Faceless Officer stands guard over the fallen soldiers at Fort Douglas Military Cemetery, Utah

Day is done – Gone the Sun

From the hills- from the lake-from the sky

All is well – Safely rest

God is nigh…………..

TAPS

In order for a relevant discussion of the events that transpired at and near Canyon Station in the summer of 1863, it is necessary to describe the terrain and set the stage. Canyon Station marker is located at the western entrance to Deep Creek Canyon which is known nowadays as Overland Canyon. I will use the old time name in this article. To the west of the marker the terrain is covered with large sagebrush and intermittent juniper, and gradually rises and opens up into Clifton Flat. To the North across a deep, water cut ravine is the present day county road and the bulk of 7,870-foot Montezuma Mountain with it’s many adits and prospecting pits.

Looking south the hills rise in various layers up to the summit of 8,136-foot South Peak. To the east, Deep Creek Canyon narrows greatly and descends precipitously towards the Great Salt Lake Desert with Blood Mountain looming over it to the south. The terrain just described around the station was the scene of some very intense fighting between soldiers of Company E, 3^rd California Infantry Volunteers, who were all killed in action, and some very angry Indians.

As stated in the last chapter, the Indians were outraged when Captain Samuel P. Smith – 2^nd Cavalry, California Volunteers, and his Company K surrounded and murdered 10 friendly Indians along Government Creek near Porter Rockwell’s ranch – according to Henry Jacob “Doc” Faust. Chief Pe-Anum, who had been friendly to the whites, even saving Doc Faust’s life on one occasion, was away with some of his braves on a hunting party at the time of this massacre. When the Chief returned and found his family slain, he then contacted other local tribes and planned to seek vengeance. Most of the information regarding the following events that transpired near Canyon Station is based on a report from Thompson and West’s “History of Nevada 1881”.

On the morning of June 23^rd, 1863, Private Abbott and Corporal Hervey were carrying out their usual duties, which were to ride guard with the Overland Stage from Canyon Station to Deep Creek and back. There was something different about this day however. Hervey had woken up that morning with an impending sense of doom that he just couldn’t shake. He even told a woman on the stage from Deep Creek station that day that he hated this detail out in the middle of nowhere and that he had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.

The stage had a safe, un-eventful ride from Deep Creek to Canyon Station and the soldiers remained at the latter. There was no spring or water source at Canyon Station so the soldiers had to make daily runs with a water wagon to procure culinary water and water for the stock.. Abbott, Hervey, and William “Deaf Bill” Riley were on the water detail that day so they headed off down Deep Creek Canyon to fill the barrels and bring water back to the station. At the same time Private Jacob Elliott and Private Jacob Burgher went out to hunt some sage hens leaving only an Overland Stage employee at the station. According to the official military reports of this incident, Elliott and Burgher violated orders when they left the station un-guarded. This fact may have cost them their lives according to the action reports filed by Officers in charge.

Just as the water wagon was about to round the corner in Deep Creek Canyon and return to the station, Hervey turned to Abbott and said “I dreamed last night that I was going to be shot and killed by Indians today and….” As soon as these words left his lips, Hervey’s brain was pierced by a bullet and he fell from the wagon, dead. Apparently, 400 yards from the station, about 18 Indians had laid an ambush for the men. There was a hailstorm of lead thrown at the water wagon and the same instant Hervey was killed, Abbott took a bullet in the shoulder and fell from the wagon, and Riley’s thumb was shot off. The spooked horses took off at a wild pace. Riley finally got control of the horses and turned them around and charged back towards the dead and dying men. Abbott in the mean time was shot through both legs and took two more slugs in the torso.

Incredibly, Abbott still managed to somehow get Hervey’s corpse into the wagon and Riley pulled Abbott in and they charged away from the Indians towards the station. Once at the station, Riley and the other Stage employee fought off the Indians for an hour while Abbott fought for life. Riley noticed the glint of Elliott’s rifle up on the hill and he knew that Elliott and Burgher were dead. The Indians finally let up their attack on the fortified station after an hour of fighting. Riley was right about Elliott. An Emigrant train arrived at the station about 1 and ½ hours after the battle ended and they brought in Elliott’s remains. They found him in the middle of the road about 100 yards east of the station. He must have fought the Indians bravely because they mutilated him terribly and cut out his heart and took it away. It was a custom of the Indians to do this when they killed a brave man because they thought by taking his heart and in some cases, eating it, they would take on the bravery of the slain man. Elliott was also a bald man. This made it pointless for the Indians to scalp him, but he did have a thick beard, so they scalped his chin instead.

The emigrant train that brought Elliot’s remains to the station also had a surgeon in it. This doctor tended to and dressed Abbott’s wounds, no doubt saving his life. Burgher’s remains were found on a hill not far from Canyon Station the next day. I have not been able to find any recommendations for a citation for valor for Private Abbott. He could have turned and run, but he refused to leave his friend Hervey’s body behind so the Indians could mutilate it. Abbott was shot 5 times while performing this heroic deed and thanks to the timely arrival of the surgeon; he lived to tell the story. Luckily for him, he was transferred away from this station.

Abbott and Riley estimated that they killed four Indians during the conflict. It is not known if Elliott or Burgher inflicted any casualties on the Indians. It is amazing to think that due to the atrocity perpetrated by Captain Smith, 70 miles to the east in Skull Valley, these poor soldiers paid the ultimate price. What is even more amazing is the fact that a suitable monument to the memory of this battle and these soldiers has never been erected. This will certainly be one of my future projects – trying to raise money for an appropriate marker. Tooele County has such a fascinating history out in the west desert. Due to the fact that the Battle of Gettysburg was nearly getting under way in the east during this time frame, much of the incidents that happened out on Utah’s west desert have been forgotten, known only to scholars or as legends past down through the generations.

Several texts have referred to this incident and the one which will be discussed in the next chapter but they do so in cold terms towards the soldiers sometimes, not mentioning the fallen soldiers by name. These men volunteered to leave their jobs and families in California to defend the Union and I don’t see much distinction between the volunteers of 1863 or the volunteers of today’s U.S. Military. At least through this article, their names are revived once more.

If you visit Fort Douglas Military Cemetery near the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City, you will see an impressive monument in the center of the cemetery crowned with the edifice of a Cavalry Officer in dress uniform. On the west panel of this 25-foot monument, the names of the men who died in the line of duty at Canyon Station out in the west Desert of Tooele County in the summer of 1863 are inscribed. Above the names is an effigy in the red sandstone of stacked rifles and a canteen signifying esprit de corps. You will notice the names of Hervey, Burgher, and Elliott under the caption “Killed while on Vedette Duty”. You will also notice four more names. The story of their demise is the subject of the next chapter out on the Pony Express Trail.