CHAPTER XII.
Ten years had passed away before I renewed acquaintance with "Lo." It had been my fervent desire and solemn resolve never more to revisit the scenes of so much suffering and personal risk. No pecuniary offer would have proved a sufficient inducement to forego that resolve. But the dreadful war of rebellion burst with fury over our heads. My country needed the help of all her loyal sons, and I quietly placed myself in their ranks as Captain of a company of the Second Cavalry, California Volunteers. General James H. Carleton was ordered to advance into Arizona and New Mexico, with a column of nearly three thousand Californian soldiers, consisting of artillery, infantry and cavalry. He did me the honor to select my company from my regiment and make it a part of his force. Although flattered by the compliment, as mine was the only company of the Second Cavalry attached to his column, I felt by no means delighted with the prospect of again traveling those arid, extensive, and most inhospitable deserts, mountain gorges, and scorching plains, over which the Apache held almost undisturbed rule. In military life obedience to order is the first requisite of a soldier, and of course I submitted
