Turn of the Century - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

William A. RaffertyThe second in command of the column that cantered into Huachuca Canyon in 1877 to build abastion in Apache territory was Captain William A. Rafferty, a 1865 West Point graduate.Rafferty had an unmatched record of fighting during the Indian Wars. He was singled out forgallantry at battles at the Little Wichita River, Texas, on 5 October 1870, and in the HatchetMountains, New Mexico, on 28 April 1882. In the Spanish-American War, he commanded, as alieutenant colonel, the only cavalrymen in Cuba with horses, General Shafter’s Corps Cavalry,made up of his own men from the 2d Cavalry. It was while he was in the Philippines in 1902commanding the 5th Cavalry that he died from injuries suffered from a fall.Two troops of the rough riders were recruited from the northern counties of Arizona. CommandingA Troop was Capt. Buckey O’Neill, the former mayor of Prescott, who was killed inaction before Kettle Hill. Alexander O. Brodie came to Arizona as a newly minted secondlieutenant fresh out of West Point in 1870. He served with the 1st Cavalry. After his wife died inchildbirth, he resigned his commission in 1877, but returned to Army life in 1883 when heenlisted in the Sixth Cavalry. He took his discharge in 1884. In 1898, after helping to raise theA MAGAZINE OF THE FORT HUACHUCA MUSEUM115