Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

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whatever; except for the trees, no cover could be found for advance.
When our three remaining troops rode up and dismounted, some three hundred yards
back of the rim, Chaffee outlined the situation for Colonel Evans and began to suggest certain
dispositions of the troops. But the Colonel stopped him.
“Dispose them as you see fit,” he said. “You found the Indians and they belong to you.
It’s your fight. I give you full control.”
Chaffee was surprised, and so were the rest of us. I recall no more unselfish action in
all my years of service. Not only was Chaffee the junior; he belonged to another regiment.
Rivalry between two outfits acting together is generally very hot.
When he had thanked the Colonel, Chaffee took charge instantly and energetically.
Kramer and I with E Troop and Lieutenant Frank West, taking Chaffee’s own troop, with part
of the Scouts under Al Sieber, were sent to the right of the trail. We were to cross the canon
wherever we could within a mile of easterly travel. Once over, we would close in on the main
trail ready for attack.
Lieutenant Morgan and the remaining Scouts, Captain Abbot and Lieutenant Hodgson
with K Troop of the Sixth, Lieutenants Hardie and “Friday” Johnson and their Third Cavalry
troop, duplicated our flanking maneuver on the left.
A small guard from each organization was left with our pack trains and led horses, to
protect them if any hostiles sneaked over to this side of the canon. Converse and his troop
would continue to pour a heavy fire across the chasm.
It had taken time for all these preliminaries. Three o’clock had come before we began
to move out. As my detachment turned right, we heard that Converse had been shot in the
head, and I saw him as we passed. I stopped to speak, and he answered that something was
wrong with his eyes.
“But it will soon pass,” he told me.
Poor fellow! It never passed. A .44 slug had glanced from a rock and split. One piece
penetrated Converse’s eye and so wedged itself in the socket that the most noted surgeons of
the world could not remove it. But Converse lived to do valuable duty—in spite of periods of
near-unbearable pain—and retire a Colonel.
Bright sunlight was on us until we got into the canon, scrambling down the precipitous
wall to the beautiful stream flowing along its floor. Then someone pointed upward and we
stared—at stars plain to be seen in midafternoon! It was a pretty spectacle, but we had
important business waiting; we pushed on and made the hard climb up the other wall.
Sieber and his Tonto Indians, with Lieutenant West and Chaffee’s Troop I, were on the
right of our skirmish line. They reached the hostiles’ pony herd just as a series of volleys
sounded to the west—indicating that the other flanking party had crossed and got into action.
The herd guards were facing away from us, listening to the shooting. Sieber and West opened
up on them, wiped them out, they sent the ponies...to the rear of our force.
Troop I, Sixth United States Cavalry, at one time of the fight was in a threatening
position. It had crossed a deep canyon and was crawling up a steep cliff on the northern side,
when bands of Indians suddenly appeared on all sides. The men were retreating toward the
bottom of the canyon, when First Lieutenant Frank West rallied them and successfully outflanked
the Indians.
During this movement an interesting incident occurred, which Second Lieutenant George
H. Morgan, of the Third Cavalry, who volunteered to go with the detachment of Lieutenant
HUACHUCA ILLUSTRATED