Chapter 8

The five men in front of us represented a half a dozen Indian tribes, the former Mexican citizens, the few decent white settlers, and what was left of the United States government. Governor Preston Johns had declared himself King of New Mexico and it was a prudent person who understood that and acted accordingly. Under that definition we were about to become reckless.

Our stopping of the wagon trains and removing the guns and ammunition had slowed the good governor down but by no means stopped him. In a bold move he had captured the army's arsenal and he and his band of brigands ruled Santa Fe with an iron fist. And the stories of rape and torture that they told meant that there would be no waiting till the next full moon.

We sent the men to go get something to eat and while they were eating we called all our people together and told them what we had been told. Once it was explained I called for a vote, "Yes or No, War or Peace?" The response was loud and unanimous; we would ride to war. We had more people back at our base camp so a squad was dispatched to go and get them. If we were going to do this we were going to go in with everything we had.

Captain Mills called his men together and asked them what they wanted to do. When one of his men asked if he would be upset if he suggested that they join the Band, the Captain simply smiled and said he'd see if he could scrounge up some buckskin uniforms.

Twenty one spares were dug out of saddle bags and handed out as were twenty one Henry rifles and forty two .44 revolvers. Capt. Mills walked up to Red Hawk, "We are yours to command sir." He saluted Red Hawk who returned the salute with his fist across his chest as was our custom.

Two Bears had finished going through the wagons and found two small field pieces. When the Captain heard about them he volunteered to take charge of the Band's new mobile artillery unit. Since several of his men had experience with artillery it seemed the smart thing to do.

We were just over one hundred and fifty miles from Santa Fe so we would take our time until the folks from our base camp showed up in two or three days. In the mean time we drilled. At noon and in the evenings we went over the maps and drawings that the fifty men had made. They watched in awe as the plan of attack developed.

On the third day we met with our folks from the base camp and they had a surprise for us. Three other bands had showed up to join with us and the squads that had been left behind had been training them almost day and night. The three bands plus the squads that had been left behind to protect the camp meant that we now fielded over five hundred mounted cavalry. The Governor was holding Santa Fe with fewer than sixty men. The only thing we had to worry about was if he used some of the people as shields and I hoped that by using surprise we could stop him from doing that.

Our approach went about as we had expected, at twenty miles out we put together the two field pieces and Capt. Mills and his men test fired them with impressive results. Although we were sure we had enough fire power we went ahead and put the Gatling gun together and put it through its paces. The gunsmith, Dan Merit, proved to be worth his salt; both in setting up the gun and in cleaning it and getting it back together, ready to go.

We kept a steady supply of people coming into Santa Fe buying supplies and leaving. These people seemed like ordinary folk going about their daily business but, the natives of Santa Fe who were in with us were also supplying them with valuable information. It was one of these ordinary folks that returned to tell us that a celebration commemorating the Governor's birthday would be held the following night. A wagon train loaded with spirits and wine had come in from Saltillo, Mexico through El Paso. Some of the Governor's men had started celebrating as soon as they had got their hands on the liquid cargo.

Squad leaders were called and a quick discussion held; as soon as the decision was made to go ahead the signal was sent. Once they received the signal, our scouts found the men that had been left behind to watch for us and quietly captured them all. Once the watchers had been dealt with we moved out. We arrived at the outskirts of Santa Fe just past four in the morning.

We had half expected the celebration to still be going strong but one of our contacts explained that the hired thugs had started so early that they were all unconscious by ten that night. The thugs were housed in single story adobe house not far from the Governor's residence. With only a front and side door to watch, we sent the Captain and his now buckskin clad men to secure the thugs. They set up their guns aimed directly at the heavy oak doors. Squads were deployed on each and every road leading in and out of the city. By five in the morning the city was ours. At that point squads started rounding up the local citizens who had backed the Governor while I took two squads of our best people and went to the Governor's residence.

The guards were pathetic; without a shout or a shot we entered the large adobe villa, securing it as we went. Fifteen minutes after we went through the gates I was standing in the Governor's bedroom. Tied to the bed was a young girl who looked to be ten or eleven, she was almost the first person all night to raise the alarm. Fran and Sam, who had been sent along with instructions to keep me from doing anything foolish, were able to shush the girl. The ropes tying her to the bed were cut and she was slipped out of the bed. Fran and Sam took her into another room to talk to her and see if she could find some clothes. I pulled out my pocket watch; it was a quarter till six. On the east side of the house the first rays of the morning sun could be seen. Turning to squad leader Two Bears I said, "Send the success signal."

