With Their Own Blood: A Saga of Southwestern Pioneers

3. Woman of Courage

THREE: WOMAN OF COURAGE I t was close to midnight on March 16, 1860, the day of Larcena's capture, when Bill Kirkland's messenger galloped into Fort Buchanan on a sweat-lathered horse. He had ridden from Canoa ranch over the mountain pass to the small military post. The sentries awoke the commanding officer, Captain Richard Stoddard Ewell. Before daylight Ewell had his men armed, mounted, and ready to ride to the rescue. He planned to extend a line ofsoldiers across the Tontos' escape route and hoped, with the help ofcivilian searchers, to encircle the Indians and their captives. 1 Under Ewell's command at this time were G troop of the First U.S. Dragoons (cavalry) and Company B of the Eighth Infantry , a combined force ofperhaps 140 soldiers and officers.2 He chose the dragoons for the present mission. The infantry would remain to protect the fort, which was often the target of Apache raids. Ewell sent the messenger back with instructions for John Page's party, trailing the Tontos, to signal its location. He ordered Lieutenant John R. Cooke to ride out at once with one platoon. Ewell himself followed with reinforcements. He was bitterly disappointed when they saw no signal. He had to conclude, at the end of a hard day's riding, that the Indians had evaded his net.3 Returning that evening, the weary cavalrymen trotted up the grassy slope to the fort's scattered log cabins and adobe buildings. 23 With Their Own Blood They attracted an excited following of infantrymen who had stayed behind. The troopers answered a babble ofeager questions as they dismounted, pulled off saddles, rubbed down their horses and led them into the corral. Captain Ewell strode into his quarters where he prepared a report of the incident for department headquarters at Fort Thorn.4 As is customary with soldiers, the cavalrymen had private nicknames for their officers; Ewell was "Baldy" or "Old Bald Head." He had bright, bulging eyes, a prominent nose projecting over a full beard, and an unimpressive physique. His appearance, squeaky voice, and mannerisms belied his considerable courage and competence as an officer. In spite ofhis eccentricities, soldiers and settlers alike had learned to respect him.5 He doubted that the Indians and their captives were still hiding in the snowcapped peaks or rugged foothills of the Santa Ritas. They were probably Pinals, he guessed, taking hostages to exchange for twenty braves and their families whom he had confined at the fort as punishment for previous depredations.6 Various Apache bands constantly stole livestock from the settlers in this vicinity. But, since American occupation in the region, they had not-until yesterday-taken women and children? There would be fear and outrage among the settlers, and probably renewed accusations of military ineptitude.8 He would have to mount another scout in the morning to find tlle trail and, if possible , rescue the captives before the Indians took them much farther . Ewell knew from recent experience that it was expensive and usually futile to pursue marauding Apaches into their own domain . North of Fort Buchanan, the rugged two hundred miles between the White Mountains and the Gila River held an estimated seven thousand Apaches dispersed into separately led groups in various locations widely spread from east to west. For the most part, they survived by warfare, raiding villages of more sedentary Indians as well as non-Indian settlements far into Mexico . Among the various Apache bands were the Chiricahuas, who Ewell in pursuit of Apaches (from Samuel W. Cozzens, The Marvelow Co/t1Itr)', 1873). Confederate General Richard Stoddard Ewell, captain at Fort Buchanan, New Mexico Territory, 1857-1860 (Arizona Historical Society). 2} -:-:f-.T:;,::;~ - With Their Own Blood ranged from southwestern New Mexico down into the upper San Pedro River Valley. The Pinals, or Pinalefios, ranged along the middle Gila and San Carlos Rivers, some of them living at Arivaipa Canyon where it emptied into the lower San Pedro. Northwest of the Pinals were the Tontos, scattered through the Tonto Basin and beyond to the present town of Flagstaff, Ariwna.9 Only six weeks earlier Ewell and a sizeable party of soldiers and citizens seeking to retrieve a stolen cattle herd had returned empty-handed from a chase into the Tontos' remote haunts. lo After some deliberation, the frustrated captain at last decided to send two ofhis Pinal prisoners back to their people...