Hysterical Journey To Historic Places

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BASCOM AFFAIR



Lt George N. Bascom graduated from West Point second from the bottom of his class in 1858. He was posted as a shavetail to the 7^th Infantry at Camp Floyd in Utah before his outfit was transferred in 1860 to Fort Buchanan in what was then still the Territory of New Mexico. New Mexico extended all of the way from Texas to California. The Gadsden Purchase was made with Mexico in 1854 to acquire lands suitable for a transcontinental railway and for a year around mail and communications route to California. Prior to the purchase the international boundary after the War with Mexico was set at the Gila River. Like everything else in those turbulent days commercial routes to California were contentious issues between the North and the South. Gadsden was the Senator from South Carolina. The southern route favored Dixie. Northerners favored the much shorter route up the Platte River, through Utah, and over the Sierras. The railway had not yet been built along either route, but stage coach routes for mail and passenger service had been built along both. The Butterfield Trail took the southern route, and the Overland Trail took the northern route. Both routes were supported by federal mail subsidies, but the Butterfield route had the larger appropriation because it was longer.

The Gadsden Purchase was made between the governments of the United States and Mexico. Part of the land purchased was the heartland of the Apache people but the Apaches had no central government and were not part of the negotiated sale of their homeland. To them nothing could be more wrong. The Americans hardly knew the Apaches existed, but the Mexicans sure did, and were laughing all the way to the bank. Understandably the Apaches took a dim view of the entire rotten deal and had always regarded settlement of any kind on their land as an intrusion. Sporadic raiding had been going on since the purchase was made, but by the time Lt Bascom arrived in 1860 it had become a problem.

On January 27, 1861 Apaches raided the farm of John Ward on Sonoita Creek, not far from Fort Buchanan, and made off with his young stepson, Felix, and several head of cattle. Ward followed the trail of his cattle down Babocomari Creek towards the San Pedro River until he became convinced that the culprit was an Apache named Cochise. Ward then returned to Fort Buchanan and requested that the Army go after Cochise and return the child. Had he gone a bit further he would have seen that the trail of his cattle turned north at the San Pedro towards other groups of Apaches. Foot soldiers could not keep up with fleeing Apaches and no mounts were available just then. On February 3, 1861 Bascom finally set off in pursuit at the head of 54 men of the 7^th Infantry. The command was riding mules. John Ward went along as interpreter. Their orders were to do what was needed to recover the missing child. Cochise was known to be spending the winter in the area of Apache Pass. There was an abundant water supply there and a Butterfield stage station. Cochise supplied firewood to the stage company in exchange for trade goods, and was living peaceably nearby.

Bascom arrived in the afternoon of February 4 and requested a meeting with Cochise. Cochise arrived for the meeting the next day with family members about lunchtime. Many Apaches could speak Spanish, some better than others. Cochise had a younger brother, Coyuntera, whose judgment he valued and who could speak better Spanish. During the meeting Coyuntera was to act as confidant and interpreter. The meeting was held inside Bascom’s tent. It was a kind of chilly, blustery day and the tent flaps were secured with bindings. Inside the tent with Bascom and Ward were Cochise and Coyuntera. The other family members were finishing lunch nearby but under guard. Inside the tent the meeting did not go well. It was hampered by the language barrier, by Bascom’s insufferable arrogance and inexperience, and by Ward’s stubborn refusal to believe that Cochise had not taken the boy. The meeting ended abruptly when Bascom called Cochise a liar and attempted to place him under arrest until the boy was returned. Cochise took his belt knife and cut the bindings on the tent flap and fled safely past the startled soldiers guarding the tent. Coyuntera was right behind him and would have escaped too, but he tripped over a tent rope, fell to the ground, and was bayoneted. Ward was next out of the tent and got off one shot at Cochise, but missed. The other family members were also taken into custody, but they were not harmed. Bascom failed to recover the boy, but his trouble had just begun.

Several years later Felix Ward resurfaced among the Coyoteros using the name Mickey Free. It was living proof that Cochise had not taken the boy. Mickey served the government well for many years as a faithful and respected Apache Scout and interpreter, but he never returned to white civilization.

After the meeting fell apart Bascom retreated to the stage station and set up camp. It was a more defensible position and the stage station needed protection. Coyuntera’s bayonet wound was treated; it was serious but not fatal. Cochise sent runners to his father-in-law, Mangas Coloradas, and to Francisco, the Bedonkohe, inviting them to a fight. A day later, on February 6, Cochise met Bascom again. He once again offered to try and recover Felix Ward and asked that his brother be released. Once again John Ward was interpreter and once again the talks were failing. Bascom adamantly refused to release his hostage because Coyuntera was the only bargaining chip he held. The station master, James Wallace, was watching the proceedings and decided to intercede because he was on better terms with the Apaches and thought he could negotiate better. Wallace approached the parley with two employees but before he arrived he was taken captive and the two employees fled back towards the station. One of them, Charles Culver, was shot by the Indians but made it back. The other, Walsh (or Welch?), made it back as far as the station corral when he was killed with a head shot by an excited soldier who mistook him for an Apache. Cochise now had a bargaining chip of his own, but felt he needed a few more than one.

