Chapter XVII: Last Fight Between Rangers and Apaches

Despite General Terrasas' great victory at Tres Castilos as recorded in a preceding chapter, he did not entirely destroy all the Apaches that had been with old Victorio. Nana and fifty warriors escaped and finally joined Geronimo in his campaign of murder and destruction. On the night preceding the battle in which Victorio was killed and his band of warriors exterminated, twelve braves with four squaws and four children deserted the old chief and made their way to those rough mountains that fringe the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Springs. At once this band of twenty Indians began a series of pillages and murders that has no parallel considering the small size of the party.

The little band of Apaches soon appeared at Paso Viego and began their depredations by an attack on Lieutenant Mills and his cavalry. Paso Viego is a gap in the mountains that parallel the Rio Grande from Eagle Mountains on the west to Brites' ranch on the east, and is situated ten or twelve miles west of and in plain view of the present little town of Valentine, Texas, on the G., H & S.A. Railroad. The tribe of Pueblo Indians has lived at the old town of Ysleta, El Paso County, Texas, for more than three hundred years. They have always been friends to the Americans and inveterate enemies to the Apaches. It was customary, therefore, for the United States troops at Fort Davis to employ the Pueblos as guides during the Indian disturbances along the border. In 1881 Bernado and Simon Olgin, two brothers, were the principal chiefs of this tribe. Bernado was the elder and looked it. Both chiefs dressed in the usual Indian fashion, wore moccasins, buckskin leggins and had their long black hair braided and hanging down the back. Simon was a very handsome Indian, and he, with four of his tribe--all nephews of his, I think--were employed by General Grierson during the troublesome times of 1880-1881.

Simon and his four scouts had been detailed to make scouts down on the Rio Grande with Lieutenant Mills, commander of the Tenth United States Cavalry (colored). On their way out the troops reached Paso Viego early in the evening, and after they had eaten supper Simon Olgin advised the lieutenant to move out on the open plains three or four miles north of the pass where they would be safe from attack. Olgin declared Paso Viego was a favorite camping place for the Indians going to and returning from Mexico because of the fine water and good grass. He stated that should a band of redskins appear at the pass during the night and find it occupied by soldiers they would attack at daylight and probably kill some of the troopers.

Lieutenant Mills, fresh from West Point, replied that he was not afraid of Indians and did not propose to move. During the night the little band of twenty Apaches reached the pass, just as Olgin had prophesied, and hid themselves in the rocks. The next morning the soldiers had breakfast, packed their mules, and as they were standing by their horses ready for the order to mount a sudden fusillade of bullets was fired into their midst at short range. Other volleys came in quick succession. At the very first fire that grand old Indian, Simon Olgin, was shot down and killed, as were five or six of the negro cavalry. The remainder of the company thereupon fled, but the four Pueblo scouts, Olgin's nephews, took to the rocks and fought until they had routed the Apaches and saved the bodies of their old beloved uncle and the soldiers from falling into the hands of the attackers to be mutilated.

Repulsed at Paso Viego the twenty Apaches next appeared at Bass' Canyon, a gap in the mountains on the overland stage road about twelve or fourteen miles west of Van Horn. Here the redskins waylaid an immigrant train on its way to New Mexico. At the very first fire of the Indians Mrs. Graham, who was walking, jumped upon the tongue of the wagon and reached for a Winchester, but was shot and killed. A man named Grant was killed at the same time, while Mr. Graham had his thigh broken. From Bass' Canyon the Indians turned south, crossed around the east end of the Eagle Mountains and again entered Old Mexico, where they were for a time lost to view.

We next hear of this band at Ojo Calienta, some hot springs on the Rio Grande southwest from Eagle Mountains. A captain of cavalry with some colored troops near old Fort Quitman detailed seven men and instructed the sergeant in charge to scout down the river as far east as Bosque Bonita, keep a sharp lookout for Indian signs and report back to camp in one week. These troopers followed orders, and on their return journey camped for the night at Ojo Calienta. Next morning at break of day the soldiers were preparing to cook breakfast when the Apaches fell upon them and killed all save one at their first assault. This single survivor made his escape on foot, and after two days in the mountains without food finally reached the soldier camp and reported to his captain. The Indians evidently located the soldier scout the evening before but, as they never make a night attack, waited until daylight to massacre their victims. The redskins captured all the soldiers' equipment and baggage, including seven horses and two pack mules. They pillaged the camp and took everything movable away with them. Before resuming their journey the Apaches took six stake-pins made of iron and about twenty inches long that were used by the soldiers to drive into the ground as stakes to which to fasten their horses and drove one through each soldier's corpse, pinning it firmly to the earth. The captured stock was killed and eaten, for the soldiers' animals were fat while most of the ponies and little mules of the Apaches were worn out by constant use in the mountains, and consequently very poor.

