Apache Campaigns - Fort Huachuca - U.S. Army

A MAGAZINE OF THE FORT HUACHUCA MUSEUM
Chihuahua, Chiricahua Apache
The Apaches left in their wake along the Gila valley between 30 and 50 dead ranchers or
miners. In one attack on the George H. Stevens’ ranch, they killed seven men, a woman, and two
children. One of the children was roasted alive, the other thrown into a patch of cactus. A
Safford newspaper, like other papers of the time, not noted for fidelity to facts, reported the
atrocity:
Little Stanislaus Mestas, aged nine years [reported that] the Indians attacked our camp
whilst we were all asleep. My father and five other men...attempted to get their guns, but
were too late. The Indians rushed in from all sides and overpowered them before a shot could
be fired.... An Indian put the muzzle of his gun against the head of one man and fired,
blowing his brains against the floor and walls. I saw them kill my mother and two little
brothers by beating their brains out with stones. They took my father and tortured him most
dreadfully. He begged them to spare him, but they only tortured him the more. When they
were tired of torturing him one of them split his head with an axe. An Indian squaw, wife of
one of the four friendly Apache herders who worked with us, saved my life by holding me
behind here and begging them to spare me.... They soon were sorry that they spared me, for
they sent a party back to the house to kill me, but the squaw begged so hard for me that they
said they would go back and tell the chief that they could not find me.... 71
The hostiles missed running into the General of the Army, William T. Sherman, who was
on his way to Grant with a small escort as a part of his tour of the department. An hour behind
the hostiles was Lieut. Col. George W. Schofield out of Fort Thomas with two companies of the
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