Page 201 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

but it was also the end of the quarter, which required
reports from all of the staff positions. In addition,
the inspecting officer and paymaster were expected
any day, and it was too much for him to master by
that he was as tough as his name sounded when he marched his Company G, Fifteenth Infantry from Fort Bayard to Fort Cummings. In 2 days they covered 45 miles. Steelhammer arrived at his new post on the evening of February 13 and immediately relieved Hedberg. 53 Apparently Steelhammer was used as a trouble-shooter, because after he sorted out problems in the records and amounts of supplies on hand, he was replaced in July by First Lieutenant Henry Hollingsworth Humphries. 154
himself.
cause Captain Hedberg’s signature appears on several of the September reports.
The many personnel problems reflected in the Fort Cummings records during the year were not unique. In 1871, nearly 9,000 desertions were recorded for the army, comprising nearly a third of the total man- power. At Fort Cummings and other frontier posts, the men spent much of their time performing manual labor or marching back and forth over the roads escorting various citizens. Issue clothing, left over from Civil War contracts, was so poor that the sol- diers had to purchase replacements from the post
150
severe, and grueling patrols against the Indians were almost a relief.
As heavy as the boredom weighed on the soldiers,
it was perhaps the issue of pay that caused the
greatest problem. Enlisted men’s pay had been cut
in 1870 from $16 to $13 a month when Congress
failed to renew special pay provisions enacted
during the Civil War. As a result, there was a mas-
sive increase in desertions. In May 1872, Congress
attempted to correct both situations by establishing
a bonus for length of service. In the third year of
service, one dollar was added per month;' in the
fourth year, a second dollar; and during the fifth
year, another - for a total of $3 per month bonus.
However, to create a further incentive to stay, all
longevity pay was held, at four percent interest, until
the soldier’s discharge. Meanwhile, because of the
low pay, it was no wonder that many men decided to 151
desert.
At Fort Cummings, the record for the month of
January 1872 reflected a great deal of friction among the few officers stationed there. In all likelihood, alcohol was at the root of some of the problems, because the post trader, Lyons, was ordered to com- ply with the liquor-by-the-drink-only ruling or face
152
an order terminating all sales.
The intense, three-way conflict between the post
commander, Captain Hedberg, and Lieutenants Ryan and Fitch continued until a change of com- mand took place in early February. Captain Charles Steelhammer must have been attempting to prove
Headquarters must have agreed be-
sutler, and some used
The boredom, as expressed to Maria Shrode, was
Whether the company used Lyons’ existing facility or built its own, one thing is certain, the firm was well-established; it advertised in the first issue of Silver City’s Grant County Herald on
burlap sacks for jackets.
Chapter 6
187
Some sources indicate that the Kerns and Mitchell Stage Company built a relay station near Cooke’s Spring in 1872 and that the large rock corral south of the spring was part of their installation. This may be true, although the corral appears to be of a later period.
156
March
Although the conflict between the post-war fron-
tier military and the Apaches was winding down in the early 1870s, the soldiers continued to scout for Indians. In the summer of 1872, Second Lieutenant Frederick Elisha Phelps was on his first Eighth Cavalry patrol under First Lieutenant William Stephenson. They left Fort Bayard on an extensive scouting expedition that included Fort Bowie, and they traveled to the Mexican border before starting back.
At the Florida Mountains, they became so desperately short of water that three of the troopers were temporarily insane from thirst. They finally found a spring where each man had a small drink of water. A private named Gordon, however, demanded more. When Lieutenant Phelps told him that he would have to wait, Gordon pulled a knife and threatened to kill the unarmed Phelps. Lieutenant Stephenson froze the action by drawing his pistol, and the First Sergeant, Corcoran, finished the incident by clubbing Gordon from behind with his carbine. The column marched 50 miles to Fort Cummings the next day, and lost 5 horses within a mile of the spring.
The post commander, First Lieutenant Humphries, invited Stephenson and Phelps to dine with him and his wife. At first the Lieutenants begged off because they were so dirty, but they finally accepted Humphries invitation. Mrs. Humphries, from Philadelphia, had been married to
6, 1875.