More on Arizona Apache Raids.

I got an email from a person that belongs to a barbershop singing group that does music about historical events, The OK Chorale. He read my post about my ancestors, the Middletons. Allen Fosenkemper wrote to me to say that their group sings music about the raids that the apaches did at the Battle of Big Drywash.

Ernie:
I was reading with interest the story of your family in the 1880's and especially the part about the battle with the Apaches who left San Carlos and attacked the Middleton home in Pleasant Valley in July 1882.
I am a member of a singing and story telling group called the OK Chorale. We created this group as a way of telling the stories of Arizona of the 1800's and keeping the history alive. Are songs and stories are very accurate (as accurate as you can be from 125 years away) and family archives like you posted are very important to maintaining that history and we applaud you.
Most recently we have focused on the Battle of Big Dry Wash that, as you know, took place between the Army and the same group of Apaches that attacked the Middleton home. We have created a song about the one Trooper in the battle who was killed. Pvt. Joseph Mc Lernon and the fact that he was buried on the site of the battle and his grave was lost to history for 95 years. It was re- discovered in the 1970s and the Army issued a head stone to be placed on it.
An interesting point we discovered in researching the battle and the Cavalry is that, around 1850's a legend/Myth developed about a place called "Fiddler's Green." this myth and the story telling about it was so prevalent that the US Army finally noted the myth in their 1929 Field Manual and reprinted the poem that had been created in the 1850's. There are still places in the US Cavalry (Afghanistan for one) where there is an officer's club called Fiddler's Green also an area in Arlington Cemetery.
The myth says that when a Trooper (Cavalry) is killed in battle and "If he don't go to heaven," he will go to "Fiddler's Green." There he will meet his fallen com rads and spend the eternity in this beautiful meadow that is filled with Wine, Whiskey and Women.
We've written a song about this and about Joseph McLernon and his forgotten grave. We do our show for historical societies, service clubs, etc. Any money we make we give to the high school music department in Fountain Hills who is hurting for funds in today's budget cut world.
As an obvious lover of history I thought you might like to read the following and hear the song by our group.
Thanks for a great website.

Allen Fossenkemper
THE OK CHORALE QUARTET (link toi the OK Chorale Website)
(480) 837 4697

I didn't know how to link to this story, so I cut and pasted it here


The Death of Pvt Joseph McLernon.
TRP E, 6 REGT US CAV,
History

On the Mogollon Rim above Payson Arizona winds the “Gen Crook Trail” which was created as the Cavalry’s route between Fort Bowie Arizona and Fort Whipple at Prescott.

Along this road on July 17th 1882 the US Army fought the last battle of the thirty year war with the Apache Indians. The battle of Big Dry Wash was intense and resulted in four Medal of Honor winners among the troopers who fought there. Most of the Apaches were killed but only one US soldier died in this fight. An Irish immigrant named Private Joseph McLernon struck down by a single bullet. He was buried along the Crook Trail in a grave that was forgotten and lost until it was rediscovered in 1990’s and properly marked. We are quite sure his comrades spoke of him going to Fiddler’s Green when they laid him to rest on that mountain trail.

Marker of the Battle of Big Dry Wash – Mogollon Rim Gen. Crook Trail Directions:

Drive north on Highway 87 through Pine and Strawberry to the top of the Rim. Continue past the Camp Verde turnoff (Highway 260) a few miles to Forest Road 300 on your right. Drive east to the end of this well-maintained gravel road, until you reconnect with Highway 260. En route you will find picnic grounds, the Crook Military Road, (which plays tag with your road), numerous views from the edge of the Rim, a monument to the Battle of Big Dry Wash (Arizona's last major battle of the Indian War), isolated graves of pioneers, wildlife and magnificent forest, by-ways to Rim lakes, and trails to hike.

The Grave of McLernon
(aka, Fiddler’s Green)

Words By Allen Fossenkemper©2010 – Music by John Connolly

Sometime in the *1800’s the troopers in the US Cavalry began referring to a place called Fiddler’s Green. This mythical place was their “heaven” where Troopers would spend eternity with their fallen comrades who’d fallen in battle. Filled with endless supplies of whiskey, beer and women this mythical place has continued to be referred to, even in today’s modern cavalry.

