Page 145 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

carry mail toward California. He gathered four other men for the trip, and although few in number, they were heavily armed. They passed through Cooke’s Spring on April 28 without incident, but at Stein’s Peak they ran into Cochise’s ambush. Ed- ward Briggs and Anthony Elder, on the box, were killedinthefirstvolley,andthedriverlessteamran for a mile and a half before the coach overturned. Giddings, Sam Nealy, and Michael McNeice crawled to cover and fought back before being over- run. Theirbodieswereneverfound,
and none of the four had been heard from.
A lieutenant and 16 men were dispatched from Fort McLane to investigate the situation. They met William S. Grant, the army contractor, and members of his train who had fought off an Apache attack 10 mileseastofSanSimonstation. Grantreported killingoneIndianandwoundingtwoothers. At Stein’s Peak Grant found the station burned and two unidentifiable bodies tied head down over burned outfires. ApparentlyCochiseorhisimitatorshad
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beenengaginginsomemoregrislyentertainment. Again not all of the shootings and other violence were attributable to the Indians. On May 17 “a difficulty” occurred in Mesilla when three men from Pinos Altos engaged in a shootout on the town streets. Thomas J. Mastin, a miner and lawyer, and George Caldwell exchanged shots, emptying their pistols. John Portell, apparently either a friend of Caldwell or merely caught in the crossfire, fired three rounds at Mastin. Mastin received a flesh wound in the left arm; Caldwell’s arm was shattered near the elbow, and it was feared that amputation would be necessary. The edition of the Mesilla Times that reported the fight also carried an offer of a $200 reward, placed by Mastin, for anyone who would deliver Portell into the hands of the sheriff for
his“wantonandunjustifiedattack.”
The same edition that reported the blazing gun
battle on the Mesilla streets noted the initiation of the first through mail from San Antonio to Los Angeles under the new contract of the San Antonio- San Diego Mail Company. The mail was to leave that day, May 17, with “an escort of six picked men [to] accompany them, prepared for any Indian dif- ficulties which may be encountered on this now dangerous route.” The mail, cut off for some time, was to run semimonthly.
It was on this same day that the balance of the Butterfield employees pulled out of Mesilla with the remaining company property and headed for California. Thesubstantialcaravanincluded100 men,200animals,and21coachesandwagons.Gid- dings and Henry Skillman followed with 25 men and a herd of his stock to replenish stations along the way. Unfortunately,beforethetwocaravans reached Cooke’s Spring, the Apaches relieved the station there of 10 more mules.
The mail coach soon outdistanced the Butterfield andGiddingscaravans,andthe“sixpickedmen” apparently were not as prepared for “any Indian
soit wasas- sumed that they were captured alive and taken away
28 for torture.
George Giddings learned of his brother’s death on the same day he got the news of
the firing on Fort Sumter.29
Elder’s old partner in a ranch near Canutillo,
JamesTevis,gotintoserioustroubleafewdayslater. Tevis ran several arrastres at Pinos Altos, and he and a new partner kept a ranch near there for mules to accomplishtheworkoforereduction.30 Heandtwo other miners, Alf Delaney and James Speers, went hunting and shot a bear. They became so engrossed in skinning the bear that the Apaches were able to sneak up on them and capture all three. Unfor- tunately for Tevis, his old enemy Cochise showed up and persuaded the other Indians to turn the captives overtohim. Cochiseheadedforthevicinityof Apache Pass where he could enjoy making Tevis suffer.
During the march, Tevis’s companions were tor- mented unmercifuly, and that night they were tied head down over a slow fire and burned alive. Cochise was apparently not only planning something special for Tevis; he wanted to inflict maximum psychological punishment as well. For starters Cochise had his men stand Tevis on a bed of hot coals and then pull his smoking boots off along with a lot of the skin from his feet. Tevis was then forced to walk the remaining distance to Stein’s Peak. Here most of the Apaches participated in a big tizwin drunk,andTevis’soldApachefriendEsconoleaset himfreeandfurnishedhimahorse. Tevismadeit back to Pinos Altos by the second night.
It was also feared that other missing persons might havebeenkilledorcapturedbytheApachesinthe same area. On April 23, two men, Edward Donnelly and Patrick Donaghue, had left the Tanks station with a provision wagon to pick up a load of flour at SanSimonstation. Onthefollowingday,twoex- pressmen, Paige and O’Brian, left the same place,
Chapter 5
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