Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

Lt. Col. George A. Forsyth at Fort Lowell in 1884. Photo courtesy Arizona Historical Society,
Tucson.
Apache Campaigns: Stein’s Pass and Horseshoe Canyon
On 30 September 1881, Maj. James Biddle 69 at the head of a squadron of cavalry, was
riding to bring in a surrendered band of White Mountain Apaches. But they sought refuge at
Camp Goodwin, the subagency of San Carlos where the Chiricahuas were quartered. Seventyfour
Chiricahuas, led by Juh, Nachez, Geronimo, and Chato, thought that Biddle’s soldiers were
coming for them and lit out for Mexico.
After Cochise’s death in 1874, chieftanship of the Chiricahuas fell to his son Nachez. An
elder brother, Taza, died in 1876 during a trip to Washington, D.C. Nachez was nowhere near
the leader that his father had been. In fact he was considered to be a bit dim. So he would rely
for military counsel upon a Bedonkohe Apache who had married into the Chiricahuas. His name
was Geronimo. There were a number of other Apache lieutenants who would be prominent in
the fighting of the 1880s. They were Chihuahua, Ulzanna, Juh, Loco, Kaytennae, Benito, Zele,
Noglee, Chato, and Mangas.
A MAGAZINE OF THE FORT HUACHUCA MUSEUM
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