Lawton’s official report dated September 9, 1886 sums up the actions of his unit and gives credit to a number of his troopers for their efforts. Geronimo gave Gatewood credit for his decision to surrender as Gatewood was well known to Geronimo, spoke some Apache, and was familiar with and honored their traditions and values. He acknowledged Lawton’s tenacity for wearing the Apaches down with constant pursuit. Geronimo and his followers had little or no time to rest or stay in one place. Completely worn out, the little band of Apaches returned to the U.S. with Lawton and officially surrendered to General Miles on September 4, 1886 at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.-From wikipedia here.
This is ‘part one’ of a very intriguing aspect of history that historians have really never focused on. The Geronimo Campaign was arguably the equivalent to our modern day Usama Bin Laden manhunt. Hell, SEAL Team 6 even identified Geronimo as the call sign for UBL during the raid. In this story, Major General Henry Ware Lawton was a Captain at the time of the Geronimo manhunt, and I wanted to point out his use of contractors in this pursuit.
Geronimo was an incredible Apache warrior that killed many Mexicans and Americans in his guerrilla war and fight for survival. Geronimo was not only a skilled warrior, but his survival and evasion techniques are the stuff of legends. He epitomized what it meant to be an Apache Warrior and he is definitely a combatant that I have respect for.
In this post I wanted to take out the Feral Jundi filter and magnifying glass, and take a look at the contribution of contractors in these historical events. The Geronimo Campaign is as significant to US history, as the UBL manhunt, so it is cool to try to put that hunt into perspective and find some of the clues. I would also like to highlight the similarities between relentless pursuit and Lawton’s constant pursuit, and what it really takes to make that happen.
So what I found out is that civilian contractors did have a significant role in this manhunt. Tom Horn was the chief of scouts for this particular mission, and Captain Lawton highly depended upon Tom Horn and his ability to lead and manage the Indian Scouts under his watch. These Indian Scouts were essential for reading the sign/spoor/tracks that Geronimo and his band left, and it was this scouting and tracking, along with relentless pursuit that tired out Geronimo and forced him and his group to give up.(Albert Sieber was another famous Chief of Scouts for General Cook who was in charge of Tom Horn. Al went with Cook into Mexico as well looking for Geronimo)
At sixteen, he (Tom Horn) headed to the American Southwest, where he was hired by the U.S. Cavalry as a civilian scout under Al Sieber and became involved in the Apache Wars and aided in the capture of warriors such as Geronimo. On January 11, 1886, Tom Horn was involved in an expedition into Mexican territory in the pursuit of Geronimo. During the operation, Horn’s camp was attacked by Mexican militia and he was wounded in the arm.Allegedly Horn killed his first man in a duel-a 2nd Lt in the Mexican Army. -From wikipedia.
If you read through this account below, you really get a feel for how dangerous and how tough this campaign was. These guys were also operating in Mexico, which had it’s own set of difficulties. It is also important to point out that food or logistics was crucial to keeping up the pace for this pursuit. And when food ran out, they had to hunt and subsist off of the land to keep up the hunt.
Of course Geronimo and his gang lived off the land, but they also did a lot of raiding of Mexican and American groups to get food, weapons, and anything else of value. Geronimo had some serious offense industry going on in order to survive and justify further war parties. But he was also heavily hunted by Mexico and the US and his Indian raiding parties took some hits.
Check out the story below and definitely click on the links to the history of Tom Horn. He is certainly a controversial figure in American history, but none the less, he and his Indian Scouts were a crucial element of the Geronimo Campaign, and to the Indian Wars as a whole. In part 2 of Lawton’s Use Of Civilian Scouts, I will delve into his creation of the Young Scouts during the Philippine-American War. –Matt
Lawton's Pursuit of Geronimo, Frederic Remington
Captain Lawton’s Campaign
as recounted by Captain Leonard Wood
As illustrating the character of the raiding done by these Apaches, I may mention the case of the Peck family. Their ranch was surrounded by Indians, the entire family was captured, and several of the farmhands were killed. The husband was tied up and compelled to witness indescribable tortures inflicted upon his wife until she died. The terrible ordeal rendered him temporarily insane, and as the Apaches, like most Indians, stand in great awe of an insane person, they set him free as soon as they discovered his mental condition; but otherwise he would never have been allowed to live. He was afterward found by his friends wandering about the place.
His daughter, who was about thirteen years old, was captured by the Indians and carried by them three hundred miles, hotly pursued by Captain Lawton’s command, when they met a party of Mexicans consisting of sixty or seventy men. The Mexicans fired a volley on the Indians, killing a woman and wounding the men who carried the little girl, thus enabling her to escape. This Indian’s horse was killed at the same time, thus making it impossible for him to follow the remainder of the party as they retreated, so he took to the rocks, and stood off the entire sixty or seventy Mexicans, killing seven of them, each of whom was shot through the head.
Our command had followed the outfit that had the little girl, and on the same day that this skirmish occurred with the Mexicans we had been able to get near enough to fire at them, but it was too late in the day to accomplish anything, and the next morning at daybreak we were again on their trail following as fast as possible, when our scouts came rushing back, saying they had met a large body of Mexican troops. Captain Lawton, Lieutenant Finley, and myself went on foot as rapidly as we could to try to overtake them but they were in full retreat and we had to follow them about six miles before we could catch them. As we approached, the whole party covered us with their rifles and seemed very much excited. They proved to be the very party who had recaptured the little girl, and they now delivered her over to Captain Lawton, who sent her back to the United States where she was taken in charge by friends.
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