Like magic, Billy produced three large tin spoons for the beans, kept one, and handed the other two, one each, to Kevin and then Curt.
After the early supper, the first sergeant called the dragoons to assemble in the middle of the camping area, instructing them to fall in by squad and stand at attention. He then gave the order to the squad leaders to assign five men from each of their squads to gather firewood for the night — three to gather the firewood and two to act as guards and keep a watchful eye for "hostiles."
Twenty-five minutes later under the shading canopy of the giant cottonwoods, the squads began returning to camp with armloads of driftwood from the bosque and the banks of the Rio Chama.
It was at this time that Kevin saw Red Hawk ride into camp at a hard gallop, his brown and white pinto streaked with foaming bands of sweat.
Red Hawk's entrance caught the attention of all of the dragoons because Red Hawk's usual entrance into camp was at day's end and usually stealthy and ghostlike, befitting the myth the white man had come to believe about the Indian, a myth that Red Hawk delighted in reinforcing at every opportunity and especially by sneaking into camp at day's end when he would appear suddenly with few, if anyone, having seen him come in.
As he slid off the bareback of his pinto and handed the reins to the nearest dragoon, Red Hawk immediately sought out and engaged Kit Carson in animated conversation.
After a minute or so of talk and gestures, both squatted to the ground, facing each other. Red Hawk drew his knife, and began to draw something in the dirt.
To Kevin, the communication between the two men seemed to be one of Carson asking a series of questions and Red Hawk giving answers. Carson pointed at the drawing in the dirt several times, and each time Red Hawk responded in Apache and with hand gestures to Carson in the universal sign language as used by most Native American tribes.
None of this escaped Lieutenant Wheeler's attention. He strode over to Red Hawk and Carson, but, then, apparently remembering the earlier confrontation with Carson that afternoon, stood silently and simply observed the two men with what appeared to be growing impatience.
After another minute or so of animated conversation between Carson and Red Hawk, they both stood up.
The lieutenant towering over each by almost a foot in height, said, "Mr. Carson, y'all's little pow-wow appears important." The lieutenant's comment was said with a rising inflection that was less of a question and more a command to Kit Carson to give an answer in light of Red Hawk's uncharacteristic display of urgency.
Carson, through years of stoic experience and learning never to betray emotions in his dealings with the Indian — or with anyone else — hid the contempt he felt for the lieutenant's condescending manner and replied without expression, "White Wolf wants to parley."
~~~
Word of White Wolf's request quickly spread like wildfire throughout the camp by that mysterious communication process common to all military units.
Lieutenant Wheeler considered the situation: There was still four or five hours of daylight left. The parlay site was less than an hour ride from the cottonwood campsite. He figured that the second contingent of Company H were just then breaking out of the Jemez and descending the plateau to the Rio Chama, following the same route that his unit had traveled hours before. By the lieutenant's calculations, the remainder of Company H was at least four hours away from reaching the lieutenant's command.
In addition, the Artillery Company apparently had had some difficulties negotiating the steep and ambush-prone La Bajada south of Santa Fe, according to a dispatch rider who reached the camp during the venison feast. The difficulties at La Bajada would delay the Artillery Company's arrival at the cottonwood rendezvous point by a least a half day, maybe more, the lieutenant figured.
But, prior to the mission, Lieutenant Wheeler also had instructions from the commanding officer of the Post of Albuquerque, Colonel Poindexter, not to attempt anything unilaterally with the Apaches without first having the strength of the combined forces of the rest of Company H and the Artillery Company joined up with Wheeler's unit.
Lieutenant Wheeler was well-aware that for him to parley with White Wolf on his own would be in violation of Colonel Poindexter's direct orders; however, the lieutenant had a particular incentive to disobey orders: If he could effect a capture — or even a killing — of White Wolf, his action would put him alongside the Wheeler family's proud military tradition, most lately that of the lieutenant's father, Brevet Major General William "The Daring" Wheeler, who had fought with distinction in the War of 1812, been wounded twice, and had two battlefield promotions for conspicuous bravery.
