Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-16
Written for The EVENING STAR.
WILD RIDES IN THE WEST.
With the Apache Cattle Thieves and
Apache TraiIers.
A RAID on THE VERDE VALLEY, ARIzoNA-A
MOUNTAIN CLIMB-THE GAME IN sIGHT-DE-
sERTISd ALLIEs-A CHARGE OF CAVALRY
FLIGHT OF APACHEs AND MIDNIGHT PURSUIT
Copyright 1891

General Crook was completing in 1874 thu
task of subjugating hitherto intractable tribe
and no man ever commanded in Arizona whe
better knew the Apaches, treated them better
when they would behave or thrashea them bet
ter when they wouldn't. All his predecessor,
had found their methods too slow for so nimbl,
an enemy. PERCEPTIONS mountains, jagged ant
impossible canyons and scorching deserts al
aided the Indians and hampered the troops
Finally the government selected Crook. despite
the fact that he was then only Mathematical
onel, and gave him command of that disma
{ department on his brevet rank of general. sem
| him a regiment OF cavalry to replace one that
had some years of unlucky experiences in the
| territory, and the general himself took the
| ne!d and practically taught the new troopers
now to tackle mountain Indians. He had
learned the trick years before the war of the
| rooelllon. Tribe after tribe and band after
band did he whip into submission. and finally
III "A they were nearly all gathered into great
reservations. and there remained out in the
mountains of northeastern Arizona only few
! scattered parties, prominent among them be
| ing the adherents of two bull-headed chiefs
| known as EskimInzin and Eskeltetsee. These
"hostlles" were nearly all of the Tonic and
Sierra Blanca tribes.
| TRAILING RENEGADEs
All the spring and summer of IA the genera
had scouting parties of cavalry, eaca with it:
complement of Indian allies for traiIers and it.
/ little train of pack mules. hunting through the
mountains for these recalcitrants. and the order,
| were, when we found them. to fight it out then
! and there. The two northeasternmOst station,
OF the troops were at that time Camp Verde
! some 80 miles by road east of prescOtt-and
| Camp Apache-dOwn among the foothills OF
| the Mogoilon range of mountaius-aud it was
from these points that the detachments sailed
| forth on their RAIDS. They also served a.
| guards for the great Verde and San Carlos
reservations. where thousands of the once
| fierce and untamable Apaches were now living
IN apparent peace and contentment. The Older
officers remained in garrison with the infantry
and the youngsters were kept at the tirciesl
work. l was then first lieutenant of TX
troop OF the fifth cavalry and stationed al
| Verde. We had had some lively fights with
! the Apaches along the Black Mesa and down in
the Ionto basin in May and June and then
came summers rest. during which we hardly
had scout. Early i'll the autumn. however il
was demonstrated that the renegades, rein
forced by some young men from the reserva-
tons, were again showing in the mountains to
the southeast Of us, and once more the cavalry
were called on to find and fight them.
CATTLE THIEVES.
| had been making survey of the military
| reservation at Camp Verde and was busy with
my maps one warm October afternoon when
some herders came riding in to the post and
reported to the commanding officer that a war
party OF Apaches had swOOped down from the
Red Rock" country northeast of us two day
before and had run off lot of their cattle
! They had trailed them. supposing at first the
cattle had merely stampeded and strayed, but
Ionic moccasln prints soon told the story and
they came back to give the alarm and beg that
their beef might be reCaptured. The maraud-
ers had a big start, of course. but could not 90
very fast They had taken a course indicating
that they were making for the neighborhood
OF Snow lake, over toward the Colorado Chi
quito, and i'll half an hour l was in the saddle
and gallopng up the Verde valley to the In
dian reservation twenty miles away NV orders
We're to find my cOmrade. Lieut.. SCHUYLER who
was there III command. get fifteen or twenty
Indian scouts and return to the post as soon as
possible. Meantime Col Mason and Lieut.
Eaton would organize party to be ready to
start at daybreah on the morrow.
GETTING READY.
Unluckiiy, the scouts i wanted were gone
and instead of the Apache-Mohaves, who had
been my trailers earlier in the season-and
good ones too-Schuyler had nothing to offer
but some Apache-Yumas whom did not know
at all and whom he could not especially recon-
mend. Even they were out hunting some
where, but he could have them sent for, armed
and equipped and hurried down to the gar
rison that evening. We turned about there
post, arriving there soon after sunset with
appetItes for supper. you may be sure after
our 4O-mile jaunt. Meantime 20 men from AZ
and *" troops had been selected, and with
Lieut.. Eaton for second in command, old
Harry Halves for packmaster, and the Apache
Iumas for scouts and trailers. was ordered to
start at dawn and recapture the cattle and
''larrup" the cattle thieves. Late that night
while Eaton and l were writing our home let
tiers sometimes our officers and men never
70 nf ftnr e.
clatter of hoofs coming up the hill behind our
adobe quarters, and the Apac hey umas arrived.
They were given something to eat and place
to camp for the night, and then We too, turne i
in for a snooZe.
AN EARLY START.
At $50 in the morning we were up again.
dressed in our rough and serviceable mountain
rig, and at 5-just as the trumpets we're sound
ing first call for reveille, we filed out from the
corrals; forded the Verde river and rode swiftly
away northeastward. My purpose was to go as
far as Arnolds ranch; bivouac there until dusk;
then begin the ascent of the mountains when
the sharpest eyed lookouts of the Indians could
not see us. OF course all the reservations knew
by this time that a party was going out, and
before nightfall Eaton and were convinced
that our scouts were most reluctant to go with
US. Winding up the valley of Beaver creek in
the early morning we had reached the ranch at
O'Clock and unsadded in the grove at the
cuSc VI tIe stream. mere we ma all uily long,
while Eaton and / had talk with Wales
Arnold, the owner, about the trail over the
mountains. There was fair road, but very
roundabout one, leaving the valley some miles
to the north and making a wide circuit sweep
ing around east OF us to StOneman's lake some
4O miles away. 1t was my plan to make might
marches and take the short cut over the range
feeling confident that We could strike the trail
OF the captured cattle before we reached the
lake, and that once across the range we could
had occasionally taken this short cut said Mr..
Arnold, and though our Apache-Yumas shook
their heads and declared they never heard of it,
we had with us a trooper who had ridden across
within the last three months and who thought
he could follow it by night as well as by day.
UP THE MOUNTAINS.
Just at dusk we saddled, mounted. and with a
"good luck to you" from Arnold and his ranch
people, away We went. There was no moon.
and, though crisp starlit night, it was very
dark when we began our climb up the rocky
sides OF the first canyon and the ascent of the
range. Riding in Arizona, for mountain scout
ing purposes, differed from any riding had
ever done before or have done since, in that
pardon the Hibernianism) it was mostly
walking. The mountains are so PERCEPTIONS
that one has to dismount and lead or follow his
horse. The whole command moves in single
| file with the Apache scouts, generally in front
then the commanding officers, then the troop
ers, and finally the pack train. This march of
| ours the night of October % was no exception
| to the rule. Hour after hour we slipped. slid.
tugged and climbed over loose finty rocks
ana Jagged stones, up up, up, twisting, turn