HIr - Desert Magazine of the Southwest

Geronimo and his warriors. A Ithough he could count on only 24 braves, Geronimo
was a scourge to the Arizona-Mexico border country until he finally was tracked
down and persuaded to surrender.
He Captured Geronimo
If Geronimo continued his depredations unchecked there was the
danger that thousands of other Indians, confined on reservations, would
be incited to a full-scale up-rising. The Apache renegade must be
captured at all costs—and here is the story of how it was brought about
by an obscure army lieutenant, who never was given adequate
recognition for his heroism.
By THOMAS B. LESURE
Photographs from the Rose Collection
San Antonio, Texas
CAPTURED Geronimo?
Ask any 10 people this question
and you will most likely
receive 10 different—and incorrect—
answers. Despite all the publicity surrounding
the life, battles and subjugation
of Geronimo, the name of the
man most responsible for bringing him
in has all but been lost in obscurity.
Lieutenant Charles Baehr Gatewood,
a West Point graduate with piercing
eyes, straight nose and dark, thick
mustache which showed—despite his
scant 33 years — the shrewdness of
battle gained in nine years of Indian
warfare, was the man who brought the
Apache renegade back after tracking
him deep into the interior of Mexico.
In the 1880s Gatewood's reputation
as an Indian fighter was established in
the Southwest. He had many tangles
with hostile Apaches and on every occasion
came out of them with honor,
both in the opinion of the white soldiers
and, what was probably a more
coveted distinction, in the eyes of the
Indian Scouts. It is said that he was
the only soldier Geronimo trusted.
A fellow officer, Brigadier General
Thomas Cruse, then a lieutenant fresh
from West Point, noted that the scouts
had the utmost confidence in Gatewood's
leadership and warlike acumen.
"His nature and method of procedure
appealed to them in such degree and
manner as I have never seen the like
before or since," wrote Cruse.
When, in July, 1886, Gatewood was
ordered to capture Geronimo, that
noted Indian renegade had for over
a year struck terror in the Southern
Arizona and northern Mexico areas
following his escape from the Fort
Apache Reservation. Gatewood was
going after a man whose name was
cursed and feared—a name synonymous
with blood, robbery and murder.
General Nelson A. Miles, commander
of the Indian campaign in Arizona,
had the job of working out the capture's
strategy. The break came when
Miles received word from friendly Chiracahua
Apaches that the hostiles under
Geronimo were near exhaustion
in Mexico. The time was ripe, Miles
decided, to demand their surrender.
He ordered Gatewood to cross the border
and get Geronimo.
Gatewood organized his surrender
party at old Fort Bowie, Arizona, and
started for the Mexican border with
a command consisting of two Apache
scouts, Kayitah and Martine; George
Wratten, interpreter; and Frank Huston,
packer. A few days later they
crossed the border and met a troop of
4th U. S. Cavalry under Lieutenant
James Parker. Together the two units
pushed on to Carretas, Mexico, seeking
word of Geronimo's whereabouts.
It wasn't until mid-August that
Gatewood, having joined the command
of Captain Lawton on the Arros River
in the Sierra Madre Mountains 250
miles by trail south of the border, received
word that Geronimo and his
party were near Fronteras, Mexico.
Leaving Lawton, Gatewood and his
men pushed ahead 80 miles in less than
a day to Fronteras where they learned
that two Apache squaws had only recently
left after making overtures of
peace and obtaining supplies of food
and mescal. But the Mexican Prefect
of the district, intent on gaining the
glory of Geronimo's subjugation for
himself, ordered the Americans away
from the chase.
Back tracking and swinging around,
Gatewood eluded the Mexicans and
struck the squaws' trail six miles east
of Fronteras. For the next three days,
carrying a piece of flour sacking on a
stick for their flag of truce, Gatewood
and his men tracked the Indians over
rough country to the head of a narrow
DESERT MAGAZINE