Battle of Apache Pass (Continued)

FEBRUARY, 1936 ARIZONA HIGHWAYS 15 Battle of Apache Pass "I Slipped a Carbine Ball into His Heart.... I Thought This a Good Time to Make Tracks"

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the thrilling tale of the white man's struggle with the Indian. John Teal, believed dead in Apache Pass, arrived in the army camp early one morning, bringing with him his saddle, blanket, sabre and pistols, but without his horse and spurs. Here is his narrative, which illustrates so well another phase of Apache character.

CHAPTER II.

SOON after we left the pass," said he, "we opened upon a sort of hollow plain or vale, about a mile wide, across which we dashed with speed. I was about 200 yards in the rear, and presently a body of about 15 Indians got between me and my companions. I turned my horse's head southward and coursed along the plain, lengthwise, in the hope of outrunning them, but my horse had been too sorely tested and could not get away. They came up and commenced firing, one ball passing through the body of my horse, just forward of his hind quarters. It was then about dark and I immediately dismounted, determined to fight it out to the bitter end. My horse fell, and as I approached him he began to lick my hands. I then swore to kill at least one Apache... Lying down behind the body of my dying horse, I opened fire upon them with my carbine which, being a breech-loader, enabled me to keep up a lively fusillade. This repeated fire seemed to confuse the savages and, instead of advancing with a rush, they commenced to circle around me, firing occasionally in my direction. They knew that I also had a six-shooter and a sabre and seemed unwilling to try close quarters. In this way the fight continued for over an hour, when I got a good chance at a prominent Indian and slipped a carbine ball into his heart. He must have been a man of some note because soon after that they seemed to get away from me, and I could hear their voices growing fainter in the distance. I thought this a good time to make tracks and, divesting myself of my spurs, I took the saddle, bridle and blanket from my dead horse and started for camp. I have walked eight miles since then."

It was afterwards ascertained that the Apache warrior shot by the intrepid Teal was none other than the great Mangas Coloradas himself, chief of the Pinal Apaches. The wounded leader, with his band of defeated warriors, returned to the Pinos Altos country, whence he was conveyed to the town of Janos, in the State of Chihuahua, where he received the care and attention of a Mexican physician, who happened to be in the place at the time. It was a case of surgery under difficult conditions, for the doctor was told that if the patient survived he would be safe, but if the patient died, the doctor and all the inhabitants of the village would be sent to join Mangas in the spirit land. The ball was extracted, Mangas recovered, and the doctor and the village saved.

Had the bullet from John Teal's carbine killed Mangas Coloradas, it would have saved his later assassination at Fort McLane, and lessened, to a great extent, the subsequent hatred of the Apaches for the whites.

Under date of September 20, 1862, General Carleton sent an official communication to the military authorities at San Francisco, California, to which he states the following: "I left Tucson myself on the 23rd of July, passed Colonel West with most of the troops, encamped on the San Pedro, on the 24th, and led the advance of the column from that point to Las Cruces, New Mexico, with one company of infantry and two of cavalry. From the hostile attitude of the Chiricahuas, I found it indispensably necessary to establish a post in what is known as Apache Pass; it is known as Fort Bowie, and garrisoned by one hundred rank and file of the Fifth Infantry, California Volunteers, and thirteen rank and file of Company A, First Cavalry, California Volunteers. This post commands the water in the pass. Around this water the Indians have been in the habit of(Continued on Page 24)