FIND SOME MURDERED EMIGRANTS.--WE BURY THE DEAD AND FOLLOW AND
SCALP THE INDIANS.--GEN. CROOK IS PLEASED WITH THE OUTCOME.--A
MOJAVE BLANKET.
The following morning I ordered ten days' rations for three of us.
When we were ready to start Gen. Crook called me aside and told me
the nature of the man who was to accompany us, saying that there
was not a watering place nor an Indian trail in the whole
territory that he did not know, and said he: "If you don't see any
Indians or fresh sign of Indians he will show you all over the
country. But he is the scariest man of Indians you ever saw in
your life."
This man's name was Freeman. When we were ready to start Freeman
asked me what course I wished to take. I told him that I would
like to go in the direction that we would be the most likely to
find Apaches. I pointed in the direction of a range of mountains,
telling him that by ascending them he would be able to show me
where the different watering places were in the valley by land
marks, and we struck out southeast from the fort in the direction
of the middle fork of the Gila river. The first night we camped on
what was then called the Butterfield route, some thirty-five or
forty miles from the fort. This season there were a great many
emigrants passing over this route from Texas and Arkansas to
California, and Gen. Crook said the Apaches were giving them much
trouble on this part of the road, and if they continued to be so
bad he would have to send one or two companies of soldiers out
there for the protection of the emigrants. The second morning out
we passed a ranch owned by a man named Davis, who had lived there
two years. He told me that the Apaches had never given him any
trouble from the fact that he had gotten the good will of the
chief when he first went there by giving him numerous little
presents of different kinds.
He told me that although isolated from the world, he was doing
well, from the fact that most all of the people passing there
patronized him. This family was from Indiana. After I had told him
who I was and what would be my business, he insisted on my staying
over night with him when convenient, saying that it would not cost
me a cent. Thanking him for his hospitable offer, we rode on,
keeping the Butterfield route. Late that afternoon we met a train
of sixteen wagons on the way to California. The people told us
that the day before they had seen where five wagons had just been
burned. I asked how far it was, and they thought it was twenty-
five miles from where we met them. When we heard of this we pushed
on, thinking there might be some dead bodies there and that we
could bury them. On arriving at the scene, sure enough we found
three dead bodies two hundred and fifty yards from the burned
wagons; one of them being that of an old man, and the others, two
boys twelve and fourteen years of age. The Indians had not
stripped the bodies nor mutilated them, only they were all filled
with arrows. The dead bodies were all dressed in home-made jeans.
We found a few pieces of wagon boxes that had not been burned and
dug as good a grave as we could in the sand, giving them as good a
burial as we could under the circumstances. This being done, we
took the trail of the Indians, which led off in a south-westerly
direction. I felt confident that it had been at least three days
since this depredation had been committed. My object in following
them up was to see if we could get any evidence of white prisoners
in their camp. For the first ten or fifteen miles they kept on the
roughest, rockiest ground they could find, all of which led me to
believe they had expected to be followed. The next morning we came
to where they had made their first camp. All the evidence we could
see of white prisoners in their charge was a few pieces of calico
torn up and scattered around their camp-ground. We followed the
trail until we came to where they had made their second camp, and
here we found the waists of two women's dresses, one being
somewhat larger than the other. The two dress waists we took along
with us. Here the Indians had changed their course somewhat, and
our guide said in the direction of their main village, but I did
not consider myself well enough posted to go too near their main
village. I told the guard to lead us off south of west from Fort
Yuma, which he did, and late that afternoon we saw six Indians
traveling east, and I told the boys that they were scouts for the
main band and that they were going out to look for emigrants. When
we first got sight of them they were traveling up an open valley.
I told the boys that we would keep a close watch of them, and if
they should camp alone we would have their scalps before morning;
but just one look from Freeman and I was convinced that he did not
approve of this scheme. George said to him: "You can take care of
the horses can't you, and if everything is favorable, Cap and I
can take care of the Indians." Late in the afternoon I told them
what course to travel, and taking advantage of the ground, I
pushed on to see the Indians go into camp. When I started the
guide told me there was water about a mile above where the Indians
were, and that they were pulling for it. He said there was a fine
spring of water in a little bunch of timber, and that the Indians
always camped there when they were going to and from their hunting
ground. Sure enough, when they came to this little grove they all
dismounted and turned their horses loose entirely, then commenced
to roast their antelope meat for supper. I hurried back to meet my
companions, and we succeeded in getting within a quarter of a mile
of the Indians. By this time it was getting dark.
We picketed our horses and sat down to eat our cold lunch, after
which we started down to the camp, but were very cautious how we
traveled. When in sight of the camp-fire we could see them all
plainly sitting around it. We lay silent and watched them and
their movements. In a few minutes two of them got up and went out
to where their horses were and drove them all up together to less
than one hundred yards of where we lay. It was so dark we could
not see them, but could hear them talking very distinctly. After
having rounded their horses up together they returned to the fire.