In addition, the lieutenant's grandfather, Winfield Knox Wheeler, a sniper under the command of colonial Colonel Prescott at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1776 was reputed to have been a deciding factor for the colonials, that is, until ammunition ran out and the colonials and "Winney" had to retreat.
Consequently, blinded by ambition and the pressure of family tradition, Lieutenant Wheeler made the decision to disobey orders and take his dragoons to ostensibly meet with White Wolf for parley, but with a true intent to capture or kill White Wolf and his band, which would result, he hoped, in personal glory for initiative, daring, and bravery, and a place of prominence alongside his father and grandfather's military exploits.
~~~
Tension was running high among the dragoons. First Sergeant O'Malley instructed Corporal Yates to keep Kevin and Curt to the rear once the dragoons arrived at the parley site, especially if fighting broke out.
Yates gave Kevin and Curt quick instructions on how to hold the pack mules in the rear and how to alert him at the first sign of a pending sneak attack by one or more Apaches to steal the mules and the dragoons' extra ammunition and foodstuffs.
~~~
The site for the parley was on top of a mesa that abutted the Rio Chama.
The east side of the mesa was a steep one-hundred foot drop to within twenty feet of thick bosque beyond which after another fifty yards was the river. The west side of the mesa was simply an extension of the plateau that led back into the Jemez mountains but partially cutoff from that plateau by a seventy-five foot wide arroyo that often gushed water runoff from the Jemez mountains even on clear days when the only storm clouds were over the Jemez.
Both the north and south sides of the mesa had the same relative one-hundred foot drop off as the east side; however, as opposed to the more or less sheer drop on the east side, each of the three sides bore centuries of erosion characterized by sloping rock fall and soil erosion common to Southwestern mesas.
The Lieutenant and his thirty dragoons would have to take a steep, narrow, one horse wide, zigzag trail on the west side of the mesa, part of which was through a mini canyon of red rock columns and rubble, to gain the parley site at the top of the mesa.
The lieutenant was aware of the potential for ambush and the vulnerability for trap on such a trail.
The dragoons were well aware, also.
Nevertheless, despite the concerns of the dragoons as voiced by the first sergeant to the lieutenant, and blinded by ambition and committed by pride and a mistaken sense of duty, the lieutenant led his dragoons up the treacherous path, notwithstanding the unease and danger that the dragoons felt.
~~~
As Lieutenant Wheeler acquired the top of the mesa, he halted the column of dragoons still strung out on the trail below him to survey the Apaches approximately one-hundred and seventy feet distant, kneeling in a single, north-south row on the mesa top.
Each Apache warrior, separated by eight to ten feet from the Apache warriors on either side, was kneeling on one knee, and each had a cap and ball musket at his side, musket butt on the ground and barrel pointed skyward.
The lieutenant took in the scene and then suddenly realized that the number of Apaches exactly matched his number of dragoons. With that realization, the lieutenant knew that White Wolf had scouted him prior to asking for the parley.
/> The lieutenant also knew that White Wolf's scouting meant that White Wolf had evaluated the dragoons' strengths and weaknesses, giving White Wolf the edge in military intelligence. Nevertheless, the lieutenant felt himself to be the superior tactician of the two of them, dismissing what White Wolf had done as giving the Apache no particular advantage. Nevertheless, deep inside the lieutenant, a warning bell rang, but the lieutenant ignored it and, caught up in a flush of adrenaline and a sense of invincibility, resolved to carry on for what he anticipated would be finally his day of military glory and yet another chapter in his family's storied military history.
~~~
The Apache warriors arrayed on the mesa top were dressed in traditional Apache warrior garb — most wore knee-high, fringed leather moccasin leggings. Some wore off-white or tan cotton trousers tied off just above the leggings while other warriors wore only a breechcloth covered by a front and back apron.
About half the warriors wore long-sleeved, muted color shirts while the remainder wore no shirt; however, all appeared to be wearing a vest of either deerskin or fabric. In addition, each Apache wore a wide headband of red cloth, restraining shoulder-length or longer black hair.
Without exception, streaks of red and yellow war paint decorated each warrior's face.
