AN UNSUNG HERO OF THE OLD WEST

In 1844 young Albert H. Pfeiffer, run-away son of a Lutheran minister in Friesland, landed in New York and resolutely set his face toward the far-away western frontier.

Upon reaching St. Louis he accepted employment in a freighting outfit and worked his way down the old Trail to Santa Fe. The type of life represented by this business, together with the raw conditions of the country, so appealed to him that he continued in it, making many journeys between Westport and the capital of the Southwest. Intimate details concerning his life during this period are totally lacking, but it is safe to assume that the common experiences of men who followed the trails were his.

The next definite account we have of him was when the Apaches and Utes formed an alliance in the year 1854 for the purpose of wiping out the whites in New Mexico and Southern Colorado. Governor Merriwether, of New Mexico, promptly issued a call for six companies of volunteers to reinforce the lean arm of the regular force. Ceran St, Vrain, partner of William Bent, builder of Bent's Fort on the Arkansas River, was named Colonel and Pfeiffer was made a lieutenant. This new regiment marched away, and after a vigorous campaign, in which the Indian allies were given a drubbing they long remembered, the volunteers were mustered out of service in July, Just what Pfeiffer did during the next seven years, except marry a handsome Spanish woman by the name of Antonita, in 1856, we do not know. No doubt he followed the occupations common to white men in the country of that day.

When his bosom friend, Kit Carson, resigned as Indian Agent at Taos at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 to raise a regiment of volunteers for the defense of New Mexico, Pfeiffer was one of the first to come forward. He was now well known, and was said

to be "a very paladin of the frontier, a mild-mannered, friendly man, and in the estimation of his fellows, probably the most desperately courageous and successful Indian fighter in the West." This was saying a great deal when there was Kit Carson, John Hatcher, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Ceran St. Vrain, and others of their kind to reckon with, but no doubt Pfeiffer's deeds of valor justified the saying. He was commissioned as Captain and Kit became Colonel through the resignation of Ceran St. Vrain.

The Affair now in hand was considerably different from the rough and tumble brush with the Apaches and Utes in 1854. Texas seceded from the Union, and these lank, hard-riding, straight-shooting plainsmen were talking about an invasion of New Mexico. In fact it was well known that a force under General Henry H. Sibley, Westpointer was being raised. That was all right, for these hardy New Mexicans, who had never fought anybody but Indians, had as their leader General Edward B. S. Canby, also a graduate of the Military Academy. When the Battle of Valverde was fought on February 21, 1862, both Colonel Kit and Captain Pfeiffer were there and courageously bore their part of the day's fighting. During the following year, the danger from the Texans waxing been warded off, Pfeiffer lent his aid in corralling the recalcitrant Apaches.

Early in 1863 plans for reducing "the lords of the north," the Navajos to submission were made by General James H, Carlton, one of the best and most energetic Indian fighters the Southwest ever knew. The regiment allotted to this task was Col. Kit Carson's 1st New Mexico Volunteers. One of the companies of this regiment, that commanded by Capt. A. H. Pfeiffer was at that time stationed at Fort McRae on the Rio Grande near the present Elephant Butte Reservoir. Before the regiment could be

concentrated at Los Piños, some fifteen or eighteen miles south of Albuquerque-the marching day was July 1st-Captain Pfeiffer underwent one of the most terrible experiences imaginable.

On the previous June 20th, he, his wife, two servant girls, and an escort of six soldiers went out to the Hot Springs some nine or ten miles below Fort McRae on the west bank of the Rio Grande, directly opposite the present town of Elephant Butte. The Captain went bathing in the spring, while the soldiers and women made camp nearby. Of a sudden a party of about thirty Apaches and Comanches swooped down upon them, killing two of the soldiers and wounding Pfeiffer in the side with an arrow. He leaped from the water, seized his rifle and killed one of the Indians. The surviving soldiers fled from the spot, and since he was now alone in the presence of overwhelming odds the Captain waded across the Rio Grande, stark naked, and raced toward the Fort for help. Knowing Indian characteristics and tactics he supposed that the savages would not kill his wife and the servant girls, but would take them to their hide-out and compel them to do menial labor.

Part of the band guarded the captives while the others pursued the fleeing Captain. They shot at him again and again. An arrow struck him in the back, the head coming out in front. Suffering from two wounds and almost exhausted, he took refuge among some, bare exposed rocks and resolutely defended his life. The sun burned one side of his body and the rocks the other, but there was no other alternative but to lie there and fight. Being an excellent marksman he took heavy toll of his enemies. At length the Indians, realizing they could not force him out of his stronghold without additional heavy losses, gave up the siege and rejoined their companions.

Seizing this opportunity Pfeiffer slipped away and ran the remainder of the distance to the Fort where he arrived weak from loss of blood, blistered from head to foot, and with feet terribly lacerated by the desert through which he had traveled. When the surgeon palled the arrow from his back the sun-scorched skin surrounding the wound came off with it. For days he

suffered intense agony and lay at the point of death for two months.

In the meantime a relief party sent out by Major Morrison found the bodies of Mrs. Pfeiffer, the two girls, and two soldiers. Upon learning of the death of his wife, Pfeiffer swore eternal vengeance against the Apaches and Comanches. During the following years, when not in the army, he spent his time upon the trail, stalking parties of these tribes. He became friendly with the Utes, and led many a band of them against his sworn enemies. At times he led parties of Mexicans, sometimes white hunters and trappers followed him, and when he could find no one to accompany him he lay out upon the trail alone. Soon his very name became a terror to the Comanches and Apaches. He burned their lodges, captured or killed their horses, and slew their warriors wherever he could find them. Of all the white men in the Southwest the fierce Apaches and Comanches feared none so much as they did this son of a Lutheran minister. He gave them no quarter, and asked for none in return. It was war to the death.

