Early In 1862, a force of about 1500 Federal Soldiers left Ft Yuma Ca. and crossed into the Arizona Territory C.S.A. Their mission was to capture or destroy the Confederate force of H.H.Sibley which had occupied much of Arizona and New Mexico. In March a small detachment from that Column had been captured by Captain Sherod Hunter and his Confederate Arizona Rangers. On May 5, 1862, Hunter and his Rangers were attacked by Cochise and around 100 warriors. The Apaches attacked the Confederate foraging party which was gathering stray cattle near the abandoned Butterfield Overland Stagecoach Station at a place called Dragoon Springs. Interestingly, there was a report made by a former member of the Union California Column which states that the foraging party included three Union prisoners from that unit. The report goes on to say that these men fought the Apaches alongside their Confederate captors and that one of them inscribed the headstones of the killed Confederates. It was said that the three captured Federal soldiers that accompanied the Confederate Rangers were given arms to help fight off the Apaches. ( Ironically they joined forces for the survival of both Yank and Reb alike.) Four of Hunter's Confederates were killed and the Apaches stole 25 horses and 30 mules. It is unknown whether any of the Apaches were slain. The fallen Confederates were hastily buried a few yards from the stone ruins of the Stagecoach Station where they remain to this day. They are the only Confederate soldiers known to have been killed in battle within Arizona.