The Apaches were silent and as motionless as statues.
Lieutenant Wheeler continued his evaluation, weighing the tactical implications before him. He quickly noted that the mesa was about three-hundred feet square. He considered that favorable in that his dragoons would have maneuvering room on horseback, if needed. He also could see that the Apaches had their backs to within thirty feet or so of the eastern bluff-edge and the one-hundred foot drop to the bosque of thick mesquite and undergrowth that led some eighty yards farther to the Rio Chama River.
The lieutenant considered the positioning of the warriors to be favorable to him and a mistake on the part of White Wolf, denying the Apaches an escape route except over the steep, riverside bluff.
By the same token, a part of the lieutenant at once admired but continued troubled by the Apache line that stretched one-hundred and fifty feet in the north-south direction because it had an air of military precision calculated to spread out the dragoons, giving a combat advantage in close quarters to the more nimble afoot Apaches verses the horse-mounted dragoons.
In addition, although the lieutenant could not know it at the time, his impression that White Wolf had made a tactical mistake by having no escape route for his warriors was the lieutenant's mistake, not White Wolf's. White Wolf had indeed considered the possibilities, and because he knew the mesa better than his adversary, and because his warriors were not encumbered by horses, White Wolf knew his warriors could, if need be, scramble down the bluff-edge and escape through the Rio Chama bosque to their waiting horses.
But, as remarkable to Lieutenant Wheeler as the arrayed Apaches warriors were, what was even more remarkable to him was the single, solitary Apache kneeling ten paces in front and center of the Apache line.
The lieutenant knew that Apache had to be White Wolf.
White Wolf, too, had a musket or perhaps one of the US Army's newer Sharps rifles — from the distance, Lieutenant Wheeler was not sure. However, in the same disciplined military manner as the war painted Apache warriors to White Wolf's rear, White Wolf had his rifle's butt to the ground, barrel pointed up, as he and his warriors stared at the lieutenant some one-hundred and seventy feet distant.
Despite the distance, Lieutenant Wheeler could also see White Wolf's war paint.
Deep inside the lieutenant, a twinge of doubt about the wisdom of engaging White Wolf on what was clearly White Wolf's turf began to trouble the lieutenant, but, again, as before and for the same reasons, the lieutenant suppressed the warning. Anyhow, he was committed.
A solitary crow flew over the mesa raucously commenting on the scene below, the cawing sounding ominous.
A small dust devil danced in the middle of the mesa for a few seconds and then vanished.
The silence on top of the mesa was deafening.
The lieutenant, completing his evaluation of the situation, quietly passed an order to the first sergeant. As the lieutenant's and the first sergeant's instruction rippled down the single file of mounted dragoons still on the trail, he urged his horse forward in a slow walk. The mounted dragoons followed, each cresting the top of the mesa with their Model 1851 Sharps rifles removed from their scabbards, as they had just been instructed to do, barrels pointed skyward, each rifle butt resting on the dragoon's right thigh.
As each dragoon crested, they smartly alternated right and left so that two dragoons at a time were circling in from opposite directions to take up position, again, as instructed, twenty paces in front of an Apache counterpart.
Had another overflight by a crow occurred then, it would have seen a one-hundred and fifty foot line of kneeling Apaches fronted, one-for-one, by a parallel one-hundred and fifty foot line of mounted dragoons separated from the Apache line by no more than twenty paces.
While his dragoons were taking up position, Lieutenant Wheeler and Kit Carson remained mounted and slow-walked their horses to meet White Wolf in the middle of the two opposing lines.
As the two closed the distance to within fifteen feet, Kit Carson dismounted and, leading his pinto, walked the couple of paces to the kneeling White Wolf while the lieutenant remained mounted.
Carson knelt down on one knee, facing White Wolf and slightly to White Wolf's right, separated by five feet. Carson and White Wolf exchanged greetings in the Apache language and universal sign of greeting.
Carson and White Wolf completed their greetings and looked expectantly at Lieutenant Wheeler.
Lieutenant Wheeler cocked his head back slightly and tilted his chin up, giving the impression he was looking down his nose in that universal expression of distain — and that's exactly the way White Wolf interpreted it.
