102 OPERATIONS ON THE PACIFIC COAST. [CHaP. LXIi to Colonel West, September 20, 1862

September 20, 1862.

Santa Fé, N. Mex., September 20, 1862.

COLONEL: I wrote to you on July 22, informing you of all the important events connected with the Column from California from June 18 to that date. I then inclosed copies of General Orders, Nos. 10 and 11, from these headquarters, which prescribed the manner in which the column should march across the desert from Tucson to the Rio Grande. I left Tucson myself on July 23; passed Colonel West, with most of the troops encamped on the San Pedro, on the 24th, and Jed the advance of the column from that point to Las Oruces, N. Mex., with one company of infantry and two of cavalry. Froin the hostile attitude of the Chiricahua Indians, I found it indispensably necessary to establish a post in what is known as Apache Pass. Itis known as Fort Bowie, and garrisoned by 100 rank and file of the Fifth California Volunteer Infantry, and 13 rank and file of Company A, First California Volunteer Cavalry. This post commands the water in that pass. Around this water the Indians have been in the habit of lying in ambush and shooting troops and travelers as they came to drink. In this way they killed 3 of Lieutenant Colonel Eyre’s command, and in attempting to keep Captain Roberts’ First California Volunteer Infantry away from the spring a fight ensued, in which Captain Roberts had 2 men killed and 2 wounded. Captain Roberts reports that the Indians lost 10 killed. In this affair the men of Captain Roberts’ company are reported as behaving with great gallantry. Two miles beyond Apache Pass I found the remains of nine white men who had been murdered bythe Indians. They were a party traveling from the Pino Alto mines to California. One of them had been burned at the stake; we saw the charred bones and the burnt ends of the rope by which he had been tied. Theremains of seven of these men were buried on that spot. From the Rio de Sauz to Ojo dela Vaca there was a great dearth of water. At the latter place I addressed a letter to General Canby, giving him all the elements going to make up the column, the object of its march, and the wishes of General Wright. A copy of that letter is herewith inclosed, marked A.*

Having been informed that a large number of men, women, and children were in a destitute and starving condition at Pino Alto mines, forty-odd miles northeastward from the Ojo de la Vaca, I directed Colonel West to furnish them with some subsistence stores as a gratuity. (See letter of instructions to Colonel West, marked B, and Captain Shirland’s report on the starving condition of these people, marked C.) I arrived on the Rio Grande on August 7 at a point three miles above Fort Thorn, and immediately communicated with General Canby by letter, marked D. On August 9 I passed the Rio Grande atthe San Diego Crossing, eighteen miles below Fort Thorn. The river was still very high and very rapid, but the men stripped off their clothes and dragged the wagons through by main force; the baggage, subsistence stores, ammunition, &¢., were crossed in two small, leaky boats. At this point we built a larger and better boat for the use of the detachments of the column still to come up. The head of the column arrived at Las Cruces on August 10. Here I found the advance guard, under Lieutenant-Colonel Eyre, First California Volunteer Cavalry, strengthened by four companies of the Fifth U. S. Infantry, which had been sent down from Fort Craig. Two companies of regular cavalry had also been sent down to re-enforce Colonel Eyre; but these had been recalled and had started back to Fort Craig on August 9.

Unfortunately Colonel Eyre had been forbidden by Colonel Chivington and Colonel Howe to proceed in the direction of Texas below Las Cruces; otherwise I believe he would have captured the whole of Steele’s force of Confederate troops. (See his report* on this subject, marked E.) The energy, enterprise, and resources of Colonel Eyre, as exhibited in his rapid march from Tucson to the Rio Grande; his crossing of that river, and his unlooked-for presence directly upon the heels of the retreating rebels, cannot be too highly appreciated. He exhibited some of the finest qualities of a soldier, and had he not been fettered by orders from higher authority than himself, he would, without a doubt, have achieved advantages over the enemy creditable to himself and to the Column from California. But for his timely arrival on the Rio Grande, Las Cruces and Mesilla would have both been laid in ashes by the enemy. Hampered as he was by orders, he nevertheless managed to hoist the Stars and Stripes upon Fort Thorn, Fort Fillmore, Mesilla, and Fort Bliss, in Texas. On August 11 General Canby wrote me a very handsome letter, in which he liberally offered to furnish the column with all the supplies it might need, together with $30,000 subsistence funds. General Wright will be gratified to read it; it is marked F. It will be seen by that letter that the medical supplies and ordnance stores in the Department of New Mexico are so abundant as to preclude the necessity of any more of these stores being purchased or shipped in the Department of the Pacific for any of the troops east of Fort Yuma belonging to the Column from California. On August 11 General Canby sent to me another communication, in which he treats of the impracticability of an invasion of Texas from this direction, and in which he speaks of removing the regular troops from New Mexico and of receiving other re-enforcements from California. As the views it sets forth seem to be of great value, I submit it for the perusal of General Wright; it is marked G.

On August 12 General Canby wrote still another letter, in which he authorized me to use my own judgment in regard to the disposition of troops in Arizona and Southern New Mexico; it is marked H. My letter to General Canby, dated August 15, together with General Orders, Nos. 14 and 15, herewith inclosed, will inform General Wright of the distribution of the troops along the Rio Grande. These communications are marked I. On August 16 I started with three companies of cavalry for Fort Bliss, in Texas. At the town of Franklin, opposite El Paso, 1 found a surgeon of the Confederate Army and twenty-five sick and disabled soldiers, whom I made prisoners of war

by order of General Canby.

I also found that a large amount of hospital stores and quartermaster’s

property, which once had belonged to the United States, was in storerooms connected with the custom-house at El Paso, in Mexico. These

stores I managed to recover; there were twelve wagon loads of them. I

a

* See p. 126.

sent them to the depot at Mesilla, which I had established. I then proceeded 100 miles farther down the valley of the Rio Grande into Texas.

The object of my march was to restore confidence to the people. They