he military road leading from Fort Union
to Santa Fe, near the old Peces ruins. The command moved along this road
to the village of Tecolote; from here they proceeded down the Pecos
river, and arrived at Fort Sumner after eighteen days' marching. Fort
Sumner was a new post, established for the purpose of a reservation for
Indians, both Navajo and Apache, that should be taken prisoners by the
troops, and Colonel Carson was on a campaign against the Navajoes, in
which he was successful, as there were finally some eight thousand of
these Indians captured and placed on this reservation. Those brought in
by Company K were the first large body that had arrived. I will say
here, in parenthesis, that this is the only way to treat the Indian
question; for this Indian nation (the Navajoes), after receiving a
severe drubbing by Carson, and all had surrendered, were finally allowed
to return to their own country, since which time they have continued on
the best of terms with our people. This has always been the experience
on the frontiers--one effective campaign is better than all the treaties
that were ever consummated.

Fort Sumner was at this time in command of Major Henry D. Wallen, United
States Seventh Infantry, than whom there was no more excellent gentleman
in the service of the government. His administration was marked by a
sincere desire to do justice to all under him, a feature that was sadly
deficient in too many officers of the time that is spoken of. He was a
perfect example of sobriety, and his case certainly was a commendation
of the excellence of education of the academy at West Point, of which he
was an honored graduate.

Company K had been at Fort Sumner but a few days when it was ordered to
report to the commanding officer at Fort Union, necessitating a march of
one hundred and twenty-five miles. The command arrived at Fort Union on
the eighteenth day of March, 1864, and remained there, doing camp duty,
during the months of April, May and June. In July, the company
proceeded, with a company of New Mexican cavalry, towards the east, by
the route known as the Cummarron route, passing on our way, Burgwin's
Spring, named after the gallant Captain Burgwin, First Regiment United
States Dragoons, who fell while leading the attack upon the insurgents
at Taos, 1847, and the Wagon Mound, a high landmark (so called from its
shape). From this point to the "Point of Rocks," forty miles, is the
track of a bloody, brave and d