TEE HISTORY of FORT BOWIE by Richard Y. Murray a Thesis
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The history of Fort Bowie Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Murray, Richard Young, 1923- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 08/10/2021 10:36:13 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553839 TEE HISTORY OF FORT BOWIE by Richard Y. Murray A Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Graduate College, University of Arizona 1951 222859 o%\ ^"9-79/ TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page INTRODUCTION......................................................... 1 I . THE FOUNDING OF FORT BOWIE............................. 18 I I . PROBLEMS IN SUPPLY AND COM.AND, 1862-1863 . 64 I I I . THE FINAL YEARS OF THE VOLUNTEER TROOPS, 1863-1866 ......................................................................... 90 IV. THE HOWARD MISSION................................................108 V. FORT BOWIE AT PEACE AND WAR,1873-1886 . 155 VI. PEACE AND ABANDONMENT........................................250 BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................305 i i LIST OF FIGURES Number - v;-'; - . .. .. : . page : 1. Fort Bowie in 1867 . V . 1 1 3 • 2. Diagram of Camp Bowie, A .T ., 1870 . ’ . 143 ; 3. Map of the Military Reservation at Camp ! Bowie, Arizona, surveyed 1869 ... .... 147 4. View of Camp Bowie, clroa 1877 ....... 16$ 5. Diagram of. Fort Bowie in 1880’s . 168 6. Heliograph Station No. 3, It. A.M. Fuller, Acting Signal Officer . ..... 175 7. View of Fort Bowie, Fourth Cavalry Band at fla g sta ff for ’’Retreat,” 1886 ...... 187 8. View of Fort Bowie in 1886 ..................... .... 233 9. , Geronimo and Natchez with other .renegades at Fort Bowie, :September, 1886 . 241 10. Scene at the guardhouse after the arrival of Geronimo, September 4, 1886 ....... 243 11. Geronimo and band leaving Fort Bowie as ; prisoners of war, September 8 , 1886 v . 248 12. Physical map of the country surrounding Fort Bowie . ...... 252 13•. Diagram of Fort Bowie in the 1890*s .... 283 i i i INTRODUCTION The 1850s opened with the South in su llen anger, and the next ten years were critically momentous. John C, Cal houn died, in the shadow of the California Compromise, con- ... ■ v:: c- , .X"; . i y. ■ ■ v vinced that the Union must break up soon. The decade ended; Abraham Lincoln was elected president, and the Union began y x -l .vy-;::.v -'.Vv; y'",::. n.y :ir : ;:o:. to dissolve, •: i ” y 5-j:.; ..M ly pr r-'rod : O :M y r ''' Far removed from Washington and the scene of pending disunion, the newly-acquired region of the Southwest was having its conflict in the form of irrepressible Apaches, a conflict which was to gain momentum and to last throughout y-v-v; v> y : y v y ;i Ci-c. y : ■ : V vld ;:yV' " ‘.vyv . • l most of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Arizona’s military history of dealing with the Apache *:’ V ,' ” y - y • - ■ : " • . y, • • '• ’ • 'v *' t v • • Indians, under the United S tates, began in e ffe c tiv e ly two y-::: cy.. - yy. r/y v-y ■-'■y- . : y;,yyyyy.; r --y ■-•M-y yv-y ' y r- - years after the Gadsden Purchase was ratified on June 30, 1854 and less than seven years before her separation from yy- / yyy'yy .r %y y r-y:. v: ■ ^ y yr . 2 : ' y" ; y the Territory of New Mexico. When hostilities broke out between the North and the South, troops located below the : v-y,--y. y-n : y .yn.-y yy y-yyy •.iryy.y: ’ yyy. yy-yvyy Gila River were soon removed. The Apaches, who had pre viously been stirred into an earnest state of warfare, were ,.yy y- ' 1 Roger B u tterfield , The American P ast, pp. 132-161. y * Hubert Howe M ncroft, History;ofyArizona and New Mexico. 1530-1888. p. 509. - ' - Ty— y 2 le ft in control ■= of the -country, - and their depredations, grew steadily worse during the brief period of the Confederate ooeupation of Arizona.-- The invasion .of the California Column easily effected the rapid withdrawal of Confederate troops from this areav Of greater and more lasting imppr- ■; " * ' ........ ' ' " tance were the measures taken by the Californla,Volunteers to-combat the Apache warriors, who provided the only serious resistance to:their advance across Arizona into. New.Mexico. The fact that these soldiers from California had not been sent into the Southwest readily prepared to fight and sub jugate hostile;Indians made their activities against the red men more notable. Although their Indian policy* as set forth by Brigadier-General James H. Carleton, might have been more severe than successful, from a military point of view:the California Column made: a positive contribution to the later extensive and culminating campaigns against the Apaches. Perhaps the _ most noteworthy part of this contri bution was the establishing of new military posts and the re-instituting of old ones. Of all the posts set up by Carleton and his men and of any set up later, which were involved in the Apache struggle until the end, none served a more important purpose,nor was more strategically located, nor had a more colorful history than Fort Bowie, - _ .1. : ■- i, L ^ of - the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Of ficia l Records of the Union ancT Confederate Armies. Series It L, ^art If,p . ill (hereafter cited as fhe War of the Rebellion). " " ~ 3 Zorb Bowie * s location - was 122 ' M ies east of Tubsdn by way of "the Overland S ta^ eroate, end ahbut forty miles from the present Mundary line hetweeri'Arizona and Hew Mexico. It mis near the eastern end of the ^notorious " Apache Pass in the OMirioahua MoMtaln range at an eleva- ■ ' _ ^ . 5 tlon Of 4*826 feet"above sea level. In relation to othef military posts in the heart of ’Apache territory, Fort Bowie was f1fty-six mile s southeast of "hew" Fort Grant; ' the nearest post, and 180 miles southeast of the later 1 7 established Fort Apache. ^ ^ The establishment of a post in Apaohe I^ss, in 1862, warn an absolute necessity in Order to protect the springs at that point and to keep up communication with C alifornia, the base for supplies. Unless troops could have assured access to the springs in th is canyon, i t would have been impossible to move them either eastward or westward with safety. For years Apaches had been known to lie in ambush here and k ill travelers who cam® to drink and to vater their animals. *67 ^ Report of the Postmaster General. 1858-1859. p. 742. The direct distance from Tucson to Fort Bowie was between 105 and 110 m iles. • -v^. r - R.O. Tyler, Revised Outline of the Posts and Stations in the Military Division of the Pacific, Commanded' by Major- General John My BohofleTd. p. 2. 6 Richard J. Hinton, The Handbook to Arizona, p. 310. Perhaps fifty-five miles was closer to the exact distance between the two posts. 3 / ; v ^ I- 7 Frank; C. Lockwood, Pioneer Days in Arizona, p. 97. 4 Ale very nature cif the - pass with its ; rocks and trees and tufts of hear grass in the M ils overlooking both.sides of the road and -its eomroinding heights.above the springs - placed any party, suspecting or otherwise, at a serious, disadvan- 8 tage while passing through;the narrow, rocky d e file . - Such was the ease in early July, 1862-when General Carletom or dered a command to proceed eastward from Tucson accompanied by a wagon train. At Apache.Pass this command encountered perhaps the most organized and concentrated Apache resis tance ever to be experienced by.American soldiers in Ari- zona. Three sharp conflicts occurred before;these Cali fornia Volunteers gained possession of the canyon's precious 9 water supply for the second time in two days.' This or own ing event was the immediate cause for establishing Fort . Bowie, which was soon to become synonymous with Apache Pass i t s e l f . " ■ - . o; r,. Port Bowie's beginning has no counterpart in Arizona's m ilitary h istory. I t was in stitu ted under circumstances and for reasons which differed from those of other forts in Ari- 10 zona. There was no question as to its potential value which, in fact,, had given way to a sorely demonstrated need. To understand the fo r t's background and the actual *9 ® Personal observation of the writer. 9 The War of the Rebellion. L. Part I. p p . 128-131. Lockwood, op. o it . , pp. 88-98. 5 'diffioultieg,confronting the military and oivilian popula tion, it is .not enough to merely trace the:general rise of the Apache problem In the Southwest. As far as Fort Bowie is concerned, the s ite whereon, the post ;was la ter to be erected must also be examined• This remote moimtain pass had; gained its ominous reputation years before Bowie came into existence. Events took place here ^iioh m t mly 1 brought a military post within its. range, but perhaps al- tered the course of Arizona * s Apache history as well. : . Nevertheless, it is essential first to consider the de velopment of Apache: relations with the .United. States. ■ Appreciable; numbers of Anglo-Americans were Introduced to : the Indians of the desert soon after the opening of the 11 Santa Fe Trail in 1822. ■ With Santa-Fe thus the-exchange center of all the products of New Mexico, northern Mexico and a part of C alifornia, American trappers, prospectors.