The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, July 1978 - April, 1979 Page: 69
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"I Am Already Quite a Texan"
were off-we turned into a deep ravine where the work for our horses
was more like climbing over piles of building stone than anything to
which I can liken it, and striking an Indian trail followed it up, up
until we had attained a great elevation when we found to our surprise
a plain which entering the mountains formed a pass, through this it
was that the Indians came when they "stampeded" the Rifle Horses-I
wrote to you of this when I was sick-and through this they passed
upon their retreat. The Rifles chased them with all the speed of rage,
but they were not skillful trailers and in the many passes through the
mountains soon lost the course. Rifles rode sixty miles between i1 a.m.
Sc dark but in rain, their horses were seen no more.25
Sometimes the trail is like a pathway through the grass of a meadow.
You will follow it thus for miles then the [I]ndians choose a spot from
which many ravines branch out, or a plain too extensive to be minutely
inspected and here they scatter[.] The pathway ceases; there is no mark,
sometimes not even a vestige. Yet a mile or two from the spot on which
you stand, your guide or scouters fall in some lonely ravine once more
upon the pathway, climbing now the side of a mountain or sinking into
some unexpected dell, as plainly worn as ever. This is Indian Strategy.
This is their constant desire to elude pursuit, a custom almost invaria-
ble whether they alone are masters of the country or whether they fear
the white man.
So when the sun was setting we came to the foot of a precipitous hill.
The trail was missing but its course was plain along an empty valley.
Somewhere about the top of this hill the guide said there was water and
here we determined to encamp. So we scrambled up and reached a pla-
teau near the summit. You would have thought no footstep of Indian
had ever passed near it. There was no sign. We had a splendid view of
dim, blue, distant hills for we were very high. Far away we could see a
mountain which lies back of the Post and watched the clouds resting
upon its summit. We rode a little further and lo! a new ravine, a pass
2.,See letter dated March 17 to April 4, 1855, above. The Regiment of Mounted Rifle-
men had several encounters in the summer and fall of 1854, but I have been unable to
determine to which Myer refers. It may have occurred October 3, 1854; as reported by
Heitman, Historical Register, II, 401, that engagement, involving detachments of two com-
panies of the Mounted Riflemen, took place near Fort Davis. Utley, Special Report, 2o-22,
describes a running battle between Riflemen and Mescaleros, October 1-3, 1854, following
an incident on September 30 when the Indians ran off the stock of a civilian wagon train
loo miles east of El Paso. Both sides suffered casualties in several fierce melees; the troops
reached the future site of Fort Davis on October 5. Myer may have gotten his facts con-
fused, but the civilian horses were evidently not recovered.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 82, July 1978 - April, 1979, periodical, 1978/1979; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101206/m1/89/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.