(As sung by the OK Chorale)
On the rim above Payson, there’s a trail in the sky
And the grave of a solider, who fought there and died.
His grave is forever, though his war long forgot,
Struck dead by a bullet from hostiles he fought.
Bury him with his Saber and Kepi
No more at the fort he’ll be seen
Just tell his old bunk mates
He’s taken the trip mates
And they’ll see him someday in Fiddlers Green
They didn’t tell Mother the ground of his grave.
Did he die for his comrades? her son was he brave?
Now thousands of miles from his Ireland he lays,
On rim above Payson so far far away.
Bury him with his Saber and Kepi
No more at the fort he’ll be seen
Just tell his old bunk mates
He’s taken the trip mates
And they’ll see him someday in Fiddlers Green
Now Fiddler’s Green is a place they all go.
These soldiers of fortune who bartered their soul.
There’s barrels of whiskey and bottles of brew.
And some beautiful ladies a wait’n there too.
Bury him with his Saber and Kepi
No more at the fort he’ll be seen
Just tell his old bunk mates
He’s taken the trip mates
And they’ll see him someday in Fiddlers Green
From lands far away these men traveled west,
Had lost their life’s purpose, been put to the test.
Now many a troop will no longer be seen,
Til they all hoist a glass on Fiddler’s Green

 The Grave of McLernon

Origin of Fiddler’s Green

The origin and author of Fiddlers' Green is unkown. It was believed to have originated in the 1800's and was composed as a song sung by the soldiers of the 6th and 7th Cavalry. Its first known appearance in published form was in a 1923 Cavalry Journal.

Halfway down the trail to Hell,
In a shady meadow green
Are the Souls of all dead troopers camped,
Near a good old-time canteen.
And this eternal resting place
Is known as Fiddlers' Green.
Marching past, straight through to Hell
The Infantry are seen.
Accompanied by the Engineers,
Artillery and Marines,
For none but the shades of Cavalrymen
Dismount at Fiddlers' Green.
Though some go curving down the trail
To seek a warmer scene.
No trooper ever gets to Hell
Ere he's emptied his canteen.
And so rides back to drink again
With friends at Fiddlers' Green.
And so when man and horse go down
Beneath a saber keen,
Or in a roaring charge of fierce melee
You stop a bullet clean,
And the hostiles come to get your scalp,
Just empty your canteen,
And put your pistol to your head
And go to Fiddlers' Green

The Battle of Big Dry Wash

During the spring of 1882 a small group of White Mountain Apache warriors, sixty at the most, came out of their wilderness hiding and by early summer coalesced under the leadership of a man called Na-tio-tish. (below left)

In early July some of the warriors ambushed and killed four San Carlos policemen, including the police chief. Following the ambush Na-tio-tish led his band of warriors northwest through the Tonto Basin, raiding as they went. Central Arizona residents were greatly alarmed and demanded protection from the army which immediately sent out fourteen companies of cavalry from forts surrounding the Tonto Basin.

In the middle of July Na-tio-tish led his band up Cherry Creek to the Mogollon Rim, intending to reach General Springs, a well-known water hole on the Crook Trail. The Apaches noticed that they were trailed by a single troop of cavalry and decided to lay an ambush seven miles north of General Springs where a fork of East Clear Creek cuts a precipitous gorge into the Mogollon Rim. The Apaches hid on the far side and waited.

The cavalry company was led by Captain Adna R. Chaffee. Unbeknown to Na-tio-tish, Chaffee was guided by the famous scout Al Sieber who soon discovered the Apachesí trap and warned the troops. Also unbeknown to Na-tio-tish, during the night Chaffee’s lone company was reinforced by four more from Fort Apache under the command of Major A. W. Evans.

Early in the morning of July 17 one company of cavalry opened fire from the rim facing the Apaches. Meanwhile Chaffee sent two companies upstream and two downstream to sneak across the canyon and attack the Apaches. Na-tio-tish failed to post lookouts and the troops crossed over undetected. From sixteen to twenty-seven warriors were killed, including Na-tio-tish.

The Battle of Big Dry Wash was the last battle fought between the Apaches and army regulars. It was also one of the few times that army soldiers fought and bested Apaches in actual battle but this was mainly because, as one historian noted, it was one of the few instances in which Apaches allowed themselves to be drawn into conventional battle.

Pvt. Joseph McLernon was the only white soldier killed at the famous 1882 Battle of Big Dry Wash, north of Payson on East Clear Creek. He was 28 years old when he died, with gray eyes, fair complexion, 5-feet, 7-inches tall. One cannot help but think of a mother and father who never knew what happened to their boy after he immigrated to America. He was wrapped in a blanket and the soldiers dug a shallow grave using their mess kits.

The gravesite was visited in subsequent years by local pioneers, hunting or herding cattle, and by soldiers returning to the site of their famous battle. One of these was C.P. Wingfield, a local man who had been a packer for the Army, and during the battle he was one-half mile behind the line of fighting. In a 1929 letter, he wrote that they took the wounded to Camp Verde and then on to Fort Whipple, but "the troop that was killed on the battlefield was buried there, the grave was marked with stones. I was there the summer of 1886, four years after; saw the grave. Also found the skeleton of an Indian in a cave..." (Letter in archives of the Coconino National Forest archaeologist, Flagstaff, Arizona, dated August 18, 1929).

Author Stan Brown reclines on the supposed grave of Joseph McLernon. Is the soldier's body really here?