On August 2, 1863, Captain Pfeiffer reported to Colonel Carson St Fort Canby, his troop horses broken down with the haste he had employed in marching up from Fort McRae, but thirsting for action. Two days later Carson sent him out on a scouting expedition which killed a woman and child, wounded a warrior, and captured thirteen others. A very good beginning, this, for carrying out the blood vow. On the 6th of January, 1864, Colonel Carson marched his command from Fort Canby to the famed Canyon De Chelly the ancient stronghold of the Navajos. With him, of course, went Captain Pfeiffer. This canyon lying in present Northeastern Arizona, was thirty miles long, consisted of a main defile with walls two thousand feet high in some places, and was pronounced impregnable in 1858. In the walls were houses and forts, built by cliff-dwellers, from which the occupants could fire and roll great rocks down upon an enemy.

Captain Pfeiffer with about one hundred men was sent to guard the east end of the Canyon, while the Colonel marched to the west end, and established a base camp on January 12th. Next day Carson proceeded to scout

either rim as a preliminary to marching through it to join Pfeiffer at the east end. When he returned to camp that evening Pfeiffer and his entire command, together with a number of prisoners, was there. While his colonel was marching to the west end and scouting on the outside he and his men had marched through on the inside. This unexpected, unauthorized feat on the part of his friend pleased Kit mightily, but in order to maintain a semblance of military discipline he administered a mild rebuke. By this audacious march Captain Pfeiffer captured ninety prisoners and killed three warriors. Although the Navajos were not specifically included in his blood, vow the results of this campaign in the line of duty very gratifying. The Navajos were Indians anyway.

Some time during the years, no one knows the exact date, although it was evidently after the Civil War, Pfeiffer fought a duel with a huge Navajo warrior to settle an old dispute between that tribe and the Utes over the ownership of the ground where present Pagosa Springs now stands. He was at home near Granger, Colorado, when his friends, the Utes sent for him. Since he had been adopted into that tribe some time before, he felt compelled to respond to their call. The two tribes had been skirmishing about the spring for some days, with to first one side winning, then the other. When Pfeiffer arrived the leaders proposed that the decision be left to a single duel between two picked men, one from each side.

The warrior chosen by the Navajos was a veritable giant, while Pfeiffer, at his own suggestion, represented the Utes, with to the understanding that he be allowed to choose the weapons. When the Navajos saw the difference between the champions they laughed at Pfeiffer and boasted an easy victory. Pfeiffer chose bowie-knives and insisted that both contestants be stripped to the waist. When all was ready they advanced warily upon each other, under the eyes of both bands of warriors. When near enough Pfeiffer threw his knife with such force a and accuracy that it went to the hilt in the breast of his adversary killing him instantly. The Navajos acknowledged both defeat and Ute ownership of the spring. The victorious tribe retained them in their

possession many years until treaties between the famous Ute chief, Ouray and the United States changed the stature of things. At one time Pfeiffer himself laid claim to the spring and the ground surrounding it, but documents supporting it were accidentally burned and nothing came of it.

During the days of his military service Pfeiffer rose to the rank of Lieutenant to Colonel. When he died, near Granger, April 6th 1881, he bore the scars of seventeen wounds upon his body. One of them, that from the arrow in his back at Hot Springs, caused him pain and inconvenience to the end of his days. His experience was unique, in that it covered the entire era from the fur-trading, trapping, lawless days to the coming of the railroad and law and order. When he first went west in 1844 both Indians and buffalo occupied their age old grounds; at the time of his death only a few pitiable remnants of either remained in Colorado.

Pfeiffer knew every prominent man in the West from 1844 to 1861. Among his friends were the Bent brothers, builders of Bent's Fort, Ceran St. Vrain, Thomas Fitzpatrick, first Indian agent in the Rocky Mountain area, Kit Carson, and others. His name is linked more closely with that of the famous scout than is that of any other. Their intimate regard for each other is witnessed by the fact that a number of warm, friendly letters from Carson to him are known to exist. Below is given one which a few years ago was not known.

Santa Fe, New Mexico
May 8th, 1863.

Dear Pfeiffer:-

I received all of your letters but have been so busy and have been knocking about so that I really had not an opportunity of answering them.
     I have signed, sealed, and delivered to Capt. Mink the deed of the land made over to your boy and I trust and believe that before he arrives at mans estate that it will

be a fortune to him.
     Should this news of the advance of the Texans be untrue, as I hope it is, we will all go to the Navajo Country about the 1st of June. If it is true I can't say what will be done with us. We are due, in any case, to see active service soon so try to get your horses in condition to take the field.
     I leave here on Monday for Fort Garland to see that Eaton has been all the property for which he is responsible, as he has dismissed by the President, This I don't want you to tell to any person until the order is published, I will stop a couple of days in Taos going and coming, and this I am very glad of as my family are not as well as I could wish. I hope, however, that

all will be well shortly.
     I have been making inquiries of every person who has seen you and they all tell me that your face is now well and that you are again drinking. When will you learn sense? Can't you try and quit whiskey for a little while, at least until you get your face cured? If your face ain't well when I see you next you had better look out. There is no news of interest from the States but next mail we expect to hear of a big fight on the Potomac. Remember me kindly to Mrs. Pfeiffer and remember also what I say about drinking.
                    Yrs truly
                    C. Carson
                         Col. 8. Mex. Vols.

By strange turns of fate Pfeiffer's name and exploits are practically unknown, while those of his friend have been retold the world round. Those who were acquainted with his history say that he was as great a frontiersman as ever trod the prairies and mountains of the West.