This band was not heard of again for nearly two months--until the warriors set upon the stage at Quitman Canyon and killed the driver, Morgan, and the gambler, Crenshaw, a passenger. The reports about this stage robbery and murder were so conflicting and the impression so strong that the driver and the passenger had themselves robbed the stage and made Indian signs to avert suspicion that Captain Baylor deemed it best to go down to the canyon and investigate for himself. Accordingly, the captain made a detail of fourteen privates and one corporal, and with ten days' rations on two pack mules left Ysleta on January 16th to ascertain if possible whether the stage had been robbed and the driver and passenger killed by Indians or by white men, and to punish the robbers if they could be caught. To keep down disorder and violence threatened at El Paso, the captain left me and a detail of three men in our camp at Ysleta.

At Quitman, Captain Baylor learned that the trail of the stage robbers bore southwest to Ojo Calienta, and as the foothills of Quitman Mountains are very rough, he went down the north bank of the Rio Grande, as he felt quite certain he would cut signs in that direction. About twenty-five miles below Quitman he struck the trail of a freshly shod mule, two barefooted ponies and two unshod mules, and within fifty yards of the trail he found the kid glove thought to have been Crenshaw's. The trail now bore down the river and crossed into Mexico, where the Indian band made its first camp. Captain Baylor followed, and the next day found the Apaches' second camp near the foothills of the Los Pinos Mountains, where we had left General Terrasas the fall before. Here all doubts about the Indians were dispelled, as the rangers found a horse killed with the meat taken as food and a pair of old moccasins. Besides, the camp was selected on a high bare hill after the custom of the Indians. The same day Captain Baylor found another camp and a dead mule, and on the trail discovered a boot-top recognized as that of Morgan, the driver. Here also was the trail of some fifteen or twenty mules and ponies, quite fresh, coming from the direction of the Candelario Mountains with one small trail of three mules going toward the Rio Grande. The rangers passed through some very rough, deep canyons and camped on the south side of the Rio Grande, this being their second night in Mexico.

Next morning the trail crossed back into Texas. Going toward Major Carpenter's old camp above the Bosque Bonito the scouting party found a camp where the Indians had evidently made a cache, but Captain Baylor only tarried here a short time and followed on down the river a few miles when he found the Apaches had struck out on a bee line for the Eagle Mountains. The captain felt some hesitation about crossing the plains between the Eagle Mountains and the Rio Grande in the daytime for fear of being seen by the Indians, but as the trail was several days old he took the risk of being discovered. He camped within three or four miles of the mountains and at daybreak took the trail up a canyon leading into the peaks. The party came suddenly upon an Apache camp which had been hastily deserted that morning, for the Indians left blankets, quilts, buckskins and many other things useful to them. They had just killed and had piled up in camp two horses and a mule, the blood of which had been caught in tin vessels. One mule's tongue was stewing over a fire and everything indicated the redskins were on the eve of a jolly war dance, for the rangers found a five-gallon can of mescal wine and a horse skin sunk in the ground that contained fifteen or twenty gallons more. Here Captain Baylor found the mate to Morgan's boot-top and a bag made from the legs of the passenger's pantaloons, besides express receipts, postal cards and other articles taken from the stage. The night before had been bitterly cold and the ground had frozen hard as flint rock, so the rangers could not get the trail, though they searched the mountains in every direction, and the three Pueblo Indians, Bernado Olgin, Domingo Olgin, and Aneseta Duran, looked over every foot of the ground. The scouting party now turned back toward Mexico to scout back on the west side of the Eagle Mountains around to Eagle Springs in search of the trail.

At Eagle Springs, as good luck would have it, Captain Baylor learned that Lieutenant Nevill and nine men had just gone toward Quitman to look for him. As soon as Lieutenant Nevill returned to the Springs he informed Baylor that he had seen the trail six miles east of Eagle Springs and that it led toward the Carrizo Springs or Diablo Mountains.

Captain Baylor's rations were out and Lieutenant Nevill had only supplies enough to do the combined force five days, but the two commanders trusted either to catch the Indians or get in striking distance of the Pecos settlements within that time. The Apaches made pretty good time across the plain in front of Eagle Springs, and did not seem to recover from their scare until they reached the Diablo Mountains. Here they killed and cooked meat from one horse and obtained water by melting snow with hot rocks.

The trail led northward by Chili Peak, a noted landmark to be seen from Eagle Station. Here the rangers quit the trail and went into the Diablo Mountains to camp at Apache Tanks, where General Grierson cut off Victorio from the Guadalupe Mountains the summer before. Next morning Captain Baylor followed the trail north and camped on the brow of cliffs overlooking Rattlesnake Springs. The sign now led to the edge of the Sierra Diablo, where the Indians camped and slept for the first time since leaving Eagle Mountains. They were still watchful, as they were near a most horrible looking canyon down which they could have disappeared had the scouting party come upon them. Their next camp was about ten miles farther on, and Captain Baylor saw they were getting more careless about camping. On the 28th he came across another horse and fire where the Apaches had eaten some meat. The leg of the horse was not yet stiff and blood dropped from one when picked up. The chase was getting to be exciting, and Captain Baylor and his men felt their chance to avenge the many outrages committed by this band was now near at hand.

