Hide Article Text (OCR)
1IThe Pursuit of GeronimoIntwoBtinfc Chapter In Our Army’s HistoryRevived b» ihr l'Y\:\ne of Villa.AS a lieutenant of the Third cavalry, in the Hprln* of 1885, I had been nsaiirned the tank ofteaching some of the peaceful arts of agriculture and husbandry to a band of the Apaches from the San Carlos reservation. For that purpose we had been in camp about three miles from Fort Apache on Apache Creek, Among my charges were Geronimo, who was not really a chief at all, as Is generally supposed, but a much esteemed medicine man of the tribe. Mangus. a chief of the Warm Springs branch of the Apaches; Na-chete, a chief of the Chlrlcahua Apaches, andNana, a venerable warchief, who was eighty years Old and who walked with the aid of a stick,but astride a pony, could outride most men of half his years.tThere had been trouble among my Apaches, stimulated largely by th« secret use of tlzwin,* the crude whisky of the tribe, and by the fact that we had been compelled to restrain the bucks from beating and outrageously 131 treating their squaws. My force, upon which I could rely, consisted of twenty-five loyal Apache government scouts. T had with me no regular troops.The renegade broke away from the reservation in the afternoon of May 17, 1*85. Those w ho followed the fortunes of lt;Jeronimo and his associates were forty-three bucks, including boys more than fifteen years eld, and some ninety women and children.All that night Col Wade’s cavalry command from Fort Apache and I and my scouts followed the hot trail. The next morning as we topped a ridge we saw across the valley, fifteen nr’twenty miles ahead of us, the dust of their retreat. Recognizing even then the hopelessness of a cavalry pursuit, I returned to Fort Apache, recruited m force* of Apache scouts up to 130 men, all armed by the government with Springfield rifles and double belts of cartridges.Thus reinforced, though I had now parted company with Colonel Made, I hit the trail of th« fugitives three days later north of Silver C ity, New Mexico, in the Mogollon Mountains and hada slight brush with the A pa e they resumed their flight. On that day, though my command was traveling afoot, we i vered fifty* four miles. But the runaways, mounted on theirIndian ponies, had covered ninety miles, and old Nana, the Octogenarian, had stuck with them ail the wAt Lang’s ranch I found Captain Crawford, with forty regulars of Kendall s troop of the Sixth cavalry, two pack trains and twenty-five packers. Orders were* for me to co-operate with C aptain ( raw ford, he taking the general command, while I retained Immediate command ofthe scouts. We • Methe nest mi lltg and a d • I two later w*e encountered Mexican snipers for the first time Apparently they mistook my Apache scouts forhostiles. One of my scouts w^as killed, another wounded and I had a section shot out of my hat The renegades* now split into three parties, Chihuahua and Machete still keeping company, while (hMonifi and Mangus separ; them, each lending a band of his own and thus making three parties to hr pursued. Two weoks later, with replenished pack trains from Fort Bowie, we struck the trail of (Jeronimo and ame upon Lieutenant Day of the cavalry, who, i-vith Major Davis expedition, had followed (’raw*ford and myself down Into Mexico,Ate Ponic* Ijeft Behind.Lieut. Pay, in command of Major Pa vis* Indian scouts, had been engaged in a brush withGeronimo the day before, the bucks making theirescape* as Chihuahua's braves had escaped from us. Both thesi fimmages w* re on t westernslopes of the Fierra Mad re range Lieutenant Day’s men had been tramping barefoot and living on horseflesh and were all used up. I returned to Captain Crawford and was sc«nt by him withfifty-four of my Apache scouts to take up the trailof Geronimo where Lieutenant Day had dropped it. Geronimo s trail showed that he had with him now three ponies and a mule with one shoe miss ing from a hind foot We foil owe*! those signs hard until three ponies one by one, gave out and fell behind and we killed and ate them.'Following the trail of the missing mule shoe,we crossed over the* divide and came down the eastern slope of the range into Chihuahua from the Sonora side. On the crest of the mountain back of the Santa Crux ranch early one morning wo saw that the Indians had raided the ranch, obtained new mounts and had then doubled on their trail and were striking backward in a northwesterly direction toward the American border. We could see their dust fifteen or twenty milcn away. By that time we were pretty wellused up.That wily medicine man and his band dodged the Mexican cavalry and went back intothe mountains Chihuahua and Machete surrendered, leaving Geronimo and Mangus still nt large. In the following autumn that of 18Slt;— Mangus raided the Corralitos ranch, of which I | was then the* manager, and got away with fifty-four mules and a bell mare. With seven Mexican cowboys and my American foreman I followed them as far as the border, hut after they had crossed the line into the United States a troop of the Ninth cavalry out in ahead of me, overtook Mangus and his band near Silver City and captured them. 1 then got back all my mules but three* The bell mare had been eaten.Try •to Arrange Surrender.In the meantime Lieutenant Mauss, of the First Infantry, had taken my place with CaptainCrawford. General Crook had decided that it would be impossible* to capture Geronimo bychasing around in the mountains with cavalry, so he sent Captain Crawford and Lieutenant Mauss into the Sierra Mad re mountains, on the Sonora side, with only a detail of Indian scouts and a few packers Leaving the cavalry behind, their scouts succeed^ in getting in touch with Geronimo n band, and a conference in the camp of Captain Crawford was arranged with a view to the surrender of the renegades.Arrangements were being made in the powow for the return of the runaway Apaches when the camp was attacked bv a band of irregular Mexican cavalry. Captain Crawford was killed and also several of his men. With the conference thus summarily hrokon up, Geronimo and his followers again fled to the mountains and Lieutenant Mauss and his surviving scouts returned to the Vnitwd States.When Genera] Miles succeeded General Crook, in 1S86, in the department command, hehad tried the same cavalry tactics at first, and finding them useless, he sent for Lieutenant Charles E. Gatewood, of the Sixth cavalry, who had been on duty with Captain Crawford and my* self on the San Carlos Reservation. Lieutenant Gatewood joined the command of General Lawton which was camped on the Buvfspe Riven , alittle south of the American line, in Eastern SonoraAccompanied only by three of my former Apache scouts, Lieutenant Gatewood then went alone into the mountains and located Geronimo by signals and good scouting work. The fugitives refused to go down into the Lawton camp, i hut agreed that, if the Lawton troops should re- j w turn to Fort Bowie, he and his band would go up through the foothills to the fort and there see Genera! Miles, This program was carried out. The renegades marched into Fort Bowie and on their arrival there were placed in irons. They were removed for safe* keeping to the Florida everglades and years afterward were transferredto the Indian Territory.**—An interview with Brit-, ,yl8 , , e * * s cvalry officer, in the Now\ork Herald.^ . [Geromrno died a ward of the United States.Feb. 17, 1909.1
Newspaper Details
Salt Lake City Deseret Evening News
Salt Lake City, Utah, US
Wed, Mar 29, 1916
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Ryan B.
USA 29 May 2019
Other Publications Near Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Daily Tribune
Salt Lake Daily Tribune and Utah Mining Gazette
Deseret News Salt Lake Telegram
Salt Lake Tribune Salt Lake Telegram
