Page 56 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

nature,butwithasomewhatdistasteful manner, Standagealsonotedthat“Ieatgutstodayforthefirst time though many have eat[en] them before.” Even the Englishman, Whitworth, usually fas- cinated by his surroundings, complained that “the country [is] all overgrown with different species of the Cactus . . . the very grass is prickly, tearing our clothing from our backs. Nothing but Buckskin is
prickle proof.”107
The next day, Colonel Cooke rounded the western
end of the canyon that was to bear his name and led the men toward the Mimbres River. The wind had shifted completely to the north, and water had frozen over in the storage vessels. The road crossed a tolerably smooth, firm prairie, and the Battalion made good progress to the river. Cooke, however, groused that he believed a shorter route should have been followed from their camp of three days before
covering40mileswithoutwaterandwith10-15de- greeFahrenheittemperaturesatnight. It would get worse. The men found the roads extremely sandy in many places and, while carrying blankets, knapsacks, cartridge boxes containing 36 rounds of ammunition, and their muskets, they had to aid tlie teams by pulling on the wagons with long ropes. And all this was accomplished on short rations. There was one moment of levity at the expense of the guide Charbonneau when it was learned that he had found it necessary to shoot his runaway mule to recover his saddle and pistols.
One man, John Allen, became separated from the column and lost his gun and clothes, but not his life,
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nutritious as four ounces of good meat would be.” Even the hide used under the packsaddles was stripped of the wool, roasted, and eaten.
However, the men of the Battalion were not alone in their suffering in the desolate wilderness. By about this same time, General Kearny had clashed with Mexican Lancers at San Pasqual and suffered 16menwoundedand17killed. LieutenantWilliam Emory (one of the topographical engineers) at- tempted to comfort their 55-year-old scout, Don Antonio Robidoux, who was suffering from loss of blood and chilling in the sub-freezing temperature. Emory was able to find some coffee for him, even though the column had been out for many days, and Robidoux rewarded him with a cake
made of brown flour, almost black with dirt, and which had, for greater security, been hid- den in the clothes of his Mexican servant, a manwhoscornedablutions. Iatemorethan half without inspection, when, on breaking a piece, the bodies of several of the most loath- someinsectswereexposedtoview. Myhunger, however, overcame myfastidiousness 118
.
Meanwhile, another western facet of the invasion of northern Mexico was progressing much more smoothly. Colonel Alexander William Doniphan, a Missouri lawyer, had led his First Regiment of Mounted Missouri Volunteers south from Santa Fe
42
and that future travelers would find this to be true. He was wrong.
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The Battalion camped at the Mimbres River cross- ing on November 18 and the following day their march joined the Janos-Santa Rita copper mine road at Ojo la Vaca, where they camped for two nights. Cooke followed the old trade road a short distance south, but soon, with an oath and to the joy of the Mormons, ordered bugler J. C. Quigley to blow a right turn and proceeded west, obviously still
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on short rations.
21, Whitworth noted that they “had our rations of flour raised one ounce, which was such an awful raise that we had quite a Jubilee at the idea of having
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Soon thereafter, on November
one mouthful of bread more at a meal.”
not all that grim, however, for on the same day he recorded that they met “some Spaniards” traveling to Santa Fe and traded for some dried beef and cooked Mescal root. Three days later, the men tried grinding mesquite beans to make bread as the In- dians did but discovered that it did not entirely agree with their systems and “Our Doctor made a fearful
111 hole in his purging medicines in this place.”
On this same day, November 24, one of the mules in Company B failed, and it was necessary for them to purchase a replacement from Sergeant Coray for $30. Theremusthavebeensomegrimsatisfaction in this, for it was to save the mules of the company commander that Coray’s wife gave up her place in Captain Hunter’s wagon and rode astride nearly two
112 weeks earlier.
The difficulties continued with marches of 36 hours
The Mormon Battalion
It was
He was fortunate enough to come across the dead mule left behind by Captain Hunter and feasted sufficiently to be able to overtake the Battalion. The other men fared only slightly better because they were eating beef and mutton that was so poor that “eight ounces of it . . . was not half as
to the Indians.