Home : America At War : The Indian Wars :

Apache Warfare

Apache warfare never ceased, not because the Apache particularly enjoyed fighting but because they lived mainly by plunder. They counted no coups, celebrated no scalp dances, took no pride in exhibitions of courage. Raiding was their business. The admiration of their women and the praise of their men went to the sly, successful thief who provided for his family, not to the dead hero who left his family to starve.

Apache warfare was not glamorous. These Indians wore no feathered headdress, rode no horses into battle. They valued horses more for food than for transportation. Soldiers who fought Apache rarely saw them, for they were masters of concealment and ambush. They could vanish right into the barren desert or mountains and move faster on foot than the cavalry pursuing them.

Ablest of their leaders was Cochise of the Chiricahua. Reuben F. Bernard, the only officer brevetted a brigadier general for a fight against Cochise, said of him:

This Indian was always at peace with the whites until 1860, when he and his family were invited to dine with an officer of the Army, who had his company ready to arrest him for the purpose of keeping him as a hostage for the return of a boy stolen by the Pinals. Since that time this Indian has burned alive thirteen white men that I know of, besides most cruelly torturing to death, by cutting small pieces out of them, five others; fifteen others I know by putting lariats around their necks, tied their hands behind them, and dragged them to death. All this was done in the spring of 1860, within twenty miles of where Camp Bowie now stands. This Indian was at peace until betrayed and wounded by white men.

Bernard, as sergeant of Company D, 1st Dragoons, had been present in 1860 when Cochise was driven to the warpath by the "betrayal" he described. As a brevet colonel Bernard, captain of Company G, 1st Cavalry (the same regiment, renamed) took command on May 29, 1869, of Camp Bowie (twenty miles south of present Bowie, Arizona). On July 4 he skirmished with Cochise's band in the Burro Mountains. In August he started a series of scouts into the Chiricahua Mountains, Cochise's stronghold.

At Chiricahua Pass on October 20 Cochise's band attempted to ambush Bernard's command of sixty-one men of his troop and of Company G, 8th Cavalry. The troopers took cover behind rocks and began picking off every Indian who showed himself. Drives to the right and then to the left were stopped by Apache fire, but Bernard got fifteen men to a hilltop from which they took the Chiricahua in the rear, and the Indians fled. Bernard had two killed, two injured, and claimed eighteen Indians killed. This was one of three fights mentioned in Bernard's brevet as brigadier general; his two lieutenants were brevetted majors, and thirty-one enlisted men were recommended for the Medal of Honor.

In the Dragoon Mountains on January 27, 1870, Bernard's two troops killed thirteen Chiricahua and the next day destroyed Cochise's camp, but the wily chieftain escaped. Cochise won a last victory against troops on May 5, 1871, when he ambushed and killed First Lieutenant Howard B. Cushing of the 3rd Cavalry and three others at Bear Springs in the Whetstone Mountains. Two of Lieutenant Cushing's brothers had been Civil War heroes, William B., who sank the Confederate ram Albemarle with a spar torpedo, and Alonzo, who was killed while commanding a battery at Gettysburg.

Cochise made peace the following year. By a personal appeal T. J. Jeffords of the stagecoach line had obtained a truce with the Chiricahua covering his own operations. In 1872 Jeffordis took General Howard to Cochise's camp where a peace was made that lasted until Cochise died.

Camp Grant Massacre

Many writers have condemned the Camp Grant massacre as an unprovoked atrocity, yet the ascertainable facts are so few as to leave some doubts. Early in 1871 Eskimotzin and 510 Aravaipa Apache appeared at Camp Grant, fifty-five miles northeast of Tucson, professing a desire for peace. First Lieutenant Royal E. Whitman fed them and allowed them to stay. However, while they were encamped there, depredations continued near Tucson and south of it, around San Xavier and Tubac. Civilians led by Jesus M. Elias followed raiders driving away cattle and horses, and killed one of them. The victim was identified as a Camp Grant Aravaipa. Elias was aided by William M. Oury of Tucson in organizing a secret punitive expedition. Their party included ninety-two Papago Indians from San Xavier, forty-eight Tucson citizens of Mexican descent and six Anglo-Americans, a total of 146.

