48 THE PIMA INDIANS Ieth. ann. 26 



1S59-SO 



Blacl'water. The Pimas attacked a party of Apaches and 

 • killed a man and a boy. A white man who accompanied 

 the Pimas was slightly wounded with an arrow. 



iseo-ei 



Gila Crossing, A plague which killed its victims in a single day 

 prevailed tliroughout the villages. Three medicine-men who were 

 suspected of causing the disease by their magic were killed, ''and 

 nobody was sick any more.'' 



|ip j) Blaclcwater. The one-armed trader sold his store to Ammi 

 ^ M. Wliite during this 3^ear and for some reason unknown to 



the Pimas tlirew away his grain sacks." 



/^ Two Pimas were killed by Apaches, but the details concerning 

 the event are beyond recall. 



18ei-S2 



^ Gila Crossing. The trader, Ammi M. Wliite, was captured by 

 the "soldiers from the east,"^ 



a Probably to avoid contagion. 



6 " Early in 1862 a force of two or three hundred Texans, under Captain Hunter, marched westward 

 from Mesilla and in February took possession of Tucson for the Confederacy. There was, of course, 

 little opposition, Union men, if there were any left, fleeing across the line into Sonora. Not much is 

 really known of Hunter's operations in Arizona so far as details are concerned, even the date of his 

 arrival being doubtful. Besides holding Tucson, driving out men suspected of Union sympathies, con- 

 fiscating a few mines belonging to Northerners, and fighting the Apaches to some extent, he sent a 

 detachment to the Pima \ailages, and possibly contemplated an attack on Fort Yuma. But — to say 

 nothing of the recent floods, which had greatly increased the difiTiculties of the route, destrojing Gila 

 and Colorado cities — the news from California was not reassuring, and Hunter deemed it best to retire. 



" This news was to the effect that California troops were on the march eastward. These troops, 

 about 1,800 strong, consisted of several volunteer regiments or parts of regiments organized at the 

 beginning of the war, and which, on receipt of intelligence that Arizona had Iieen invaded, were ordered 

 to Yuma and Tucson, constituting what was known as the California Colunin, under the command 

 of Colonel James II. Carleton, The main body of this army in detachments, whose exact movements 

 now and later I do not attempt to follow in detail, left Los Angeles and was concentrated at Yuma 

 in April, and in May followed the Gila route to Tucson. But pre\-ious]y Lieutenant-Colonel West, 

 commanding the advance, had sent out some parties from Yuma, and these were the only troops that 

 came in contact with the Confederates. Jones, in February, was sent with dispatches to Tucson and 

 fell into the hands of Hunter, who released and sent him back bj' another route, bearing the first defi- 

 nite news that Tucson had been occupied. Captain William McCleave, of Company A, First Cavalry, 

 being sent out to look for Jones, was captured, with three men, at the Pima \illages on the 0th of April 

 and was carried to Mesilla, where he was soon exchanged. Captain William 1'. Calloway was next 

 sent up the Gila with a stronger force to rescue McCleave. At the Pima villages he heard of a Confed- 

 erate detachment of 16 men, under Lieutenant Jack Swilling, and sent Lieutenant James Ban'ctt with 

 12 men to cut them off. Pursuing the enemy into a chaparral, Barrett was killed, with two of his men, 

 one or two of the foe being also killed and three taken prisoners. This was the only skirmish of the 

 campaign with Confederates, and it occurred on the 15th of April at a spot kno\v7i as El Picacho." 

 Bancroft, xvn, 514. 



Both the Gila Crossing and the Blackwater calendars mention the capture of White, but the cal- 

 endrists can give no definite information concerning the events related by Bancroft. The trader was 

 of vastly more interest and importance to the Pimas than the whole Confederate or I'nion anny. lie 

 was agent for the Pimas, an office which he held until 1805. The writer has not found any account of 

 his capture in the records of the period, but it is proliable he was soon released. As soon as he was 

 taken away, the Pimas took possession of his store and quarreled over the distribution of the stock 

 of wheat on hand. 



