Trailing Geronimo: Some Hitherto Unrecorded Incidents Bearing Upon the Outbreak of the White Mountain Apaches and Geronimo's Band in Arizona and New Mexico (1926)

By Anton Mazzanovich

"Trailing Geronimo by Anton Mazzanovich...is a vivid narrative of...days when Geronimo and his band of renegade Indians ran amuck over the state...depredating the frontier...a story of running action...seldom is a book written that contains more vaulable and accurate information of the old West." -Winslow Daily Mail, May 28, 1926.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookcrop
• Release date: Aug 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088267158

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Trailing Geronimo:

Some Hitherto Unrecorded Incidents

Bearing Upon the Outbreak of the

White Mountain Apaches and

Geronimo's Band in Arizona

and New Mexico (1926)

Anton Mazzanovich

(1860-1934)

Originally published

1926

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I. ARRIVAL IN AMERICA; MY ENLISTMENT

CHAPTER II. A FANATICAL MEDICINE MAN; GENERAL CARR'S COMMAND STARTS OUT TO CAPTURE THE MEDICINE MAN

CHAPTER III. THE MEETING; A HOT SKIRMISH; TROOPS TAKE THE FIELD FOR ACTION

CHAPTER IV. I GET A BAD NIGHT SCARE; THE SIEGE OF FORT APACHE

CHAPTER V. SOME APACHE DEVILTRY; DETAILED AS ORDERLY TO COL. CARR

CHAPTER VI. TWO HUNDRED HOSTILES SURRENDER; WE TAKE THE TRAIL

CHAPTER VII. NEWS OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S DEATH; LIEUT. OVERTON'S ERROR

CHAPTER VIII. SCOUTING IN ROUGH COUNTRY; A VISIT FROM CHIEF GERONIMO

CHAPTER IX. ON THE TRAIL OF GERONIMO; MY FIRST INDIAN FIGHT

CHAPTER X. FIGHTING GERONIMO'S WARRIORS; DEADLY COMBAT WITH APACHES

CHAPTER XI. HOT SKIRMISHING WITH THE HOSTILES; MANY TROOPERS WOUNDED

CHAPTER XII. AFTER INDIAN CATTLE THIEVES; LOOKING FOR MORE EXCITEMENT

CHAPTER XIII. AN EXCITING PURSUIT AFTER GERONIMO-BRINGING HIM TO BATTLE

CHAPTER XIV. A NIGHT ON THE FIRING LINE; I AM ORDERED ON THE SICK LIST

CHAPTER XV. WE START FOR WILLCOX; TAKING IN A FRONTIER TOWN IN 1881

CHAPTER XVI. BUCKING THE TIGER AT WILLCOX; HANGING THE TRAITOROUS SCOUTS

CHAPTER XVII. ORDERED TO CAMP THOMAS FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT; I MEET GENERAL SHERMAN; LOCO AND HIS BAND GO ON WARPATH; COLONEL GARCIA IN COMMAND OF MEXICAN TROOPS ATTACKS INDIANS; ALMOST HALF OF BAND KILLED

CHAPTER XVIII. HANDY MAN AT NORTON & STEWART SUTLERY; I TURN SHOWMAN

CHAPTER XIX. I JOIN THE PACK TRAIN SERVICE AS COOK; AM MADE BOSS OF PACK TRAIN AND SCOUT; HOW SHERIDAN AND I SAVED THE MULE HERD

CHAPTER XX. ON THE TRAIL OF THE CATTLE RUSTLERS; GENERAL CROOK'S OPERATIONS IN OLD MEXICO; DEALING MEXICAN MONTE FOR THE INDIANS; BACK ON THE RESERVATION

CHAPTER XXI. BACK TO FORT GRANT; INDIANS HIT THE TRAIL AGAIN; TROOPS ORDERED OUT; THE KILLING OF JUDGE M'COMAS AND WIFE; THEIR SON MADE CAPTIVE

CHAPTER XXII. I START SOUTH FOR NEW ADVENTURES; STOP OFF AT LORDSBURG, NEW MEXICO; 1885 INDIANS BREAK LOOSE AGAIN; I JOIN THE NEW MEXICO RANGERS