The trail led off north as though the redskins were going toward the Cornudos in New Mexico, but turned east and entered Sierra Diablo Mountains. In a narrow gorge the rangers found where the Indians had eaten dinner, using snow to quench their thirst, but their horses had no water. From this camp the Apaches made for the cliffs on the northeast side of Devil Mountains. The scouting party now felt the Indians were nearby, as they were nearly all afoot. The danger of being discovered if they passed over the hills during the daylight was so apparent that the rangers decided to make a dry camp and pass the mountain's brow before day the next morning. All the signs were good for a surprise; the trail was not over two hours old, and a flock of doves passing overhead going in the direction of the trail showed that water was nearby.

The morning of the 29th of January the party was awakened by the guard, and passed over the mountain's brow before daylight. There was some difficulty in picking up the trail, though Captain Baylor, Lieutenant Nevill and the Pueblo trailers had been up the evening before spying out the land. By stooping down with their faces close to the ground the Pueblos got the trail leading north along the crest of the mountains. Soon the Indian guides said in low voices: "Hoy esta los Indias." And Captain Baylor perceived the Apaches' camp fires not over half a mile distant.

Leaving a guard of five men with the horses the rangers advanced stealthily on foot. By taking advantage of the crest of the mountain they crept within two hundred yards of the camp, supposing the Indians were camped on the western slope of the hill. The Apaches, however, were cautious enough to put one tepee on the eastern slope overlooking the valley and the approaches from that direction. Captain Baylor thereupon ordered Sergeant Carruthers of Lieutenant Nevill's company to take seven men and make a detour to the left and attack that wigwam while Lieutenant Nevill and himself with seventeen men advanced on the eastern camp. Sheltering themselves behind some large Spanish dagger plants and advancing in Indian file the attackers got within one hundred yards of the enemy, who was apparently just out of bed, for it was then sunrise. Halting the men deployed to the right and left and then, kneeling, the rangers gave the astonished Indians a deliberate volley. At the second fusillade the Apaches broke and fled, the rangers charging the flying foe with a Texas yell.

Sergeant Carruthers executed his orders in gallant style. The Apaches on his side, alarmed and surprised by the fire of Captain Baylor's force, huddled together and three were killed within twenty yards of their camp fire. The redskins ran like deer and made no resistance, for it was each man for himself. Nevertheless, as they fled they were thickly peppered, as there were but two or three out of the party of sixteen or eighteen but left blood along their trail as they ran off.

One Indian the rangers named Big Foot (from his enormous track) ran up the mountain in full view for four hundred yards, and not less than two hundred shots were fired at him, but he passed over the hill. Sergeant Carruthers and several men pursued the fugitive for a mile and a half and found plenty of blood all the way. Another warrior was knocked down and lay as though dead for some time, but finally regained his feet and made two-forty time over the hills with a running accompaniment of Springfield and Winchester balls. One brave stood his ground manfully, principally because he got the gable end of his head shot off early in the action.

Of course the women were the principal sufferers. As it was a bitterly cold, windy morning and all ran off with blankets about them few of the rangers could tell braves from squaws, and in the confusion of battle two women were killed and one mortally wounded. Two children were killed and a third shot through the foot. One squaw with three bullets in her hand and two children were captured. Seven mules and nine horses, two Winchester rifles, one Remington carbine, one United States cavalry pistol and one .40 double action Colt's, six United States cavalry saddles taken from the troops killed at Ojo Calienta and some women's and children's clothing, American made,--evidently those of Mrs. Graham,--a Mexican saddle with a bullet hole in it and fresh blood thereon and over a hundred and fifty yards of new calico fell as spoil to the victors. All the Indians' camp equipage was burned.

The victorious rangers breakfasted on the battleground, as they had eaten nothing since dinner the day before. Some of the men found horse meat good, while others feasted on venison and roasted mescal. The band of scouts could not remain long at this camp for water was very scarce. They had forty head of stock to care for, and the Indians, in their flight, ran through the largest pool of water and liberally dyed it with their blood, and as none of the men were bloodthirsty enough to use this for making coffee or bread they were short of water. However, the rangers found enough pure good water for their use but the horses had to wait until the force reached Apache Tanks, thirty miles distant. This scarcity of water made it impossible to remain at this Apache camp, otherwise Captain Baylor could have added three or four scalps to his trophies. The return march was begun, and at Eagle Station Lieutenant Nevill and Captain Baylor separated. The captured squaw and the two children were sent to Fort Davis to be turned over to the post commander for medical attention, for the rangers had neither a surgeon nor a hospital.

On their return from the battle of the Diablos, Captain Baylor's Pueblo Indian scouts, Chief Bernado Olgin, Domingo Olgin, and Aneseta Duran, suddenly halted about one mile from Ysleta, unsaddled and unbridled their tired little ponies and went into camp. This was their custom after a successful campaign against their Apache enemies so that their comrades might come out and do honor to the returning heroes. For three days and nights a feast and a scalp dance was held by the whole of the Pueblo tribe of Ysleta. They feasted, wined and dined their returning warriors and invited the rangers to the festivities. The boys all went and reported they had a fine time generally. This celebration was the last scalp dance the Pueblo Indians ever had, for the destruction of the Apaches in the Diablos exterminated the wild Indians and there were no more of them to scalp.