WE CAN, WE WILL !

CLINTON GREAVES

Silver City - January 23rd 1877.

News was telegraphed from Fort Bowie, Arizona Territory, to Fort Bayard that a band of about 50 Apache warriors had left their reservation without permission and were traveling east. They were heading into an area patrolled by the soldiers at Fort Bayard. Lt. Henry J. Wright, commander of "C" Company of the Ninth Cavalry, along with six enlisted cavalry men and three Navajo scouts set out to track down the Apaches and force them, if necessary, to return to the reservation.

On the third day of the patrol, the Indians were intercepted in the Florida Mountains approximately 55 miles south of here (nb: Silver City). Lt. Wright and his men dismounted and approached the Apaches. After talking without receiving any cooperation, Lt. Wright turned and saw that the Indians had quietly and very quickly surrounded him and his men. Instantly he shouted out the order to break through the ring of 50 armed Apaches.

Cpl. Clinton Greaves rushed the ring of Apaches and literally "bashed" his way through as Lt. Wright reported in his account. With the way to safety opened, the soldiers and Navajo trackers ran toward their waiting horses but were pinned down by the fire of the Apaches who had taken cover in surrounding rocks.

Again Cpl. Greaves acted. He raced for the horses while firing, and fatally wounded two of the attacking Apaches. He made his way back to his companions with the mounts. The cavalrymen were able to escape, taking eleven of the Indian horses with them. In the encounter, five of the Apaches were killed and not one of the cavalry patrol was injured.

For Cpl. Greaves' action, which was credited with saving the lives of his companions that day, Greaves, a man born into slavery, was awarded the nation's highest military honor and became the first "Buffalo Soldier" stationed at Fort Bayard to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.