Chapter 3 revised

After several weeks of tinkering and hesitation I am reposting Chapter 3, which covers July 19-August 9 (from White Sands through the Datil Mountains). I’ve been looking for more confirmation of my theory that  Nana dispatched decoys from the main war party  west from Alamocita Creek while the main body of the raiders split into two groups, one riding north and the other northeast. So far I have only Hatch’s report that Guilfoyle had been “thrown off the trail,” newspaper accounts of various depredations in western New Mexico, and Sweeney’s reference to two boys captured during the Raid and later retrieved by their father,  who came to San Carlos from Quemado in 1883 to reclaim the captives. None of this is conclusive, but a futile western detour by the troops would  explain why Bennett and the scouts were in hot pursuit across the Plains of San Augustin into the Datils on Aug. 3 or 4, but Lt. Wright met Guilfoyle somewhere “north of Monica Spring” five days later, and their combined force didn’t finally arrive at Rancho Cebolla until the evening of Aug. 11., three days after the raiders departed there the morning of August 8. Depending on how long Guilfoyle tarried at Monica Spring to rest his men and horses, it seems to me there’s a day or two missing from the narrative.