The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-09-09

the high AIazatzsI range. past deserted
Fort Reno. through Tonic creek valley
and over the Sierra -Anchas. He ar
rived at Sigsbv's only few hours
after the last Indian had departed and
1t was his hand that first shook that
OF the brave frontiersman- But there
was work for him ahead Leaving
Slgsby 20 bury his dead, he pushed
on at killing pace Thirty-twO miles
were covered in five hours over the
toughest OF mountain paths. Soon the
trail was lined with worn out and dis
carded troop horses. But Chafee,
shrewd campaigner. had brought with
him from Mcdowell fifty extra mounts.
Indian videttes on mountain tops
telegraDhed ahead by FIRE and smoke
and blanket signals the coming of the
gallOping troopers The Indians turned
aside into one of the great CANYONS
that indent the cliffs of the rim of
the MogollOn plateau. They had found
they oUtnumbered Chaffee's exhausted
men. and determined to make a stand
In the middle of the Big Dry Wash
was a rocky hill. several hundred feet
high that absolutely commanded the
entrance to the gorge Chanee's eye
was too keen for success TO attend the
Anticipated ambush He dismOunted
his men under cover md leaving one
fourth of his little command with the
horses, stormed the hill with the re-
mainder. His reception was warm. The
battle. from rock TO rock, had ragged
for two hours. The Indians were still
on the summit Chaffee, with a score
OF disabled men. was in hard straits
Retreat was practically impossible and
the enemy was beginning TO flank.
The fire of the Apaches was becoming
truer. They were mainly armed with
the old-fashiOned 50-caliber Long
Tom Springfield rife, an excellent
weapon The cavalrymen had the
lighter 45-caliber Springfield carbine.
The advantage was with the ApacheS
and the men were beginning to think
their end would be that of their COM
rades of the Seventh in the memorable
fight on the Little Big Horn.
Suddenly, as joyful sound as the
pipes at Lucknow, a cavalry trumpet
sounded at the foot of the gorge. No
other troops were known TO be within
fifty miles of the spot, yet to the rear,
squadron was diSmOunting and form
ing to fight on foot. Up the gulch came
three sWalloW-tailed guidonS of the
Third cavalry, in a bowling, running
line, led by the familiar figure of stall
wart Captain Wallace. The Indians,
overmatched, yet unwilling to lose
what they had thought their prey, sui
lenIy and slowly retreated, firing from
behind every boulder The end Of the
hill passed. the vantage ground was
with the whites. The Apaches broke
and ran for cover in the rocks at the
advancing force was too heavy and too
accurate Leaving horses and supplies,
the Apaches wildly fed. each for him
self, scaling the steep sides Of the can
yOn- They climbed the cliffs like flies,
to be picked off by scores by the re-
lentless rifiemen below. A few es-
capped, but most of the survivors about
dark dropped rifles, came out of the
holes they had scooped in the hillside
and surrendered
Explanations Demanded.
Not till then did the officers and men
of the different commands hammer one
another on the backs and demand ex-
plantations They were simple, though
the OmbinatOin at that point seemed
nothing short of miraculous. Wallace,
in command of Fort Verde, about nine
ty miles to the west, had been in
formed of the route of the hOstiles and
had been dispatched to head them off.
He lost some time by a false trail near
Fossil creek, but later swung eastward
through Green and Pleasant valleys
and struck Chaffee's trail and his
scores of discarded chargers. He was
soon Joined by a scouting force from
Fort Apache from the east, cOmpris-
ing a company of White Mountain
Apache scouts and some cavalrymen,
differed by Lieutenants Morgan and
Converse. And the com bined force
pushed on at top speed to arrive in the
nick OF time The Apache scouts De-
lOnged to an antagOnistic division of
the tribe and rendered the best of ser
vice in the fray. One of the scouts in
cidentally, was 1.-The Kid" the Apache
who later went on the Warpath alone
and to whom are charged more than
twenty murders.
Lieutenant Morgan came out of the
fight with a severe wound below the
shoulder. Armed with a repeating rifle,
an express, shooting expanding bullets.
he crOuched behind a boulder and
SHIPPED away at the black spots that
bobbed around the edges of the great
rocks across the gulch. He noticed
that an Apache almost opposite la
was doing some very good shooting an
his direction Exposing himself a lit
tie more than he should, he waited for
Mr.. Apache to raise his head. The mo-
ment came; the edge of the Apache 5
red turban came into view. and Nor
gan fired. AS his finger pressed the
trigger. q flanking or ricochet shot.
from the rife of some unreckoned war
rior, struck him and he dropped.
1t was in 81 that Morgan returned
TO the scene of the fight in the big
Dry Wash With MIN was Jack Hicks
/ who had been with Wallace as a scout
but who is now an aff1uent cattle own