Indian War Military Campaigns

Military Campaigns of the Indian Wars

Comanches (1867-1875) - Major General Philip Sheridan, commander of the Department of the Missouri, instituted winter campaigning in 1868 as a means of locating the elusive Indian bands of the region. Notable incidents in the campaigns from then until 1875 against the Indians in the border regions of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas were the nine-day defense of Beecher's Island against Roman Nose's band in September, 1868 by Major George A. Forsyth's detachment; the defeat of Black Kettle on the Washita in Oklahoma on November 27, 1868 by Lieutenant Colonel Custer and the 7th Cavalry; the crushing of the Cheyennes under Tall Bull at Summit Spring, Colorado on May 13, 1869; the assault on the Kiowa-Comanche camp in Palo Duro Canyon on September 27, 1875 by Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie; and the attack and rout of Greybeard's big Cheyenne encampment in the Texas Panhandle on November 8, 1875 by 1st Lieutenant Frank Baldwin's detachment, spearheaded by infantry loaded in mule wagons.

A Comanche camp in 1873.

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Modocs (1872-1873) - The Modoc Campaign of 1872-73 was the last Indian War of consequence on the Pacific Coast. When the Modocs, a small and restless tribe, were placed on a reservation with the Klamaths, their traditional enemies, they soon found the situation intolerable. A majority of the Modocs soon left the reservation, led by a chief known as "Captain Jack," and returned to their old lands. A detail of 1st Cavalry troops under Captain James Jackson became involved in a skirmish with these Modocs on Lost River on November 29, 1872 when the troops sought to disarm then and arrest the leaders.

Following the skirmish, Captain Jack and about 120 warriors with ample supplies retreated to a naturally fortified area in the Lava Beds east of Mount Shasta. On January 17, 1873 Colonel Alvan Gillem's detachment of some 400 men, half of them Regulars from the 1st Cavalry and 21st Infantry, attacked the Modoc positions, but the troops could make no progress in the almost impassable terrain, suffering a loss of 10 killed and 28 wounded.

By spring of 1873 Brigadier General Edward R. S. Canby, commander of the Department of the Pacific, had collected about 1,000 men to besiege the Modocs. Indian Bureau officials failed in attempts at negotiation, but General Canby and three civilian commissioners were able to arrange a parley with an equal number of Modoc representatives on 11 April. The Indians treacherously violated the truce. Captain Jack, himself, killed General Canby while others killed one commissioner, Eleazer Thomas, and wounded another. The siege was resumed.

Brigadier General Jefferson C. Davis, who arrived in May to replace Canby pushed columns deep into the Lava Beds, hurrying the Indians day and night with mortar and rifle fire. When their source of water was cut off, the Indians were finally forced into the open, and all were captured by June 1, 1873. Captain Jack and two others were hanged, and the rest of the tribe was removed to the Indian Territory. During the course of the siege some 80 white men were killed.

Apache Before the Storm.

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Apaches, 1873 and 1885-1866 - After Brigadier General George Crook became commander of the Department of Arizona in 1871 he undertook a series of winter campaigns by small detachments which pacified the region by 1874. In the years that followed, the Indian Bureau's policy of frequent removal created new dissatisfaction among the Apaches. Dissident elements went off the reservations, led by Chato, Victorio, Geronimo, and other chiefs, and raided settlements along both aides of the border, escaping into Mexico or the United States as circumstances dictated. To combat this practice the two nations agreed in 1882 to permit reasonable pursuit of Indian raiders by the troops of each country across the international boundary.

Victorio was killed by Mexican troops in 1880, but Chato and Geronimo remained at large until May, 1883 when they surrendered to General Crook and elements of the 6th Cavalry, reinforced by Apache scouts, at a point some 200 miles inside Mexico. Two years later Geronimo and about 150 Chiricahua Apaches again left their White Mountain reservation in Arizona and once more terrorized the border region. Elements of the 4th Cavalry and Apache scouts immediately took up pursuit of the Chiricahua renegades. In January, 1886 Captain Emmet Crawford and 80 Apache scouts attacked Geronimo's main band some 200 miles south of the border, but the Indians escaped into the mountains. Although Crawford was killed by Mexican irregulars shortly thereafter, his second in command, 1st Lieutenant M. P. Maus, was able to negotiate Geronimo's surrender to General Crook in late March, 1886.

But Geronimo and part of his band escaped within a few days on March 29th. Captain Henry W. Lawton's column surprised Geronimo's camp in the mountains of Mexico on July 20th. Although the Chiricahuas again fled, by the end of August they indicated a willingness to surrender. On September 4, 1886, 1st Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood of Lawton's command negotiated the formal surrender to Brigadier General Nelson Miles who had relieved General Crook in April. Geronimo and his band were removed to Florida and finally to the Fort Sill military reservation.

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