George Armstrong Custer

Most Americans know at least a little about Custer’s Last Stand, also known as the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The incident has an epic quality worthy of Homer’s Illiad or Virgil’s Aeneid.

The battle took place on June 25^th & 26^th, 1876 between the combined forces of the Lakoda, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes led by Crazy Horse and Chief Gall on one side against Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the U.S. 7^th Cavalry on the other.

To say that this battle on the plains of Montana Territory was a huge success for the Indians would be an understatement. Not only was Custer killed, along with two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law; five of the 7^th Cavalry’s 12 companies were annihilated. Including scouts, the U.S. Army lost 268 dead and 55 injured.

The 700-strong 7^th Cavalry was simply overwhelmed by more than 2,000 enraged, well-armed, and well-led Indian warriors inspired by the great Lakota medicine man and tribal leader, Sitting Bull.

While the Plains Indians clearly won the battle, they soon lost the war. Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army in 1881.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn is famous in part because it had enormous consequences; for the Indians, the Army, and the horde of white settlers who sought cheap land on the Great Plains and and miners who sought mineral wealth in Black Hills.

The Bascom Affair
By contrast, almost no Arizonans, let alone other Americans, know about another battle that also had enormous consequences. It’s called the Bascom Affair and took place in Southern Arizona at Apache Pass in 1861 between the Chiricahua Apaches and the U.S. Army. It’s called the Bascom Affair because a poorly prepared West Point graduate, 24-year-old Lieutenant George Bascom, earned the wrath of Cochise, the great Chiricahua leader. The incident ignited the Apache Wars that resulted in the deaths of several thousand people: Anglos, Mexicans, and Apaches.

Lt. George Bascom

While it started as a relatively minor skirmish compared to Custer’s defeat, the Apache Wars saw Mexicans and Americans terrorized for the next quarter century. In the end, it took 5,000 U.S. soldiers and a couple hundred Apache scouts to finally run Geronimo, and his fast-dwindling band of hostiles, to ground in 1886 at Skeleton Canyon; not far from the town of Douglas in Arizona Territory. When the Apache Wars ended, the once proud Chiricahua Apaches were all but annihilated.

The few hundred humiliated and desperately impoverished Chiricahuas who survived the war, including the Army scouts that had made Geronimo’s capture possible, were shipped to Florida as prisoners of war. They were never allowed to return to their beautiful highland home we call the Chiricahua Mountains, a little more than an hour drive east of Tucson.

The Kidnapping
The Bascom Affair began on January 27, 1861, when Coyotero Apaches raided the ranch of John Ward at Sonoita Creek, stole some livestock, and kidnapped Ward’s 12-year-old stepson Felix. Ward complained about the raid to the commandant of Fort Buchanan, Lieutenant Colonel Morrison. Morrison ordered Lieutenant Bascom and 54 infantry soldiers to attempt to recover the boy and livestock by whatever means necessary. Ward and Bascom mistakenly believed that the raid was carried out by a band of Chiricahua Apaches led by Cochise, whose mountain homeland included, not only the Chiricahuas, but also the Dragoon and Dos Cabezas Mountains in Southeastern Arizona.

Apache Pass
Apache Pass separates the Dos Cabazas Mountains from the Chiricahuas. Here Apache Springs was the only reliable source of water for many miles in any direction. Ft. Bowie was built here to support the Army’s many, mostly ineffective, campaigns against the Chiricahua Apaches. Today, I-10 runs very near Apache Pass and the ruins of Fort Bowie 25 miles east of Willcox.

Ruins of Ft. Bowie in Apache Pass.

Back then, Anglo and Mexican stagecoach drivers and passengers, as well as wagon train teamsters and all their horses, mules, and oxen desperately needed that water on their arduous east-west journey. The problem in 1861 was that the Chiricahua Apaches had held sole possession of the Pass for several hundred years and they were not inclined to share it with these foreign invaders.

When Bascom arrived at Apache Pass with his soldiers in February 1861, they set up camp and sent word to Cochise that they had come in peace and just wanted to talk.

A day later, Cochise arrived unarmed with several family members. Bascom invited Cochise into his tent for a parley.

The following quotes are from a fine new book; The Wrath Of Cochise, by Terry Mort.

“This was the first time Bascom had been in such close contact with an Apache … It would not be surprising if Bascom felt a little uneasy at first. He was staring into the eyes of someone entirely different from anyone in his experience, a nearly perfect representative or embodiment of “otherness”.

