Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

On 2 September 1877, six months after the founding of Camp Huachuca, some 310 Warm
Springs and Chiricahua Apaches fled the hated San Carlos Agency in Arizona. They were led by
one of the most respected Apache leaders, Victorio.
Patrols were mounted from the various stations in Arizona and New Mexico territories to
track down the renegades. Second Lieutenant Hanna 23 was already in the field. He had with him
at the time “three noncommissioned officers, twenty-one men and all available Apache scouts”
who were searching for Indians who had boldly stolen the horse of Chief Scout Dan O’Leary
from Camp Huachuca on the evening of 18 August. He now turned his attention to Victorio.
“I went into Fort Thomas to telegraph the Department Commander when I received word
of the outbreak of the Warm Springs Indians and joined Major Tupper in pursuit. We had now
about sixty Indians having been joined by twenty San Carlos Police. [and reinforced on 25
August by Lieut. Rucker and 18 men of H and L companies, 6th Cavalry and Company C,
Indian Scouts.] The renegades had been warned that we were after them. Sept. 4th we left
the Gila and about noon met a party of White Mountain Indian Scouts returning from a fight
that they had with the renegades, who when deserting the reservation, had stolen many
horses.
“From the 4th to the 9th of Sep. we traveled from daylight to sundown, camping where
night found us, stopping only once a day for water and to cook. On the 8th our scouts
overtook the renegades near evening near the San Francisco River, New Mexico, and had a
running fight over ten miles until long after dark. Twelve hostiles killed and thirteen captured.
In the darkness of the night it is probable that many more were killed and wounded who were
not found. Pionsenay (the renegade chief) and his band had been on the reservation long
before the outbreak. A captured squaw says the renegades are trying to make their way to a
stronghold they have in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico where they have often defeated
Mexican forces.
“My command was exhausted and short on rations. I found my movements retarded by an
insufficient number of packers and need more. Some Hualpai scouts report to me in their
recent fights, many of their arms, the old three band fifty calibre musket, would not eject the
shells.
Hanna concluded his report by calling attention to “the zeal and fidelity of the judgement
displayed by the Chief of Scouts, O’Leary, and also the Hualpai scouts.” They had traveled 702
miles. 24
A MAGAZINE OF THE FORT HUACHUCA MUSEUM
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