1859–60
Blackwater. 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.
1860–61
Gila Crossing. A plague which killed its victims in a single day prevailed throughout the villages. Three medicine-men who were suspected of causing the disease by their magic were killed, "and nobody was sick any more."
Blackwater. The one-armed trader sold his store to Ammi M. White during this year and for some reason unknown to the Pimas threw away his grain sacks.[1]
Two Pimas were killed by Apaches, but the details concerning the event are beyond recall.
1861–62
Gila Crossing. The trader, Ammi M. White, was captured by the "soldiers from the east."[2]
- ↑ Probably to avoid contagion.
- ↑ "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, confiscating a few mines belonging to Northerners, and fighting the Apaches to some extent, he sent a detachment to the Pima villages, and possibly contemplated an attack on Fort Yuma. But—to say nothing of the recent floods, which had greatly increased the difficulties of the route, destroying 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 been invaded, were ordered to Yuma and Tucson, constituting what was known as the California Column, under the command of Colonel James H. 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 previously 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 by another route, bearing the first definite 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 villages on the 6th of April and was carried to Mesilla, where he was soon exchanged. Captain William P. Calloway was next sent up the Gila with a stronger force to rescue McCleave. At the Pima villages he heard of a Confederate detachment of 16 men, under Lieutenant Jack Swilling, and sent Lieutenant James Barrett 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 known as El Picacho," Bancroft, XVII, 514.
Both the Gila Crossing and the Blackwater calendars mention the capture of White, but the calendrists can give no definite information concerning the events related by Bancroft. The trader was of vastly more interest and importance to the Pima than the whole Confederate or Union army. He was agent for the Pimas, an office which he held until 1865. The writer has not found any account of his capture in the records of thy period, but it is probable 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.
