The Tombstone epitaph., 1882-05-20
THE ARIZONA TROOPS.
Credit Where Credit is Due-Tupper, not FOrsythe, the Hero of the
 Late Campaign.

The New Mexico press, with singular unanimity, unite in glorifying General Forsythe for his action and gallantry dur. ing the recent campaign. Far be it from us to remove the laure.s from the brow of an officer who has nobly won them, but in this instance we are convinced that the laurels have been placed on the wrong brow. It is well enough that an officer should exert himself to place laurels on his brow, but not the proper thing for him to browse upon his laurels when he did not fairly earn them. The records of the recent campaign against Loco will show that Forsythe struck the Indians at Steen's Peak, when he had under his command five companies of cavalry, and got rather ingloriOusly whipped. At least he re treated, left the hcstiles on the battle ground, and later in the day when he went to an adjacent stream to water his stock, the Indians renewed the contest and he absolutely retreated. The Indians, failing to get fight out of him, continued their depredatory expedition south, and struck in the vicinity of Galley. vile some time during the night. Here Tupper, in command of Arizona troops took the trail, and fol lowed it closely until he caught the In dians at the Sierra Piedras. Tupper had under his command two companies of cavalry, two companies of scouts and three pack trains FOrsythe was twenty-iour hours behind Tuppei during this entire march, and with the above command to make trail for him lt was hardly neces- sary to employ scouts to keep the straight road. These are the absolute facts in the case Tupper jumped the trail near Galley. vile and marched night and day until he succeeded Tn surrounding the Indians, as described in former issue, gave them battle, killed sixteen of the hostles for an absolute certainty, captured seventy-four head of stock, killed fifteen and wounded nearly half the entire fighting force of the hostiles. This is what the real history of the campaign can prove. Forsythe is glotitied because he followed the trail over two mountain ranges. He should indeed be blind if he failed in that, as Tupper's two companies, scouts and pack traIns were ahead of him to beatthe path. Where then are Forsythe's we'll earned laurels Tupper fought the hostiles alone, and had he known that Forsythe was on
 HIS TRAIL
 Would undoubtedly hold the Indians in
 
 endorsements and ammunition. As it was, Tupper, after thoroughly whipping them, withdrew ten miles backwards on his trall, and the Indians escaped along the Janas valley and run into the arms of Garcia. Alter retreating, Tupper was more than three hours Tn camp before rorsythe came up, It will be remembered in this connection that Tupper struck the Indians at dawn and fought them until II, then re. treated ten miles and was three hours in camp when Forsythe came up. Of course Forsythe, being the ranking officer, then assumed command, and with singular modesty, took the credit for the entire bu- sihess. Next morning the entire body moved out and encountered Garcia in a skirt of timber at the lower end of the valley. Tue credit so lavishly bestowed upon the Mexican troops and commanding officer is not borne out by the facts. The hostiles and Mexicans accidentally met in d skirt of timber, and it was either kill or be killed from the first The Mexican troops fought gallantly but with despera- tion. It was almost hand to hand en- counter, several of the Indians being bayo- neted and pounded to death with the butts of guns, A subsequent examination 9''N'NN th"t hSbiiJ VI tilO hiiICu by Garcia were more or less wounded, and the captives stated that the wounds were inflicted in the fight with Tupper. Thus 1t cfn be seen how much General Forsythe had ;o do with the real work of the cam- paign. He simply followed in the track of Tupper, and doubtless would not have pro ceeded so fast if he was not convinced that a good robust command unGer the leader ship of gallant officer was in advance of him. The Arizona troops under Tupper were the heroes of the war. They struck the trail at the earliest moment and kept it hot until the great body of the bos,iles were cold in The arms of death.
 As an evidence of the damage done by the past course of the Tombstone press, it IS only necessary to peruse the comments of the outside press upon the state of society in Charles ton. An unusually quiet town is made the subject of abusive editorials as untrue in statement of facts as the | Nights. l