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208 Series I Volume XLI-I Serial 83 - Price's Missouri Expedition Part I

Page 208 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.

shoes for my men, who were barefooted. Mr. Parker arrived at Tularosa same day and informed me that Major Chacon and Lieutenant Cook had reached Rio Alamo.

Lieutenant Cook did not accompany Mr. Parker to Tularosa, as I have since seen stated in Major Chacon's journal, published in a Santa Fe paper. I left Tularosa with Mr. C. Parker and Mr. Gregory and a number of citizens, intending to take a rail leading to the Sacramento River through the Alamo Canon, hoping to surprise the Apaches in that direction, but on the road within a few miles of Major Chacon's camp I was met by a messenger, who brought me a note from Lieutenant Cook informing me that Lieutenant Gilbert's party had been surprised by Apaches on Sacramento Mountains, and that the lieutenant was killed and his party repulsed and driven back. On receiving this information I galloped to Major Chacon's camp, and proposed to make a night march up the Alamo canyon toward the scene of the fight, in hopes to overtake the Apaches before they would retreat farther into the mountains. This proposition was not favorably received by the major, who directed that the commands should move together next morning in the same direction. We started on the next morning at 9 o'clock and entered canyon Alamo, up which we proceeded for about eight miles, and thence ascended a very steep mountain for several miles, halting about 3 p. m. at a small stream on the southern side of it. We left this camp at sunset same day, and marching until 12 o'clock at night encamped amongst a forest of pines and oak, without fires. At daybreak we moved forward and halted for breakfast after a march of ten or twelve miles, and after two hours' delay again set forward, reaching Almagre Spring, at the foot of Sacramento Mountains (the scene of the recent action), at 5 p. m. Here we halted and encamped. I advised Lieutenant Cook to furnish a detail for a funeral escort, the remainder coming from my command, and we marched to the top of the mountain, where Lieutenant Gilbert's remains were found, neither scalped nor mutilated. A grave was dug and his body was interred with appropriate military honors. I erected a small slab of soft stone, on which his initials were cut, at the head of his grave. It faces the trail subsequently made by my part in the advance to Rio Sacramento. From all I can learn respecting the action in which Lieutenant Sacramento. From all I can learn respecting the action in which Lieutenant Gilbert fell, his death was instantaneous. He had dismounted his cavalry to lead their horses up the long and steep slope of the mountain, and when nearly arrived at the top he fell, pierced by the bullet of an Indian in ambush. His men received a volley of arrows and musketry simultaneously, and were obliged to fall back 100 yards to the shelter of a small grove of cedars. In doing so they had to abandon all their horses but two, and could not recover them afterward. I am glad to be able to report that the wounded (5 in number) were brought off the ground. Corporal Ortega (then private, Company L) killed the leader of the Apaches, and Private Sandoval, same company, although mortally wounded, fired several times, and kept his horse in his grasp, the mountain side being too steep to operate mounted. This action took place on the 26th of August, and the party reached the camp on Rio alamo August 27, 1864, very much fatigued and exhausted. The guide Sanchez and Private Sandoval died before the party reached the Alamo. The Navajo warrior who accompanied the party fought gallantly, and his bold and dauntless bearing in the fight was a theme of conversation for some time afterward. his shirt was perforated with two bullets.

Having returned to camp, after the burial of Lieutenant Gilbert, Major Chacon concluded that it was impracticable to pursue the


Page 208 LOUISIANA AND THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI. Chapter LIII.