Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

General Willcox, operating out of Fort Thomas, put together a pursuit force consisting of
Company D, Indian Scouts; G, First Cavalry; A and F, Sixth Cavalry; and a detachment of the
Eighth Infantry. He chased them along the western side of the Pinaleno Mountains, where, at
Cedar Springs on 2 October, the Apaches fought a day-long rearguard action to allow their
women and children time to escape southward. The Americans lost three men killed and three
wounded.
Under the cover of darkness, the warriors cut the throats of their dogs and light-colored
horses, stole new horses from a nearby ranch, then made their way to the Sierra Madre Mountains
in Mexico where they combined with Nana’s small band of surviving Warm Springs Apaches.
They were determined to break Loco and his Warm Springs Apaches from the Camp
Goodwin agency to join their escapade. Loco was a Warm Springs leader who bore the facial
disfiguration from a fight with a grizzly bear and also walked with a limp as a result of that battle
which he is said to have won. He counciled peace with the whites. According to Apache history,
he was called “Loco” or the “Crazy One” because he trusted the white man. 70 The Army
learned of the renegades’ plans in January 1882 and went on the alert. Col. Mackenzie commanding
in New Mexico, placed Lt. Col. George A. Forsyth with a squadron of six troops of the
Fourth Cavalry along the Southern Pacific Railroad. In Arizona, Fort Huachuca and Fort Bowie
increased their patrols. But the precautions were for naught. Juh, Nachez, Geronimo, Chihuahua,
and Chato led their raiders past the Army’s defenses and attacked the Camp Goodwin
subagency on 19 April, killing the police chief there, Albert D. Sterling. Loco and several
hundred other Chiricahuas now had no choice but to join the war party. They had as many as
175 warriors.
92
Chato, Chiricahua Apache
HUACHUCA ILLUSTRATED