Two Bears walked out on the on the balcony and let loose the loud shrill whistle only to hear it repeated throughout the city. Besides being loud it was out of place and it caused the Governor to stir a bit in his sleep, "I'm tired of listening to him snore when he's been the cause of all of us being up all night. Find me some water let's get the Governor started on his last day in office."

Fran, Sam and the little girl walked into the room as I was making my request, so Fran handed me a partially filled chamber pot. "By the way," Fran began, "the girl says there's a pistol under his pillow." Fran reached under the sleeping man's head and removed the gun.

"That's not enough water to wake him up with the hangover he's going to have." Fran took the thunder mug back from me and set it on the floor. She stood up, undid the tie on her buckskin pants and dropped them right there and started peeing. Sam added her contribution followed by the little girl and the rest of the grinning troopers in and around the room. Fran handed it back, "Better?"

Thinking that I'd rather dilute than wash off, "Hand me that pitcher there by the wash basin," one of the troopers handed it to me and I added a little of the fresh liquid to the contents of the pot, and nodded my head, "That should do it."

The Governor was sleeping on his side, a light push and he was on his back, once there I started pouring the contents of the thunder mug on his face, aiming at his mouth, "Up and at 'em Governor, it's the last day of your life, you don't want to spend it lying in bed."

The Governor came awake coughing and sputtering, "What? That's piss! Who the hell are you?"

"I'm the man that's been intercepting your gun shipments. Now get up and come on; the sun is up on your last day on this earth." The Governor reached under the pillow looking for the gun, "My wife has your pistol if that's what you're looking for. Now come on we need to go wake up your men."

"I need to get dressed!" the Governor cried.

"You're dressed as much as you're going to get. You've got to the count of three to get moving, after that you get hurt and then dragged out of here. One, two," I shook my head as the good Governor just stared at me, "three." I nodded to Two Bears who reached down and grabbed the Governor by the scruff of the neck and stood him up.

"I thought you said that I would get hurt," the Governor mouthed.

"Yeah, I did say that, didn't I," he was standing there like nothing could happen to him. All I had to do was think about all those children, I hit him right on the end of his chin as hard as I could. He went flying backwards and onto the bed. Two Bears offered the man a hand, which he took. Just as he got to his feet Two Bears hit him right in the nose. Two Bears never turned loose of the man's hand; he just pulled back and hit him again.

The Governor jerked his hand trying to free it from Two Bears grip. Two Bears turned the man to face the little girl who he had been too drunk to rape the night before and she hit him as hard as she could, right in the nuts. The Governor fell in a heap on the floor retching. Once on the floor she kicked the prostrate man in the stomach, "That's for raping my sister you bastard. If you hadn't tied me up you would have died in your sleep. It's better this way, everyone in town will get to see you beg before they kill you."

Two Bears walked up to the man, "If I help you up I'm going to hit you." The Governor scrambled to his feet and we went downstairs.

"Gather the prisoners and let's go see if the Captain can wake up the Governor's army." The two squads that had helped take the Governor's house gathered the men that had been on guard duty, their hands tied behind their back. All of the prisoners were roped together and we mounted up and rode to the town square where all of the other prisoners were supposed to be gathered.

Capt. Mills had the two field pieces pointed at the heavy oak doors at the front and side of the building holding the new ex governor's bully boys. "Are all of the innocents out of that building?"

"Yes Sir! Troopers Grey Fox and Becky Damron went in first thing and brought them out. They had to kill one of the men I'm afraid, but he was not able to sound the alarm." Becky was standing at attention near her constant shadow, Grey Fox, and her buckskins had fresh blood on them and her bandana was bloody where she had wiped off her knife. I winked at her and she just beamed.

"If that's the case Captain, go ahead and serve the hangover remedy." I turned my horse and rode a little further away. I heard the whistle call to ready the gun and then BOOM! Followed five seconds later by another BOOM! The Captain's gun crews went into the rush to reload the guns with canister shot this time. "You men in the building you have five seconds to come out with your hands up. If we have to come in, none of you will come out alive."

