Page 168 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

eluding Sergeant Albert Jennings Fountain) (Figure 42), a 10-man detachment of Company H from the same Regiment under Lieutenant Alexander Bar- tholomew MacGowan, Captain John Carey Cremony and 24 Second California Cavalrymen of Company B (including Private John W. Teal), and a battery of 2 prairie howitzers supported by Lieutenant William A. Thompson and 20 men drawn
193
from various infantry companies. OnJuly15,leavingCremonyinchargeofthewagon
train and escort approximately 15 miles from the pass, Roberts proceeded to Apache Pass with 60 infantry, 8 cavalry, and the howitzer battery where Cochise, Mangas Coloradas, and about 400 Apaches
194
waited for them.
claimed the Indians were ignorant of the significance of the field guns, the first Indian attack focused on these men bringing up the rear of the advancing party. The Apaches struck heavily killing Private C.
M. O’Brian and wounding civilian teamster Andrew Sawyer; however, the Indians suffered greater casualties because four Apaches were known to have been killed.
As the column neared the spring, located in an arroyo between two low rocky hills, the Apaches fired on the soldiers killing Private John Barr and wounding another man. Roberts deployed his men against both hills clearing the way for them with the howitzers. By four o’clock, the Indians were banished temporarily, and the soldiers took posses- sion of the water hole. The soldiers’ assessment of Apache casualties ranged from 9 reported by Car- leton to Cremony’s 66 (quoting an Indian at a later date). The truth lies somewhere between, but
195
probably closer to the lesser number.
After watering the men and animals, Roberts
retired to the stone station house a few hundred yards west of the spring and sent six of his cavalry, led by Sergeant Titus B. Mitchell, to warn Cremony to be alert for
Although both sides later
Figure 42. Albert Jennings Fountain. Photo courtesy of the Museum of New Mexico, #9873.
154
attack. About four miles west of the pass, 40 Apaches attacked the men, who were strung out along the road, cutting off 33-year-old Private John W. Teal who was walking his horse and lagging be- hind. Theothermencouldnot break through to Teal, although Private Jesse T. Maynard was wounded in the attempt as was his and another soldier’s horses.
Teal made a determined stand against the 15 Apaches who remained behind to finish him off. In the fight his horse was killed by a bullet from the Indian leader’s “citizen rifle” (probably a Sharps taken from the stage company). Teal used his saddle and dead horse for protection and kept the Apaches at bay until he managed to wound their leader, after which the entire party withdrew. It was later determined that Mangas Coloradas, who had led the attack on the patrol, was severely woundedbyTeal. Tealwalked the remaining eight miles to Cremony’s camp and arrived an
The California Column