“All accounts of Cochise portray him as an imposing figure. Indeed, he could be, and often was, a frightening presence, even to his own people. Said Lieutenant Joseph Sladen, “He carried himself at all times with great dignity and was always treated by those about him with the utmost respect and, at times, fear.” At this stage in his life, he was in his late forties, still vigorous, and no doubt menacing, especially when alarmed or annoyed. He had a ferocious temper … “

Taza, oldest son of Cochise. He was transported to Washington D.C. so see for himself the futility of contesting White expansion. While there, he died of pneumonia. People said he looked like his famous father. There are no known photographs of Cochise.

“Everything about Cochise – his dress, his long, black hair streaked with silver; his prideful demeanor – all of this and more must have been startling and weirdly fascinating to Bascom. There in front of him was the perfect barbarian, [like a wild Germanic chieftain] who might have stepped out of Caesar’s Commentaries …”

“… facing [Bascom] was this older Apache, this visitor from another time and place. He looked different, he dressed differently, he spoke an impenetrable language, and was said to be a murderer and thief. Unquestionably, Cochise had personally shed human blood with an edged weapon, which meant he had looked into the eyes of his victims as he was killing them. Bascom had never done anything like that; he had yet to injure, much less kill, anyone, even at a distance with a rifle shot.”

Cochise would not have been impressed with Bascom. “[He] had no understanding of the complexities of white culture. His only contacts had been with a few miners, transient emigrants, corrupt traders, Butterfield (stagecoach) employees, and soldiers. Few of these inspired much admiration or respect. He had no idea of the size of the gathering storm.”

In the tent, Bascom accused Cochise of stealing Ward’s livestock and stepson. Cochise was insulted. He told Bascom that neither he nor his warriors had anything to do with that incident. He also told Bascom that he would try to find out who was involved and return the boy and livestock.

At this point Bascom, in effect, called Cochise a liar and a thief … to his face! BIG MISTAKE! Amazingly, Cochise managed to escape the confines of Bascom’s tent, but his wife, children, and nephews were taken hostage in an attempt to force Cochise to cave to Bascom’s demands.

What followed over the next few days were several failed attempts by Cochise to exchange hostages. He tortured to death 4 Mexicans just to assuage his anger, but kept 3 Americans hostages alive to trade for his family.

But Bascom wouldn’t trade. He kept replying to Cochise’s entreaties by saying he could have his family back when the boy and livestock were returned. The Chiricahuas became more and more frustrated. To get his family back, Cochise and his warriors mounted a wild frontal assault on Bascom’s well-established defensive position. When that failed, Cochise became even more enraged and one barbaric cruelty followed another … by both sides. Cochise’s war of revenge was on.

Whites Call For Extermination
The White settlers and miners clamored for the Army to protect them. The vast majority advocated extermination. This editorial in the Tucson Star reflects the general sentiment toward the Apaches that grew louder and more hysterical as the seemingly endless war continued.

“The very ground is moist with the blood of our murdered people. The very air rings with the shrieks of the victims of Apache atrocities. The glare of the frontiersman’s burning cabin signifies the fact that the Apache is on the warpath … not because he is [in] want of food; not because the whites have molested him in any manner, but purely in the spirit of fiendish rapine and murder; not to seek food or shelter, but to seek victims to satiate his devilish disposition to kill and destroy. The Apache is by nature bloodthirsty, and having no sense of responsibility, gratifies his cruel, heartless thirst for blood by murder an rapine.” Reprinted in the New York Times on November 29, 1885, the headline read: ‘Whites Advised to Attack and Slaughter Them”.

The U.S. Army, unlike the Mexican Army, had some ethical qualms about exterminating a people. But its officers were caught between the demands of the civilian population and their own rules of engagement. They had no problem killing Apache combatants, but were not willing to deliberately kill Apache women and children. The following quote is by Lt. Colonel Pitcairn Morrison, commanding officer at Ft. Buchanan and Bascom’s direct report.

“I cannot see any other course but to feed them or exterminate them.”

If you enjoy Arizona history, I wholeheartedly recommend Terry Mort’s The Wrath of Cochise (copyright 2013). Well researched and well written, Mort reveals a compelling true story of flawed characters, poor judgment (in hindsight), and sweeping historical forces that initially brought Cochise and Bascom together; and then set the stage for a generation of all-out war that raged over the vast expanse that is the American Southwest and Northern Mexico. Moreover, Mort shines a penetrating spotlight on their respective cultures, the personal experiences that led to the decisions they made, and the tragic consequences of their choices. Like so much of Southern Arizona history, the facts are far more interesting than the myths.