Capt. Mill's gun crews rolled the guns right up to the doors. When the five seconds were up the gun at the side door fired followed closely by the second gun. "Do we come in and finish it," I called out.

Two men staggered out of the building followed a few minutes later by three more, "Is that all that's left?" One of the men just glared at me, I pointed my pistol at him and shot him in the head. "I asked if that is all of you. If you assholes want to get an attitude, that's just fine by me. If you think I'll feel bad or lose any sleep just remember this; you people are working for a man that condoned the torture and murder of children. The very best you can hope for is me having you shot; the worst is that you get what those children got. Now I want an answer."

"There's ten men in there, they are going to make you pay with your lives," one of the wounded men answered.

"We don't pay that kind of bill mister. Put one of your smoke rounds that you made in there Capt. Mills and move the Gatling gun up to that side door and see if you can air the place out a bit." The gun at the side door fired three more rounds of canister shot into the building, varying the angle they fired at. Two men tried to rush the gun and found the twenty rifles of the two protecting gun squads deadly. The squad that had been exercising with the Gatling gun moved it into place. I gave a nod and they moved the gun into the doorway and started cranking. They put one clip into the building and men were scurrying out the front door like rats from a sinking ship with their hands up. Why the canister shot wasn't bothering them and the Gatling gun did was beyond me but they were out, well, at least all of them that could get out on their own. We found out later that the shot was not spreading enough to do any good. I still didn't trust them so rather than go in after them we posted guards and left them to bleed out, it's not like we were doing any first aid on any that had came out.

I saw the parish Priest and walk over to him, "Father, do you know everyone here that has slaves?"

A rather rakish grin appeared on the Priest's face, "So it's true is it what they say about you, that you hate slavery and you'll be freeing all of the slaves?"

"That's right Father, all slaves will be freed before we leave." The Priest turned and called some young boys to him and whispered something to them and they left like their asses were on fire and their heads a catching.

The Priest turned to me, "There are some that have told me that you will free their slaves over their dead body. How will you handle that young man?"

"If that's their price, I'm sure we can pay it Padre." More and more people were filing into the square, the people who had supported the Governor's power play had all been identified and they were roped together with the Governor and his men. When I thought that we had everybody in the square that was coming I got up into a wagon and addressed the people, "Ladies and Gentlemen, as of right now slavery has been abolished."

There were several shouts and one well dressed man approached the wagon. "You will not be taking my slaves young man."

"Are you one of the ones who said that your slaves would be taken over your dead body?"

"I most certainly am, "the man replied.

"How many more of you feel the same way he does? If you do, move up with him." I waited as about fifteen men joined the man. "This is all?" No one moved, I pulled out my pistol and shot the man right between the eyes, "The rest of you have five seconds to reconsider. One, two,"

"You can't kill all of us," another fancy dressed man complained.

"Turn around and look you stupid bastard. I brought five hundred armed troops with me today we can kill each and every one of you and will, but slavery is ended in Santa Fe. Now your five seconds are up," I started aiming at another of the men when they all went to screaming that they would free their slaves.

Another of the fancy dressed men who had just moments ago been begging for his life screamed out at me, "You can't get away with this. This is still United States territory."

I turned on the little man, "No it's not, you people seceded remember? Your king is over there," I pointed to where the Governor and his men and cronies were tied up, "covered with piss and in his underwear. You gave up your rights when you made him king."

One of the men who had been in the bunch that hadn't wanted to free his slaves pulled a small single shot derringer and fired it at me catching me in the left arm. Two Bears was about to shoot the man when I stopped him. "Take all of these men but him and put them with the Governor's folks, we can't trust them, we may as well execute them when we do the Governor. Be sure and search them. In fact, strip them down to bare skin."

There was much crying and gnashing of teeth, my wives were very upset with the man that had shot me, which made me think. "Will the wives of the men that I just sent over there, and the wives of the two dead ones come up here right now."

The man who shot me mouthed off, "There's only one dead here."

"Your death is just a technicality mister so just shut up." Sam yelled at the man.

I watched as the wives of the men came forward. A very regal looking woman went straight to the front of the line, "That was my husband," she pointed to the man I had just shot.

