US History/US History (Bureau Development Inc.)(1991).ISO/dp/0137/01373.txt

Text File | 1990-12-23 | 9KB | 165 lines

$Unique_ID{USH01373}
$Pretitle{120}
$Title{Fort Bowie and the Chiricahua Apaches
Chapter 7  Miles in Command}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Utley, Robert M.}
$Affiliation{National Park Service}
$Subject{miles
gatewood
geronimo
fort
bowie
general
lawton
surrender
camp
command}
$Volume{}
$Date{1977}
$Log{Lawton's March*0137301.scf
}
Book:        Fort Bowie and the Chiricahua Apaches
Author:      Utley, Robert M.
Affiliation: National Park Service
Date:        1977

Chapter 7  Miles in Command

     An able, energetic, and ambitious officer, General Miles plunged into his
new assignment with a determination to succeed where Crook, his long-time
rival, had failed.  First Miles strengthened the network of border outposts
that guarded - never effectively - against Apache forays from Mexico. He saw
that the high mountains, bright sunlight, and clear atmosphere of the
Southwest offered favorable conditions for employing the heliograph.  With
this device, consisting of mirrors mounted on a tripod, skilled operators
could catch the sun's rays and flash messages over distances up to 40 or 50
kilometers away.  Miles established 27 heliograph stations covering distinct
"districts of observation" and connecting most of the high peaks of southern
Arizona and New Mexico.  One such station was located on Bowie Mountain, above
Fort Bowie.  Linked with five other stations, the Bowie Peak installation sent
802 messages and repeated 1,640 - more than any other in the system - during
the summer of 1886.  In each district Miles placed well-equipped columns to
intercept any Indians sighted by the observers at the heliograph stations.

     Next Miles turned to planning an offensive in Mexico.  Sheridan's
distrust of the Indian scouts required a new reliance on regular soldiers. To
Capt. Henry W. Lawton and an army doctor with command aspirations named
Leonard Wood, Miles assigned the task of forming a striking column of
specially chosen men.  Lawton assembled the command at Fort Huachuca.  It
consisted of one company of infantry, 35 picked cavalrymen, and 20 Indian
scouts.  A pack train of 100 mules and 20 packers were to provide daily
supply.

     Lawton's command left Fort Huachuca on May 5, 1886, and pushed into the
Yaqui River country of Sonora.  The mountains quickly broke down the cavalry
horses and the troopers joined the infantrymen.  For four months the column
chased the Apaches from one towering mountain range to the next.  The
2,250-kilometer trek through the wilds of Mexico demanded uncommon endurance
and perseverence.  As Leonard Wood recalled the ordeal:

One who does not know this country cannot realize what this kind of service
means - marching every day in the intense heat, the rocks and earth being so
torrid that the feet are blistered and rifle-barrels and everything metallic
being so hot that the hand cannot touch them without getting burnt.  It is a
country rough beyond description, covered everywhere with cactus and full of
rattlesnakes and other undesirable companions of that sort.  The rain, when it
does come, comes as a tropical tempest, transforming the dry canons into
raging torrents in an instant. - We had no tents and little or no baggage of
any kind except rations and ammunition.  Suits of underclothing formed our
uniforms and moccasins covered our feet.

[See Lawton's March: Frederick Remington (1861-1909) spent much time in the
west in the company of soldiers, cowboys, prospectors, Indians, and the people
of the West and produced more than 3,000 illustrations - black and white
drawings and paintings. This painting depicts Lawton's 1886 campaign in the
Sierra Madre.]

     Lawton lost 10 kilograms, Wood, 14.  Although the enlisted men had been
hand-picked, only one-third of those who had left Fort Huachuca on May 5
remained in the ranks at the end.  The rest were replacements for those who
had been forced to return to the fort.  Three sets of officers had served with
the command, only Lawton and Wood staying from beginning to end.

     Lawton's campaign, for all its demands on the participants, failed to
produce the hoped for results.  Only once, on July 14, did the troops come
close to cornering the quarry, a Chiricahua camp in a mountain recess 480
kilometers south of the border.  The Indian scouts discovered it, but before
the Regulars could attack the inhabitants fled.  Lawton's relentless pursuit
probably wore down and helped discourage the fugitives, but in the end other
methods proved more consequential.

