being the name George had given the new camp.
Upon arrival at our new camp the Lieutenant put out pickets all around camp one mile away, keeping them there day and night while we remained. The scouts for the next six weeks were almost worked to death, without accomplis.h.i.+ng much of anything, from the fact that we were too close to the main body of Indians to catch them in small squads, for in going out to hunt they would not go into camp until twenty or thirty miles from their headquarters, and our plan was to catch them in camp and attack them either in the night or just at daybreak in the morning.
One morning after being here ten days, the whole scout force started in two squads, with the understanding that we keep in about one mile of each other, so that if one squad should encounter a band of Indians the other could come to the relief.
After traveling about ten miles we heard shots in the direction where I knew George was with his four a.s.sistants, and turning in that direction, we put our horses down to their best speed, and were soon at the scene of action, but owing to the roughness of the ground we could not make as good time as we desired. When in sight of the contestants I saw that George was on foot, a comrade on each side of him, and they were firing as fast as they could load and shoot. He had run into those Indians, about twenty in number, hid in the rocks, and they had opened fire on the scouts, killing two of his men the first shot, and shooting George's horse from under him, leaving him afoot. When we arrived I ordered my men to dismount and take to the rocks, leaving the horses to take care of themselves, as the Indians were on foot and we could make better time in that immediate vicinity than we could on our horses. We had a hot little fight, but succeeded in driving the savages back. After the battle was over we tied our dead comrades on one horse and packed them to camp, changing off with George and the scout whose horse the dead bodies were tied on, letting them ride our horses part of the time. That night we dug graves and gave the two comrades as decent a burial as circ.u.mstances would permit. George felt very sorry over losing the two scouts because they were in his charge, but he was not to blame in the least.
In this little battle we got six Indians, and they killed two of our men and three horses. Lieut. Jackson thought it would now be advisable to increase the number of scouts and have a sufficient force together to be able to protect ourselves, for we were to remain here a month longer, and if in that time we were not able in some way to get at the Indians we would return to the fort and wait until spring.
Two weeks later I was out on a scouting tour when I saw a small band of Indians coming out of Black canyon and making their way westward. When they were within ten miles of our headquarters I got to count them, finding there were forty in the band, all on foot. I decided that they had started on a hunt and I would keep my eye on them to see where they would camp for the night. By this time I had all the water in this region located, and when I would see a band of Indians late in the evening I could tell about where they would camp.
As soon as I had decided where those would camp I telegraphed to Lieut. Jackson the situation. Where these Indians camped was within six miles of our quarters, but a miserable place to enter with horses, but I thought we could ride within a mile of the place on horseback.
The Lieutenant, however, was well acquainted with the ground, and as soon as he read my message he mounted his cavalrymen and started, and met me within a mile of the Indian camp. Dismounting, he and his men started on foot to the camp, and he told the soldiers to walk lightly, and when in sight of the camp to get down and crawl, but to be very careful not to break a limb or twig. I was very much disappointed in not getting to see this fight, for after I had sent my message to headquarters my horse fell with me and dislocated my right knee.