To compound the tense situation, not only did the lieutenant not speak a greeting, the lieutenant breached protocol by not dismounting and mirroring the kneeling posture of White Wolf — a mirroring customarily done as a courtesy acknowledgment by the main participants to show equality of rank and authority, real or imagined, in a face-to-face parley.
White Wolf and Kit Carson exchanged glances. White Wolf was angry and confused by the breach of protocol. Carson looked up at Lieutenant Wheeler as if the lieutenant had lost his mind.
The lieutenant indeed did seem to have his mind elsewhere. Seemingly oblivious to the gravity of the situation and the mounting tension, the lieutenant was lost in thought as he took stock of White Wolf.
So this is the feared Apache butcher, Lieutenant Wheeler said to himself, not impressed by the swarthy figure of the Apache of undeterminable age and diminutive size whose black eyes blazed with obvious contempt for the lieutenant.
Adding fuel to the tense situation, White Wolf and his warriors interpreted the display of the rifles by the dragoons as a sign of distrust, whereas White Wolf could not see the other side of the coin that Lieutenant Wheeler interpreted the display of Apache rifles as a threat and attempt at intimidation.
Unfortunately, the situation was further aggravated by the lieutenant's failure to understand that the Apache display of rifles was simply one of practicality from White Wolf's perspective — his warriors, unlike the dragoons, had no scabbards for their rifles, and hand-carried them everywhere, all the time. In that sense, the Apache rifles were as much a part of the Apaches as their moccasins or headbands.
The parley was not starting well. Nevertheless, perhaps in deference to Kit Carson whom the Apaches, like most tribes, held in high regard, White Wolf spoke to Carson, expressing a desire to begin the parley.
White Wolf was reasonably fluent in English and understood it as well; however, his status as a leader among his people dictated that when conducting official business, he must speak Apache and be spoken to in Apache; therefore, Kit Carson translated Apache into Engl
ish for the benefit of the lieutenant, and translated English into Apache for the benefit of White Wolf.
And so the parley began. White Wolf initiated the discussion with a long and earnest string of Apache to Carson. Carson translated White Wolf's words to Lieutenant Wheeler. The lieutenant remained silent and impassive astride his horse. Although the trio's conversation was not audible to either the line of Apaches or the line of opposing dragoons, every person on the mesa top — dragoon and Apache — felt the tension in the air.
~~~
Kevin and Curt, along with Corporal Yates had remained with the pack mules at the point where the zigzag trail had broaden out as it entered the mesa top.
All three had a commanding view of the two opposing forces who were separated by twenty paces; one force, the Apaches, kneeling, rifles at their sides, barrels pointed skyward, and the other force, the dragoons, mounted on horseback, rifle butts on right thighs, barrels pointed skyward.
All three also had a commanding view of the kneeling White Wolf and Kit Carson. The lieutenant was less visible because one of the dragoons and his horse was blocking the view of the lieutenant.
~~~
The parley had been going on for only a couple of minutes when White Wolf suddenly swung his rifle in the direction of the lieutenant and fired a shot.
What precipitated White Wolf's sudden action, according to a later account by Kit Carson, was Lieutenant Wheeler's first and only words to White Wolf to the effect that the lieutenant had no interest in parley and was instead placing White Wolf and his warriors under immediate arrest. Before Carson could say a word, White Wolf's understanding of spoken English proved more than adequate to prompt a White Wolf preemptive rifle shot at the lieutenant.
White Wolf's reaction and sudden movement did not take the lieutenant by surprise because simultaneously with White Wolf's movement, the lieutenant, with cat-like reflexes, jerked his reins and leaned forward behind his horse's neck for protection. As the lieutenant's horse reared and as the lieutenant ducked behind his horse's neck, White Wolf's rifle shot went whizzing by the lieutenant's left ear, instantly followed by the lieutenant's drawn pistol firing and wounding White Wolf, who then rolled in front of the lieutenant's horse. The horse reared to avoid stepping on White Wolf, which in turn caused the lieutenant's kill shot to go awry.