The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-18

VIZ apoShS AeN AS
the PROSTATE st. Vrain, when Don Man
uel, shooting a foe who was almost upon
him, wheeled and crushed the skull of
St. Vrain's assailant with the barrel of
his ponderous rifle.
In 1855 he led a regiment of volunteers
on a six months campaign against the
Utes, making a brilliant record therein.
In 1857 he accompanied General Lor-
inc's command in the wal against Cuchil-
10 Negro BLACK Knife, the most re-
doubtable of all Apache warriors. He
captured the savage chief with his own
hand in a desperate night attack in a
gloomy canyon where his scouts had
found the camp of the hostiles. General
Loring was greatly elated 6y this cap
ture, but the prisoner was murdered by
the officer left to guard him. turbu.
lent man who afterward met a violent
death.
In 1860, when a large band of Navajos
made one of their characteristic raids on
the Rio Grande settlements and drove off
5000 sheep, Colonel Chaves pursued
them with fourteen men. He overlook
the hostiles a. nightfall at Ojo de la
Monica and routed them; but in the
morning found his camp surrounded by
several hundred Navajos. From dawn
till dark of that desperate day the fifteen
heroes withstood the wild charges of the
swarming savages, each fighting from
behind his tree. One by n the brave
New Mexicans sank back on the red
soaked earth, bristling with arrows; and
at nightfall only two OF them were left
Colonel Chaves and Roman Sanches-
both fearfully wounded. A company of
soldiers from Fort Craig arrived just in
time to save them. In that ghastly
struggle Colonel Chaves had fired his
clumsy muzzle- loader eighty times, and
for every shot an Indian or a horse had
fallen. He had two bullets left when
the arrival of the troops ended the fight.
That was the kind of war they had on
the early frontier.
In a dozen other Indian outbreaks,
before and after those to which I have
so briefly alluded, Colonel Chaves dis.
himself by the same cool
bravery, the same dauutless will and the
same matchless skill as a marksman.
When the Civil War broke out Colonel
Chayes took command of the Second
Regiment New Mexico Volunteers, and
did brilliant service in this out-of-the-
way corner of the Union.
When Colonel Chaves returned to his
lonely home at Ojuelos it was only to
find that the Indians had despoiled him
of everything-his horses and cattle, his
80, 900 sheep, crops and ,all-and left
him penniless, a blow from which he
never fully rallied his affairs, though his
industry never left him in want.
After New Mexico's share in the war
was over, there was still more than two
decades of frequent Indian outbreaks
within her broad borders, in most of
which Colonel Chaves was a prominent
figure. On one occasion his lambing
camp at the Salada was dumped" by a
large force of raiding Apaches. The
few shepherds were too badly frightened
to fight much, and all would lave been
killed but for the GOODNESS of Don Man
uel. Posting each man behind a tree,
with a promise that he himself would
shoot the first who dared run-and they
dreaded his matchless aim even more
than they did the Indians-he took his
ten-year-old boy by the hand and ran up
the hill a few rods as a feint. The In
dians, seeing his flight, dashed straight
into the camp without their accustomed
preliminary mauGuvres to see of what
stuff their enemies might be made. AS
one grabbed up Colonel Chaves's priceless
Navajo blanket from beside the fire he
fell sprawling with an ounce bullet
through his brain. Another snatched
the blanket and Colonel Chaves called to
one of his companions to shoot. But
when he saw the poor fellows hand
trembling so that he could scarce hold
his gun, the Colonel shouted, "Wait!
Don't shoot" He hurriedly rammed
another charge into his old muzzle-
loader, and although by that time the
Indian had got so far that he felt him
self safe, the unerring bullet caught him
as he ran and tore his neck nearly in
twain. By that time the shepherds had
recovered their senses and gave the In
dams such gallant resistance that the lat
ter soon withdrew, carrying away some
valuable horses, but no scalps.
All, what a ri1e-shot the withered,
wiry old man was, even when I knew
him, in his old age! New Mexico has
never had another such marksman as he
was in his prime; and his six-foot muz-
~zle-loading rife of enormous calibre was
never excelled by the finest modern arms
that tried conclusion with it. In all his
long life-in nearly fifty years of which
not six months at a time were ever with
out warfare-he never was known to
miss but one shot. And never did be
have to shoot twice at bear or deer, and
seldom more than once at human foes. I
shall never forget my mingled amuse-
ment and awe at an incident which &C.
Cured when he was s~eventy-two years
old and suffering fearfully from a cata-
ract in his eye. We were out with his
grandson, Ro'Iolfo Otero-a gallant lad
and fine rihe-shot. Rodolfo had a fine
Winchester with which he did some ex-
tremely clever shooting. "Try it, grand
pa" he kept urging the worn, old man,
bent and wasted by disease. He had
never trusted our modern magazine guns,
but at last yielded to Rodolfo's entreat-
les.