lost rifles 1847

[dano91]

I've been working on the story of the J. White family massacre near clayton NM. in 1847.
Involving Kit Carson and others, I have sort of exhausted my leads, and am asking for any help I can get.

A wagon train ran out of water, buried 300 new Sharps rifles, and 300 new Colt pistols, then tried to make it 150 miles on foot to Santa Fe. After about 2 days they were massacred by the Jicarilla Apaches, probably White Wolf.

If anyone runs into old diaries or stories on this, I would really appreciate the info $$$$$
Dano & Yogi.

 

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[Springfield]

I've been working on the story of the J. White family massacre near clayton NM. in 1847.
Involving Kit Carson and others, I have sort of exhausted my leads, and am asking for any help I can get.

A wagon train ran out of water, buried 300 new Sharps rifles, and 300 new Colt pistols, then tried to make it 150 miles on foot to Santa Fe. After about 2 days they were massacred by the Jicarilla Apaches, probably White Wolf.

If anyone runs into old diaries or stories on this, I would really appreciate the info $$$$$
Dano & Yogi.

This story has a rather fatal flaw in it. Here's a factoid that may influence your research:

"...Sharps Rifle was series of rifles first designed by Christian Sharps and manufactured by the Sharps Rifle Manufacturing Company. The Sharps Rifle patented 1848 and manufacturing started in 1850..."

 

[dano91]

Ive ran into that info before. They may be Mississippi, Hall, or Jenks rifles also, or some early models of the Sharps made during or before the Harpers Ferry plant. Plus conflicting year dates on the massacre, and the initials of J. white. Thanks.
Dano & Yogi

 

[wildrider]

I was reading something that said the indians had muskets and arrows.

I know a little about the area. My grandparents lived in Roy about 30-40 miles south of the area.

Burt

 

[Gypsy Heart]

I have this:

The *White Massacre* of 1849 and the *Wagon Mound Massacre* of 1850 underscored the need for some sort of military presence. From their new base of operations, troops stationed or marshalled at Fort Union spent much of the 1850s engaged in active and aggressive campaigning against the Comanche, Jicarilla Apache, Navajo, and Ute people.

taken from ....
A History of Fort Union
by T. J. Sperry & Harry C. Myers


and this ....

In the fall of the year of his arrival at Rayado, Carson received word that a band of nearly 100 Jicarilla Apaches had attacked Santa Fe Trail merchant Mr. James M. White and a small party, including his family, near Point of Rocks, on the Cimarron Cutoff about 45 miles east of Rayado. According to David Dary in his book The Santa Fe Trail – Its History, Legends, and Lore, the Indians massacred White and the other men. They took White’s wife, daughter and a black woman slave as captives.

Carson promptly joined a rescue party, commanded by Major William N. Grier, First U. S. Dragoons, as a guide. From the massacre site near Point of Rocks, "We tracked them for ten or twelve days over the most difficult trail that I have ever followed…" said Carson in his autobiography. "We finally came in view of the Indian camp. I was in the advance, and at once started for it, calling to our men to come on. The commanding officer ordered a halt…" He intended to "parley" with the Indians. While the rescue party hesitated, the Jicarillas scattered like flushed quail. Grier ordered a charge, but too late. "At a distance of about 200 yards," said Carson, the body of Mrs. White was found, still perfectly warm. She had been shot through the heart with an arrow not more than five minutes before. …it was apparent that she was endeavoring to make her escape when she received the fatal shot." According to Dary, Mrs. White’s child and the black woman simply vanished. They were never seen again.

"I am certain that if the Indians had been charged immediately on our arrival, [Mrs. White] would have been saved… However, the treatment she had received…was so brutal and horrible that she could not possibly have lived very long." The rescue party pursued the Indians for several miles, killing one warrior, taking several animals, and capturing "all their baggage and camp equipage."

"We found a book in the camp, the first of the kind I had ever seen, in which I was represented as a great hero, slaying Indians by the hundred. I have often thought that Mrs. White must have read it, and knowing that I lived nearby, must have prayed for my appearance in order that she might be saved. I did come, but I lacked the power to persuade those that were in command over me to follow my plan for her rescue."

and this ............

The Jicarillas continued to raid New Mexican settlements and steal livestock, and their attack on the James M. White party on the Santa Fe Trail in October 1849 was the most spectacular incident in the escalating war. White was moving his family and trade goods from Independence to New Mexico, and his 13 wagons had joined a larger train belonging to Francis X. Aubry for the journey across the plains. White, his wife Ann, and daughter Virginia were accompanied by a black female servant and several employees. [75]

On October 23, 1849, the Whites and several other persons left the wagon train and went ahead in two carriages. When they were a few miles east of the New Mexico Point of Rocks, probably at or near Palo Blanco or White Creek, they were attacked by Jicarilla Apaches on October 24 or 25. James White and the other men were killed; Ann White and her daughter and servant were captured. [76] All attempts to secure their release failed.

Soldiers from Rayado and Taos, under command of Captain William N. Grier, First Dragoons, were sent to pursue the Jicarillas. With Watkin Leroux, Robert Fisher, and Kit Carson as guides, they arrived at the scene of the murder on November 9, more than two weeks after the attack, and picked up the trail of the Indians several miles east of Point of Rocks. They pushed hard on this trail, found the Indians camped on the Canadian River a few miles south of Tucumcari Butte, and attacked them early in the morning of November 17. The Indians fled, making their escape with fresh horses while those of the soldiers were exhausted from the long trip. Grier reported that the dead body of Ann White was found in the village, still warm. He surmised that she refused to go with the Indians and they had killed her as the troops approached. The body of the daughter was never found and it was later reported by Jicarillas and others that she had also been killed. The fate of the black servant was never determined. Grier's command returned to Taos on November 29, after surviving a severe blizzard on the plains. The only casualty to the storm was Grier's black servant. [77]

75. Barry, Beginning of the West, 884-885.

76. Ibid., 885; and Hammond, Adventures of Alexander Barclay, 221-222.

77. Grier to Adams, November 30, 1849, LR, AGO, RG 94, NA; and Tiller, The Jicarilla Apache Tribe, 35. The search for the Whites' daughter continued for years. In 1858 Brigadier General John Garland reported that "no occasion has been lost since my arrival in New Mexico, in 1853, to gain accurate information in relation to this painful occurrence." He concluded from reports received that the child had been killed. William Bransford, a merchant at Mora, had offered two horses and one-half the trade goods in his store for the recovery of the girl, but New Mexicans who traded with the Indians and some of the Indians declared that she was dead. Garland to Cooper, April 29, 1858, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 223-224, USAC, RG 393, NA.

 

[dano91]

Wow! it's been a long time. I finally proved the story to be false, But in the four years I've learned and found some incredible things. If you ever get the chance to see the Santa Fe Trail do it! It's absolute time travel, you have to see it for yourself.
Dano & Yogi.

 

[lockdownking]

White Massacre

Wow! it's been a long time. I finally proved the story to be false, But in the four years I've learned and found some incredible things. If you ever get the chance to see the Santa Fe Trail do it! It's absolute time travel, you have to see it for yourself.
Dano & Yogi.

Where did you find the story to be false?