Around midday on Wednesday, February 6 Cochise once again appeared and offered to exchange Williams for Coyuntera. Bascom refused to consider the exchange. The westbound stage arrived early and without incident about 3PM at the Apache Pass Station. Had it been keeping schedule it would surely have been attacked. The stage was held until it was back on schedule well after good darkness had fallen. The departure was escorted by twelve soldiers carrying dispatches to Fort Buchanan requesting a doctor, reinforcements, and more supplies.

Towards evening Cochise attacked a train of five wagons belonging to Jose Antonio Montoya. They were bound for Las Cruces from Sonora with a load of flour and had no reason to suspect Indian trouble. Nine Mexican teamsters were tortured and killed, the wagons were burned, and three white men were taken captive: Sam Whitfield, William Sanders, and Frank Bruner. Cochise now had four captives and some mules to trade for his brother and he hoped to get a few more.

On February 7 well before sunrise the eastbound stage entered Apache Pass as the Montoya Train was still smoldering. It was attacked, the driver, King Lyons, was wounded and a lead mule was killed. Route superintendent William Buckley was aboard the stage, he assisted Lyons to a seat inside, cut the traces on the dead mule, took up the lines, and clattered off into the darkness. The Apaches were in no particular hurry to pursue them because they had taken the precaution of dismantling a portion of the stone bridge crossing a deep wash and they expected the stage to crash there. The damaged bridge was perhaps a mile west of the station. It was still dark, but gaining daylight enough for Buckley to see the bridge in time and he lashed the mules into a full gallop. The team leapt across the damaged part of the bridge and momentum carried the stage across. It was a fortuitous bit of driving and all aboard narrowly escaped capture. The four hostages already held were all that Cochise would get.

Throughout the day, no Apaches were seen. The army mounts were taken in shifts to the spring and watered. The westbound stage had reached Tucson with news of hostilities in Apache Pass, and the Butterfield agent, William S. Oury, sent an urgent request to Fort Breckenridge for the dragoons to protect the route.

Cochise had just about forsaken all hope of negotiating the release of his brother from Bascom and had determined to take him from the army by force. He had broken camp, taken his women and children deeper into the Chiracahua Mountains to a location free of danger, and returned to Apache Pass to await his allies.

A light snow had fallen overnight and on the morning of February 8 Bascom felt secure in the knowledge that the Apaches had left the area. A group of soldiers were detailed to water all of the livestock in a single group. The watering detail was in charge of Sergeants James Huber and Daniel Robinson. Robinson was in charge of the advance party that went out to have a close look around. When they were satisfied that there were no hostiles in the area they called for the animals to be brought up. When all of them had drunk their fill they started back and were immediately attacked by a party of Apaches coming out of Siphon Canyon. Cochise was hoping that Bascom would send reinforcements to the spring so that the station could be attacked and Coyuntera could be rescued. It was a good plan, but it didn’t work. The feint at the spring was repulsed with several casualties to the attacking Apaches. The attack on the station commenced before the reinforcements could be sent. Both attacks were repulsed, but the entire herd was captured by the Apaches; every animal was lost. Bascom lost 42 mules and the stage company lost 14. Sergeant Robinson was wounded and the hapless stage driver, King Lyon, was killed.

By the morning of February 9 all of the Apaches, except for a few lookouts, had drifted like smoke out of the pass. Coyuntera was left holding the bag. The reinforcements Bascom had requested left Fort Buchanan and marched to the Dragoon Springs Station. They were 14 foot soldiers commanded by the assistant surgeon, Bernard J. D. Irwin.

Irwin and his men pulled out of the Butterfield station at Dragoon Springs early on the morning of February 10, by midday they were crossing below Willcox Playa and encountered three Apaches herding cattle stolen in Mexico. Those three did not flee from the soldiers so it suggests that they knew nothing of the hostilities. The cattle were allowed to graze on, but the three Apaches were taken into custody. Perhaps they could be exchanged for Wallace or for Felix Ward. The reinforcements and the three new hostages arrived in Apache Pass late in the afternoon without further incident. Bascom was no longer the ranking officer once Irwin arrived. Without mounts the entire command languished around the station for their own protection until the detachment of dragoons arrived from Fort Breckenridge. During this period of inactivity William S. Oury, the Butterfield agent from Tucson, arrived on an eastbound stage to restore the operation of the Apache Pass Station. Wallace, the local agent, was missing. Culver had been shot by Apaches and evacuated to Tucson for treatment; Welch (or Walsh?) had been killed by soldiers. The mules that Irwin arrived with were the only animals available to the stage line for fresh relay. Oury was allowed to use them.

