1st CA Infantry - Fort Bowie AAR - November 10-12, 2006
Sean A and Don S. arrived at my house around 3:30 Friday (Nov 17, 2006) afternoon and we quickly loaded my gear into the truck, dropped off my car for Misty, and began the five hour drive from Phoenix to Fort Bowie National Historic Site. The trip went through several old mining towns and was fairly uneventful. Conversation was varied and interesting with some time spent on our groups new civilian branch and on problem of military members no longer participating.
We arrived at the site about 8:30, well after dark. None of us having been there before and having driven up the the back roads to the camp there was some little challenge in finding where we were to go exactly but we managed to get it sorted out without too much fuss, especially after the head of the park came up to meet us and showed us where to set up in front of the visitor center. After dressing out, setting up our common tent (we were depicting troops at a new garrison post), and getting the camp generally arranged we built a small fire and cooked up some hardtack and bacon for dinner before turning in. Some time was spent looking for an original button that had popped off Don's coat since it was extremely important not to contaminate this historic site. The night passed well despite the fact that the ground was hard and the night was fairly cool, down in the low 30s.
Saturday began with the usual chores and a breakfast of coffee, pomegranates, and sweet rice. With the sun up it was possible to take in the sights of the valley and many ruins of the old fort. All I can say is that it is quite a remarkable place. Though it was his day off the head ranger came out early to make certain we were all squared away ok. Just after breakfast we formed up and marched the 400 yards out to the flagpole to raise the colors. Our first visitor of the day was an artist from France who was working on a project to film and photograph site of the American West. He asked a lot of interesting questions and interviewed us individually on camera. The museum in the visitor center was small but had a nice collection of artifacts that we managed to take a look at when the corporal lost track of us while talking to the Frenchman. The weather was clear and comfortable in the mid 70s with only a slight breeze. The morning passed with some close order drill and talking with visitors to the site. Considering that people had to hike a mile and a half just to get to the visitor center we had a pretty good group of spectators who were surprised and pleased to find us there including an equestrian group, a guided tour, and a scout unit. Dinner was quite good, consisting of beef, squash, rice, and canned tomatoes.
After dinner we drilled a bit more and marched up to the location of the site where Fort Bowie was first established in 1862. We had a good time looking about and matching the site to the history we knew. When the 5th California Infantry established the fort in 1862 the had a small number of common tents set up on a hilltop and then went to work building breastworks of stone and a guard house. As winter came on the tents were deemed inadequate, especially considering the high winds that can roar through the valley, and hovels were dug into the hillside. The breast works were clearly visible as were the stone walled hovels with their built-in fire pits. The layout of one particular set of foundations led us to believe it was most likely the guardhouse. We looked around for a bit and examined the walls and some of the glass, tin, and other ground scatter that was about the site.
We returned to our camp and visitor center to turn in a particularly nice period suspender buckle that we had discovered atop a wall where a previous visitor had most likely placed it. After marching out and lowering the colors we settled down for a relaxing evening with the park all to ourselves. Dinner consisted of hardtack, lemons, beans, beef, onion, and squash but wasn't my best achievement. The beans had not been put in the water to soak early enough and the beef added little flavor to them. Even with a generous amount of crushed red pepper and salt they didn't have much flavor. Being unsupervised, the corporal broke into the medicinal supply of whiskey and issued some out to each of us. The corporal consumed about 2/3s of that rather large bottle and was quite amusing well into the evening as well as occasionally during the night as he whimpered in his sleep. Owing to the coolness of the previous evening we shared blankets and slept considerably warmer.
Sunday started with the usual airing of blankets and repacking of knapsacks. Thanks to Sean's efforts breakfast consisted of sweetened coffee and cream, nuts of fried dough dipped in sugar, and leftover beef & beans. At the conclusion of the mornings duties we were privileged to a personal tour by the head of the park. He led us to Apache Springs, which made this site so important, then led us out past an apache campsite the park staff had built and maintained. We proceeded past the foundations of the buildings that housed the Indian agent and then moved on to the old overland stage stop. Here he laid out the details of the Bascom Affair as he understood them including pointing out the sites where bodies were discovered and Indians hung. This site also being significant to the Battle of Apache pass he went into great detail describing it for us even taking time to point out the movements and battle lines as revealed by archeological evidence uncovered in the way of musket caps, rounds and such. As we followed the progression of the battle back towards Apache Springs he really helped to bring the events to life for us. We spent a brief time in the post cemetery and then continued on following the route of battle. He took us off the trail considerably and pointed out where the troops from Company E of the 1st California had fought several hundred Apache who had dug in on the hills overlooking the spring. He pointed out the site where the mountain howitzers were moved up, flipped from trying to fire up extreme inclines, then recovered by the small detachment of cavalry. Particularly interesting was an extremely steep hill that 20 infantrymen made a bayonet charge up while being supported by the mountain howitzers. The tour then brought us back to Apache Springs where we spent a fair amount of time quizzing him and profiting from his insights and discoveries. Having been at the park for 15 years his knowledge was considerable and the tour was by far the highlight of the event. We returned to the visitor center about 1pm where after being asked we shared some suggestions for improving the reproduction gear on a mannequin of the 1st California in a museum display case. We also purchased a number of books then proceeded to tear down our camp and change clothes in preparation for the trip home.
The drive home was quite enjoyable with the highlight being the reading aloud of Cremony's description of the Battle of Apache Pass and being able to clearly visualize the site where events took place. Company E of the 1st California Infantry and members of the 1st California Cavalry were some damn hard men. We stopped in a mining town for a meal at a small Mexican restaurant then proceeded to phoenix where I was dropped off.
The location was incredible, the park rangers extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and the public curious and interested. I attended with two of my best friends and learned a great deal about the history that interests me. Despite only having three of us present, a flop of a meal, goat heads and briars, and having to endure a 5 hour drive with three fellows crammed together on the bench seat of a little pickup this was definitely my favorite event of 2006.
- Troy Groves