Arizona miner., 1868-06-06
Letter from Camp o'Connel.

O0IIlI March. and immediately organized a scouting force of Co. F.. lst Cav, Captain Carr and . Lieutenant Grant Co. l, Sth Cav, Major , Clendcnin and Lieut.; Ilassnu lith Inf, Post | Guide. Salazar, with lj days rations. On | the Sd of March they arrived here and were l joined by Co. A, 32d Inf Lieut.. Chlson 1 The latter Co. were armed with brocch-load l. ing Springfield rifles and the former with | Spencer carbnes and revolvers. The force numbered about TO men, General Alexan- der and Major Clendenin arrived before their command and had a talk with the Indians, some 2OO in number, under two chiefs, " Del chavhe" and "SkivithiH.' The former is the miraculous gentleman have spoken of before the latter is a Salt river chieitain and is Pinal. The General wished them to re- main in camp until he returned, and if they wished to give him dozen men as scouts or guides, all well, if not. to remain still and they would be safe, but any caught outside would be shot To this they agreed and sung all night. Next morning they received a beef, and as soon as the cavalry column
 made it's appearance over the hill, coming into camp, skiyithill and his tribe took to their heels, and made for the mountains. The [
 ring the forenoon most of his men left and about noon he departed in peace. At two o'clock the command was under way and
 camped at Tonto Creek the night of the 3d. | The next morning they proceeded direct for | the mountains on the east side. As We ! reached the entrance of the canon, on thcleft ] was a small hill on which Indians were stan i ding almost over the trail. The guide being ahead the Indians motioned him Co come up, which be did and found that Delchayhe was 1 there They immediately lit cigars and were ! joined by the Apache interpreter, Mr. Mur ! phy, Spanish interpreter being half way up | the hill When the General and head of the
 column arrived he wished to know of the
 chief what he wanted. The chief was now
 alone m Indian orderly standing about 20 paccs in the rear, the remainder being behind rocks The chief stood upon rock that pro-
 iected over the hill with his gun in his hand
 and having on blouse, shoulder-straps and a
 black hat He said he had come there to
 meet the Capitan to declare war against the
 Americans, Gs he had made up his mind to that since the night before. He required blood and ordered the General to leave his country He said the Capitan little (mean- ing Lieut.. Dubois) was a good man, but the
 Capitans grande were bad and he would not
 hear of peace with them. SkiyithIll withl GOO
 warriors was gone to attack our camp and
 herd and we would be wiped out of the coun-
 try in no time. All this was accompanied by
 formidable gestures and at last he broke into r the most abusive language. The General
 called the guide and interpreters down and
 soon after told some of the men to shut him up The words were not finished W hen half
 a dozen bullets greeted the chief who drop ped like a rock, leaving nothing to be seen of l i'm mt rh-ela hsa
 tonal flag-foating for an instant and then
 disappeared. The Infantry and Cavalr, mounted the hill immediately but the dead , Indian was nowhere 10 be fOtInd-aothiny but tin pail remained. The General, not
 wishing to lose time, moved on and when the
 rear guard was passing the Indians again
 came to the front and exchanged shots but
 without injury to either party, guess
 The march was continued to Bed rock can ' on where We camped for the night and star ted the next morning for Meadow valley and arrived there about o'clock, Sunday 5th, and
 saw no Indians. That night Indians were
 fired at by the pickets but no harm done There is plenty of timber here, many old
 ruins and the place is romantic looking but
 the meadow is a swamp. Here specimen of , quartz was produced with a solid vein of gold in it, but cannot vouch for its being found in the locality Mr Barnes citizen f.a.a g Mcdowell, Mir. Green. hay contractor at this camp, Mir. Murphy and Mir Brewington pros
 pected some with various results. Mir
 Barnes was itching to know where the first specimen was picked up but could not find
 out, though all agree that the color is there
 On Monday the Infantry started back, ac- companied by the General; Major Clendenin 5 and the Cavalry starting southeast In the direction of Fort Grant. As the Infantry
 climbed the hill, a sergeant of Co l. sth Cav who was returning sick, was some distance in the rear leading his horse, which had given l out when a shot was fired from the woods.
 hitting the horse in the flank with charge
 of 5uckshot. The sergeant and the Indians had it pretty warm for about fifteen minutes when squad of the rear guard went back, dislodged the Apaches and brought off the
 horse, which was shot soon after On arri
 wing at the top of the hill and looking in the
 direction the cavalry were taking, the cOun-
 try was studded with smokes as far as the
 eye coulG reach; complete telegraphing was
 going on from Meadow valley The Infantry
 marched in two days 10 this camp, loosine
 a mule on the road forgot to say that af-
 ter firing on the chief, the General immedi- ately dispatched corporal and men in to camp, with orders to capture all the Indians
 in and around there. Some half a dozen were
 still around and were put in confinement.
 The next night one buck bolted, was fired al
 and missed, and on reaching the hill over
 camp, made quite speech. cursing all Amer f jeans, &c. The day after, four Indians came
 in, under flag of truce, from Skiyithill 1;
 saying, as well as could be understood. that
 the chief was scared on seeing so many Amer
 jeans and ran away, but did not intend to be
 H. l