Page 169 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

hour or two before midnight. When Teal indicated that he was very thirsty, the Captain gave him a drink
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his men. In the morning they returned to the spring
The commander and his escort continued on to Cooke’s Spring. Teal noted that for two or three miles before they reached the spring, the road was lined with graves and bones of people that had been killed by the Indians.201
Carleton arrived at Fort Thorn on August 7, 1862, having left 100 men of the Fifth California Volunteer Infantry at Apache Spring, under Major T. A. Coul- ty, to construct a fort on the hill above the water source. By the time the last contingents arrived, it had taken the Californians 10 months to complete the trek. The Rio Grande was still in its flood stage, and the men performed a herculean task in ferrying the commands across the river. As Carleton con- tinued toward El Paso, he discovered that Mesilla
was isolated by water from both sides and nearly *J
of whiskey, but he remained
Roberts arrived at the train a little later with 28 of
with the rest of the column.
skirmished with the Apaches to reach the water. Roberts then had his men establish a fortified supply depot at the old Butterfield station nearby. On July 17 the column continued toward the Rio Grande without any further incidents, except for stopping at the east side of the pass to bury some bodies. Either General Carleton reported the same group as Cap- tain Cremony, although listing 9 rather than 12 bodies, or the Apaches had struck again. The latter is most likely as Cremony claimed that the troops
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buried the victims.
The rest of the California Column traversed the
road between Tucson and the Rio Grande in similar small groups but without any further difficulty from the Indians. Carleton had spent nearly two months in Tucson, having left on July 23 and followed by three last detachments a few days apart under the command of Colonel Joseph R. West, Lieutenant Colonel Edwin A. Rigg, and Major Edward B. Wil- lis.
He may have earned his affectionate title of “General Jimmy” when he issued an order that his
198
troops could put their packs on the wagons. During the time that Carleton’s contingent traversed the route to the Rio Grande, Private Teal and a few others of his company were detached to perform various tasks along the road. The men herded cattle, chased Indians, and escorted water tanks. However, during the first week of August, they escorted Carleton’s party over the last leg of the route. When they reached their camp on the Mimbres River on August 5, Teal described it as “a
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roaring, howling river but no water running in it.” The empty riverbed was not the only thing “howl- ing.” TheApacheshadsoisolatedPinosAltosthat the people there were literally starving. Somehow a message got through to Carleton, and before pulling out of camp on August 6 he sent a letter to Colonel West ordering him to dispatch Captain Edmund D. Shirland to the community with 5 beeves, 600 pounds of pemmican, 3,000 pounds of flour, and 1,500 poundsofMexicansugar. Shirlandaccomplished this the following day and found approximately 100
people, including 30 families, who were surviving on
909
J
roots and the like.
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shipped to Fort Fillmore.
Carleton had initially, like Eyre, been ordered not
to pursue the Confederates into Texas. General Canby later modified that order to allow him to use his own discretion; however, it was too late. On August 22 Carleton issued orders for Captain Cremony to reoccupy Fort Quitman and for Captain Shirland to take over abandoned Fort Davis.”
Teal was in one of the units ordered to Mesilla. One of their first tasks was to go down river about 10 miles and arrest Hugh M. Beckwith, a secessionist. According to Teal, they returned on September 1 with a prisoner of “true type of southern chivalry which is composed of bone^ sinew, skin and any amount of ignorant conceit.””
Carleton’s military fortunes were about to change. On August 26, 1862, an order was issued for him to proceed to Santa Fe to replace General Canby as
thirsty.
The soldiers again
Chapter 5
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909 impossible to access from the west.”
Carleton found the Rio Grande valley deserted of Confederate troops except for those left behind in the hospitals. He proceeded to station troops at Mesilla, Las Cruces, Fort Fillmore, and Hart’s mill at El Paso. He made Mesilla the headquarters of the District of Arizona. In mid-August he took posses- sion of Fort Bliss, and made temporary prisoners of theConfederatedisabledthere. However,bySep- tember 1, he sent them toward San Antonio in wagons, supplied with provisions and medicines and escorted by a Lieutenant and 25 Californians. On concluding their duties in El Paso, Carleton’s men found 12 wagonloads of quartermaster and hospital supplies, originally Federal property, hidden at the customs house across the river in Mexico, which they
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