I got down off of the wagon, I flinched when I did because my arm was hurting like hell, "Look ma'am I'm sorry that I had to kill your husband but I'd do it all over again because these slaves will be free one way or another."

She smiled and I thought it an odd thing, "You had no choice, he hired a man on the way over here to have you killed. Did you know that? He offered him five of the best Indian girls that his men captured and one hundred in gold."

"No, not that it surprises me, but no, I didn't know it. Do you know who it was?" I asked.

She smiled again and turned towards the man that had shot me, "I see. So mister, your convictions come from your cock and your pocket." The man was wearing a sword so I holstered my pistols and undid my belt. Jana was standing there with my doctoring kit so I could fix my arm. Instead I handed her my gun belt and pulled my sword, "Come on. Let's see if you can do a better job of it with your sword. He took a fencing stance and made his first thrust, it was almost like he was going to play with me first. It was plain that he was trying to take advantage of my damaged left arm and, to tell the truth, my arm was killing me. Not to mention it felt as though it had no strength, and I used the two handed Japanese style of fighting. He made another feeble thrust and I knocked his blade away with the backside of my sword and took a cut at his neck. I was too far from him and my arm was too weak to try and sever his head, but cutting through the carotid, jugular, and trachea all at once was more than enough to stop the man. He dropped his sword and put both hands to his throat, he acted like he wanted to say something but with his vocal cords among the damaged and destroyed, he would have to settle for bleeding to death. He finally fell to the ground and the blood really gushed out then. I reached down and pulled a silk handkerchief from his pocket and used it to wipe down my sword, only to have Fran and Sam show up to hand me some paper and a canteen that I used to finish the job.

Beth came rushing over to me. She hadn't heard that I had been shot, but when she had she insisted that something be done about it once she was through with me. She was also none too happy about me getting in the sword fight either. Remember what I said about Beth and my mother? Think about how your Mom would act if you got in a sword fight, especially if you had a bullet hole in your arm. Do that and you know where I was with Beth, and then adding to it the fact she was on the hormone roller coaster from being pregnant, didn't make things any better either.

While I had been having my little drama, the others had gathered all of the slaves together and announced that they were free. For the many Native American people that meant they were free to go and find their families. When the attack had begun we had sent messengers to as many of the local tribes as we could.

Beth had just about got my arm doctored up when the chiefs of four of these tribes came up to me. Red Hawk and Two Horses had sent them over; I would need to thank them later. Their biggest concern, after their people that had been enslaved was what would happen to the Governor and his friends. It took a little to make him understand but I was finally able to explain that there would be a public tribunal and judgement pronounced.

Elizabeth Damron Hand had set up a table and was compiling a list of crimes against the Governor and his followers. It was almost noon now and they were all still roped together in the square with little to nothing on as none had been allowed to dress before we brought them here.

It was just past noon when the Commandant from Las Vegas arrived. He got an attitude real fast and started giving orders and screaming at folks. Since I had had nothing to lessen the pain in my arm this gave me the proper attitude to deal with the man. I walked up as he was calling some of my trooper's less than kind names. I pulled my pistol and stuck it to his forehead. "In the next five seconds your mouth had better close and your attitude had better improve drastically or I'm pulling the trigger on this gun to adjust it myself."

"Capt. Mills do something," the man ordered.

Capt. Mills had already had a belly full of the Commandant and now understood why the Governor had so much power, "Shut up and do as he says because he will shoot you and there's nobody here that will care."

"Now, are you through screaming and bad mouthing my people?" The Commandant nodded his head. "Good, now then, apologise to my troopers."

"What? Why? Why should I?" the Commandant stammered.

"Well I can think of two reasons, first I'll shoot you if you don't and second if I don't shoot you they will. When you insult one of them you insult all of them. There's five hundred of them and one of you. Now what do you want to do?"

"But she was just a girl," the Commandant cried.

I looked over to Capt. Mills. "Trooper Maggie Smith," he answered to my quizzing look.

"She's one of our best, what's your problem with her?"

"She's a woman!" the Commandant exclaimed, looking at me as though I didn't have a brain in my head.

"She's a woman and if she shoots you will you be any less dead than if a man shot you? And I'll tell you right now, if she decides to shoot at you, you're dead, because she doesn't miss, rifle or pistol on foot or horseback, she's a dead shot."