Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-06-30
A TALE OF THE OLD FRONTIER
BY Edgar Beecher Bronson
which, at night, he spread his blankets

SulleT slept IN security until New
Years eve, for a. successful maneuver
| to part him from his barrels took some
planning. However, during the week
some of the boys U am not saying
who, even if it did happen nearly a
half century ago. managed to sneak
some chloroforln from the hospital
stores.
And it was by judicious application
of the Chloroform that the sutler was
spared the physical pain of tumble
off his lofty bed and the mental dis,
tress of realizing that his spirits were
being borne beyond his ken-if not on
wings, at least on moccasined feet
more noiseless still than wings.
No bones were broken, as far as
observed, when. after sneaking his pis-
toll from beneath his head, the boys
rolled him off his spirituous perch. but
to make sure he should not suffer any
again he was we'll soused with the for
get-yourtroubles water.
And this piece of disinterested char
ity happened to prove no special him
drance to the boys in their self as
sumed task of decanting the barrels
and effectively disposing of both them
and their contents.
The slaves made bonfire that must
have made the Navajos thinks we were
sending up the biggest distress signal
fire was ever touched to; the hoops,
cooled by bucket brigade thought
fully organized in advance, were hid
den in the foliage of giant pine a
mile away.
The contents of the barrels? Well,
hot of 1oc
com and private had labored faithfully
chance it could occasion the sutler fur
Their anxiety. served to fill every avail
able receptacle for either liquids or
solids. except the saddle bags (Which,
was the general opinion would not be
faithful to such trust) and no pair
of boots in the entire camp stood
empty that night beside. no matter
what section of the parade ground or
OF the adjacent reaches their owners
reposed on.
The next morning, bitterly cold as
the deal that had been handed the suit
Ter. the few who had recovered con-
seriousness stuff GENTLY to entertain
lucid views on the subject were max
ing even bets on which of the two was
the maddest, the sutler who had lost
his whiskey, or the major who had
quite as effectively, for the time being,
lost all control of his men.
The majors loss ran farther, and
harder from his point of view, al
though this feature salved the raw
sore of the suffers sense of injury;
more men than like now to think of,
among them good comrades and true.
never again answered roll call, and
were found marble-white and still as
the snow that had frozen and shroud-
ed them
Arrests? Courts martial?
How could there be where all alike
were culprits, and not single non
com, much less corporals guard, left
fit for duty?
Then, besides, of the theft there was
not the least Pigment of proof to fix 1t
upon any one, for while of course
everything in camp was full of whis.
ky, the men and all other practicable
receptacles that could be depended
upon not to waste it, the barrels
we'll, it was search the zenith for the
smoke of the slaves of them, or ask
the snowbirds that nest among the
pine UOuSuS LudL ulu ILCIl uOOPo'
Naturally, the officers conf1scated
and spilled all the whisky they could
find; but at the start there had been
ten generous barrels of the lot, so that
it was for the officers, guess again;
you didn't get it ALL" Which is why
our New Years day lasted a whole
week.
Relieved by some companies Of New
Mexico troops, the early spring OF 1854
found us on the march down Lost xiv
err, past the White Sands, over San
pass, to the cantonment at
Mesilla. There we loaded with quar-
and commissary supplies
and proceeded on west to the ella,
where we had been ordered to estab'
fish a new post.
Arriving in May, we cut timber.
made adobe bricks and built Fort
Goodwin, near where Fort Thomas
was later established.
The upper San Carlos river, then
for generations past and for many
years since, was the favorite retreat
for the Apaches, their best loved home
camp where their women and children
planted and titled such simple crops
as they sought to raise, chiefly corn
and chilli. And 1t was to dominate
and check them, or push them out, ex-
lies nthe move, that we were ordered
there. But it was little enough we
accomplished, although detachments
we're out constantly. Overtake and
strike any body of them we could not
They retired into rugged Businesses
Of the higher range where horses could /
not travel. and no dismounted troops
could get within range Of them except
when they had an ambush laid that
usually won toll Of us.
They could outfoot anything but a
goat, and could make even a
goat rattle his hooks.
Our only chance Of doing much good
lay in getting into communication with
them and trying to arrange a treaty OF
peace. But for this no opportunity Of
Tered until, one day, ten of the Apaches
came into camp seven bucks, two
and a Mexican woman they
had long held captive.
A new officer then commanded us,
a Major b, recently come out from
the east: and he, after placing. the 9TH
ars under guard. ordered the Mexican