     Miles had become convinced that success in Mexico depended upon removing
the reservation Chiricahuas from Arizona.  They provided a commissary,
arsenal, and recruit depot for the hostiles and a refuge when the warpath lost
its appeal.  Persuading officials in Washington to this view, Miles sent
troops to the San Carlos Reservation.  On August 29, 1886, they assembled the
Chiricahuas and marched them to the railroad at Holbrook.  Three hundred and
eighty-two Indians, including virtually all the scouts who had loyally served
Crook, were placed on a train and transported to Fort Marion, Fla.

     Earlier, Miles had dispatched a peace mission into Mexico.  It consisted
of Lt. Charles B. Gatewood and two Chiricahua warriors, Kayitali and Martine.
As a scout officer under Crook, Gatewood had become well and favorably known
to Geronimo and other Apache leaders.  Tracing the hostiles to the vicinity of
Fronteras, Sonora, on August 24, 1886, the lieutenant and his companions made
camp beside the Bavispe River.  Kayitah and Martine went forward into
Geronimo's camp and delivered a demand from General Miles to surrender.
Holding Kayitah hostage, Geronimo sent Martine back to say that Gatewood
himself must come into the Indian camp.

     In a tense confrontation with Geronimo and Natchez, Gatewood repeated
Miles' message:  "Surrender, and you will be sent with your families to
Florida, there to await the decision of the President as to your final
disposition.  Accept these terms or fight it out to the bitter end."  The
Indians said they were ready to surrender, but not on those terms.  They
wanted instead, to go back to San Carlos.  "Take us to the reservation - or
fight," declared Geronimo.  Here Gatewood dropped his surprise revelation. If
the hostiles returned to San Carlos, they would find all their kinsmen gone to
Florida, and they would have to live alone among other Apache groups long
unfriendly to the Chiricahuas.  Disconcerted, Geronimo and Natchez asked many
questions about General Miles, and then, as the day drew to a close, asked
Gatewood what he thought they should do.  "Trust General Miles and surrender
to him," he replied.

     Gatewood returned to his own camp.  Lawton and Wood had arrived with
their men.  Anxiously, the troops waited as the Chiricahuas deliberated
throughout the night.  Next morning, Geronimo and Natchez announced to
Gatewood their decision to surrender to General Miles.  On the way, however,
they must keep their arms, Lawton's command must go along to protect them from
other soldiers, and Gatewood must travel with the Apaches and sleep in their
camp.  To these conditions Gatewood and Lawton agreed.  A courier was
dispatched to Miles and the procession started north.

     Accompanied by an aide and a cavalry escort, General Miles left Fort
Bowie on September 2, 1886.  The next evening he reached Skeleton Canyon, a
defile in the Peloncillo Mountains 95 kilometers southeast of Fort Bowie.
Lawton had already arrived, but not without many a tense moment in which the
Indians, who still kept a comfortable distance from the soldiers, almost
bolted for the mountains as they had after the surrender to Crook.

     Geronimo immediately appeared and was introduced to Miles.  Regarding the
general for a moment, he turned to Gatewood and smiled.  "Good, you told the
truth," he said.  Miles repeated the conditions under which the Indians could
surrender.  He explained that they would be taken with their families out of
Arizona.  Thereafter their fate would rest with the President. Geronimo
agreed.  Next morning he formally surrendered.  Natchez, however, remained in
the mountains.  He was mourning his brother, who had gone back to Mexico in
search of stray horses and was thought to have been killed. Accompanied by two
interpreters and two scouts, Gatewood went with Geronimo to Natchez' camp and
persuaded him to come and talk to Miles.  Natchez, too, was pleased with the
general and promptly surrendered.

     With Geronimo and a troop of cavalry, Miles left Skeleton Canyon on the
morning of September 5 and reached Fort Bowie that night.  Nearing the post,
Geronimo looked at the Chiricahua Mountain and mused: "This is the fourth time
I have surrendered."  Miles replied: "And I think it is the last time you will
ever have occasion to surrender."  Three days later Lawton rode in with the
rest of the Apaches.  Miles had already thrown a cordon of troops around the
Bowie military reservation in order to protect Geronimo and Natchez from civil
authorities, who wanted to bring them before a Tucson judge and jury.
Soldiers speedily disarmed and dismounted the prisoners.  On September 8,
1886, they were assembled on the parade ground and, escorted by Lawton's
command, left for Bowie Station to be loaded on a train and sent to Florida.