They moved quietly across the desert at night, and at dawn on April 30, 1871, surprised the Indian camp. According to Oury's frank statement, "The attack was so swift and fierce that within a half hour the whole work was ended, and not an adult Indian was left to tell the tale."

There is much discrepancy concerning the number killed. Acting Assistant Surgeon C. B. Briesly, first on the field, reported finding bodies of 21 women and children, and later six more, "an old man, two half-grown boys and three women." Survivors he met told him "some eighty five had been killed, of whom eight only were men." This hearsay figure 85 is commonly repeated, as is also Lieutenant Whitman's similarly indefinite "killed and missing about 125; eight only were men."

It should be noted that only Whitman and his associates stated that the victims were peaceful, and General Crook, who came to the command later, branded Whitman as one who "had deserted his colors and gone over to the `Indian Ring' bag and baggage, and had behaved himself in such a manner that I had preferred charges against him." By "Indian Ring" General Crook meant the agents, officials and citizens who had conspired to plunder the Indians financially. This same charge was made against Whitman by Oury, leader of the "massacre.”

Crook Takes Command

The Camp Grant massacre caused a shake-up in the handling of Apache affairs, both military and civil. George Crook, then lieutenant colonel of the 23rd Infantry, was ordered to duty as department commander in his brevet rank of major general. Vincent Collyer, secretary of the Board of Indian Commissioners, was sent to make peace with the Apache. When reports came back that he was not doing too well at it, General Howard was sent to try his hand. While all this was going on, Crook was organizing small, mobile columns, supplied by pack train, and employing friendly Apache scouts.

When it became evident that the peace drive had failed, Crook's small columns struck hard, and soon got results. On December 28, 1872, Brevet Major William H. Brown, captain of the 5th Cavalry, with three companies of his regiment surprised a camp of Tonto Apache in a cave in Salt River Canyon. The Indians were pinned down by rifle fire, while rocks were dropped upon them. Twenty made a desperate charge, only to be killed. Eighteen surviving women and children were captured.

Other Tonto bands were hit in quick succession, at Turret Butte on March 27, 1873; at Diamond Butte on April 22; on Tonto Creek on June 16. All these fights earned brevets for the commanders. In addition Captain Thomas McGregor of Company A, 1st Cavalry, received a brevet as major for his defeat of Apache Mohave in the Santa Maria Mountains on May 6. These various bands were brought to the reservation at Camp Verde.

In 1875 Crook was promoted to brigadier general in regular rank and assigned to command the Department of the Platte. No sooner had he gone than much of his work was undone by a shortsighted policy of concentrating Apache bands on a few arid and cheerless reservations, sometimes forcing together groups more hostile to one another than they were to the troops.

When Mimbreno Apache were ordered to San Carlos Agency some thirty warriors fled with their chief Victorio. They were joined by a small band of Mescalero led by Caballero. Between 1877 and 1881 Victorio, with perhaps never more than a hundred fighting men, is credited with killing 100 soldiers, 200 citizens of New Mexico and Texas and 200 Mexicans. He was killed in a fight with Mexican troops.

On August 30, 1881, White Mountain Apache rebelled and a company of Apache scouts mutinied at Cibicu Creek. Captain Edmund C. Hentig of the 6th Cavalry and six privates were killed. Brevet Lieutenant Colonel George B. Sanford, major of the 1st Cavalry, rounded up the White Mountain Apache and brought them to the San Carlos Agency.

This stirred up the Chiricahua led by Juh and Nahche, son of Cochise. They attempted a rescue but were met by two companies of the 1st Cavalry under Colonel Bernard, who had just arrived by train from Nevada, and two troops of the 6th Cavalry. The Indians were driven off after a stand-up fight at close quarters - some got as close as ten feet - unusual in Apache warfare.

The thwarted Chiricahua fled to the Dragoon Mountains, and Colonel Bernard loaded six companies from three regiments - G and I of the 1st Cavalry, A and F of the 6th and F and H of the 9th - on a train, perhaps the only case when a railroad was used in active pursuit of Indians. The Chiricahua were in sight on October 2 as the troops unloaded horses from boxcars, using the doors as ramps. After a sharp fight, the Apache scattered and fled to Mexico. There they were joined by Geronimo, who was to become the most famous of Apache warriors. When Juh was drowned accidentaly, Geronimo took over.

