The Fight of Buckshot Roberts--_Encounter Between a Crippled Ex-Soldier
and the Band of Billy the Kid_--_One Man Against Thirteen._
Next to the fight of Wild Bill with the McCandlas gang, the fight of
Buckshot Roberts at Blazer's Mill, on the Mescalero Indian reservation,
is perhaps the most remarkable combat of one man against odds ever known
in the West. The latter affair is little known, but deserves its record.
Buckshot Roberts was one of those men who appeared on the frontier and
gave little history of their own past. He came West from Texas, but it
is thought that he was born farther east than the Lone Star state. He
was long in the United States army, where he reached the rank of
sergeant before his discharge; after which he lingered on the frontier,
as did very many soldiers of that day. He was at one time a member of
the famous Texas rangers, and had reputation as an Indian fighter. He
had been badly shot by the Comanches. Again, he was on the other side,
against the rangers, and once stood off twenty-five of them, although
nearly killed in this encounter. From these wounds he was so badly
crippled in his right arm that he could not lift a rifle to his
shoulder. He was usually known as "Buckshot" Roberts because of the
nature of his wounds.
Roberts took up a little ranch in the beautiful Ruidoso valley of
central New Mexico, one of the most charming spots in the world; and all
he asked was to be let alone, for he seemed able to get along, and not
afraid of work. When the Lincoln County War broke out, he was recognized
as a friend of Major Murphy, one of the local faction leaders; but when
the fighting men curtly told him it was about time for him to choose his
side, he as curtly replied that he intended to take neither side; that
he had seen fighting enough in his time, and would fight no man's battle
for him. This for the time and place was treason, and punishable with
death. Roberts' friends told him that Billy the Kid and Dick Brewer
intended to kill him, and advised him to leave the country.
It is said that Roberts had closed out his affairs and was preparing to
leave the country, when he heard that the gang was looking for him, and
that he then gave them opportunity to find him. Others say that he went
up to Blazer's Mill to meet there a friend of his by the name of Kitts,
who, he heard, had been shot and badly wounded. There is other rumor
that he went up to Blazer's Mill to have a personal encounter with Major
Godfroy, with whom there had been some altercation. There is a further
absurd story that he went for the purpose of killing Billy the Kid, and
getting the reward which was offered for him. These latter things are
unlikely. The probable truth is that he, being a brave man, though fully
determined to leave the country, simply found it written in his creed to
go up to Blazer's Mill to see his supposedly wounded friend, and also to
see what there was in the threats which he had heard.
There are living three eye-witnesses of what happened at that time:
Frank and George Coe, ranchers on the Ruidoso to-day, and Johnnie
Patten, cook on Carrizzo ranch. Patten was an ex-soldier of H Troop,
Third Cavalry, and was mustered out at Fort Stanton in 1869. At the time
of the Roberts fight, he was running the sawmill for Dr. Blazer. Frank
Coe says that he himself was attempting to act as peacemaker, and that
he tried to get Roberts to give up his arms and not make any fight.
Patten says that he himself, at the peril of his life, had warned
Roberts that Dick Brewer, the Kid, and his gang intended to kill him. It
is certain that when Roberts came riding up on a mule, still wet from
the fording of the Tularosa river, he met there Dick Brewer, Billy the
Kid, George Coe, Frank Coe, Charlie Bowdre, Doc Middleton, one
Scroggins, and Dirty Steve (Stephen Stevens), with others, to the number
of thirteen in all. These men still claimed to be a posse, and were
under Dick Brewer, "special constable."
The Brewer party withdrew to the rear of the house. Frank Coe parleyed
with Roberts at one side. Kate Godfroy, daughter of Major Godfroy,
protested at what she knew was the purpose of Brewer and his gang. Dick
Brewer said to his men, "Don't do anything to him now. Coax him up the
road a way."
Roberts declined to give up his weapons to Frank Coe. He stood near the
door, outside the house. Then, as it is told by Johnnie Patten, who saw
it all, there suddenly came around upon him from behind the house the
gang of the Kid, all gun fighters, each opening fire as he came. The
gritty little man gave back not a step toward the open door. Crippled by
his old wounds so that he could not raise his rifle to his shoulder, he
worked the lever from his hip. Here were a dozen men, the best fighting
men of all that wild country, shooting at him at a distance of not a
dozen feet; yet he shot Jack Middleton through the lungs, though failing
to kill him. He shot a finger off the hand of George Coe, who then left
the fight. Roberts then half stepped forward and pushed his gun against
the stomach of Billy the Kid. For some reason the piece failed to fire,
and the Kid was saved by the narrowest escape he ever had in his life.
Charlie Bowdre now appeared around the corner of the house, and Roberts
fired at him next. His bullet struck Bowdre in the belt, and cut the
belt off from him. Almost at the same time, Bowdre fired at him and shot
him through the body. He did not drop, but staggered back against the
wall; and so he stood there, crippled of old and now wounded to death,
but so fierce a human tiger that his very looks struck dismay into this
gang of professional fighters. They actually withdrew around the house
and left him there!
Each claimed the credit for having shot the victim. "No," said Charlie
Bowdre, "I shot him myself. I dusted him on both sides. I saw the dust
fly out on both sides of his coat, where my bullet went clean through
him." They argued, but they did not go around the house again.
Roberts now staggered back into the house. He threw down his own
Winchester and picked up a heavy Sharps' rifle which belonged to Dr.
Appel, and which he found there, in Dr. Blazer's room. Brewer told Dr.
Blazer to bring Roberts out, but, like a man, Blazer refused. Roberts
pulled a mattress off the bed to the floor and threw himself down upon
it near an open window in the front of the house. The gang had
scattered, surrounding the house. Dick Brewer had taken refuge behind a
thirty-inch sawlog near the mill, just one hundred and forty steps from
the window near which this fierce little fighting man was lying, wounded
to death. Brewer raised his head just above the top of the sawlog, so
that he could see what Roberts was doing. His eyes were barely visible
above the top of the log, yet at that distance the heavy bullet from
Roberts' buffalo gun struck him in the eye and blew off the top of his
head.
Billy the Kid was now leader of the posse. His first act was to call his
men together and ride away from the spot, his whole outfit whipped by a
single man! There was a corpse behind them, and wounded men with them.
Thirty-six hours later there was another corpse at Blazer's Mill. The
doctor, brought over from Fort Stanton, could do nothing for Roberts,
and he died in agony. Johnnie Patten, sawyer and rough carpenter, made
one big coffin, and in this the two, Brewer and Roberts, were buried
side by side. "I couldn't make a very good coffin," says Patten, "so I
built it in the shape of a big V, with no end piece at the foot. We just
put them both in together." And there they lie to-day, grim
grave-company, according to the report of this eye-witness, who would
seem to be in a position indicating accuracy. Emil Blazer, a son of Dr.
Blazer, still lives on the site of this fierce little battle, and he
says that the two dead men were buried separately, but side by side,
Brewer to the right of Roberts. The little graveyard holds a few other
graves, none with headboards or records, and grass now grows above them
all.
The building where Roberts stood at bay is now gone, and another adobe
is erected a little farther back from the raceway that once fed the old
mountain sawmill, but which now is not used as of yore. The old flume
still exists where the water ran over onto the wheel, and the site of
the old mill, which is now also torn down, is easily traceable. When the
author visited the spot in the fall of 1905, all these points were
verified and the distances measured. It was a long shot that Roberts
made, and down hill. The vitality of the man who made it, his courage,
and his tenacity alike of life and of purpose against such odds make
Roberts a man remembered with admiration even to-day in that once bloody
region.