Thinking they would lie down in a short time, for they did not
seem to suspect any trouble that night, we started to crawl down
to their camp, all abreast. After our guide, Freeman, found that I
was determined to attack them he seemed to muster up courage and
come right to the front like a man. My object in crawling near
their camp so soon was to see in just what position they lay
before the fire went out, and when the last one laid down we were
within fifty yards of them. I told the boys we had a soft thing of
it, for each of us had two revolvers and a good knife, and the
Indians were all lying close together with their feet towards the
fire. I told them we would wait two hours as near as we could
guess the time and then they would be asleep; that then we would
crawl up and send them to their happy hunting-ground. After
waiting until we thought they were asleep we crawled down to their
camp, again all three abreast, George on my right and Freeman on
my left; and so we drew near, their fire had not gone entirely
out, and a little breeze now and then would cause it to blaze up
just enough so that we were able to get their exact positions. I
told the boys to watch me and when I raised to my feet for both to
raise and draw both revolvers as we would then be right at their
heads, and for each man to stick the muzzle of each of his pistols
to an Indian's head and fire; George to take the two on my right
and Freeman the two on toy left, and I to take the two in the
middle, and after firing each man was to jump back two jumps, so
in case one of us should miss one of his men that we would be out
of their reach, thereby enabling us to get all of them without
taking any chances ourselves.
George said that at the first click of his pistol one of his men
raised up in a sitting position, and he only got one the first
shot. Freeman and I each got our two Indians the first shot; but
George having both his eyes on one, the other rose to his feet.
George and I took two shots each at this other Indian before we
could get him down. It was mostly guess work, for it was so dark
that we could scarcely see him.
As soon as we were satisfied that we had all of them we started
out to look for their horses, but it was so dark that we could not
find them, so we found our way back to where our own horses were.
Freeman and I laid down to rest, while George got on a horse and
kept circling the camp so as not to let any of the horses get away
during the night. He kept this up until the morning star arose,
and seeing that all the horses were there, laid down to rest. As
soon as it was beginning to get light Freeman and I arose, started
a fire, and sat around until after sun-up, when we got breakfast,
made some coffee and then called George, and all enjoyed a good
square meal once more.
After breakfast we scalped our Indians and found that we had eight
good half-breed horses and a number of good horse-hair robes. I
asked our guide how far we were from Fort Yuma and he said
straight through it was one hundred and twenty miles, but the way
that we would have to go it would be at least one hundred and
fifty miles. I concluded we had better pull out for the fort so
Freeman and myself rode ahead and George followed up the rear,
driving the loose horses. We did not see any more Indian sign that
day. Late in the evening I was riding along when I ran on to a
young antelope. I shot him and we had fresh meat for supper for
the first time since we left the fort. The next day we crossed a
big Indian trail going east. The trail looked to be about two days
old, but as our rations were beginning to run short we did not
attempt to follow them, but pushed on to the fort, making as good
time as possible, returning on the eleventh day from the time we
started out.
I reported our success to the General. He was well pleased with
the result of the trip, and when I reported the burying of the
dead bodies, he thought we had better return to the spot, taking
with us some good coffins, and give them a more decent burial, but
on consulting the doctor, concluded in that extraordinarily hot
climate it would be utterly impossible to bury them after so long
a time, and the idea was abandoned.
I showed the two dress waists that I had found at the Apache camp
to the General, also to Mrs. Jackson, but we never got any
information of any white prisoners being taken there at that time.
The General was pleased to see the Indian scalps, as he said they
were the first scalps that had been brought in for two months.
Gen. Crook now made up his mind at once to send Lieut. Jackson out
on the road with two companies of cavalry, and George Jones and
myself were to accompany them as scouts.
When we were ready to start Lieut. Jackson asked me if I didn't
want more scouts, but I told him that I thought we could get along
this trip with what we had.
We took the Butterfield route and followed that road until we were
in the St. Louis mountains. This seemed to be at that time, a
favorite part of the country for the Apaches to commit their
depredations upon emigrants. We traveled very slowly as we had to
pack our entire outfit on burros, and our saddle horses having to
live altogether on grass, consequently we could not hurry. Early
in the morning of the sixth day of that trip George and I started
out in advance of the command, one to the right and the other to
the left of the road, and if neither of us should see any signs of
Indians we were to meet at the crossing of a certain stream only a
few miles ahead of the command; and in the event of either of us
arriving at the stream and waiting half an hour and the other did
not make his appearance, he was to return at once with his force
of scouts to the command. On arriving at the appointed spot and
finding that George and his assistants were not there, we waited
until we were convinced he was not coming and at once returned to
the command.