For more features about Southern Arizona’s extraordinary past, visit SouthernArizonaGuide > Local History.

Last week I posted here about how the U.S. Government hosted 8 0r 10 Apache men for an all expenses paid sightseeing tour of Washington D.C. and New York City. Many people seemed to have enjoyed that tidbit of local history, so here’s a brief follow-up.

This account comes from the same book, Britton Davis’s The Truth About Geronimo, published in 1929. The book was written almost 5 decades after Lt. Davis was assigned by General Crook as Commandant of the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Davis also led U.S. troops and Indian scouts into the Sierra Madre Mountains of Chihuahua and Sonora Mexico to locate the “hostiles” and either bring them back to San Carlos to live in peace or kill them in battle.

Apache Mother & Infant

To any Anglo or Mexican, whether merchant, rancher, or laborer and their families, Apaches were the alpha predators, far more dangerous than mountain lions and wolves. No Anglo or Mexican man, women, or child living in Southern Arizona between 1861 and 1886 was safe from Apache depredations if the Indians found them in the open away from a large settlement like Tucson. Virtually every Anglo and Mexican living here wanted the Apaches exterminated. And these civilians clamored for the Army to carry out the eradication.

Living among the Apaches in general and the Chiricahuas in particular, Davis got to know them as well as any White Eyes. Here are three telling excerpts.

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“The difficulties of subduing the Apaches were so unique that they were not understood even by many of our

Apache Man w/Wife: Edward Curtis Photograph

superior officers in Washington. No one who had not been through the mill could understand them. General Sheridan, at that time in command of the army, was hopelessly at sea in his knowledge of these people, their mode of warfare, of the problem of catching them. His (Sheridan’s) ignorance of these matters led him to give orders that were impossible to carry out. The impossibility of complying with one in particular, which I will quote later, resulted in Crook’s replacement by Miles – and Miles could not comply with it. (“It” being offering the Apaches nothing but unconditional surrender or annihilation. jg)

The Apache was unlike any other Indian tribe the whites have ever fought since civilization began to creep over the North American continent. His mode of warfare was peculiarly his own. He saw no reason for fighting unless there was something tangible and immediate to be gained. To satisfy his pressing needs for arms, ammunition, food, or clothing (and horses) he would raid isolated ranches, suburbs of small Mexican towns, or ambush travelers. But he had no such sense of bravado as animated other Indian tribes who, resisting encroachment by the whites on the Indian’s domain, fought us man to man in the open. His (Apache) creed was “fight and run away, live to fight another day.” Corner him, however, and you would find him as desperate and dangerous as a wounded wolf.

Only when cornered, or to delay pursuit of his women and children, would he engage a force anywhere near the strength of his own. To fight soldiers merely in defense of his country, he considered the height of folly; and he never committed that folly if he could avoid it.”

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“Living among these people with practically no companionship except that of the Indians themselves, my feelings toward them began to change. That ill-defined impression that they were something a little better than animals but not quite human; something to be on your guard against, something to be eternally watched with suspicion and killed with no more compunction than one would kill a coyote; the feeling that there could be no possible ground upon which we could meet man to man, passed away.”

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In my talks with the Indians, they showed no resentment of the way they had been treated in the past; only wonderment at the way of it. Why had they been shifted from reservation to reservation; told to farm and (then) had their crops destroyed; assured that the Government would ration them, then left to half starve; herded into the hot, milarial river bottom of the Gila and San Carlos, when they were mountain people? These and other questions I could not answer. And above all they wondered if they would now be allowed to live in peace. Poor devils! Their fears were realized. In two years they were in prison in Florida; four hundred innocent people, men, women, and children, who had kept the faith with us, punished for the guilt of barely one-fourth who had been lied to and frightened into leaving the Reservation by Geronimo, Chihuahua, and two or three other malcontents.

We have heard much talk of the treachery of the Indian. In treachery, broken pledges on the part of high officials, lies, thievery, slaughter of defenseless women and children, and every crime in the catalogue of man’s inhumanity to man the Indian was a mere amateur compared to the  “noble white man.”

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(As always, you can read more about the Apache Wars in Southeastern Arizona and other local history, such as the Bisbee Massacre, at my website. Main Menu > Search By Interest > Local History.