In 1877, John Lapham Bullis turned thirty-seven years old.
Lieutenant Frederick R.Phelps described the Black Seminoles, as “quite orderly and excellent soldiers”. He also said that Bullis was “a tireless marcher, thin and spare…. he and his men could go longer on half rations than any body of men that I have ever seen”….
On June 29, 1877, while returning from a grueling two month long expedition, during which they were once without water for 42 hours and “our animals suffered terribly”, Bullis and thirty-seven scouts spotted a fresh trail about 70 miles above the mouth of the Pecos River.
The next day they followed the tracks for 15 miles west to the Rio Grande. Bullis and his men quickly found where the Lipan raiding party had forded the “very high” river during the previous night. The Black Seminoles made a raft from logs strewn along the shore. They cross the swollen river that evening and camped on the opposite side. Two horses drowned during the crossing.
The unit continued the hunt for the next two days, but with 20 of their mounts no longer able to travel, Bullis left the horses with 13 scouts hidden near a water hole. On July 2 the reduced command found the hostiles’ camp and promptly attacked it. Three warriors were wounded, one mortally.
Bullis decided not to pursue the hostiles because both his men and their animals were exhausted. Still, they recaptured some twenty stolen horses. On July 4th the detachment re-crossed the Rio Grande on their crude raft. Bullis, despite his fatigue….. rode to Fort Clark ahead of his men. He arrived on July 7, at 2 o’clock in the morning, having covered 140 miles in 36 hours.”
