The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-06-25

seen, the squaws having driven of the
cattle and the bucks having mounted the
ponies.
SOME LIVELY FIGHTING.
Colonel Carson and his men charged the
~village-charge after charge-which the IN
dams returned in good military style.
Meanwhile Captain Pettis and battery ar
rived. mounted on a knoll, and opened fire
with shell. At this the Kiowas and Conan
ches retreated, with the announced verdict
that they couldn't stand a gun which shoots
twice"-a vivid description of the startling
surprise conveyed by the explosive shell.
On the retreat OF the Indians Carson's
men were withdrawn to the river, half a
mile away and allowed TO get breakfast.
ever. the yelling Indians charged again; and
Colonel Carson deployed half his men as
skirmishers.. while the other half ate their
breakfast: they, In turn, relieving the Skin
mishers. firing on both sides going on all the
time. DR.. Needham describes breakfast gar
nished with Comanche war whoops as not
quite the most composing diet known 10 his
experience. After breakfast all of the
horses were sent TO the rear and the sol
top deep from 9 o'clock until II, the Indians
remaining mounted, lighting in three re-
serves. About Il o'clock the red men fired
make smoke so they could run into 1t and
shoot under its cover. A back fire was or
dered by Kit Carson. and as soon as il
reached the horses they were again moved
to the rear. After this the men lay on the
hot ground, still fighting. At 4 o'clock in
the afternoon a hot hand-to-hand fight oc-
CURED between a mounted detachment Of
the First California Cavalry, their thirty
Ute Indian guides and the Kiowas and
Comanches. In this engagement three SOL
diers and five Utes were killed; on the other
side. loss unknown, but the Indians were
9eLnPorarhy routed. As ammunluon was
train. ten miles in the rear, fighting every
inch Of the ground. At 10 O'Clock at night
the train was reached and a welcome REIN
forcement of 100 fresh men. A night attack
was expected, but it did not occur. and, next
morning, not an Indian was 70 be seen. In
this campaign but few of Carson's men
were killed. while many Kiowas and
Comanches dropped and were carried off,
In all Indian warfare, DR.. Needham holds:
the exhilaration: the crafty. tricky nature
of the Indian. and the rugged character of
the country over which he has to be pur-
sued. The white man stands up TO fight, but
the Indian creeps, skulks, lodges from bush
to bush. and the soldier has always to Won
him before he catches the red warrior. Ex-
cept in case Of ambush. the government
losses were not heavy, soldiers being good
To fight Indians with any degree of success,
however the white man has to meet them
on their own rules of etiquette-creep, skulk,
hide and otherwise play Indian"
THE CANYON DUCHESNE
During the campaign with the Navajos a
detachment of 200 picked men from Colonel
Carson's regiment, under Capt. Albert H.
P~feiffer, of Company H-a famous Indian
hghter and scout, and a man whose COM
pany OF Mexicans had once mutinied, shoot
ing him almost to pieces-Was detailed to ac-
complish what was loosely known as 'the
cleaning out of Canyon Duchesne." This
Famous canyon, then the hotbed Of the Nava-
20 tribe, was about three miles long, 200 to
aO feet wide, lying between Fort Defiance
ana the WaSaCh maintains A Shallow
stream coursed through the center Of the
canyon, and its perpendicular cliffs of red
seemed almost to come together at the top,
SO narrow was the strip Of blue sky which
could could e seen by looking upward In the
or the -Navajos, followed in the rock, and
reached only by rude steps made in the
face of the picturesque sandstone. 1t was
when the soldiers entered the canyor. with
Instructions TO. discipline the swarming In
dams In their inaccessible strongholds. The
charge was made on foot, as the bed of the
canyon was impassible to horses. Two
oIackass batteries" or small cannon mount
ed on mule saddles constructed for that pur-
pose. constituted the artillery backing the
infantry. The detail was to enter at the
head Of the canyon and meet the rest of the
regiment at the other end. They were at
once attacked by the Navajos, who fired
upon them from the sides and tops OF the
salute in kind, assisted by the batteries,
and the gun music" DR.. Needham AYERS.
supplemented by the Navajo yells and the
noise OF the rocks which they rolled down
upon the soldiers made a war uproar be-
You'd imagination. A battery shell fired into
one of. the caves killed. it was afterward
learned, fifty or sixty Indians. one souaw
being the sole survivor. Carson's soldiers
made the passage OF Canyon Duchesne with
but the loss OF one man, three being wound
ed. TIL red cliffs were spotted white where
many bullets had hit, firing from the bottom
being necessarily inaccurate. This Navajo
engagement, while complete in all exciting
and dangerous elements of Indian warfare.
was not considered a military success, and
the regiment returned to the fort. Canyon
Ducnesne had been previously raided by
General Sumner. with equally unsatisfactory
was newly established, Company NJ. of Car
sons command, was a part of the garrison,
the fort was really nothing more than a
and the soldiers living in tents. The caval-
~ troops were occupied in scouting TO pro-
tect the fort from Indian surprises, and at
one time, while on the alert for several
weeks against a reported approach Of the
Texas Rangers via the Luna Estaccada.
border. TO guard against unheralded attacks
from that quarter. No suffers store was yet
In operation at the camp, and in January
or February the supply of tobacco gave out.
As officers and men used a goodly quantity
of this chief solace of the Western SOL
diers. the situation was disturbing. officers
dared be, with tobacco no nearer than Fort
Stanton, 125 miles distant in the Captain
mountains, the WILD country between being
thickly infested by Apaches and Muscu-
lares. both known as bad citizens"
A TOBACCO EXPEDITION.
In March, 1863, Captain Updegraff, COM
handing officer. decided to send some dis
patches to Fort Stanton, and at the same
time obtain tobacco. Captain Deus, of Com
pany VI, was instructed TO detail three men
for the trip, and Lieut.. Hugh j. Needham,
with two Mexicans as guides, left the fort
on the hazardous errand at 3 o'clock in the
afternoon with two pack animals in charge.
Fifteen miles were made before camping
the first night, only the bowls of wolves dis
turbing the stiffness. The next day fifty
miles were safely covered and a water hole
reached just at nightfall. Fresh pony tracks
not more than an hour or two old were
there discovered, and fighting time seemed
desperately near at hand. Little sleep
visited the men that night. After an early
morning Start-not in the b.itheSt spirits,
three men being small odds against a possi-
bic fifty or seventy-five Apache bucks-the
little expedition assembled a knoll, or mesa,
TO spy with relief a drove of wild mustangs.
innocent perpetrators Of the mi fresh
pony tracks seen the night before. Fort
stanton was reached the next day, and the
tobacco relief party, with the precious weed
In store. was escorted back to Fort Sumner
by a small detachment of Company L, First
Cavalry, New Mexican Volunteers. A party
OF citizens was murdered by the Apaches
on this trail 10 Fort Stanton shortly after