Most of the officers who served at the different camps on the neutral land while I was at Limestone have since died. So far as I know, General Kerr—the Mr. Kerr of our camp life there—and myself are the only ones remaining. Mr. Kerr became a captain in 1885 and was wounded in the assault on San Juan ridge July 1, 1898, promoted to major in October, 1898, was military attache at Berlin in 1900 to 1902, promoted to colonel in 1903 and to brigadier general in 1908 and retired from active service in 1909 as brigadier general in the United States Army. He saw much Indian fighting on the frontier, and received numerous medals and honorable mention, in orders from different departments and army headquarters. It is a pleasure to mention these promotions and orders commending him for meritorious conduct for as a young man good things were expected of him by his friends. He is still living and it must be a great comfort to him in his old age to reflect on the distinguished and valuable services he has rendered his country.
The following winter the Supreme Court rendered its decision in the case involving the title to the Cherokee neutral lands in favor of the railroads. I think the settlers generally felt that the decision would be against them for many of them sold their improvements and moved away, and most of those remaining contracted their land from the railroad companies.
CHAPTER IX.
Orders came the latter part of March to abandon the camp and I was ordered to accompany the command to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, and then to report to the commanding officer at Fort Garland, Colorado, for assignment to duty. From Fort Gibson I returned to Camp Limestone for my wife and little girl baby, who was born the previous November. We were furnished tickets by the railroad as far as Kansas City, but when we came to use them we found they had been packed with our baggage and of course had to pay car-fare. We went over the same railroad from Kansas City as the one I had first taken in crossing the plains but in place of stopping in Kansas, as it did then, it had been finished to Denver.
There was a narrow gauge road from Denver to Pueblo. Its passenger train was at the depot when ours pulled in and our train stopped beside it. It was quite a curiosity to me. It looked so very small, I thought of it as a toy affair and wondered if we could make any headway on such a thing. I was surprised and much gratified to soon know how much I had miscalculated its merits. It was a long train and went in and out among the canons and around the mountain sides in an amusing way and with surprising speed. Maybe we would look out and see an engine coming down the track across the canon from us and would discover it to be our own engine puttering along as though pleased with its job. We stayed over night at Pueblo and in the morning we found there was an ambulance to take us and Major Hartz over the mountains to Fort Garland. The major had introduced himself the previous night on our arrival from Denver. On the route to Garland we spent the night at the different stage stations and were made fairly comfortable. As we neared the summit of Sangre De Cristo Pass (Blood of Christ) the snow was very deep and soft. We thought it too much of a load for the mules and so the major and I concluded to walk. It was well we did so, for the mules had all they could do to flounder through it. I stood the walking very well but it was laborious work. The major did not fare so well, for as we neared the top, which is about eleven thousand, five hundred feet above sea level, he was spitting blood and having difficulty in breathing. The west side of the range was clear of snow and it was only two or three miles from the summit to Stearn's ranch, where we stayed over night, and by morning although the major had a restless night the hemorrhage had stopped. The following day we drove to Fort Garland only twenty miles away.
Fort Garland is situated at the edge of the foothills just south of old Baldy, one of the highest peaks of the Sangre De Cristo range. It was a pretty location overlooking the Rio Grande valley to the south and west and we were assigned to comfortable quarters.
About the first part of May a troop of cavalry under command of Major Carraher was ordered to establish a camp at the junction of the west fork with the main stream of the Rio Grande, about one hundred miles west and a little north of the post, and I was assigned to duty as surgeon of the command. This camp was established as a base of supplies for government surveyors who were to survey the San Juan Indian reservation. There had been trouble for some years between the Ute Indians and prospectors who had gone into their reservation and located some valuable mines, and warfare between them had resulted in the government buying the land and opening it to settlers, and this survey was to fix the boundaries and divide the land into sections and cross sections so legal title could be given.
The surveyors arrived a few days after we had established camp. A Mr. Prout was in charge of the party and they stayed at camp several days to establish the exact latitude and longitude of the camp as a base from which to make additional surveys. I became very much interested in this work and they explained a good deal of it to me but I was surprised at the time it required and the figuring necessary. I had the pleasure of watching the chronometer and calling time on signal from the observer. The nights were clear and in that rare atmosphere the stars shone with great brilliancy.