Dragoon Graves

GleesonArizona.com Ghost Town Loop Tour Dragoon Graves TROUBLE AT THE START Butterfield men were led by Silas St. John, and their The graves at Dragoon Springs have an names were James Hughes, a blacksmith from New interesting and bloody history. Up until 1858, York, James Laing of Kentucky, and William passengers and mail going from the east coast to the Cunningham of Iowa. The Mexicans were west coast of the United States usually traveled by Bonifacio Mirando and two Ramirez brothers, ship around the dangerous end of Cape Horn, at the Guadaloupe and Pablo. southern tip of South America. An alternate route On the night of September 8, 1858, James Laing was through the disease infested jungle of the was posted as guard for the first watch. At Isthmus of Panama. In 1857, John Butterfield midnight, he was relieved by Guadaloupe who took accepted a contract from the United States the second watch. Silas St. John slept in the near government to deliver mail from St. Louis to San office, with Bill Cunningham in the storeroom at Francisco. His route went from St. Louis down the back. Jim Hughes was outside with the other through Texas to El Paso. From there it crossed the two Mexican laborers. New Mexico Territory (which included Arizona), At about 1A.M., Silas was awakened by the then up to the Colorado River. From there it went to frightened stomping of the mules, followed by the California, into Los Angeles, and then up the cries of someone being beaten. He tried to get to his California coast to San Francisco. In order to get the rifle, but was attacked by the three Mexicans before $600,000 contract, Butterfield had to make the trip he could get it free. They were armed with two axes in 25 days. From 1857-1858, frantic construction of and a sledge hammer. One of them swung his axe stations took place all along the 2800 mile route of and cut St. John at the hip as Silas freed the rifle the Butterfield Overland. from its holster. He tried to swing the rifle like a In August, 1858, a construction crew arrived at club at his attackers, but the other axe came down Dragoon Springs to build a stagecoach station near on him, and completely severed his left arm just the spring. Butterfield had made arrangements with below the shoulder. Using his good hand, he the Apache chief Cochise to purchase passage rights dropped the rifle and grabbed his pistol and fired a through the area. At the time, Cochise was at peace shot, which caused the Mexicans to flee. with the United States, and viewed Americans as St. John made a tourniquet from his handkerchief lukewarm allies in his traditional struggles with and a stick and managed to stop the flow of blood Mexico. The station was built about a mile from the from his severed arm, but the axe wound on his hip springs themselves, to minimize friction between continued to bleed. He dragged himself to his the newcomers and the Apache who also used the companions, though there was not much he could springs. Still, Butterfield decided to construct the do for them. Hughes had been the first to die, his Dragoon Springs station out of rock instead of skull crushed by a blow from the sledge hammer. adobe. Only ten of the 139 stage stations were made Jim Laing had a deep gash in his skull, through of rock, as a defense against Indian attacks. which his brain matter could be seen. Bill The station was built of rough-hewn mountain Cunningham had also been attacked in the head by rock held together with clay. It measured 45 by 55 one of the axes, and he was conscious, but died by feet, and was 10 feet high. There was only one door, midnight the next night. Laing lasted a few days, with a small office on the near left and a storeroom but the station had no water, and St. John was in no at the far left corner. The rest of the station was condition to drag himself to the spring almost a mile divided in two, one room for humans and the other away. for animals. The construction crew moved on in late Four days after the attack, a reporter coming from August, leaving four company men and three the west entered the station and ran to the spring to Mexican laborers to complete the roof. The get water. Upon his return, a road building crew In May of 1862, Captain Sherod Hunter and a approached from the east, including an army detachment from Company A of Colonel John Colonel and Major. They revived St. John and Baylor’s Arizona Rangers, members of the Army of dressed his wounds, and sent for a doctor from the Confederate States of America, left Tucson to Tucson. The surgeon, Dr. Irwin, arriving more than scout the territory to the east. This was done in light a week after the attack, cleanly amputated St. John’s of the possibility of the Confederate troops facing arm. Silas St. John was only 23 years old at the superior Union numbers marching from California. time, and recovered fully, to the astonishment of the On May 5th, a foraging party went out looking for medical community. He continued working for the stray cattle to feed the troops, and camped at the Wells Fargo company and died peacefully in 1919 abandoned station near Dragoon Springs. As they at the age of 84 in San Diego. A plaque honoring entered the box canyon in which the spring itself is his remarkable service can be found at the Wells located, they were attacked by Cochise and about Fargo museum there. 100 of his Apache warriors. Jim Hughes, Bill Cunningham, and Jim Laing The warriors carried off 25 horse, 30 mules, and were buried where they died, at the Butterfield killed four from the Confederate party. Sergeant Station in Dragoon Springs. Hughes and Sam Ford, a youth known only as Richardo, and Cunningham are buried in the same grave. Laing, two unknown soldiers were killed in the skirmish. who died several days later, is in the grave next to They were the westernmost Confederate battle them. Their murderers fled to Mexico and were deaths to happen during the war, and the only ones never caught. to occur within the current borders of the state of Arizona. CONFEDERATE MASSACRE There are many graves at Dragoon Springs, two MORE GRAVES AND MORE HISTORY belonging to Hughes, Cunningham, and Laing. Four Two months later, the Union army moved from of them can be found together, decorated with Tucson towards new Mexico, driving the Confederate flags. Confederate forces eastward. Along the way, they When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the fought also with Apache warriors, who cared little territory of New Mexico (which included Arizona) for the color of the soldiers’ uniforms. More bodies was contested by both the North and the South. In were added to the graves at Dragoon Springs after light of this fighting, the Butterfield Overland the battle of Apache Pass. stopped running in 1862, having been taken over by After the Civil War, travelers again stopped at the the Wells Fargo company two years previously. The old station, since it offered both protection and stage stop at Dragoon Springs was abandoned, nearby water. Stagecoach and freight lines were although it was in decent shape, and it was still used established and once again the station at Dragoon as a camping and stopping point for westward Springs revived to service them. migrants. In 1872, the area became part of a reservation set The peace between Cochise’s Chiricahua Apache aside for the Cochise and his Chiricahua Apache, Indians and the various forces of the United States although the land was taken back in 1876 as the had been broken in 1861, the result of a disastrous Apache were moved to other reservations. series of miscommunications, lies, hostages, broken In 1886, Colonel J. F. Stone was transporting promises, attacks, and counter-attacks which gold in a stagecoach from his mine in the triggered 25 years of bitter war between the Apache Chiricahua mountains past the old station at Indians and the United States. Dragoon Springs. His party never made it to In the middle of this Apache War, the skirmishes Tucson. They were killed by a party of Apache and battles of the Civil War also took place. The braves, and their gold was never found. Apache were uninterested in the difference between An earthquake in 1887 stopped the flow of water the Union and the Confederacy, and attacked the from the spring, which is hardly a trickle now. soldiers of both groups with equal ferocity..

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