Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains, Or, the Last Voice from the Plains / An Authentic Record of a Life Time of Hunting, Trapping, Scouting and Indian Fighting in the Far West

by William F. Drannan

After making as good an investigation as the surroundings would permit, I returned with my scouts to the command to report. In making my report I said: "Lieutenant, I cannot half describe that canyon to you, for it is beyond any doubt the blackest looking place I have ever seen in all my travels." I told the Lieutenant that I would like to have him go with me and view the place before he moved his command. The canyon was fifty miles from our quarters. That same night George Jones returned with his four scouts, and the morning following we started out with the entire scout force, taking four days' rations with us. On the morning of the second day we came in sight of the canyon. The Lieutenant took a good look at it through his glasses, after which he said: "Captain, I think you named it well when you called it a Black canyon, for it looks as if it would be impossible to enter it on horseback." That day and the next was spent in trying to find where the Indians entered the canyon, and we at last discovered that they entered it from the east and west with horses, by descending a very abrupt mountain, and they were strung up and down the canyon for five miles. After the Lieutenant had made examinations of the location we started back to headquarters.

The Lieutenant and I fell back to the rear in order to have a private conversation relative to the situation. He said: "To be honest with you, I don't think it safe to go in there with less than two thousand soldiers, especially at this time of the year. If the Indians are as strong as they look to be, and have the advantage of the ground that they seem to have, it would only be sport for them to lie behind those rocks and shoot the soldiers down as fast as they could enter the canyon. This is the first time I ever went out hunting Indians, found them, and had to go away and let them alone. To tell the truth, I don't know what to do, for if I report to the General he will come at once with all his forces and accomplish nothing when here."

The Black canyon is in the northwest corner of Arizona, where it joins on to California and Nevada. Since that time there have been more soldiers killed in that place than in all the balance of Arizona territory.

After he had thought the matter over for a day or so he decided to move the command up near Black canyon, catch small parties out from there, and try in that manner to weaken them, or he might succeed in drawing them out, and in that way be able to get a fight out of them on something like fair ground. But in this the Lieutenant was very much disappointed, for they were too smart to come out.

George Jones and myself, each with our company of scouts, started out to locate some place suitable for headquarters, with instructions that anywhere within twenty miles would be satisfactory. I was out six days but did not find what I considered a suitable location. Jones was more successful. Within about ten miles of the canyon he found what he thought to be a suitable location, but said it would be impossible to get to the place with wagons. So the wagons were corralled and left at our present location in charge of a sergeant, with thirty infantrymen.

Loading the entire pack train, we started for Howard's Point, that being the name George had given the new camp.

Upon arrival at our new camp the Lieutenant put out pickets all around camp one mile away, keeping them there day and night while we remained. The scouts for the next six weeks were almost worked to death, without accomplishing much of anything, from the fact that we were too close to the main body of Indians to catch them in small squads, for in going out to hunt they would not go into camp until twenty or thirty miles from their headquarters, and our plan was to catch them in camp and attack them either in the night or just at daybreak in the morning.

One morning after being here ten days, the whole scout force started in two squads, with the understanding that we keep in about one mile of each other, so that if one squad should encounter a band of Indians the other could come to the relief.

After traveling about ten miles we heard shots in the direction where I knew George was with his four assistants, and turning in that direction, we put our horses down to their best speed, and were soon at the scene of action, but owing to the roughness of the ground we could not make as good time as we desired. When in sight of the contestants I saw that George was on foot, a comrade on each side of him, and they were firing as fast as they could load and shoot. He had run into those Indians, about twenty in number, hid in the rocks, and they had opened fire on the scouts, killing two of his men the first shot, and shooting George's horse from under him, leaving him afoot. When we arrived I ordered my men to dismount and take to the rocks, leaving the horses to take care of themselves, as the Indians were on foot and we could make better time in that immediate vicinity than we could on our horses. We had a hot little fight, but succeeded in driving the savages back. After the battle was over we tied our dead comrades on one horse and packed them to camp, changing off with George and the scout whose horse the dead bodies were tied on, letting them ride our horses part of the time. That night we dug graves and gave the two comrades as decent a burial as circumstances would permit. George felt very sorry over losing the two scouts because they were in his charge, but he was not to blame in the least.

In this little battle we got six Indians, and they killed two of our men and three horses. Lieut. Jackson thought it would now be advisable to increase the number of scouts and have a sufficient force together to be able to protect ourselves, for we were to remain here a month longer, and if in that time we were not able in some way to get at the Indians we would return to the fort and wait until spring.