Col…
source date: 1891
availability: public-domain

Col. Albert J. Fountain, department com- mander, is one of the most prominent characters on the southwestern frontier. He is a born leader of men, and as a gallant soldier, a suc- cessful lawyer, a brilliant lawyer, a keen, for- cible writer, and a public-spirited citizen, he has no superior. Col. Fountain was born in New York in 1838. He migrated to California in 1854, and at an early age successfully engaged in literary work on leading daily papers on the Pacific coast. When the war broke out he en- listed as a private in Co. E 1st Cal. He was soon promoted to be first sergeant, and marched with his company, as a part of Carleton's column, from California across the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico to the Rio Grande. For gallant conduct in a fight with Apaches Fountain was