CHAPTER XXIII. HOW SEVEN INDIAN SCOUTS WERE SAVED FROM DEATH; MY SECOND MEETING WITH MICKEY FREE A RUNNING FIGHT WITH INDIANS; WE CAPTURE ONE PRISONER

CHAPTER XXIV. AMERICAN TROOPS IN MEXICO; DEATH OF CAPTAIN IN CRAWFORD

CHAPTER XXV. LIEUT. CHAS. B. GATEWOOD; PERSONALLY INDUCED GERONIMO TO SURRENDER

CHAPTER XXVI. GATEWOOD ON THE TRAIL; PERSONALLY INDUCES GERONIMO TO SURRENDER

FIRST CAPTURE OF GERONIMO

A FEW REMARKS ABOUT WILD WEST MELODRAMA

SIXTH CAVALRY RECORD VARIED

6TH U. S. CAVALRY A GLORIOUS RECORD

LETTER FROM MAJOR CHARLES B. GATEWOOD, RETIRED

MEN OF THE BORDER

CHAPTER I. ARRIVAL IN AMERICA; MY ENLISTMENT

I was born in Lesina, Province of Dalmatia, Austria, April 30, 1860. At the age of eight years my people emigrated to America, landing at Castle Garden, New York, in October, 1868. Our stay here was brief, for on December 24, 1868, we arrived in San Francisco, California, the gateway to the wild and woolly West.

I enlisted in the army as a musician, January 29, 1870, at San Francisco, and was assigned to the band of the Twenty-first United States Infantry, October 26, 1871. I was discharged August 11, 1873, at Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, in accordance with Special Orders No. 151, adjutant general's office, War Department, dated July 26, 1873, as a private soldier. I was discharged at the request of my father, Lorenz Mazzanovich, to enable me to assist in the support of the family. I consider myself to be the youngest soldier, probably, that ever enlisted in the Regular Army, being but nine years and nine months of age at the time of my enlistment.

During the Modoc Indian war of 1872 and 1873 I was considered too young to go to the front, so was detailed as orderly to the commanding officer at Fort Vancouver, Washington Territory, General Granger, commanding.

My second enlistment occurred February 10, 1881, at San Francisco, California. I was assigned to Troop M, Sixth Cavalry, and was transferred to the band of that regiment on March 1, 1881, and to Troop F, same regiment, August 11, 1881. I was discharged July 10, 1882, at Fort Grant, Arizona Territory, because of disability. My papers give my character as excellent.

At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war I tried to join the pack train service in Cuba. My application papers were mailed from the Army and Navy Building in New York to the quartermaster at Chickamauga, but I never heard anything further regarding the matter. During the World War I tendered my services to the Secretary of War, with a request that I be sent overseas, and received the following answer:

WAR DEPARTMENT, COMMITTEE ON CLASSIFICATION OF PERSONNEL

WAR SERVICE EXCHANGE, ROOM 165

STATE, WAR AND NAVY BUILDING

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Your application is one of many which comes to this exchange daily, and your offer of service is appreciated.

At the present time it will be difficult to place you directly in war service. Every man who stays on his job, however, is indirectly serving his country, and we believe that in addition to your regular employment, you will be able to serve frequently in local war campaigns, all of which are vital to winning.

WAR SERVICE EXCHANGE.

[I am ready at all times to fall in at the call of boots and saddles, and would gladly meet the great adventure in the defence of my adopted country and the stars and stripes.]

To return now to my experiences in the Apache Campaign in 1881:

Early in March, 1881, I left San Francisco to join my troop, which was doing duty at Camp Lowell, Arizona, seven miles from Tucson. Upon my arrival there I was ordered to report to the first sergeant of Troop M.

After serving four months at Camp Lowell I was transferred to Troop F, stationed at Fort Grant, under the command of Captain Faulk and First Lieutenant Overton.

A few weeks later this entire troop to which I had been assigned, together with Troop A, was ordered to start for Fort Apache. It was reported that the White Mountain Apaches were getting ready to go out on the warpath, and that trouble would likely ensue. Immediately we were in the saddle and reached Fort Thomas the following day. The rainy season was on and the Gila River was very high, consequently we could not cross the stream. We were held at this point for two weeks, after which we were ordered back to Fort Grant.

