Charles A Curtis

Captured by the Navajos Charles A Curtis

Book Excerpt: ...well supplied with fuel, I saw no reason why the wagons and mules could not be spared the ten days necessary to make the round trip. One reason for doing all I could to facilitate the immediate departure of the Californians was that my men were anxious to move into the cabins at once. With my first glance at the encampment, it had seemed to me too open to surprise. The adjacent forest-clad point crept up near the left flank, offering an effectual screen to an attacking party, and the overlooking sentinel at the guard-house did not have a range of vision to the rear of more than fifty yards. He was not on the summit of the ridge by at least half that distance, and walked along the side of the guard-house next the cabins. He could see nothing of the surface of the valley to the west of the ridge, and when passing along the front of the building, as he paced backward and forward, he saw nothing to the rear of his beat. I expressed my opinion of the situation to the volunteer captain, but he..