On our return we learned that shortly after starting out that
morning George had run on to a big Indian trail. Supposing it to
be the same band of Indians whose trail we had crossed when
returning from our other trip, he had reported to the command at
once, and the trail being fresh, he, taking four other men, had
started in pursuit, leaving word with Lieut. Jackson for me not to
be uneasy about him nor attempt to follow him, but to remain with
the command until I heard from him again.
While Lieut. Jackson was yet talking relative to the matter, I
received a message from George saying that he had the Indians
located some five miles from the road and wanted me to come and
look the ground over before the command should start.
I at once mounted, and piloted by the man who had brought the
message to me, rode to where George was. On arriving there I found
the Indians so situated that it was impossible to ascertain the
number from the fact that in this extraordinarily warm climate the
Indians do not use any wick-i-ups or lodges, so that the only
method by which we could make an estimate of their number was by
counting the number of fires they had end calculate each fire to
represent a certain number of Indians, this being our method of
estimating them when in wick-i-ups, we reckoned their number to be
one hundred and fifty.
Where these Indians were camped it would be utterly impossible to
make an attack without being discovered long before reaching them,
they being in a large valley.
After a thorough examination of the camp and surroundings by
looking through a glass, we concluded that the best plan would be
to return to the command and have it move up to within two miles
of the Indians and remain there until after dark, then leave it to
the Lieutenant whether he should make the attack on foot or
horseback.
I remained to watch the movements of the Indians and see whether
they were reinforced during the day and to report at dark, George
returning to the command. The soldiers moved up that evening to
within two miles of the Indian camp I remained at my post until it
was so dark that I could not see through my glasses any longer,
when I mounted my horse and rode to the command, having made no
new discoveries. After explaining the situation as nearly as I
could, the Lieutenant concluded to make the attack on foot some
time between midnight and daylight the next morning, and to attack
them from two sides at the same time.
The Lieutenant taking half the men and making the long march,
which would be about one and a half miles farther than the others
would have to march, leaving his orderly sergeant in charge of the
other half of the command. I piloted the Lieutenant and George
piloted the orderly. Here Lieut. Jackson invented some new style
of signal to what I had seen before, by taking a tea cup and
pouring powder in it and when he was ready to make the charge he
was to set the powder on fire, which would make a flash, and in
case the orderly was ready, he was to signal the Lieutenant in the
same manner.
We made the circuit and marched up to within one hundred yards of
the Indians, but could not make the attack until near daylight,
the Lieutenant thinking it was so dark that the soldiers were in
danger of killing each other, which was all perfectly true.
When the time arrived for the attack, which was just at daybreak,
the Lieutenant gave his signal, which was answered at once by the
orderly, and the Lieutenant led the way by going in advance of the
force, and I think it was the quickest fight I ever saw. I did not
count the Indians that were killed myself, but was told that there
were between 190 and 200 found dead on the battlefield. They
seemed to raise up as fast as the soldiers would cut them down,
and I think there were two cut down with the sabres where one was
shot. As soon as the battle was over, or when we could not find
any more Indians to kill, George and I got our horses as quick as
we could and went out after our horses, but they had taken fright
at the firing and were scattered all over the country. That
evening the Lieutenant moved back to the road at the head of a
nice little valley where there were plenty of fine grass and good
water, saying that he would make this his headquarters as long as
he was out on this road.
The Lieutenant having five men wounded in this engagement, he
wanted some one to carry a dispatch to headquarters requesting the
General to forward an ambulance, and George Jones being a light
man who could stand the ride better than any one in the crowd, the
Lieutenant chose him to make the ride. It took us five days to
come from Fort Yuma, and George took three horses and made the
round trip in seven and one-half days. We remained here in this
camp something like three months, but did not have another fight
of any consequence with the Indians during our stay in this place.
The Apaches quit their work in this portion of the country, thus
enabling the emigrants to pass unmolested. In about one week after
George Jones had returned from his trip to headquarters, Lieut.
Jackson, George and myself went out around the foot of the
mountain on a scouting tour. We were riding in sight of each
other, when the Lieutenant signaled us to come to where he was.
On arriving there he told us to keep our eyes on a certain ridge
and we would see a little band of Indians rise over the top of the
hill in a few minutes, saying he had just got sight of them while
crossing the ridge beyond but could not tell just how many there
were.
We secreted ourselves in a little thicket of timber where we would
be concealed from their view, and in a few minutes they hove in
sight. We counted them and found that there were eleven of them.
Lieut. Jackson said to me: "Cap, shall we try them a whirl or
not?" I said: "Lieutenant, I will leave that with you. If you feel
like it we will give them a round." The Lieutenant said: "All
right. I want to try my mare anyway and see if she is any good or
not."
