Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

on April 7, 1880, and in the Las Animas Mountains of New Mexico on April 28, 1882. On
January 13, 1881 he wrote a letter to his mother and described a well-ordered camp.
I have just been signing up my papers for the quarter ending Dec. 31st and I wish
you could see the pile of them. My clerk, he’s a soldier who does nothing but my paperwork,
has been busy ever since we came in here. I have my camp in good shape now and wish you
could see it. I’m rather proud of its order and neatness. It lies on a gentle north slope, the
men’s tents eight of them make the south end, the Indian’s tents, ten the east side, packers’
tents and work tent the north end, the west side is open, every thing is policed every morning
and things must be in their proper place. Beyond the packers’ tents is my corral, where my 52
mules and fourteen horses spend the night. During the day while they are on herd, the corral
is cleaned out and swept.
I have two kitchens, each being two wall tents with small range inside, one for my
men and one for the packers. The Indians have three messes and cook over open fires in rear
of their tents. There are a dozen or more trees within my limits and woe unto the unhappy
wretch who tries to cut them down. The tent on the right of the soldier’s line is supposed to be
mine and has a small table, my desk and a bunk in it also a small stove, but I never use it save
as now for writing letters and transacting business. My clerk lives in it. 93
This picture of ordered domesticity gives a skewed picture of Mill’s life on this rugged
frontier. His letter writing could be interrupted by abrupt orders to intercept raiding Apaches, as
happened on the evening of 22 April 1882. He packed up his train and with his Company D of
Indian Scouts, took to the field at midnight. He rode all night to reach the railroad at Contention,
then turned north to Benson where, after a four-hour wait, hitched a ride on a freignt train to San
Simon. There he joined up with the command of Major Tupper and he and his scouts would play
a major role in the fight with Loco’s Apaches in the Las Animas Mountains. A week after his
return to Huachuca, he sat down at his small table and addressed an account of his adventure to
his mother.
[At San Simon] we unloaded and went into camp with orders to scout both ways along the
road and keep a look out for Indians. Next day we lay in camp with small parties out. About
sundown that evening a citizen from Galeyville, a small town in the Chiricahuas, came in
saying the hostiles were all around Galeyville. He estimated the number at 150 with 500 head
of stock. We saddled up at once and in 20 minutes were on the road. At 3 a.m. on the 25th
we reached the town 28 miles distant. I rode in first and was met by a dozen armed men, very
much alarmed and delighted to see troops. We unsaddled and got breakfast while waiting for
daylight to take the trail. The brave frontiersman was pretty wild, and told the most outrageous
stories as to the number of the Indians. As soon as it was light enough we took the trail,
which showed about 150 head of stock, and moved down the mountains. Seven miles below it
turned out into an open valley and we went into camp to wait until dark, crossing the valley in
day time would have been equivalent to telling the Indians we were after them. Rafferty’s
cavalry company and Darr’s scouts joined us there. They having got the news in Fort Bowie
and like us marched all night. Everybody slept, horses and mules grazed until about sundown
when we started on the trail, Darr and I with the scouts ahead of the command, travelled until
the moon went down, about 2 a.m., when we were unable to follow the trail any longer. So
we bivouaced until daylight, then found water, got breakfast and on the trail again. Kept on
until 4 p.m. and then camped for the night. You may imagine every one slept well. Next
morning at daylight off again—we were now in New Mexico—and followed trail all day until
A MAGAZINE OF THE FORT HUACHUCA MUSEUM
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