During the two weeks in camp at Fort Thomas we were drilled in cavalry tactics, as most of the troop were raw men at the riding game, including myself. At the end of the first week I was commissioned a corporal, but at my own request I was reduced to the ranks, as I did not care to serve as a non-commissioned officer until I was more proficient. The quartermaster issued to each trooper a shelter tent. It was just long enough to cover one's body, and when I turned in for the night my head and feet stuck out at the ends of the tent.

I made myself a fairly comfortable bed by placing mesquite twigs and grass on the ground.

All this time the Gila River was a roaring stream. During the last week of our stay the commanding officer asked for volunteers to try and swim the river. The Government telegraph wire was down somewhere across the river, and Fort Apache was without communication to the outside world. Every man in both troops was willing to attempt the swim. For three days the men essayed to cross the stream, but failed. On the fourth day I made the attempt myself. I managed to get past the middle of the stream, but was then so exhausted that I was compelled to return. The middle of the current was swift and yellow with mud, and I was carried down stream a considerable distance before I could make a landing.

On breaking camp on the morning of our start to our home post, and as I was pulling down my sheltertent, a rattlesnake about four feet long crawled from under the grass and twigs where I had been sleeping. He was speedily turned into a good snake.

CHAPTER II. A FANATICAL MEDICINE MAN; GENERAL CARR'S COMMAND STARTS OUT TO CAPTURE THE MEDICINE MAN

MEANTIME affairs at the White Mountain Apache reservation were becoming more and more serious. One of their medicine men, known as Nokay-detKlinne, was going from camp to camp on the reservation, telling the Indians that on August 31, 1881, all the Indians who had died, would return to earth again. All were then to meet in the Tonto Basin, and start from there to wipe the hated paleface from the land. At every camp where the medicine man stopped, the Indians held war dances, and almost all the bucks joined him as he went around endeavoring to foment trouble.

At that season of the year the Indian agents would issue passes to the White Mountain and Chiricahua Apaches located on the White Mountains and San Carlos reservations, with permission to hunt and raise corn on the banks of Cibicu, Careiso and Cedar Creeks.

They were holding dances nightly for three months. These dances started at Apache, then circulated to Cedar and Careiso Creeks, and eventually wound up at Cibicu Creek, which was located some fifty miles from Fort Apache.

The regimental headquarters of the Sixth Cavalry were at Fort Apache, Col. Eugene Carr commanding. General Willcox was the Department Commander, with headquarters at Whipple Barracks, Arizona.

In August, 1881, General Willcox received instructions from the War Department, ordering Colonel Carr to start out and locate the troublesome medicine man of the White Mountain Apaches and bring him in.

Col. Eugene Carr was an officer with a most gallant record of long and distinguished service in the United States army, having been conspicuous in the Civil War. He had won honors as an Indian fighter prior to that time. He had been very severely wounded in the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in March, 1862. His birthplace was New York, and he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1850. Between 1850 and 1861, he passed successively through the grades of second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain, and in September, 1861, was commissioned colonel of the Third Illinois Cavalry. At the battle of Pea Ridge he was conspicuous for bravery and coolness. On March 7, 1862, he was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, and commanded the Fourteenth Division of the Thirteenth Army Corps during the Vicksburg campaign of 1863. After the Civil War he participated in many campaigns against the Indians in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado. In 1871, as major of the Fifth Cavalry, he accompanied his regiment from Fort McPherson, Nebraska, to Arizona. In 1873 he was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Fourth Cavalry, and exchanged with Lieut. Col. J. P. Hatch, Fifth Cavalry, taking station at Camp Lowell, Arizona, where he served until 1874. He was conspicuously presented to the attention of the country by a gallant and successful defense against the attempted massacre of his command by the White Mountain Apaches at Cibicu Creek in August, 1881, because of the arrest and subsequent killing of the medicine man and prophet, Nokay-detKlinne.

Colonel Carr started to attempt the capture of this troublesome Apache with Troops D and E, Sixth Cavalry, and one company of Indian scouts. Troop D was commanded by Captain Hentig, non-commissioned Sergeants Blackburn and John A. Smith, and Corporals Burton and Bowman.