Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-05-01

uel, shooting foe who was almost upon
him, wheeled and crushed the skull of
St. Vrain's assailant with the barrel OF
his ponderous rifle.
In 1856 he led regiment Of volunteers
on six months campaign against the
Utes, making a brilliant record therein.
In 1857 he accompanied General Lor-
ing's command in the war 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
gloomy canyon where his scouts had
found the camp of the hostiles. General
Loring was greatly elated oy this cap
ture, but the prisoner was murdered by
the officer left to guard him-a turbu.
lent man who afterward met violent
death.
in 1860, when a large baud Of Navajos
made one of their characteristic raids on
the Rio Grande settlements and drove of
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
swarmiDg savages, each fighting from
behind his tree. One by one 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 Sauches-
both fearfully wounded. A company of
soldiers from Fort Craig arrived just in
time to save them. In that ghastly
struggle Colonel Chaves had fred his
clumsy muzzle-loader eighty times, '.Id
for every shot an Indian or horse had
fallen. He had two bullets left when
the arrival of the troops ended :he fight.
That was the kind of war they had on
the early frontier.
In dozen other Indian outbreaks,
before and after those to which l have
so briefly alluded, Colonel Chaves dis.
tinguished himself by the same cool
bravery, the same dauntless will and the
same matchless skill as a marksman.
When the Civil War broke out Colonel
Chaves 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
$4,000 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
large force of raiding Apaches. The
few shepherds were too badly frightened
to fight much, and all would have been
killed but for the GOODNESS of Don Man
uel. Posting each man behind 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-yearold boy by the hand and ran up
the hill few rods as a feint. The In
dians, seeing his flight, dashed straight
into the camp without their accustomed
preliminary maueuvres to see of what |
stuff their enemies might be made. As
one grabbed up Colonel Chaves's priceless
Navajo blankes 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 I
his gun, the Colonel shouted, "Wait!
Don't shoot" He hurriedly rammed |
another charge into his old muzzIe-
loader, and although by that time the
Indian had got so far that he fel. him
self safe, the uuerriug 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
dians such gallant resistance that the lat