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established various camps, posts, and forts, and these installations (Figure 33) had to be supplied from the vicinity of the Rio Grande. Supplies for Camp Moore, prior to the military’s move to the newly constructed Fort Buchanan closer to Tucson, were shipped to Major Steen out of Fort Thorn. A wagon train with stores for Elias Brevoort, the post sutler, left in November 1856 and was followed in February 1857 by a Quartermaster’s train. Also in 1857, Simeon Hart furnished 18 wagons, each drawn by 10 mules, and 35 men to haul supplies from Fort Thorn and Camp Moore. Because there were only a few fighting men among the teamsters, the
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military was persuaded
The military department had focused the blame for
Navajo Agent Henry L. Dodge’s disappearance and was already planning retribution when Dodge’s body was discovered in February 1857. As tem- porary commander in General John Garland’s ab- sence, Colonel Benjamin Louis Eulalie “Old Bonny Clabber” de Bonneville conceived a multifaceted expedition against the Mogollons and any other Apaches that got in the way. With the approach of Colonel William Wing Loring from the north, and Lieutenant Colonel Dixon Stansbury Miles (who had assumed command of Fort Thorn June 26, 1856) from the south, the expedition got under way in early May 1857.
Cuchillo Negro, having become a pillar in Steck’s rehabilitation program, had the misfortune to get caught in the middle of Colonel Bonneville’s sweep- ing Gila campaign with more than 1,000 stolen sheep. On May 25, one-armed Colonel Loring and his Mounted Riflemen surprised the band and killed half a dozen warriors, including Cuchillo. The Apache’s loss, especially under the circumstances, dealt a political setback to Steck’s program.
In the latter phase of the campaign, with the only success so far the slaying of Cuchillo by Loring’s command, Miles and Bonneville fell on a large camp of Coyotero Apaches along the Gila on June 27. Caught between an arm of Colonel Loring’s com- mand led by Captain Ewell and the Miles-Bonneville units, the Apaches suffered 40 killed or wounded against 7 for the army. The Coyoteros apparently deserved what they received because Steck, usually the Indian’s champion, turned up evidence that they were responsible for many of the depredations com- mitted on the California Road. The Coyoteros also had been harboring some Mogollons, including the
alleged killer of Agent Dodge. This alleged killer, whose actions had triggered the campaign, was ap- parently the only Mogollon killed in the extensive effort initiated to punish his band.150
Fearing more trouble from the Indians, the army continued stocking the military facilities in Arizona, and during the winter of 1857 Hart had between 80 and 90 wagons, each drawn by a dozen oxen and capable of hauling nearly 6,000 pounds, freighting stores to the Tucson area. In fact the posts became so well supplied that Captain Ewell, who com- manded Fort Buchanan after Major Steen and half of the Dragoon companies were transferred else- where, asked permission to dispose of his excess bacon supply. Even though he had enough for two years, he was told to retain the bacon because it would be difficult to replace and, if properly stored, it would be better, even after a year, than any bacon available from New Mexico. 151
At the Indian Agency next to Fort Thorn, Agent Steck had no such problems of over-supply. It was during this same period that Dr. Steck was struggling to keep the Indians around his agency from either declaring war on the Whites or suffering extermina- tion from diseases, lack of food, or more direct external influences. On February 7, 1857, Juan Or- tega led 30 of the Mesilla Guards (formed about 1851 for protection of that community) in an attack against a small camp of alleged renegade Apaches east of Dona Ana. The men apparently had been drinking heavily and were looking for revenge for previous wrongs. After striking the first camp, the men from Mesilla then attacked a large group of Steck’s peaceful Apaches who were attending a fair at Dona Ana. Several people were killed in the
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unprovoked attack.
Two months later, on April 18, 1857, another group
of 36 Mesilla Guards, once more led by Ortega, attacked the Indians farming around Steck’s agency, and indiscriminately killed seven men, women, and children. LieutenantWilliamHenryWood,who was then in charge of Fort Thorn, rounded up the entire group of Guards and placed them under ar- rest, rescuing a number of small children who had been taken hostage. The military buried the Indian dead in the rear of the post cemetery, and the men from Mesilla were charged with the murders. They were later acquitted.
The Mexican-Americans at Mesilla were not the only source of trouble for Steck’s Apaches. In the
to supply an escort.
Chapter 4
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