General Crook returned to Arizona in 1882 and organized companies of Apache scouts under Captain Emmet Crawford and Second Lieutenants Britton Davis and Charles B. Gatewood. When Geronimo raided into Arizona from Mexico, Crawford's scouts pursued him back across the international border, capturing his camp in the Sierra Madre on May 15, 1883. The Chiricahua agreed to return to San Carlos, but Geronimo delayed to build up his herd of stolen cattle, and it was not until April, 1884, that he surrendered to Lieutenant Davis at the border.

The continued differences in policy and authority between Army and Indian Bureau did little to pacify the Chiricahua, who soon got out of hand once more. On May 17, 1885, Geronimo bolted again after a tizwin drunk - tizwin was a beer made of corn mash, one of a few fermented drinks concocted by Indians. For the rest of the year his band raided on both sides of the border, dodging United States and Mexican troops.

On January 10, 1886, Crawford's scouts surrounded and destroyed Geronimo's camp at Nacori, near the Aros River in Sonora, but Geronimo and some followers escaped. That night he sent word he was ready to surrender, but at dawn next morning Mexican troops, apparently mistaking the Apache scouts for the Chiricahua, attacked, and Crawford was killed. First Lieutenant Marion P. Maus (later awarded the Medal of Honor for his conduct that day) succeeded in stopping the fight.

Maus resumed negotiations with Geronimo, who agreed to meet General Crook at Canyon de los Embudos in northern Sonora. Here after discussion from March 25 to 27 Geronimo once more agreed to surrender. The scene was photographed by Camillus S. Fly, who had come from his studio in Tucson. That night a smuggler got to Geronimo with liquor, and he bolted again, with about a third of the band, leaving seventy-seven to be taken as prisoners to Fort Bowie. Crook was criticized for the escape of Geronimo and for his surrender terms. He asked to be relieved.

General Miles Takes Over

Crook was succeeded by General Nelson A. Miles, who was ordered to destroy or capture the hostiles "making active and prominent use of the regular troops." This meant disapproval of Crook's use of Indian scouts, who were believed by some to be in league with tile hostiles. To enable Miles to carry out the new order the number of troops in the Department of Arizona was increased from 3,000 to 5,000.

Miles divided his command into "districts of observation," each manned by a highly mobile force. He employed an important innovation, the heliograph - a wireless telegraph based on mirrors reflecting the sun's rays - manned by Signal Corps detachments placed upon the highest peaks and prominent lookouts to discover any movements of Indians and to transmit messages. However, in four months of vigorous campaigning his 5,000 soldiers failed to kill or capture a single Apache raider.

The most durable of his campaigners was Captain Henry W. Lawton of the 4th Cavalry, whose command included thirty-five picked troopers from his regiment, detachments from Companies D and K, 8th Infantry, twenty Indian scouts and Assistant Surgeon Leonard Wood, who doubled as infantry commander and leader of scouts and trailers. It will be noted that General Miles employed Indian scouts, despite the doubts of high officialdom.

On the strength of a rumor that Geronimo was ready to surrender again, Miles sent Lieutenant Gatewood to investigate. Gatewood took with him two Chiricahua Apache scouts, Kayitah and Martine, and accompanied Lawton's command to the vicinity of Geronimo's camp in Mexico. Leaving all soldiers behind, Gatewood entered Geronimo's camp and persuaded him and Nahche to give themselves up. The formal surrender was made to General Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona Territory, on September 3, 1886.

Geronimo had been at his peak strength when Miles began his campaign; his band contained thirty-five warriors and 109 women and children, including six half-grown boys. During his long wanderings his followers came and went, as they pleased, and when he finally surrendered, his band had dwindled to twenty-four men and fourteen women and children, although only six men and four women and children had been killed. From the time he left San Carlos Agency until his surrender to Miles, his band is credited with killing 2 officers, 8 enlisted men, 12 Indian scouts, 75 American citizens and 100 Mexicans. The entire Chiricahua tribe was sent to Florida as prisoners of war - including Kayitah and Martine, the scouts who had risked their lives with Gatewood.

Jay Monaghan. Wars of the Apache. The Book of the American West. Simon & Schuster New York, NY 1969.

With All My Might': Cochise and the Indian Wars A biography of Cochise, the Chiricahua leader, focusing on his involvement in the Indian Wars and subsequent peace negotiations.

---

top of page

back a page