That year, 1929, brought a new flurry of interest in the battleground. With urging from participants like Lt. George Morgan and Will C. Barnes, the National Forest Service obtained an appropriation to build a monument to the battle. However, by this time, 47 years after the fact, the location of the battleground had been obscured. Two local ranchers, William Wingfield Jr. and Charles Callaway, made a 10-day search of the area, and by finding shell casings, the stones of McLernon's grave, and using their recollections of local lore, they identified the battle scene.

Wingfield and Callaway reported the rediscovered battleground location to the Coconino National Forest ranger's office, and they checked the findings to verify the site. Plans proceeded for the monument, which was soon placed and can be seen today. It is an imposing structure of stone and brass near the edge of the East Clear Creek canyon. On one side the brass plates name each company of cavalry and the men who were engaged in the battle, as well as the Indian scouts. The other side of the monument tells the story of the battle. Not far away, back from the edge of the canyon in a slight depression where, presumably, the battle weary units camped the night of July 17, 1882, is the marked grave of Private Joseph McLernon. However, that grave had remained unmarked for 94 years after the battle.

Another flurry of interest brought attention to the site when retired forest ranger, 88-year-old Fred W. Croxen and his friend Harry H. Martin were sharing stories of the old days as they hiked along the Mogollon Rim. They reviewed their knowledge of the Battle of Big Dry Wash, and there conceived the idea of a military marker for the McLernon grave. Croxen had been stationed by the Forest Service in the Coconino National Forest from 1911 to 1921, and in the Tonto National Forest at Payson until 1930. During these years he had collected oral history accounts from eyewitnesses of the previous century who were left to tell the tale. He wrote a number of papers, informally circulated in mimeograph form, about people and events, including one on the Battle of Big Dry Wash and the circumstances leading to it.

Croxen remembered how Payson pioneer William Craig had spoken of the McLernon grave near the rim of the Clear Creek canyon. When he and Harry Martin revisited the battlefield in the autumn of 1975, they found the semblance of a grave outlined in stones. It was 100 yards southwest of the monument, in an open grassy space. Similar stones were scattered about the site. Passing back and forth over the grave with a metal detector they traced what they believed to be the outline of the buttons on a uniform and the nails in the boots. They felt convinced that this was the grave of Private Joseph McLernon, and proceeded to gather the scattered stones. They mounded them over the long neglected grave, and took a picture of it.

The following January, 1976, Fred Croxen Sr. mounted a campaign from his Tucson home to secure a military marker for the isolated McLernon grave. He wrote a letter to Senator Barry Goldwater, with copies to other persons in positions of influence.[1]

In response to appeals from Rep. Sam Steiger and Senator Paul Fannin, the director of Monument Service, National Cemetery System of the Veterans Administration, sent the proper forms to be filled out, and by March 10, 1976, the upright marble headstone had been ordered.[2] It would read, Joseph McLernon, Pvt TRP E, 6 REGT US CAV, Indian Wars, July 17, 1882.

The 230-pound stone was shipped to Fred Croxen in Tucson early in May, and he began making plans to have it placed 94 years to the day of McLernon's death, July 17, 1976. He invited those he knew would be interested and who could give it publicity. Mr. and Mrs. Jess Goddard of Camp Verde would write up the event for The Independent of Cottonwood.[3] Don Schellie was present and would write an article, which appeared in the Tucson Daily Citizen.[4]

A group of 28 solicitous people gathered at the remote location, around noon on the clear day. They had come from Camp Verde, Phoenix, Flagstaff, Winslow, Sedona, Lake Montezuma and Tucson. A hole had been dug at the head of the grave in which the marble stone was planted. Two bags of premixed concrete were poured around the base of the marker and in among the mound of stones by Fred Croxen III, the old ranger's grandson from Flagstaff. Water was added to set the cement, hoping this would discourage potential vandals. While this was going on, others pulled the grass that had grown up among the rocks.

Then a worn copy of the book "Al Sieber, Chief of Scouts," by Dan L. Thrapp, was produced, and a history professor, Andrew Wallace, read aloud the author's chapter on the Battle of Big Dry Wash. It included quotes from Thomas Cruse's firsthand experience, along with the mistaken reference to McLernon being from Scotland.

After the reading Fred Croxen stepped forward to fill in a few details, and then he said, "Well, I suppose that's it."

The loose circle of history buffs informally mingled, and went for the picnic lunches they had brought to this isolated place. Fred Croxen and Harry Martin lingered long enough to gather several bunches of summer wildflowers and lay them on the mound of rocks. After living so many months with this project, the long dead soldier had become very much part of their lives.

While the Indian wars were pretty much over in in California the 1860's, the wars raged on in Arizona. Geronimo's Apache warriers didn't want to give in and be put on a reservation. I'm not familiar with Arizona history to know why the Apaches thought they might win their battle, but I did hear a tid-bit in history that they thought that the "Garmets" (shirts) that they wore would protect them from bullets. An idea that they got from the Mormons. It seemed to work for Geronimo.




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