Show forgotten E it 0 E S vy by ELMO SCOTT WATSON Coch Cochi isea ses friend N 1860 there came to the territory IN of arizona a sandy andy haired ruddy brear ded giant named capt T 3 1 jeffords ex steamboat captain on the mississippi ex el stage coach driver on the butterfield line who engaged as a free trader with the indians from whom he be picked up op some knowledge of the apache language next be took over a subcontract sub contract from the butter buffer fields for or carrying the mall mail between silver city and yuma his mall mail route ran through the heart of the apache country where cochise Coch lse the great war chief of the had bad declared undying vengeance against the whites whiter captain jeffords Je nords soon realized that his bis line was doomed to failure unless something could ba b done about the apaches to try to conquer them by bv forc ewas out of the question the united states army had bad not been a conspicuous success at that the only other chance was diplomacy known everywhere as an utterly fearless man mad and one who never broke a promise captain jeffords jen believed that Coc cochise tilse was a mar or of the same caliber so he arranged tor for a meeting with the chief and agreed to ride alone and unarmed into the natural fortress in the moun ans known as Cochi ses strong hold bold 11 such was the reputation of the apaches for treachery and ferocity that jeffords project was the equivalent of a child walking into a den of starved bengal tigers but jeffords took the chance and cochise was so impressed by the audacity of the white man that thai he would not pern it its his warriors to injure the captain then the two men got down to business pointing out the fact that the constant fighting was costing the lives of both white men and indians jeffords made a strong plea for pence peace between them it if cochise would leave his mall mail carriers alone he in turn would make no effort to harm barm the apaches this meeting was the beginning of a strange friendship which was to make the name of jeffords Jel lords known throughout the southwest when president grant sent gen 0 0 howard to make with the apaches after the army had bad failed to subdue them it was captain jeffords who took general howard unarmed and accompanied only by his aide captain into Cochi ses stronghold for a conference with that chief the people of arizona pronounced howards mission a foolhardy one android and said that be would never come back alive but jeffords Jet knew that the apache chief having given his word not to harm barm the general would keep it the result was a treaty of peace which cochise kept until his bis death and the credit for bringing to an end for a time the reign of terror by the apaches in the southwest was due to the efforts of one brave man who always kept his word captain T J jet jef fords friend 0 a 0 we had H ad a fight FOR olt directness and conciseness in faelling Ft telling elling a tb thrilling rilling tale jt if high ad venture you cant bent beat the united states army officers officer of the old indian days in the dust covered files of the war department at washington Is the story of a battle as told by cepl L L williams of the first oregon infantry which took place on nelvies Sel vies river in oregon in 10 1865 ile he starts out by saying to the commanding Office ii sir I 1 have the honor bonor to report that thai we had bad a fight with indians which commenced at noon september 23 and ended at 7 p m then he goes on to relate in a most matter of fact way the story of that day cattail williams had set out with a detachment of 12 men to cut wild bay following a fresh indian trail lead ing toward harneys hanneys Har lake they discovered a small party of indians a mile away and gave chase after a pursuit of seven miles some mounted indians appeared and bore the fugitives away but tile indians soon reappeared greatly reinforced and immediately a body of mounted indians rode hard bard to us os circling us and firing into our ranks williams ordered a retreat t toward a mountain but the savages cut them olt off from their objective there a as hut but one alternative to 10 turn directly right travel parallel to the mountain and make for Sel selvius vies river five miles away finally they reached the river slaked their thirst and started up the valley still under continual fire tw two men were wounded and had to be helped along by their comrades at sundown the camp was still four mlle miles away and as soon as it was dark the indians set get fire to the grass across their line of march they managed to break through but finding that they the y would be silhouetted against the flames and an easy target tor for the indians fire they had to backtrack and travel five miles away from camp we then made a large circle sue cess fully reaching our camp at 2 a m having traveled 45 miles afoot without without r test est without food with one drink of water and having been under fire for over seven hours by indians indiana who outnumbered us six or seven to one it la is certain we killed 15 indians and wounded a number as well as horses and all this capt L 14 williams summed gummed up to in bis big first sentence wt we bad a fight aft mi 1981 western newspaper union |