Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-10-30
THE SOLDIERS SIDE.
What the Privztes in Companies A and H, Sixth Cavalry, Say of tho Campaign Their Repu- tatioa Suffers from oficial Incapaeity

Arizona seems to be similarly afflicted
 as was Denmark, for in a race of about | two hundred miles, with an even start at ! the beginning and almost another in the
 Dragoon mountains, that band of In- | dians, hampered with women, children
 and chattels, with time to pillage and l kill, should escape almost scot free from
 an organized body of troops, drilled and l equipped for such occasions, with num-
 bers far exceeding the first, and whose
 movements were facilitated by the many
 modern appliance at their command, the poverty of the result bespeaks failure, but it would be unfair to attribute it.
 under the caption of Military Incapaci- | ty'-to the common soldier, whose long days and weary midnight marchings were nullified, to say the least, by lack of
 knowledge on the part of their superiors.
 The soldiers complain of unfair criti- cisms and offer in their own behalf their 1 record of the past campaign. The first
 move from Grant began at II o'clock on the night of August 3l to Camp Thomas,
 which was reached by noon the day fol- lowing, arriving in Rocky Canyon about
 midnight of October 2d and in Camp Apache at o'clock on the morning of the 4th. Resting one day they were sent to inter the dead soldiers and citizens that were lying unburied on the trail of the Seven Mile Hill. Two of the soldiers belonged to the Twelfth Infan- sry and had been stationed at the ferry on Black river, the other was a bearer of dispatches and member of the Sixth Cavalry. Of the citizens, one was mail carrier, the other four being at that time unknown. One had evidently been burned in the wagon, hls charred re- mains being found in the ashes. Every
 man had been shot twice and their brains beaten out In box on the road were a number of empty, reloadable cartridge shells, which the Indians had evidently thrown from the wagon before destroy ing 1t. The supposition that the shells
 were the result of desperate defense is
 not tenablc, inasmuch as part of them
 were still in the bex, the balarce having fallen on the road when the box was thrown from the wagon. The return march was made to Apache, where they remained until the 10th. The different companies stationed there took turns in
 making side scouts every night. On
 the morning of the 18th they were ra-
 rationed for two weeks and ordered to Cibicu, arriving there on the third day
 out. They reburied the body of Hentig
 and his seven soldiers, all of whom had been unearthed and mutilated. After
 scouting for several days and nights m
 the White mountains they returned
 to San Carlos and from there to
 the sub-agency, on the Gils, with
 orders to act under Riddle Tn making the arrest of the paroled chief
 George The failure was most misCr- able, although it was noticed by the least observing that among the Indians some
 thing unusual was a-foOt. The bucks were everywhere gathering mp their stock, which the squaws hurriedly 1rove to the river for water, but still, to the soldiers. the expectant order came not until the sub-agency on the Gila knew the nations wards no more, and a band of red-handed devils were loosed upon the country to massacre its inhabit- ants, to wreck and stagnate its trade. Marched to Thomas on the same night and on the day following ordered to take up the trail of the hostile Chineahuas, and by noon of the second day reached the Cottonwoods, where an attempt was made to cook dinner, but learning from two couriers that the Indians were at, or about. Cedar Springs. the troops were hurried on. leaving their half-coOked dinner to the next conner. Here they were joined by three citizens anxious to drink Apache biood. In the conflict that followed, ammunition failed and Company A was sent back to hurry up the train. A mile to the rear they sighted the boastful trio doing guard duty m a
 canyon where even straybullets would have been strangers. Leaving the battle
 ground at II p. m. Camp Grant was made by o'clock Tn the morning and Wilcox
 by o'clock the same evening. The next morning horses and men were transferred by rail to Dragoon
 Pass, engaging the Indians all day
 and doing guard duty all night Up early the next morning they followed
 the trail of the escaping Indians tlll
 near nightfall, when they left the trail
 and went to the Soldiers Holes, where
 they unsaddled their horses for the first
 time in 4S Ihours. At the Holes they