Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

Grierson was moving north with them, shielding his movements by keeping mountains between
them. Both forces were making for Rattlesnake Springs. Grierson and the troop commander,
Capt. Charles Delavan Viele, got there first, marching from three a.m. until midnight and traveling
sixty-five miles in that time. He set up an ambush, putting a company on each side of the
waterholes.
The Apaches were wary, staying just out of range. The troops impatiently opened fire
without being able to reach their targets. In so doing they gave away the ambush and their
strength. Victorio was emboldened to make an attack to wrest the invaluable waterholes away
from the Americans. But at this time Lieut. Thaddeus Winfield Jones leading Companies H and
B, 10th Cavalry, arrived upon the field and drove the Indians into unassailable defensive positions
among the rocky walls of the canyon. While the two sides waited each other out, a supply train
came into view eight miles to the southeast. The train was escorted by Capt. J. C. Gilmore with
soldiers from the Twenty-fourth Infantry who were riding in the wagons. Victorio, tempted by a
seemingly defenseless target, swept down on them but was surprised by the infantrymen concealed
in the wagons. He suffered a man killed and others wounded. Victorio was now
desperate for water and beat a retreat toward the Carrizo Mountains.
In the fight at Rattlesnake Springs, Grierson lost one killed and four wounded.
Grierson had other mountainous waterholes covered. Captain Nicholas Nolan was in the
Carrizos; Capt. Louis Henry Carpenter was at Sulphur Springs; and Capt. Thomas Coverly Lebo
was scouting the countryside in between. Lebo made contact on 9 August, capturing much of the
Indians’ camp equipment. Victorio’s band split into small groups to infiltrate back into Mexico.
A few days later, on 2 August, they tried again, this time succeeding in penetrating the
skirmish line. They made for the Mescalero reservation, traveling along the western slopes of the
Sierra Diablo range. Grierson with two troops of the Tenth was in hot pursuit. He travelled 65
miles in 21 hours, the goal being Rattlesnake Springs where he was joined by two more troops.
They fortified their position at the spring and on 6 August fought off an Apache attack. There
were no casualties on either side. Turning to an easier target, Victorio’s men hit an Army supply
train eight miles to the east, but the infantry escort was able to hold them off until Grierson rode to
the rescue. Twice repulsed in one afternoon, Victorio withdrew into Mexico.
In September 1880 an unprecedented combined U.S.-Mexican operation was begun when
Col. Eugene A. Carr, with almost the entire Sixth Cavalry regiment from Arizona, Col. George
P. Buell commanding infantry and cavalry from New Mexico, and Col. Joaquin Terrezas in
charge of a Mexican force of 350 headed for the Candelaria Mountains to find Victorio. Col.
Grierson remained in his screening position along the American side of the Rio Grande. 50
But the combined operation was short lived and became a Mexican campaign when Col.
Terrezas sent the U.S. troops back, registering an objection to the presence of Apache Scouts.
Victorio had gone further south than anticipated, making supply difficult for the Americans. And
some have suggested that Terrezas did not want to risk his political ambitions by sharing credit for
any success with foreign troops. As it turned out, he did not need any help. On 15 October 1880
he cornered Victorio’s band in the Tres Castillos Mountains, killing 62, including their leader.
One of the Warm Springs Apaches would later say, “We found the chief with his own knife in his
heart. His ammunition belt was empty. Behind rocks we found three of his men who had died by
their own knives, as had Victorio.” 51
Only a few of the Warm Springs Apaches managed to escape, in small groups or singly.
Some gathered around Nana, the chief who, despite being in the neighborhood of seventy years
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