isastrous fight made by eight passengers
in the stage against a band of sixty Apaches. They fought every inch of
the long, dread struggle. Killed one by one, and dropped on the road,
two survivors maintained their defense a long time, and when the sole
contestant was left, his last dying effort was to strew the contents of
his powder-horn in the sand, and stir it in with his foot, so that the
Indians could not use it. Wilson's Creek, some miles further on, is
named after a Mr. Wilson, a merchant of Santa Fe, who was overtaken here
by the Indians, and, with his wife and child--for he was alone with
them--butchered with the usual savage outrage and cruelty.

The command returned to Fort Union in September, in which month the
First Infantry, California Volunteers, was mustered out of service,
their term of three years having expired, with the exception of Company
K, it being recollected that they were enlisted at San Francisco some
time after the other companies had been formed. However, the members of
that company began, in October, to be dropped out, and when orders
arrived at Fort Union for the formation of the Commanche expedition,
under Colonel Kit Carson, there remained of the First Infantry Regiment,
California Volunteers, one officer (Lieutenant Pettis) and twenty-six
enlisted men of Company K. This company accompanied Carson's expedition
with two mountain howitzers, mounted on prairie carriages, and
rendezvoued at Fort Bascom, on the Canadian river, near the line of
Texas. This expedition consisted as follows: Colonel Christopher Carson,
First New Mexico Cavalry, commanding; Colonel Francisco P. Abreu, First
New Mexico Infantry; Major William McCleave, First California Cavalry;
Captain Emil Fritz, Company B, First California Cavalry, one officer and
forty enlisted men; Lieutenant Sullivan Heath, Company K, First
California Cavalry, one officer and forty men; Captain Meriam, Company
M, First California Cavalry, one officer and thirty-four men; Lieutenant
George H. Pettis, Company K, First California Infantry, one officer and
twenty-six men; Captain Charles Deus, Company M, First New Mexico
Cavalry, two officers and seventy men; Captain Joseph Berney, Company D,
First New Mexico Cavalry, two officers and thirty-six men; Company A,
First California Veteran Infantry, seventy-five men; Assistant Surgeon
George S. Courtright, United States Volunteers, and an officer whose
name escapes me, as Assistant Quartermaster and C