Show CHAFFEE A j A MAJOR Led the I the Battle at Big Dry Diy Wash t I ATER TER THE T APACHES 4 HELD OPp o T B S S TILL LL CAPT WALLACE ARRIVED I New York York Sun On a writing desk In the Minneapolis home of a retired army arm ai y officer of or nal lant record Is Js a peculiar inkstand Close scrutiny develops ps the fact that the he receptacle fort f r ink is a section of ot human vertebra white from exposure to the weather made to t its serve pur purpose purpose purpose pose through mounting in silver upon a wooden base It Is highly valued by its owner oWne for it Is a me memento memento memento mento of ot a 1 fight wherein he participated a fight such as a i soldiers rarely know one of the hottest hotte tin in the history of southwestern Indian India l warfare It brings brins UD up memories of Chaffee the heroic now fighting fi in 1 China The fight fi ht was the battle of the Big Dry Wash the action has but little fame with the general public its memory is cherished by cavalrymen as one of the most gallant known to their th Ir arm ann of the service Particularly did it demonstrate the th effectiveness of ot the American horse hO soldier and his ability to beat even the Apache on the trail and in the fray When hen grass time came cane in the summer of 1882 about Apaches of them mature bucks left the White Mountain reser reservation reservation ration on the Gila river in Arizona They started off Immediately after ration day TV well weIl ell supplied su pU d with food and ammunition It was In the days of or civilian Indian agents The godly man in charge at the San Carlos Caries arency ency when advised ad that some of his wards had decamped deca ped only expressed his sor sorrow sorrow sorrow row that such lies could gain currency to the discredit dit of a ii a peaceful pe and long suffering tribe The Indians passed the populous cop per mining camp of Globe at a distance of a few feu miles gathering in about all the horse herds of the th e neighborhood A platoon of the local home guard the Globe rangers was hastily mobilized and was started off to head the Apaches recover the horses and warn the settlers in Tonto basin The warn ing In was given ien for forthe the rangers by bj hard riding ridin to beat the Indians Into the basin But next day they were penned of them In a cabin on MIddletons ranch to fight a long range fight in which no one was killed and ana to watch the Indians stampede their horse horge herd held But the rangers did good work in that they delayed the Indians a day Leaving the ingers to return crestfallen on foot the Apaches passed on on up Cherry creek Settlers Were Alarmed The settlers had been alarmed and had fled in time save on one ranch The two Sigsby brothers had about valuable horses and had taken time timeto to gather ather them up from the range The band was beiner held in front of the ranch house ready to h le driven away when down the valley came cam the thud of horses feet Driven by a a few daring darin bucks the Indian herd of loose ponies Donies dashed into the Sigsby stam stampeded stampeded the horses up a side canyon One Of the Sigsby brothers rs a French cowboy named mounted and started after At the top of the canyon they met d death ath though not till tUl they had exhausted sted their am ammunition ammunition ammunition and five Indians to the he happy punting hunting grounds The Indians then ihen turned their undivided attention toward the second seco Sig Sigsby bY who had been creased across the chest by a rifle bullet as he i ri n for the log house defense of ot the th cabin was I glorious Though Thou h painfully wounded for forty hours sleep sleepless sleepless sleepless less he stood off at least Apaches thirsting for his blood enraged at a his hi continued resistance The Th cabin ways wals and door dear were perforated p b by hundreds of bullets but to no no avail ayaH But the In Indians Indians Indans dans could not v t tarry rry longer The troops were on their t trail trall tr ll and the smoke signals signal on the ibe peaks showed Im Impending Impending pending danger dan er In the night they I gathered up the bodies odies of several war warriors warrIors warriors whom Sigsby y had shot and hur hurried huri i ried ned aWay northward Sigsby had done even better than th a nUie the rangers The cay cavalry cavalry I alry airy was close behind At that time Chaffee a Sixth Si th cavalry major was in command of the little three troon cost oost of McDowell thirty five miles northeast of Phoenix then thena 1 a village Getting wind of the outbreak he joyously sounded boots and saddle and with half his garrison cut across the hiRJi hl q Maz range past deserted I Fort Reno through Tonto creek valley und and nd over the Sierra Anchas He ar arrived arrived arrived rived at a few hours after alter the last lost Indian had haZ departed and it was as his hand that first shook that of the brave frontiersman But there I was work for tor him ahead Leav Sigsby to bury buO his dead ead he pushed on at a killing pace miles I were covered in five hours over the roughest or of mountain paths Soon the trail was lined with worn out and dis din discarded discarded carded troop horses But Chaffee shrewd campaigner had brought with him from McDowell fifty extra mounts Indian on an n mountain tops toes telegraphed ahead by fire and