Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

Charles Bare Gatewood was an 1877 graduate of West Point and joined the 6 th Cavalry at
Camp Apache in 1878. He commanded Company A, Indian Scouts, and spent most of his time
in the field, playing a leading role in convincing Geronimo to surrender in 1886. After serving
as an aide to Gen. Nelson A. Miles, he participated in the Sioux campaign. He was seriously
injured in 1892 by a dynamite explosion while attempting to blow up a burning barracks. He
died four years later of cancer in Fort Monroe, Virginia, still a first lieutenant.
On the 26th Lieutenant Hall and his Indian scouts caught up with Forsyth and reported
they had found a hot trail ten miles away seemingly heading for Guadalupe Pass. By this time
Forsyth had learned that Captain Tupper with two troops of the Sixth Cavalry, the other one
commanded by Capt. William A. Rafferty, also part of the Department of Arizona, was moving
toward the Mexican border and Guadalupe Pass on the trail of the Indians. Forsyth followed,
heading down the Animas Valley. They were near Cloverdale when they learned from citizens
that Tupper was a day ahead of them. Guided by the civilians over “one of the worst trails that I
have ever seen,” they saved a 10-mile march and caught up with Tupper in the mouth of a canyon
on the Mexican side of the line.
When Forsyth caught up with Tupper, he reported that the Indians were not aware of the
Sixth Cavalry pursuit and that they had located them and had a fight in a swamp nearby the day
A MAGAZINE OF THE FORT HUACHUCA MUSEUM
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