Background
Edwin L. Elwood was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1847.
Edwin L. Elwood was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1847.
He later moved to San Jose, California, where he enlisted in the United States. Army. He was sent to the Arizona Territory for frontier duty with the 8th United States. Cavalry and took part in the Apache Wars. Elwood was among the soldiers under Lieutenant William H. Winters who pursued Cochise and the Apache Indians following the massacre of stage coach passengers en route to Tucson, and an attack on a group of cowboys in the Sulphur Springs Valley, on October 5, 1868.
The cavalrymen finally confronted Cochise at his stronghold in the Chiricahua Mountains, in what would become known as the "Campaign of the Rocky Mesa", on October 20, 1869.
Elwood was shot in the right side of his chest while battling the Apaches but recovered from his injuries. Elwood died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on September 13, 1907, at the age of 60.
He was interred at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.