smoke and blanket signals the coming of the galloping troopers The Indians turned i aside into one of the great canyons that indent the cliffs of the rim Prim of the Mogollon plateau They had found they outnumbered exhausted men and determined to make a stand In the middle of the Big Dry Wash was a rocky hill bill several hundred feet high that absolutely commanded the entrance to the gorge Cl eye was too keen for success to attend the anticipated ambush He dismounted his men under cover ind leaving one fourth of his little command with the horses stormed the hill hUl with the re remainder His reception was warm The battle from rock to rock had bad ed for two hours The Indians were ere still stilt stilton on the summit Chaffee with a score of disabled men was in hard straits Retreat was practically impossible and the enemy was beginning to flank i The fire of the Apaches was becoming truer They were mainly armed with the Long ULong Tom Springfield ld rifle an excellent weapon w anon The cavalrymen lUd the lighter Ugh tel Springfield carbine The advantage was with the Apaches and the men were beginning to think their end would be that of ot their com corn comrades cOmrades rades of the Seventh in the memorable fight fi ht on the Little Big Horn Suddenly as joyful a sound as the th pipes at Lucknow a cavalry trumpet sounded at the foot of the gorge No other troops were known to be within fifty miles of the spot yet to the rear a squadron was dismounting and form forming forming forming ing to fight on foot Up the gulch came carne three of the Third cavalry in a howling running line Une led by b the familiar figure of stal stalwart stalwart stalwart wart Captain Wallace The Indians overmatched yet unwilling to lose what they had thought their prey sul sullenly sullenly sullenly lenly and slowly retreated firing from behind every boulder The end of the hill passed the vantage ground was with the whites The Apaches broke and ran for cover in the rocks at the side of the gorge But the fire of the advancing force was too heavy and too accurate curate a Leaving horses and supplies the Apaches wildly fled fied each for him himself himself himself self scaling the steep sides of f the can canyon canyon canyon yon They climbed the cliffs like flies to be picked off by b scores by the re relentless relentless relentless riflemen below A few es escaped escaped escaped but most of the th survivors about dark dropped rifles came out of the holes they had scooped in the hillside and surrendered Explanations Demanded Not till then did the officers and men of the different commands hammer one another on the backs and demand ex cx explanations explanations They were simple though the at that point seemed nothing short of miraculous Wallace in command of Fort Verde about nine ninety ninety ty t miles mUes to the west had been in informed informed informed formed of the route of ot the hostiles and had been be n dispatched d to head them off He lost some time by a false trail near Fossil creek but later swung eastward through Green and Pleasant valleys and struck trail and his hia scores of discarded chargers He was soon joined by a scouting force from Fort Apache from the east comprising ing a company of White Mountain Apache scouts and some cavalrymen officered by Lieutenants Morgan and Converse And the combined force pushed on at top speed to arrive In the nick of time timeS The Apache scouts be belonged belonged belonged longed to an antagonistic division of the tribe and rendered the best of ser service service vice in the fray One of the scouts in incidentally incidentally was the Uthe Kid the Apache who later went on the warpath alone and to whom are charged more than twenty murders Lieutenant Morgan came out of the fight with a severe wound below the shoulder Armed with a repeating rifle an express shooting expanding bullets he crouched behind a boulder and sniped away aw at the black spots that bobbed around the edges of the great rocks across across the gulch He noticed that an Apache almost opposite 14 b was wag doing d ln some very good shooting in n his direction Exposing himself a lit little little littie tle tie more than he should he waited for forIr Mr Ir Apache to raise his head The mo roe moment moment ment meat came the edge of at the Apaches Apache red turban came into view Yiew and Mor Morgan Morgan Morgan gan fired As his finger pressed the trigger a flanking or ricochet shot from the rifle of some war warrior warrior warnor nor struck him and he dropped It was in 91 that Morgan returned to the scene of the fight In the Big Dry Wash With him was Jack Hicks i who had hod been with Wallace as a scout but who is now an affluent cattle attle own er en They searched the battlefield field over ov r noting the cartridge shells and broken accoutrements that still littered the points where the memorable day had been the warmest They found the boulder where Morgan had fought and ana bled When I was hit the officer ex cx explained explaIned I had just shot at an Indian behind that big rock rode across the gulch g Lets go over oyer there Over there they went Behind the tee big rock was a crevice and In that was wedged a bleached skeleton The top of the skull was missing The express rifle and steady eye had been true And nd that is where the inkstand came from |