The unopposed advance through Apache Pass was an act of heroism that Irwin was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for in 1894. In 1861 the medal did not even exist and many of the soldiers involved did not survive the Civil War, but Irwin made sure his action was not forgotten and eventually he got recognition for it through shameful self-promotion.

Seventy dragoons, Troops B and D of the First Dragoons, arrived from Breckenridge on February 14 under command of LT Isaiah N. Moore. Bascom was also outranked by Moore. On the 16^th and 17^th Moore and Bascom scoured the area for Apaches and found none. On February 18 Irwin finally located the bodies of Wallace, Whitfield, Sanders, and Bruner. The bodies were found in a grove of stout oak tress about 300 yards from the burnt Montoya wagons. They had all been brutally tortured and then suspended headfirst over fires until their brains boiled and their skulls had exploded. Coyuntera and the three captives brought in by Irwin were taken to that spot and hanged, over Bascom’s mild objection, from those stout oaks. The four white hostages were buried in that spot, and the four Apaches were left dangling in the breeze. The soldiers all departed on February 19.

Bascom was commended for his valiant defense of the station on February 8. Two months later the Civil War erupted in South Carolina. Shortly thereafter the army closed their forts and left Arizona. LT Moore was killed on February 13, 1862 defending Fort Craig, NM from attack by Confederate forces. Bascom was killed at the Battle of Valverde Ford a week later. He had been promoted to captain.

Bascom is often credited with having started the Cochise War for his bungled attempt at the recovery of Felix Ward, but that charge is not entirely fair. The two cultures were bound to clash and had already done so numerous times prior to 1861. The Bascom Affair was more of an excuse used by Cochise to go to war with Americans than it was a reason for him to go war. Inevitable cultural differences are what caused the Cochise War. Bascom did not cause those differences; still a more experienced officer might have found a way of averting the disastrous outcome that the Bascom Affair presented. The death of his brother set Cochise onto the warpath, and Coyuntera was guilty of nothing beyond being taken hostage and getting stabbed with a bayonet. Although Bascom died a hero’s death defending his country and has been unable to defend himself from his detractors, it would be interesting to learn why he did not rise to the defense of Coyuntera when Irwin petulantly decided to hang all of the captives. Coyuntera was Bascom’s hostage and his responsibility. That failure rests squarely with Bascom and merits vilification.

John Ward also has culpability in the Bascom Affair for focusing blame on the wrong Indian, for his failure to communicate effectively as an interpreter, and for his unwillingness to believe that he might be wrong about Cochise. Somehow he has unfairly escaped the mildest accusation.

Perhaps the worst culprit was Irwin. Murdering the captives was hardly the act of a hero, but then neither was advancing unopposed through Apache Pass.

As long as blame is being passed, Cochise can also point his boney finger at his allies for deserting him and vengefully killing their white captives after the mules were taken. Had they not done so, Irwin would not have had reason to murder the hostages held by the Army.

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Photos

HANGING TREE
Photo: Hanging Tree. This might be the very tree that was used in the executions of all eight captives. It is located in a dry wash about 270 yards north of the Montoya Massacre site. This tree and the dangling remains of the Indians were visible for some time to passengers on the stage coaches passing westbound along the Butterfield Trail.

DAMAGED BRIDGE
Photo: Site of the damaged bridge. The rock work is a reproduction built as part of a trail maintenance program that began when this section of the Butterfield Route was set aside for hiking.

MONTOYA TRAIN
Photo: Montoya Train Massacre Site. A small creek flows through this meadow. It would be a handy spot to camp after a long day whacking mules, but it is a perfect spot to set up an ambush.

MULES TAKEN
Photo: Upper Siphon Canyon. The Apaches attacked the watering detail, and drove off the mules from the upper reaches of Siphon Canyon. In returning fire one of the soldiers very possibly used this tree as cover.

APACHE PASS STATION
Photo: Apache Pass Station. Rockwork in the back is the stone foundation for the station house. Rockwork in the foreground is the stone foundation for the store. The Park Service probably added the concrete as a restoration project. The Butterfield Line did not use concrete as a building material.

TENT SITE
Photo: Tent site where Bascom fumbled the meeting. Cochise escaped to the left around the base of the hill.