Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-12-14
LAST OF B TROOP.

Imagine a plain stretching away to the
east for 800 miles-a plain SO fiat and
sterile that its very monotony is menac-
ing; to the north foothills covered with
stunted pines, to the south a tongue of
sandy desert, to the west n succession of
barren ridges on which neither wolf nor
buzzard can find a drop of water nor a
morsel of food. Right there, 100 miles
from the nearest pioneer hamlet, they
built Fort Brown and garrisoned it with
men who thought of suicide day by day
as they looked upon the dreariness. There
were q skeleton company of infantry and
a skeleton company of cavalry-the last Of
B troop. There was a time in the history
of these horsemen when B numbered afull
hundred men and when it's officers were
the %proudest men in the regiment, but
there are fatalities in army life as well as
elsewhere.
One day over in Green valley as B troop
rode gayly along 500 Indian warriors rose
up in the dry gullies and emptied 40 sad
dies at the first volley. There was a court
of inquiry, and the captain resigned.
Again ton troopers were sent out to con-
voy a wagon train, and the Indians slaugh-
tered the whole number. In the lex three
months five troopers deserted and three
committed suicide. One afternoon the
first lieutenant of the troop rode out for a
hunt, but had not gone a mile when he
was thrown from his horse and killed.
Once more, two troopers were sent out to
catch a horse which had broken loose and
was cavorting around half a mile from the
post. They were on foot, and as they ran
they were bitten by rattlesnakes on which
they trod, and both were dead before sun
set. The army said that B troop was un.
der a hoodoo, and the remnant of the CON-
pany felt themselves almost outlawed. The
day they rode into Fort Brown they nun
bered 81 men, and they were under the
temporary command of a second lieuten-
ant. Captains and first lieutenants as
signed to B troop always fought off the
day of joining, and some had pull enough
at Washington to have the assignment
countermanded. There is superstition in
the army as well as out of it.
"Here is our graveyard" whispered the
men Of the troop as they caught sight Of
Fort Brown and it's lonesome environ
ment after their long ride to reach it.
They looked at the foothills to the north,
at the plain to the east, at the desert to
the south and the ridges to the west, and
man turned to man and repeated:
Here is our graveyard, the last of the
troop!'
If you know an unlucky man, you pity
him, but you also avoid him. The in
fantry at Fort Brown could not avoid the
unlucky troopers, but they pitied them
and displayed no fraternal feeling. 1t was
10 from the colonel down to the last pri-
vate. We smile in derision at the idea Of a
hoodoo, and yet we do not like to rub ell
bows with people who are pursued with
i'll luck. The freshly graduated cadet
knew nothing about the hoodoo when he
was assigned to B troop. With a boys
ambition and impatience he had hurried
from West Point and home into the wilds
of the far west to take active service. There
was no superstition about him. He heard
of the fatalities, he saw tho dispirited
look of the remnant of the once gallant
troop, he was made to realize that he was
under a ban, as it were, but he was not
disheartened.
Amy AOooIuo VAL CCiA yoV Vhoo An"P
pened at Fort Brown within a week after
b troop rode through the gates. line IN
fantry had been there for three months,
but not an Indian had been seen. A cor
poral and three men were sent to the foot
hills after fuel, when they fell into an am
and were cut on. Inc four troop
ers were mounted, II yet all were Killed,
while the teamster made a safe escape on
foot. This was the hoodoo again. That
there might be no cavil ABOUT IL a trooper
hung himself in the barracks that night.
Thus five more men were wiped OIL the
rolls within a week, and The troop reduced
to .
The colonel at Fort Brown had received
the young officer half in welcome, half in
PITY. he knew the history OF d troop, ana
he realized that any connection with 1t
must cast a shadow on the career OF an
o11cer. Had he been IN command OF the
department ne would have recommended
the troop be consolidated and Its name
lost on the rolls. IN loss of the five men
gave the colonel anxious thought. No one
could be held to blame. 1t was simply n
the fatalities which had so persistently
pursued the troop. One day ne got news
which determined him on a certain step,
and he sent for the young lieutenant n
"A scout is in with the information that
a band Of hostiles Is headed for Browns
Valley. That Is where the pioneers who
IN mo a1onu tyo uaeks auo were going To