Chapter 10

Black Wolf was well aware of the advantages to be found in shooting down, while forcing your enemy to shoot up. He was also well aware that his biggest successes had come when he had been able to trap his enemies in a narrow cut. That forced them to be in predictable places during the attack, which made it easier to plan the attack and assign the various jobs. One of the reasons for choosing this particular outpost for the attack was that the road to it had a cut which was ideally suited to Black Wolf's style of ambush.

The cut he had chosen was very narrow, so much so that there was no room for anything with wheels. Thus, the army was not able to bring cannon or Gatling guns with them. There was another road the Army could use to support the outpost when it was attacked, but that road added nearly 4 miles to the route, and Black Wolf was sure that the Army leaders would not want to expend the additional time needed to cover that extra distance. Besides, they wouldn't think that the attack deserved more than a platoon of Dragoons to relieve the post. After all, Army doctrine said that the savages could not hope to stand up to the disciplined fighting of trained soldiers.

It only took a short time for Black Wolf's men to reach the ambush site and to get settled in. That left plenty of time for making the wagers on the coming battle. Some pretty ridiculous bets were made, but that was part of the game. Any lost bets that could not possibly be paid were simply forgiven, but only after the offending party was thoroughly laughed at by all of his friends. It was rare that anything of any real value was wagered, so it was easy to forget bad debts. The real wagers were pride and the danger of embarrassment, items very important to these men.

At last, the dust cloud of the approaching soldiers was seen by the lookouts, and the word was passed to the waiting ambushers. As usual, Black Wolf would signal the start of the attack by being the first one to shoot. Snake's customary place at the other end of the ambush was taken, this time, by Eagle, a man known for his courage and reliability. He could be depended upon to hold up his end of the battle, so Black Wolf was not worried about him.

The ambushers would have to be alert, because the Army column was moving quickly, and they didn't want any of the soldiers to slip through the trap. The column reformed into single file as they fed themselves into the cut. The scout was leading the column, and the officer, a captain, was right behind him. He was followed by 4 squads of soldiers, and the platoon sergeant brought up the rear. At this point, the column was actually longer than the cut, so the last four men in line, plus the sergeant never made it into the cut. They had no idea how unlucky they were!

The scout was almost ready to exit the cut when Black Wolf shot him. This was the signal for everybody to start shooting, and a rain of bullets fell upon the hapless soldiers. The range was very short, only 30-50 feet, so most of the Apaches scored hits on either the men they were aiming at or their horses, sometimes both with the same shot. The result was pure chaos in the cut as many men, including the scout, fell dead or were severely wounded. The officer was shouting conflicting, but unheard, orders lost in the din of battle.

Some of the soldiers managed to fire off return shots, but none of them hit an Indian, for a variety of reasons. Much of the return fire was shot blindly, almost reflexively, as the soldiers were too frightened to have much control over their actions. A lot of piss and shit was released by the scared soldiers, who lost control of their sphincters.

The soldiers who had lived through the first fusillade were also hampered by the fact that their Spencer rifles had recently been replaced by the Sharps carbine with its single-shot, falling block design, which cut way back on their rate of fire. Those that thought of it were much better served by the .44 caliber Colt Dragoon pistols they carried in saddle holsters. A few were able to bring these into play and managed to get off a few shots before they were killed.

With all that lead flying around, a few of the Apaches were bound to be wounded. A few men were hit, but there were no fatalities nor really serious wounds. Some of the wounds would leave significant scars, a source of pride for the men carrying them.

The fight didn't last nearly as long as one might expect. So many soldiers were killed in that first fusillade that it was impossible to put up an adequate defense. Every Indian but Black Wolf had a Spencer, and he made a point of using all 7 shots on the soldiers, whether or not they were already dead. Black Wolf had his Henry, but he did not shoot all of his cartridges. That was really a technicality, since there wasn't a live soldier to shoot at within 10 minutes of the start of the ambush.

Once the last trooper appeared to be dead, Black Wolf released his men to scalp and plunder the corpses in the cut. The Indians were on a killing spree, so they killed the horses, too. Black Wolf had them salvage the weapons, even though he doubted that they would have any use for them. Maybe they could trade them to other Indians later on for something that they could use. There was so much stuff collected by the Indians that they could not carry all of it at one time, so they hid the majority of their loot to be picked up later.

At the rear of the column, the sergeant and the 4 troupers who had not been caught in the trap turned and fled as fast as their horses could carry them. They fairly flew back to the fort and reported the ambush as soon as they arrived. The major ordered an immediate posting of the few men left in the fort to the walls to be ready to defend against an Apache attack that day. Little did he know what was in store for them!

The Apaches were so excited with their easy and complete victory that they wanted to continue on to the fort and ravage that, too. Black Wolf tried to talk them out of attacking the fort, but he quickly saw that there was no way he was going to win that argument. He was forced to decide to lead an attack on the fort simply because he needed to put a cap on the hot heads and keep them from doing something too stupid.

They were getting organized to advance on the fort when the women showed up fresh from their defeat of the outpost. They told the women what they had in mind, and the women wanted to join in. Black Wolf now had a small army of 41 warriors, male and female, who were determined to destroy the fort. There was no way he could dissuade them, so he started planning the attack.

The biggest problem the Indians had to face was that the fort had two 6-pounder cannon and two Gatling guns. Fortunately, none of these was mounted on the walls, so they were of limited value in keeping the Apaches away from the fort. This artillery would be of no value to the Army until the Indians actually broke into the fort.

So many soldiers had been killed in the recent battles with the Apaches that, even when the soldiers were called back from the other outpost, there were less than 50 effective fighters still in the fort. That counted the officers, but didn't count the women and children who might be there. There were a few civilians, but Black Wolf didn't believe that there would be enough to push the total number of effectives to over 55. With this in mind, he didn't expect that the difference in numbers to be important.

The fort was built as a rectangle, 165 feet long and 140 feet wide. It was surrounded by a stockade fence 12 feet high, with a firing platform extending around all four sides of the fort. As originally designed, the weakest point in the wall was at the main gate, but this was only a matter of degree. The Army Engineers had done an excellent job in building the basic structure, but, over the last 7 years, nothing had been done to improve it, and maintenance had been somewhat hit or miss. In several places, the stockade posts had rotted, and it was possible for a man to push his fist through the wall. Neither the Army nor the Indians were aware of this, but it could become a factor as the battle progressed.