He was riding a mare of fine breeding, as black as a coal and as
fleet an animal as there was in the whole command. By this time
the Indians had crossed over the ridge and were then traveling up
a little ravine, and by keeping ourselves secreted they would
cross the ridge near us. Just as they turned over the ridge
referred to, we were to make the charge. I was riding a roan horse
that I had bought in San Francisco that could run like a deer, for
when in this business I would not ride a horse that was not swift,
but I never had him in an engagement of this kind. Being very
hard-mouthed, I thought he was liable to run away with me, and I
did not know whether he would run in the opposite direction or
after the Indians. The Lieutenant and Geo. Jones said that if he
would only run after the Indians they would follow me up closely.
As soon as the last Indian had passed over the ridge out of sight
we made a charge, and that black mare went like she was shot out
of a cannon. The Indians were all armed with bow and arrows, but
they did not attempt to use them. They did not suspect anything
wrong until they heard the clatter of our horses' feet within a
few yards of them and when they turned to look back we all had our
revolvers ready and turned loose to firing and yelling, and for
the next half mile we had a lively race. I had thought up to that
time that there wasn't a man on the plains or in the Rocky
Mountains that could beat me shooting with a pistol while on the
run, but I must confess that Lieut. Jackson on his black mare
could shoot more Indians in the same length of time than any
person I was ever out with, and it seemed that as fast as the
Lieutenant would shoot one Indian down his mare would turn and
take after the next nearest. The Lieutenant fired six shots and
killed five Indians and wounded the sixth one, while riding at
full speed, and in this country in places the sage brush is waist
high to a man. In this engagement I got four Indians, having to
shoot one Indian three times before I got him down, and George Jones
killed three. Not one of them escaped. Lieut. Jackson said he
could not see why it was that they did not offer to defend
themselves, when they had four to one to start with, for the
Apaches have always been considered the bravest tribe of Indians
in the entire West, and they had been known at different times to
fight soldiers man to man. The last Indian I killed was beyond
doubt the best horseman I had ever seen among the Indians, for he
was first on one side of his horse and then on the other. It
seemed as though he could almost turn under the horses belly while
on the dead run, and he would swing himself around under his
breast, rendering it almost impossible to deal him a fatal shot,
for he frisked around so fast that a person could not get a bead
on him.
We arrived at camp that evening just at dark. During our absence a
train of emigrants consisting of twenty-one wagons had camped near
our quarters. They wanted an escort of twenty or twenty-five men
to accompany them to Fort Yuma, which they were willing to board
free of charge while on the trip.
Those emigrants were from Dallas, Texas, and apparently well-to-do
people. On learning that the Lieutenant was out on a scouting
tour, they prepared a nice supper for the three of us. The
following morning the Lieutenant detailed twenty men in charge of
a sergeant, to escort the emigrants to Fort Yuma. George Jones
went along as a scout and I remained with the command. They were
ten days making the trip, as the emigrants having ox teams,
traveled slowly. On the return of the escort the Lieutenant
concluded to move some fifty miles south on this road, where we
made our headquarters while we remained in this section of
country, being on a tributary of the Grand river, which runs down
through the western part of New Mexico.
One day while I was out on a scouting tour I ran on to a little
band of Navajo Indians on their way to the St. Louis Mountains for
a hunt. They had some blankets with them of their own manufacture,
and being confident that the Lieutenant had never seen a blanket
of that kind, I induced them to go with me to our quarters to show
their blankets to the Lieutenant and others as well. I told the
Lieutenant that he could carry water in one of those all day and
it would not leak through. We took one of them, he taking two
corners and I two, and the third man poured a bucket of water in
the center of it, and we carried it twenty rods and the water did
not leak through it. The Lieutenant asked how long it took to make
one of them, and the Indian said it took about six months. He
bought a blanket for five dollars, being about all the silver
dollars in the command. The blanket had a horse worked in each
corner, of various colors, also a man in the center with a spear
in his hand. How this could be done was a mystery to all of us, as
it contained many colors and showed identically the same on both
sides.
By this time our three months' supply was running short, and
Lieut. Jackson commenced making preparations to return to
headquarters with his entire command. We pulled out for the fort,
and did not see an Indian or even a fresh track on our way.
When we arrived at the fort and Lieut. Jackson made his report
Gen. Crook was more than pleased with the success we had met, and
I succeeded in getting George's wages raised from seventy-five to
one hundred dollars per month, unbeknown to him.
It was now in the fall of the year, and the General decided to
send us back again with two companies of cavalry and one company
of infantry, calculated more for camp and guard duty than for
actual service.
After we had rested up a month or such a matter the General had
six or eight mule teams rigged up, also fifty burros for pack
animals, and started Lieut. Jackson back again with three hundred
soldiers.