b'Three Great Apache Chiefs continued from page 18Eight U.S. Cavalry troopers lay dead in camp. Recoveringone white and two Navajo scouts dead. Several other from the raid Captain Hooker set out in pursuit of thetroopers were wounded. Thirty-eight of Dudleys horses Apaches. He found nothing. They seemingly disappeared.were either dead or crippled. Victorio had not lost a man. Ten days later, near Hillsboro, New Mexico, a posse ofDuring the night, Dudley gathered his dead and wounded ranchers and citizens had set out to assist Hooker inand retreated from the battle scene.hunting down Victorio. They got too close to the Apache force. Victorio turned on them and the hunters becameThis major victory by Victorio was his third in a row. He the prey in an instant. Ten of the citizen posse were killedhad killed 26 whites, captured a large number of horses, and all of their horses became part of Victorios rapidlya lot of guns and supplies. Every day warriors from the growing herd. reservations of Arizona were finding his band and joining him. Not a man to bask too long in his own success, The Apache force again disappeared without a trace.Victorio again headed across the border, this time with Unbeknownst to the Army and settlers in New Mexico,a force of about 175 warriors. He didnt easily slip into Victorio was heading north into Arizona TerritoryMexico this time.where he planned to give those Membreno still on the reservation an opportunity to join him. As word ofSoldiers On HeelsVictorios exploits reached the reservation, many warriorsMajor Morrow with 190 officers and men of the 9thMescalero Apache tipis in New Mexico.began to slip away to join him. His force now numberedcaught up with Victorio near Ojo Caliente. A two-dayGrande. Grieson tried to pursue the Apaches but to no 150 braves. running battle left three Apaches dead and Morrowavail. Victorio and his band slipped into Chihuahua.recaptured 60 horses and mules, including the 12 Victorio Las Animas Creek captured from his attack on Hooker a month earlier. The 9th Cavalry was searching hard for Victorio after theVictorio kept moving towards the border. Morrow stayedMountain RefugeHillsboro attack. A light Colonel named Dudley and twoon the trail. The wiley chief camped first at the Santa Maria River, then troops of the 9th found Victorio at the head of Las Animasmoved his people into the rugged Candelaria Mountains. Creek in New Mexico where deep rocky canyons gave theMorrow captured one of the women from Victorios band.His camp was among almost unaccessible steeps in an Apaches perfect cover. This was Victorios home range, theShe told him where Victorio was camped that night.area which provided ample grass, wood, and water. A range of the Warm Springs Apache. Prospectors namedMorrow immediately set out with his troops to capture thecouple of towering peaks above the camp gave Victorios a peak after him in the northern part of the Black Hills.camp. He did, but the camp was deserted. Victorio alreadysentries a view all around of between 20 and 30 miles They called it Vics Peak. had vacated it before the troops got close. The haplessdistance. There would be no surprise attacks here.Major decided not to observe the niceties of internationalIt wasnt long before Victorio was informed that a posse of Dudley attacked at once but the Apaches were in almostlaw and followed Victorio into Mexico.Mexicans from the village of Carrizal was riding toward impregnable positions. In short order, Dudleys trooperswere joined by Captain Beyer and two more troops of theMorrow was playing a dangerous game. His troopers hadthe camp. This posse had been organized by Don JoseRodriguez, a leading citizen and member of one of the 9th. Victorio was now badly outnumbered. The fightingbeen without water for three days and their ammunitionlarge landowning families of the region. The posse was was intense, but the troopers could not drive Victorioswas dangerously low. He caught up with Victorio nearriding toward the Indians in carefree fashion as if they warriors from their highly advantageous positions in thethe Corralitos River in Mexico at night. In the fight thatwere on a hunt for sport. The trail they were on went rocks and brush of the canyons. The battle raged all day.followed Morrow lost another scout and two enlistedthrough a deep canyon.When night fell, Dudley counted five enlisted men andmen were wounded. If Victorio had decided to counterattack Morrows exhausted force might have beenVictorio sent forty warriors to ambush the posse in this overrun. Morrow knew this and withdrew across thegorge. Among them were some of his best marksmen. At border to Fort Bayard. the north end of the trail through the canyon, Victorio Texan Relief Shortlived placed some of these marksmen behind boulders. At the Settlers and soldiers in Texas were boasting that they hadother end of the canyon, Victorio laid his real trap. As finally rid themselves of Victorio, driving him into Mexicothe posse rode into the canyons north end it was met and New Mexico. That was before the stage from Fort Davisby a storm of withering rifle fire. The posse immediately raced into Fort Quitman with arrows sticking out from therode to some boulders at the other end of the gorge sides of the coach. The driver and one passenger were dead.for cover. When the posse reached these boulders and Then word was received that the telegraph wires had beensaw no Apaches there, they took cover, for the moment feeling safe.cut down between Fort Davis and Eagle Springs. Victorio had placed his warriors in boulders high above Texans suddenly realized that Victorio had eluded masses Clay Groupof troops patrolling the border and was back in Bigthose on the canyon floor where the posse was huddled. Craft WorkshopsSuddenly a terrific barrage of fire rained down on the Bend country. Colonel Grieson at Eagle Springs believed Gallery ExhibitionsVictorio was headed for Fresno Springs and launchedMexican posse. It was relentless. The boulders in which Hassayampa Writers Groupa forced march for that isolated watering hole. Griesonthey huddled offered no protection from the barragePainting Workshopsarrived at Fresno Springs before Victorio. The colonelfrom above. Every member of the posse was deadPhotography Groupposted troops in hidden locations all around the springs.within minutes.He planned to let Victorio and his band reach the water, OPEN STUDIOthen let loose his ambush. A Rescue Party Rides Into the TrapWhen the Don Rodriguez party failed to return to Tuesdays, Thursdays andAmbush Foiled Carrizal, fear spread that the party had met disaster. SaturdaysLate the next morning, Griesons pickets spotted the firstYet there was no proof of this. Fourteen men were 9:00 a.m.2:00 p.m.cautious Apache scouts approaching the springs. Griesonorganized to ride after the Rodriguez posse in an effort was filled with anticipation. He had nearly one thousandto find out its fate. These fourteen also failed to return. 188 S. Tegner, Wickenburg, AZtroops surrounding the springs. Victorio had betweenCarrizal was hysterical.(928) 684-0483150 and 175 warriors. The colonel was confident the dayA courier was sent to the Presidio del Norte to beg the would be his. commander, Senor Ramos, for help. On the north side The column of Apaches approached the spring cautiously.of the Rio Grande, Colonel Baylor of the Texas Rangers Suddenly a wagon train appeared lumbering toward theheard of the missing Carrizal citizens. He rode to Presidio springs. The Apaches took cover. Grieson had a majordel Norte with a contingent of rangers to offer his services problem. If he moved to save the wagon train from certainto Ramos. Soon a joint force of 100 well-armed men were ambush by Victorio, the Apaches would escape his trap.riding south to the Candelaria.The colonel could not let the teamsters be massacred. HeA hard days ride brought the joint force to Samalayucca ordered his men to reveal themselves and go to the aidwhere they camped the night in bitter cold. Scouts went of the wagon train. Victorio immediately saw the trap he had almost rode into and retreated rapidly toward the Riocontinued on page 2320 April 2019'